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Title Ships Chartered, 1853-1859
Date 1853-1859
Document Type Shipping Papers
Reference CO 386/180
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description List of emigrant ships chartered. Information includes the tender date, name of the ship, tonnage, number of passengers which could be carried, captain, where the ship was lying at the time, rates, port of departure and the date the ship would be ready, colony bound for, brokers, surgeon, religious instructor or schoolmaster, date of sailing, number of people embarked, date of arrival in the colony and information on the charter party.
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) Australia; Natal; Sri Lanka; South Africa
Places Moreton Bay, Portland Bay, Queensland, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia; Algoa Bay, Table Bay, South Africa
Ports Southampton, Plymouth, Liverpool, London, England; Hobart, Tasmania, Melbourne, Geelong, Port Phillip, Victoria, Fremantle, Perth, Western Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia; Cape Town, South Africa
Keywords shipping, surgeon, education, shipwreck, government
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK