# @wild_history_uk on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DWWPucfCPL_
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/61310795-wild-history-uk-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/14c8eebbfa.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-03-26T12:27:54.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Wild History Shocking Stories From the Past (@wild_history_uk) — https://gondola.cc/wild_history_uk

## Caption

London, 1870. This is Baby Thomas. He’s three months old. And he’s been “adopted” by a woman who will murder him for profit.
Thomas’s unmarried mother paid five pounds to have him “adopted.” She can’t keep him—society won’t allow it. She believes he’s going to a good home.
He’s not. He’s going to a baby farmer.
The baby farmer:
	∙	Takes in unwanted infants for a fee
	∙	Promises to care for them, find them families
	∙	Has 15 babies in her house right now
	∙	Keeping all the adoption fees
She feeds Thomas watered-down milk mixed with laudanum—opium to keep him quiet:
	∙	Just enough to stop him crying
	∙	Not enough to keep him alive
Two weeks from now, Thomas will be dead:
	∙	Starvation
	∙	Neglect
	∙	Or laudanum overdose
The baby farmer will claim he was “sickly” when she got him. Bury him in an unmarked grave.
Then take in another baby. Another five pounds.
London, 1870. When murdering infants for profit was called “adoption.” And it was legal. Drop a 👶 for Baby Thomas and the baby farming victims.
This is Part 2 of “Victorian Childhood: The Crimes That Were Legal”—the children who were legally murdered by their jobs. #BabyFarming #VictorianChildhood #CrimesThatWereLegal #InfantMurder #victorianlondon

## Stats

- **Views:** 367
- **Likes:** 593
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 59

## Tags

victorianlondon, victorianchildhood, crimesthatwerelegal, infantmurder, babyfarming

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