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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters from the Emigration Commission, 1841
Date Apr-Sep 1841
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/27
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Letters refer to applications and authorisation given for free passage to the Australian colonies to surveyors, labourers and their families. Several letters also refer to denied applications to emigrate due to the lack on funds available to support government and bounty schemes. Families with too many children are also noted in letters here as ineligible for the bounty system. The colonisation of the Falkland Islands is also referred to within these letters. There is an index at the back of this document listing dates, recipients and a brief summary of each letter's subject.
Series Description This series contains original correspondence, entry books and registers of the Agent General for Emigration, the South Australian Commissioners and the Land and Emigration Commission. Amongst the miscellaneous contents are registers of births and deaths of emigrants at sea 1854-1869, lists of ships chartered 1847-1875, registers of surgeons appointed 1854-1894, and volumes of The Colonial Gazette 1838-1842.
Biographical Note / History A Colonial Land and Emigration Commission was created in 1840 to undertake the duties of two earlier and overlapping authorities which were both under the supervision of the Secretary of State. These were the Colonisation Commissioners for South Australia, established under an Act of 1834, and the Agent General for Emigration, appointed in 1837. The new commission dealt with grants of land, the outward movement of settlers, the administration of the Passengers' Acts of 1855 and 1863 and, from 1846 to 1859, the scrutiny of colonial legislation. In 1855 it became the Emigration Commission. In 1873 the administration of the Passengers' Acts was transferred to the Board of Trade. The commission's powers were gradually given up to the larger colonies as they obtained self-government, and after 1873 its only duties were the control of the importation of Indian indentured labour into sugar-producing colonies and it was abolished in 1878.
Theme(s) Politics, Legislation and Governance
Country (from) Great Britain
Country (to) Australia; New Zealand; Canada; Unites States of America; Falkland Islands
Places Tasmania, Australia; Dundee, Scotland; Falkland Islands
Ports Sydney, New South Wales, Adelaide, South Australia, Melbourne, Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia
Nationality English; European; Scottish
Ships Adam Lodge; Glen Huntley; Oriental; Arab; Henry Porcher; Prince Rupert; Argyll; Montreal Packet; Arbuthnot
People Walcott, Stephen; Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick
Keywords government, emigration, agent, administration, surgeon, shipping, employment, agent, application, assisted emigration, free passage, finance, advertisement, colonisation, colony, regulations, land price, accounts, shipping inspection, emigrant selection, surveying, medicine, emigration scheme, land, eligibility, housing, children, family, passage money, fare, land sale, crown lands
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK