To Nova Scotia: The Emigration

Why these settlers were chosen, how they were recruited, and their trip across the ocean

Summary written by Nancy Shaver (e-mail: nancy at flora dot org), main source is "The Foreign Protestants and the Settlement of Nova Scotia" by Winthrop Pickard Bell. The ancestor surnames listed are those of Carolyn Eileen (Zinck) Shaver, my mother.

The British governing board that looked after the settlement of Nova Scotia sought out foreign (i.e. non-British) protestants. The English were hard to persuade to emigrate, and often did not work out very well as settlers. The colonies to the south had had good results with foreign protestants and found them very hard-working and capable of settling new areas, so it was decided to recruit European protestants for Nova Scotia as well. Roman Catholics were not welcome.

The British government hired John Dick of Rotterdam as their agent to procure the emigrants and arrange for their transport to Nova Scotia. Dick sent agents up the Rhine River to find settlers. Posters and handbills were used to get the word out that the new colony of Nova Scotia was open for settlement.

There was a lot of competition between agents for the various colonies in those days, and competing agents spread rumours about how awful the Nova Scotia climate was, the lack of agricultural prospects, and the ferociousness of the Indian attacks. Also, once settlers arrived at Rotterdam they were sometimes convinced by another agent to sail for another colony.

Settlers were responsible for their own passage down the Rhine, although Dick's agents would help to arrange it. Tolls had to be paid along the way as the boats moved through different principalities, and this would also slow down the voyage.

The settlers were mostly redemptioners. This meant that in return for their passage across the Atlantic, they owed the British government labour when they arrived in the new colony. Some passengers with the means to pay their own way chose to be redemptioners instead, so that they could save their money to help them get established in their new land, and this was likely a good idea.

The board preferred as much as possible that young single men be recruited, but in actual fact many families, and even older family members, made the voyage. This was probably for the best in the long run, as records show that the families were more likely to remain in Nova Scotia and settle down there. There were some complaints from the board as to fact that older people were allowed to make the voyage, but entire families often moved together, and it was not really reasonable in those days of no social services to expect the old to be left behind. As well, emigrants aged 45 or more would be considered relatively old back then!

The emigrants were put aboard ships in Rotterdam.

 

Source:  http://www.flora.org/nancy/lunenburg/emigration.html