Street urchins as employees

Dear Diary,
Traveling by yourself and exploring the word alone are bad decisions. A small group of motivated individuals (the PCs) has definitely a better survival chance than a lonely individual.
But recruiting “small hands”, like torchbearers, informers, people on the lookout, or shadowing on your behalf, can give you a definitve advantage.
Sure, you will have to pay them a few shillings and they might not be very loyal and certainly won’t risk their life for you.
But once you’ve earned their trust, they might really come in handy.

Street urchins

2 Urchins and child on a london street

In the 1800ies, the social system is not a welfare state. If you’re unlucky enough to be born into the lower class, you’ll have to go work early as a child, sometimes as early as 8 years old. If you’re really unlucky, your parents died at work, during childbirth, or succumb of one of the random infections that plague the insalubrious poor neighbourhoods, that have been quickly built to house the influx of people leaving the campaigns for the towns.
Those unluckiest children tend to gather in small bands living on the streets, begging, stealing and getting by on any opportunity.

You, as an adventurer, are such an opportunity. And these kids are also an interesting ressource for you.
These characters need to be 3 things: helpful, memorable, and odd.
Helpful is easy, they only need to do what you expect them to do without whining.
Memorable is trickier: you need at least a name and something special. An accent, a strange habit, a peculiar physical trait.
Odd is in the name of the game, so it’s important too. Furthermore, it makes Characters more memorable.

A few urchins to get started

1d20	Name	Nickname	Oddity
1	Cuthbert	Cuddy the Saint	Lives in a church cellar. Quotes approximately the bible
2	Nathaniel	Filthy Fanny	Always tries to see naked people
3	Harold	Shadow Hal	Always wears black. Very discreet in shadowy environments
4	Isaac	Frosty Zak	Wears multiple layers of wool and always seeks warmth
5	Jeduthan	Stabby Jed	Fascinated by knives and blades
6	Gerald	Feathery Jerry	Picks and cleans feathers (mostly seagull and crow), then wears them
7	Christopher	Kit the Tinkerer	Fascinated by mechanics. Seems to be able to repair instinctively
8	Malcolm	Mal long fingers	Kleptomaniac who gives stuff back
9	Patrick	Irish Paddy	Was born and raised in british columbia
10	Nathaniel	Indian Nat	Born of a Wampanoag huntress and a scottish sailor (both died on boat)
11	Thaddeus	Right said Tad	Listens to aristocrats to learn new words. Uses words he doesn’t understand
12	William	Willie the Bolt	Runs very quickly
13	Jeremiah	Jem & tommy	Is protected by a dog quite as big as him. He sometimes rides Tommy. Tommy always eats first.
14	Phineas	Squeezy Finny	Seems to be able to squeeze through any crack, fence, or hole
15	Robert	Bully Dob	As stupid as strong and violent. Kids and animals are instinctively afraid of him
16	Martha	Mother Molly	Already a mother at 15 (kid is 3). Had to fight in court to keep her Nan (Ellen)
17	Arabella	Perverted Bella	Sells her mouth to men for food. Pretends to still be a virgin.
18	Lucinda	Spotless Cindy	Never dirty. Works in a wash-house
19	Dorothy	Boom Boom Dolly	Fascinated by explosions, black powder and pyrotechnics
20	Augusta	Gussie the dressmaker	Creates dolls and clothes. Accepts payment in textile, threads, and yarns

All these characters are poor souls, some of them still kids, not even teenagers, a few of them already 16.

All have 1 HP, and 1D6+6 STR.

Most of them don’t possess a weapon.

Dangers on the street

Your characters will probably invest in those kids. First, financially, but in the end it's the emotional investment that will be interesting. Make those urchin likeable and make your players their ally.
Life on the street is though. Coldness, dirt, violence, stray dogs, sickness, predators, there are a lot of dangers on the streets especially for kids. And then there's the worst kind of predators: the human kind. Be it slave-traders trying to catch and sell the little ones somewhere where slavery is still allowed, or be it the sexual predator kind of scum, those are adversaries worth the time of your player's characters. Help and save those kids from these felons and they'll be forever loyal.

Sources

An interesting article on how to get rid of street urchins (it is meant to be satire, but suprisingly informative and inventive)

how-to-rid-yourself-of-a-victorian-street-urchin