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Note: Catherine Young was one of a group of individuals from Ireland who came to Canada in 1823. The story of their choice of and journey to Canada is summarized below. Catherine arrived in Canada ````` I assume the Catherine was accompanied by her parents and brothers and sisters. [The following note derives from Tree #1183, Volume 16, World Family Tree.]
PETER ROBINSON'S SETTLERS ----- 1823 1825, by Carol Bennett
THE BACKGROUND
The government-sponsored emigration scheme whereby impoverished Irish families were transported to Upper Canada under the leadership of Peter Robinson was an experimental venture. The terrible famine years, which would greatly reduce the population of Ireland, either by death or by emigration, were still a quarter of a century in the future.
However, the economic situation in the early 1820s was grim. The Napoleonic wars had only recently come to a close, and as the war industry came to a halt, the price of grain fell sharply throughout Britain, of which Ireland at that time was a part. In addition to this there was a decline in world markets for goods which Ireland produced, for American entrepreneurs, newly freed from their own war with the British, were stepping in with cheaper goods. Their cotton began to replace Irish linen, a factor which put many weavers out of work, and they also cut into the market with salt beef, another staple. While the city of Cork had been an important trading centre in the eighteenth century, its wealth was now declining. In 1821, the potato crop failed. The cause was a disease known as curl, or dry rot, quite different from the fungus which led to widespread famine in the 1840s. This 1821 failure caused great distress among the poor, who subsisted mainly on a diet of potatoes and buttermilk. Observers who travelled in Ireland at that time have given us a graphic account of the conditions which resulted. Many people, unable to find work and thus deprived of the means of livelihood, starved to death, with whole families huddled together in primitive, earth-floored dwellings which contained little or no furniture.
The British government saw that emigration was one way to relieve the distress of the 1820s. They decided to try an experiment in which they would underwrite the cost of sending carefully selected families from the south of Ireland to Upper Canada, giving them free land (subject to the successful completion of settlement duties) and supplying them with tools and a year's supply of rations. The idea of placing in Canada large groups of families, loyal to the Crown, would also give the government many more members for the militia which had been formed in Upper Canada following the war of 1812-14. Such men could quickly be called to service if the Americans should attempt to invade Canada, whereas it would take some months to import British regular soldiers in the event of trouble.
As we shall see in another chapter, Peter Robinson, a Canadian, was sent to Ireland to promote the scheme, and it was his duty to line up volunteers, who had to be induced to leave for the New World within a matter of weeks. Although only a limited number could be accommodated, many thousands applied. This was in spite of the fact that Robinson was plied with anxious questions concerning the presence of bears, wolves and marauding Indians.
Economic problems were not the only reason that so many people were willing to try their luck in a strange country. To understand this point, we have to know something about social conditions at that time. The vast majority of the poorer people in the south of Ireland were Roman Catholic. For many years, people of this faith had been severely restricted by the Penal Laws which had been introduced after the war in the latter part of the seventeenth century in which the army of William of Orange had defeated that of King James II. This war, which included the famous battles of Aughrim and the Boyne, had been fought between the two kings for religious reasons. While it is over-simplifying matters to say that the English wanted a Protestant ruler rather than a Catholic regime, it is true that William, the Princess Mary's Protestant husband, was invited to drive out his Catholic father-in-law and to become co-ruler of England and her possessions. After the defeat of the Jacobite forces in Ireland, most of the Catholic nobility of Ireland were permitted to leave the country. These defeated men, who had fought for King James, were given refuge in France, where many served in the King's army there. They have gone down into history under yet another nickname, "the wild geese." The British parliament then devised a plan which would limit the power of those Catholic aristocrats who remained, and which would severely limit the liyes of other classes of Catholic society.
These Penal Laws were designed to eliminate the threat of a Stuart revival, although this threat fell away to nothing after the defeat of Charles Stuart (the Young Pretender) in Scotland in 1745. After that time, some of the laws were allowed to lapse. When these harsh laws were first enacted, the wealthier Catholics found that their lands were confiscated unless they took an Oath of Allegiance to the Crown, a pledge which included the forsaking of some of their religious beliefs. At that time, some families became Protestant in order to save their estates. Smaller land owners were forced to follow the ancient system of gavelkind, a system of land inheritance in which a farm had to be equally divided among all the heirs on the death of an owner. After a few generations the plots of land became quite small and it was impossible to support a family on them. If, on the death of his father, the eldest son became Protestant, he could inherit the land and his siblings would get nothing. Catholics could not buy land, and when they rented it they could not obtain a lease longer than 31 years. Inter-faith marriage was discouraged, and if a Protestant land owner married a Catholic girl, he forfeited all lands and titles.
Among the Peter Robinson settlers there were a number of couples who ran away to this country because their families disapproved of a mixed marriage, and this may have been no, simply because of bigotry, as one might expect, but because of the Penal Laws which were still being enacted within living memory. It was difficult for those outside the Church of Ireland to practice their religion. Catholics, Presbyterians and other nonconformists had to pay tithes to the established Church. All Catholic priests had to register with the government, and, although they were permitted to minister to their flock, no new priests were to be ordained. The bishops were forbidden to remain in Ireland for this reason. At various periods, the Mass was proscribed.
The result was that the Catholic Church went underground. Mass was conducted in barns or in de-roofed churches, or in the open air. Sentries were posted on these occasions in case of discovery. Priests were trained and ordained on the continent and smuggled into Ireland, where they risked their lives to keep the faith alive.
In that period, no Catholic was allowed to run a school, and neither was he allowed to send his children out of the country for an education. Not wanting to send their children to state schools, where they would be open to Protestant dogma, thousands of parents sent them to the hedge schools, secret institutions where Latin and Greek might be taught in the shadow of a hedge, or in private homes. Some of the Peter Robinson settlers were products of the hedge schools, and we can see from some of their surviving letters and petitions just how literate they were. Those settlers might have been poor in worldly goods, but they were well educated.
The hedge schools continued in rural parts of southern Ireland well beyond the 1820s and so many of those who came to Upper Canada as children in 1823 and 1825 may well have been the product of that system; their parents almost certainly were. Other laws forebade Catholics to vote in elections, to enter the legal profession, to hold a commission in the armed forces or to hold any government office. That is to say, these professions were open to anyone who would take the Oath of Allegiance, but since that included the denial of those doctrines most essential to the Catholic Church, no devout person could consider it.
By the 1790s, some of these laws had been relaxed to the extent where Catholics could buy land and practice their religion, and those who could meet a property qualification could vote. The seminary at Maynootli was founded in 1795, which meant that young men could train for the priesthood without fear of reprisal. However, Catholic emancipation would not come until 1829, and many ambitious young men were prevented from earning a living as they chose. Furthermore, no Catholic could take a seat in Parliament.
Among those who came to Upper Canada with the Peter Robinson settlers in 1823, the average age of the heads of families (and I am excluding the young bachelors) was 35 years. This means that a number of those men had been born in the 1770s and 1780s and had either experienced the effects of the Penal Laws at first hand, or had heard about them from their parents. Change is always slow to come in. rural areas, and country folk have long memories. The idea of living under a system with more relaxed rules may have appealed to such men, and so played a role in their decision to come to Upper Canada.
The Province was under the thumb of the Family Compact, and although the Penal Laws did not extend to Canada, the established church did have the upper hand in terms of privilege. One wonders if this was made plain to the prospective settlers at the time. It would be wrong, too, to assume that the Penal Laws were the main reason that the people wished to leave Ireland. Many of the restrictions affected only the middle class, not the mass of poor people who were the majority in the Catholic Church at that time. They were more concerned with survival than in getting the vote, and they were too poor to hope to make professional men out of their sons. There was a desperate competition for land, and the small acreages,combined with declining markets and failing crops, meant that small farmers could no longer affordto employ labourers, and the labourers could no longer support their families.
When we examine the list of occupations followed by the Peter Robinson settlers, we find that many are described as "reduced farmers," a title which could well be applied to some Canadians today. It is hard to imagine who felt the more desperate, the unemployed labourer who was used to a sub-marginal existence, or the respectable farmers who had been reduced to penury through no fault of their own. Some descendants of the Peter Robinson settlers feel embarrassed because their ancestors were "poor" or "impoverished." I hasten to point out that these were, for the greater part, hard-working people who had been overtaken by circumstances outside their control. There is no suggestion that they were penniless as a result of their own mismanagement.
Such was the backdrop to the scene when Peter Robinson entered the stage in 1822. Before we go on to other things, it should be pointed out that, reprehensible though the Penal Laws were, we must not view the situation out of context. These laws were passed because the English were afraid that Ireland would be used as a springboard for invasion by supporters of the Stuart cause, arriving from France and mustering an army which would then head across the Irish Sea.
Today, we quite properly view any kind of bigotry with abhorrence, yet it is not so many years since brawls took place in Canada between different factions on March 17 or July 12. This chapter is not meant as an editorial judgement for either side. It is an attempt to portray life as it was when the Peter Robinson settlers came to Canada. Similarly, we must look at the tragic living conditions of Ireland's poor in context. While their problems were compounded by the complexities of the Penal era, we must remind ourselves that the English, Welsh and Scots were also suffering economic deprivation following the Napoleonic wars, as were the citizens of other European countries.
The important thing from the point of view of this book is that British politicians of the 1820s were aware of the distress in Ireland and knew that it must be alleviated. They decided to conduct an experimental emigration project, with the idea that it might be expanded later. This did not happen, partly because people began to emigrate under their own steam, but their findings present an excellent Opportunity for the historian to take a closer look at the life and times of settlement in Upper Canada in the 1820s. Everything was well documented, and the settlers received a number of follow-up visits from government officials so that their progress could be checked.
THE PLAN TAKES SHAPE
As we have said, the British government had decided by 1822 to undertake an experimental emigration scheme, designed to alleviate distress in the south of Ireland. Ireland had been part of Britain since the Act of Union of 1800. This move was altruistic in part, but it may also have been thought of in self defence. After all, it was not many years since the French Revolution had taken place and Ireland was a likely spot for a similar outbreak. A crime wave had struck the country, particularly in the urban areas; overcrowded conditions, hunger and unemployment are not conducive to good behaviour. The upright members of the population were sometimes preyed upon by the desperate. It was believed that if people were removed from these conditions and given the means to support themselves, everyone would be better off, and the difficult element might settle down. Accordingly, Robert Wilmot Horton, who was Britain's Under Secretary of Colonial Affairs, contacted Sir John Beverley Robinson, who was Attorney General for Upper Canada, and directed him to find a suitable man who could oversee the experiment. This had to be a Canadian because he was to accompany them into the bue.h and assist them in getting settled.
Sir John approached his elder brother, the Hon. Peter Robinson, who at that time was MIIP for York. The pair travelled to England to work out the details with the government officials there, and by the spring of 1823 they were ready to put the plan into action. Peter left Liverpool in May of that year, arriving in Fermoy, County Cork, on the twentieth.
"Being a stranger in Ireland," he later wrote to Wilmot Horton, "I was ordered to art under the office of Lord Ennismore and the magistrates and in order to receive the full benefit of their assistance I made Fermoy my principal place of residence." He was happy to find that the scheme met with the "cordial approbation" of the Irish authorities, noting that the clergy, members of parliament and Lords Ennismore, Kingston and Doneraile were all ready to give any help that they could.
On the second of June, Robinson received authorization from England to proceed with recruitment, and by this time his Irish contacts had persuaded him to take as many people as possible from County Cork, which was in "a very distressed state." A memorandum was printed and several hundred copies were distributed in the towns of Fermoy, Mitcholstown, Doneraile, Charleville, Kanturk, Mallow and Newmarket,and in the villages within that circle. The nobleman and magistrates consented to act as agents, receiving the applications of the would-be emigrants, the idea being that all applicants would be interviewed by these men and a final selection made, based on their recommendations. Only decent citizens, who showed a likelihood of being able to take proper advantage of the opportunity, were supposed to be selected. There is evidence, however, that the officials slipped in a few troublemakers, seizing the chance to get rid of them.
The memorandum set down the terms under which the settlers were to be taken from Ireland and located in Upper Canada. Nobody above the age of 45 years could be taken out at public expense, or given land, "unless under particular circumstances." Such circumstances might include a widowed mother who wished to accompany her grown children, for example. Every male between the ages of 18 and 45 years would receive a ticket for seventy acres of land, in return for which he was expected to perform "duties of settlement and cultivation" on his farm. When these were completed he could obtain a patent to the land for a small fee,and he would also become eligible to purchase an adjoining thirty acres for the sum of ten pounds sterling , if he could do so within a ten year period. As long as the land remained Crown property, the settler had to pay an annual rent of two pence, but this would not take effect until 1828.
At this time, not everyone could read, and not everyone was able to view a copy of the memorandum, so Robinson toured the area, speaking to as many people as possible. Religious differences seemed to be set aside in this effort to relieve human suffering, and Robinson noted that "the whole business was conducted in the true spirit of conciliation, for in every town or village from which emigrants might be expected I called upon the Roman Catholic priest as well as the more respectable inhabitants, to afford them the opportunity of asking any questions they chose to put." "Several priests entered into the matter with much zeal and one of them promised to read the memorandum from the pulpit and to explain to his parishioners the great advantages to themselves which must accrue from emigrating in such liberal conditions."
Robinson'.s family was firmly allied with the Family Compact in Canada, and "I had been frequently told that much opposition might be expected from the Roman Catholic priests," he wrote, "as the plan if successful would lessen their congregations and circumscribe their influence but so far was this from being the case that in many parishes which I visited I found them on the best of terms with the Protestant clergymen, and instead of giving unfavourable impressions of the plan they most liberally gave it their support."
Naturally, the people had many fears and questions to put to Robinson, and he made sure that answers were provided. "I made myself accessible to all people, and entered patiently into their fears and feelings, answering their enquiries and affording them as true a description of the country as I was capable of giving. On these occasions it was that I found the benefit of being well acquainted with Upper Canada, the place of their destination."
He was able to describe the hazards of the overland journey once Upper Canada was reached, and he could talk knowledgeably of farming methods over here. He "dissipated their apprehensions concerning wild beasts and the danger of being lost in the woods."
Many people wished to know whether friends and relatives might join them at a later date, and if they,too, would receive land grants. Robinson replied honestly, saying that he could not say what the government might decide to do in the future, but that in any case they could probably travel out at their own expense, for "there was room enough in Upper Canada for more than could ever come from Ireland."
The people must have liked his answers for the applications soon exceeded fifty thousand. Officials were then given the difficult task of whittling down the number of candidates to a mere five hundred, that is, to one per cent of the total. This led to some "difference of opinion among many intelligent persons... with regard to the description of persons that ought to be received."
Some believed that "a few respectable persons" should be included as an example to the rest, while the scheme should be mainly for the relief of the poor. Others pointed out that taking those who were better off was not giving the experiment a fair trial. The plan was to see if paupers might do well in new surroundings; those with a little capital could afford to take themselves off to Canada. Furthermore, the government might drop the idea of assisted emigration if the system was abused.
The final concensus was that they should go along with the government plan to make "a fair experiment of an emigration confined to paupers," based on the ideal that the scheme was "calculated to promote the permanent comfort and happiness of the persons sent out."
Robinson then decided to confine himself strictly to the selection of persons who had no capital whatsoever, and who might properly be called paupers, satisfied that if such succeeded in Canada, persons disposed to emigrate having some property would be sufficiently encouraged, since they would have the fullest evidence before them that industry and prudence without their advantage would in time ensure success." He also decided not to look too closely into the past conduct of the applicants, as he believed that a change of circumstances would cause malcontents to turn over a new leaf, "removed from the influence of the turbulent, the selfish and the designing." The local noblemen who were assisting him also suggested that if " some of the more fiery spirits could be removed from a troubled district, "those left behind might be induced to live in greater tranquillity."
Once the wheels were set in motion, Robinson distributed embarkation tickets in a manner that was strangely reminiscent of modern airlines. "I had distributed six hundred tickets," he noted, "a greater number than I could have taken out, but I acted in the presumption that some would keep back from sickness or imaginary fears and apprehensions, on the advice of friends. The event proved that I was right, for on the first of July four hundred and sixty were embarked."
Note that the embarkation date was less than one month from the day that Robinson had received the go-ahead from England. It was probably only two or three weeks since some of the emigrants had first heard of the scheme. This called for a hasty decision on the part of those who were to leave home and family. Small wonder that such a large number had second thoughts! Those who did go may have suffered even more. In many cases settlers went out leaving behind wives, parents or children, planning to send for them when they had become established in the new country.
This may have indicated prudence. "I'll go out first and take a look around. There's no point in uprooting us all immediately." "Tickets are hard to get with so many folk applying. I'll have a better chance to get a passage than ten of us would. They won't turn you down next time if I'm already out there." Prudence aside, it must have been hard on those who stayed behind, wondering if they would ever see their loved ones again. In many cases they did not. There was a high mortality rate among the settlers, who died from accident or disease. This was not unusual in the 1820s,when there were many more fatal diseases than we have today. Those who stayed at home were in just as much danger of dying young. Robinson himself marvelled at the fact that the plan had been carried out so quickly. "Thus in rather less than a month's time from the time of issuing the proposals the emigrants were on board and the ships ready to sail, such was the promptness of government in making arrangements, and the active exertions of the magistrates and nobility in enabling me to select the requisite number. For their kindness in thus forwarding the object of my journey to Ireland as well as their attentions to myself I feel exceedingly grateful."
To the 460 persons who arrived on the dock at Cork, Roblnson was able to add another 108 the next day from among the waiting hopeful,whose applications had been previously refused. One can imagine the stress under which those families prepared to leave,having been on "standby" as we would say today. A total of 568 people were placed on board two ships, the Hebe and the Stakesby, English vessels of about 500 tons, which had been sent from London for the purpose of transporting the settlers to Quebec. The travellers were well looked after, compared with the usual shipboard conditions of that era, and they were certainly much better off than those who were later to leave Ireland in the famine days of the 1840s, when the term "coffin ship" was a grim reality.
The two ships were well provisioned with food, much better than the subsistence diet which the majority of these people had known at home, and there was a ship's surgeon on each vessel, who would not only care for the people aboard, but who would also escort them to Upper Canada.
Ironically enough, the passengers had complaints about the food. Robinson wrote in his letters that "the rations were abundant and comfortable. The men were allowed cocoa for breakfast and nearly half a pint of spirits, which was perhaps not too much. The women and children were allowed tea and sugar... it is maybe worth remarking, as it is so characteristic of the fondness of the Irish people for potatoes, that the men preferred them to the cocoa, which they refused for several days to take till they saw the officers of the ship repeatedly breakfasting upon it. The children during sickness called repeatedly for potatoes, refusing arrowroot or any other aliment more congenial to their situation, and nothing could prevail on man, woman or child to eat plum pudding, which, as is usual on shipboard, was part of Sunday's dinner. Few of them would eat the best English cheese and when it was served out as part of their ration it was commonly thrown overboard."
This seems strange to us. Surely people who had been near to starvation would be glad to get anything edible, particularly if it was free! This must be taken in context, however. The poorer people in Ireland at that time were used to a diet which consisted almost exclusively of potatoes and buttermilk, other items of produce being earmarked for sale in order to pay the rent. It has been suggested by sociologists that this potato-milk diet was "almost perfect," and it has been pointed out that the health and development of the Irish was vastly improved, following the introduction of the potato to Ireland in Elizabethan times. A theory has also been put forward that this diet is a possible explanation of the population explosion which began late in the eighteenth century there. Anyway, the Peter Robinson settlers had to learn to develop a taste for such delicacies as cheese, cocoa and plum pudding! (When the author of this book first came to Canada from the old country, she had trouble coping with two new taste sensations, weiners and corn on the cob. The latter, which was known in Britain as maize, was then fed only to livestock. Corn on the cob has since become a delicacy over there.)
The ships arrived safely at Quebec after a voyage of eight weeks, the Hebe getting in on August 31,1823 and the Stakesby on the second of September. Robinson recorded that the voyage had been uneventful, "nothing happened of importance." The fact that nine people had died in the interim was taken as a matter for congratulation because the number was so small; this was attributed to good management.
"One woman and eight children died in the passage, and those from smallpox, which had unfortunately got into both ships, and not from any cause that could be attributed to their change of circumstances or situation." These unfortunates included Bridget Ahern and her three-month-old baby,jane, who died within a week of each other, leaving behind a 28 year-old husband and a three -year-old boy. Others, who survived the Atlantic crossing, were probably unfit to face the journey to Upper Canada; some died soon after their arrival in the Ottawa Valley.
Several pregnant women gave birth at, or enroute to, their new homes. They at least had medical aid as far as Prescott in the form of the two surgeons, Mr Hamilton and Mr Dixon (In Britain, surgeons were, and still are, referred to as Mr rather than doctor. This also applies to dentists and veterinarians.) Robinson praised the two surgeons, "whose indefatigable attention to the emigrants and kind benevolent treatment cannot be sufficiently praised. Such was their zeal and anxiety for the success of the emigration that they volunteered their services from Quebec to Prescott, a distance of more than three hundred miles, and were of great service in preserving the health of the emigrants while passing up the river in boats, which was the most difficult and tedious part of the journey."
At Quebec City, the settlers were transferred from the ships to steamboats, without setting foot on land. They left on the fourth of September, arriving at Montreal two days later. Here they touched land for the first time in two months, but they were marched to Lachine without delay, a distance of ten miles. They camped there for two days, and then came the adventure which was possibly more frightening than the ocean voyage.
The people were shepherded onto flat bottomed boats, with various male settlers being selected as crew members under the direction of "two Canadians to guide and steer." Few of the Irish had even been in a boat before and the speed of the current was terrifying.
Prescott was reached on September 15, and a commissar
Catherine Young, aged 13, and her family, reached Canada on September 2nd, 1823, on the ship HMS Stakesby.
[Descendants of William Wilson S
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