Downton, Wiltshire Emigrants

Date: 1835 to 1836
Location: England, Canada
Surnames/tags: Ontario emigration

This page is maintained by the Ontario Team, part of the Canada Project. You are welcome to add Downton emigrants to the list below.

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Downton is a village and civil parish located on the River Avon in southern Wiltshire, England.

On April 7, 1836, 220 people from the parish and 59 residents of Standlynch and Whiteparish boarded the King William to emigrate to Upper Canada (Ontario). They were mostly out of work farm laborers and their families. The government saw emigration to the colonies as a solution to the growing problem of pauperism caused by the decade-long agricultural depression, poor harvests and the use of threshing machines. It changed the law so that a parish could borrow funds to pay for the passage of its poor residents across the Atlantic.

The year before, Downton had sent 25 people to Upper Canada on the American ship Louisa. Favourable reports home from this advance group persuaded nearly 10 percent of the parish’s population to leave the following year. Many of them settled in Elgin County.

WikiTree Profiles of Downton Emigrants

• James Bampton
• William Bampton
• George Barrow
• Ethelinda Bundy
• Frances Bundy
• George Bundy
• Henry Light
• Mary Ellen Bundy
• Mary Hewett Bundy
• Francis Higgs
• George Light
• Henry Light
• John Light
• Lazarus Light
• Mary Clark Light
• William Mussell
• Charles Poore
• John Poore

Sources

• Campey, Lucille. Ignored but Not Forgotten: Canada's English Immigrants. Dundurn, 2014, p. 86
• Downton Mass Exodus
• Wikipedia