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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. Windward and Leeward Islands, Bahamas, 1854-1859 |
| Date | 10 Jan 1854 - 31 Oct 1859 |
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Reference | CO 386/100 |
| Library / Archive | The National Archives |
| Collection Name | Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc. |
| Description | Letters written by T. W. C. Murdoch and Stephen Walcott, referring principally to the transportation, organisation, and promotion of indentured labourer emigration. Many letters refer specifically to loans requested to carry out the transportation trade, and rates of pay. African immigration, and the emigration of 'poor whites' in various colonies is also referred to. There is also an index at the back, listing the letters by year and colony and detailing the main subject matter and dates of their composition. |
| 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) | Arrivals: Ports and Early Experiences; Colonisation Companies and Emigration Societies; Religion, Ethnic Identity and Community Relations; Ships and Shipping Lines |
| Country (from) | India |
| Country (to) | Windward Islands; Leeward Islands; Bahamas; St Lucia; British Guiana; Sierra Leone; Trinidad |
| Places | Grenada; Tobago; Madeira Island; St Vincent; Calcutta, India |
| Nationality | African; Indian; Asian; English; European; African |
| Ships | Rossuth; Francis Ridley; Palmyra |
| People | Herbert, R G W; Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick; Merivale, Herman (1806-1874); Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton; Walcott, Stephen |
| Keywords | immigration, indentured labour, immigration, loan, emigration, administration, government, agent, mortality rate, shipping, emigrant, forced migration, colony, emigration scheme, government, finance, contract, Liberated Africans, bounty emigration, surgeon, wages, colony conditions, labour, shipwreck, settlement, food, agriculture, land, crown lands, land sale, slavery, social class, poverty, death, property |
| Language | English |
| Copyright | Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK |
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