Ship Announcements:
14 January 1774: Scheduled to sail for Nova Scotia in March: “The good BRIG ENDEAVOUR, now lying at Whitby, burthen 220 tons, two years old, hath good accommodation for passengers being five feet six inches high between decks, the greatest height of any Vessel of her burthen.
“Any person inclined to go may apply to Mr. Richard Ware, at Mr. Ralph Strong’s, the Angel Inn in Whitby.”
“THE good SHIP THOMAS and WILLIAM, well accommodated for passengers, Samuel Pattinson, master, will sail from Scarborough the middle of March, 1774.- All who are desirous to proceed to that land of liberty , may be carried, from ten years and upwards, at 5 l. per head; under ten years 2 l. 10 s. sucking children, gratis.- For further particulars apply to the owner, Capt. John Watkinson at his house in Saturday-market, Scarborough; Mr. William Thompson, at Sherborn; Mr. John Lancaster, at Wilton, near Thornton; or Mr. William Grant, in Skeldergate, York. “All letters (post paid) will be duly answered.”
28 January 1774: “FOR NOVA SCOTIA The good SHIP PRINCE GEORGE, burthen 280 tons, exceedingly well accommodated for passengers, Robert Appleton, master, will sail from Scarborough the latter end of March or beginning of April next.
“All persons who are inclined to go to that country, may be conveyed from ten years of age and upwards, at 5 l.each; under ten years 2 l. 10 s. sucking children, gratis.- For other particulars apply to Mr. Stephen Wharton, the owner in Scarborough; Mr. Robert Appleton, in Bridlington; Mr. John Baxter, in Settrington; Mr. William Porter, in Driffield; Mr. William Staveley, in Thornby; Mr. Richard Shepherd in Kirby; Mr. Andrew Loughhead, in Pickering; or Mr. Jonathan Milner, in Barrow.
“All letters (post paid) will be duly answered.”
5 February 1774: “Some evil-disposed person or persons having maliciously reported that the ship PRINCE GEORGE, advertised for taking passengers from Scarborough to Nova Scotia, is totally unfit to perform this voyage, and that therefore the persons going therein must do it at the hazard of their lives and fortunes…”
18 March 1774: THOMAS AND WILLIAM ad “N.B. The above ship is now almost compleatly [sic] sorted? Out for the accommodation of passengers, and as persons who reside in the country and intend to remove their habitations to this land of liberty, not being judges of a proper ship to accommodate them for such a passage, have been intimidated by threatening advertisements, and in doubt how to proceed: The owner of the above-named ship begs, of such persons as intend to take their passage to Nova Scotia this season, that they will make inquiry at Scarborough of any disinterested persons who are conversant in maritime affairs, and hopes they will go on board of such ship, as they shall be advised is properly fitted, and sufficient for the performance of such a voyage.”
25 March 1774: Advertisement for the MARY, to sail from the River Tees near Stockton in the County of Durham to Nova Scotia on April 3. Apply to Robert Swann, of Sunderland or to William Robinson of Stockton. “Great encouragement is given there to all kinds of tradesmen, and especially to persons skilled in Agriculture.”
15 April 1774: YORK- “On Tuesday, the 4th inst? sailed from Scarborough, the William and Mary and on Sunday the 9th inst? sailed from the same place, the Prince George. They had on board a number of emigrants (not less, it is said, than 150 each) for Halifax and Fort Cumberland in Nova Scotia. It is much to be feared that few of them have considered the consequences attending so large a number of people being for at least two months crowded together four in a bed, and those beds one upon another three deep, with not so much room betwixt each as to admit even the smallest person to sit up on end: Some of them it is said were in high spirits, expecting great advantages upon their arrival at their destined port; others, on the contrary, were much depressed fearing they had been too precipitate in their resolution of leaving their native home. It is confidently said that the overseers of the poor of a market- town on the sea coast of this county paid freight for as many of the poor in the parish who were, or were likely to become, chargeable, and were contented to be thus transported in hopes of changing their present poverty for a better prospect in a distant clime. How far this method of transporting a working set of poor people by the overseers of any parish is warrantable, may hereafter be enquired into. It is said some of the passengers are of real and substantial property, particularly one of them, with 13 in family, said to be worth 3000 l. 800 l. of which is left in security in England, and the rest taken with him.”
27 January 1775: YORK- printed letter from North America dated 10 August 1774- “� I am sorry to hear by your letters as well as the newspapers, that a great may farmers are quitting the Northern parts of Yorkshire for America; I fear that most of them will change for the worse. They little know what they must suffer from change of soil and climate, and the toil they must endure before they can make bread to eat; and if, by their industry, they at the last attain to live free from want, they need never expect to grow rich, for they must settle so far inland, that the produce of their land will bear a very low price, and in all the back settlements cash is scarcely known amongst them, the merchants giving them cloathing [sic], work-tools, salt, sugar &c. &c. for their produce, at 2, 3 or 400 per cent advance. Those who are gone to Nova-Scotia will have five or six months winter. “Every year certain merchants and owners of vessels in Great Britain and Ireland send over loads of mechanics and labouring people, of both sexes, whom by art and falsehood, they persuaded to indent themselves for four or five years for their passage, and when they get them here, sell them for slaves at public sale, or barter them for country produce. They might as well fall into the hands of the Turks, they are subject nearly to the same laws as the Negroes, and have the same coarse food and cloathing [sic], but often in other respects worse usage, their masters generally endeavouring to work them to death by the time their term of slavery is to expire. This infamous traffick [sic] has been so notorious, that many are surprised Government has used no effectual means to stop a trade so scandalous to their country and disgraceful to humanity.”
Compiled by
Renee de Gannes
Yorkshire Immigration Research Analyst
Young Canada Works International