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Beals, Melodee Helene (2009) Perceptions of emigration in southern Scotland, c1770 - c1830. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/880/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Perceptions of Emigration in Southern Scotland c1770—c1830 By Melodee Helene Beals Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History Faculty of Arts University of Glasgow May 4, 2009 P a g e | 2 Abstract The dissertation examines the personal and public reactions to the emigration taking place in the Border region of Scotland at the turn of the nineteenth century. Separated into four parts—the landed, the church, the press and the families left behind—it explores the perceptions of each group and the motives and rationales behind this varied response. The assessment of landholder policies and rural population management indicates that a long-held interest in maintaining and expanding the population did not wane among the greater landholders until around 1830 when estate improvements were completed and rural manufacturing declined. Rather, those most likely to advocate population management were the lesser lairds and rate payers. These men and women had less of an attachment to the eighteenth- century paternal relationship and were likely to view population as an economic resource or burden rather than a social asset. Therefore, the importance of landowners as agents of emigration in these counties is likely less than previously believed. The examination of the Kirk found that its ministers‘ oft-quoted emotive language against emigration was in fact derived from a long-held belief that numerical depopulation was a sign of economic and moral decay. They felt that the reorganisation of the rural population was detrimental to religious education and social deference. When agricultural rationalisation and urbanisation brought a rise in material wealth and a stricter, rather than more lenient, eye upon working-class behaviour, the objection was to some extent recanted. Their concern was less for the immediate welfare of the emigrants than for the survival of the rural community. Concerning the provincial press, the extent to which these papers relied on pandering to public opinion in order to survive offers rare insight into demand- side economics in this period. Though all of the editors spoke against emigration, the papers were heavily supported by advertising for emigrant passage and devoted a sizable proportion of their local news to emigrant advice and colonial ―intelligence‖. Their conflicting content indicates that while the editors personally disagreed with emigration, this stance was not commercially viable. Finally, a comparison of reactions by family and friends remaining in Scotland suggests that most saw the practical benefits of emigration, both to the emigrants and those left behind, but had a very strong emotional reaction against it nonetheless. It further suggests that when present, emotional factors, such a need for communal identity and support, were usually more important than economic issues in dictating long-distance migration. Overall, this dissertation argues that a re-examination of the role played by sending communities is vital to a more accurate understanding of the emigration process as a whole. P a g e | 3 Abstract ...................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ......................................................................... 4 List of Abbreviations ....................................................................... 5 Introduction: Finding a Place for Sending Communities .............................. 8 Disciplinary Divisions, Popular Notions and the Presentation of Emigration .... 8 Forms of Emigration History........................................................... 13 Research Methods ....................................................................... 24 Chapter 1: The Border Landowners in Scottish Historiography ..................... 29 The Use and Misuse of the Term ‗Clearance‘ ....................................... 31 Population Theories and the Landed Classes ....................................... 36 Agricultural Improvement and the New Social Hierarchy ......................... 41 Social Fluidity and Class Tensions .................................................... 66 Conclusion: The Highlands and Lowlands in Emigration Historiography ........ 82 Chapter 2: The Kirk, Improvement and Migration .................................... 87 Emigration ............................................................................... 89 Patterns of Decline and Deprivation in the 1790s .................................. 96 Improvement ........................................................................... 103 Urbanisation ............................................................................ 121 Conclusion .............................................................................. 134 Chapter 3: Newspapers, Ship Owners and Emigration .............................. 137 Scottish Newspapers................................................................... 140 Advertising Revenue ................................................................... 144 Reconciling Commercial and Editorial Interests................................... 165 Non-Commercial Content in the Emigration Debate .............................. 188 Conclusion .............................................................................. 197 Chapter 4: Personal Circumstance and Emigration .................................. 200 Mechanics of Emigration .............................................................. 203 Economic and Practical Perceptions of Emigration ............................... 210 Emotional Perceptions of Emigration ............................................... 228 Conclusion .............................................................................. 242 Conclusion: Perceptions of Emigration ................................................ 245 Appendix A: Map of the Parishes of Southern Scotland c1800 ..................... 250 Appendix B: Advertisement Frequencies .............................................. 251 Works Cited ............................................................................... 255 P a g e | 4 Acknowledgements I would first like to thank the Saint Andrew Society of the Central Coast, which was the first to offer funds for this research, as well as Universities UK and the University of Glasgow‘s Faculty of Arts for their continued financial support. Gratitude also to Sally Elliot and John Hoy for generously allowing me to peruse their families‘ papers and for making available to me their extensive genealogical research. If not for them and their families, the fourth chapter of this work would not have been possible. I would further like to thank the staffs of the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Ewart Library in Dumfries and British Library Newspapers in Colindale for their assistance in locating the dispersed copies of the Border newspapers and of the Vaughan Memorial Library at Acadia University for transmitting to me letter transcriptions from their collection. Thanks also to Professors Cowan and Kidd, for allowing me the freedom to pursue my research in my own way, but still offering unwavering support whenever it was needed. And lastly, to Valerie Wallace, for her keen eye and sympathetic ear, my deepest and continued appreciation. Research Supervised by Professor Edward J Cowan University of Glasgow, Department of History Professor Colin Kidd University of Glasgow, Department of History P a g e | 5 For John P a g e | 6 List of Abbreviations BCP Bill Chamber Processes BFP Papers of the Montague-Douglas-Scott Family BM Papers of the Campbell Family, Earls of Breadalbane CLO The Carlyle Letters Online JFP Jerdone Family Papers MFP Papers of the Miller Family NSA The New Statistical Account of Scotland OSA The Statistical Account of Scotland TEL Thomas Elliot Letters P a g e | 7 The incumbent, after very long residence among them, cannot find any truth in the observation of an ingenious, learned, and witty Lord, who said that the natives of the Merse were engendered in mud, brought up in mud, and that their ideas were all muddy.1 George Cupples Minister of Swinton and Simprin, Berwickshire 1 The Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-1799, vol. III: The Eastern Borders (Wakefield: EP Publishing, 1979), Swinton and Simprin, 297. P a g e | 8 Introduction: Finding a Place for Sending Communities Emigration history has become a blanket term, encompassing a variety of methodologies and aims. It is therefore important, at the start, to define the aims and intentions of this emigration history. This thesis does not seek to describe the experiences of emigrants from the Borders. Nor does intend to provide a statistical overview of the size or composition of those emigrants. Instead,