The days when brides were shipped to Canada
DOROTHY Dugdale is a valued member and regular speaker at Todmorden Antiquarian Society and spoke to the society last week on "Brideships to British Columbia".
In the early 1990s Dorothy visited her Vancouver cousins. The father of these three sisters had lived at Holly Bank in Walsden, and he was the son of James Dugdale who had a position on the first Todmorden Borough Council.
By chance, the middle sister was also named Dorothy Dugdale and related to a lady who had arrived in British Columbia on a brideship in 1862. Our Dorothy had heard of brideships to Australia but not to North America, and thus her interest was fuelled.
She sought information from libraries, second-hand book shops, the Hudson Bay Company, the Salvation Army and Dr Barnardo – all to no avail. But a letter to the Canadian High Commission directed her to researchers on the subject and British Columbian archive material.
Through these contacts Dorothy gathered information, then pooled knowledge about the brideships with her cousin in Vancouver and a Canadian journalist who wanted to write a book on this historic story. Their combined studies revealed how the "matrimonial market" came about, the voyage of 99 days, and of the great, great grandmother herself named Jane Ann Saunders.
Dorothy explained that in mid-19th century England there was a surplus of unmarried young women, whereas the Colonies were desperately short of both domestic servants and potential wives.
In 1858 there was a gold rush along the Fraser River near Whistler. The established churches thought that the miners needed a more staple Christian lifestyle. A Rev Brown of Victoria worried about the problems and wrote to the Bishop of Oxford in England voicing his concerns. The London philanthropist, Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, donated 25,000 to the Church to send a Bishop and two Archbishops on a "civilising mission".
The Columbian Emigration Society was formed to send young women to become wives and mothers in the Christian land. Meanwhile, the London Female Middle Class Emigration Society was initiated in 1862 for educated ladies who wished to work in the Colonies. It gave the opportunity to women with their own means, helped with assisted passages or enabled loans for the voyages.
June 1862 saw SS Tynemouth set off on the 17,000 mile journey via the Falkland Islands with 60 ladies on board. They were set exclusive use of a portion amidships under the supervision of a matron and a clergyman. Matron was responsible for teaching the arts of womanhood and to protect her young females from "lascivious attentions of the crew"!
The advertisements for the ship had promised comfort for all, but Dorothy told of the hardships endured especially from the lack of fresh water, during terrible stormy weather and tropical heat.
Little was known from the ship's records but some 60 years later a former passenger, Charles Redfern, wrote of his memories on board the SS Tynemouth.
He wrote of a storm when a cow was killed and pigs were washed overboard. He told of a mutiny among the sailors. He had travelled in third-class accommodation and worked to move coal when the ship was short-staffed. He would get under the hoses while sailors were washing the deck of the ship.
On arrival in Victoria, a local paper described “60 bundles of crinoline”. The young women from “aged 14 to some uncertain figure” were taken to the Marine Barracks.
The accompanying Rev Scott urged them to remember their religious duties and to be a credit to their mothers. The local clothing stores advertised new gentlemen’s suits and Dorothy believes that it is unlikely the young ladies reached the intended lonely male gold miners in remoter districts!
The last part of Dorothy’s presentation concerned her ancestor Jane Ann Saunders, born in Dublin in 1833. Her adventurous spirit led her to sign up for this voyage. Jane Ann went into domestic service.
She met Samuel Nesbitt who had also emigrated from Ireland at the age of 20, but had joined the gold rush in California before moving north to British Columbia. Jane and Samuel were married in April 1863.
l The next meeting of Todmorden Antiquarian Society will be on Tuesday, March 9, at 7.30 pm in Todmorden Town Hall Court Room. The speaker will be John Billingsley on “Place Legends of Calderdale”.
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Sunday 05 February 2012
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