McAllister of Ireland
The population of Ireland almost doubled in the 50 years preceding 1845. With the country dependent on farming and no more land available, land owners began sub-dividing their land. Smallholders were often evicted to make way for new farming methods. Only one crop could produce enough food to sustain peasant families farming the tiny plots of land they had been forced onto – the potato.
During the famine years, 1845 to 1852, there was plenty of other food grown in Ireland but, under the system of the time, almost all of that food was exported to England to be consumed by the expanding workforce which had resulted from the industrial boom.
With just the potato crops to sustain them, when the entire crop failed in 1845 due to potato blight, over one million Irish people died of hunger and disease. The British Government was far to slow to act and many landlords used the crisis to take away people’s homes. Many could not pay the increasing rents on their farms and ended their days in the workhouses. Thousands of children were orphaned. A further one million people left Ireland for other countries, including England, North America and Australia.
During the famine years, 1845 to 1852, there was plenty of other food grown in Ireland but, under the system of the time, almost all of that food was exported to England to be consumed by the expanding workforce which had resulted from the industrial boom.
With just the potato crops to sustain them, when the entire crop failed in 1845 due to potato blight, over one million Irish people died of hunger and disease. The British Government was far to slow to act and many landlords used the crisis to take away people’s homes. Many could not pay the increasing rents on their farms and ended their days in the workhouses. Thousands of children were orphaned. A further one million people left Ireland for other countries, including England, North America and Australia.
The Irish Famine Memorial
The Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine is situated in Sydney, in the grounds of the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. The monument represents disruption and dislocation and includes a number of everyday items used by those who were housed in the Barracks. The Australian Famine Monument is a memorial to the million or so who died during the famine period. It is a monument to those who survived and in a very special way to the 4,200 famine orphans who arrived in Australia under the Earl Grey scheme (1848 -1850). It is a monument to their success, and recognition of what they contributed to the building of this great country. Source: Irish Famine Memorial Sydney Australia http://www.irishfaminememorial.org/default.htm |
The Earl Grey Scheme
On 17 February 1848 a scheme was instigated whereby orphans from the Irish workhouses would be selected for dispatch to the colonies. The scheme, proposed by Henry, 3rd Earl Grey, (Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1846 to 1852), was to contact the Boards of Guardians of the workhouses asking for young woman between the ages of fourteen and eighteen willing and eligible for passage to Australia.
It was decided that a need existed to even out the number of single men willing to immigrate to the Colonies by sending eligible young female migrants as domestic servants. The Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioner in London organized ships to carry the Irish famine orphans to Australia. The first of these ships, the Earl Grey and the Roman Emperor left Portsmouth in June and July 1848.
Unfortunately the scheme had many opponents; some suggested that the young woman were undisciplined and promiscuous, others that they were useless and untrained as domestic servants. The orphans were maligned and scorned. The scheme was eventually bought to an end in 1850 due to the overwhelming scandal and criticism.
Source: Barefoot and Pregnant? : Irish famine orphans in Australia; vol. 2. Documents and register compiled & introduced by Trevor McClaughlin. Melbourne: Genealogical Society of Victoria, [2001]
It was decided that a need existed to even out the number of single men willing to immigrate to the Colonies by sending eligible young female migrants as domestic servants. The Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioner in London organized ships to carry the Irish famine orphans to Australia. The first of these ships, the Earl Grey and the Roman Emperor left Portsmouth in June and July 1848.
Unfortunately the scheme had many opponents; some suggested that the young woman were undisciplined and promiscuous, others that they were useless and untrained as domestic servants. The orphans were maligned and scorned. The scheme was eventually bought to an end in 1850 due to the overwhelming scandal and criticism.
Source: Barefoot and Pregnant? : Irish famine orphans in Australia; vol. 2. Documents and register compiled & introduced by Trevor McClaughlin. Melbourne: Genealogical Society of Victoria, [2001]
The Roman Emperor
The orphans who were sent to South Australia on board the Roman Emperor came from the Poor Law Unions in Ulster including Strabane, Magherafelt, Londonderry and Carrickmacross. The term “orphan” meaning loss of at least one parent did apply to the vast majority of those who were came to Australia under Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan Scheme. All were destitute and many had lost their parents and families, others were simply unable to support themselves within the family.
The South Australian Register newspaper 25 Oct. 1848 claimed there were 238 females & 8 male orphans on board. The scheme originally included both males and females but the London Emigration Commissioners had decided to limit the scheme to females by May 1848. It is possible that a small contingent of male orphans boarded the Roman Emperor. In Royal Adelaide Hospital Admission records Arthur McAllister is listed as having arrived on the Roman Emperor in 1848. |