Life and Times -Scotland and the World in the early 1800s
Over a 70 year period from the end of the 1700s into the middle of the 1800s the Highland Clearances displaced about 150,000 people, many of whom emigrated to the Americas. Those who stayed moved into the coastal communities or turned to the lowlands in the growing industrial areas for their living.
About 5 years before James and Helen were born the end of the Napoleonic Wars had brought about the end of the kelp industry, the main source of income to many coastal communities around the Highlands, bringing unemployment and poverty to many. Kelp was processed to provide an alkali heavily used in industry, which had been imported cheaply from Spain before the War but then subjected to a heavy import Duty during the War. After the War was over the Duty was removed, the cheap alkali was once again imported from Spain and the local kelp industry died.
The Corn Laws were keeping the cost of food high, and were not repealed until 1846 after the failure of the potato crops, too late to stop starvation and famine leading to riots in 1847.
In the 1800s Scotland, like the rest of the United Kingdom, was experiencing considerable civil unrest. The French and American Revolutions that had taken place in the previous century had increased dissatisfaction with working and social conditions, leading to outbreaks of radical uprisings such as the Scottish Insurrection of 1820. Radical leaders were executed or transported. In 1841 the population of Scotland was 2,620,000, but before the Reform Bill was passed in 1832 only 1 out of every 250 people was able to vote. The Reform Bill gave Glasgow its first MP but James and his sons would not have been able to vote until July 13 1868 when the Scottish Reform Act was passed giving the vote to all male householders. Voting by secret ballot was not introduced until 1872.
Thanks mainly to the efforts of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland there was greater widespread literacy in Scotland than in most countries, even before the passing of the Education (Scotland) Act in 1872 which provided elementary education for all children. Before 1872 at least 3 of James’ children are recorded as scholars at or after the age of 12 - Janet (age 15 in 1861), James (age 13 in 1861) and George (age 12 in 1871). The other children are all recorded as scholars at an early age but there are no records to show when they started work. Many people were able to sign their names to marriage certificates, rather than making their mark. Greater literacy in the general populace meant that radical texts and newspapers were more widely read and discussed, fuelling the general unrest.
Over James’ lifetime the throne of England and Scotland was occupied by three kings and a queen. In 1820 King George IV succeeded King George III to the throne. In 1822 King George IV made the first visit to Scotland by a reigning monarch since Charles II. In June 1830 King George IV died and was succeeded by King William IV. The death of William IV in 1837 brought Queen Victoria to the throne. In 1842 Queen Victoria made her first visit to Edinburgh and in 1849 to Glasgow, the first monarch to visit the city since James VI in the 16th century. Having visited the "second city of the Empire" she is reputed to have said that she did not wish to repeat the experience! Victoria’s visits to Scotland made travel and sightseeing trips popular with those who could afford them, and in 1846 (despite the recent cholera outbreaks, insurrections, famine and riots!) Thomas Cook organised the first tourist trips to Scotland.
The populations of the industrial towns were swelling rapidly throughout the 1800s, bringing typhoid and cholera epidemics that spread to the rural areas. Mechanization of the woollen mills; the spread of the railways; the formation in 1851 of the world’s first oil refinery and in 1852 of the John Brown Shipbuilding and Engineering company in Glasgow; the increased building of roads and of the Forth and Tay bridges - all provided new employment opportunities that meant that workers were no longer reliant on agriculture, but also brought squalor and disease.
In 1833 The Factories Act regulated the hours of young workers and banned work by children under 9, and in 1843 the Ten Hour Day Act was passed reducing the normal working day. Shortly after James started work, another Act in 1844 set the maximum working day to 12 hours for adults and 6.5 hours for children. In 1850 the employment of women and children was restricted to the hours between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m, although this did not apply to all employment, especially to those women such as James’ daughter, Janet, who, like many women, was employed as a domestic servant.
As leisure hours increased more facilities became available for entertainment: in 1859 the National Gallery of Scotland opened in Edinburgh with no admission charges, to encourage the general populace to visit.
More people had more time to watch and play sports; in 1860 the First Open Golf Championship was held at Prestwick with eight entrants, and the championship was won by Willie Park of Musselburgh; in 1867 Queen's Park Football Club, first senior football club in Scotland was formed and in 1871 Scotland won the first Scotland v England rugby international, which was 20 a side, and played at Raeburn Place; in 1872 the world's first international football match, Scotland v England, was played at West of Scotland Cricket Ground, ending with a 0-0 result; in 1887 Celtic Football Club was formally constituted in Glasgow; in 1876 Scotland won the first Scotland v Wales football international 4-0; and in 1873 the Scottish Football Association was founded. The initial clubs were Queen's Park, Clydesdale, Vale of Leven, Dumbreck, Third Lanark, Eastern, Granville and Kilmarnock.
The railways brought more than employment. Travel and communication became faster and easier and it was possible for people to find work further from home. In 1831 the first passenger railway in Scotland, between Glasgow and Garnkirk in Lanarkshire, began operating. In 1842 a rail service between Glasgow and Edinburgh was opened and in 1847 the last mail coach, now redundant because of the advance of the railways, ran between London and Edinburgh. In 1854 the Great North of Scotland Railway opened, running from Aberdeen to Huntley. In 1890 the first train crossed the new Forth Bridge.
Most of James’ children were agricultural workers, only Andrew appears to have moved totally away from agriculture, working first as a railway porter and then in commerce delivering groceries. William and Walter were both employed initially in agriculture but later in commerce. Many of James’ and Helens’ grandchildren will later be employed in the woollen mills as weavers and loom operators.
Newspapers were still primarily used by local merchants to advertise their new stock and to advertise the availability of jobs, especially domestic positions. The amount of news printed was minimal and, apart from major events, generally local. The ‘Aberdeen Journal’ had been published since 1748 and in 1848 the ‘Brechin Advertiser’ was launched. Some newspapers that had previously been weeklies, such as ‘The Scotsman’, became dailies in 1855. Some of the sensational events being reported in the newspapers possibly read by James and his family would have included: the Great Fire of 1824 that burnt for two days and destroyed Edinburgh’s High Street, Parliament Square and Tron Kirk; the trial of William Burke and William Hare for the West Port Murders in Edinburgh in 1829 and the subsequent execution of William Burke; the formation of the Free Church of Scotland in 1843; the first use of the new anaesthetic, chloroform; the explorations of David Livingstone in Africa; the launch of the Cutty Sark from Dumbarton; the demonstration by Alexander Graham Bell of the telephone to Queen Victoria in 1876; and the 1879 Tay Bridge disaster.
Emigration to the Americas, particularly to Canada, continued throughout the 1800s, apart from a brief period between 1812 and 1814 when Britain was at war with the United States over control of the British North American Colonies and in 1832, when British immigrants brought cholera to Canada. Until the economic depression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, emigration was considered an unwelcome development by the British Government and local landlords, who feared losing economic and military manpower, and anti-emigration campaigns were started to minimise losses. Following the economic downturn in 1816, however, emigration was seen both as a cure for Britain’s social ills and a means of populating and protecting British territories abroad.
When settlement resumed after the war much of the land would now go to British military officers who had served in the War of 1812 and Napoleonic War. As a reward for their service, the British Crown gave its war veterans stationed in Canada after the War of 1812 free land grants. These veterans usually received land between the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers in Upper Canada, and the size of the plots they received depended on their rank. All were given eight months worth of food rations, so they'd have enough to eat until they were able to set up sustainable farms.
Out-of-work British soldiers and naval officers who had fought during the Napoleonic Wars in Europe also were allowed to settle here as well. The British government aggressively encouraged these veterans to settle its North American colonies, as many of them would otherwise be returning to lives of utter poverty in Britain.
Britain benefited enormously by sending these veterans to British North America:
- It allowed Britain to sidestep a costly social problem (i.e. having to provide money to support thousands of soldiers stricken with poverty and disease in the United Kingdom).
- The British colonies would become full of upstanding military veterans who would be more likely to take active leadership roles in burgeoning communities.
The policy of giving free land to soldiers and sailors would last until 1833.
Many Scots received financial assistance to leave but they were not necessarily coerced; many left of their own free will to better themselves, and were selective in their settlement choices. Highlanders and Islanders in particular were seen as good pioneers, used to harsh conditions and privations. After the Cholera epidemic of 1832 immigrants to Canada were taxed for the first time, to build hospitals and treat diseased immigrants at ports. The tax did not deter immigration however. There was a dramatic surge in Upper Canada's population during this period. It went from 95,000 in 1815 to more than 950,000 in 1851.
Although the journey was long and hazardous, the ships that carried most Scots families in the mid-1800s made many journeys without incident over a number of years, and must therefore have been reasonably sound. Unlike the early pioneers of the 1700s, who often arrived in areas with no habitation, no agriculture and no support structure to sustain them, many Canadian immigrants were now following in the footsteps of family and friends, with the prospect of a roof over their head and employment when they arrived.
The entire family of James’ wife, Helen Hutson, emigrated to Canada between 1841 and 1850. It’s not clear why the family emigrated, whether the entire family emigrated together, leaving Helen behind with James, or if William and Walter, who appear in the 1851 Census for Ontario, left first and the rest of the family joined them.
