Peter Robinson settlers in Canada 1823

there is a book called "Flight from famine - the coming of the Irish to Canada"

 by Donald macKay..

 it is well worth reading and is available here in our public Library you can google it.

It was a local historian who told me that it was seen as a means of removing troublesome tenants or possibly tenants not as "productive" as others. Kingston landlord Mitchelstown area was the first to see the opportunity and Earl of Lismore and St Ledger Doneraile followed suit, each tenant would have had to have a letter or recommendation to leave for Canada also, not sure if the motive is a factual one or maybe hearsay. However another reason is below that i saved from another source "the 1821 potato crop failed totally. Tenants were being evicted by absentee landlords which allowed subdivision of the landlord's property into smaller pieces but with greater rent due. These evictions together with tithes due, the famine and the ongoing religious problems, brought about a critical state in 1823. From the British perspective, the state of affairs in both Scotland and Ireland were so bad, that both countries were flooding the English job market, already overloaded with English workers. The British government came up with a plan to fund assisted emigration programs for Irish folk who were desperate. Peter Robinson was selected to lead the expeditions. The advertisement which proclaimed the emigration scheme stated categorically that only a limited number of Settlers would be chosen to emigrate to Upper Canada"   It would be great to share some of this information here, maybe upload to this parish page?                                                                             

Hello,

Your information about the names Mitchelstown and Kingston gave me chills.  I have copies of my ancestors' form for recommendation as settlers.  On it is handwritten that it is from Mitchelstown with the recommendation by the Earl of Kingston!  I find that amazing.  I will try to scan the 'ticket' and send it.  I have accumulated a good amount of information about the experiences that the 'English' family had - although not personal or extremely detailed accounts, and will do as you suggest to have them posted here.  

Each ship - 'ours' was the Amity, had a surgeon who wrote a character description for each adult male on board the ships as they crossed the Atlantic.  He wrote that head of the family 'Richard English' was a rather quiet,docile individual which was quite unnerving for me to read.  However, I think that if I were in Richard's position with a wife and six children, ranging in age from one to twenty years old, stuck on a rather small ship for several weeks with over a hundred and thirty others I wouldn't be doing too much dancing or singing or voluntary work either.  So, my ancestors may not have been the rebellious ones but just the ones who were put off the land as they are listed on the ticket as farmers, and they wanted to avoid starving to death at any cost.  That is just my take on it at this point.

I find this site very interesting and will post more detailed information.  However, I really appreciate receiving information from your end.  It is just amazing to be able to piece it all together.  Take care.

 

Hello Janer,

 Thank you for the information about the book.  Re 'the public library' - which library are you referring to?

 

The city library..but it is for sale on Amazon.com if you like to have your own history books!

Donald macKay is the author..you can google him..

 good luck

 - oops on the last message subject.

Thanks, I have found the book on-line.  There is another

book about the settlers written by an Ontario, Canada author

whose name I have forgotten.  The books are great and I

am interested in writing that is more personal if you know what

I mean.   I enjoy tracking down details about specific people who

are linked to the re-settlement of the Irish- particularly in the Peterborough,

Ontario area.  

A local Irish club is planning an Irish festival during the month of March and

I will be able to meet and learn more about ancestry searches at a few of

the events that they have planned. Also, I have contacted one of the organizers

and I will be able to talk to at some of the events about Ireland Reaching Out.

 

hello again,

Suzanna Moodie may be the author you are thinking about..she wrote several books and did settle just north of Peterborough

 My family on my fathers' side all lived in Peterborough( and many still do). You can get copies of the cemetery tombstone inscriptions for Douro and Peterbrough. You probably know all this..

His father said his grandfather, Thomas McCarthy, came over on the boat before 1840..from Cove of Cork.and were farmers on Lord Lansdowne's land... and were part of the group to "be helped" to get to Canada!

 I have intended to drop by the Peterborough Library -  genealogy section -  and see what might be there. Apparently they started out in Grafton area..(Settler's Valley) ., then moved to Peterborough..There are several really old tombstones in the Grafton church cemeteries..

 Do you get the little newsletter "Kara..trees and forebears"?it is porinted by the Kawartha Ancestral research Association.

all for now, janer

Hello there,

   Yes, an old copy of S. Moodie's book was in the library/bookcase in the house that I grew up in.  I believe that her experiences were somewhat different than that of the 'regular' settler since she was married to an member of the British military/gov't.  However, her experience with isolation, climate, etc. would have been the same.

A few years ago, I visited the archives in Peterborough, near the Liftlocks, and discovered a wealth of material there.  While doing my research, a reporter from the local newspaper came in to prepare an article about the Peter Robinson settlers for an upcoming P.R. Day. I kept a copy of the piece and it was really cool to be interviewed about this topic.

I am aware of Kara.  The last time that I spoke to someone there by telephone, I was told that I would have to go to their location to get any information and pay $10.  Since I live on the west coast of Canada now it is something that  I will have to do when I get around to it since it involves a lengthy trip.

Regarding cemetaries, my ancestor, Richard English, apparently was the first person buried in the cemetary, about 25 km east of Peterborough, where all of my relatives/neighbours have been buried.  He died when a tree fell on him which I thought was a very strange and avoidable way to die until one almost fell on me a few years ago.  I truly believe that he was sending me a direct message!  I now know very well how easily it can happen.

Your family -McCarthys - may have been in the first group of people who were brought to Canada by Peter Robinson.  They were brought to the Ottawa area in 1823.   However, some of the 1825 group could have stopped off before reaching Peterborough but I have not come across any evidence of that.

 

 

Mary E., my relatives came over on the same ship as your's; the Amity in 1825. John O'Leary (a.k.a. Leary) and his wife Margaret (nee Callaghan/Callahan) and their 7 children left Ireland together but apparently Margaret and one of their younger children died along the way; either onboard the ship or on the trip from the ship to Peterborough. 

The ship manifest says they were from Kilbehenny, Cork but that town is in Limerick, just over the border from Cork. One of my cousins travelled to Ireland and talked to people in Kilbehenny (a.k.a. Kilbenny?). They said there were no O'Learys from that area at that time. They suggested that maybe he was from County Cork and had an arranged marriage with Margaret and that she was the one from Kilbehenny. I think he was from the Mitchelstown area. 

I heard that one of the reasons the English wanted some Irish in Canada was to populate the area to help them from having the Indians take back their land. I also read that they chose some the best of the desperately poor. They wanted people that would be trustworthy and worth their expense of moving them other there. 

I would love to find out where my Irish relatives specifically came from in Ireland & anything else I can find out about my Irish family roots.

 

 

Mary E,

I am also a descendant of Richard and Johanna English. My grandfather was Michael Joseph English, who had left Ontario for Alberta in the early 1900's. I have done part of a Geneology search but was wondering if there will be a 200 year anniversary of the Robinson migration. I have met a number of people from the Peterborough area, and would look forward to finding out more about the English history there.