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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. North America, 1857-1859
Author Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton; Rogers, Frederic; Wood, C Alexander
Date 16 Jan 1857 - 9 Dec 1859
Document Type Correspondence; Legal Papers
Reference CO 386/84
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Copies of out-letters, mostly addressed to Herman Merivale. The correspondence largely covers colonial legislation, the colonisation of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, frauds posing as brokers/emigration agents, relations with the Hudson's Bay Company and the US government, and conditions on board migrant ships. 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; Arrivals: Ports and Early Experiences; Journey Conditions; Ships and Shipping Lines
Country (from) Great Britain; Ireland; Germany
Country (to) Canada; United States of America
Places New Brunswick, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Canada
Ports New York, United States
Nationality English; Irish; German; European
Ships Cultivator; Resolute; Sea Nymph; Argo; Pallas; Ocean Monarch
People Earl of Derby (Stanley, Sir Edward Henry); Earl of Clarendon (Villiers, George); Baron Taunton (Labouchere, Henry); Lord Lytton (Edward Bulwer Lytton); Douglas, Sir James
Keywords land, legislation, legislature, land sale, land grant, crown lands, land claim, money, finance, mining, emigration, labour, labourer, female emigration, insanity, shipping, journey conditions, shipwreck, fishing and fishermen, forgery, litigation, diplomacy, gold, coal, surveying, diplomacy, administration, statistics, Hudson Bay Company
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK