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website contains the text of 34 letters written to Norfolk emigrants
Edward and Elizabeth Broughton in Canada by various relations
in Norfolk during the years 1837 to approximately 1890. Edward
was one of the known eleven children of John Broughton born
in Plumstead in 1768, and Ann Bugg born in Hinton, Suffolk in
1778. Edward, born in 1805, married a Frettenham woman called
Elizabeth Remmington and they emigrated to the Toronto area
of Canada in 1836. The letters were written over a period of
over 50 years by various members of the Broughton and Remmington
families.
Norfolk
emigration in the 1830s
Life
for most people in rural communites in the 19th
century was extremely hard. There are several comments in
the letters on the poverty and hardship felt by many, with
able-bodied men and women forced into workhouses through lack
of work. The gap between landowners and agricultural workers
was large and growing, with landowners putting pressure on
the government to make political changes that directly benefited
them. Farm labourers had their wages cut at the same time
as farm owners were increasingly using new agricultural machinery.
This contributed to the demise of labour intensive farming
and to the rise of the union house and the relieving officer.
Kent
and Sussex saw civil unrest culminating in the 'Swing riots'
of 1830. Threatening letters, signed 'Captain Swing' and obviously
referring to hanging, were sent to landowners and farmers.
On 18th November 1830, the Swing Riots in Sussex came to a
head in Horsham. About 1,000 farm labourers assembled and
marched to their local church, where they demanded that the
magistrates sign an agreement meeting their new wage demands
of 2s 6d (about 25p in today's money) a day. But the magistrates'
reaction was swift. The labourers were immediately arrested
and imprisoned.
One
of the outcomes of this unrest was the establishment, in 1832,
of the 'Petworth Emigration Committee'. On 1st
March 1832, the Reverend Thomas Sockett, the vicar of Petworth,
corn chandler William Knight, auctioneer Thomas Chrippes and
George Wyndham, the Earl of Egremont, established the committee.
The initial purpose of the committee was to provide financially
assisted emigration to Upper Canada for the poor farm labourers
on the Earl of Egremont's Petworth estate. This idea was to
attract many hundreds from neighbouring parishes and from
all over the south and east of England.
Although
the committee's aim was to relieve some of the pitiable conditions
in which agricultural and other rural workers found themselves
in, its intentions were not entirely philanthropic. All landowners
had to pay a Poor Rate for their workers within their respective
parishes and, although workers were becoming increasingly
redundant through labour saving agricultural practices, the
Poor Rate still applied. With the Petworth Emigration Committee
paying for free passage to Canada, landowners were being relieved
of these financial commitments. Ships were outfitted to carry
the emigrants to Canada - principally to the Toronto area
- and arrangements were made with the Canadian authorities
to settle the new population on to the land. The Petworth
Emigration, as it was known, was not confined to Petworth
but included people from Hampshire, Norfolk and Ireland.
However,
the situation for those who stayed in England became worse
with the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834. The
Act was based on the premise that government financial assistance
created a culture of dependence - a not dissimilar view from
modern Conservative governments - and rejected the original
philanthropy of the Petworth Emigration Committee.
The
Poor Law Amendment Act - 1834:
The
Act contained the following principles:
• No
able-bodied person was to receive money or other help
from the Poor Law authorities except in a workhouse.
• Conditions
in workhouses were to be made very harsh to discourage
people from wanting to receive help.
• Workhouses
were to be built in every parish or, if parishes were
too small, in unions of parishes.
• Ratepayers
in each parish or union had to elect a Board of Guardians
to supervise the workhouse, to collect the Poor Rate and
to send reports to the Central Poor Law Commission.
• The
three man Central Poor Law Commission would be appointed
by the government and would be responsible for supervising
the Amendment Act throughout the country.
The
trip to Canada
The
year 1836 - the same year that Edward and Elizabeth Broughton
left for Toronto - saw a massive amount of emigration from
the county of Norfolk. In that year alone, the Norwich
Mercury had almost two dozen advertisements for ships
bound for Canada, New York, New Zealand and Australia. Here
is one example:
Norwich
Mercury, 1836
Yarmouth
26th January
Notice
to Emigrants for North America
The
fine fast sailing ship BALTIC burthen 400 tons
, J.H. Newson, master, will again sail for Quebec the
early part of April next with passengers. This ship will
be fitted in the same commodious manner as heretofore,
and the passengers will be received on board with their
luggage at the Quay by which the inconvenience, expense
and loss attending their embarkation in the Roads will
be prevented. For particulars apply at the Counting House
of Messrs Isaac PRESTON & Son or to the captain on
board.
Many
of these ships were fully booked almost as soon as the advertisements
appeared. On arrival at their destination, families were allocated
blocks of land known as 'Lots', with several lots forming
a 'Concession'. Concessions were divided up by roads running
east-west and north-south, and lot sizes varied from 100 to
1,000 acres. The lot and concession numbers for the Broughtons
can be seen in many of the letter headings. I have no figures
for the total emigration from Norfolk in 1836, but over 30,000
people left during the Petworth Emigration of 1834, which
gives some idea of the number of people leaving the country.
Three of the children of John Broughton (1768) and Ann Bugg
actually emigrated in the 1830s - Edward, George and Sarah
(who married Robert Riseborough). Other Broughton lines, not
mentioned in this history, emigrated to Australia.
Life
in parts of the new land would have been turbulent, with immigrants
pouring in from England, Scotland, Ireland and Asia. Reports
of unrest and riots filtered back to the families in Norfolk,
and the earlier letters reflect this state of affairs. There
is a reference in one letter to how America frightens 'many
back to England and their mothers'. However, for those that
stuck to it and managed to make a profit from farming after
paying the leases on land and shelter, there came the chance
to purchase their own property outright. This opportunity
came to, and was taken up by Edward Broughton, who seems to
have been an able and hard working man. He prospered and,
after setting up initially in the township of Chinguacousy
near Toronto, he eventually settled in the town of Blenheim.
Both places are thriving communities to this day.
Norfolk
from 1836 to 1890
Life
in Norfolk, for those who remained, contained its usual uncertainties.
Most people in the Broughton and Remmington families were
rural workers such as blacksmiths and agricultural labourers,
or had domestic occupations such as dressmaking or being in
service. There are many comments in the letters on the harshness
of the parish 'unions' and the workhouses, where able-bodied
men were separated from their wives and children. There are
also comments on the harshness of the winters, on farming
conditions and on the price of food. One letter reveals a
foot-and-mouth 'eppidimich' lasting for two years. Another
describes how the winter snow and water covered the turnip
crop and prevented it from being lifted. Yet another mentions
having not eaten an apple in two years!
However,
the families survived and many lived to a great old age. Ann
Bugg, who married John Broughton and who was the mother of
Edward, John, William and George, was born in 1778 and died
in 1869. Others lived on into their sixties and seventies
- good ages for the time. Many of them took a tumble, either
falling downstairs or breaking a limb, and yet appear to have
mended and lived a normal life. Mary Remmington (1809) describes
her husband Joseph Burton as fit and well in his seventies,
able to walk good distances with his dogs.
One
fact is clear when reading the letters over the time span
of sixty years: the younger generation seem to have been more
literate in their writing than the older - even if what they
had to say was not often as interesting. For me, the older
letters, for all their vagaries of spelling and punctuation,
are more compelling. Many letters indicate a sense of loss
and a knowledge that the participants, though they will not
meet again on earth, will certainly meet in heaven.
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