Bøker av David Dobson

The early 19th century in Scotland marked the time of the notorious Highland Clearances, when landowners evicted their tenants to establish large sheep farms that were more profitable than collecting rent. The Clearances ushered in an era of dislocation, urban migration, and on occasion, famine and civil disobedience. Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, alleviated the problem by organizing emigration from the area to the Canadian Maritimes and the Red River in what now is Manitoba. By the same token, the Hudson Bay Company was an important recruiter of workers--mainly from Orkney but also from Shetland and Caithness--most of whom were employed around Hudson Bay. On the other hand, as early as 1792 the ringleaders of a group resisting the growth of sheep herding were tried and sentenced to transportation to the colonies.This book contains references to people in the Northern Highlands of Scotland and the Northern Isles, at home and abroad, between 1800 and 1850. The counties concerned in the Northern Highlands are Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland and Caithness; and in the Northern Isles, the counties of Orkney and Shetland"""locations figuring largely in the Highland Clearances. The persons named were derived from primary sources such as court records, contemporary newspapers and journals, monumental inscriptions, and documents located in archives in the United Kingdom. On the whole, the entries bring together emigrants; their destinations, especially in North America and Australasia; and their kin who remained in Scotland.

Irish immigration to North America can be said to have commenced in earnest with the ""Scotch-Irish"" in 1718. By comparison, significant numbers of Irish people could already be found in the English colonies in the West Indies, and to a limited degree in the Dutch West Indies. By the early 18th century, however, the Irish were the largest immigrant group to settle in the thirteen American colonies. During this period most immigrants to America were Presbyterians from the north of Ireland, though this would change dramatically in the 19th century. The greatest Irish exodus to America occurred between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the conclusion of the potato famine in 1851. During that span around one million left Ireland, mainly for North America but also in smaller numbers for Australia, as well as for the industrializing towns of Britain. Most of those bound for North America sailed from Irish ports, though others went via Liverpool or Glasgow.This volume is based on primary sources located in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Scotland, England, and the West Indies. Such primary sources include manuscripts, newspapers and journals, monumental inscriptions, and government records. The author has arranged the list of roughly 1,000 new persons in this volume alphabetically by the emigrant's surname and, in the majority of cases, provides most of the following particulars: date of birth, name of ship, occupation in Ireland, reason for emigration, sometimes place of origin in Ireland, place of disembarkation in the New World, date of arrival, number of persons in the household, and the source of the information.