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May 11 , 2002
By the 1830s, a rising population combined
with agricultural and trade depression had caused a
surplus of labour which could not be absorbed, despite
many well-intentioned employment schemes.
Since 1597 each parish had been a mini-welfare state
providing money, house rent, tools, clothing, shoes,
medical and midwifery care, funeral and burial expenses.
Now parish ratepayers, those owning or renting property
worth more than £10 a year, were demanding a solution
to the crippling cost of escalating poor relief.
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| In the nineteenth century thousands of people
left East Anglia for a new life in Canada. Many
of them sailed from places like Yarmouth, pictured
above, and King’s Lynn. What became of them
and their descendants has been a mystery for a long
time but now, thanks to family historians on the
other side of the Atlantic, the picture is becoming
clearer. |
Migration to the manufacturing towns of
Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire offered only a temporary
solution, because those made redundant by a trade depression
would be removed under the settlement laws back to their
parish. Emigration to the colonies, mainly Canada but
later to Australia, was likely to be permanent.
Since 1828, more than 69,000 people had
emigrated from the British Isles to the United States
and more than 96,000 to Canada.
Enterprising young men and families quickly heeded advice
to “sail away Peter, sail away Paul”. Encouraged
by shipping advertisements in local newspapers they
used their savings or, like Brett Athow of Little Fransham
and King’s Lynn, were helped by friends to book
their passage. For those without funds, parish ratepayers
could empower the parish vestry committee to raise a
loan, to be repaid from the poor’s rate.
Churchwardens and overseers were busy contracting with
the ship-owners, buying stores and utensils for the
emigrants’ journey, arranging an escort and transport
to the port, providing money for their use on landing
and keeping careful accounts for loans to be repaid.
 An
advertisement “TO EMIGRANTS FOR QUEBEC” in
the Norfolk Chronicle in April 1832 announced that the
Miser, a fine fast sailing ship of 200 tons would sail
from Yarmouth for Quebec in May, under Thomas Spurgeon,
master. It offered superior accommodation for steerage
and cabin passengers and the reassurance of an experienced
surgeon on board.
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