Mary Hermiston was one of the Home Children brought to Canada to work as a domestic from England

Home Children

Between 1869 and the late 1930s, over 100,000 juvenile migrants were sent to Canada from Great Britain during the child emigration movement. Motivated by social and economic forces, churches and philanthropic organizations sent orphaned, abandoned and pauper children to Canada. Many believed that these children would have a better chance for a healthy, moral life in rural Canada, where families welcomed them as a source of cheap farm labour and domestic help.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-908.009-e.html

http://www.bifhsgo.ca/home_children_links.htm