Emmigration From Scotland thru English Ports

[Baillie 1799]

During the Clearance Years around the late 1700's to very early 1800's many of the ports in Scotland were flooded. Many people had to use English ports in order to embark onto the New World.

Would anyone by chance know what ports were commonly used in England at that time. Or where some good reading could be found on this?


Thanks,
Dave

[DavidWW]

During the Clearance Years around the late 1700's to very early 1800's many of the ports in Scotland were flooded. Many people had to use English ports in order to embark onto the New World.

Would anyone by chance know what ports were commonly used in England at that time. Or where some good reading could be found on this?


Thanks,
Dave

I'd be intrigued to know your source of info regarding Scottish ports being "flooded" in the late 1700s/early 1800s.

On a very simple practical basis trhe question arises of how folk travelled from Scotland to an English port, - no railways yet, no cross-border canals, just relatively poor quality roads, - OK if you had a carriage and four, but very, very few did.

And if the Scottish ports were flooded then it might not have been that easy to sail to English ports, altho' some did, - from the West of Scotland to Liverpool and other English ports, plus across to Northern Ireland, - Londonderry, Belfast, and basically any other port on the Antrim coast that had a harbour that could take the size of sailing ship used at that time.

Which leads onto the comment that if larger ports were too busy, many smaller Scottish ports could be and were used.

David

[LesleyB]

Hi
Apart from any other consideration, we were in the middle of a series of wars and scirmishes(sp?) with the French, so I'm sure some ports were busy with war related issues in the period 1792 - 1815. Travelling by sea, from what I've read of ships to and fro-ing from Leith, (east coast of Scotland) was more of a risky business than usual as any ships were prone to coming under fire from the French. Regular sailings however, from Leith to London, continued throughout this period.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Baillie 1799]

David, that makes alot of sense about the roads being very rough for travel and limited carriages. If someone at that time could catch a ship to England, it would make more sense that they would just head to the New World from there instead of catching another ship in England.

Would you have any idea how well the emmigration records were kept at those major ports in Scotland and also if there is a good compiled reference that someone could find to research today? Or are they more scattered everywhere ?

What would be the best plan of attack for researching ship records from 1790-1810?



Thanks again for help,
Dave

[DavidWW]

David, that makes alot of sense about the roads being very rough for travel and limited carriages. If someone at that time could catch a ship to England, it would make more sense that they would just head to the New World from there instead of catching another ship in England.

Would you have any idea how well the emmigration records were kept at those major ports in Scotland and also if there is a good compiled reference that someone could find to research today? Or are they more scattered everywhere ?

What would be the best plan of attack for researching ship records from 1790-1810?



Thanks again for help,
Dave

Hi Dave

As far as I'm aware, little if anything survives in terms of passenger lists for outgoing ships from Scotland from that era. Remember that a ship from, say, Greenock to Liverpool or Belfast was an internal trip inside the UK, so not subject to the same controls and legislation as for emigrant ships to N America.

That written, keep an eye on how the situation develops with respect to the outgoing passenger lists from the UK that have started to become available on Ancestry, but I'll be very pleasantly surprised if there are any significant numbers of records for a period as early as 1790-1810

Bear in mind also that many emigrant ships involved in the Clearances departed from remote lochs in the Western Highlands, - mainland and island, - a group of local lairds or a minister would contract with a shipmaster to come into some quite remote loch, say Loch Eribol, and take folk on board by small boats, and then sail direct to N America.

There are doubtless some records at least of such sailings at National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh in estate papers in the Gifts and Deposits series of records, - a look in the the NAS catalogue might assist you. Some such papers may also be in local archives and even private collections.

The only general scheme, - i.e. beyond a single ship, - that I'm aware off is the "Highland & Islands Emigration Scheme", HIES, but their ships went only to Australia and New Zealand.

While the Ancestry project may be of some assistance, for the moment, my advice would be to concentrate on the arrival end !!

David.

[LesleyB]

Also maybe worth working through some of the links we have collected here:
http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3510

Best wishes
Lesley

[Baillie 1799]

Very fascinating information. Really paints a great picture of what was going on at that time.

Would you have a recommendation of a good book for reading on the Clearance times in general? It sounds like a very complex time.



Thanks again for the great info,
Dave