Passenger list for the ‘Charlotte’ in 1849
Transcription of the passenger list for the ‘Charlotte’ bound for Montreal in 1849.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
In 1849, 364 men, women and children left Tiree to emigrate to Canada, 339 of them on board the ‘Charlotte’, the remainder on the ‘Barlow’. Nearly three-quarters of them were landless cottar families. Over half were aged under eighteen.
After three years of blighted potato crops, conditions on the island were appalling. The implementation of the ‘destitution test’ in the previous year meant that no-one was eligible for relief unless all their means were exhausted. All able-bodied persons were excluded.
Argyll Estate papers show a fall of 1795 in the population of Tiree between 1841 and 1849, of which some 950 can be accounted for through emigration. The rest presumably left to find employment on the mainland.