The full content of this document is only available to subscribing institutions. More information can be found via www.amdigital.co.uk

Title Registry of Letters from Colonies [Land and Emigration Commission], Vol. 1
Date 16 Oct 1841 - 11 Nov 1848
Document Type Report; Correspondence
Reference CO 386/157
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Short abstracts recording each letter received by the Land and Emigration Commission documenting the date, colony, subject, how the letter was answered and the answer date. Subjects cover the conditions passengers faced travelling to Canada and Australia, bounty schemes, passenger returns, land returns, the arrival of emigrant ships, surgeon's logs, quarantine reports and discussions on Passengers' Act legislation.
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; Journey Conditions
Places Grosse Île, Quebec, New Brunswick, Canada; New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, Australia; West Indies; New Zealand; Demerara, British Guiana; Jamaica; Sierra Leone; Trinidad; Bahamas; Bermuda; South Africa
Ports Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia
Nationality German; English; European
Ships Mary Ann; Thomas Naylor; John Francis; Martha; Champlain; Florence; Constitution; Queen Victoria; Albion; Jasper; Dykes; Kangaroo; Brothers; Mary; Elizabeth and Sarah; Arab; Wandsworth; Yorkshire; Odessa; Lady Milton; Marianne; Orleans; Lady Fitzherbert; Earl Durham; Simon Taylor; Herald; Neptune; Phoebe; Senator; Arabian; Egyptian; Agincourt
People Wedderburn, A; Douglas, Dr; Buchanan, Alexander Carlisle
Keywords government, shipping, Passengers' Act, employment, food, health and sickness, agent, pauper, assisted emigration, quarantine, death, child migration, shipwreck, indentured labour
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK