The objective in this chapter is to show the part
played by Scottish farmers and artisans in the shaping of Canada in its
formative years. Two periods of time will be discussed: the early years
of settlement and the years from 1800 to 1867, the later period
receiving most attention. Even for this period, however, it is possible
at this juncture to present only an impressionistic picture for lack of
data: a broad, sweeping sketch of where the immigrants came from, where
they settled, what conditions they met and how they responded to those
conditions. The study in detail and the precise measurement of their
contribution will have to await the assembling of such material as
family histories, collections of correspondence and corporate histories.
THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
In the seventeenth century, although the Scots made
attempts at colonization in North America, no settlement of any
importance was established. Scotland at the time possessed neither the
financial, military and naval support, nor the independent foreign
policy needed for such an enterprise. The Scots who went to North
America during this century went more often as a consequence of
compulsion of one type or other than of their own free will:
transportation, penal as well as political, or outright abduction. Such
forced movement is said to have continued well into the eighteenth
century.
During the eighteenth century the foundations were
laid for the substantial immigration of Scots to British North America
that was to occur in the following century. The first major emigration
began during the middle years of the century, principally following the
'45. Substantial social change was under way in Scotland. The
alterations in clan organization, hikes in land rents, and innovations
in agricultural methods all contributed to a profound altering of an
inefficient and archaic social system.
The first to respond to the changes by emigrating
were families of social standing, trying to transfer their whole social
system to the New World. They were tacksmen, semi-aristocratic tenants
of large acreage, who sublet their holdings to crofters and small
farmers. Many had substantial capital, although some may have been
poverty stricken.1 In the last quarter of the century, they
were followed by more humble emigrants.2 Some were clansmen
with families, of modest financial resources and sometimes unskilled,
who had known the semi-agricultural life of the Highlands or Islands.
Others were discharged members of the military, settled upon small
holdings in North America by a grateful government in lieu of being
transported home, and intended to serve as part of a buffer of military
capacity north of the troublesome North American colonists who had dealt
the first revolutionary blow to the Empire.3
In addition to those who came directly from Scotland
to Canada, it must not be overlooked that the triumph of the American
colonists' revolution resulted in driving northward, into what would
become Canada, a substantial number of colonists, many of them Scots,
who, loyal to the Crown and its established political institutions, saw
only disarray in the constitutional forms emerging in the rebellious
colonies. For the most part, these United Empire Loyalists were of the
tacksmen class, still possessing substantial wealth even though in some
instances they had lost much because of their hurried departure. As
established entrepreneurs they quickly regrouped to make a substantial
contribution to their newly adopted country. Only in rare instances were
they farmers or artisans. The massive immigration of farmer and artisan
was still in the future: it would characterize the Scots emigration of
the nineteenth century.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Settlements begun in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, and
Prince Edward Island in 1773 and 1777 served to attract other Scots
after the American war was over. The disbanded regiments served as
nuclei for immigrants, attracting them to Quebec, Montreal, and the
Ottawa Valley. It was not, however, until the social and economic
upheaval characterizing Scotland during the nineteenth century
encouraged substantial emigration, and until both government and free
enterprise undertook commercial ventures in emigration, that peasants
began to reach North America in substantial numbers:
Between 1815 and 1820 many went overseas from
Sutherland and other parts of the West Highlands ... by the 1820s
the clearance or eviction of tenants for the sake of sheep farming
was well under way, and emigration began to be looked upon with a
fresh eye. Many thought it desirable, as providing an outlet for
over-numerous tenants who were a burden on the estates. Much of the
clearance involved nothing more than resettling tenants on new
holdings within the same county, sometimes within the same parish,
and the notion that scheming landlords, for their own financial
profit, shipped to America tenants who were living in plenty, or
even in comfort, at home, is preposterous. The truth is that people
who had experienced the miseries of life in the Highlands in the
1840s clamoured for assistance to enable them to leave the country .
. . When the next highland crisis came, in the 1880s, emigration was
once more regarded as the obvious remedy. Again there was private
enterprise . . . But it was also true that the Napier Commission
which investigated crofting conditions and made recommendations so
favourable to the tenants, reported in favour of emigration, aided
and directed by the state, as the only remedy for the overpopulation
of certain areas.4
Changes in Lowland agriculture, beginning in the
eighteenth century, ultimately revolutionized this aspect of the
Scottish economy. Root crops and new types of grasses, in combination,
created an improvement in the feed, hence in the animal stock. By more
careful fertilization practices, coupled with a careful rotation of
crops, soil productivity was increased. Implements underwent
improvement; for example, a lighter plough was developed and came into
use. Farms gradually became larger with fields being enclosed by dikes
and tenant farmers being granted long leases to enable them more readily
to recover their investment in any improvement they introduced. In
short, Scottish agriculture became more efficient, and this, coupled
with a substantial increase in demand for agricultural produce, led to
growing prosperity among Scottish farmers.5 But the new methods of farming often led to surplus
labour. Tenants whose leases expired without hope of renewal therefore
had an understandable desire for emigration, supported by the widespread
belief that departure was no longer exile but potentially beneficial.6
Vitality was evident also in the industrial sector of
the Scottish economy during the late eighteenth and the nineteenth
centuries. Indeed, the substantial development and expansion of industry
had the inevitable consequence of altering a predominately rural country
into a labour-saving machine-oriented industrialized one. While it is
said that "the general pattern of Scottish industry in the nineteenth
century was one of progress and prosperity and of opportunities for
Scotsmen of capacity,"7 and that this
was equally true for those working in agriculture as well up to the
middle of the century, the general trends tend to obscure the effects of
slumps, depressions, financial crises, bad harvests, and altered
legislation, such as the Corn Laws. All of these together with the
application of mechanization had important influences upon another
general trend, namely, the displacement of people from productive
employment on the land and in the factory. Weavers were among those
particularly affected, and former weavers made up a significant part of
the emigration from Scotland.
An additional factor influencing the development of a
desire to emigrate overseas was the widespread belief that less social
and political inequality as well as better economic conditions existed
in British North America.8 The belief
was probably well grounded as far as the frontier areas were concerned.
The necessity for all to labour at the same chores had a powerful
levelling effect in the backwoods, further strengthened by the
egalitarian ideology that wafted northward from the United States. In
the towns, however, the situation was otherwise, with small cliques of
office-holders in government, church and army jealously guarding their
privileges.
Lower class Scots during the nineteenth century thus
seem mainly to have emigrated in order to escape destitution at home;
they came from the Highlands and the Lowlands but also from the major
cities to which they had previously moved as a response to unfavourable
economic conditions. They arrived with intelligence, shrewdness, and
adaptability, but often with few skills which could qualify them as
farmers, let alone artisans.9 In some
instances, however, they had and could use basic skills, long in use in
the Highland and Lowland areas from which they had come:
Even in the most primitive communities in the
Highlands and Islands . the people had employed local handy men who
specialized each in some craft. As society stabilized itself in the
New World, the settlement gathered around itself a clergyman, a
doctor, a teacher, a storekeeper and a group of artisans. Each
district was provided with a shoemaker and a tailor, who often
travelled from house to house in the traditional Scottish manner.
Each district had its own grist-mill and saw-mill. Villagers often
had both a cabinet-maker and a carriage-maker, sometimes a
boat-builder, and always a blacksmith .... An occupational directory
of Nova Scotia for the year 1864 presents a very different picture
of the Highland communities from that of today. In Whycocomagh, for
instance (which at that time had a population of about 1,800),
besides the inevitable teacher, innkeepers, and merchants, we find a
shipwright, a carriage-maker, a wheelwright, a tanner, two millers,
two blacksmiths, and two tailors. A later directory for the year
1868 shows the village still as well provided and enumerates, in
addition to the previous list, one dyer ....
Other districts were all once well supplied with
the service of the local craftsmen. Sometimes one craft
predominated, sometimes another. In North Gut St. Ann's, for
instance, we find no less than five weavers listed for the year
1864. On the mainland of Nova Scotia during the same period we find
in the St. Andrew's district seven carpenters, six shoemakers, three
ship-carpenters, three tailors, two masons, two millwrights, two
carriage-makers, two tanners, and a surveyor.10
For the most part, the problem lay in adapting to the
newer conditions characterized by an initially hostile
environment that could by hard and persistent work be coaxed to fecund
response.
Although the early emigration attracted much
opposition, by the first decades of the nineteenth century public
opinion in Scotland had swung completely around. Through the assistance
of kinsmen and emigration associations, and with substantial overseas
encouragement through correspondence, a thriving passenger service
developed for those who could pay their passage. It is said that "by
1820, small tradesmen, mechanics, men of every occupation were joining
the throngs of emigrating small farmers, and every port in the north and
west was sending hundreds annually to Nova Scotia and Quebec."11
Even though many emigrants were disaffected
politically, were relatively unskilled and by no means members of the 'proprietory
class,' they exhibited no lack of knowledge, initiative, capacity for
work or adaptability upon their arrival in the New World. They brought
with them not only a desire for a less definitively ordered class
structure, but also the willingness to try new methods and new means for
wresting a livelihood from the climate and the land. By no means all
were destitute, but most had to husband their resources with care.12
They came to Nova Scotia or Quebec. For the most
part, however, their objective was farther west. Nova Scotia and the St.
Lawrence lowlands were settled; the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada
near the American border and Upper Canada were being opened up, and
promised most to the industrious immigrant. Since by no means all
possessed funds for buying land from local land boards, individuals like
Colonel Talbot, or land development companies such as the Canada
Company, the initial step was frequently to make a down payment or
accept employment on the land with the intent to save capital for
ultimate purchase.
Appearing before the Select Committee on
Emigration, Scotland, Dr. Thomas Rolph from Upper Canada commented
concerning one Scot who emigrated to Canada:
Under judicious management the expense might be
very much abridged. I will give you proof of one from Aberdeen whom
I hired at $16.00 a month as a farm labourer. I had an Englishman at
the same time to whom I paid the same wages. I was astonished that
the Scotsman never came to me for his wages; he said he wanted to
accumulate them for a certain purpose; at the end of three years he
took nearly $100 off me and went and purchased land of his own.13
Where did these newcomers tend to settle? Frequently
they were attracted to locations where fellow clansmen, relatives or
other Scots had already established themselves. If they came out under
the auspices of one of the developers, whether an individual or a
company, they settled on their lands. In some cases, one cannot but
suspect that even the scenery which reminded them of their Scottish
homeland may have exercised a determining influence. Even today, a
traveller through the Eastern
Townships of Quebec or the Grey and Bruce Counties in
Ontario cannot but be impressed with the fact that the appearance of the
land is very similar to that of Scotland, which may well have attracted
the homesick colonist.
One example of the interaction of a number of these
factors is to be found in the settlement of a part of the Eastern
Townships where many Scots established themselves, i.e. the Township of
Leeds, Megantic County. During the mid-1820s a number of Scottish
families moved on to the back concessions: Allans, Olivers, Gillanders,
Nugents and others. In 1828 William Reid and his family arrived from New
York where they had located the preceding year, but for a number of
reasons had decided to return to British rule in Canada. At first they
had visited the Township of Hinchinbrook, Beauharnois County, but it was
too flat for their liking, and hearing of the Scottish settlement at
Leeds, an area geographically very similar to the Perthshire from which
they had come, they obtained land in that township. Soon afterwards they
were joined by Andrew Dunn, a distant relative, who had originally
planned to settle in Nova Scotia.14
Meanwhile other Scots, usually related to each other
in some way, had received grants in the Township of Hinchinbrook, which
the Reids had scorned. Out of 225 families settled there in 1831, Scots
formed 79, located mainly on the land as farmers, while the Irish, the
next largest group (78), moved into the village of Huntingdon.15
One group of Scots made up of between 60 and 80
families settled in the parish of St. Anne Desplaines in the 1820s, in
the Seigneurie of Blainville on the mainland north of Montreal. This
caused some surprise among the French-Canadian habitants, for the land
was not particularly good, which we can see from the fact that the local
cure referred to the parish as "mon desert." But what was perhaps the
principal reason for the surprise was that the new arrivals would hold
the land en roturier, which would mean that they would have to
pay cens et rentes and fulfil other seigneurial obligations. This
was quite unusual since the Scottish settlers, like the English and the
Irish, usually sought to obtain land in free and common socage. Indeed,
Joseph Bouchette, in his Topographical Dictionary of Lower Canada,
explains that the principal reason for the immigrants from the
British Isles and the United States settling in Megantic County was that
free and common socage was the only form of landholding in that area. He
points out that since none of the land was held by seigneurial tenure,
there were no French Canadians in the county.16
In Upper Canada much the same pattern of settlement
was followed, as is indicated by what happened in and around Guelph at
the same time as the settlement of the Eastern Townships (1827-30):
Another party of emigrants arrived later in the
summer, and being mostly farmers, they settled on what has since
been known as the Scotch Block, on the Elora Road. Among them were
Alex McTavish, Donald Gillies, Alex Reid, McFie, Peter Butchart,
Angus Campbell, Halliday, Joseph McDonald (who was an uncle of the
present Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, and who died a few years ago
upwards of 90 years of age), Jas. Stirton, Jas. McQuillan, Wm.
Patterson, Rose, the Kennedys (three families) - most of whom,
however, afterwards sold out, when they had made some improvements
and removed elsewhere . . . While on the other hand, all of those
who retained the farms they themselves had cleared afterwards became
more or less wealthy, and many of them were in after years able to
purchase eligible land in other places. A third party arrived at
about the same time and settled in the Paisley Block, among them
were - Jas. Inglis, Jas. Laidlaw, J. McCorkindale, Drew, Campbell,
Alexander, Gideon, Hand-Boyd, McKersie, John Speirs, Thos. Jackson .
. . most of whom became wealthy and influential citizens. Most of
these early settlers had families, and the sons of some of them have
since held prominent positions in the various councils and in the
legislative halls of the country.17
We observe the essential Scottishness of the
emigrants, their tendency to settle together, the nature of their
enterprise of hard work, risk-taking, and ultimately their upward
mobility. Another author summarized: "Like the sheep on their Scottish
hills, as far as possible, they settled together in flocks, and it was
uncommon to find one of them located alone among people of other
origins."18
In all of this settlement and ensuing development,
the Scot, and in particular the Highlander, was a sought-after
immigrant. For example, the British American Land Company made special
appeals to Scottish Highlanders who are said to have arrived in numbers
greater than the Company could employ.19 At an earlier period, when the Huron Tract was under
development, Dr. Ailing of Guelph, in presenting testimony before the
British Parliamentary Select Committee, urged the virtue of Scotch
emigrants over others.20 Not all observers, however, found
the Highlander the most satisfactory of farmers. John McGregor mixed
praise and blame:
The Scotchman, habituated to greater privations
in his native country has probably left it with the full
determination of undergoing any hardships that may lead to the
acquisition of solid advantages. He therefore acts with great
caution and industry, subjects himself to many inconveniences,
neglects the comforts for some time which the Englishman considers
indispensable, and in time certainly succeeds in surmounting all the
difficulties, and then and not till then, does he willingly enjoy
the comforts of life ..
The Highland Scotch, unless intermixed with other
settlers, are not only careless, in many particulars, of
cleanliness, within their houses but are also regardless of neatness
and convenience in their agricultural implements and arrangements.
All this arises from the force of habit, and the long prevalence of
the make-shift system; for whenever a Scotch Highlander is planted
among a promiscuous population, no one is more anxious than he to
rival the more respectable establishment of his neighbours.
The Scotch settlers from the Lowland countries,
although they generally know much better, yet remain from a
determination first to accumulate property, for some years
regardless of comfort or convenience in their dwellings; but they at
last build respectable houses, and enjoy the fruits of industry . .
. Few people, however, find themselves sooner at their ease than the
Highland Scotch; no class can endure difficulties or suffer
privations with more hardihood, or endure fatigue with less
repining. They acquire what they consider an independence in a few
years; but they remain, in too many instances, contented with their
condition, where they find themselves possessed of more ample means
than they possessed in their native country ... I have observed,
that whenever the Highlanders inhabit a distinct settlement, their
habits, their systems of husbandry, their disregard for comfort in
their houses, their ancient hospitable customs, and their language
undergo no sensible change.21.
Adam Fergusson, on his journey throughout Upper
Canada during the 1830s, commented acidly:
One of the first settlements we meet with is the
Glengarry district, an extensive tract of good land enjoying the
advantage of water carriage. The language, the customs, the native
courage of their Celtic sires still distinguishes the Clans, though
at the same time we are afraid accompanied by some of those less
profitable traits which stamp the Highlander as more at home
wielding the claymore or extracting the mountain dew, than in
guiding the plough-shares to slow but certain results. The farms are
but indifferently improved, considering the advantages they have
enjoyed; and much valuable time is expended in the depths of the
forest in a semi-savage life, cutting and preparing timber for the
lumber merchant, which if steadily devoted to the cultivation of the
land would certainly be attended with infinitely greater benefit,
both in a physical and mental point of view.
and again:
The Canadian farmers pursue the old Scottish
practice of infield and outfield taking crop after crop of grain
from their fields until nothing but weeds remain and looking to
nature for the renovation which their own industry ought to have
effected.
These are comments and observations of a Lowland
agricultural specialist who might be expected to have an extremely
critical eye for Highland practices. Not all his comments were acerbic,
however:
My Angus friend who seemed to be in the enjoyment
of very easy circumstances, affords a proof, among hundreds, of what
an industrious and steady man may do for himself in Canada. He came
out in 1817, was wrecked in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, suffered many
hardships, and finally landed in Montreal, devoid of every resource,
save his own hands and good spirits. He soon found employment and in
due time took a lease of a farm which he finds to succeed extremely
well. His wheat and potatoes he says are excellent: oats inferior.
He cultivates green crops, taking mangel wurzel instead of turnips
which suffer from the fly. He uses horses in preference to oxen: has
iron plows, and follows what he called a sort of rotation - 1st
wheat; 2nd green crop; 3rd clover; 4th timothy for hay; and 5th
pasture.22
Fergusson's favourable comments are borne out by the
evidence of other of his contemporaries as well as by later historians.
According to one recent French-Canadian work, the habitants'
agricultural methods were very backward at the opening of the nineteenth
century, and it was the advent of "les Yankees et les Ecossais" which
improved the situation.23 Bouchette
when describing the Seigneurie de Blainville, after he had referred to
the Scotch Church in Ste. Therese, added this comment in the next
sentence:
The Protestants who are all cultivators, cannot
but be advantageous to the improvement of agriculture for the system
they practise is so good that their Canadian neighbors cannot long
delay to adopt it, at least in part.
When we consider the context in which this is stated
and his later reference to the 60 or more Scottish families in Ste. Anne
Desplaines, it is clear that he is referring to the predominantly
Scottish element in the area. In discussing the Eastern Townships,
particularly Megantic Country where so many Scots settled, he remarked:
Labouring under the weighty disadvantage of the
want of good and convenient roads communicating with the principal
market-towns of the province, the prosperity of the eastern
townships can only be attributed to the enterprise, industry and
perseverence of the inhabitants, who, considering merely the
mildness of the climate, the advantages of the soil, and the
locality, boldly entered the wilderness originally, and have now the
gratification of seeing around them corn-fields of unrivalled
luxuriance, thriving farms, and flourishing villages.24
Modern historians agree with this estimate of the
situation, holding that "Les colons anglophones y sont ouverts, actifs
entreprenant." Since they found it easier to sell their produce on the
adjacent American market, however, the only thing which kept them from
seeking annexation to the United States was their very strong British
loyalty.25 But not all emigrants
possessed skills essential to effective survival, although officialdom
tended to anticipate fairly rapid
self-sufficiency. Less than one year after one of the settlements had
begun, "most of the people at Drummondville, inexperienced even in
agriculture, let alone pioneer agriculture, were plunged in abject
misery."26
It is difficult to ascertain with any precision what
industrial skills the Scots possessed on coming to British North
America. Records were kept not only of the sources of immigrants who
arrived at Quebec and other ports, but also of the trades and callings
of the immigrants; however, no cross-classifications were made.
Information about Scottish artisans must therefore be gleaned from such
sources as family histories, local histories and travellers'
journals.
From these, it appears that immigrants brought a
variety of skills with them. Guillet noted:
A list of 24 Scots settled at Perth in 1816 shows
that one had been a farm grieve (manager) in Scotland, and seven
others farmers or farm labourers. The other 16 included the
following occupations: weaver, dyer, shoemaker, ship-master, mason,
millwright, ship carpenter, schoolmaster, whitesmith, widow,
shopkeeper, gardener, clerk.27
Even among the farmers, many had acquired skills by
the practice of which they could supplement the yield of their fields.
But more significant are the occupational activities
in which the Scots engaged in Canada. In addition to farming, and to
business and finance, in which Scottish participation has been so
notable as to warrant detailed discussion, Scots in the nineteenth
century exercised skills acquired before migration or newly learned in
British North America as millwrights, distillers, coopers, smiths,
sawyers, masons, builders, tanners, cobblers, weavers, dyers, tailors,
iron workers, bakers - in short, as mechanics or artisans in all of the
callings of which their young communities had need. The number of cheese
factories, sometimes one-man operations, established by Scots28
was notable, as was the number of flour
mills, fanning mills, sawmills, paper mills and carding mills.29
Distilleries also, not unexpectedly, were set up in quantity.30
Many of the Scottish artisans enjoyed only local
fame; others, however, won wider renown. For example, Adam Fergusson was
not solely a gentleman farmer and keen observer; he possessed an alert
imagination, progressive ideas, and a capacity for persuasion which
resulted not only in the founding of a community, now the town of
Fergus, but also in the training of veterinarians, the breeding of
Durham bulls, and indeed, the founding of the Ontario Agricultural
College.31 Red Fife, the first hard
spring wheat developed in North America, owes its origin to David Fife
of Otonabee Township who enterprisingly secured the original European
Northern wheat from which he developed this ultimately widely approved
strain. Patrick Bell's reaper, which he did not patent, was widely used
in the 1830s and was considered "a beautiful piece of mechanism, (which)
cut the grain .. . and by an endless conveyor belt of canvas laid it in
a swath on one side of the machine."32
Peter McKellar and another man in the Talbot
Settlement in 1819 invented a handmill which they called a 'bragh' which
was widely used among the settlers in that district. "It consisted of
granite stones fitted into a framework, the smaller stones on top and a
large bolt passing through the centre of both to fasten them together. A
large eye at the top of the bolt made it possible to insert a hand spike
and carry the mill from place to place."33 Finally, the
founder of Hull, Philemon Wright, was considered one of the most
enterprising, resourceful and successful of Canadian settlers. Sometimes
referred to as the ' white chief of the
Ottawa,'' he owned and operated a mill and tavern at Chaudiere Falls; in
1840 his financial worth was estimated at £100,000.34
In Montreal as industry began to develop,
particularly in engineering and similar fields, Scots from the Clydeside
shipyards, from the engine-building works in Motherwell and various
engineering firms in other parts of Lanark, Renfrew and the Glasgow
area, began to emigrate to Canada, some to carry on their trades and
crafts in the Maritime provinces, but most to obtain employment in the
CPR Angus Shops in the east end of Montreal or in the Grand Trunk shops
in the St. Henry district. Even in the first decade of the present
century either first or second generation Scottish immigrants still
dominated the skilled personnel employed in these two large plants.
In the category of artisan, we should perhaps also
include Sandford Fleming, an engineer. His career embraced much more
than railroading, although it is worth noting that the Great Western
Toronto-Hamilton (1854), the Canada Southern (Hamilton-Port Dover), the
Inter-Colonial, and finally the Canadian Pacific Railroad all bore his
imprint. He also initiated the first Canadian postage stamp (1851), and
pioneered in the establishment of Standard Time in 1884. He was
instrumental in the construction of the Dundas Canal; before he died in
1915 he had also served as Chancellor of Queen's University. This was an
impressive record for any person in any country.35
An indication of the role of the Scots may be found
in the description of a community founded and largely populated by
Scots, such as Guelph, Ontario. In 1843 Guelph had
It will be recalled that Guelph was founded in 1827.
At the time of the above analysis the community was the capital of
Wellington County and contained a population of 703 persons. It would be
extremely valuable to be able to identify all the persons classified in
these respective occupations. By name we could obtain perhaps some
meagre indication of national origin. At this time the following persons
are identified as living in Guelph and employed in the cited
occupations: architect, Victor Stewart; master builders, David Kennedy,
Thomas Dobbie, Robert Grierson, Robert Emslie, James Davidson, James
Barclay, George and Alexander Bruce, James Dobbie.37 It seems a reasonable assumption that all were
Scots.
William Allan, born in Killochan, Ayrshire, arrived
in Canada in 1830. An engineer and specialist in the erection of saw and
flour mills in Sweden, he acquired property from the Canada Company in
the Guelph area and proceeded to construct "a mill proper, a cooper shop
to make the barrels, a blacksmith and a metal-working ship, a planing
mill and a wood-working shop."38 His
eldest son, David, became owner and manager and he, "being an architect,
maintained a fully equipped drafting room above his business office."39
Son James, who was a competent miller, looked after flour production,
while son John, who was a qualified millwright, kept the machinery
running. Son William completed schooling at Rockwood Academy and
afterwards at Tassies in Galt, ultimately becoming office manager. In a
sense this is a not unusual series of events and illustrates the
cumulative human component in a specific Scots family brought to the New
World even though the illustration may only be tenuously artisan.
Alex (Sandy) Glass and John Busby, head and assistant
gardener respectively at the Priory when owned by William Allan, would
have to be considered specialists in agriculture. It is said that:
These two men kept the grounds always in
excellent order. There was the green-house, in the centre, in which
many rare plants were propagated, as well as some choice varieties
of grapes, the roots or seeds for which were imported from Spain;
then, out in the garden, were some varieties of gooseberries which
attained large size, apples and plums also of choice
varieties, which yielded luscious fruit, many of them prize winners
in the horticultural show in the Fall. 'Sandy' developed some choice
varieties himself, including what was afterwards "the Glass seedling
plum", which some years later (after he had moved to St. Catharines),
became a staple and much sought for fruit in that district.40
This is surely an example of substantial and
significant contribution, not only to the lifestyle of the times but to
its life content as well. The degree of sophistication of the
agriculturalists cited, their contact with and dependence upon other
parts of the world, particularly Europe, clarifies a little of the
'actual lifestyle' occasionally to be discovered, in
'life in the bush.' It suggests also that one of the critically
important ingredients permitting 'contribution' is the human's
perception of the type and variety of opportunity.
Mr. Alex McKenzie, who worked in the office of the
Allan mill, later became clerk of the surrogate court in Guelph.41
James Mays settled on 100 acres in
1830; later he built a fanning mill; still later he moved to Guelph and
built a stone residence and a stone business block. Robert Crowe arrived
in 1832 and started a foundry for the production of stoves and general
castings. Messrs Harley and Heather set up an iron and brass foundry.
Mr. Thain in 1862 opened a blacksmith and wagon shop; Mr. Stewart in
1854 opened a wood products business; Mr. Clarke built the first bridge
on Dundas Street for the Canada Company, later returning to Guelph to
open a tannery. Two tanneries were also opened in 1869, one by a Mr.
Harvey who later became town clerk, and another by a Mr. Gow who later
became sheriff of the community. In 1864 a Mr. Bell established a
business to manufacture melodeons, which business was later taken over
by McLeod, Wood and Company, still later by John Jackson and Company.
The Mechanics Institute in 1850 had as the principal
officers president, C.J. Mickle, secretary, T. Sandilands, and
librarian, Edwin Newton, and members with the names of McDonald,
Torrance, Scott, Gow, Ferguson, Watt, Savage and Armstrong. The
precursor of the organized public library system, the Mechanics
Institute represented an important contribution to informal education,
principally for the working man. It is interesting that some of the key
people in the endeavour were Scots, continuing the tradition of a
concern for learning.42
What could one conclude from the following list of
'firsts' in the town of Guelph except that the Scots had
impressively made their presence felt in that community, contributing
significantly to the emerging social structure?
James Logan, a Scottish advocate who visited Canada
in 1836, noted that David Allan of Guelph, an ingenious mechanic, had
erected a distillery with his own hands.44
The main portion of Scots coming to British North
America after the beginning of the nineteenth century were artisans or
farmers or those who in the absence of such skill or knowledge took up
work on the farm, in the factory, or in the store with the confident
intention of self-improvement. For the most part their first move in the
new environment was to obtain land, either to farm or to use as a base
of operation. Frequently they cleared it, sold it and moved on to repeat
the process; served, that is, as openers of land rather than developers
of it. Others came with particular and specific skills which they were
not always able to use immediately to personal advantage in the new
country. The skilled carpenter was not always able to obtain work at his
trade, but frequently transferred his skill to clearing the land and
building a dwelling place; in short, there seems to have been
substantial capacity, adaptability, and initiative which as time passed
flowered under the stimulus of a variety of social and economic stimuli.
This tendency continued even after the new arrivals
were well and confortably settled. As one traces the fortunes of the
Scots who took up their residence in the Maritime provinces, the Eastern
Townships, Glengarry and western Ontario, one soon finds that they were
often not content to remain merely as farmers or artisans. If they did
desire to continue on the land they were usually on the constant lookout
for new and better locations in places such as the Prairie provinces and
British Columbia, with the result that the Scottish settlements in
Eastern Canada were often depleted by the adventurous who were caught up
in the movement to the West in the late nineteenth century. Others left
the farms or the factories to obtain an education and to enter the
professions. The Township of Leeds, for instance, of which mention has
been made earlier, for the period of a century after its first
settlement put forth over 100 school teachers, about the same number of
nurses, some 25 clergymen (mostly Presbyterian), fifteen doctors, one of
whom was the first woman psychiatrist in the United States, an equal
number of lawyers and smaller numbers in other professions; and Leeds
was by no means exceptional.45
An important ingredient in this flowering was the
social environment, and more particularly the feeling the immigrant had
about it. The majority of the immigrants, although they may have been
short of funds, were trying to escape not so much from poverty as from
lack of opportunity in Scotland. As McColl states:
In warm houses sheltered by the great woods, in homes
they could for the first time call their own, with no pompous aristocrat
to collect rent, or threaten eviction, or compel obeisance, they were
comparatively comfortable and contented, and from the outlook of the
future received both cheer and stimulus.46
It is sometimes said that the effect of
'open opportunity' upon the emigrant has been overemphasized,
that the whole notion of 'open opportunity' is
romantic, and not a 'hard, scientific fact.' However, although no
quantification is possible, the growth and development of the nation
called Canada offers strong evidence that the ' definition of the
situation ' formed a profound and critical part of the circumstances
requisite to the survival of immigrants and their ultimate success. In
the early pioneer stage on the land, the freedom to fail was a powerful
stimulant to concerted effort towards achievement. This appears no less
true at later stages in the development of the country, although with
the emergence of organized economic activity some of the flavour of
independently co-operating with one's neighbours in the 'Scotch Block'
for one's own profit may have appeared ephemeral or possibly
non-existent to the immigrant employed as a mechanic in a railway shop
at an hourly wage. Then the circumstances may well have seemed little
different from those they had left, although the difference seems still
to have been perceived as significant. Certainly in aspiring towns and
cities, Scottish enterprise was no less evident than in rural
communities, among artisans and craftsmen as well as among businessmen,
financiers, politicians and scholars.
NOTES
1. Margaret I. Adam, "The Highland Emigration of
1770," The Scottish Historical Review, 15/16 (1918-19), 282-84.
2. Ibid., 17/18 (1920-21), 74.
3. Ibid., 284-290.
4. Gordon Donaldson, The Scots Overseas
(London: Hale, 1966), pp. 74-
75,79.
5. Ibid., pp. 82-83.
6. Helen I. Cowan, British Emigration to British
North America (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961), Chapter
v.
7. Donaldson, p. 85.
8. Ibid., p. 88.
9. Ibid., pp. 205-206.
10. Charles W. Dunn, Highland Settler
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1953), pp. 120-121.
11. Cowan, p. 52.
12. Ibid.,p. 53.
13. Z2009(1841), 173,V
1-8,
British Parliamentary Papers, paragraph 1548.
14. McKillop, The Annals of Megantic (n.p.,
1902), pp. 135, 148; W.D. Reid, The Genealogy of the Reid Family
(Unpublished).
15. J. Bouchette, The British Dominions in North
America (London: Colburn & Bentley, 1831, repr. N.Y., AMS, 1968) I.
Topographical Dictionary of Lower Canada: "Hinchinbrook."
16. Ibid.,
II, "Megantic
County,""Mille Isles, Seigneurie of."
17. C. Acton Burrows, The Annals of the Town of
Guelph (Guelph: Herald Steam Printing House, 1877) p. 15.
18. H. McColl, Sketches of Highland Pioneers of
the County of Middlesex (1901), in Public Archives of Canada,
Ottawa. See also James M. Cameron, "An introduction of the Study of
Scottish Settlement of Southern Ontario: A Comparison of Place Names."
Ontario History, LXI (1969), 167-172.
19. Cowan, p. 137.
20. Z 2009 (1842), 173,
V 1-8, Brit. Parl. Papers, para. 1561.
21. John McGregor, British America (Edinburgh,
1833), Vol. II, pp. 445, 447-50.
22. Adam Fergusson, Tour in Canda, 11th ed.
(Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1833), p. 263.
23. J. Hamelin & Y. Roby, Histoire economique de
Quebec, 1851-1896 (Montreal: Fides, 1971), p. 9.
24. Bouchette, i, p. 308.
25. Hamelin & Roby, p. 21. F. Ouellet [Histoire
economique et sociale du Quebec, 1760-1850 (Montreal: Fides, 1966),
pp. 81 ff] points out that the first English-speaking governor of
Quebec, General James Murray, a Scot, did everything he could to improve
agriculture but that the real drive for advance came from the British
merchants and settlers, most of whom were Scots. Lord Elgin, also a
Scottish governor in the mid 1850s distributed 50,000 copies of a tract
to give guidance about agriculture, while Governor Dalhousie, another
Scot, endeavoured to organize agricultural societies, presumably along
the pattern of the Scottish agricultural bodies of the time. [M. Seguin,
La "Nation Canadienne" et l'Agriculture, (1760-1850), (Montreal:
Boreal, 1970), pp. 137ff].
26. Ibid., p. 41.
27. E.C. Guillet, The Pioneer Farm and
Backwoodsman (Toronto: The Ontario Publishing Co. Ltd., 1963), p.
87.
28. Norman Robertson, History of the County of
Bruce (originally published in 1906 by William Briggs of Toronto,
reprinted, Toronto: J.M. Dent and Sons, 1960), p. 332; Robert J. Fraser, As Others See Us (Beamsville, Ont., Beamsville Express, 1959),
pp. 112,235-239.
29. F.H. Dobbin, Our Old Home Town (Toronto:
J.M. Dent and Sons, 1943), pp. 12, 226, 227; Norman Robertson,
History of the County of Bruce (originally published in 1906 by
William Briggs of Toronto, reprinted in Toronto: J.M. Dent and Sons,
1960), pp. 328-0, 339, 374; Claire Thompson, Township of Lanark
1820-1970 (Lanark, Ont., The Lanark Era, 1970), p. 25; Andrew F.
Hunter, A History of Simcoe County (Bar-rie, Ont., Historical
Committee of Simcoe County, 1909), pp. 211, 237, 247.
30. E.A. Owen, Pioneer Sketches of Long Point
Settlement (Originally published in 1898 by William Briggs of
Toronto, reprinted in Canadian Reprint Series, No. 17, Belleville Ont.,
Milca Silk Screening Ltd., 1972), pp. 400, 401; Dobbin, Our Old Home
Town, pp. 13-14, 227.
31. Fraser, p. 64.
32. Ibid., p. 148.
33. Ibid., p. 216.
34. Ibid., p. 46.
35. Thomas Melville Bailey, Traces, Places and
Faces: Links between Canada and Scotland (Hamilton, 1957).
36. D. Allan, "About Guelph, its Early Days and
later," (Unpublished typescript, 1939, in Guelph Public Library), p. 37.
37. Ibid.p.38..
38. Ibid.,p.9.
39. Ibid., p. 10.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid, p. 11.
42. Burrows, p. 63.
43. Allan, p. 61.
44. A.C. Byerly, The Beginning of Things (Guelph:
The Guelph Publishing Co., 1935), p. 26.
45. Personal recollections of the late Rev. W.D. Reid
who himself was one of the first natives of Leeds Co. to leave home.
46. McColl,p.4.