SURPLUS PEOPLE
The Fitzwilliam Clearances 1847-1856
by Jim Rees
Mum was the first one in the family
to come down with the stomach flu and fever. Cliff was next and today it
hit me with a double whammy plus my head was so dizzy that I felt like
I was on a ship in rough seas.
In April of 1848, 383 surplus tenants of Lord Fitzwilliam estate in Wicklow,
Ireland boarded the ‘Star’ for a voyage that would take 37 days.
Sixty-three passengers were badly stricken with illness, nine of whom died
before the ship arrived in St. Andrews. If they thought the worst was behind
them, it certainly was not. Plus the dream of the men getting employment
on the building of the railroad turned into a nightmare.
Between 1847 and 1856, in an attempt to re-organize his 80,000 acre Coolattin
Estate, Lord William Fitzwilliam removed 6,000 men, women and children
and arranged passage to Canada. The vast majority of these people were
sent to Quebec for settlement in Ontario but one group was shipped to St.
Andrews, the men to work on a new railway line.
Surplus People - The Fitzwilliam Clearances
1847-1856 is the end result of four years of research and
writing by Jim Rees, coupled with the contributions of archivists and historians
in Ireland, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, and details the story of thousands
of famine refugees from County Wicklow sent to Canada.
The story of their arrival in St. Andrews -- most sick, starving
and destitute -- is a focus of this extraordinary book which identifies
specific families and follows their progress from their tiny holding in
Ireland to their new lives in New Brunswick.
Sent out on the sailing vessel "Star", these wretched emigrants spent
weeks at sea before being landed on a windswept quarantine island off St.
Andrews where several died of disease and exposure. When finally landed,
they discovered that no preparation had been made for their arrival and most
were forced to endure privations that can best be described as inhuman.
The horrific conditions on Grosse Ile, the quarantine station at Quebec,
are described, depicting images which still have the power to shock. Typhus
spread like wild fire, and up to fifty deaths a day occurred in the summer
of Black '47. No one could have predicted the deluge of human misery which
was about to descend on Grosse Ile.
During the course of his research Jim Rees compiled a database of the
names, ages, family relationships, size of holding, townland of origin, and
in some cases name of ship and dates of departure and arrival, of all 6,000
tenants. Details of how to access this information form an index in the
book
Inquire at your library
to find out if there is a copy of Surplus People - The Fitzwilliam
Clearances 1847-1856 by Jim Rees available or contact:
Dee-Jay Publications
3 Meadows Lane
Arklow, Co., Wicklow
Ireland
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Query 1147
Lynch - Chandler: Andrew Jackson Lynch was born in Petersville, New
Brunswick in 1846. He had brothers John and Tom. Andrew migrated to Yakima,
Washington and married Margaret Maria Chandler in Tacoma, Washington in 1891.
He died in 1923. I would like to find information on his parents and siblings.
Robert L. Bozorth
13921 94th Ave., NE Kirkland
WA, 98034, USA.
E-Mail bobstefani@juno.com.
