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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. British Guiana, 1854-1859 |
| Author | Wood, C Alexander; Rogers, Frederic |
| Date | 23 Jan 1854 - 28 Dec 1859 |
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Reference | CO 386/94 |
| Library / Archive | The National Archives |
| Collection Name | Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc. |
| Description | Copies of out-letters regarding liberated Africans and indentured labour from India and China, mostly addressed to Sir Herman Merivale, some for the attention of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The correspondence covers various legal, regulatory and financial questions including guaranteed loans to colonial governments, conditions and mortality rates on board migrant ships, contracts signed by indentured labourers, the demand for labour, return passages, the hire of vessels, and relations with the India Board. An index is included at the end of the volume. |
| 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; Journey Conditions; Departures: Port Conditions and Organisation; Remigration |
| Country (from) | Madeira; India; China; St Helena |
| Country (to) | Jamaica; British Guiana; Trinidad; Tobago; Grenada; French Guiana; Cuba |
| Places | London, England; Demerara, British Guiana |
| Ports | Hong Kong, Guangzhou, China; Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, India |
| Nationality | Indian; Chinese; Asian; Portuguese; African; European |
| Ships | Ellenborough; Royal George; Devonshire; Wellesley; Assaye; Empress Eugenie; St Croix; Clarendon; Hamilla Mitchell; Castle Eden |
| People | Merivale, Herman; Baron Taunton (Labouchere, Henry); Duke of Newcastle (Pelham-Clinton, Henry Pelham); Wodehouse, Philip Edmond |
| Keywords | remittance, death, shipping, slavery, surgeon, agent, disease, medical examination, contract, land sale, passage money, medical examination, labour, labourer, sugar, agent, Bank of England, Bounty Emigration, assisted emigration, indentured labour, return passage, sanitation, coolie, Liberated Africans |
| Language | English |
| Copyright | Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK |
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