Both boys appear with their parents as RUSSELLs in the 1881 census, living at Pattingham, Staffordshire, part of the Seisdon Union. By 1891 both of their parents were dead. Thanks to the 1891 census index on Ancestry.com I have now found the two boys (as RUBERYs). They were inmates of the South East Shropshire District School. The 1844 Poor Law Amendment Act made provision for Poor Law Unions within a fifteen mile radius to set up a School District and to erect a joint school for the accommodation and education of pauper children away from the workhouses. The South-East Shropshire School District was one of the few such bodies set up under this Act. It operated a school at Quatt which dated back to around 1700. This information and the photograph is taken from the Workhouse website of Peter Higginbotham, to whom I am very grateful for granting me permission to use them.The 1863 PO Directory entry for Quatt says: "Here is the south-eastern Shrorpshire district school, for the reception of children belonging to the several unions of Bridgnorth, Cleobury Mortimer, Madeley, and Seisdon, capable of accommodating 220 children."
A description of the School which appeared in Bagshaw's Gazetteer of Shropshire 1851 describes "the benefits derived by the children, who are here removed from scenes of inferiority and degradation and brought up in habits of industry ... the boys are employed in the cultivation of the land, in the management of cows, pigs, and a pony".
It seems to have worked in this case as both boys are employed on farms in the 1901 census, one as a Cowman and the other as a Yardman (ie looking after cattle).
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