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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. Australia, 1854-1871
Author Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton; Rogers, Frederic; Wood, C Alexander; Walcott, Stephen
Date 15 Feb 1854 - 8 Mar 1871
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/72
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Copies of out-letters, mostly addressed to Herman Merivale, covering emigration to Britain's Australian colonies. The correspondence broadly covers the hire of migrant ships, financial matters including remittances, statistics, the conditions on board migrant ships and in migrant depots, colonial legislation, the emigration of Germans to Australia, and the surveying of islands. 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; Ships and Shipping Lines; Journey Conditions; Departures: Port Conditions and Organisation; Motives for Emigration
Country (from) Great Britain; Germany
Country (to) Australia
Places Queensland, Northern Territory, Tasmania, New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia, Australia; Canada; Starbuck Island; Malden Island; Bavaria, Germany
Ports Adelaide, South Australia, Brisbane, Queensland, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nationality English; Scottish; German; European
Ships Covenanter; Conway; Dirigo; Wellington; Indian Queen; Vocalist; Warren Hastings; Plantagenet; Ellenborough; Lord Raglan; Chatham; Caribou; Bangalore; Sedgemoor; Coldstream; Himalaya
People Merivale, Herman; Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick; Duke of Newcastle (Pelham-Clinton, Henry Pelham); Fortescue, Chichester; Baron Taunton (Labouchere, Henry)
Keywords death, child migration, female emigration, assisted emigration, emigration, shipping, money, finance, remittance, health and sickness, surgeon, matron, steerage, regulations, legislation, statistics, quarantine, land sale, artisan, ship building, emigration society, advice literature, transportation, agriculture
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK