The Earl of Shaftesbury

FACT SHEET

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• The Earl of Shaftesbury was born in 1801.
• He became a Member of Parliament aged 25.
• He first became interested in the plight of child labourers when he read an article in The Times newspaper.
• He wrote about this in his diary: “In the autumn and winter of 1832 I read in The Times some extracts from the evidence taken before Sadler's Committee. I was astonished and disgusted by what I read.”
• He offered his help to the Factory Reform movement, and became their leader soon after.
• In 1833 he proposed a law that meant children would only work a maximum of ten hours per day. Although his proposal was rejected the government agreed that working children needed protection.
• Later that same year the government passed the 1833 Factory Act. It stated that:
  • children under the age of 9 could not work in cotton mills
  • children aged 9 -13 could not work more than 9 hours per day
  • persons aged 13 -18 could not work more than 12 hours each day
  • persons under the age of 18 could not work at night
• Unfortunately there were only four factory inspectors in the country making sure that these laws were being followed.
• The Earl of Shaftesbury continued working to improve life for working children through new legislation:
  • The Coal Mines Act makes it illegal for women and children to work underground
• Helped to set up over 150 “Ragged Schools” for poor children He died in 1885