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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to Emigration Agents, Colonial Secretaries, etc. West Indies, British Guiana, etc. Vol 1
Date 14 Feb 1843 - 1 Apr 1845
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/123
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Letters refer to duties to be carried out by Emigration Agents to ensure to wellbeing of passengers, and the transportation of liberated Africans. Some printed items related to the correspondence are included here, such as copies of instructions given to government Emigration Agents for Sierra Leone and other foreign colonies, and Certificates of Naval Officers. 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) Ships and Shipping Lines; Politics, Legislation and Governance
Country (from) St Helena; Canary Islands; Madeira Island; Sierra Leone
Country (to) British Guiana; Trinidad; Jamaica
Places Sierra Leone; England; Demerara, British Guiana; West Indies; St Helena; China; Gambia
Nationality English; European; African; Chinese; Asian
Ships Glen Huntley; Superior; Arabian; Senator; Chieftain; Egyptian; Fairy Queen
People Stirling, J; Walcott, Stephen; Earl of Elgin (Bruce, Victor Alexander)
Keywords emigration, agent, colony, colonisation, settlement, administration, land, government, shipping, regulations, clothing, shipping inspection, Liberated Africans, employment, bounty emigration, Parliament, legislation, Passengers' Act, charter, passenger, plantation, supplies, accounts, finance, freight, vaccination, medical treatment
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK