Notes A birth registration was found for Ellen Margaret Atterwill: Date: Oct-Nov-Dec 1895; District: Pancras; County: London; Volume: 1b; Page: 165. Parents: John George Atterwill and Ellen Catherine Bessey Lovelock, married 1889, Middlesex, England.
Ellen Margaret Atterwill was baptized at St. Barnabas, Camden, Middlesex, England, on July 14, 1899. Parents: Joseph George and Ellen Atterwill.
One story states that their mother, Ellen, died on 13 October 1901 of heart failure brought about by the rupture of a blood vessel. Another states Ellen had died in child birth with a baby girl named May.
Joseph Atterwill, their father, had a farm to run and could not keep the 3 girls so he sent them away. May went to his sister to raise. He kept the older boys to help on the farm.
Victoria Beatrice Atterwill, born June 22, 1897, and Ellen Margaret Atterwill, born October 24, 1895, in Kentish Town, were admitted to Barnardos with their brother, Joseph Lawrence Atterwill on February 6, 1903.
In 1909, Ellen Atterwill, 11, arrived at Quebec, Canada, in a group of 103 Barnardo children en route to Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
Victoria and Ellen went to the Hazel Brae Barnardo home in Peterborough Ontario Canada. Once there Nellie was sent to the Morton household in Omemee. Here she was treated badly and often beaten. A young man rescued her and took her back to the Barnardo Home. She was then sent to the Carew house hold in Lindsay as a domestic and a companion the the family?s daughters. Nellie had a reasonably comfortable and privileged life.
All along Mrs. Carew kept track of where Bea was and made sure that Nellie sent cards and letters to her. Nellie was also able to keep in contact with her brothers in England.
On October 11, 1916, at Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada, a marriage was registered between Ellen Margaret Atterwill and William Roy Taylor. They lived at 116 Crosthwaite Ave; raised 4 children and died there.
While Nellie worked in the Carew household, she became friends with Leslie Frost. He was to later marry Gertrude Carew. Leslie got into politics and later was the Premier of Ontario for many years.
It was Leslie who told my Grandmother that she was a worthy person who should enter the front door of a house she was to visit. From what I can gather the "Home Children" were looked upon as second class citizans and often not welcome through front doors. This was the case when "Nellie" went with my Grandfather Roy, to visit his parents. She was made to enter through the back door. Roy was not happy and didn't know what to do. That is when Leslie Frost told them she had every right to enter through the front door.
When Nellie and Roy married and moved to Hamilton, Leslie and Gertrude Frost would often drop by for tea. Their daughter remembered the black chauffeur driven Cadillac pulling up to the curb and the Frost's visiting for the afternoon.