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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. West Indies, Mauritius, 1854-1859 |
| Author | Rogers, Frederic; Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton |
| Date | 4 Jan 1854 - 27 Jul 1859 |
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Reference | CO 386/91 |
| Library / Archive | The National Archives |
| Collection Name | Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc. |
| Description | Copies of out-letters regarding indentured labour, including liberated Africans, from India and China, largely to the West Indies. Most are addressed to Herman Merivale, and/or for the attention of the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The correspondence covers the regulation of 'Coolie' migration, conditions on board migrant ships, the activities of migration agents in China, penalties issued to shipowners, return passages, the 'importation' of migrants to French colonies, and the share of costs paid by colonial administrations. 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; Remigration; Departures: Port Conditions and Organisation |
| Country (from) | Sierra Leone; China; India |
| Country (to) | British Guiana; Malaysia; Jamaica; Trinidad; Tobago; St Helena; Mauritius; Cuba; Martinique; Guadeloupe; St Lucia; St Vincent; Grenada |
| Places | London, England; Demerara, British Guiana |
| Ports | Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou, Amoy, China; Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Pondicherry, India |
| Nationality | Indian; Chinese; Asian; African |
| Ships | Arabia; Blue Jacket; Empress Eugenie; Rose Ellis; William Jardine; Adelaide; Bucephalus; Minerva; Edward; Harkaway; Martin Luther; Roman Emperor; India; Clarendon; Granville; Maidstone; Ellenborough; White Eagle; Harkaway |
| People | Merivale, Herman; Earl of Clarendon (Villiers, George); Baron Taunton (Labouchere, Henry); Duke of Newcastle (Pelham-Clinton, Henry Pelham) |
| Keywords | shipping, coolie, indentured labour, agriculture, sugar, legislation, administration, Bounty Emigration, agent, regulations, surgeon, death, money, finance, East India Company, labour, labourer, remigration, dysentery, cholera, agent, medical examination, victualling, child migration, female emigration, victualling, return passage, coolie, Liberated Africans |
| Language | English |
| Copyright | Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK |
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