"WRETCHED OBJECTS", EXETER, 1863.

The report of the first annual meeting of The Exeter Home For Reclaiming Fallen Women was intoduced, after a prayer, by its chairman, the Rev. Canon Woollcombe.   He said that: "the establishment of the 'Exeter  Home' was for the purpose of reclaiming those wretched objects who, they knew, wandered about our streets - the victims of 'the social evil.' " 

The Hon. Secretary, the Rev. H. F. Cann, reported: 

"Thirty-four applicants have been received, and temporary shelter has been afforded to several young women, who, from various causes, have not come under the 'Admission Rules.'   Of the inmates who have been fully admitted, seven have been placed in respectable service (and are, with one exception, doing well); three have been restored to their friends; four have left by their own desire;  two have been dismissed for insubordination; two have been sent to the hospital, of whom one has died;  one has been sent to the lunatic asylum; and fifteen remain in The Home, who are going on satisfactorily.  From amongst the cases specified many of the deepest interest might be brought forward; whilst two especially prove the value of that timely aid. which at once, and without parley, takes the object of its solicitation under careful protection. These are cases where suicide was premeditated.  Two poor victims of a sinful life, driven by destitution, misery and disease, were on the point of plunging into self-destruction - that last resource of a despairing and misguided mind - when The House interposed with its friendly shelter and rescued them from a dishonoured grave.   One of these young women is now doing very well in a respectable situation, and retains a most grateful recollection of The Home.  But the other, borne down by the sufferings of the past, has becomme a mental wreck;  there is , however, this consolation in her case, that during the interval which elapsed between her admission and the complete darkening of her mind, she heard the glad tidings of pardon and peace through the blood of Christ.  This, together with the very remarkable circumstances of her rescue, seems to encourage the hope that this poor wanderer may yet, by God's mercy, be reclaimed." 

This report seems to me about as alien as though from another planet.  The Reclamation of Fallen Women was big in Exeter.  'The House' had its competitor: 'The Devon and Exeter Female Penitentiary'.   Let  us not be too cynical about the relationship between Anglican Clergy and Fallen Women!  There were certainly distressed young women and no doubt there were many more well-meaning, warm-hearted clergymen than there were cherry-lipped perverts in the Church in Victorian Exeter.   The human comedy is still being played out and there are still far more people in this city, as in the world, wanting to help their neighbours than there are neighbours wanting to be helped.  

Source:  The Western Times, 03 February, 1863.