| Immigration Schemes - Scotland
In
1837 the bounty system began to operate effectively in Scotland, and there was
a dramatic increase in the number of emigrants leaving for Australia. When the
system became fully operative in Scotland, in 1837, Leith, with 97 embarking,
was overshadowed by Greenock with 830 and Dundee with 327. This was caused by
the dispatch of shiploads of bounty emigrants from the latter ports, and the
same trend continued throughout the peak years of the bounty emigration, from
1838 to 1841.
Despite
these figures, swollen by the sailings of bounty emigrant ships from Greenock
and Dundee, the evidence of the shipping lists suggests that for intending
settlers paying their own passages Leith remained the chief port of
embarkation, just as it remained the principal trading port for the Australian
colonies.’ It was to lieutenant Forrest at Leith that ‘numerous enquiries’ came
in 1834 regarding land grants to officers and the prospects of settlers in the
new colony of South Australia.
It was fortunate that improved facilities
for the selection of emigrants were available by 1837, for Highland destitution
created a strong urge to emigrate. By this year, too, the Colonial Office had
decided to extend the benefit of bounty to agricultural labourers and married
couples, and the new policy fitted in well with the desire to emigrate from the
Highlands and from certain Lowland areas where little interest had been shown
before in emigration to Australia.
Lang was not the only colonist to urge that Scottish immigrants
should be encouraged. James Macarthur, one of the most prominent and
influential men in New South Wales, regarded the Scots detachment among the
first bounty emigrants to be selected in 1837 as a valuable accession to the
colony, and commended their ‘religious disposition, good sense and orderly
habits’. Macarthur held that too many Irish labourers were being sent out to
Australia, and that Scottish Highlanders would be more likely to ‘furnish the
description of families most urgently required in New South Wales’.
In March 1837 the first ship sailed with a full complement of
emigrants from Scotland under the government-organized bounty system, as
distinct from the shipping out of bounty emigrants by private individuals under
licence. This was the John
Barry, which sailed from
Dundee with 323 emigrants selected by Dr. Boyter, mostly from the Lowlands, and
including in their number many craftsmen, especially masons and joiners, and
several engineers, farmers, and shepherds.
In the next three years twenty shiploads were to be dispatched from Scotland under this system, with more than 5,000 emigrants. The strong Highland element in this emigration is indicated by the fact that, of the twenty vessels, twelve sailed from ports in the Highlands and five more from Greenock on the Clyde—a convenient port of embarkation for people from the Highlands.
It can be assumed that the bulk of the passengers in the ships
from the Highlands were crofters, with a few shepherds and very few craftsmen
among them. Some were elderly people who were allowed ‘ship-room’ on payment of
their passages by their friends or their landlords. In the absence of detailed
lists, with ages and occupations, it is difficult to assess the exact
composition of the Highland element.
Fortunately, one detailed list does exist in the Port Phillip Immigration Registers for a vessel which sailed from Greenock, and this, if typical, does give an impression of the system, in that farm labourers, craftsmen, and women domestic servants made up the main categories.
The ship was the David
Clarke, which left Greenock
in June 1839 with 125 people from the Highland counties of Perth, Argyll, and
Inverness, and 94 from the Lowlands. The Highland contingent included 50
children, 16 married women, 10 shepherds, 4 ‘farmers’ (possibly crofters), 11
farm labourers (probably some of them had been crofters), 17 craftsmen, who
mainly came from the Highland ‘fringe’ area of Perthshire, with its country
towns, a ‘farm overseer’ from Argyll, and a ploughman.
The Lowlanders in this shipload were probably typical of those sent out under the government system, in that farm labourers, craftsmen, and women domestic servants made up the main categories. The total of ninety-four was made up as follows:-
17 maidservants, 22 married women, 13 farm labourers, 19 children,
4 dairymaids, 2 storekeepers, 1 carpenter, 3 menservants, 2 blacksmiths, 2
tailors, 1 joiner, 2 needlewomen, 2 shepherds, 1 farm overseers and 3
cartwrights.
The David Clarke list is, in fact, very similar to
the lists of many of the vessels sent out by private operators under the
colonial system in the next few years. There are the same features marking the
Scottish emigration under both systems—the presence of a considerable Highland
element, of a large number of shepherds and craftsmen and artisans.
In 1838 no fewer than nine vessels sailed, eight of them from
Greenock or from far northern ports, with a total of 2,461 emigrants in
government ships, making this the peak year of assisted emigration from
Scotland. Eliot, in his Agent-General’s report of April 1838, envisaged the
dispatch of twelve government ships from Britain in 1839—four from each of the
three kingdoms—but five ships were, in fact, obtained for Scotland, and that
year saw the departure of 1,178 assisted emigrants in government ships.
In 1840 the system of government ships was abolished, together
with the British Government system of bounty emigration (as opposed to the
colonial bounty system). Eliot’s office as Agent-General for Emigration was
also abolished, and its functions transferred to the Colonial Land and
Emigration Commission, but the flow from Scotland continued under the new
system, by which the selection of the emigrants was made by private operators.
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It had occurred to Dr Lang that it would be desirable to keep the Highland emigrants together if possible, instead of dispersing them as labourers throughout the colony, as in the former case they might have schools and churches suitable to their own wishes.
It was determined to try an experiment to that effect, and accordingly the twenty-three families in question, who had landed from the Midlothian in December 1837, were transferred to Dunmore on Hunter's River, an extensive and nourishing district to the north of Sydney, belonging to Mr Andrew Lang, the government previously agreeing to give them two months' provisions.
Dr Lang observed their progress for a year, but was then obliged to revisit his native country, where, in September 1839, he wrote the letter which we are about to quote. "My brother's estate," says he, "consists of about 2500 acres of land, of which about 1500 are alluvial land, formed by successive depositions from the river, of the first quality, and of the utmost fertility; and the portion of it on which the Highlanders are settled is within two miles of the village of Morpeth or Greenhills, from which there is a daily communication by steam-boats with the town of Sydney, which, of course, affords an eligible market for farm-produce of every description.
Alluvial land, when clear of timber, in that neighbourhood, has been let at as high a rental as 30s. per acre; but the terms on which the Highlanders were settled were as follows :—Small farms, of from twelve to thirty acres, were measured off to each family—partly clear land and partly wooded. Leases of these farms were granted them for seven years, at the rate of L.1 per acre of yearly rental for the clear land—the wooded land being rent free for four years. Rations, or provisions, with implements of agricultural labour, were also advanced to them on credit, till they should be enabled to pay for them from the produce of their land.
 In 1839 the David Clark was chartered to bring the first bounty immigrants from Scotland to Melbourne. She left Greenock on 13th June 1839 to the tune of Lochaber No More piped by John Arthur and arrived Rio de Janeiro 15th August, 1839, stayed approximately ten days, then sailed direct for Port Phillip arriving 27th October, 1839. She departed Port Phillip for Bombay on 19th December, 1839.
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After the initial land sale to McConnel, the next major sale of land in the Bald Hills Region began in 1854 and continued through 1855. The Sandgate area was referred to as Sandgate, and anything adjoining was North Brisbane, later changed to Kedron. Lots in Bald Hills were recorded as Parish of Nundah.
|
Classified Advertising
The Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1846 - 1861)Saturday 27 December 1856 p 3 Advertising ... County of Stanley, Parish of Nundah, between Cabbage-tree Creek and the Pine River ... . £1 3G. 40 0 O do ....£L¿ SrncrAi COUI.TRY LOTS ; County of Sinnlos, Parish of Nundah.'
This list of the owners of the lands is from the Queensland Archives, it has been determined that there are inconsistencies with the lot numbers on the maps, and on the transcriptions of the archived data.
In particular William Carseldine, from the original land grant, his lot number is identified as lot 36,
in the transcription it is shown as Lot 33.
The land grant image will be included in the Chapter regarding William Carseldine.
This list in alphabetical order of the settler
BRADFIELD John
|
8 Sep 1858
|
19
|
BRIDGES John
|
9 Feb 1857
|
25
|
BRIDGES John
|
9 Feb 1857
|
29
|
BRIDGES John
|
9 Feb 1857
|
30
|
CARSELDINE William
|
6 Apr 1858
|
33
|
DUNCAN Charles
|
29 Jun 1857
|
32
|
DUNCAN Charles
|
29 Jun 1857
|
40
|
DUNCAN David Blackader
|
29 Jun 1857
|
39
|
GILBERT William
|
8 Sep 1858
|
23
|
GILBERT William
|
8 Sep 1858
|
24
|
GRAY Janet
|
10 May 1858
|
27
|
GRAY Thomas
|
22 Jan 1857
|
26
|
HARRISON Ralph
|
9 Feb 1857
|
38
|
JEAYS Joshua
|
14 Dec 1858
|
18
|
JEAYS Joshua
|
19 Mar 1859
|
30
|
JEAYS Joshua
|
19 Mar 1859
|
31
|
JEAYS Joshua
|
19 Mar 1859
|
32
|
LONDON William John
|
14 Dec 1858
|
39
|
LONDON William John
|
14 Dec 1858
|
40
|
LONDON William John
|
14 Dec 1858
|
41
|
LONDON William John
|
14 Dec 1858
|
42
|
LONDON William John
|
22 Jan 1857
|
21
|
LONDON William John
|
23 Aug 1858
|
18
|
LONDON William John
|
3 Aug 1857
|
14
|
LONDON William John
|
3 Aug 1857
|
15
|
LONDON William John
|
3 Aug 1857
|
20
|
LONDON William John
|
3 Aug 1857
|
24
|
LONDON William John
|
3 Aug 1857
|
37
|
O REILLY Henry
|
8 Sep 1857
|
16
|
STEWART John
|
9 Feb 1857
|
31
|
WARD William John
|
19 Oct 1857
|
9
|
WARD William John
|
27 Feb 1857
|
3
|
WARD William John
|
27 Feb 1857
|
7
|
WARD William John
|
27 Feb 1857
|
8
|
WARD William John
|
29 Jun 1857
|
4
|
WESTAWAY John
|
8 Sep 1858
|
20
|
WESTAWAY John
|
8 Sep 1858
|
22
|
And in Lot No
| WARD William John | 27 Feb 1857 | 3 |
| WARD William John | 29 Jun 1857 | 4 |
| WARD William John | 27 Feb 1857 | 7 |
| WARD William John | 27 Feb 1857 | 8 |
| WARD William John | 19 Oct 1857 | 9 |
| LONDON William John | 3 Aug 1857 | 14 |
| LONDON William John | 3 Aug 1857 | 15 |
| O REILLY Henry | 8 Sep 1857 | 16 |
| JEAYS Joshua | 14 Dec 1858 | 18 |
| LONDON William John | 23 Aug 1858 | 18 |
| BRADFIELD John | 8 Sep 1858 | 19 |
| LONDON William John | 3 Aug 1857 | 20 |
| WESTAWAY John | 8 Sep 1858 | 20 |
| LONDON William John | 22 Jan 1857 | 21 |
| WESTAWAY John | 8 Sep 1858 | 22 |
| GILBERT William | 8 Sep 1858 | 23 |
| GILBERT William | 8 Sep 1858 | 24 |
| LONDON William John | 3 Aug 1857 | 24 |
| BRIDGES John | 9 Feb 1857 | 25 |
| GRAY Thomas | 22 Jan 1857 | 26 |
| GRAY Janet | 10 May 1858 | 27 |
| BRIDGES John | 9 Feb 1857 | 29 |
| BRIDGES John | 9 Feb 1857 | 30 |
| JEAYS Joshua | 19 Mar 1859 | 30 |
| JEAYS Joshua | 19 Mar 1859 | 31 |
| STEWART John | 9 Feb 1857 | 31 |
| DUNCAN Charles | 29 Jun 1857 | 32 |
| JEAYS Joshua | 19 Mar 1859 | 32 |
| CARSELDINE William | 6 Apr 1858 | 33 |
| LONDON William John | 3 Aug 1857 | 37 |
| HARRISON Ralph | 9 Feb 1857 | 38 |
| DUNCAN David Blackader | 29 Jun 1857 | 39 |
| LONDON William John | 14 Dec 1858 | 39 |
| DUNCAN Charles | 29 Jun 1857 | 40 |
| LONDON William John | 14 Dec 1858 | 40 |
| LONDON William John | 14 Dec 1858 | 41 |
| LONDON William John | 14 Dec 1858 | 42 |
William John Loudon purchased a huge number of blocks, followed by William John Ward and Joshua Jeays, The dates of purchase and lot numbers are recorded.
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