Letter of Charles Rubidge to A. B. Hawke, 1825
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Reprinted in Irish Ancestor, Vol. 6 No. 1, 1974, pp33-34, from Leeson, Francis. Records of Irish Emigrants to Canada in Sussex Archives, 1839-1847.
Note: There seems to have been an error in transcription so that it reads Otonalece instead of Otonabee. I've corrected that below.
Woodlands, Otonabee, 31 Decr. 1839
Dear Sir,
.... It will afford me much pleasure to give you my humble opinions on the subject of Emigration and Colonisation, also all the information I possess respecting Colonel Wyndham's late Tenants.
Emigration ought never to be undertaken by the Government without they Colonise the People sent out by them. If they do this, free Emigration will pour its tide of settlers of a better description into the Province.
In this Country at the present time there is a demand for labourers, partly occasioned by the high wages given in the United States, but principally by the almost total stop to Emigration. To these causes, I attribute the success I met with in so readily providing employment to Colonel Wyndham's People. As the whole of them with a few exceptions were hired within a short distance of Cobourg I think that many more would have found employment in the Newcastle District.
This plan of Emigration in the present state of the Country will succeed to a limited extent, but will never do much towards settling the Country. Few labouring men will work for 2/6d. a day, when they are told, that by stepping on board a Steam Boat for a few hours they may obtain five shillings a day on the other side. When I was last in Cobourg I ascertained that six of the families I brought out and five single persons in all thirty eight had gone over to Rochester.
If the Government would adopt the plain laid down by me in Sir Robt. W. Horton's "Ireland and Canada" of preparing Land and putting the people at once on it, they would ensure the settlement of the Country. From long experience as a practised settler, I am inclined to think, no other plan so certain to secure the greatest advantages to the Colonists, or in the end that will prove so satisfactory to the Govt. who send them out. Sir John Colborne is strongly in favor of employing Emigrants on Public Works, but I think such employment spoils many of them for Settlers.
In the bush every little one can do something, pick up a stick or lay down a potatoe, by which they acquire industrious habits. In a few days I intend to visit the settlers I brought out, after which I will let you know all particulars about them....
I am Dear Sir
very faithfully yours
Chas. Rubidge
To A. B. Hawke, Esqr.
Woodlands, Otonabee, 10th January 1840
Dear Sir,
I have visited most of the people sent out by Colonel Wyndham under my superintendance and have ascertained that twenty families and sixteen single Men and Women remain in or near Cobourg, Port Hope, and in Cacram [?]. In all one hundred and thirty one and that fifty two have gone to the United States or left this District. Out of the number I visited, I found three families, the head of which had been a few days out of work. It will be my care to prevent any of them suffering from want during the winter months. I am glad to find Sir Robt. W. Horton has sent out several of his Books on Colonisation by Mr John Robinson. With best regards
I remain Dear Sir Yours truly
Chas. Rubidge.
To. A. B. Hawke, Esqr.
N.B. Giltinan is the only one that has applied to me and at the desire of the Clergyman of Cacram [?] who was at my House at this time I gave him 10s. I enclose you that gentleman's letter to me afterwards....
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