Conditions at Home
One of the main reasons for emigration was the poverty in England. Farm labourers were making very little money and finding it most difficult to survive. From the 18th century families had started to move to North America as the land of opportunity. In small villages in Devon, members of families emigrated to North America, and wrote back home telling stories of their new land, how much money could be earned, that they ate meat, vegetables, and fruit in abundance. Naturally, the emigration snowballed, drawing relatives, friends, and neighbours.
By the 1860’s, the village of Balberton, near Tiverton, Devon, was described as follows: “The general sanitary condition of the village was very bad. Picturesque as they were externally, many of the peasants’ cottages were unfit for the housing of pigs. Pools of stagnant water stood in many parts of the Parish. The whole village was very badly drained, open sewers ran through it, frequently trickling down from the cottages into the village brook, from which the cattle drank and from which the villagers and their children often drank.”
Preparing for the Trip
In the 1840’s and 1850’s the steerage fare varied from 3 pounds 10 shillings to 5 pounds, often including provisions.
Many Parishes assisted with the fare because it was cheaper to send the poor away rather than have them stay at a cost of 9 pounds per year in the workhouse, or at 2 pounds per year on highway relief. Some landlords paid as much as 10 pounds per emigrant, to provide the complete cost of the passage, and in addition paid 5 pounds for outfitting each person in preparation for the voyage and provide them with a start in their new land. Not all emigrants were indigent, and many artisans and craftsmen by careful saving amassed the necessary funds and provisions for voyage.
A Canadian settler advised 4 steerage passengers to provide themselves with the following for their trip: “16-18 pecks of potatoes in a barrel with a lock on it; 40 pounds of good beef well salted in brine; 15 pounds butter; 3 pounds coffee; 3 or 4 dozen old bottle beer, which has less chance of flying than if newly bottled; some dozens of eggs packed in salt; 6 cod fish cut and dried for keeping; milk does not keep well; sweetmeats are not relished at sea; a few oranges which at times taste very pleasant to the parched palate; some hard cheese; 8 pounds treacle in a flagon; 1 stone barley; a good deal of pepper and mustard; plenty of carrots, turnips, and onions for broth, these will keep well on the voyage; 28 pounds fine ships bread; 8 or 20 quartan loaves baked hard; 1 boll oatmeal; 6 packs baked into bannock and cakes; very well fired, and flat for packing; some pudding; some suet for dumplings, a few candles and a white iron lantern and horn; 1 bottle vinegar to use in water; 1 bottle castor oil; 2 or 3 dozen colocynth and rhubarb pills; 6 pounds Epsom salts and 1 pound senna – these medicines are very dear to Canada.”
They were also advised to take tin items as follows:
A water-can to hold supply of water; wash basin; baking dish; tin pot to fit in ship’s stove to make broth; pot to hang on stove for heating water; tin plates for meals; small tin dishes for tea or coffee; tablespoons and teaspoons and knives and forks for each individual. All should be marked. All packages should have locks, and be kept locked, and the keys taken out. This had to be carefully tended to as loss of articles on board were not infrequent, and such losses were irreplaceable.
It was advised that oatmeal and flour be kept in a strong barrel or flax-seed cask and kept locked.
The list of necessities for emigrants to Upper Canada were as follows: bedding, blankets, sheets, etc., pewter plates, wooden trenches, knives, forks, spoons, metal cups or mugs; tea kettle and saucepans; a large tin can or watering pot, working tools of all description.
Single men must have a bed or mattress, a metal plate, cup or mug, knife, fork, and spoon. A bed tick stuffed with straw was recommended along with a piece of carpet under the tick to keep the sleeper warm.
Clothing: the following was the lowest outfit recommended to Parishes for their labourers, including any other articles they may possess:
Fur cap,
Warm great coat,
Flushing jacket and trousers,
Canvas frock, two pair trousers,
Duck frock and trousers,
Two jersey frocks,
4 shirts,
4 pairs stockings,
3 pairs shoes,
a Bible or Prayer book
Women were expected to have the same in proportion and especially a warm cloak. (A flushing jacket was made of coarse, thick woolen cloth, as worn in Flushing, Holland. A canvas frock was a worker’s smock. A duck frock was a strong linen material similar to canvas.)
Emigrants were also expected to take with them a good character, (if they had the happiness to possess one) fairly written and well attested, also copies of marriage and baptismal registers or any other certificates or paper likely to be useful, the whole enclosed in a small case.
Setting Sail
Some 10,000 people were carried across the Atlantic from North Devon in local ships, without the loss of one vessel with passengers, or any large numbers of passengers from disease. Many of these passengers commented favourably on the conditions and subscribed to make presentations to the Master of the ship in which they had travelled. Surviving emigrants’ diaries give happy accounts of the passage from Devon to North America. One ship, the “Lord Ramsey”, built in Quebec in 1832, sailed backward and forward across the Atlantic from North Devon for 21 years. For most of that time under a famous Master, Richard England, it carried thousands of passengers. None of the other ships were fitted in such superior style as the “Lord Ramsey”. The supports dividing the separate births were elegantly turned out and coloured and the whole had more the appearance of a comfortable hotel than a passenger ship. On desk there was a cook-house entirely for the use of passengers.
On May 1, 1833, Rev. J.H. Enyon and his wife Elizabeth (Betsy) Dart, a female preacher, boarded the brig “Dalusia” at Padstow, Cornwall, England, bound for North America. Rev. Enyon was a pioneer missionary sent from the Bible Christian Church in England to the Canadian Mission. Rev. Enyon arrived in Quebec on June 17, 1833, after a voyage that required three departures; the first two attempts having failed due to bad weather. He left Quebec on June 21, 1833, and arrived in Cobourg on July 15, 1833. From there he set out for Darlington, an area where he and his wife were to take a prominent part in the work of the Kingdom of God. He was the answer to the prayer and request of some of the early settlers in that district for some spiritual leadership. These pioneer folk from England, mostly from Devon and Cornwall, were of the Bible Christian Church denomination and from the parent body in the old land they sought and obtained help.
Most of the North Devon migrants chose Canada West (now southern Ontario), and they invariably settled in the County of Durham.
Henry James (1809-1905) of Bradworthy, Devon, sailed from Bideford on May 4, 1831 on the barge “Bolina”, reaching Prince Edward Island on June 5, 1831. The 61 passengers stayed there for 10 days before sailing for Quebec. From Quebec, Henry and 30 others went to Kingston and then by steamer to Port Hope. As Henry was in the milling business, he stayed in Port Hope until around 1839, when he moved to Bowmanville. In 1840 he purchased property in the village of Hampton and built a Grist Mill. (Information given by Cecil Collacott of Bradworthy, Devon, England.)
Conditions on Board Ship
In 1835-1836, an Act of the British Parliament reduced the passengers from 4 to 3 for every 5 tons. Legislation was passed in 1842 to remedy bad conditions by insisting upon 1 floor. Bedding had to aired on deck twice per week, weather permitting, and the ship had to be fumigated with vinegar at the same intervals. Passengers were ordered to clean themselves regularly on the upper deck. The passengers were urged to bear in mind that their arrival in American in high spirits or in ill health depended upon their attention to these rules. Not until the Act of 1846 was there any regulation that adult passengers of different sexes, unless husband and wife, should be berthed separately.
Stated below are some of the features on the 628 emigrant ship “St. Vincent” in 1844, which accommodated 240 passengers. The length between decks was 124 feet, the height 6’4” and the breadth of the main hatchway 25’3”. Stationary tables and benches were located mid-way between the rows of berths throughout the length of the ship, beneath the tables were plate racks and water carriers. Hanging shelves were secured between beams. The double berths were 6’ x 3’ and single berths were 6’ x 2’, each being separated from next by a partition extending from top to bottom. Seats were fixed at the outer extremity of each bed place. Water closets for females were located on either side of the deck, but those for the male passengers were on the upper deck.
Conditions in general were far superior in the North Devon ships to the ships leaving Liverpool full of Irish emigrants. The conditions on these ships, were sometimes appalling. Sometime, towards the close of the voyage, the water became entirely useless. When it was drawn out of the casks it was no clearer than that of a dirty kennel after a heavy shower of rain; so that its appearance alone was enough to sicken one, but it’s dirty appearance was not its worst quality, it had such a rancid smell that to be in the same area was enough to turn one’s stomach. On occasion the ship’s water could be made usable, even it still repulsive, by the addition of vinegar or another more pleasing liquid, such as peppermint, if available. On a typical vessel in 1847, each adult received a pound of meal or bread daily, children under 14 years, half of that quantity was distributed five days a week, and biscuit, which was good, was given out the other two days. The overcrowding of these emigrant vessels, deficient diet, bad water, and lack of medical supervision, led to cholera and ship fever, many of the passengers did not make it to North American. (Taken from the book “The Great Migration” by Edwin C. Gillet)