Voices of the Tenants: Petition from the Tenants of Kinlochbervie, Sutherlandshire, who had emigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1847 and 1848

Description:During the nineteenth century crop failures caused famine and destitution amongst communities living in the Northern Highlands. This hardship forced many people to emigrate abroad in search of a better life. The Duke of Sutherland and his factors encouraged tenants on the Sutherland Estates to emigrate to Canada, subsidizing their removal in the hope that tenants would be able to support themselves by making use of improved agricultural conditions abroad.

However, this petition reveals that tenants who traveled abroad to Canada during the middle of the nineteenth century continued to live in a state of destitution. The Petition featured above was sent to the Duke of Sutherland in April 1849 by twelve families who had emigrated to Pictou in Nova Scotia.

On arriving in Nova Scotia the families had been forced to live in ‘incommon scarcity’ owing to a ‘stagnation in trade’ caused by crop failure. The Petition tells us that the tenants had no money or employment, and were unable even to purchase seed for the forthcoming year. Without a means of supporting themselves, the Petition states that the tenants would be left in a ‘hopeless’ condition.

The Petition appeals to the Duke for financial assistance which would allow the families to buy seed and support themselves. Annotations to the letter by reveal that nine other families who arrived in 1848 were also suffering in a state of ‘destitution’.