January 27, 2009:

An examination of two articles
regarding early emigration from Scotland to Upper Canada

1. Peopling Glengarry County: The Scottish Origins of a Canadian Community, 1784-1815
by Marianne McLean

and

2. The Politics of Emigration: Scotland and Assisted Emigration to Upper Canada, 1815-1826
by Michael E. Vance

Allan Lewis
 
This paper examines two articles regarding Scottish emigration to Upper Canada between 1784 
and 1826. The articles are "Peopling Glengarry County: The Scottish Origins of a Canadian 
Community" by Marianne McLean and "The Politics of Emigration: Scotland and Assisted 
Emigration to Upper Canada, 1815-1826" by Michael E. Vance. For the sake of brevity, these 
articles will be referred to as "McLean" and "Vance" respectively.

These articles are of particular interest to historians in the Ottawa area. They provide 
information regarding the two major Scottish pioneer settlements, Glengarry County (east of 
Ottawa), and Lanark County (to the west of Ottawa). The following table summarizes the 
context of the emigrations, as outlined by the authors:

                                                        McLean				     Vance


    
Early Scottish Emigration to the Ottawa area


 
to Glengarry County
 
to Lanark County

Characteristics of Emigrants
2,500 subsistence farmers from the Scottish
Highlands to Glengarry County before 1815
4,000 weavers and artisans from the
Scottish Lowlands to Lanark County after
1815

Emigrant Organization
No financial assistance, organized by
families, led by Highland patriarchs.
Catholic and Presbyterian 
Financially assisted, organized by emigrant
societies.

Presbyterian and Anglican

Reasons for Emigration
Defend traditional culture and lifestyle
Economic opportunity for politicized
emigrants
 
McLean's goal is to identify the precise geographical origins and the context of the 
emigration of the Glengarry settlers. Her research finds that they came from Inverness and 
the western islands of Scotland. Their lifestyle had been threatened as a result of the 
defeat of the Jacobites in 1745 and subsequent clearances of tenants from their traditional 
homesteads. Isolated and Gaelic-speaking, their social and economic structure still reflected 
the influence of a clan-based society with a minimum of English "civilizing". Their society 
existed during a time of mercantilist philosophy -- a nation's population was part of it's 
capital stock and was an asset to be retained at home. Emigration was discouraged both at 
the central government level and by local leaders such as Lord Glengarry and the Earl of 
Breadalbane. However, small family-based groups of Highlanders sent representatives to 
Greenock and Glasgow to charter ships and arranged to pick up emigrants from scattered 
highland ports.

Vance emphasizes the political aspects of  assisted emigrations after 1815. He describes 
the emigration of Scottish artisans from the industrial neighbourhood of Glasgow. This region 
had been profoundly affected by the depression which occurred at the end of the Napoleonic 
wars. Mostly weavers, these disgruntled urban Lowlanders became active in early labour 
politics and formed Emigrant Societies, as an extension of their craft guilds. Their home 
environment was more advanced than the Highlanders and exhibited strong effects of English 
culture, law and politics. This facilitated the creation of politically involved emigrant 
societies who interacted with the local gentry and members of parliament to influence 
emigration to Upper Canada. After 1815, the British government changed its attitude toward 
domestic population levels and, instead of discouraging emigration, tried to direct it 
towards places of strategic importance in the colonies. Earl Bathurst, the Secretary of 
State for the Colonies, was a proponent of settling Lanark County in Upper Canada under the 
aegis of the military and administrative centers at Perth and Lanark Villages. The townships 
of the Bathurst District had already been surveyed and the settlers, in common with the 
Highlanders at Glengarry, would supply a ready and loyal militia presence in Upper Canada 
as well as furnish staple goods (particularly lumber) to the mother country in exchange for 
British manufactured goods.

By 1815, the Glasgow and Edinburgh area was well served by roads and canals and the Clyde 
River ports became the central point of embarkation for emigrants. The Navigation Acts had 
been used as a tool to control emigration. In 1803 the price of transatlantic fares was 
increased and higher on-board standards (e.g. medical supervision and improvements in 
passenger rations) were implemented to deter emigration. These regulations were relaxed by 
1820 when it became apparent that only the more desirable class of passengers, those 
possessing capital and initiative, would emigrate.
 
Both authors have chosen the year 1815 as a demarcation point in their studies. The 
combination of the two articles provides a useful study of Scottish emigration to the two 
eastern Ontario communities - both a spatial and a temporal analysis.  Vance remarks about 
the radical (reform) politics which occurred in the Lanark settlement during the 1830's, 
a continuation of the political protest of Scotland.
 
Glengarry County is flat and fertile, ideally suited  for the traditional Highland cattle 
farmers, supplemented by winter work in the logging industries across the Ottawa River in 
Lower Canada. Lanark County is hilly, rocky and contains many rivers and lakes. This area, 
building on the textile industry background of its settlers, became a center of Eastern 
Ontario's textile industry. The rivers allowed the construction of mills at Carleton Place, 
Lanark Village and Almonte. The Highlanders and Lowlanders were both able to continue their 
economic traditions in their new country.

There were also political and religious differences between the two communities. The Lowland 
emigrants came from an environment of a well-developed English political and legal system. 
The earlier Glengarry Highlanders had far less exposure to English ways. There was less 
religious tension in the Glengarry settlement. The common Scottish heritage of the highland 
Catholics and Presbyterians, abetted by the friendly intercession of the Catholic Bishop 
Alexander MacDonnell, superceded religious differences to a large degree (although 
inter-denominational marriage was rare). In contrast, the Lanark settlers were already highly 
politicized (Vance) on their arrival in Canada and settled close to many Irish and English 
Protestants. There were incidents of armed conflict with nearby Irish Catholics (the 1823 
Peter Robinson settlers) as early as 1824 (the Ballyghiblin Riots).

McLean emphasizes that the Glengarry immigrants were kinship-based, and a culturally 
homogeneous group. This is reflected in the retention of Highland traditions in Canada. 
Today, the Glengarry community has a much higher proportion of persons who speak Gaelic well, 
are Presbyterians, send their children to Scottish dance classes and participate in Highland 
Games. In contrast, among the Lanark County descendants of the Lowlanders, there are almost 
no Gaelic speakers - their ancestors spoke English as their first language - and the Scottish 
tradition has become closely integrated with their Anglican and Methodist neighbours.
 
The articles by Marianne McLean and Michael Vance provide well documented background allowing 
readers to better understand the different types of early Scottish emigration to the Ottawa 
area.

 
Bibliography

General
Bumsted, J.M., "Scottish Emigration to the Maritimes 1770-1815: A New Look at an old Theme", 
Acadiensis X, no. 2 (Spring 1981): 65-85.

Cameron, James M., "The Role of Shipping from Scottish Ports in Emigration to the Canadas, 
1815-1855", in D.H. Akenson, ed., Canadian Papers in Rural History II (1980): 135-154.

Hornsby, Stephen, "Patterns of Scottish Emigration to Canada, 1750-1850", Journal of Historical
Geography 18, no. 4 (1992): 397-416.

McLean, Marianne, "Peopling Glengarry County: The Scottish Origins of a Canadian County", 
Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers (1982): 156-71.

Richards, Eric,  "Leaving the Highlands: Colonial Destinations in Canada and Australia", in 
Marjory Harper and Michael E. Vance, Myth, Migration and the Making of Memory (Halifax: 
Fernwood Publishing, 1999), 105-26.

Richards, Eric, The Highland Clearances: People, Landlords and Rural Turmoil (Edinburgh: 
Birlinn Ltd., 2000), 1-14, 310-30.

Vance, Michael E., "The Politics of Emigration: Scotland and Assisted Emigration to Upper 
Canada, 1815-26", in T.M. Devine, ed., Scottish Emigration and Scottish Society (Edinburgh: 
John Donald, 1992): 37-60.