Robert Blincoe (c. 1792-1860) was an English author and former child labourer. He became famous during the 1830's for his popular autobiography, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe, an account of his childhood spent in a workhouse. However, there are some doubts about whether this detailed observation of Blincoe's early life can be considered 'autobiography'. According to John Waller, in his book, The Real Oliver Twist; Icon Books (via Faber & Faber; London, 2005, it is written that his life story was told to a John Brown who then published the resulting book: A Memoir of Robert Blincoe in 1832.
Robert Blincoe was born around 1792. By 1796 he was an orphan and living in the St. Pancras workhouse in London. The fate of his parents is unknown. At the age of six he was sent to work as a chimney boy, an assistant of a chimney sweeper, but his master soon returned him to the workhouse.
In August 1799, at the age of 7, he was sold to work as a mule scavenger in the Gonalston Mill, a cotton mill of C. W. and F. Lambert in Lowdham, near Nottingham. According to his later memoirs, he was one of the 80 7-year-old children the St. Pancras workhouse sold to "indenture" as parish apprentices. They traveled there in wagons for five days. Ostensibly they were supposed to be schooled to better their lives, but that never happened.
Blincoe and the others lived in a dormitory and their food consisted of porridge and black bread. They worked 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. Blincoe's first job was to pick up loose cotton waste from the spinning frames when the machine was working, even in the face of injury. He lost half a finger. Overseers beat the children on the slightest provocation. Blincoe later stated that he contemplated suicide many times. When Blincoe ran away and tried to flee to London, a tailor who sometimes worked for the mill recognized him and dragged him back.
In 1802, when Lowdham Mill was closed, Blincoe and others were sent to Litton Mill in Derbyshire. Treatment remained the same.
Blincoe completed his effective apprenticeship in stock weaving in 1813 and worked as an adult worker until 1817. Then he left to found his own cotton-spinning business. In 1819 he married a woman named Martha.
In 1822 journalist John Brown met Blincoe and interviewed him for an article about child labour. Brown decided to write Blincoe's biography and gave it to social activist Richard Carlile. In 1828 Carlile decided to publish the tale in his newspaper The Lion in five weekly episodes between January 25 and February 22 and The Poor Man's Advocate. The book exposed the poor conditions in the cotton mills, and just after the reprint in 1832 the government investigated the cotton mills.
Blincoe's spinning machinery was destroyed in a fire in 1828. Destitute and unable to pay his debts he was imprisoned in Lancaster Castle for some time. After his release he became a cotton-waste dealer. This business was finally successful and he was able to pay for his 3 children's education.
In 1832 John Doherty published A Memoir of Robert Blincoe in a pamphlet form. In an interview of Employment of Children in Manufactories Committee in 1832 he stated that he'd rather see his children transported to Australia than put them to work in factories.
Robert Blincoe died of bronchitis in his daughter's house in 1860.
It is believed that Charles Dickens based his character Oliver Twist on Robert Blincoe.