Welsh in Oneida County, New York - Notes

The Welsh In Oneida County, New York  |  Evans  |  Notes |  26

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Notes: I. Emigration from Wales

1Rowland E. Prothero:
English Farming Past and Present, p. 317.
2Thomas Tooke:
History of Prices, p. 13, vol. II. To him I owe the figures quoted on       prices hereafter.
3Marriot:
England Since Waterloo, p.25.
4Id. p. 24.
5
Report of the Poor Law commissioners 1909, note p. 304 and Marriot, p. 18.
6Nicholls:
English Poor Law II, pp. 165-287.
7Nicholls:
English Poor Law II, p. 439. He gives a list of the numbers emigrating from the United Kingdom, of which the following is an extract.
Year to United States Total
1815 1209 2081
1816 9022 12501
1818 12429 27787
1822 4137 20429
1825 5551 14891
1829 15678 31198
1832 32872 103140
1836 37774 75417
1840 40642 90743
1842 63852 128344
1846 82239 129851
1847 142154 258270
1850 223078 280849

8For the numbers of Welsh arriving in New York after 1847 see Appendix.
9See
Y Cyfaill I: p. 192 and p. 348; Y Cenhadwr: 1840, p. 221 and 1844: p. 318; Y  Beread: July 15, 1842.
10
Y Cenhadwr: 1847, p. 221.
11See preface to James Caird:
English Agriculture.
12
Y Cenhadwr: 1848, p. 333.
13
Y Cenhadwr: 1850, p. 194. A letter from John Rees.
14Id. 1847, p. 254.
15Id. 1848, p. 306.
16
Y Cenhadwr: 1848, p. 127.
17
The Old Countryman: Jan. 1, 1848.
18
Y Cenhadwr: 1849, p. 127.
19Id. 1849, p. 138.
20
Y Cenhadwr: 1849, p. 248 notes the landing in July of the Guy Mannering with 800 immigrants, 150 of whom were Welsh, 3 being Welsh preachers. The same magazine 1850: p. 165 announces from Yr Amserau that large numbers of Welsh were preparing to leave Liverpool for New York between the 16th and 20th of April, most of them intending to go to Wisconsin. Their purpose was to come on the same ship--none but Welsh; this for religious advantages, peace and other comforts of the voyage. Y Cenhadwar: 1850, p. 195 copies from Yr Amserau the report of the sailing from Liverpool of the Welsh steamer Forest Queen on April 18th, 1850 with 375 Welshmen on board, 97 English, 19 Irish and 3 Germans. Rev. John Phillips of Bangor came on board before the sailing and in an address in Welsh, urging them to cling to their religion and encouraging them in their new venture, he enumerated the causes of their misery, "Rents are high, taxes are high, tithes are oppressive and the prices of products of the soil are remarkably low." When the Forest Queen reached New York it was reported as having 400 Welsh on board. Y Cenhadwr: 1850, p. 200 announces the arrival in the spring of 1850 of the Higgison which sailed from Carnarvon with slate, reaching New York May 16th with 160 Welsh immigrants.
21My great grandfather, about 1830, took a lease for three lives of a large estate in Cardigan, and this appears to have been not unusual. The rents he received from the smaller farms enabled him to live comfortably, even without the return from his own large share of the estate.
22
Y Cenhadwr: 1850, p. 198.
23Cornish:
English Church in the 19th Century, II, p. 338.
24Henry W. Clarke:
A History of Tithes, p. 220. In speaking of the diocese of St. asaph, which included Denbigshire and Flint with parts of Montgomeryshire, Carnarvonshire, Merionethshire, Cheshire and Salop, the author says: "There were fifteen sinecure rectories in this diocese in 1836 with incomes amounting in the aggregate to 6227 commuted value. The rectors of these benefices had no duties whatever to perform. They received handsome incomes and nothing to do for them. Here was the rich harvest for the bishop's sons and other relatives. The benefices were all in the bishop's patronage. Bishop Luxmore, who was bishop of St. Asaph from 1815 to 1830, had an income of £12,000 per annum, and his two sons and two relatives had between them £15,000 a year from the diocese, i.e. £27,000 per annum received by the father, his two sons and two relatives at a time when the total net receipts by all the working clergy of this diocese amounted to only £18.000 per annum."
25See R.D. Thomas:
Hanes Cymry America, Part III, p. 143, for an instance of the discharge of a teacher for attending dissenting churches.
26
Y Cenhadwr: 1850, p. 200.
27For the most part they came by steerage as the following figures from the reports of the New York State Commissioners of Emigration will show:
Year Steerage Cabin Total
1876 428 23 451
1877 341 7 348
1878 632 19 651
1879 2759 140 2899
1880 3563 25 3588
1881 4060 147 4207
1882 4434 117 4451

Before 1876 the figures do not show the mode of travel but all reports would lead to the belief that the proportion of steerage passengers to the whole before that date was much the same as after. The following advertisement in the issue of
The Emigrant and Old Countryman for January 20, 1841 shows the cost of steerage passage with a reputable firm at that time: "Passengers will be found in provisions for the passage [from Liverpool to New York] for $10 extra, or $26 for passage, provisions and hospital money. Passages can also be engaged from Liverpool to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston at $20 for each adult."
28
Parliamentary Papers and Abstracts, 1826, p. 259.
29
Y Cyfaill: Vol. III, p. 279 ff.
30
Report of the Commissioners of Emigration of New York State for 1848, p. 6.
31
Y Cenhadwr: 1849, p. 248
32
Report of the Select Committee to investigate frauds on Emigrants. Assembly Document, New York State, #250, December 6, 1847, p. 2.
33
Y Cenhadwr: Jan. 1857. On the third page of the cover appears the advertisement of Cadwalader Richards. Three of the most noted Welsh pastors in New York and Pennsylvania warmly recommend him as a general guide for Welsh immigrants landing in New York. Dr. Mary Everett of Remsen, who knew him, told me that he was for some time a government official at Castle Garden.
34
Report of Select Committee, p. 72
35Id. p. 108
36
Y Cyfaill, vol. I, p. 192, for an instance of this with Welsh immigrants.
37
Report of the Select Committee to investigate frauds, p. 58
38Id., p. 38-39. Mr. Charles H. Webb, Superintendent of the British Protective Emigrant Society, at 42 Cortlandt Street, New York, in his testimony before the Committee said that the Society endeavored to protect English, Welsh and Scotch emigrants (who "generally have large amounts of money") from the cupidity of the runners. The effectiveness of their efforts, he said, was evidenced by the very small number of these nationalities who had made application to the Commissioners of Emigration for relief as compared with the Irish and Germans.
39
New York Daily Tribune, Dec. 21, 1854, p. 6, col. 6.
40
New York Assembly Document, #99, 1850.
41
Report of the Emigration Commissioners of New York State for 1857, p. 26.
42Jones sometime before had established in Liverpool an agency for his emigrating countrymen, and he is frequently mentioned in the Welsh papers with praise for his kindness to emigrants. At this time he was in New York seeking information of desirable locations for emigrants, of modes and costs of transportations, and of other matters. His friends and those whom he had aided gave him a banquet in New York, presenting him with a valuable watch as a token of his esteem. In acknowledging this, he spoke of the exemplary manner in which the government agents at Liverpool discharged their duties and asserted positively that it was impossible to exercise more care to carry out literally the provisions of the Passenger Act, in order to insure to the emigrant the greatest comfort and protection possible.


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