Wateringbury pays its own to go West (1832)

Post date: Jul 25, 2011 2:43:12 PM

There follows the minutes of 'a meeting of the principle inhabitants of the parish pursuant to notice in the vestry room of the Parish Church on 26th March 1832'.

Some 20 people were present at the meeting, including inter alia the curate, Rev George Marsham, the two churchwardens, William Mills (of Brattle Mill) and Richard Harris (owner of property near the cross-roads), Alderman Lucas (see 'Mathias Lucas an obituary' snippet), James Ellis (of Westbury manor), James Woodbridge (The Lodge), Mr. Fremlin, William Featherstone (Limetree House), John Shepherd (Latter's buildings), Charles Perrin (owned builders yard on Tonbridge road next to Vine House), Edward Goodwin (Great Cannon Farm) etc.

John Beadle, the subject of the first part of the meeting, also was present, although as there were two people by that name living in Wateringbury at that time it may have been the other one who was present.

"It was unanimously resolved that John Beadle, his wife and family be sent to Upper Canada in America. Mr Alderman Lucas having kindly offered to advance the money to the parish for their expenses out and the parish having agreed to repay him at the rate of twenty pounds a year without interest.

It is further resolved that Thomas Barlow, Richard Latter, Phillip Pound, Daniel Sudds and John Murphy be likewise sent to Upper Canada at an expense not exceeding forty five pounds, Mr Alderman Lucas undertaking to pay the amounts, the parish to make an allowance for the same in Mr Alderman Lucas' rates."

Wateringbury's population had increased from 915 people at the 1821 census to 1109 in the 1831 census; it reached a peak of 1,448 in 1851 before falling again until 1921 when it was back to near its 1831 level at 1,171. The sole evidence of Wateringbury's involvement in riots , known as the Swing riots in 1830/31 is set out at Swing Riots (1830). The approach of the Great Reform Act of 1832, passed later in the year, there was a lot of fervour in the country and fear among the landed classes of more taking place.

Other parishes: Wateringbury was not alone in assisting emigration. Headcorn is the first known Kent parish to assist labourers to emigrate sending 20 emigrants a year to America from 1824 (Helen Allinson, Farewell to Kent: Assisted emigration from Kent in the nineteenth century page 23). From immediately surrounding parishes, Wateringbury was an early mover- the following were assisted later:

1838/39- 7 people to Australia from Mereworth; 6 to Australia from East Peckham.

1839/40 -28 people to South Australia from Nettlestead; 22 to South Australia from East Peckham.

The conditions for the Wateringbury emigrants are not known but until two years later and the Poor Law Act of 1834 when the Poor Law Commissioners standardised the terms ( transport to UK port, provision of food and clothing for the journey,money on arrival) they were left to individual parishes to decide and arrange.

Upper Canada was then a separate province located on the northern shores of the Great Lakes (so-called to distinguish it from French speaking Lower Canada on the lower reaches of the St. Lawrence), populated largely by English speakers, particularly those loyalists who fled there after the US War of Independence. In 1828 Britain had appointed the first chief agent for emigration to Upper Canada, whose population increased from 264,000 in 1832 to 296,000 in 1833 a 12% increase in one year and which grew a similar amount throughout the 1830s. For some people Canada was an interim destination before going to the US.

John Beadle lived in Latter's Buildings in Old Road. Perhaps John had subsequently decided that the voyage and Upper Canada were not such attractive propositions. He is still in Wateringbury for the 1841 census with his wife Selina (nee Latter) and four children (aged 12 to 21), two other children having left home, but is believed to have finally left for Ontario, Canada in 1844 with his wife and some children, when he was aged 48 and his wife aged 53. His wife died in Ontario before 1862 and he died in Saginaw, Michigan USA after 1869. There was another John Beadle, not known to be a close relation, living in Bow Road and working as a wheelwright, blacksmith and timber merchant.

For details of a later assisted emigration, see Wateringbury in debt