S'COTHSH EMIG‘RATEON TO 33.175554 NORTH AMERICA, 1815 - 1860 Thesis. {or “10 Dog". 0‘ M. A. MICHIGAN STATE U‘NEVERSETY Edna I. Robertson 1959 TH SSSS II“ 1 22 « mum; mining": gm 1m :11 W m1 1W ‘ I L LIBRARY Michigan State University PLACE ll RETUFIO BOthmwoMMMMywrnoord. TOAVOID FmESMumonorbdonddoduo. DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE Jill 23 1997 MSU I. An Afflnmfivo ActiuVEqual Opportunity Inotfifiion Wanna-9.1 SCOTTISH EMIGRATION TO BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, 4 1815-1860 By Edna I. Robertson A THESIS Submitted to the College of Science and.Arts of Michigan.State University of Agriculture and.Applied Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER.OF.ARTS Department‘of History r .x f I ’ v”!— st-t-’1V‘ Ln _ 1959 I ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to express my sincere appreciation to Professor Alvin C. Gluek, Jr. for his assistance and criticisms in the writing of this thesis. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. SCOTTISH BMIGRATION AND CANADIAN HISTORY . . . . . . . . 1 II. SCOTTISH EMIGRATION: A MOVEMENT FROM THE HIGHLANDS . . 7 III. THE MONEMENT FROM THE HIGHLANDS: ENCLOSURE, EVICTION,ANDE1VTIGRATION.,............. 12 IV. THE MOVEMENT FROM THE HIGHLANDS: CUSTOMS, I CHARACTERISTICS AND CLANNISHNESS . . . . . . . . . . . 20 v. THE SCOTTISH PREFERENCE FOR BRITISH NORTH AMERICA . . . 25 VI. BRITISH NORTH AMERICA: ANEw EMPIRE . . . . . . . . . . 30 VII. BRITISH NORTH AMERICA: A HIGHLAND TRADITION . . . . . . 36 VIII. THE BEGINNINGS OF A HIGHLAND TRADITION . . . . . . . . . L12 IX. IHBSTRENG'IHENINGOFIHETRADITION........... A7 CONCIgUSION D 0 I O O O O 0 O O O O I O O O O 0 I O O O 0 55 BIBI‘ImRAPI-IY O O O O O O O O O O O 0 O O O O O O O O O O 56 CHAPTER I SCOTTISH EMIGRATION AND CANADIAN HISTORY Scottish emigration to British North America between 1815 and 1860 was sizeable very nearLy to the point of spectacular; and it was in several ways significant. It is impOSSIble to assess with any accuracy the number Of Scots . ...—‘._ __.__.. H... __ who emigrated to British North America in thOse years. But a rough es- ,_... timate is possible on the basis Of reports of colonial emigration agents, and these indicate that the number must have at least approached, and possibly exceeded, two hundred thousand; certainlymin the earIyM183Ofs the annual_arrival of Scottish emigrants at the port Of Quebec frequently e§ceeded five thousand.1 This is all the more remarkable in View Of the fact that the population Of Scotland at that time was less than three million and the pOpulation of British North America was, certainly during the first part of this period and possibly during the most part of it, less than one million. The Scots went to Canada in numbers and they went eSpecially to Ontario, to Nova Scotia, and to Cape Breton. But the importance of the migration lies as much in its effects as in its intensity or extent. Its effects were both permanent and pro- found. Its influence is reflected still in Canadian names, both Of places and people. It is reflected, for instance, in the surnames in 1See Report of Alexander C. Buchanan, Emigration Department, Quebec, lBhO, in Correspondence Relative to Emigration to Canada, (London, lBhl), p. 83. 2 Cape Breton and in Pictou: they are almost all Scottish; so that "the MCDonalds and the Macraes, the Macleods, and the MacQueens, the Mac- lagans and.MaCEachans and the Macleans, with a sprinkling of Camerons and Campbells, are so thick, and the first names so repetitive, that many are given sobriquets."2 Their forefathers, or very many of them, crossed from Scotland in the early part of the nineteenth century. And with the forebears of the McDonalds, Macraes, and Macleods, came the founders of Lanark, Perth, Dumfries, and a hundred or so other towns bearing Scottish names. More profoundly, the migration influenced Canadian history and most aspects of Canadian life. Of course their contribution has some- times been overrated, especially in the over—sentimental and eulogistic works devoted to this topic by Scots Canadians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Yet their influence was noted by many of their contemporaries, and often by people of other nationalities. _ Thomas Rolph, immigration agent for Canada, noted that "all the indus- trious Classes have succeeded well in Canada, and none more so than those from.Scotland." They quickly gained control of several Spheres of activity. They dominated the fur trade, becoming prominent in the ranks of the North West Company and among the leaders of the Hudson's Bay 00.; so that W. J. Rattray's Claim that "the great west of British North America was taken possession of by the Scot at an early date" is a preposterous exaggeration but not a downright lie.3 They played an 2Miriam Chapin», Atlantic Canada, (New York, 1956), p. 29. 3W. J. Rattray, The Scot in British North America, (Toronto, 1883), IV, 997-1013. — ‘—"‘" important part in the commerce of Montreal. One Scots traveller in Lower Canada in 1819 wrote that "of the merchants in Montreal I believe the greater proportion are Scotsmen."4 Almost a century later Rupert Brooke, visiting Montreal, was struck by "a vague general impression that Montreal consists of banks and churches. The people of this city Spend much of their time in laying up riches in this world or the next. Indeed the British part of Montreal is dominated by the Scotch race; there is a Scotch spirit sensible in the whole place... in the general greyness of the city and the air of dour prOSperity."5 The early Scottish immigrants also influenced Canadian education. Toronto and MCGill are among the many Canadian universities founded by Scots during this period, and the Scottish educational tradition is still apparent there today; and in John Strachan, Sir William Dawson, and.George Monroe Grant, the Scots can claim to have produced some of the pioneers of higher education in Canada.6 Many of the Scots immi- grants were farmers, and the Scottish system of agriculture still pre- vails in parts of Quebec and Nova Scotia. They also influenced engineer- ing, religion, literature, and military science. They played an import- ant part in politics: George Brown, Alexander Salt, and above all, Sir John A. Macdonald, were either early nineteenth century immigrants or their descendents; so that W. J. Rattray was able to claim that "in politics eSpecially, the Scot has been, unquestionably, the most 5John M. Duncan, Travels Through Part Of the United.States and Canada in 1818 and 1819 in Gerald Craig, ed., EEFTy Travellers 12:223 Canadas_I79l-1862, (Toronto, 1955), p. 5h. 5Quoted in Storied Province Of Quebec: Past and Present, (Toronto, 1931),II, 751. 6Wilfred Campbell, The Scotsman in Canada: Eastern Canada, (London, 1911), pp. 27o~276. A prominent of the varied elements which have gone to the making of our national life."7 Scottish immigrants have had a less tangible, less measurable, but equally profound effect on Canadian customs, culture, thought and tradi- tions. They tended to settle together in large groups, and this "Clan- nishness" gave the movement one of its most striking and important characteristics. One contemporary observed that "these people, with the clannishness so peculiar to them, keep together as much as possible; and, at one time, they actually proposed among themselves to petition the governor to set apart a township into which none but Scotch were to be admitted."8 They were therefore more disposed-- and more able-- to retain their national customs and characteristics. For this reason "the influence of Scottish opinion, associations, and habits of thought upon the future of Canada must be one of the most potent forces in forming and moulding the national character now in process of evolution."9 Of course not all of that Scottish influence had its roots in the mi— gration of 1815 to 1860: Scots went to British.North America long be- fore that pgriod and they have continued to do so, in considerable quantity, ever since. But this was the period of most intense emigra- tion; and much of the later emigration had its roots in it: the tradi— tion of emigration, once started, continued even after its original impetus and causes had disappeared. 7Rattray, The Scot in British North America, IV, 1191. 8John Howison, Sketches of Upper Canada, Domestic, Local, and Characteristic, (Edlnhurgh, 1851) in Craig, Early Travellers, p. 61. 9Rattray, EBE.SC°t.IE British North America, IV, 1192. 5 Clearly, the consequences of Scottish emigration to British North America in that period were unique. And its unique consequences can be accounted for only by its unique causes and characteristics. Yet fre~ quently these are overlooked. This was an age of emigration. After Waterloo, emigrants flocked from Europe and from Britain to the North American continent. It is usual to see Scottish emigration to British North America as part of this larger migration, and eSpecially to see it as part of the British movement; it is usual and it is also unforun— ate, for the differences were many and they are more significant than the similarities. Some writers10 seem to recognize the differences but few are explicit on the matter, and none are emphatic. Yet the differ— ences are great enough, and their effects on Canadian history important enough, to deserve some emphasis. At all points Scottish emigration to British North America should be distinguished from English and Irish emigration. The causes were different. English emigration was primarily the result of industrial dislocation after 1815. Scottish emigration was not: it was a rural, a Highland emigration, and its causes, although comparable in some re- spects to conditions causing emigration from Ireland, were peculiarly Scottish. The Scottish migration to British North America started be~ fore the English and the Irish ones. It did not fluctuate in accordance with the English and Irish movements. It was more intense. It was to a greater degree influenced by intangibles-- by Highland "clannishness", by the tendency of Highlanders to emigrate in order to join their friends l°e. 9. Helen I. Cowan, British Emigration.tg North America, 1783-1831, (Toronto, 1928). and relatives, so that emigration to British North America became a tradition. The causes of emigration were rather distinct and they con- ditioned the character and the consequences. CHAPTER.II SCOTTISH EMIGRATION: A MOVEMENT FROM THE HIGHLANDS English emigration.was largely the result of industrial disloca- tion. Scottish emigration was not. In England, the war with France aggravated the worse effects of the industrial revolution: the with- drawl of government contracts and monopolies and of foreign orders from industries, the disbanding of the army and navy, the introduction of increasingly efficient machinery, all led to over—production, low wages, unemployment, poverty, starvation.l This period of acute dis- tress lasted roughly from Waterloo to Crimea. And during that time emigration came increasingly to be seen as a remedy. Emigration so~ cienties were formed and emigration was made easier by the help of philanthrqfists, Charitable institutions and, above all, by government assistance. In 1819 Parliament, previously hostile to emigration, first voted for emigration as a means of relieving distress, and 50,000 were granted for this purpose; aid was again granted in 1821, 1823, 1825, 1827, and from l83h annually till well into the second half of the century. In l82h a bill was passed legalizing the emigration of artisans; in 183A emigration agents were placed at various British ports; and the passage of several Shipping bills—— notably the Passen- ger vessel Act of 1828 and the more effective Act of 1835-- improved sailing conditions and made emigration easier. It was no coincidence that in England the period of acute indus— trial distress coincided with the period of most intense emigration. iEdwin C. Guillet, The Great Migration, (New York, 1937), p. 2. The one goes far to explain the other. It does not go nearly so far in accounting for Scottish emigration. That is not to say that Scotland did not at that time suffer at all from industrial distress and it is not to say that emigration did not sometimes result. The combined effects of the Industrial Revolution and the aftermath of the war were felt in Scotland. The textile industry in particular was affected and weavers especially suffered extreme dis— tress. "The hand loom weavers could not be converted into power loom weavers," pointed out Sir James Gordon in the House of Commons.2 The consequentlabour surplus was increased by the post war drop in the demand for cotton, by returning soldiers, and by the influx of cheap Irish labour.3 The results were bitter competition for work, low wages, unemployment, poverty, starvation. In Lanark, the weaver's average wage drOpped from twenty-one Shillings per week in 1805 to nine shillings and siXpence in 1836; in Glasgow it dropped from twenty-five shillings a week in 1803 to five Shillings in 1819.4 Lord.A. Hamilton told Parliament that many of them ”were without any employment at all ...the families of weavers were crying to them for bread, which they were unable to give; how then was it possible that they could afford clothes?"5 As in England, then, there was acute industrial distress. And as in.England the victims of this distress looked to emigration as a ZHansard, Vol. XVI (2nd series, 1826—27), col. ., 299. 3See the Edinburgh Review, Jan. 1828. 4Re ort 22 Hand-Loom.Weavers, VOl. XIII, 1835. See Stanley C. Johnson, _,HIsto .2; Emigration From the United.Kingdom.tO North Amer- 123, 1763-1912, ELondon, 1913), p. 5h. 5Hansard, VOl. XIV (2nd Series, 1826—27), col. 227. 9 remedy: emigration societies were formed in Glasgow and the surround- ing towns of Strathaven, Paisley, Hamilton and Lanark, and petitions were sent to private indiViduals, to the Colonial Office, and to Parli- ment. Lord A. Hamilton presented a petition from the weavers of Glas- gow and Lanarkshire and pleaded eloquently for its adoption: "The prayer of the petition...did not ask for charity; but, feeling their utter helplessness and hopelessness, the petitioners asked for that which was the punishment of crime-- exile: They asked for the means of emigration from their native land."6 And the petitions and the pleas were by no means always in vain. Indeed one of the first large-scale efforts of the government to assist emigration was designed Specifically for the unemployed weavers of cen- tral Scotland. This was in 1820 and 1821 when over 3,000 families, al- most all weavers, were provided with free tranSportation to Canada where they received free land in the Rideau Settlement, which was then renamed New Lanark.7 But, for all that, industrial distress did not play a particularly significant part in Scottish emigration to British North America. For one thing industrial distress, although acute, was less widespread than in England. It was limited largely to Glasgow and the industrial towns around it, and it was limited largely to the two decades after the war. with France. W. A. Carrothers8 seems to be the only writer on emigration 6Ibid., col. 228. 7He1en I. Cowan, British Emigration _t_g North America, 1783-1937, (Toronto, 1928), p. 2A9. 8W.A. Carrothers, Emigration from the British Isles, (London, 1929), p. A6. 10 to recognize this. Other writers give the impression that Scottish em- igration was as much the result of industrial dislocation as was English emigration: they tend to regard it all as one single movement. Stanley C. Johnson, for example, states that "emigration from.Britain . . . de- rived much of its velocity from industrial disturbances."9 This view is doubtless a result of the tendeney of most historians to treat the Industrial Revolution in Scotland as simply an offshoot, or incidental part, of the English one. The Scottish economic historian, Leslie C. Wright, recently expressed regret at "the failure to appreciate the different rates of technological development in England and Scotland."10 The differences were important, he pointed out, for "it happened that between 1830 and 1850 Scotland was undergoing the second stage of her Industrial Revolution," whereas England had completed hers; and the new Scottish industries of pig iron production, marine engineering, and railway construction were able to absorb much of the surplus labour Between 1830 and 1850 Scotland was relatively prOSperous; and although there were industrial depressions in 1839, 18h2, and 1868, "unemployment was never so widespread and intense as in England."11 Economic distrubance and distress, in fact, were more or less limr ited to the textile industry, and.within that industry they were more or less limited to the weavers. Moreover only a limited number of these weavers looked to emigration as a solution. When resolutions favouring emigration were introduced at a meeting of 35,000<31asgow 9Stanley C. Johnson,.A Histo of Emigration from the United Kingdom _t_g North America, Tflfi- 9 ,_(London, 19137", p‘.‘3§.—"" 1°Leslie C. Wright, Scottish Chartism, (Edinburgh, 1953), Preface. 111bid., p. 10. ll weavers in June 1819, the meeting Split: one party favoured emigration, another sought relief through reform.12 Moreover, although large num- bers of workers did regard emigration as a remedy, not all of these succeeded in emigrating. And although many did emigrate, there are good indications that few of these emigrants went to British North America. ' The report of the Registmu‘General of Shipping for 18h1 is illuminating in this respect.13 It provides a basis for comparing the numbers emi- grating for the United.States From various British ports with those emigrating for British North America. The ports from which industrial workers could be expected to emigrate were Glasgow, Port Glasgow, and Greenock. But these ports provided less than one quarter of the total number of Scottish emigrants to British North America (although they provided almost all the emigrants for the United.States). About l,h00 persons sailed from.Glasgow to British.North America in l8hl. But many more sailed from the small and completely unindustrialized Highland town of Inverness; and the greatest number of emigrants to sail from any Scottish port to British North America left Stornaway on the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis. Scottish emigrants to British North America during this period was for the most part a Highland and therefore a rural emigration, and in- dustrial distress played very little part in it. Although the Lanark settlement was obviously an exception to this tendency, it is interest- ing that, unlike most Scottish settlements in British North America, it failed. 12L. Le B. Hammond and Barbara Hammond, The Skilled Labourer, 1760- 1832, (London, 1920), p. 119. 13A return of the number of persons who have embarked from the several_ parts_ of— the United Kingdom in the year dnding January 5, 18h2, Sessional Papers of the House of Commons for 18A2, Vol. 31, p.'3 London, 15 March, 18E§T CHAPTER.III THE MOWEMENT FROM THE HIGHLANDS: ENCLOSURE, EVICTION, AND EMIGRATION Scottish emigration to British.North America was, then, primarily a rural emigration whereas English emigration.was primarily urban. The distinction was more than one of emphasis. For although there was some English rural emigration to British North America, this was in many im— portant reSpects different from Scottish emigration, And although Irish emigration.was, like Scottish, primarily rural, it too was significant- ly different. There were of course, striking similarities and some of these were more than superficial. Enclosure of land was in all three countries a direct cause of most rural emigration. But the forces behind en— closure varied. In England most land enclosure was for the purpose of Iimproved cultivation and cattle breeding: it was an essential part of the movement now known as the Agricultural Revolution. Innovations and improvements in agricultural implements and techniques, better tran3por- tation, and an expanding market, were all inducements to experimentation in crop-farming and stock-breeding; and landlords consolidated their lands for this purpose. In Ireland, enclosures resulted primarily from the agricultural depression which followed the Napoleonic wars. Land- lords raised rents; tenants were unable to pay them; whereupon the landlords decided that the real trouble was over-population and that the only remedy was eviction and enclosure.1 But in the Scottish High- lands, land was enclosed for sheep farming. The rising prices in the 13W..A. Carrothers, Emigration from the British ISles, (London, 1929): PP. Lil-’42. vb 13 wool market led many landowners to convert their arable lands into pas- turage. Of course there was some enclosure for cultivation too.2 But the increasing profit from sheep farming was the main economic force behind the enclosure movement in the Highlands. Out of enclosure came eviction. As sheep replaced crops, shepherds replaced tenants. Out of eviction came emigration. As early as 1803 a report on the north-western.High1ands stated that "the meet.powerful cause of emigration is that of converting large districts of the country into extensive sheep-walks". For a sheep-walk "not only requires much fewer peOple to manage the same tract of country, but, in general, an entirely new people are brought from the south."3 In 1801, according to the report, 3,000 people who had formerly practiced tilling were forced to give up their lands and emigrate. It was this situation which led to the Earl of Selkirk's schemes for colon- ization in British.North America. In 1803 Selkirk chartered three ves- sels to carry 800 colonists, mainly dispossessed Highland farmers, to Prince Edward Island.4 The settlement was so successful that a more ambitious scheme was soon attempted. In 1811 Selkirk secured from the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company a grant of an area estimated at 116,000 square miles. To this area, most of which lay in what is now Manitoba, he sent several shiploads of diSpossessed farmers from 2Thomas Douglas, 5th.Earl of Selkirk, Observations on the Present State of the Highlands in.Scot1and, (London, 1805), p. 21. 3Report_ of the Coast of Scotland and.Nava1 Enquiry, 1802— —3, p. 15 Quoted in Stanley C. Johnson, A.His¢or of Emigration from the United Kingdom_ to North America, 1763- 1912, (London, 1913), p. Ah. 4Andrew Macphail, "The History of Prince Edward Island", Canada and its Provinces, Adam Short and.Arthur(3. Doughty, eds., Vol. XIII, The Atlantic Provinces, (Toronto, 1911;), pp. 351- 357. 1h Sutherlandshire.5 The colony became known as the Red River Settlement. But it was not until after 1815 that enclosure, eviction, and emi- gration reached their greatest proportions. With increasing rapidity landlords were replacing wheat and oats with sheep, tenant farmers with shepherds. "The country is but for the sheep," wrote John.Ga1t in his novel, Bogle Corbet, "men have no business here."6 "The land is divided between sheep, shepherds, and the shadows of the clouds", wrote Dr. John MacLeod of Morvern before his departure for Pictou.7 In 1863 Thomas McLauchlan, reporting on emigration from the Highlands, claimed that "sheep-farming has led to an immense amount of emigration." He found evidence of this in Sutherlandshire "where the introdubtion of sheep-farms has led almost to the peopling of Cape Breton and a large portion of Prince Edward Island."8 Thus the enclosure movement which underlay Highland emigration was brought about by sheep-farming; and in this it differed from the corresponding movements in England and Ireland. But there were deeper differences. In the Highlands, enclosure (and the resulting eviction and emigration) was associated with social and political conditions purely Highland-- the break-up of the clan system; and it was aggravated by economic conditions peculiarly 5Chester Martin, "The Red River Settlements", Canada and its Provinces, Adam.Short and.Arthur G. Doughty eds., vol. XIX, The—Prairie firovinces, (TOronto, l9lh), pp. 13— 93. 6Quoted in James A Rby, The Scot and Canada, (Toronto, 19h7), p. 72. 7A1exander Fraser g History 31; Ontario: Its Resources and Devel- gpment, (TOronto, 19073, p 1 2 8Thomas McLauchlan, "The Influence of Emigration on the Social Conditions of the Highlands," Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1863, pp. 605- 610. Quoted in Edith.Abbot, Historica1.Aspects of the Immigration.Problemx Select Documents, (Chicago, 1926), p. 3§8. 15 Highland-5 the collapse of the herring and kelp industries. First there was the collapse of the clan system after the defeat of the Jacobite rebellion at Culloden in 17h6. The connection between this and the Highland evictions was vital. In the Highlands before 17h6 a feudal bond of mutual dependence and loyalty existed.between chieftan and clan; and in such a society a disaster such as the High- land clearances was inconceivable. But after l7h6 the basis for the bond was removed. The loyalty dwindled. The disaster occurred. Feud- alism gave way to capitalism, the chieftan degenerated into a landlord, and the landlord soon did not scruple to raise rents, to enclose land, to evict tenants, The clan system could not of course have lasted for- ever in any case; and the events of l7h§ and 17h6 were as much the re— sults as the causes of growing weaknesses in the system. Nevertheless, Culloden was a powerful catalyst and a striking symbol: it both hasten- ed and dramatized the disintegration of the Highland clans. The process was well described by Lord.Selkirk. He related how "the change which this state of society underwent after the rebellion in 17h5, was great and sudden"; how the English victory at Culloden and the subsequent English military and.political control of the Highlands destroyed the independence of the Chieftans; and how the relationship of chieftan to follower changed. The chieftans "ceased to be petty monarchs." It was obvious that "the services of their followers were no longer requisite for defence and could no longer be made use of for the plunder of defenceless neighbours." Moreover the chieftans soon discovered "that to subsist a numerous train of dependents was not the only way in which their estates could.be rendered of value." Rents could be raised. Land could be enclosed. Tenants could be evicted. 16 Sheep were more profitable than men. .For a generation the old loyali- ties lingered. But gradually, “men educated under different circum- stances came forward and, feeling more remotely the influence of antient .[sié7 connexions with their dependants, were not inclined to sacrifice for a shadow the substantial advantage of productive property.“ Before long, Highland proprietors were experiencing the advantages of throwing together their lands, so that "a tendenoy to the engrossing of farms is very observable” and was closely associated with the tendenoy to emigrate.9 Selkirk, then, realized that the crumbling of the Highland clan system was connected with the tragedy of the Highland clearances and that both were connected with emigration. That was in 1803. The con- nection was to continue for half a century. It is reflected in the literature of that desolate era: in the Gaelic poems of Duncan Ban Mac- Intyre, John Maclean, and Ewan Maclachlan, and in the prose writings of both Highlanders and Lowlanders. Sir Walter Scott, writing in the Quarterly BEXEEH for January 1816, attributed the draining of the High- landupopulation less to economics than to men, to "an unrelenting av- arice, which will one day be found to have been as short-sighted as it is unjust and selfish." And "the horrors of grinding oppression" were deplored by Donald Sage when writing (in.Memoria Domestica) of the Sutherland evictions from 1811 to 1820. R..Alister wrote of the EEEEEE‘ ination of the Scottish Peasantgy; .Alexander MaCKenzie in The Highland Clearances, Stewart of Garth in Sketches of the Manners and Character of the Highlanders, Donald Ross in The Glengarry Evictions, and Donald J 9Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Observations on the Present State of the Highlands of Scotland with a view of the Causes and.Probable Consequences of+Emigration, (Edinburgh, 180 55, pp. 23- 26? 17 Macleod in Gloomy Memories, all gave vivid accounts of the harsh methods adopted.by landlords to remove their tenants.1° The Reverend John.Ken— nedy of Dingwall described in The Days of the Fathers of Ross-shire how hundreds in that district "began to be driven off by ungodly Oppressors ...with few exceptions the owners of the soil began to act as if thoy were the owners of the people... Families by the hundreds were driven across the sea."11 Possibly these writers underplayed the economic aspects. Certainly allowance has to be made for exaggeration and sentimentality. Still, the important thing is that in the minds of many Highlanders evictions and emigration were closely associated with the degeneration of chief- tans into landlords, and that there were some good reasons for this at— titude. Undoubtedly the essential difference between the Highland chieftan and the Highland laird had some significance for Scottish emi- gration to British North America. The connection between the Battle of Culloden and the birth of Canada is less tenuous than it might at first appear. Behind Highland emigration lay the tragedy of the Highland clearances; and.behind the tragedy of the Highland clearances lay the disaster of Highland defeat. The story of Scottish emigration cannot be told simply in terms of agriculture. It was more than a matter of sheep. Besides, there were other peculiarly Highland conditions which ag— gravated the effects of the clearances and contributed to emigration. 1°See D. M. Sinclair, "Highland Emigration to Nova Scotia," Dalhousie Review, April, l9h3, p. 215. 11Quoted in Fraser, 5 History of Ontario, p. 181. 18 There was the collapse of the kelp industry and there was the decline of the herring fisheries. From 1790 to 1820 the burning of seaweed to make kelp-—va1ued for its iodine content-- had proved profitable enough to attract numerous settlers to the northwest coast and islands. But after 1815 barilla and potash, two foreign substitutes which had been cut off during the wars with France, again became available; and'when the import duty on barilla was removed in 1822, the manufacture of kelp quickly declined. The thousands who had been attracted or persuaded to settle in those barren areas were thrown out of employment.12 This disaster coincided approximately with the decision of the government to withdraw the bounty on the herring industry, and with the exasperating "non—appearance of this capricious fish" in the fishing areas off the west coast.13 "In the west coast of Scotland the herring fishery has,” declared Lord Teignmouth before the Select Committee of 18h1, "greatly failed.” And.unemployment was thereby greatly increased.14 Here, then, were two further sources of emigration. The failure of the kelp and herring industries involved, as the.Agent~Genera1 for Emigration reported in 1837, "not a mere diminution of employment which might be of longer or shorter duration ... but an absolute cessation of the only occupations by which the bulk of the population lived, without 12Second Report from the Select Committee on Emigration, Scotland, 18hl. In.Sessional Papers of the House gfw Commons for (18hl) vol. 6, p. 12. 13The Rev. Alex. Macgregor, "Destitution in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland", Celtic Magazine,m ,EIFeb. 1877), p. 127. 148econd Report from the Select Committee on Emigration, Scotland, 18__)__L1’ p. 1;. 19 a prOSpect of their revival."15 Emigration was recommended as a remedy. The recommendation was unnecessary. More than ten years earlier, Richard John Uniacke,.Attorney-General for Nova Scotia, reported that "a great number of Scotch fishermen have already gone to that country and settled themselves in the neighbourhood where the herring and mackeral fishing is carried on."16 The reports of the Select Committees on Emigration in both 1826 and 18h1 show a substantial emigration to British North America among those who had formerly made their living in the herring and kelp industries. Out of unemployment came emigration; and unemploy- ment was rife. Matters, moreover, were made worse by the completion of the Cale- donian Canal (whose construction had afforded some employment although most labourers were Irish and most engineers English); by the impos- sibility of drying sufficient peat for fuel in the wet season of 1836; by the failure of the potato and corn crops in 1835 and 1836 (emigration was particularily heavy towards the end of the thirties), by the rising prices of wood and clothing, and by the falling prices of black cattle.17 15Quoted in Johnson, Emigration from the United Kingdom, p. 17h. 16Report from, and Minutes of Evidence taken before, the Select Committee 2; the House of Commons: on Emigration from the United King- dom, 1825. Iii-SessionaT-Papers 93 £133 House 2;: Commons, for 1826, W61. h), p. 68. 17Johnson, p. 173. The Rev. Alex. Macgregor, "Destitution in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland," Celtic Magazine, XVI (1877), pp. 122-128. CHAPTER.IV THE MOVEMENT FROM THE HIGHLANDS: CUSTOMS, CHARACTERISTICS AND CLANNISHNESS Emigration had other causes, less tangible but none the less pecul— iar to the Highlands. It is difficult to assess the part which they played because they enter not only the realm of the intangible but at some points also hover on the border of the notoriously treacherous area of national or racial characteristics. Firstly there was the desire of the Highlanders to retain their old way of life with its freedom and independence. Lord Selkirk was well aware of the importance of this. To the dispossessed tenantry there were, he pointed out, two possible resources — employment in the manu- facturing towns of the Lowlands, or emigration to North America. It ‘was clear which alternative was more attractive: "Anyone who is ac- quainted with the country must admit that emigration is by far the most likely to suit the inclination and habits of the Highlanders."1 It was the more difficult and dangerous course but it "holds out a Speedy pros~ pect of a situation and mode of life similar to that in which they have been educated. Accustomed to possess land....they naturally consider it as indiSpensible and can form no idea of happiness without it."2 .And in British North America there was an opportunity to acquire new land and so maintain an old way of life. For to the Highlander, "the manners of a town, the practice of sedentary labour under the roof of a manufactory, lselkirk, Observations, p. 50. 2Ibid., p. 51. 21 present ... the most irksome contrast to his former life. Among his native mountains he is accustomed to a freedom from constraint which approaches to the independence of a savage." He is not likely there— fore to be attracted to "sedentary employments, for which, most fre- quently, the prejudices of his infanoy have taught him to entertain a contempt.“5 Possibly Selkirk overstates his case. Still, his argu- ment is reasonable enough and probably contains more than a grain of truth. It is a paradox but not a contradiction that the Highland Scots were better able to preserve their way of life on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean than on the other side of the Caledonian Canal. In many instances the Highland emigrants were even able to retain the same kind of geographical surroundings as formerly. The climate and topography of Nova Scotia, for example, strongly resemble those on many'parts of the northwest coast of Scotland. .A French—Canadian writer once described Cape Breton as "une minature de 1'Ecosse", pointing out» that ”comme en Ecosse les c3tes sont decoupees en baies profondes et entourées d} Tles.” He found in this an explanation of the success of the Scots there in preserving their old way of life: "Au Cap—Breton les moeurs se sont peu modifées et la tradition est restee longtemps a peu pres intacte car ce pays isolé ne differait pas essentiellement de la haute Ecosse."4 The causes of emigration.were thus linked.with its character and its consequences. The Highlanders emigrated partly in order to preserve their old way of life, their customs and their z>lbicl., p. 52. 4M. Errol Bouchette, "Les Ecossais du Cap-Breton", Proceedings and Transactions gf the fipyal Society gf Canada, 3rd.Series, V61. IV (1910), Section 1, p. 3. 22 freedom; and to some extent they succeeded. This is an aspect of Scot- tish emigration which seems to have been totally overlooked by all writers on the subject since Lord Selkirk. It is closely linked with another intangible --— the desire to emigrate in order to join friends and relatives. In 1803 Selkirk pre- dicted that "the fashion being once set, may influence some who are under no absolute necessity of emigrating."5 There was truth in the prediction. For, as one historian has pointed out, "everyone who left rendered it more possible that another would follow."6 The older emi- grants provided for their friends at home not only a better knowledge of the opportunities in the New World and sometimes financial assist- ance, but also a direct incentive to emigrate. A letter written in 1839 by a.Glasgow minister to Thomas Rblph, Emigration Agent for the government of Canada, declared the Highlanders "most anxious to follow their relatives and countrymen to that colony....All disinclination to emigration has now ceased in the Highlands."7 Richard John Uniacke, AttorneyrGeneral of Nova Scotia, estimated in 1826 that the tract of land stretching from the Gut. of Canso to Tatmagouche (about 120 miles) contained at least 15,000 families which "with very few exceptions came from.Scotland .... They came out in great numbers formerly, for they had all their relatives and friends living in the country."8 Alexander 5Selkirk, Observations, p. 35. 6Norman Macdonald, Canada, 1763-18h1: Immigration and Settlement, (Toronto, 195A), p. 9. ' 7Thomas Rolph, Emigration and Colonization; Embodying the Results of a_Mission of Great Britain and Ireland during the years 1839, 18EO, l8hl, and 18h2,‘(iondon, 18th), p. 17. 3 ort from the Select Committee 2g Emigration, 1826, p. 71. 23 C. Buchanan, the British emigration officer at the port of Quebec, had the same story to tell in his report for l8hl. This report consists of fairly detailed weekly accounts of the arrival of emigrants at ports in British North America. These contain frequent references to Highland emigrants who were on their way to join friends and relatives. In the week ending on 28th August, for example, he records the arrival at Sydney, Cape Breton, of ten families from the Isle of Skye who were "going to their friends in Glengarry, and the Home and London districts." In the same week there arrived fourteen families who had sailed from Stornaway, on the Island of Lewis, and who were "all going to join their countrymen in the township of Bury and Lingwick." And another vessel from Lewis brought lh5 people who had "emigrated on invitation of a party who came out in 1838 ... [and.wh§7have promised to assist them and their friends to get through the winter." Similar stories recur throughout the report; and they almost always concern Scottish Highland- ers rather than emigrants from England, Ireland or Lowland.Scotland.9 Of course these reports should not be taken too literally. If the emigrants went "to join their friends and relatives," that was not neces- sarily their only reason for emigrating. Probably friends and relatives very often influenced their choice of destination rather than their de- cision to emigrate. Yet many of the emigrants were in reasonable cir- cumstances and under no obvious economic pressure to emigrate.10 And with many of these people the existence of friends and relatives in British North America may well have been the deciding factor. The in- fluence of relatives and the part played by Highland "clannishness" can 9Reo rt of the Chief Emigration.Agent_ at Quebec_ to the Governor- General, 1 l. In.Sessional Papers 2; thg House‘gf“ Commons (18H2), Vol.31, p. 20—21. __ loMacdonald, Canada, p. 26. be exaggerated, but there is no doubt that it did play a significant part in stimulating Highland emigration. Thus not only the economic, social, and political conditions of the Highlands but also the traditions and characteristics of the High- landers themselves played their part in promoting emigration to British North America. To be sure, there were other influences. There were some common denominators in emigration from all parts of Europe. Post- war economic conditions, beneficial government legislation on emigration, opportunities in the New World, exaggerated accounts of those oppor- tunities by steamship companies and other interested.parties, improve- ments in tranSportation-- all these played their part in.Scotland as elsewhere. But these aspects are generally over—emphasized. Scottish emigration was to some extent part of a more general movement; but it was also part of Highland history and it is only by seeing it in that light that its peculiar and significant consequences can be understood. CHAPTER,V THE SCOTTISH PREFERENCE FOR BRITISH NORTH.AMERICA Scottish emigration deserves further to be distinguished from other emigrations to British.North America at that time by virtue of its re- markable intensity. .Almost invariably during this period, it was far greater, per head of population, than English or Irish emigration. The first complete census of the United Kingdom.was taken in 1821 and it showed that out of a pOpulation of about twenty—one million, over eleven million were English and only two million were Scots. The popu- lation of England was, then, almost six times as great as that of Scot— land, and it remained so until after 1861.1 Yet only rarely during that.period.was English emigration to Brit- ish North America as much as six times as great as Scottish: for the most part, it did not even approach that proportion. A. C. Buchanan, the chief emigration agent at Quebec, recorded the number and nationality of immigrants arriving each year from 1829 to 18110.2 In 1829 the number of English immigrants exceeded the number of Scots by only about one thousand—- 3,565 as against 2,hh3-- giving a ra- tio of roughly three to two. In 1833 the ratio was about five to four. Only in 1836 did it approach six to one. Buchanan's report of 1860 in- cluded records of the entrance of immigrants according to nationality NEeorge Herbert Perris, The Industrial History 2f Modern England, (London, 1920), p. 550. 2Report of the Chief Emigration Agent at Quebec to the Governor— General, l8hl, in Sessional Papers 2£.EQE.HOUS3.2£ Commons, (18h2), Vol. 31, p. 20. 26 for every four years from 1839 to 1853, and thereafter annually.3 The numbers for the years 1839 to 18h3 were 30,000 English and 16,000 Scots, so that English emigration was less than double Scottish. From lth to 18h8 there was a widening of the gap: 60,000 English emigrated to British North America, and only 12,000 Scots. But from l8h9 to 1853, English emigration was again less than double Scottish, and in 1855 the ratio was seven to five. After 1855 there was a gradual falling away of Scottish emigration, and by 1860 the ratio of the English to Scottish emigrants equalhaithe ratio of the two pOpulations. The period of intense Scottish emigration to British North America was coming to a close. For some at least of this period Scottish emigration to British North America was also greater, per head of population, than Irish. The population of Ireland was at this time about three times greater than that of Scotland. A. C. Buchanan's records show that although Irish emigration was at the beginning of this period at least three times greater than Scottish, by the end of the period Scottish emigra- tion had overtaken Irish not only relatively but absolutely: in 1856 the Scots immigrants out numbered the Irish by more than one thousand.4 Moreover, whereas Scots emigrants who sailed to British.North America tended to settle there,5 it was observed at the time that "it is probable 3Report of the Chief Emigration.Agent at Quebec to the Governor- VOl. VI, p. 52. 4Reports of A. c. Buchanan to the Governor—General, 18171 and 1860, 22- sit ~ 5Fred Landon, Western Ontario and the American Frontier, (Toronto, l9hl), p. 281. 27 that at least one half of the Irish immigrants, and, perhaps, two thirds of them, who had landed at Quebec, proceed immediately to the Western parts of New York, and to Ohio, Michigan, and Co."6 Why was Scottish emigration to British North America so intense? Did it reflect a greater general tendency towards emigration among Scots than among English or Irish? It did so only to a slight extent. The high proportion of Scots among British emigrants to British.North America was less apparent in British emigration to other destinations. The Registfin‘General of Ship- ping for Great Britain listed in his report of l8hl the numbers and nationalities of those who had emigrated that year to the United States, British North America, Australia, and the West Indies.7 There were 72,10h English emigrants, 32,h26 Irish, and 1h,000 Scots. This suggests that Scottish emigration as a whole was, unlike Scottish emigration to British North America, only slightly greater, in proportion to the pop- ulation, than English or Irish. Thus it seems that the intensity of Scottish emigration to British North America was due not to a greater tendency among Scots to emigrate, but rather to a greater inclination among Scots emigrants to choose British North America as their destin- ation. That inclination is especially evident when emigration to British North America is compared with emigration to the United States. No ac- count of nationalities of emigrants was kept in the earlier part of the period, but towards the end they were regularly recorded. One writer 6Niles Register, September 3, 1825, p.6 . 7A Return of the Numbers of Persons who have emigrated from the United.Kingdom during the year endin 5 January, 18H2, in Sessional (128E 2), Vol.31, p. 3. 28 has calculated the annual average number of emigrants to the United States and Canada, giving nationalities, between the years 1853 and 1860.8 The average number of English emigrants who sailed to North America in those years was roughly 28,000, and of these only h,000 went to Canada-- about fourteen percent. 0f the 80,000 Irish, only 8,000 went to Canada-- about ten percent. But of the 8,000 Scottish emigrants, almost h,000 chose Canada--about fifty percent. These figures concern only Canada, but if the rest of British North America were included, the differences would be even greater. The records of the RBgistntheneral . inclined of Shipping Show that Scots were much more/than English or Irish to settle in parts of British North America other than Canada. In l8hl there were, according to these records, 6090 English emigrants to Can- ada, but only a little over one thousand to New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton. The distribution of the Irish emigrants was slightly more even; nevertheless more than two thirds of them (16,5h2) went to Canada, and only 7,5h7 to other parts of British North America. But almost half of the Scots emigrants to British North America settled in places other than Canada: 3,730 went to Canada, 2,876 to other destinations.9 Scottish emigration to British North America in the first half of thexlineteenth century'was, then, more intense than.English or Irish emigration; and its relative intensity is not to be accounted for by a higher rate of emigration from Scotland, but by a greater disposition among Scots emigrants to settle in British North America. 8Johnson, Emigration from the United Kingdom, Appendix I, p. 37h. 9Sessional Papers, Vbl. 31, p. 3. 29 But what is to account for that diSposition? Why did so many Scots prefer to go to British North America? CHAPTER VI BRITISH NORTH AMERICA: A NEW EMPIRE There were several good reasonsfor British North America to at— ... ‘\ trapt.emigrants, and eSpecially Highland emigrants, in the years after 1815. -'8 U 8 ,2 “x“, For one thing, it was still British territory, and that might be expected to influence some emigrants. Certainly it influenced the Brit- ish Colonial Office and led it to attempt to divert emigrants from the United States to Canada. The War of 1812, the Maine boundary diSpute, . the influx of republican sympathizers from the United States, all per- suaded the Colonial Office of the urgency of the increasing the lqyalist population in British North America, and eSpecially of establishing settlements at strategic points near the frontier. And in Canada, Lieu- tenant—General Gordon Drummond and Governor Sir George Prevost wrote in favour of encouraging settlers into "a country already too much inhab- ited by aliens from the United States."1 It was these considerations, together with the necessity of relieving unemployment, which led the government to encourage and assist emigration to British North America: the emigrants to the United States received no such assistance. And there was none more suited to the purpose of the government in this matter than the Highland Scot. For "the loyalty of the Gael was unquestioned and his language established a barrier against alien con- tamination."2 The Colonial Office was quick to take advantage of this, 1Bathurst-Prevost, October 29, 1813. Quoted in Norman Macdonald, Canada, lZ63-l8hl: Immigration and.Sett1ement, (Toronto, 195h), p. 66. ZMacdonald, Canada (London, 1939), p. 2&1. 31 and it was with Highland Scots that the first full—scale government ex- periment in emigration was carried out. In l81h Lord Bathurst, Secre- tary for Bar and the Colonies, wrote to Sir George Prevost suggesting a plan for encouraging a number of the peasantry in Sutherland and Caithness to emigrate to Upper Canada. Accordingly, in February 1815, a proclamation was posted in Edinburgh setting forth the terms upon which land in Upper Canada might be obtained. A lot of 100 acres was promised to each family upon arrival, and a further hundred acres to each male child upon coming of age. Those with more capital would be granted proportionately more land. Rations would be given for the first six or eight months, and longer if necessary. Implements would be sup? plied at low cost. Salaries would be provided.by the government for a properly qualified minister and school teacher if they accompanied the immigrants. A cash deposit would be payable upon embarking from Quebec, but would be returned to the immigrant at the end of two years.3 In July about 700 Scots, mostly Highlanders, sailed for Canada in four transports, and in the spring of 1816 they settled at Perth in the town- ship of Drummond, half way between Kingston and Ottawa. This was the district chosen by Colonel Cockburn, Superintendant of the Military Set- tlements in Canada, as one of the three centres around which the Rideau military settlement was to be develOped. The building of the Rideau Canal was soon begun, and by 1827 the government had financed about 7,000 emigrants, largely Scots and Irish, and settled them at the Rideau Settlement and the nearby Rice Lake Settlement.4 3Ontario Bureau of Archives, Report 16-18, 1920-29, p. 116. 4Ibid., p. 117. ill! '1‘. 32 Moreover the opportunities for land settlement were, even without government assistance, excellent; and it was encouraged both by societies and individuals in British North America. In Upper Canada, the Canada Land Company was formed by John Galt, the Scottish novelist, who in 1826 bought from the government a huge block of one million acres known as the Huron Tract. The purpose of the Company was not purely commercial. According to Galt, the aim.was "to excite such attention to the lands of the Company as would attract emigrants to prefer Upper Canada, though the other American provinces lay nearer to their homes--an object with me primarily."5 And the Company's prOSpectus declared that "the object of the Company is not to encourage or deal with Speculators, but to open access to the settle- ment of lands by a steady industrious agricultural population;" and it was promised that "to individuals or families, or associations of fam- ilies by that description, the Company will afford every possible in- formation and assistance in facilitating their progress to their intended place of location, and every fair and liberal encouragement in regard to price and the terms of payment of the lands to be purchased by them."6 Land was sold in lots of fifty acres or more, and payment was made in five yearly instalments. Those who bought one hundred acres of land or more were provided with free transportation from the port of landing in Canada to their destination. The Company undertook to pay for any bridge, school, or other improvement attempted.by the settlers. Galt. spent three years in Upper Canada directing the colonization of the 5JohnGalt, The Autobiography of John Galt, (London, 1833), Vol. II, p. 53. 6PrOSpectus, reprinted in the Report of the Select Committee on Emigration, 1827, p. A66, Quoted in W. A. Carrothers, Emigration From the British Isles, (London, 1929), p. lh6. 33 district, and by the time of his departure settlement had greatly ad- vanced. A road had been built through the forest of the Huron Tract joining Lakes Huron and Ontario. The town of Guelph had been founded in 1827, Goderich in 1829, and Stratford and Galt soon afterwards. By the end of the 1830's almost 5,000 people had settled on the Huron Tract, and it is said that even the opponents of company colonization admitted that Galt's enterprise had helped to direct immigrants towards Canada.7 Galt was associated also with the founding of the British America Land Company which received its charter in 183A. The company purchased 87h,661 acres of land in the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada. Many settlers were attracted to the region, and its appeal to Scots was particularly strong, especially after l8hl when a scheme for the settle- ment of the Eastern Townships was laid before the Committee on the High- lands and met with their approval.8 Individual proprietors in British North America often encouraged settlers. In.PrinceEdward Island in the late 1830's many of the pro- prietors, acting upon the recommendation of Lieutenant-Governor Fitzroy and his predecessor, offered to sell their lands at lower rates and to carry out an extensive scheme of emigration from Scotland. And some— times men such as Robert Gourlay, a prominent reformer in Upper Canada, offered to take settlers onto their land.9 7Galt, Autobiography, Vol. II, pp. 56-63; G. C. Patterson, Land Settlement in Upper Canada, (New York, 19bCD, p. 200; The Durham Re- port, ed. Sir Charles Lucas, (Oxford, 1912), V01. II, p. 170. 8Jennie U. Aberdein, John.Ga1t, (London, 1936), p. 176; Carrothers, Emigration From the British Isles, p. 150. 9Helen I. Cowan, British Emigration.tg North America, 1783-1837, (Toronto, 1928), p. 36. I 3h Thus settlers received encouragement and assistance not only from Britain but from British North America itself-- from political author~ ities, from land companies, from individual proprietors; and, from the point of view of those in British North America, the reasons were not only strategic but economic. The War of 1812 had stimulated the econ- omy of British North America, and especially of Canada, and there was a new awareness of the potentialities of the country. But the poten- tialities could not be realized without people to realize them, George Mackland, an executive councillor for the province of Upper Canada, was asked by the Select Committee Of 1826 whether he believed that "a very general impression exists in Upper Canada that an access of population would be of the greatest advantage to the province." He replied: "There is no question about the advantage which it must derive from an accession of population; it is almost the only thing it requires. The land is excellent and the climate admirable; it only wants peeple."lo Besides, there were excellent opportunities quite apart from land settlement. The Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company at- tracted many Scots into the fur trade. The maritime regions provided excellent opportunities for a fishing industry. Richard J. Uniacke, .Attorney—General of Nova Scotia, stressed the favourable conditions for fishing off the coasts of Nova Scotia and.New Brunswick, and maintained that these regions were capable of receiving "all the redundant popula- tion of Scotland, either as fishermen, labourers, or farmers."11 ‘ Of course all these opportunities existed for others besides Scots. But land settlement, fur trading and fishing were far more likely to loReport from the Select Committee 22 Emigration, 1826, Po 35- 11Second Report from.the Select Committee gn Emigration, 18h1; p. 72. 35 attract the Highland crofter or fisherman to whom "the manners of a town, the practice of sedentary labour under the roof of a manufactory, present...the most irksome contrast to his former life," than the English mill worker. There was little to attract the industrial worker to British North America and, as H. J. Boulton, SoliciteraGeneral for Upper Canada, told the Select Committee of 1826, "in the United States they find more readily immediate employment at ready money wages; the United States being so much more populous, and there being a number of large towns, they naturally resort to the place where they can get the quickest return on their money for their labour, to answer their immedi- ate wants."12 It is, then, little wonder that so many Scots emigrants chose British North America as their destination. Not only were they attracted there by the conditions which prevailed after the war of 1812, but they were frequently assisted there by the British government and by other interested parties. Once again the nature of Highland society helps to explain the character of Highland emigration. The Highland Scot was peculiarly well suited to the needs, both strategic and economic, of British North America after 1812; and the conditions in British North America at that time were peculiarly well suited to the inclinations and abilities of the Highland Scot. 12Report from the Select Committee 23 Emigration, 1826, p. 18. CHAPTER VII BRITISH NORTH AMERICA: A HIGHLAND TRADITION There was reason enough and encouragement enough for the Highland emigrant to choose British North America as his destination. But there was something else, beyond expediency and facility, which was helping to push him in that direction. The extent to which Highland "clannishness", the tendenoy of relative to follow relative, actually £22229 emigration is debatable. The extent to which it directed emigra- tion-- and directed it towards British.North America-- is undeniable and enormous, although all too often it has been overlooked. In October 1839 the Reverend Dr. McLeod of Glasgow wrote to Thomas Rolph of "the decided preference which the Highlanders have for remov- ing to Canada;" and judged that this was because "they are most anxious to follow their relatives and countrymen to that Colony."1 The re- ports of the Emigration Agent at Quebec, with their frequent references to Scots immigrants who were going to join their friends and relatives, are ample evidence of the truth of McLeod's observation. But if other evidence were necessary it could be found simply in the tendency of Scots settlers to concentrate on the same areas and often in the same districts. The records of the Registrar General of Shipping give some indication of this. According to the report for 18112, about one third of the Scottish emigrants to British North America chose to settle in 1Thomas Rolph, Emigration and Colonization:_ Embodying the Results of a_Missionutg Great Britain and Ireland during the Years 1839, 18h0, ‘1'8111,'"an_d' '1'8h2, (London, 1811;), p. 16. \ 37 Canada;2 and there is other evidence that most of these settled in Upper Canada, and especially in the western counties where, as one his- torian of Ontario has written, "whole townships seemed to fill up as shiploads of people from.Argyleshire, Sutherlandshire, and other por- tions of Scotland took land."3 Many of the Scots who went to Lower Canada settled along the Ottawa valley, eSpecially in Argenteuil County, the first of the Ottawa valley counties lying opposite Ontario.4 The Shipping Report shows also that almost 1,000 out of the 12,000 Scots emigrants to British North America in 18h2 settled in.Prince Edward Island, far outnumbering the 300 English and 600 Irish. About 250 went to New Brunswick. 0n the other hand only forty—eight went to Newfound— land where the Irish tended to settle in far greater numbers than the Scots or English. But, above all, the Scots settled in what is now the Province of Nova Scotia, and within that area most of them settled either on the Island of Cape Breton or on that part of the peninsula immediately opposite it, along the north eastern coast from the Gut of Canso up to Pictou County. Even in the first few years of this period, according to a leading authority on the early history of the province, "thousands of Scots immigrants came to Nova Scotia because their kins- men were settled on the North Shore and in Cape Breton."5 A recent de- tailed study of immigration to Nova Scotia from 1815 to 1838 estimates 2.4 Return 21: the Number _o_i: Persons who have emigrated from the United Kingdom during the year endin‘iE January, 18h2, in Sessional Papers of the House of Commons, 1 2), Vol. 31, p. 3. 3Fred Landon, Western Ontario and the American Frontier, (Toronto, l9hl), p. 281. 4The Storied Province 2f Quebec: Past and Present, (Toronto, 1931), Vbl. 2, pp. 903, 927. 5George MacLaren, Th3 Pictou Book: Stories gf 023 Past, privately printed, (New Glasgow, N. 8.5, 1955, . lOl. 38 that nearly 22,000 of the 39,000 immigrants from the British Isles in those years were Scots, mostly from the Highlands and Western Isles.6 The author gives a list-- compiled from the shipping notes in the news- papers-- of the numbers and nationalities arriving at each port of entry, and this again shows the tendenqy of the Scots to settle princi- pally on Cape Breton Island and the northeastern arm of the peninsula. Almost half of the Scottish emigrants landed at the port of Sydney of Cape Breton Island; and at least 3,700 landed at Pictou, as against 775 Irish and 320 English. Comparatively few went to the more westerly port of Halifax, where the English and Irish were more inclined to set- tle. The same tendency is apparent in the occasional landings at small- er ports, for those at which the Scots landed in those years were with- out exception either in Cape Breton or the north east coast of the peninsula. For instance in 1828, 208 Scots landed at Port Hawkesburg on the southenlshore of Cape Breton, and another shipload of 258 joined them five years later. In 1830, 11h Scots landed at the Gut of Canso. There were also landings of Scots at Arichat, Port Hastings, St. Ann's and St. Peters, all on Cape Breton Island, and at Antigonish, Canso, and Wallace, all on the northern arm of the peninsula. The English and Irish landings, on the other hand, were scattered over the whole penin— sula.7 That was between 1815 and 1838. But the years of heaviest migra- tion to Nova Scotia were the five which followed, and the same tenden— cies were apparent there. It has been estimated, on the basis of yearly totals compiled from reports in the.Acadian Recorder and the Novascotian, 6J. S. Martell, Immigration.tg and Emigration from Nova Scotia, 1815-1838, the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, publication no. 6, (Hali- fax""", NT'S' .‘,, 1911a,,pp. 92-95. 7Sessional Papers, (1862), Vol. 31, p. 3. 39 that from.l839 to l8h3 about 7,900 immigrants arrived in the province. These included 5,7000 ScOts who went to Cape Breton, so that "the swarms of Scots who arrived on the Island during the years 1839-b3 represent the outstanding feature of the immigration of this period."3 Probably the peak year for immigration in.Nova Scotia was l8hl and in September of that year the Acadian Recorder reported that "hordes of Scottish immigrants"'were landing on Cape Breton Island. On a single day in August as many as 1,300 had set sail for Cape Breton from Loch— maddy.9 Thus the extent to which "clannishness" influenced the direction of Scottish emigration is shown by the tendency among Scottish emigrants to congregate together in particular districts. Furthermore, many of these districts can be associated with particular districts in Scotland. The Hebridean islands of South Uist and Barra, for example, had a strong and continued connection with Prince Edward Island.10 The peeple from.North Uist, on the other hand, tended to go to Cape Breton Island;11 and so, judging by the place names along the eastern coast of the island, did those from.many parts of Inverness-shire and the west of.Argyll. According to Lord Selkirk, "the people...of Maydart and some other dis— tricts in Inverness-shire, with a few of the Western Isles, are those who have formed the Scotish [sig7 settlements of Pictou in Nova_Scotia, 8"Immigrationto Nova Scotia 1839—h3", Unpublished, M. A. Thesis, Dalhousie University, April, 19h6, p. 67. . 9Ibid.., p. 68. 10Ian Charles Carghill Graham, Colonists from.Scot1and: Emigration 'tgiNorth America, 1702-178 , (Ithaca, N. Y., 1956), p. 150. 11R. Brown, History gfgape Breton, (London, 1869), p. h22. hO and of the Island of St. John."12 The place names along the north- eastern coast of the peninsula of Nova Scotia-- Arisaig, Knoydart, Lis- more, and many others—- suggest a strong connection with Wester Ross. Emigrants from Lochaber, Keppoch, and.Glengarry in Inverness-shire usually went to Glengarry in Ontario.13 And most of the Scots who sets tled in part of the Ottawa valley came from the island of Lewis: in 1838 "the first Scots from the Island of Lewes [sig7 located at Tingwick. Many came from the same Island during the next two decades, settling in Megantic County."14 The process was well understood and well described by Lord Selkirk. He remarked upon the "uncommonly gregarious disposition” of the Highland— ers, "which is easily accounted for when we consider how much their peculiar language and manners tend to seclude them from intercourse with other people." Thus when Highlanders considered emigration, "the suc- cess of those with whom they were acquainted, was a sufficient motive to determine their choice of situation; and having found a rallying ‘point, all who at subsequent periods left the same district of Scot- land, gathered round the same neighbourhood." Thus each_neighbourhood "attracted the peculiar attention of the district from which it had proceeded. The information sent home from each, as to the circumstances of the country in which it was situated, did not spread far. The dif- ficulty of mutual intercourse in a mountainous country, tended to con— fine any information to the valley in which it was received. This 1ZSelkirk, Observations, p. 173. l3Norman Macdonald, Canada, l763-l8h1: Immigration and Settle- ment, (Toronto, 195h), p. HO. 14.Storied Province gf Qgebec, p. 751. bl effect was still more promoted by the feudal animosities of the differ- ent clans."15 Scottish emigration to British North America was a movement from glen to glen, from island to island, in which friend followed friend and kin followed kin. The Highlanders, partly because of the nature of the social system in which they had lived, partly because of their separate language, culture and customs, and partly because of less tangible factors, felt compelled to settle togetheru The clan had been the basic unit of Highland life and it became the basic unit of High- land emigration. Out of this grew up a tradition of emigration to cer- tain parts of British North America, which helps to explain the extra— ordinary amount of Scottish settlement there between 1815 and 1860. 15Selkirk, Observations, pp. 170-173. CHAPTER.VIII THE BEGINNINGS OF A HIGHLAND TRADITION What were the roots of that tradition of Highland emigration? Was it simply the result of the more attractive conditions which existed in British North America after 1812? Without doubt those conditions did strengthen that tradition. Yet its roots go deeper. It is possible to trace connections between the Highlands and British.North America back to the late eighteenth century, back to the days before the conditions existed which made British.North America a more attractive destination to the Highlander. The first Highland settlers in British North America had little reason to see it as a promised land and no reason to prefer it to the United.States. Indeed the beginnings of what was to develop into a tradition of Highland emigration are partly to be found in a number of almost accidental events. The most important of these was the coming of the Hegtgr to Nova Scotia in 1773, and this was the result of a rather strange combination of circumstances.1 In 1765 the "Philadelphia Company", whose members included Benjamin Franklin, received a grant of 2,000 acres in Pictou county, Nova Scotia. The attempts of the Company to settle this land were not strikingly successful, but after.a few years three individual shares fell into the hands of John Pagan, a merchant of Greenock. On Pagan's suggestion, one John Ross was employed by the company to visit Scotland with authority to intice settlers with the promise of free land, a farm lot, and a year's provisions. A shipload of passengers 1Judge G. Patterson, "The Coming of the Hector", Dalhousie Review Vol. 3, 1923, pp. 1h6-151. b3 was quickly secured, and in June 1773, 200 Scots set sail from Loch Broom in Pagan's old ship, the Hegtgr, which sailed into Pictou.Harbour in the middle of September. The Hegtgr, it has been said, was Canada's May- .EEEEEE: for "her coming marks the beginnings of Scottish immigration in— to this country."2 These first settlers soon started to spread the QOSpel of rent-free land to their kin across the Atlantic, many of whom made haste to join them. One Canadian historian considers that the years from 1772 to 1775 may have introduced as many as 2,000 settlers into Nova Scotia.3 By 1791 the population of Pictou itself was esti— mated at 1,300. In 1803 it was estimated at 5,000, and 9,000 mOre were said to be expected that year. As the best lands in Pictou County be- came settled, new immigrants started to spread into the neighbouring counties in the northern arm of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, into Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Ontario. Judge G. Patterson maintains that "it would be rash to say that none of these would have come to Canada had not the Hector led the way, but certainly very many of them would not have come, and the coming of others would have been greatly delayed." This was only the most Spectacular of the incidents which in the late 18th century were helping to establish the tradition of Highland emigration in British North America. The capture of Prince Edward Island in 1758 by Lord Rollo, a Scottish colonel under Wolfe; the dis- banding of the h2nd Highlanders in 1763 in Prince Edward Island.where they received land grants in.Murray Bay; the colonization schemes of ZPatterson, "The Coming of the Hector", p. 151. 3John Bartlet Brebner, The Neutral Yankees gf Nova Scotia (New York, 1937), p. 120. ht Lord Selkirk, and other haphazard and unrelated events, were all, in the years before 1815, contributing to the establishment of the tradi- tion. Nevertheless it was not entirely chance which led to the Highland preference for British North America. Events such as these can help to explain how a tradition of emigration to British North America was established, and even how it became strong; but they cannot explain how it became supreme, how it became stronger than other connections which had been established, notably in the United.States. That explanation can be provided only by the story of the migra- tion of the United Empire Loyalists. It was this migration which sub- stantially destroyed the Highland connection with what became the United States, and transferred it to Canada. For before the War of Independence the Highland emigrants had not all chosen to go to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, or Canada itself. By far the greatest number had migrated to the Amer- ican colonies. The years from 1763 to 1775 had been ones of heavy emi— gration from the Highlands, of the "epidemic fury of emigration" des— cribed by Dr. Johnson. It has been estimated that something like 25,000 Scots emigrated to North America.4 A very high proportion of these went to North Carolina where they were encouraged to settle by the liberal policy of the legislature in remitting the taxes of the Scottish immigrants for a number of years.5 Between 1768 and 1775 about 5,000 Scots settled there-— almost a quarter of the total Scottish emigration for the whole period.6 Many of them aIan Charles Carghill Graham, Colonists from.Scotland: Emigration tg_North America, 1791-1783, (Ithaca, N. Y., 1956), p. 2. 5Graham, Colonists from Scotland, p. 9h. 6Ihid., p. 189. . 115 came from the Island of Skye from where they had been driven by high rents. Selkirk noted in 1805 that the people "of Argyleshire and its islands, of the Isle of Skye, of the greater part of the Long Island, of Sutherland and part of Ross-shire" had "established a connexion with North Carolina."7 They went in particular to Cumberland County, and those from.Argyleshire settled in Cape Fear valley where they built up a cattle raising industry.8 The Highlanders also flocked, in those years from 1763 to 1775, to New York Colony. Selkirk observed that the peOple of Breadalbane pand other parts of Perthshire, the people of Badenoch and Strathspey, and.part of Ross-shire, "generally resorted" to New York colony and had formed settlements on the Delaware, the Mohawk, and the Connect- icut rivers.9 There was also a large number fromjfiwerness—shire. In the early 1770's, Sir William Johnson, the Indian Superintendant in the North, induced many Highlanders to settle on his land on the Mohawk valley. In 1773 he imported about 300 Roman Catholics from<31engarry, Glenmoriston, Glenurquart and Strathglass, all in Inverness-shire.1° North Carolina and New York were by far the most popular colonies with Highland settlers, but there was also a considerable emigration from Inverness—shire to Georgia, and a fair number of Highlanders went to Pennsylvania, Maryland and South Carolina.11 There was also a large Scottish population in Virginia before the War of Independence, but 7Selkirk, Observations, p. 173. afiraham, Colonists from Scotland, p. 11h . 9Selkirk, Observations, p. 172. 1°Graham, Colonists from Scotland, p. 81. 11Selkirk, Observations, p. 172. h6 very many of these were Lowland Scots, generally merchants and traders; indeed one historian has noted that the merchants and factors in Vir- ginia at that time were "largely Scotch by nativity."12 Thus the)”epidemic fury" of emigration between 1763 and 1775 took more Scots to the American colonies than to the area which was to re- main British.North America. And although connections existed between the Highlands and Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Canada, they were not as strong as those with New York, North Carolina and.Georgia. It took the War of Independence to divert the flow to British.North America. Had not the colonists from the Highlands proved to be over- whelmingly Loyalist, then the tradition of Highland emigration to British North America would never have become so strong. \. lZArthurM. Schlesinger, Jr., The Colonial Merchants and the Amer- ican Revolution, 1763-1766, (New York, 1957), pp. 509-512. CHAPTER,IX THE STRENGTHENING OF THE TRADITION It is easier to establish than to explain the fact that the High— land colonists were Loyalist. Many of them had been driven overseas by the Battle of Culloden and its consequences. Why should the support— ers of the Stuart cause remain loyal to the Hanoverian crown4- and often at the cost of a second exile? The Highlanders seemed to show an al- most pathologic propensity for supporting lost causes. The opinion of one historian that "the loyalty of the Highlander in America to the Crown was a logical extension of his unquestioning obedience to his landlord," is hardly an adequate explanation although it probably pro- vides part of the answer.1 Doubtless the nature of Highland society diSposed the Highlander towards reaction and royalism rather than to- wards revolution and republicanism, After all, the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and l7h5 had been aimed not at revolution but at restoration. A Stuart king was better than a Hanoverian king; but a Hanoverian king was better than no king at all. In any event, the Highlanders were Loyalists; and they constituted a very high proportion of the United Empire Loyalists who sought homes in British.North America. The contribution of North Carolina Highlanders was particularly great. In April 1777 the North Carolina legislature decreed that any person convicted of taking a commission from the king was guilty of treason and liable to the death penalty. Most of those who left because 1Ian Charles Carghill Graham, Colonists from Scotland: Emigration 52 North America, 1717-1783, (Ithaca, N. Y., 1956), p. 150. N8 of this decree were Highlanders from the back country; and by July, two— thirds of the pOpulation of Cumberland County are said to have been pre- paring to leave the state-- some for home but many for British North America.2 In New York State the Highlanders were again foremost in Loyalist activity. The Macdonells of Glengarry formed the core of resistance, and many of them served in Butler's Rangers under Sir John Johnson.3 In Georgia, the Highlanders were so troublesome that the House of Assembly enacted in 1782 that any native of Scotland found in the State was to be imprisoned without bail and deported as soon as possible. No such discrimination had to be made against people from any other part of the United Kingdom. The preamble to the act declared that "the People of Scotland have in General Ma nifested a decided inimicality to the Civil Liberties of America and have contributed Principally to promote and continue a Ruinous War, for the Purpose of Subjugating this and the other Confederated States."4 ' Highlanders were also prominent among the Loyalists of South Carol- ina. In 1777 the legislature passed an act requiring an oath abjuring allegiance to the Crown. This forced a number of Scots to leave, and many more followed in 1778 when the state required all inhabitants over sixteen.years of age to fight against the British. The evacuation of Charleston in 1782 provoked another wave of Loyalist migration; and thousands more set out from there, as from every where else, when the ZIsaac Samuel Harrell, "North Carolina Loyalists," North Carolina Historical Review, III (1926), pp. 575-590. 3Graham, Colonists from Scotland, p. 176. 41bid., p. 153. 119 terms of peace became known.5 There were many Highlanders, then, in the Loyalist migrations to British North America. There were many Highlanders in the great mi- gration to Nova Scotia which brought, it has been estimated, about 35,000 new inhabitants to the province, and which formed one of the two main streams of the Loyalist movement into British North America.6 It is not surprising that the Loyalists of the Atlantic coast looked to Nova Scotia for refuge. It was easily reached from Boston and New York; it offered an abundance of unoccupied lands; it was in an excellent position to defend itself; it was so recent a British con- quest that it was still in close touch with Britain, more so than the other colonies. Moreover, the British naval and military authorities were able to COOperate in the departure of the Loyalists from New York for Halifax.’ The first great Loyalist migration to Nova Scotia took place in . early 1776 when, after Howe had evacuated Boston, nearly a thousand Loyalists accompanied the British Army to Halifax in the belief that "neither Hell, Hull, nor Halifax can afford worse shelter than Boston."8 [Soon it was being reported that "Nova Scotia is all the rage," and every year until 1782, groups of Loyalists arrived at Halifax. Many of 5Robert Barnwell Jr., "The Migration of Loyalists from South Carolina," Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association, 1937) PP- 317112. 6DuncanA. McArthur, "British North America and the American Rev- olution," The Cambridge History of the British Empire, ed. J. Holland Rose et a1., (New'York, 1930), VI Canada and.Newfoundland, p. 187. 7Marcus Lee Hanson and John Barlet Brebner The Min lin of the Canadian and American Pegples, (New Haven, 19h0),p .51. 3W. Stewart Wallace, The United.Empire Loyalists: [A Chronicle 33 the Great Migration, (Toronto, 1920), p. 5b. 50 the Loyalists who arrived in those years were Highlanders from.North Carolina and a fair number were from New York.9 The same may safely be said of the hundreds of Loyalists who flocked to Nova Scotia upon hearing rumours of an impending peace upon unfavourable terms.1° And the Scottish population in Nova Scotia was further increased at the close of the war when a Scottish regiment, the 82nd or ”Hamilton", was disbanded at Halifax. To accomodate them, land previously granted was escheated, and more than 150 settled in Pictou and Antigonish. A.year later they were joined by sixty of the second battalion of the 8hth or Royal Highland Regiment.ll After the best lands around Halifax were granted, the Loyalists Spread out. Many of them settled along the northern arm of Nova Scotia; and the counties between Amherst and Tatamagouche were opened up when Loyalist settlements began at wallace and Pugwash; and disbanded soldiers and civilians from.North and South Carolina, many of whom must have been Highlanders, took up land west of the River Shubencadie.12 Many of them.went further afield. Some went to Cape Breton. In 178h the island was given a separate government, Major Frederic Wallett DeSBarres was appointed Lieutenant-Governor, and Loyalists were encour— aged to apply for land. Before the end of 178h about 800 Loyalists had 9Graham, Colonists from.Scot1and, p. 157. 1°Wa11ace, United Empire Loyalists, p. 57. 11Robert England, "Disbanded and Discharged Soldiers in Canada prior to 191k", CH3, Vol. 27, (March l9h6), pp. 1—18. 1&3. C. Campbell, The History gf Nova Scotia, (Toronto, l9h8), 51 crossed from.Nova Scotia to Cape Breton, and about 500 of these remained as permanent settlers.13 Others went to Prince Edward Island. After the collapse of Shel- burne, "that great city that was to be," founded by the early loyalists in Nova Scotia, many of the disappointed settlers left for Prince Ed- ward Island to try to retrieve their fortunes.14 Many of them were attracted there by the liberal offers of the proprietors of the island, who saw an opportunity to obtain settlers and at the same time escape the payment of quit rents.15 It has been estimated that by the end of l78h about 600 Loyalists had settled in Prince Edward Island, mostly on the South shore. The majority of those whose origin was known came from New York, and there were others from the Carolinas; so that it may be assumed, as the Highlanders had formed the backbone of Loyalist resistance in these places, that many of the incomers to Prince Edward Island were Scots.16 But the numbers who forsook Nova Scotia for Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island were small compared to those who went to New Brunswick. After 1782 St. John became everything that Shelburne had failed to be. A few Loyalists had gone there from Boston at the beginning of the war, and the land and the situation were found to be attractive. Throughout 13Campbell, Nova Scotia, p. 172- 14Wilbur H. Siebert and Florence E. Gilliam, "The Loyalists of Prince Edward Island, " Trans. of the Royal Society of Canada, IV, (1910), Section II, pp. 109-117. 15AndrewMacphail, "The History of Prince Edward Island," Canada and its Provinces, XIII, The Atlantic Provinces, (Toronto, 191k), p. 359—- 16Siebert and.Gilliam, "The Loyalists of Prince Edward Island," p. 110. 52 the winter of 1782—3, Governor Sir Guy Carleton was receiving thousands of Loyalist refugees at New York—- far more than he could direct to Nova Scotia, eSpecially now that the Shelburne settlement had failed. Consequently, a fleet of twenty transports for the St. John River sail— ed from Sandy Hook, New York, on April 26, carrying about 3,000 Loyalists. A second contingent reached St. John in late June, 1783, and by October about 10,000 had arrived.” The settlement of St. John was quickly turning into a city. Of the thousands of Loyalists who poured into it as many as hO per cent‘came from.New York State and Nthe number of Cam— erons, Campbells, Stewarts, and Macs among the New Brunswick Loyalists Show the importance of the Scottish element."18 In the southwest corner of the province, discharged soldiers from the TLth (or Argyll) High- landers settled along the Digdeguash and St. Croix Rivers, and a small group from the North Carolina Highlanders settled in Charlotte County.¥9 Further north, on the upper Nashwaak near Federicton, the land was laid out in narrow lots for the h2nd Highlanders, under the leadership of Dugald Campbell, who made that part of the country a Scottish strong; hold; and Fredericton from its earliest days has contained a large, number of Scots. Some, however, soon moved from there to Miramichi,. where they were attracted by wider frontage and the presence of other Scots. In 1765 William Davidson from Inverness had received a grant of 100,000 acres at the junction of the southwest and northwest.Miramichi, and after the war he induced a number of Highland Loyalists, including l7Esther Clark wright, The Loyalists pf New Brunswick, (Federicton, N. B., 1955), pp. 50, 58. 18Wright, Loyalists 3; New Brunswick, p. 155. 19England, "Disbanded and Discharged Soldiers", p.15. 53 men from the h2nd Highlanders and the North Carolina volunteers, to settle on his 1ands.2° Highland Loyalists predominated not only in the migration by sea to the maritime provinCes, but also in the overland migration to Upper and Lower Canada. Ohtario received its initial impetus towards settle- ment from Highlanders from the revolted colonies, particularly NewYork.21 Most sought lands along the upper St. Lawrence, and on the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie, and the disbanding of Butler's Rangers at Ni? agamaincreased the Scottish population there.' But the most notable Scottish Loyalist settlement in Canada was undoubtedly the Glengarry settlement. This was established when the first battalion of the King's Royal Regiment of New York was settled on the first five townships along the St. Lawrence next to the border of Lower Canada. This was Sir John Johnson's regiment, and most of its members were his Highland dependents -- many of them Macdonells of Inverness-shire—— from the Mohawk valley in.New York. The next three townships were settled by part of Jessup's Corps, an offshoot of Johnson's regiment,22 and the site was named Glengarry County,23 The movement of Highland emigration had.been deflected from.North Carolina, New York, and.Georgia, to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Ontario. By the middle of the 1780's both the epidemic fury of emigration from.Scot1and and the Loyalist migrations from the 20Wright, Loyalists of New Brunswick, pp. 196—198. 2JGraham, Colonists from Scotland, p. 177. 22Wallace, United Empire Loyalists, p. 100. 23J. Murray Gibbon, Scots 12 Canada, (New York, 1930), pp. 63-65. 5h United States had ceased. But emigration did not entirely stop, and those Scots who did emigrate went principally to the Loyalist or pre- Loyalist settlements in British North America. Most immigrants to Nova Scotia in the three decades after the War of Independence were High- landers, and had been induced to settle there by the representations of their compatriots.24 The same was true of Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island.25 In Upper Canada, the success of the first Glengarry settlers soon induced others from.Inverness-shire to join them. Other Highland settlers went to the Niagara district and the shores of Lake Erie-- both strongholds of the Highland Loyalists.26 .And when, after 1815, the trickle of Highland emigration turned into a torrent, it was, as has already been shown, to these same places that the Highlanders principally directed themselves. The arrival of the H3222; had created the tradition of Highland emigration to British.North America. The arrival of the Loyalists con- verted that tradition into the supreme one in.Scottish emigration. .This had a profound effect upon the great Highland migration from 1815 to 1860, and accounts for the influence which it had upon early Canad- ian History. That influence is still apparent today. And even after the period of great Highland emigration had come to a close in 1860, the tradition itself survived, and is not yet quite dead. “Patterson, "Arrival of the Hector". 25Stanley C. Johnson, A History of Emigration From the United Kingdom 3 North America, 1763-1912, Tfondon, 1913), p. 7. 2'5Gd.bbon, Scots in Canada, p. 63. \J" '\ ‘3‘1 CONCLUSION The Scottish influence in Canadian life and history appeared strong enough and significant enough to justify a study of the major period of Scottish emigration to British North America. Such a study involved a departure from the traditional approach to the subject of emigration and was concerned with examining the causes, rather than describing the conditions, of emigration. These causes were found to be very different from the ones underlying the English and Irish emi- grations of the same period. The principal cause of Scottish emigration was the movement of enclosure and eviction which resulted from Social and economic changes in the Highlands at the end of the eighteenth century-- the collapse of the clan system on the one hand and agricul- tural changes on the other. The principal reasons for this emigration to be directed towards British North America were the tendency of the Highlanders to settle together in the New World, and the consequent tradition of Highland emigration to certain parts of British North America which grew up after the northward migration of the United Em- pire Loyalists. Thus whereas. Scottish Emigration is usually seen simply as a part of the general movement from the United Kingdom and Europe, it was alsoa part of Highland.History3 and it.is by seeing it as such that its significance for Canadian history can best be ex- plained and appreciated. BIBLIOGRAPHY l. PRIMARY SOURCES A number of reports printed in the Sessional Papers 2£_the House 'gf Commons (microcard edition, University of Michigan) formed the nuc- leus of the primary material. The year of printing, the volume within the year, and the sessional number of these reports are cited along with the shortened title:-- 1826 IV (hOh). Report from the Select Committee on Emigration from the United Kingdom, 1826. 18hl XV (298). Correspondence Relative to Emigration to Canada. lBhl v1 (182). First Report from.the Select Committee on Emigration, Scotland. 18hl VI (333). Second Report from the Select Committee on Emigration, Scotland. ‘ 18h2 XXXI (373). A Return of the numbers of persons who have embarked from the several ports of the United Kingdom, lBhl. 18h2 XXXI (313). Report of the Chief Emigration Agent at Quebec to the Governor-General, lBhl. lth XXXV (181). Report of the Chief Emigration.Agent at Quebec to the Governor43eneral, 18h3. .1850 XL (173). Report of the Chief Emigration.Agent at Quebec to the GovernorhGeneral, 18h9. 1861 VI (373). Report of the Chief Emigration Agent at Quebec to the Governor43eneral, 1860. The reports of the Chief Emigration Agent at Quebec were particu- larly valuable, providing information not only on the numbers emigrat- ing from Scotland, but also on the native districts and the destinations of these emigrants, and sometimes on the causes of emigration. The re- ports of the select committees on emigration provided a useful examina— tion of the economic difficulties in the Highlands at this time and the S7 extent to which British North America was able to provide a remedy for this. Two other official sources were Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, second series, XVI, 1826—7, which provided some useful contemporary commentaries on the Scottish industrial situation as a cause of emi- gration, and Sir Charles P. Lucas, Ed, Lord Durham's Report 23 the Affairs 2: British North America, II, Oxford, 1912. By far the most valuable unofficial contemporary account of Scot- tish emigration in the early nineteenth century is to be found in Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk's Observations 23 the Present able consdquences g£.Emigration, 2nd ed., Edinburgh, 1806. Although this was written a decade before the beginning of the period of intense Scottish emigration from 1815 to 1860, Selkirk’s remarks on the causes and character of emigration from the Highlands are probably more pene— trating and more profound than anything that has since been written. There is also much of value in Thomas Rolph's Emigration and Coloniza— tion: Embodying the Results 3; a Mission _t_o_ Great Britain and Ireland during the years 1839, 18h0, l8h1, and 18h2, London, l8hh, John.Galt's The Autobiography 9£.£222.§§l£? London, 1833, was useful chiefly for its account of the author's work in.founding the Canada Land Company, and of the Scottish settlements promoted by that company. Two compilations of contemporary opinion and observation proved useful. The nature and influence of the Scottish settlements in Canada were described in several of the accounts contained in Gerald Craig's Early Travellers in the Canadas, 1791-1867, Toronto, 1955, notably in the extracts from John.M. Duncan's iravels through part of the United 58 States and Canada in 1818 and 1819, Glasgow, 1823, and John Howison's Sketches 2f Upper Canada, Domestic, Local and Characteristic, Edinburgh. 1821. The other compilation was Edith Abbot‘s Historical Aspects 2f the Immigration.Problem: Select Documents, Chicago, 1926, which cone tains such valuable material as Thomas McLauchlan’s "The Influence of Emigration on the Social Conditions of the Highlands", first published in Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion.2£fl§ggial Science, 1863. Niles Weekly Register contained some information on the sailing of emigrants for British.North America during this period. The Edinburgh 53313! was by far the most valuable contemporary periodical, containing observations on emigration by men such as Sir Walter Scott. 2. SECONDARY SOURCES Most of the general works on emigration to North America during this period.proved more valuable for their information than for their ideas. They tend to suffer from the lack of any sort of an analytical* approach, and consist largely of descriptions of the-numbers of emigrants sailing from the United Kingdom, the government assistance which they received, the conditions of the vqyage, and the place of settlement. Frequently there is relatively little attention paid to the conditions which led to emigration, and even where causes are suggested there is, as a rule, no attempt to assess their relative importance. The peculiar causes of Scottish emigration are not always recognized, and the move- ment is generally treated simply as an integral part of the larger move— ment from the United Kingdom. Into this category fall, in spite of their value as sources of information, Stanley C. Johnson's A Histogy 2f Emigration from.the United Kingdom to North.America, 1763-1912, Lona don, 1913, and.Edwin C. Guilletls The Great Migration, New York, 1937. Something of the same may be said of Helen I. Cowan's British Emigration £2_North America, 1783—1837, Thronto, 1928, although in other respects it is an excellent book-- well written, thoroughly documented, and, be- cause it covers a fairly short period, abundantly detailed. W..A. Car— rothers, Emigration from the British Isles, London, 1929, is a useful attempt to relate emigration to economic facts and theories, but it is not entirely free from the weaknesses already mentioned. The most re- cent book on emigration to North America during this period does avoid many of these weaknesses. W. S. Shepperson's British Emigration.tg 60 North.America: Projects 32g Opinions in the Early Victorian.§erigd, Minneapolis, 1957, pays considerable attention to the conditions lead- ing to emigration; but whereas the author recognized that "the great Irish exodus. . . represented an entirely different movement" from.that in England and Scotland, he fails to distinguish between the emigrations from these last two countries. The one general work dealing exclusively with emigration to British North America during this period, Norman Mac- Donald, Canada, 1763-l8hl: Immigration and Settlement, Toronto, 195b, is comprehensive and extremely well documented, although, once again, not particularly analytical. On the Scottish contribution to Canadian life and history, W. J. Toronto, 1883, is the most comprehensive source. Unfortunately it is exaggeratedly sentimental and patriotic and tends to leave the impres- sion that the Scottish settlers made not merely the supreme but the sole contribution to the develqpment of Canada. William.Wilfred Campbell‘s The Scotsman in Eastern Canada, London, 1911, shows much the same ten- dency. Later works, notably James A. Ray's The Scot and Canada, Toronto, 19147, are shorter, better written, and better balanced, J. L. LeB. and Barbara Hammond, The Skilled Labourer, 1760-1832, London, 1920, and.George Herbert Perris, The Industrial History 2f flgdgrg England, London, 1920, were of some use in assessing the extent to which industrial dislocation was a cause of Scottish emigration. But much more valuable in this reSpect was Leslie C. Wright's Scottish Chartism, Edinburgh, 1953, which exposes and emphasizes the significant differences between the English and the Scottish industrial revolutions. 61 The economic and social condition of the Highlands during this = period was studied.principally from.primary sources, but the Rev. Alex. Macgregor’s "Destitution in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland", Celtic Magazine XVI (Feb. 1870), 127, provided useful supplementary in— formation. John Mason, "Conditions in the Highlands after the Forty Five”, Scottish Historical Review, XXVI (19h?) l3h-lh6, was also consult- ed. D. M. Sinclair, "Highland.Emigration.to Nova Scotia", Dalhousie. Reyigg,(April, l9hji 215, surveyed some of the Highland literature in- spired-- or provoked-- by eviction and emigration. Literature on Scottish settlements in the maritime colonies of British North America is fairly extensive. The most general work used here was Miriam Chapiki's Atlantic Eaaaaa, New York, 1956. But a number of more specialized studies were of greater value. The Provihée of Nova Scotia is eSpecially rich in this sort of study. George MacLaren, The Pictou Bookzl Stories 2£.925 BEER: privately published, New Glasgow, N. S., 19b2, is an invaluable study of early Scottish settlements in Pictou County. Judge G. Patterson's article on "The Coming of the Hector" not only describes the establishment of the first sizeable Scottish settlement in Nova Scotia, but also traces some of the Scot- tish emigration.which followed this. J. S. Martell, Immigration.£2.aaa Emigration from Nova Sectia, 1815—1838, the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, publication no. 6, Halifax, N. S., 19h2 is a highly detailed and well documented study throwing much light on Scottish immigration to Nova Scotia at that time. R. Brown's Histogy'gf'gapa B32322, London, 1869, describes the early Scottish settlements on the island, the later qualist immigration, and the heavy Highland influx after 1815. M. Errol Bouchette, "Les Ecossais du Cap-Breton", Proceedings and Transactions of 62 the qual Society 2f Canada, 3rd series, IV(1910), section 1, p. 3, con— tains a stimulating description of the similarities, both social and geo- graphical, between the Scottish Highlands and Cape Breton Island. The most useful account of Scottish settlement in Prince Edward Island was found in.Andrew Macphail's ”The History of Prince Edward Island”, Eag— ada and its Provinces, Adam Short and Arthur G. Doughty, eds., XIII, IRE Atlantic Provinces, Ibronto, 191k. Some valuable material on the Scottish settlements in Upper and Lower Canada was yielded by two histories of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, although both these books lack adequate documentation. Alexander Fraser, & History 23 Ontario: Its Resources and Development, Toronto, 1907, proved rather more useful than the anonymous The Storied Province 2; ebecx Past and Present. These works were supplemented by G. C. Patterson's Land Settlement Ea Upper Canada,INew York, 19h0; Jennie W. Aberdein's JEEflzgfilE: London, 1936; the Ontario Bureau of Ar- chives, 5E2232.ié7l§: 1920-293 and Robert England's "Disbanded and Dis- charged Soldiers in Canada prior to l9lh," Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 27, (March 19h6), 1-18. The only major Scottish settlement west of present day Ontario dur— ing this period was Selkirk's Red River Settlement. There is an abund- ance of secondary material On this, but the work chiefly consulted here was: Chester Martin, ”The Red River Settlements":?Canada and its Prov— 33933,.Adam Short and Arthur G. Doughty, eds., XIX, IRE Prairie Era!- iagaa, Toronto, 19lh. 0n the early Scottish settlements in the American colonies, and the subsequent qualist migrations, to British North America, Ian Charles Carghill Graham, Colonists from Scotland: Emigration 22 North 63 America, 1717-1783, is detailed and well documented and proved of ex- ceptional value. Useful information on the Scottish Loyalist settle- ments in British North America was also found in W. Stewart Wallace, The United Empire qualists: :5 Chronicle 2£ the Great Migration, Tor- onto, 19203 John Bartlet Brebner, IRE Neutral Yankees 2; Nova Scotia, New York, 1937; Fred Landon, Western Ontario and the American Frontier, Toronto, 19hl; and to a somewhat lesser extent by Duncan.A. McArthur, "British North America and the American Revolution", in The Cambridge Histo of the British.Empire, J. Holland Rose et al. eds. New York, .____;£Z.__ ______, , 1930, VI, Canada and.Newfoundland. A number of shorter studies bearing on this subject were also found useful. The most important of these was Ester Clark Wright's qualists 23 New Brunswick, Fredericton, N. B., 1955, which is thouroughly documented and easily the most authoritative work on early settlement in New Brunswick. Other short studies used were: Wilbur A. Siebert and Florence E. Gilliam, "The Loyalists of Prince Edward Island", Trans. 2f the qual Society 2: Canada, IV (1910), section II, 109-1173 Isaac Samuel Harell, "North Carolina Loyalists", North Carolina Historical Review, III (1926), 573-590; and Robert Barn- well Jr., "The Migration of qualists from South Carolina", Proceedings 2; South Carolina Historical Association, @9371 36-h2. "111111111lll111l1111111111111111155 3129310122