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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. Cape of Good Hope, Sierra Leone, St Helena, Natal, Gambia, Gold Coast, 1867-1876
Date 31 Oct 1867 - 31 Oct 1876
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/109
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Letters refer to claims of land and land grants, to recently passed legislation, and discussions on altering legislation to remove indigenous peoples from lands desired for colonial settlement.
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) Colonisation Companies and Emigration Societies; Religion, Ethnic Identity and Community Relations; Ships and Shipping Lines
Country (from) Great Britain; India; China
Country (to) South Africa; Africa; Sierra Leone; Cuba; St Helena
Places Cape of Good Hope, Natal, South Africa; Gambia, Gold Coast; St Helena; Calcutta, India; Mozambique; Lagos, Nigeria; New Guinea
Ports Macao, China; Havana, Cuba
Nationality Indian; Chinese; Asian; French; European
Ships Earl of Southesk; Ailsa; Blenheim; Enmore; Gainsborough; St Kilda
People Merivale, Herman (1806-1874); Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton; Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick; Rogers, Frederick
Keywords colony, colonisation, emigration, emigration scheme, administration, indentured labour, provisions, expenses, wages, finance, land, crown lands, legislation, regulations, alien, indigenous people, dispossession, settlement, farming, agriculture, expansion, land sale, loan, land price, tax, land grant, soldier, railway, allotments, flogging, punishment, slavery, trade, missionaries, charter, passenger list
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK