By 1821 the numbers emigrating from the United Kingdom were 4,958 to America, 12,955 to British North American colonies (Canada) and 320 to Australasia. Clearly at that time the pull across the Atlantic was strong and although America was no longer a British Colony there were opportunities for retired officers of the armed forces to be granted land in Canada: - Lieutenant Colonel 1200 acres
Major 1000 acres
Captain 800 acres
Subaltern 500 acres
Ten years later the populace of the British Isles was rapidly expanding and politicians, already worried by the French Revolution, started to discuss the possibilities of reducing the numbers, particularly of those relying on poor relief. At this time rural unrest was rampant in the southern counties as the Swing Riots travelled from the east of the country through Dorset and on to Somerset. Agricultural workers vented their anger on threshing machines and their owners. Sixty two cases were brought against the rioters in Dorset and thirteen of them were sentenced to be transported to New South Wales. During this period agriculture wages were lower in the south of England than in the north and there was a case that was reported in The Times of 24th September 1846 describing the methods of payment to the agricultural workers in Ryme Intrinsica by the ‘truck method’ when the farmer’s method of payment to his workers was in food rather than money. Graphic descriptions were given in evidence of the bad meat they were paid in and expected to live on. One farm labourer called Samuel Capel said that he often received only two pounds in money for a year’s work, he had five children and paid one shilling a week for his cottage. His wife, when well, went out washing two days a week for sixpence a day. The Times leader a week later commented : - …if Ryme is the seat of rural comfort and liberty, if the employers of that place are satisfied with this revelation, what must be the state of a county of which Ryme is a favourable specimen.
For a period of time this produced enough moral indignation in the country to lead to several articles in the Illustrated London News under the heading of ‘The Peasantry of Dorset’. The journalist who was sent down to report on conditions went to the village of Stourpaine and described what he saw. - The first feature which attract the attention of a stranger on entering the village is the total lack of cleanliness which pervades it. A stream, composed of the matter that constantly escapes from pigsties and other receptacles of filth, meanders down each street, being here and there collected into standing pools, which lie festering and rotting in the sun so as to create wonder that the place is not the continual abode of pestilence indeed the worst malignant fevers have raged here at different times.
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Celia Martin, the author of this article, is a member of the West Dorset Research Centre which is collating a database of people who left Dorset and moved elsewhere. If any of you have information on migrants from Dorset to parts of the United Kingdom as well as other parts of the world please contact the West Dorset Research Centre at the address shown on the left, or by e-mail on info@ dorsetmigration.org.uk. Alternatively, information can be submitted through our online form. |
