Land worth clearing, 1818
Land worth clearing, 1818
From Wales to Canada, Part 2
I say with certainty that this country is healthier than Wales to live in, for the Welsh people themselves…
Last week I described the 1818 voyage of Welsh emigrants to New York on a brig named Albion, attracted by the promise of a new life in Canada. This time we’ll learn more about the experiences they had there and the life they lived.
Many of the Welsh arrivals were poor with few resources for building the new land they dreamed of. To a certain extent it was in the interests of the existing community to help them get on their feet. In the Fredericton Royal Gazette of 14 August 1819, it was reported that a meeting of local people had resolved to help the Welsh settlers described as “straggling through the streets”:
For the information of persons who have, or may become Subscribers to assist the Welch [sic] Families, the Committee state, that it will be requisite in order to form a permanent establishment to enable them to construct Huts to shelter their families before the Winter sets in. These Huts constructed in the simplest manner, (that is to say, round logs 15 feet long, laid up 7 or 8 feet high, covered with bark; a door and one small window; the chimney of mud and sticks, or stone; to say nothing about the floor) will cost at least £8 for each; then allowing only £7 more for Provision, &c, for the families on an average, from the present time till they get their first crop, which will be a year at least, it will take £300 to settle 20 families. To persons acquainted with the difficulty of forming new settlements the above sums will not appear extravagant, particularly when it is known that most of the families are very destitute – that they are going ten or twelve miles into the wilderness, where there is not the least sign of cultivation, and where it will be impossible to get employment to procure subsistence without abandoning the settlement.
In 1818, another brig, the Fanny, set out from Carmarthen to Halifax, Nova Scotia. One passenger, 44-year-old farmer John Richards became the de facto leader of the community they founded, called New Cambria near Shelburne. On 4 December 1819, he wrote to the Rev Dafydd Phillips, a Baptist minister interested in joining the emigrant communities himself. In his upbeat letter, Richards described in detail the life there:
There live here about 80 Welsh people including Women and Children who have been here about Three Years, and not any of them has met with any kind of sickness in that time. The Summers are a little warmer here than in Wales, while the Winters are about the same as in the Old Country, only it is of longer duration… I say with certainty that this country is healthier than Wales to live in, for the Welsh people themselves.
Last October twelvemonth I sowed a Bushel of Rye… & I reaped from it 17 Bushels… I also sowed a small quantity of Oats and Wheat the last Spring, and it bore much fruit… No kind of Grass or Corn is ever spoiled because of long periods of Rain, because it never Rains for more than 24 hours at any time…
All kinds of Clothes are dearer here than in Wales. Wages of Women from 2 to 4 Dollars a month, If they are able to superintend household duties they receive from 5 to 6 Dollars. (The Dollar is equal to 5/-.) The wages of Men Servants from £20 to £30 a year, or 5/- a day if they provide their own food. Carpenters & Masons get 7/6 per day. A Tailor for making a Coat gets from 15/- to 20/-… I believe a Clockmaker would make his fortune here in a very short time… as there is hardly a Clock to be seen in the place…
But it is far easier to clear the land here than the gorsey land in Wales. You can take my word for it that the land here is worth clearing, and although I have only 7 Acres cleared yet, I have been offered £130 for it. I am compelled to spend much time with the timber, etc, in order to obtain sustenance for my family, otherwise I might have cleared as much again as I have. If a strong farmer came here he would obtain a comfortable living and would be worth heaps of money in a very short time, as there are no rents to pay nor taxes…
Everyone has the choice of a tract of uncleared land unless it has been previously taken possession of… Every boy when he attains his majority is given a grant of 200 acres. And what is strange is that no other nation but the Welsh are permitted more than 150 acres…
There are many Roman Catholics in this country, but Shelburne has but few. The Church of England, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and many of other denominations in Halifax. We have many Welsh here who know but little English. They would be glad to see a Minister come here who would be competent to take a farm, and who would be willing to preach to them in their native tongue…
We have the same laws here as in Wales, except that they are more free… The dress of the people here is similar to what it is in Wales, but they do not wear Breeches and Leggings here; Tell anyone who wishes to come here not to leave his Breeches behind, for they will be very handy to work in the woods. The women here do not dress as our Welsh women do, in the short petticoats and tall hat, but tell any woman who comes here not to leave their old fashion at home…
If you propose coming here to stay, I do not advise you to come without your family, because you will find it a long journey, and you need not fear being able to lead a comfortable life, especially if you have a little to start.
The Rev Dafydd Phillips did eventually head for Canada, on the Active in 1822, and also visited the Cardigan Settlement where he preached in people’s homes. His own diary records his experiences. He returned to Wales in August of the same year to get his family but sadly lost two of his children there to a typhus epidemic. Unfortunately he also became involved in a dispute over land he had bought in New Brunswick. He died himself in Wales in 1831, and his window never received the money owed after the land was taken over.