12. Emigrants from England

England in the 18th and 19th centuries

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were times of great social and economic upheaval in England. It went from being a predominantly agrarian economy through one of the greatest transformations in history, the Industrial Revolution, to the shift of people from rural areas, villages and small towns to larger towns and cities.

"For the first half of the 19th century the rural and urban poor had much in common: unsanitary and overcrowded housing, low wages, poor diet, insecure employment and the dreaded effects of sickness and old age. By 1851 the census showed the urban population was larger than that of the rural areas. Towns provided a wider range of jobs, but unskilled and casual workers continued to struggle with low wages and irregular incomes, the fear of accidents and the dread of slipping into that 'sunken sixth' of the workforce, the 'residuum' so close to the criminal underworld which Dickens wrote about." (see here)The British Navy was busily exploring and colonising lands, subjugating native people, and setting up penal colonies to "deal" with problems of dispossession of the peasant class, poverty and its resultant crime, and of course political dissent.Th

As the eighteenth century wore on, Britain sought to expand its colonial presence in Australia (as well as elsewhere) and as well as 'push' factors, that is, transportation sending people twelve thousand miles away, incentives became increasingly important in 'pulling' people to the colonies.

Amongst those who made the journey in the Briggs/Cant family were both convicts and free men, women and children.

Those who came:

1837 John Briggs, aged about 20, and his brother Joseph, about 19, were convicts from Hertfordshire. They were agricultural labourers.  They arrived in Sydney on 14 January 1837 aboard the Prince George. John married Bridget Dowd (Ireland chapter).

June 1844  William Cant, an agricultural labourer aged 51, and his wife Susannah Bridget née Curtis, 45, arrived in Sydney 28 June aboard the Briton. The Cants came from Great Gonerby in Lincolnshire. Arriving with them were various family members including son Francis Cant, 18, with his first wife, Susan née South; he later married Bridget Horan (see emigrants from Ireland)

July 1844 George Harding, aged 34, arrived in Sydney 31 July 1844 aboard the St Vincent; George, a farm labourer,  hailed from East Claydon, near Quainton in Buckinghamshire.

1849 Elizabeth Strains, aged 20, who married George Harding, arrived in Sydney with her sister Louisa on 17 January 1849 aboard the Thomas Arbuthnot. Both Elizabeth and Louisa were servants from the Stratford area of London.

1853 Luke Lawrence and wife Eliza née Franklin, arrived in Sydney 11 June 1853 aboard the Harriet with children Elizabeth Susannah (3) and Thomas (1-2). Luke,  was aged 35, Eliza 33. Luke's family were yeoman farmers from Thatcham, a market town in Berkshire.

1855 Elizabeth Franklin, née Freeman, mother of Eliza Lawrence, arrived in Sydney aboard the Kate on 4 December 1855. She was accompanied by daughters Anne (25) and Emma (18), son John (22) and John's wife Caroline (24).

1857 George Weatherly, 30, and his wife Sarah née Garraway, 26, arrived in Sydney 25 June 1857 aboard the Anna Maria, along with children Sarah, 3 and George, 1. George, an agricultural labourer, was from Pinner in Middlesex. Sarah was also from Pinner. She was a servant.

Some events in English history leading up to, during and just after the period of emigration

First passenger train at centenary, 1925

27 September 1825: World's first steam locomotive passenger service begins in England.

'Peelers', or 'Bobbies' named after Sir Robert Peel

June 1829: Robert Peel sets up the Metropolitan Police - first paid, uniformed police force









October 1831: Riots broke out over the Parliamentary Reform Bill. Bristol, Nottingham, Derby and several smaller towns witnessed violent riots after the Reform Bill was rejected by the House of Lords. The Bill was an attempt to reform the electoral system.  There was a fear in government that unless there was some reform there might be a revolution instead. They looked to the July 1830 revolution in France, which overthrew King Charles X and replaced him with the more moderate King Louis-Philippe who agreed to a constitutional monarchy. 

December 1831: Samuel Sharpe lead a massive slave revolt in Jamaica. More than 20,000 slaves seized control of a large area of Jamaican territory. It took a month for the British troops on the island to subdue the rebels. Sam Sharpe was executed. This helped  the campaign for the abolition of slavery to gain momentum.







1833: The Factory Act restricted work hours for women and children. Mill owners were required to show that children up to age 13 received two hours of schooling, six days per week.

William Wilberforce 1759 - 1833

31 July 1833: Parliament passed a bill to abolish slavery in the British Empire. MP William Wilberforce, who had represented the abolitionists in the House of Commons, died just days before  the emancipation measure became law.














1834: New Poor Law reformed Britain's social security system. This statute maintained outdoor relief (relief given outside a workhouse), but lead to more central control of the system.

March 1834:  The ’Tolpuddle Martyrs' were sentenced to transportation for trade union activities.
Six farm labourers from the Dorset village of Tolpuddle set up a 'friendly society' to campaign for better pay and working conditions. They were put on trial and sent to penal colonies in Australia, but were granted pardons in 1836 following a public outcry. The so-called 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' are credited with helping to launch the trade union movement.












20 June 1837: Queen Victoria came to the throne after the death of William IV.

1838: Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist' was published.

8 May 1838: People’s Charter advocated social and political reform on the basis of six points:

1. one man, one vote; 
2. equal electoral districts; 
3. payment of members of parliament; 
4. elections by secret ballot; 
5. removal of property qualifications for MPs; 
6. parliaments to be elected every year.                                                                              

Chartist Demonstration, London 1848

'Chartism' gained substantial support among working people during the next decade and presented three national petitions to parliament in 1839, 1842 and 1849. It was the most significant radical pressure group of the 19th century.








1 August 1838: Slavery abolished in the British empire. Plantation owners received about £20 million in government compensation for the loss of their slaves. The former slaves received nothing.

17 September 1838: London-Birmingham railway line opened and the railway boom started.

30 June 1846: Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel resigned after the Corn Laws were repealed. This measure removed protective duties which had helped to keep the price of bread high.

5 April 1847: World’s first municipal park opened in Birkenhead, Merseyside.











1 May 1851: The Great Exhibition opened at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London.
Designed to provide a showcase for the world's most advanced inventions, manufactures and works of art, it was housed in the massive 19-acre Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton. The event attracted almost six million visitors during the five summer months it was open. Many ordinary people travelled to London for the first time on cheap-rate excursion trains.

28 March 1854: Britain and France declared war on Russia and the Crimean War began.

The following milestones occurred after all ancestors had arrived from England: 

30 January 1858: Britain’s first permanent symphony orchestra was founded in Manchester.

Clifton Suspension Bridge 

2 May 1859: Devon and Cornwall were linked by a revolutionary new bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.










24 November 1859: Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' was published.

8 February 1861: Post Office savings scheme for ordinary people was launched.

16 March 1867: Joseph Lister wrote on antiseptics in 'The Lancet’ and conducted experiments designed at reducing high hospital mortality rates from septic inflammation.

15 August 1867: The Second Reform Act doubled the electorate, enabling one-third of adult males in Britain and one-sixth in Ireland to vote in parliamentary elections. In a few urban constituencies, working men were an electoral majority. A separate act for Scotland was passed in 1868.

Suez Canal opening

17 November 1869: Suez Canal opens, linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

9 August 1870: Women obtained limited rights to retain their property after marriage. Similar changes did not take effect in Scotland until 1877.

18 July 1872: Voting by secret ballot introduced.

2 August 1880: Education became compulsory for children under ten.

Political cartoon of women under coverture

1 January 1883: Married women obtained the right to acquire their own property. During the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, married British women lived under the conditions of coverture. This made a husband and wife one under the law and gave husbands financial and legal control over their wives. Under coverture, women lost all control of their property once married, unable to buy, sell, own, or inherit anything they possessed before.
The 1870 Married Women's Property Act had been widely criticised for failing to provide sufficient safeguards for married women. A further act provided something approaching equality for women since it allowed women to acquire and retain any property deemed separate from that of their husband's. They also received the same legal protection as husbands if they needed to defend their right to property.


December 1884: Third Reform Act stopped short of creating a male democracy
The third Reform Act created a uniform franchise qualification based on the Reform Acts of 1867 and 1868; roughly two-thirds of adult males in England and Wales, three-fifths in Scotland and half in Ireland were entitled to vote in parliamentary elections. Large numbers of adult males, such as servants, most members of the armed forces and children living in their parents' houses remained disenfranchised.

2 July 1897: Guglielmo Marconi awarded a patent for radio communication

October 1897: Women’s suffrage campaign gains momentum
The first organised activity in support of votes for women dates from the 1860s, but pressure grew rapidly in the late 1880s. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies co-ordinated a range of regional activities. Its president, Millicent Fawcett, opposed violence and promoted her organisation as law-abiding and above party politics.

10 October 1899: Second Boer War began in South Africa

22 January 1901: Victoria died and was succeeded by Edward VII