Emigration
Sources:
- ‘Australia Bound! The Story of West Country Connections, 1688-1888’ by Martyn Brown, in the Dorset County Museum
- ‘The Letters of S.G.O.’ Edited by Arnold White, in the Dorset County Reference Library.
Introduction
Between 1815 – 1895 13 million people emigrated from the U.K.; in the second half of the nineteenth century, as many as 100,000 people left Dorset, many from the west of the county. The men, women and children who were caught up in the wrecks of the Avalanche and the Royal Adelaide were part of a vast human cargo that was transported all over the world.
The emigrants aboard the Avalanche and the Royal Adelaide were outward bound for New Zealand and Australia, but in the nineteenth century the most popular destinations were the USA and Canada:
Destination of Emigrants from England, Scotland & Wales.
(Source: ‘Australia Bound’ by Martyn Brown.)
Year / Canada / USA / Australia / NZ / Elsewhere / S. Africa1821 / 12,995 / 4,958 / 320 / 384
1831 / 58,067 / 23,418 / 1,561 / 114
1841 / 38,164 / 45,017 / 32,625 / 2,786
1851 / 42,605 / 267,357 / 21,532 / 4,472
1861 / 12,707 / 49,764 / 23,738 / 5,561
1871 / 32,671 / 198,843 / 12,227 / 8,694
1881 / 34,561 / 307,973 / 24,093 / 25,887
1891 / 33,752 / 252,016 / 19,957 / 28,818
As early as 1630 people from Dorchester in search of religious freedom settled on the west coast of America; some of the earliest free settlers in Australia were also from Dorset. Only four years after the first convicts were transported to New South Wales in1788 the Rose family from Sturminster Newton took advantage of government incentives and settled not far from Sydney Cove. Other members of the family followed in 1849, 1850, c1887, c1910 and 1986. The story of the family is described by a descendent, Kenneth Topp, in an article in the Dorset Year Book for 1989. Extracts from his article ‘Dorset & Australia 1788-1988’ are reproduced on this web site. ***Link***
Why People Emigrated
Many people emigrated in the hope of making a better life for themselves overseas. The vicar of Durweston, the Reverend Sydney Godolphin Osborne, was appalled at the way in which the poor were treated and regarded emigration as a means of resolving their plight. In a letter to the Times in 1848 he wrote:
“…sad and lengthened experience has convinced me that the …[agricultural worker] can be placed in no worse position than he is at home – in merry England (?), Christian England (?), England the nurse of industry, the very hot-bed of philanthropy (?)… the labourer is defrauded of his hire, oppressed and ill-treated in a way that is a shame on our national character.”
The following year, in 1849, he wrote another letter:
“…what really is the ruling motive which has made so many, at such mental cost, leave their homes to encounter a long sea passage to a far distant country?”
The vicar goes on to quote some of his conversations with villagers who had made the decision to emigrate:
“I tell you what it is, Sir; we are starving each other; we be too thick in our place; the best of us can’t earn what will find us bread for our children and ourselves, let alone the clothing and the rent; when we be gone ‘twill be better for they we leave … When the maister has to seek for labourers, he must pay them what they can live on; as long as we has to go and beg a job, it is little enough they will give us for doing of it.”
A cartoon published in the satirical magazine ‘Punch’ in 1848 illustrates the contrast between life in Britain and life as an emigrant. Entitled ‘Here and there, or Emigration a remedy’, it contrasts a poor man with his starving, homeless family with an obviously well fed family enjoying a sumptuous meal. Even the family’s pet dog looks fat and round and is gazing in anticipation at a morsel of food which the baby holds in its hand.
Although the Punch cartoon is exaggerated, conditions in Australia and New Zealand were a huge improvement on life in Britain. In 1851 a labourer from the tiny Wiltshire village of Hodson emigrated with his wife and nine children. In a letter which he wrote home he refers to one of his son’s friends, Tom Weston. Tom had been a playmate of six year old Bill, and even though a couple of years had passed, Bill had not forgotten his old playmate:
“Poor pipel in Hodson do not know what good living is. We have got a goint of fresh meet on our tabel everey day, and little Bill says I want to give Tom Weston some. We do not put tea in the pot with a tea-spuoan, but with a hand!”
Another cartoon published in 1833 satirises women who emigrated in pursuit of a husband. Titled ‘Emigration in search of a husband’ the cartoon shows a skinny porter bowed down under the weight of a large trunk, in conversation with a short, fat, red-faced woman wearing a large bonnet. The porter asks, “What are you going to Sidney for, pray ma’am ?” The lady replies, “Vy they says as how theres lots of good husbands to be had cheap whereas the brutes in England can’t see no charms in a woman unles she’s got plenty of money to keep ‘em in idleness.”
An important advantage enjoyed by Australia and New Zealand compared to America and Canada in attracting emigrants was the warm, sunny climate. As well as ordinarily healthy people, many people suffering illnesses exacerbated by Britain’s cold, damp winters were attracted. Some ships were even designated as ‘invalid’ ships. One such ship, the SS Sobraon, made the journey from Britain to Australia in 1888-9 in a voyage which lasted 102 days. Julia Sydenham, who was a passenger, kept a diary of the voyage, exerts from which are included on this web site ***Link***
Schemes to Encourage Emigration
As the new colonies developed, the new residents needed help and support. People with specialist skills such as mechanics, carpenters, masons and the like were in short supply. Farm workers, too, were needed – so much so that they could earn in a single day as much as they had previously earned in a week. In 1831 the British Government introduced the first of several schemes to encourage emigration to South Australia, and in 1840 the Colonial Land & Emigration Commission was set up. People with specific skills, their families, and single women were offered free passage to develop the settlement of Australia (and other British colonies).
Government sponsored emigrants had to be:
“sober, industrious, and of good moral character… They must also be in good health, free from all bodily and mental defects, and the adults must be in all respects capable of labour and going out to work for wages.” (Government Circular, 1847.)
In Plymouth a government agent inspected the emigrant ships to ensure that they were in sound condition and properly equipped for a long and difficult voyage; another agent was responsible for the supply of suitable emigrants. He operated through a whole network of selection agents who advertised for emigrants, targeting particular trades or communities.
Emigrants from Dorset
Local parishes and churches also sponsored emigrants, particularly poor people who they would otherwise have to support. Some gentry and clergy were very actively involved, such as the Reverend John West of Chettle, who helped 235 people emigrate from the Cranborne Chase area.
In 1849 the Reverend Sidney Godolphin Osborne, vicar of Durweston and brother-in-law of the reformer Charles Kingsley, arranged the emigration of 136 people under the auspices of the Blandford branch of the Colonisation Society. The emigrants, from the districts around Blandford, ranged in age from 41 years to as young as two. The vicar involved himself very closely in the organisation, “from the smallest of its details to the seeing with my own eyes the first meal served on board the vessel at sea.” His experiences prompted the letters to the Times quoted above, and from which the following accounts are taken.
Rev. S. G. Osborne’s description of the Blandford area emigrants:
“It is the young and middle-aged who go, it is the old and the infirm who are left; the moment is a bitter one which tells the aged father or mother that in a few short weeks their children, their grandchildren, purpose quitting them – and that, in all probability, for ever…
It is fortunate for all parties that when once the resolution to go is taken, and the free passages obtained, the time previous to embarkation is short, and full of occupation. There is the outfit to be procured, home debts to be paid, the furniture to be sold, the cottage to be given up; there is packing to be done…. The home debts are to be paid out of the furniture to be sold; the shoe bill, the shop bill, the bill for flour at the mill, arrear of rent – all must be sold, in the majority of cases, to enable the emigrant to pay these, and to leave home honestly. Gladly would Will Pilgrim keep the clock. He says he ‘could take it out of its case, and then it would scarce occupy any room.’ Gladly would Mary Pilgrim, his wife, keep the great cooking boiler, with its well-sooted hook and chain. ‘It won’t weigh much,’ she says, and they are allowed to take half-a-ton each. There is the great staring tea-tray, with its pictures of the waggon with large white horses … this, the chief ornament of the cottage wall, the very tray they bought for their wedding tea-party – both would like to save this. Still, shopkeeper, shoemaker, miller’s man, etc., by their frequent calls keep alive the fact that money must be found – that all their goods, when turned into money, will hardly pay all their due …
…when all is sold, all debts paid, every box packed, all doubts as to going removed…there is the last…night; a night which scarce gives the children sleep, for they are in strange beds at the houses of different neighbours; the grown up people seek no sleep…”
(The vicar goes on to describe the sad partings of families and neighbours, and in another letter continues the description of the emigrants’ journey…)
“Every pains had been taken to see that they were properly outfitted for the voyage, and two respectable individuals volunteered to go in charge of them, superintending their provisioning, etc., on the road from Blandford to Taunton. At the latter place, by the kindness of the railway companies, third class carriages were found for them, and they were sent on with little delay to Plymouth…
I do not mean to say that the ‘between decks’ of the Emigrant [ the ship they were to sail in] , with her 326 emigrating souls, or, in office language, her 256 ½ statute adults, being Dorset, Wilts, Somerset, and Gloucestershire labourers, and their families, was…a scene of perfect comfort and convenience…but…the diet is infinitely superior to anything they have ever been used to, their accommodation by day and night is as good in every way as any reasonable being could expect to be at the command of so great numbers, conveyed free of all expense, so great a distance, in a ship.
The single men’s and the single women’s compartments and the infirmaries are, except in the matter of ornament…superior to thousands of berths paid for by parties emigrating at their own expense. The crying evil is the noise and pranks of the very small children, which, until one got a little used to it, made the married people’s compartment literally a Babel. But, as the parents did not seem to mind it, I suppose it was not so insupportable as it appeared to a looker-on; however, from my present experience, I do not feel inclined to urge persons with many small children to emigrate.
As to the safety of the ships, I found them all taking passengers of a superior class of life in the cabin part of the ship; they are carefully surveyed by competent persons…and the captains and mates must have the best testimonials as to their seamanship, etc. By the kindness of a gentleman at Plymouth, who put his yacht at my service, I was enabled to go some little way out…with my people; to the last I saw them cheerful, contented, and happy; they had begun to get an insight into [the ship], and though small children would cry for a run ‘in the lane’ or…ask to go and see a neighbour’s kittens now many a mile distant, on the whole I saw no one reason to regret the pains I and my neighbours have taken to launch these our poor fellow-creatures on a sea of adventure which I trust will bear them to lands where their industry and honesty may win for them comforts for life denied them here…
The ship in which I had so deep an interest arrived in safety …
I myself, aided by my neighbours, nearly filled one large ship for Sydney with Dorset labourers. I have reason to know that they have, with but one exception that I ever heard of, done so well that the great majority possess property and position in the colony far beyond what could possibly have been anticipated…”
The ship in which the Blandford emigrants sailed was one of 109 ships which sailed from Plymouth in 1849 carrying 14,118 emigrants to Australia. In 1840 John Prout, an emigrant from Bristol, his wife and seven children travelled to Sydney on the Royal Sovereign (possibly a fore runner to the Royal Adelaide’s sister ship which was also known as the Royal Sovereign). John’s journal describes what it was like on board during a terrible storm, and evokes what it might have been like on the Avalanche just before the terrible collision with the Forest:
“We have passed one of the most miserable of nights imaginable, the vessel rolling and plunging, and consequently displacing all our as well as our neighbours’ valuables; water-casks and boxes, fragments of bottles, dishes, plates, and cups, all rumbling and rattling about in glorious confusion…above us in the cuddy berths…they have had the water in in such quantities, as to make it impossible for them to remain in bed. To these accumulated comforts, add the almost terrific sounds occasioned by the sea striking and breaking over the ship…the children are all kept to their beds, ports closed – cabins wet – no prospect of getting anything cooked …”
Research Project on Dorset Emigration
The West Dorset Group of the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society is setting up a data base on emigration 1700 – 1930, but especially concentrating on the19th century. For further details please see their web site: dorsetmigration.org.uk