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Title Entry Books of Correspondence, etc. Letters from Mr Elliot, Agent General for Emigration
Author Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick
Date 26 Apr-15 Oct 1838
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/194
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Letters sent by Sir Thomas Frederick Elliot, Agent General for Emigration. Letters refer to applications, enquiries, and dispersal of information relative to emigrating to British colonies in America, Canada and Australia. Particular emigrant ships, their embarkation locations, and other general information is provided. Regulations, rejections and applications for free passage are also referred to throughout, along with fitting out emigrant vessels.
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) Ships and Shipping Lines; Politics, Legislation and Governance
Country (from) Great Britain
Country (to) Canada; United States of America; Australia
Places Limerick, Belfast, Ireland; Quebec, Canada; Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia, Australia; Scotland; Kent, Sussex, England
Ports Gravesend, Portsmouth, England
Nationality English; European; Scottish
Ships Palmyra; Lady Nugent; Calcutta; Charles Kerr
People Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick; Barnard, Edward; Walpole, John; Cambridge, Thomas; Payne, Henry Edward; Bennett, William; Gallagher, John; Eyre, Richard; Larkin, James
Keywords emigrant, emigration, agent, government, emigration scheme, pension, free passage, shipping, application, employment, surgeon, regulations, navy, admiralty, family, crown lands, education, emigrant selection, clergy, Presbyterianism, death, administration, convict, accommodation, wages, expenses, literature, journey conditions
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK