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"A Door of Escape": Letters Home from Wiltshire and Somerset Emigrants to Upper Canada, 1830­1832 Terry McDonald THE TITLE OF THIS ARTICLE COMES FROM A PHRASE USED IN JOHN Buckmaster's autobiography, A Village Politician. Around 1830, he mentioned a letter arriving in his Buckinghamshirevillage from a farmer who "had emigrated some years ago to America [and] wrote a glowing account of the country and its prospects, urging all who could to come over to Iowa. The letter was read in almost every cottage. It was read at the village inn and at the Methodist chapel every Sunday until it was nearly worn out. The Lord had opened a door of escape."1 Although Buckmaster's farmer had gone to the United States and of his own accord, the impact that his letter had on those at home was being repeated in other villages and towns across the country.Large­scale emigration, especially to Canada and often backed by the community and with the half­hearted support of the government, became com­ monplace in the 1820s and early 1830s. This paper investigates this phenomenon from the point of view of those who went, rather than those administering. It also suggests a certain "sleight of hand" by the supporters of emigration as a solution to poverty and unemployment by manipulating information about those planning to go or already living in Canada. Letters home, as Buckmaster revealed, had an enormous impact not just on the recipients, but on a wider readership in the community and even within the educated classes in the country. The letters from Wiltshire and Somerset emigrants which form the basis of this paper attracted a great deal of attention when published in printed collec­ tions, and they were discussed in the earnest journals of the day, such as the Quarterly Review and Gentleman's Magazine. Perhaps they were simply among the first to bebrought to awider audience, but they were 102 Terry McDonald certainly celebrated. Yet suspicion always dogged them: were they simply propaganda rather than a true record of emigrant experiences and feelings?Possibly—there are marked similarities in the content and style of each individual letter and with those in other collections, espe­ cially on the prices of goods and the general conditions in Canada. There were people who thought so;witness Thomas Sockett's evidence to the Select Committee on the Post when he said that there was a general opinion among the poor in 1832 that the Corsley letters (those published in 1831 by G. Poulett Scrope from Corsley, Wiltshire emi­ grants)2 "were got up and published for the sake of getting rid of them and that when other emigrants were sent out. ... They hit upon a variety of devices to ascertain the genuineness of the letters that were returned."3 In 1836, JamesInches published an anti­emigrationpamphletmain­ taining that ... letters ... from emigrants are almost together of the same strain. They are written in the style of other advertisements of that kind.... The substance of the whole is exactly similar—condolence with their friends in Europe for the starvation and other miseries to which they are doomed to submit in England, as well as Ireland, from want of food and want of money—fullness of everything in Canada—from 3s to 8s per day for wages, besides board and lodging—plenty of beef, butter, poultry, turkeys, and every thing that is good—well stocked farms of their own in a few years—no taxes—lots of invitations to come out—directions to starving Emigrants at home to take a great many things out with them—long list of articles which will be useful in Canada—weather pleasant, and flour three farthings per pound!4 Inches set out to prove that the content of the letters was "pure inven­ tion and completely at variance with the truth," citing letters from the Corsley emigrants and from Frome, in neighbouring Somerset, to sup­ port his arguments. The Frome letters, along with the Corsley ones are central to this article. The published letters were always presented as being "Copied from the originals, with exception of occasional corrections of spelling and omission of PrivateAffairs,"5 but an idea of what the letters looked like when received in England is given by one from William Clements of Corsley, which appeared in its original form in at least two publica­ tions and in corrected form in another. The Bath Chronicle of 4 August [3.135.190.101] Project MUSE...

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