Before the railways reached the coast in 1845, the Yorkshire emigrant seeking fresh opportunities in Canada or the new United States of America, sailed from Whitby, Scarborough or Hull. Emigration agents advertised in the York Chronicle of January 1774. A Malton man sought bookings for the good ship "Two Friends", which he described as a "prime sailor". It was well accommodated for goods and passengers. The ship would leave Hull at the latter end of February for Fort Cumberland in Nova Scotia. Household goods cost £4 a ton but sucking children travelled gratis. The Fawcett family left Hovingham to join 103 on board.
The Brigantine Albion, 150 tons, with a crew of nine, commanded by Thomas Perrot, sailed from the port of Hull. On March 11th, she carried a cargo of woollens, linens, and iron monger's ware. There were 188 passengers, all from Yorkshire, mostly the North Riding, their destination Nova Scotia. Lancelot Chapman, a tenant farmer went from Stebanthwaite farm ,Hawnby, near Helmsley, aged 49 with his wife Frances, three sons, and five daughters. He said it was "on account of their rents being raised by the Duke of Rutland, so that they could not live". His brother William Chapman took his wife Mary, five sons and four daughters.
A well to do Hutton Rudby paper maker, Charles Dixonhad gone earlier for Nova Scotia with sixty two in the Brigantine Duke of York. He bought 2000 acres of land including a two hundred acre farm with its stock, for £260. Most emigrants went with far less, lured by the prospect of earning enough to acquire some land of their own in the new world. On arrival, the women sailed on coastal schooners to Fort Cumberland. The men trekked across land to Windsor, took a small boat over the basin and walked to the fort. They wrote home, describing lush marshland which would yield two tons of hay to the acre. A gallon of cream gave as much butter as two gallons in England. The rum was cheap but the winters were hard.
John Rushton
