The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada, 1784-1855: Glengarry and Beyond

by Lucille H. Campey

Overview

Glengarry, Upper Canada's first major Scottish settlement, was established in 1784 by Highlanders from Inverness-shire. Worsening economic conditions in Scotland, coupled with a growing awareness of Upper Canada’s opportunities, led to a growing tide of emigration that eventually engulfed all of Scotland and gave the province its many Scottish settlements. Pride in their culture gave Scots a strong sense of identity and self-worth. These factors contributed to their success and left Upper Canada with firmly rooted Scottish traditions.

Individual settlements have been well observed, but the overall picture has never been pieced together. Why did Upper Canada have such appeal to Scots? What was their impact on the province? Why did they choose their different settlement locations? Drawing on new and wide-ranging sources author Lucille H. Campey charts the progress of Scottish settlement throughout Upper Canada. This book contains much descriptive information, including all known passenger lists. It gives details of the 550 ships, which made over 900 crossings and carried almost 100,000 emigrant Scots. The book describes the enterprise and independence shown by the pioneers who were helped on their way by some remarkable characters such as Thomas Talbot, Lord Selkirk, John Galt, Archibald McNab and William Dickson. Providing a fascinating overview of the emigration process, it is essential reading for both historians and genealogists.

Scots were some of the provinces earliest pioneers and they were always at the cutting edge of each new frontier. They were a founding people who had an enormous influence on the province’s early development.

"I am happy to commend Lucille Campey’s latest book on Scottish settlement patterns in Canada. The product of meticulous research, The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada has much to offer both genealogists and general readers, as it weaves together statistical information, institutional histories and personal accounts to produce a fascinating picture of the multi-dimensional networks that underpinned the transatlantic movement and brought 100,000 Scots to Upper Canada during the seven decades reviewed. Persistent myths of helpless exile are challenged, as the preconditions and processes of emigration are analyzed, along with the cultural traditions imported by the 'trail blazers and border guards' who laid the foundations of Canada’s most populous province." - Marjory Harper, Reader in History, University of Aberdeen

"With a real feel for the sacrifice and the emotional turmoil of the pioneers, Lucille H. Campey has one again got her audience to face the raw heritage common to every Scots-Canadian. This is an excellent read, full of fascinating detail dug from much archival research. This book is another splendid addition to a series of much interest to both historians and genealogists." - Professor Graeme Morton, Scottish Studies Foundation Chair, University of Guelph

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781897045015
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	05/16/2005
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dr. Lucille Campey is a Canadian, living in Britain, with over thirty years of experience as a researcher and author. It was her father's Scottish roots and love of history that first stimulated her interest in the early exodus of people from Scotland to Canada. She is the great-great-granddaughter of William Thomson, who left Morayshire, on the northeast coast of Scotland, in the early 1800s to begin a new life with his family, first near Digby, then in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He is described in D. Whidden's History of the Town of Antigonish simply as "William, Pioneer" and is commemorated in the St. James Church and Cemetery at Antigonish. Lucille's mother, Cecile Morency, who was born in Ste-Marie-de-Beauce, is a descendant of Guillaume Baucher dit Morency, who settled in Ile d'Orleans in 1659.

Lucille was awarded a Ph.D. by Aberdeen Universityin 1998 for her research into Scottish emigration to Canada in the period 1770-1850. Lucille has published six books on the subject of emigrant Scots to Canada. Described by the P.E.I. Guardian as "indispensable to Islanders of Scottish ancestry," her first book, "A Very Fine Class of Immigrants": Prince Edward Island’s Scottish Pioneers 1770-1850 (Natural Heritage, 2001), gives the most comprehensive account to date of the Scottish influx to the Island. Her second book, "Fast Sailing and Copper-Bottomed": Aberdeen Sailing Ships and the Emigrant Scots They Carried to Canada 1774-1855 (Natural Heritage, 2002), gives a gripping account of emigrant shipping from the north of Scotland to Canada in the sailing ship era. Her third book, The Silver Chief: Lord Selkirk and the Scottish Pioneers of Belfast, Baldoon and Red River (Natural Heritage, 2003), examines the three Selkirk settlements in Canada. According to the distinguished genealogist and author Ryan Taylor “the three titles now stand as a significant contribution to Canadian immigrant literature.” Her fourth book is After the Hector: The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, 1773-1852 (Natural Heritage, 2004), her fifth is The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada, 1784-1855: Glengarry and Beyond (Natural Heritage, 2005), and her sixth book is Les Écossais: The Pioneer Scots of Lower Canada, 1763-1855 (Natural Heritage, 2006). A seventh book, which will deal with emigration from Scotland to New Brunswick, will be published by Natural Heritage in Spring 2007.

A chemistry graduate of Ottawa University, Lucille worked initially in the fields of science and computing. After marrying her English husband, she moved to the north of England, where she became interested in medieval monasteries and acquired a Master of Philosophy Degree (on the subject of medieval settlement patterns) from Leeds University. Having lived for five years in Easter Ross, in the north of Scotland, while she completed her doctoral thesis, she and Geoff returned to England, and now live near Salisbury in Wiltshire.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"... important for historians of Scots in Canada."

Editorial Reviews

"This book gathers together a large body of material, from both primary and secondary sources, and considers the nature, direction and impact of the emigrant flows from Scotland to Upper Canada."

Ontario Professional Surveyor

"... important for historians of Scots in Canada."

Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society - Joshua D. MacFadyen

"... important for historians of Scots in Canada."

"... important for historians of Scots in Canada."

--Joshua D. MacFadyen "Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society"

"This book gathers together a large body of material, from both primary and secondary sources, and considers the nature, direction and impact of the emigrant flows from Scotland to Upper Canada."

"This book gathers together a large body of material, from both primary and secondary sources, and considers the nature, direction and impact of the emigrant flows from Scotland to Upper Canada."

-- "Ontario Professional Surveyor"

From the Publisher

"... important for historians of Scots in Canada."
— Joshua D. MacFadyen

Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society