The ancestors from Scotland came from three areas: Lanarkshire, in the area close to, and including Glasgow; Midlothian, to the east of Edinburgh; and Berwickshire.
The Young Family, comprising parents James - 3rd great-grandfather and Hannah (née Aitken) - 3rd great-grandmother - and their daughter Sarah - 2nd great-grandmother. In 1851 they were living in Shettleston, then a village, now a suburb in the East End of Glasgow. It is about 4 km from the city centre. [Shettleston 1770s to 1830s]
Although I have not been able to trace the exact time of their arrival, their respective death certificates provide some clues:
- when she died on 28 October 1880, Sarah’s certificate said she had been in Victoria for 23 years, placing her arrival about 1857;
- when he died on 10 April 1887, James’ certificate said he had been in Victoria for 29 years, placing his arrival about 1857-8;
- when she died on 31 August 1894, Hannah’s certificate state that she had been in Victoria for 42 years, lacing her arrival at approximately 1852.
As the family had been in Scotland in 1851, and Sarah married in North Melbourne on 13 April 1858, and at the time was living in the Victorian county area of Yan Yean, it appears the family migrated between 1852 and 1857.
There was a Jas (sic) Young who arrived in Melbourne on 13 July 1854 per the ship James Carson, which sailed from Liverpool on 4 April 1854. He was Scottish, and a labourer. At the 1851 Census in Scotland he was an agricultural labourer.
A mother and daughter of the correct ages named Sarah (not Hannah) Young, aged 40 and Sarah Young, aged 20, arrived on the Cyclone on 26 March 1857. The ages are correct for Hannah and Sarah, but the senior Sarah was listed as a ‘widow’.
It is of course possible that James came earlier and his wife and daughter followed later, and that Sarah’s name and marital status were recorded inaccurately. If that were the case, however, Sarah was married only 18 days after arrival. It remains a mystery.
John Grieve - 2nd great grandfather - , who married Sarah Young, departed Liverpool aboard the Wanata on 10 June 1852 and arrived at Melbourne on 4 October that year. He was an agricultural labourer. The Wanata carried 820 passengers. John was born about 1829 in East Lothian, Scotland.
At the marriage of John Grieve and Sarah Young, John’s profession was given as Quarry Man, as was that of Sarah’s father James. Perhaps the two men had met in the course of their work and a marriage was arranged between John and Sarah.
The Grieves family had lived in and around the village of Cockburnspath, Berwick, for generations. It is midway between Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Sea.
Robert and Sarah (née Burns) Cathie - 2nd great-grandparents emigrated to Australia aboard the Star Queen. They sailed from Greenock on 18 May 1869, and arrived in Moreton Bay on 6 September 1869 as assisted immigrants. Robert was aged 29, Sarah aged 27. Sarah was pregnant as their first child, Jessie, was born in Brisbane on 30 September 1869.
Elisabeth and Charles Deans
Things must have gone well for the Cathies; four years later they were joined in Australia by Robert’s mother, Elisabeth Shaw - 3rd great-gradmother (she never married Robert’s father, Archibald Cathie) and her husband Charles Deans aboard the Winefred, along with Elizabeth’s sister, Isabella Shaw, and George Shaw and Thomas Shaw (this is most likely the boy named Thomas Howden in the 1851 Census). They arrived in Moreton Bay on 14 January 1874. They were listed as ‘Remittance Passengers’.
The Cathies and Deans hailed from Morham in East Lothian.
Background to emigration from Scotland (source: Wikipedia)
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From 1793-1795, a group of political prisoners later called the ‘Scottish Martyrs’ were transported. They were not all Scots, but had been tried in Scotland. The majority of immigrants, 'free settlers', in the late 18th century were Lowlanders from prominent wealthy families. There were also several Scottish regiments.
“By 1830 15.11% of the colonies' total population were Scots, which increased by the middle of the century to 25,000, or 20-25% of the total population. The Australian Gold Rush of the 1850s provided a further impetus for Scottish migration: in the 1850s 90,000 Scots immigrated, far higher than other British or Irish populations at the time. Literacy rates of the Scottish immigrants ran at 90-95%. “
None of the Youngs, Grieves, Cathies or Deans were political prisoners, from wealthy or prominent families, or members of the military.
“By the 1830s a growing number of Scots from the poorer working classes joined the diaspora. Immigrants included skilled builders, tradesmen, engineers, tool-makers and printers. They settled in commercial and industrial cities: Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart and Melbourne. The migration of skilled workers increased, including bricklayers, carpenters, joiners, and stonemasons.
“In the 1840s, Scots-born immigrants constituted 12 percent of the Australian population. Out of the 1.3 million migrants from Britain to Australia in the period from 1861-1914, 13.5 percent were Scots.
“Much settlement followed the Highland potato famine, and the Highland and Lowland Clearances of the mid-19th century. Their preponderance in pastoral industries on the Australian frontier, and in various colonial administrative roles, meant that Scottish migrants were involved in the colonisation of Indigenous Australians throughout the colonial period, including in the dispossession of Indigenous land, the creation of discriminatory administration regimes, and in killings and massacres.
“Throughout the 19th century, Scots invested heavily in the industries of the Australian colonies. In the 1820s, the Australian Company of Edinburgh & Leith exported a variety of goods to Australia, but a lack of return cargo led to the company's termination in 1831. The “Scottish Australian Investment Company was formed in Aberdeen in 1840, and soon became one of the chief businesses in the colonies, making substantial investments in the pastoral and mining industries. Smaller companies, such as George Russel's Clyde Company and Niel & Company, also had a significant presence in the colonies. Before the 1893 Australian financial crisis, Scotland was the main source of private British loans to Australia.”
Immigration History from Scotland to Victoria (Museums Victoria) https://origins.museumsvictoria.com.au/countries/scotland/
“Poverty, famine and epidemics in Scotland in the 1820s and 1830s caused the first significant Scottish emigration to Australia. Victoria was the most popular colony in which to settle. Scottish squatters and rural workers established farms, and urban settlers worked as skilled artisans and professionals.
“In the first Victorian census of 1854, Scotland-born people were the third largest group after the English and Irish, with 36,044 people. Within three years a further 17,000 had arrived, many hoping to make their fortunes on the goldfields. Immigration assistance schemes also swelled the number of Scottish arrivals. By 1861 the Scotland-born population of Victoria reached 60,701 – the highest level it would ever reach.
“As the gold rush declined, many Scottish immigrants moved on to farming, industry or commerce. Growing community organisations such as Presbyterian churches and highland societies provided a focus for social and cultural activities.”
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