Arthur Dark estimates the number of people who emigrated to North America from north Devon between 1830 and 1855 as nine thousand or more, amounting to more than the total inhabitants of the large town of Barnstaple [note 1]. This emigration significantly reduced the population of Bradworthy and other parishes in the area [note 2].
As an example, the family of Benjamin Yeo of Bradworthy [note 3] was greatly depleted by this exodus. His brothers Thomas, Benjamin and John and his sister Grace all emigrated between 1835 and 1843 to make new lives for themselves in Ontario, leaving his son William as the only son left to continue the family line in England.
Dark continues: ‘The loss of income to a local economy represented by such a movement of population would cause dismay today. But although there were a few who saw the migration in this light most contemporary commentators appear to have seen it as a means of drawing off what they regarded as an essentially surplus population. There is not the slightest doubt that poverty and unemployment was dire as a result of the economic depression that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The national government, local Boards of Guardians, individuals and emigration societies of various kinds saw it as a charitable duty to give grants and assistance to the poor to start a new life in the colonies and thereby reduce the surplus population. At the same time the emigrants were helping the development of the empty lands of colonies like Canada. There is no doubt either that the poor were desperate to take advantage of the opportunities.’
The emigration was mainly to British North America – especially Prince Edward Island and Ontario – but there was also a significant flow of migrants to the United States. This movement was given added impetus when most of the British territories in North America were united in 1867 to form the Dominion of Canada, and it continued later in the century as the destinations of Australia and New Zealand became accessible with improved communications and transport. Hence there are very few of us with family roots in north Devon and north-east Cornwall who do not have close family ties to these countries.
The explanation for this emigration appears to lie mainly in poverty, religion and opportunity. The rural south-west of England saw desperate economic hardship in the early 19th century [note 4] and many of the tenanted holdings were too small to be divided among the sons of a farming family. Emigrants were willing to subject themselves to harsh conditions on board ship. Dark describes the accommodation: ‘Most passengers, if not all, would have travelled steerage which means that families and unaccompanied passengers would simply have bedded down, cheek by jowl, in the emptied timber holds. If they were lucky the ship-owner might erect temporary two-tier bunks for his passengers. They would have been given a basic ration of food and water which they would partly prepare themselves.’ He adds: ‘Conditions on board were undoubtedly rough, but [no] harder than agricultural labourers normally experienced at this time.’
Adherents to the newly emerging nonconformist movements, including the Wesleyan Methodists and the Bible Christians, saw the opportunity to establish communities of like-minded families in the new territories. Dark comments: ‘A substantially high proportion of the emigrants were nonconformists, particularly Bible Christians … whose heartland lay in north-west Devon and north-east Cornwall. In 1831 there were sufficient numbers of Bible Christians in Canada for the movement to send two preachers to minister to them.’ Janet Few [note 5] is quite specific: ‘Emigration was a significant part of the Bible Christian way of life’ and adds ‘By the 1860s the high emigration levels … were having a detrimental effect on their following in [England].’
Others with an eye for business saw opportunities in trade with North America, especially in timber and shipbuilding. Dark records that the first cargo of timber from Prince Edward Island arrived at Bideford in 1812. Ships built at Bideford and Appledore were used to take emigrants to north America and returned laden with more timber, and so the trade continued.
Philip Payton [note 6] describes an ‘emigration trade’ emerging in the mid 19th century: ‘to manage – and make money from – this mass movement of people. All manner of people and agencies were involved: government officials, mine managers, shipping agents, ship builders, local provisioners at ports and harbours, newspapers, publicans, coaching operators, clergymen, solicitors, learned societies and a host of other public and business interests. In the economic downturn after the Napoleonic Wars, for example, businessmen were anxious to diversify their interests when new opportunities emerged.’
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Notes
1. ‘North Devon Exodus’, Devon Family Historian, No. 117 (February 2006), pp.6–10. Updated summary published at www.genuki.org.uk.
2. Extracts by Reg Walter from the Registrar-General’s 19th-century population statistics for Devon parishes. Humphrey Toms papers 8-20-1 p.117.
3. 1772–1825. See Benjamin Yeo and Mary Wade.
4. Graphically described on pages 4–6 of Towards Quebec: Two mid-19th century emigrants’ journals, ed. Ann Giffard, HMSO and the National Maritime Museum, 1981.
5. ‘Faith, Fish, Farm or Family? Motivations for Emigration from North Devon 1830–1900’, Devon Family Historian, No. 143 (August 2012), pp.5–8. Article based on earlier PhD thesis.
6. In his article ‘Maritime history and the emigration trade: the case of mid-nineteenth-century Cornwall’,. Archived version published at archives.history.ac.uk.