Emigration is the process of leaving one's country. Immigration is the process of entering a new one. In general, better records exist for Immigration than for Emigration, because countries generally were more interested in who was coming in than who was going out.
From 1850 to 1900, the population of England, Scotland and Wales doubled, yet no fewer than five and a half million people emigrated. Three million went to the United States, most of the rest to different parts of the Empire. Great Britain has long been a haven for many immigrants, too, a multi-racial and multi-cultural place, home for those religiously persecuted and a welcome rest stop for the wanderer. Since 1900, many former "colonists" have come to the United Kingdom, bringing Indian food, Asian customs and African traditions to the heart of the old Empire.
The best places to look are:
Historic Lincolnshire was the second largest county in England, but generally only sixth or so in population. While several generations of a family might stay in one parish for 100 years or more, that was the exception. There was a great deal of internal migration, both within Lincolnshire itself and to and from neighboring counties. Military service often accounted for a Lincolnshire lad serving in Essex or Kent, perhaps marrying a local girl, then returning home.
Consider Liz Davies' account of her great grandfather: "My great grandfather, born in 1870's, used to speak of going to the hiring fairs in the nearest market town on Lady Day, which was the feast of Mary the Virgin, sometime in Spring (April?). His nearest market town was Louth, and he was employed at Ludborough, Louth itself, Hawerby cum Beesby, Tetney and Northcotes, before moving permanently to Cleethorpes in 1912 to work at the local bowling club as greensman. Apparently he was hired by the year - he was a coachman, groundsman - but often stayed in one job for longer, if both he and his employer were happy. He lived in tied cottages with his family - at Hawerby Hall they had one of the lodges. Generally the places he moved to were within a day's journey from the market town, in any direction. The family moved to Cleethorpes on the carrier's cart."
A bit more on Hiring Fairs from Martin Edwards: "A farm servant was hired at a local hiring fair. In order to be a farm servant you had to be single. The 'contract' stated this. If you married during the term of a contact then it was deemed broken. The difference between a farm servant and labourer was that a 'farm servant' lived in - that is their board and lodging were found by their employer, they contracted for a wage which was usually above the norm but were expected to be 'on the spot'. A 'servant' could move across parish boundaries and live beyond that of their residence whereas a 'labourer' or 'worker' returned to their own parish at night. This is why 'single' persons seem to go missing in census as they could be up to 30 miles from their home parish."
During the 19th century there was a constant economic migration from Lincolnshire to Hull and East Yorkshire. Wages in agriculture were better in East Yorkshire and of course the growth of industry in Hull created many new jobs.
Quoting Carol J. Markillie of California: "Many Lincolnshire people emigrated to the Exeter (Pascataqua region) area of New Hampshire in the mid 1600s - during the English Civil War period."
Many religious "non-conformist" groups (not members of the Anglican Church), raised funds to emigrate to where they felt there would be more religious freedom. The Pilgrims, who sailed from Lincolnshire and settled in America, are perhaps the classic example of such a group.
If Pilgrims are your ancestors, try: The Pilrim Archives in Leiden, The Netherlands.
There is a Pilgrim Fathers' Memorial at Scotia Creek near Boston, Lincs. The original inscription on the memorial read "Near this place in September 1607 those later known as the Pilgrim Fathers set sail on their first attempt to find religious freedom across the seas. Erected 1957". See a photo at Wikipedia.
Quoting Lillian Dorsey of New Zealand, who researched the vessel HANOVER:
The folk on the 'Hanover' along with seven other ships were all part of the 'nonconformist' group of nearly 1,000 people. William Rawson BRAME of Birmingham advertised in the newspaper for likely candidates. The intended place to settle was called Albertland, named after the popular Prince Albert, who had recently died. The scheme was called the Albertland Colonisation Movement, which was the third and last church sponsored settlement in New Zealand. The other two being the Free Presbyterians from Scotland settling in Dunedin and the Anglicans settling in Christchurch. The main criteria for selection was that folk had to be from one of the nonconformist churches or of no denomination, therefore there would be none of the ties that they felt bound by in the traditional English church. The ships all arrived 1862-1865. People were from all over England, not just Lincolnshire.
Some of our ancestors emigrated, but then returned home, sometimes bringing foreign wives back with them, or children born outside the UK. This is from Anna ARROL (via Ivan Dominikovich), researching the NORTH family:
We have Rueben NORTH born in Louth 1801. Rueben sailed from Liverpool on 4 Feb 1845 for the United States. He travelled to the State of Wisconsin with 7 children and settled in Racine, Wisconsin. His wife died and he remarried in 1852. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Wisconsin 2nd Cavalry G Company. His residence was given as Brighton. On the 21st of March 1863 he accepted a Commission in the 1st Arkansas Cavalry as Chaplain. The Regiment lost during service 24 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 4 Officers and 234 Enlisted men by disease. Total 312. After the war he returned to Grimsby and remarried. He reappears in the 1881 Census living and married and Grimsby. He died in Grimsby.
His son, Rueben NORTH Jnr., who came with him in 1845, settled in the town of Rochester, Racine County, Wisconsin, where he died in 1886.
After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, many blockades and embargos were dropped, and cheap goods and food flooded England in the period from 1815 to 1840. The Irish Potato Famine in the 1840's also affected Scotland and England as well. And the Industrial Revolution was pushing people off the farms and the small craft trades into factories. It was a tough time for our ancestors, and the lure of "freedom" and the offers of free land were hard to ignore. Many a soldier who had fought against the Americans in the Revolution or in the 1812-1814 War, found open arms when they emigrated to the States. See Bill Gathercole's Musgrave-Cottam family experience.
The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 had considerable impact on Agriculture and farm labourers, as well as mill owners, bakers, etc.. Even tailors and those who made leather clothing were impacted by changes in fashion.
A research paper on Agricultural Labourer emigration from Wiltshire in the early 1800's resides in the Canterbury Museum Archives at Christchurch, New Zealand, with good historical background information.
To see some examples of advertisements used to entice emigration, please see Emigrant Advertisements.
"Agents" were sometimes employed to entice emigration, like Mr. White, who encouraged people to leave for New Zealand.
You might find it valuable to read about Mr. Banks, who arranged several passages to the New World.
A common mistake by researchers is to assume that people departed from ports close to their homes, and this would be the exception rather than the "norm". Liverpool appeared to handle most of the emigration from all over England and Wales, but people might leave from Hull, London, Portsmouth, Boston - any town with a harbour big and deep enough to handle a small merchant ship. Many had "assisted passage," meaning that some religious group or even the local parish had raised funds to "export" them, often finding the cheapest charter they could at whichever port the ship called at next. Advertisements in newspapers at the time suggest that by 1850, nearly all departures to Australia were from Liverpool.
According to the Greenwich Maritime Museum section on emigration, around 1900 it cost £400 1st class return to USA, and one way in steerage (3rd class) was £6.
Emigrants were encouraged to go to the British dependencies i.e. Australia and Canada, and in 1849 the Poor Law Commissioners would not allow parish rates to be used to pay part of a pauper's passage to the USA.
Extract from Charles K. Rawding's, 'The Lincolnshire Wolds In The Nineteenth Century' (ISBN 0 902668 20 X) from the series: Studies in the History of Lincolnshire:
The Labourer's Unions sought actively to influence the labour market in other ways than by simple wage demands. Labourers were encouraged to emigrate.
In April 1872 the 'Lincolnshire Labour Emigration League' was established. Large numbers emigrated during the second half of the 1870's. For instance, between 1874 and 1879 the Laceby agent, John H. WHITE, recruited more than 2,000 men from the Wolds and Marsh of north Lincolnshire for emigration to New Zealand.
In May 1874, WHITE began recruiting for a ship to make the trip in the autumn. By mid-August, 50 people had enlisted from Laceby, 20 or 30 from Keelby, 20 or 30 from Ulceby, 20 or 30 from Binbrook, and about 100 from around Caistor.
New Zealand was not the only destination. In 1875, 60-70 people left Market Rasen for Liverpool, to embark for Canada.
The Stamford Mercury commented: 'Emigration mania continues to grow and spread in this neighbourhood.'
Rawding goes on to comment on the effects of emigration. Farmers were strongly opposed to it fearing a shortage of labour. Active union members were blacklisted and thus forced to look for work elsewhere. By the end of the century empty houses in Lincolnshire was 27 percent above the national average.
Resources:
Resources:
British Library
Oriental and India Office Collections
96 Euston Road
St. Pancras, London, NW1 2BD
United Kingdom
Phone: +(44) (0) 207 412 7111.
Resources:
Here's a typical time-line for travel to the New World, from Joyce NORTH (via Ivan Dominikovich):
Robert FELL b about 1808 and Mary Ann COOT b about 1809 and the three children, Henry, Robert, Sarah Ann, left North Somercotes near Louth, Lincolnshire, on the 17th of April, 1844. They then sailed from Liverpool on April 27th 1844. They arrived at Boston (Massachusetts) on the 31st of May 1844. They left Boston June 3rd, arriving at Albany (NY) June 5th. June 6th they left Albany, arriving at Buffalo (NY) June 13th. They probably left the next day as they arrived at Racine, Wisconsin on the 17th of June; they arrived in Rochester (where they settled) on June 21, 1844.That's a little over two months of continuous travel!
Another example of the length of a sea voyage is the ship Chimborazo, which made two trips to America in 1856. And see Robert Bartlett's By Hand Cart to Utah.
Obviously, not every one enjoyed the trip. Here is a heartfelt letter home from the Polynesia (or "Polynesian"), complaining about passage. Another letter there gives a brighter viewpoint.
Resources:
CD# 273 - New York
CD# 259 - Baltimore
CD# 256 - Boston
CD# 358 - New Orleans
CD# 359 - Philadelphia
If your relative entered Lincolnshire:
If your relative became a Naturalized British Citizen:
Last updated on 16-June-2014
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© 2002 EnglandGenWeb Project