‘Hidden from the World’: Re-examining Rebecca Jarrett beyond 1885

Abstract This article focuses on Rebecca Jarrett, a former prostitute, brothel-keeper, and procuress who converted in April 1885 and joined The Salvation Army. Soon after, William T. Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, began organizing an exposé on child prostitution in London. Stead coerced Jarrett into buying 13-year-old Eliza Armstrong to prove how easy it was to purchase a girl for sex. He then published a newspaper series called ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’, citing the sale as proof. Jarrett became infamous for her role in the Eliza Armstrong case, yet behind this scandal stood a remarkable, resilient woman. This study reconstructs Jarrett’s life beyond the 1885 scandal to shed light on Salvation Army social work in late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. Drawing on newly discovered letters from the Salvation Army International Heritage Centre in London, I argue that Jarrett’s writings demonstrate the inseparability of care and control in evangelical reform, as she negotiated Salvation Army systems with a mixture of faith, gratitude, agency, and resistance. Jarrett’s correspondence reveals overlooked aspects of her life, including her complex spirituality and the challenges she experienced with mental health issues and alcoholism. Her writings also highlight the unusual long-term care the Salvation Army provided, the gradual institutionalization of its ‘rescue’ work, and, more broadly, power and class dynamics in Victorian social reform.