Remittance Men and Women

[Heather Barford]

Not all black sheep were convicts, it was very common to send remittance men and women often with their families overseas to get them away from the area where they had disgraced themselves.

A place of residence was bought and regular sums of money deposited in the bank to keep them away. Administration of this was generally arranged with a firm of lawyers, who perhaps kept a friendly or fatherly eye on them.

The reason they were banished could be because they had drug or alcohol or gambling problems.
Health Reasons.
Career not approved of by family.
Married outside their station in life.
Married outside their race.
Some family land dispute.
Possibly for some reason I haven't even thought of an embarrassment to a family who could afford the out of sight out of mind policy and pay for it.

[Colin Rowledge]

Not all black sheep were convicts, it was very common to send remittance men and women often with their families overseas to get them away from the area where they had disgraced themselves.

A place of residence was bought and regular sums of money deposited in the bank to keep them away. Administration of this was generally arranged with a firm of lawyers, who perhaps kept a friendly or fatherly eye on them.

The reason they were banished could be because they had:
Drug or alcohol or gambling problems.
Health Reasons.
Career not approved of by family.
Married outside their station in life.
Married outside their race.
Some family land dispute.
Possibly for some reason I haven't even thought of an embarrassment to a family who could afford the out of sight out of mind policy and pay for it.

Not much has changed since those days, eh?

[Mutley]

I believe some were the younger sons of titled families who would not be in line for inheritance.

I am sure there was a rather nice poem once written about the Remittance Man but I cannot think of the name of the author?

[Mutley]

I seem to remember the poem was written by a man and he was a Remittance Man ......
I'll have to go search, I'll be back.
I'm not sure why it stuck in my memory and how far back from where I remember it, briefly

[Mutley]

The Rhyme of the Remittance Man by Robert W. Service




There's a four-pronged buck a-swinging in the shadow of my cabin,
And it roamed the velvet valley till to-day;
But I tracked it by the river, and I trailed it in the cover,
And I killed it on the mountain miles away.
Now I've had my lazy supper, and the level sun is gleaming
On the water where the silver salmon play;
And I light my little corn-cob, and I linger, softly dreaming,
In the twilight, of a land that's far away.
Far away, so faint and far, is flaming London, fevered Paris,
That I fancy I have gained another star;
Far away the din and hurry, far away the sin and worry,
Far away — God knows they cannot be too far.
Gilded galley-slaves of Mammon — how my purse-proud brothers taunt me!
I might have been as well-to-do as they
Had I clutched like them my chances, learned their wisdom, crushed my fancies,
Starved my soul and gone to business every day.
Well, the cherry bends with blossom and the vivid grass is springing,
And the star-like lily nestles in the green;
And the frogs their joys are singing, and my heart in tune is ringing,
And it doesn't matter what I might have been.
While above the scented pine-gloom, piling heights of golden glory,
The sun-god paints his canvas in the west,
I can couch me deep in clover, I can listen to the story
Of the lazy, lapping water — it is best.
While the trout leaps in the river, and the blue grouse thrills the cover,
And the frozen snow betrays the panther's track,
And the robin greets the dayspring with the rapture of a lover,
I am happy, and I'll nevermore go back.
For I know I'd just be longing for the little old log cabin,
With the morning-glory clinging to the door,
Till I loathed the city places, cursed the care on all the faces,
Turned my back on lazar London evermore.
So send me far from Lombard Street, and write me down a failure;
Put a little in my purse and leave me free.
Say: "He turned from Fortune's offering to follow up a pale lure,
He is one of us no longer — let him be."
I am one of you no longer; by the trails my feet have broken,
The dizzy peaks I've scaled, the camp-fire's glow;
By the lonely seas I've sailed in — yea, the final word is spoken,
I am signed and sealed to nature. Be it so.

[Mutley]

Looking Robert up in wikipedia it seems he was a Lancashire lad and not a Remittance Man
so my apologies for high jacking this thread.

However, I've enjoyed reading both the poems, (thanks Graham) it has made a change.

[Quentin]

Thank you for this info - my Aunt spent the last 4 weeks of her life in a Nursing Home and she told me just before she died that her Grandfather had been a 'Remittance Man' - I had no idea what it was at the time. He had married my Great Grandmother in December, and after a honeymoon, they were on a sailing ship to NZ. In the 'bits and pieces' of old letters etc which I later found when researching, I found record of the Captain of the vessel having detailed the birth of a baby to his couple (it did not survive) I am therefore of the opinion that my Great Grandmother was pregnant at time of marriage, and so they were 'banished' to the Antipodes. Would a pregnancy be enough to upset the family's applecart in 1870? The groom was from farming family in Glos. and the bride daughter of a 'Brewer and Malster'.
Quentin

[Bevolson]

So very lovely Thanks

[Yelsid]

I too am from Canada. I am looking for my great-grandfather's English family. Would you know of any records of men sent to Canada as Remittance Men? My great-grandfather was adopted by a Canadian family at the age of 18 and changed his surname to Freeman. His former surname was Knight (allegedly), first name George. He settled in Stratford, Ontario.

[Megan Roberts]

Do you know what his date of birth was or when he was sent to Canada?