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Industrial Emigration in Early Victorian Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Wilbur S. Shepperson
Wilbur S. Shepperson
Affiliation:
University of Nevada
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Extract

Since the days of Queen Elizabeth, emigration has been a habit with the British people. But it was the nineteenth century, when almost seventeen million persons emigrated, that witnessed the United Kingdom's most extensive exodus: approximately eighty per cent of the emigrants went to North America. A broad, historical explanation of the forces that motivated British subjects to abandon their homeland can be found in numerous works. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to view in greater detail one small facet of a not uncommon, yet entangling, subject. A series of specialized studies producing greater exactness of information would perhaps lead to a fuller and more complete understanding of a topic that has been open to much conjecture.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , Spring 1953 , pp. 179 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1953

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References

1 Finch, John, Jun. (compiler), Statistics of Vauxhall Ward, Liverpool (Liverpool: Joshua Walmsley, 1842)Google Scholar, and Redfurd, Arthur, Labour Migration in England, 1800–1850 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1926), p. 107Google Scholar.

2 The Colonist, No. 1 (1848), p. 3. The Colonist was edited by William H. G. Kingston and published under the authority of the Society for the Promotion of Colonization, a group primarily interested in Australian emigration.

3 Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons, Seventeenth General Report of the Emigration Commissioners, 1857, Sess. 2, XVI [2247], Appendix No. 6.

4 Tovnbee, Arnold, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century in England (New York: The Humboldt Publishing Co., 1890), p. 168Google Scholar.

5 The theory was presented in a pamphlet by Marcara, James entitled Address to the Working Classes, on the Advancement of Their Conditions and Circumstances (Edinburgh: R. Tofts, Publishers, 1846)Google Scholar. Found in Public Record Office, C.O. 384/88.

6 Webb Collection, London School of Economics, E, Manuscripts: Compositors; Miscellaneous Historical, Sect. A, XXX, 29ff. Sec J. W. Crompton, Report on Printers' Strikes and Trade Unions Since January 1, 1845, and Abraham Warnhouse, Prize Essay.

7 The Typographical Circular, New Series, No. 32 (November 1, 1856), p. 281. The Typographical Circular was published by and interpreted the emigration work of the London Compositors. The Typographical Societies' Monthly Circular reported on provincial emigration and The Scottish Typographical Circular discussed the union's emigration promotion north of the Tweed.

8 See issues of The Typographical Circular for the years involved. Especially No. 35 (January 15, 1857), p. 298, and No. 40 (June 19, 1857), p. 338.

9 The Society of Brush Makers; The Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Machinists, Millwrights, Smiths, Pattern Makers, etc.; The Journeymen's Steam Engine Makers and Millwrights' Friendly Society; The Manchester Mechanics and Engineers' Friendly Society: The Flint Glass Makers; The Friendly Society of the Operative Stonemasons of England and Wales; The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners of London; and The Society of Journeymen Bookbinders of London and Westminster, as well as several other trade unions, fostered emigration programs.

10 Owen, Harold, The Staffordshire Potter (London: Grant Richards, 1901), pp. 1–49Google Scholar.

11 The first issue of The Potter's Examiner and Workman's Advocate, later entitled The Potter's Examiner and Emigrant's Advocate, was published on December 2, 1843.

12 The Potter's Examiner and Workman's Advocate, II, No. 16 (September 14, 1844), 123; II, No. 18 (September 28, 1844), 138–39; II, No. 19 (October 5, 1844), 147.

13 The Staffordshire Mercury, Sheffield Times, Liverpool Mercury, Leeds Eastern Counties Herald, and Nottingham Review gave considerable attention to the potters' experiment.

14 Accounts differed widely regarding the number emigrating from 1847 to 1849, but some placed the figure as high as two hundred families. A more reliable source indicates that at the beginning of 1849 Pottersville and community boasted 134 immigrants. Few emigrated after that date.—“The Potters' Emigration Society,” Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, XII, No. 302 (October 13, 1849), p. 140Google Scholar; Sidney's Emigrant's Journal, No. 18 (February 1, 1849). p. 139Google Scholar.

15 On June 8, 1850, meeting at Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin, members of the Potters' Emigration Society filed a memorial bitterly denouncing the management of the society. They explained that virtually none of the promised benefits had been forthcoming in America, and warned that others should not be so foolish as to make the same mistakes. Only a few, however, chose to return to England.—The Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser (Leeds), August 17, 1850, p. 3.

16 The Emigration Gazette and Colonial Settlers' Universal Guide (London), No. 12, January 8, 1842, p. 6; and No. 19, February 26, 1842, p. 4.

17 The Colonial Gazette (London), No. 192, July 27, 1842, p. 466Google Scholar; “Emigration by Lot and Lottery,” Fisher's Colonial Magazine and Commercial-Maritime Journal (1842), pp. 268–72 and 402–4.

18 Ottawa, the Future Capital of Canada. … Hints to Emigrants (London: Algar & Street, 1858)Google Scholar. See inside of front cover.

19 The Times (London), June 19, 1843, p. 7Google Scholar.

20 “The British Section of Icarian Communists,” Bulletin of the International Institute for Social History, No. 2 (1937), pp. 84–88Google Scholar

21 The Reformer (London), No. 5, May 26, 1849, pp. 34–35; and No. 14, July 28, 1849, p. 107.

22 Foreman, Grant, “Settlement of English Potters in Wisconsin,” The Wisconsin Magazine of History, XXI, No. 4 (1938), p. 387Google Scholar.

23 Sidney's Emigrant's Journal, No. 33, May 17, 1849, p. 259Google Scholar; and No. 36, June 7, 1849, p. 281.

24 der Zee, Jacob Van, The British in Iowa (Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa. 1922), p. 28Google Scholar. Basic information on the community was originally taken from Wolfe's History of Clinton County. Iowa (1870).

25 The Colonial Gazette (London), No. 149, September 29, 1841, p. 609Google Scholar.

26 The English Chartist Circular, II, No. 151 (1843), 395. Charles Cole caught the Chartist philosophy in the first verse of his rhyme:

Sorrow laden,

Youth and Maiden

To Canadian

Wilds may go;

Eerie thundʼrings,

Wake their wondʼrings:

Will their absence heal our woe?

27 Reynold's Political Instructor (London), I, No. 9 (January 5, 1850), p. 66Google Scholar.

28 Ibid., No. 10 (January 12, 1850), p. 75.

29 The Emigrant's Almanack (London: John Cassell, 1854), p. 17Google Scholar.

30 Royal Emigration Society Extraordinary (London: J. Sharp, ca. 1836).