Devon - Emigration and Immigration

Listing of Migrants from the West Country who joined the South Wales Police, provided by Paul Mansfield. (Copy dated 26 Apr 2006, from the Internet Archive.)

North Devon Exodus, by Arthur Dark, a much expanded version of an article that previously appeared in the Devon Historian, and its associated database of emigrants' surnames.

The Newfoundland's Grand Banks website contains information on many Devon-related families, due to extensive emigration from the Westcountry.

Voyage of the Barque "Emigrant" From Plymouth to Moreton Bay, Australia (1850) - passenger list.

Passenger List of Bark Cato (Plymouth to New York 1834), transcribed by Nany Haugh.

Devonians in the Colonies - Letters to the Devonshire Association in 1900 and 1901, transcribed by Jean Harris. Devonshire Families Resident Abroad is an index to this correspondence (which is now available at Family Search), prepared by Peter Selley.

Devonians in Ontario - copies of back issues of this newsletter by Ryan Taylor "about Devon (England), Ontario and the people who emigrated from one to the other". Ryan Taylor's Devon (archived copy), an occasional newsletter, that has been started as a tribute to the late Ross Taylor, is available from Sher Letooze.

Faith, Fish, Farm or Family?: The Impact of Kinship Links and Communities on Migration Choices and Residential Persistence in North Devon 1841-1901 - PhD thesis by Janet Few

Canadian Emigrants, from The MacMillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, by Marlene Ball.

Devon entries in England's Immigrants 1330-1550.

History of Guernsey Butchers - "This site is dedicated to the family histories of butchers in Guernsey during the 19th Century. Many of them were immigrants from the south coast of England - particularly, Devon and Dorset".

Devonshire Families Resident Abroad - and index to the correspondence, now available at Family Search, that Sir Roper Lethbridge had in 1901 with Devon emigrants to the USA and Canada.

Female Tansmanian Convicts - names from the volunteer-run  Female Convict Research Centre.

The Devon-Newfoundland Story, April 2007 - a Devonshire Association Forum, with the Devon Family History Society. 

Inter-parish, transhumant and transient migrants in Devon: 1600-1800 - a paper by Marion Hardy, a paper presented at 'Parishes and Migration', the Sixteenth Warwick Symposium on Parish Research in May 2018.

Badcock, Gillian. North Devon Exodus, Devon Family Historian, vol. 134, (2010) pp.5-6. [Planned further North Devon Exodus database, on emigration to Australasia]

Barge, A.M. Emigration from Devon and Cornwall, 1632-1638. Devon & Cornwall Notes and Queries, vol. 17 (1932-5), pp.65-67.

Baxter, James Finney. The Trelawny Papers. (Documentary History of the State of Maine, Vol. III). Maine Historical Society Portand (1884) xxxii, 520pp. ["Robert Trelawney (25 March 1598 – 1643) was an English merchant and colonist who settled lands in Maine USA and a politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1640 to 1642." - Wikipedia] [Full Text]

Brayshay, Mark. "The Emigration Trade in Nineteenth-Century Devon" in The New Maritime History of Devon (Vol 1), ed. M. Duffy, Conway Maritime Press (1992).

Brown, Martyn. Australia Bound: The Story of West Country Connections, 1688-1888, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, Ex Libris Press (1988) 223 pp. [ISBN: 0948578084] [Lookups]

Brown, R.D., Devonians and the New England Settlement before 1650. Trans. Devon Assoc., vol. 95 (1963), pp.219-43. [The appendix to the paper lists many Devonians with the parish they left and where they went in New England] [Lookups]

Cawsey, David. The Parkhurst Boys from Devonshire, Devon Family Historian, vol. 129, (2009) pp.14-18. [An account of young offenders from Devon, sentenced to a reformatory at Pankhurst and then exile in Australia or New Zealand: William Baker, Joseph Bendle, William Bickle, Edmund Brewer, Nicholas Hollock Brown, William Brownskill, Edwin Butt, Edward Callaghan David Cawsey, James Cawsey, James Chard, John Dillon, John Dixon, Joseph Dyke, William George, George Gregory, William Henry Groom, James Hooper, John Robert Johns, John Minhinnick, Thomas Mullins, Charles Pengelly, John Pike, John Roan, James Screech, Henry Towton, Charles Vennel, David Williams]

Coldham, P.W. Bonded Passengers to America, vol. V: Western Circuit 1664-1775, comprising the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire, with a list of the rebels of 1685. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub. Co. (1983).

Cotton, Richard William. On the Part Taken by North Devon in the Earliest English Enterprises for the Purpose of Colonizing America. Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol. 2, no. 1 (1867-1868), pp. 279-282. [Index]

Dark, Arthur. North Devon Exodus, Devon Family Historian, vol. 117, (Feb 2006) pp.6-10. [About 19th century emigration to Canada]

Dark, A. Progress with the North Devon Exodus Database, Devon Family Historian, vol. 122, (2007) pp.16.

Davey, F.A. and Watts, S.G. Westward Look! 21 Stories of Devon Pioneers and Pilgrims in New England (1970). [Devon FHS Library p973]

Few, Janet. Faith, Fish, Farm or Family? Motivations for Emigration from North Devon 1830-1900, Devon Family Historian, vol. 143, (2012) pp.5-8.

Giffard, A. Towards Quebec, H.M.S.O., 1981, 72 p. [ISBN 0-11-290335-5] [Contains excerpts from two Daily Journals of emigrants from North Devon, William Fulford of Buckland Brewer, and William Gliddon of Barnstaple. Both sailed to Quebec, Canada in the 1850's on ships owned by the Heard family of Appledore & Bideford. A fascinating introduction to and commentary on the living conditions in Devon and why these people emigrated.]

Gray, Todd. Devon's coastal and overseas fisheries and New England migration, 1597-1642. Exeter, PhD Thesis, University of Exeter (1988).

Handcock, W. Gordon. So Longe As There Comes Noe Women: Origins of English settlement in Newfoundland (Newfoundland history series. 6), St John's, Newfoundland, Breakwater Books (1989) 343p, maps. [ISBN 0920911552. pbk; 0920911803] [One of the best books on the subject of immigration to Newfoundland from Devon] [Lookups]

Hardy, Marion. The Newfoundland trade and Devonian migration c. 1600–1850, Local Population Studies, Volume 89, Number 1, Autumn 2012, pp. 31-53.

Hickman, Roz. To Canada, Devon Family Historian, vol. 179 (2021) p.34. [Brig 'Oscar']

Janes, Andrew R. A Devon Name in Queensland, Devon Family Historian, vol. 133, (2010) pp.4-5. [About Thomas Henry Voaden, (b. Marystowe 1871) after whom Voaden Point, Queensland, is named, and other Voaden connections to Australia.]

Lethbridge, Sir Roger. Hands Across the Sea, Presidential Address, Report & Trans. of the Devonshire Assoc., vol. XXXIII (Vol III second series), no. Exeter July-August 1901, (1901) pp.36-67. [Index] [Transcript] [Describes how advertisements were placed in newsapapers in the colonies and US asking that former Devonians write to tell how they had fared in their new countries and elicted replies from about 300 Devonian emigrants - whose names and addresses are listed in an Appendix in pp.68-76.]

Mackay, Sue. Devon Links to Settlers in South Africa Resource, Devon Family Historian, vol. 186, (2023) pp.46-47.

MacKeith, Lucy. Local Black History - a beginning in Devon. Archives and Museum of Black Heritage, 378 Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8LF (2003)

Miller, Gerald. The Sophia, Devon Family Historian, vol. 161, (2017) p.29. [Sailed to Australia, 27 April 1850]

Moss, O.P. Devon Agricultural Workers, Devon Family Historian, vol. 135, (2010) pp.9-11. [Contains two listings of Devon agricultural workers recruited in by the Australian Agricultural company, who emigrated to Australia on the ship London in 1841, and the ship Ganges in 1842]

Murphy, Nathan W. Devon's Supply of North American and Carribean Indentured Servants 1655-1660, Genealogists' Magazine, vol. 29, no. 1, (2007) pp.3-12. [Explores "the origins of 69 indentured servants from Devon who embarked from Bristol between 1655 and 1660 for the sugar and tobaco plantations of the New World". Devon surnames mentioned: Bidgood, Braine, Brangwell, Britten, Buckingham, Carpenter, Chappell, Dobell, Dodge, Drew, Higgins, Land, Mills, Nash, Palmer, Perebridge, Plaise, Rost, Saye, Scaddinge, Tucker]

Scott, Reg. The West Country's Australian Links (1988). [ISBN 0p51337505] [Devon FHS Library 929.1/AUS]

Scott, Reg. The West Country's Explorers and Colonisers: What Devon and Cornwall did for the World (1996). [ISBN 09528949] [Devon FHS Library 942.3]

Selley, Maureen. The Families They Left Behind - Mayflower 400 Commemorations - Can You Help?, Devon Family Historian, vol. 172, (2019) p.16.

Selley, Maureen. Can Devon Claim a Mayflower Pilgrim, Devon Family Historian, vol. 173, (2020) pp.40-41.

Siebert, J.M. Devon Strays, Devon Family Historian, vol. 111, (2004) pp.7-9. [About Devon emigrants (many of which are named) to South Africa under the "1820 Settlers" scheme.]

Simpson, Jeanette. Devon Strays in Forest Road Cemetery, St John's, Newfoundland, and Their Stories, Devon Family Historian, vol. 136, (Nov 2010) pp.13-15. [Mainly concerns the Hunt and Cousens families]

Steer, Michael. Devon Families in Newfoundland, Devon Family Historian, vol. 63, (1992) pp.2-5. [Includes lengthy name listing from Family Names of the Island of Newfoundland by Dr E.R.Seary]

Templeton, John. James Rice: Devon to Newfoundland Two Centuries ago. Devon Family Historian. vol. 165, (2018) pp.5-17.

Walton, Jack. The Last Farewell: Devon convicts transported to Australia 1782-1821, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd (2003). [Index]

White-Thomson, Sir R T. Activities of 'The National Society of Colonial Dames of America', more particularly with reference to certain Devonians. Trans. Devon. Assoc. 46 (1914). [This Society was formed in 1891 with the object of preserving "Olden Traditions of America" by ladies descended from ancestry that can be traced back to pre-revolutionary times. Among the Devon families mentioned are Champernowne, Davy, Pepperell, Cutts, Chauncy.] [Index]

Whiteaway, Tricia. Strays From Newfoundland Newspapers, Devon Family Historian, vol. 132, (2009) pp.30-31.

Wickes, Michael. Devon Emigrants to North America (1618-1660) - part 1, Devon Family Historian, vol. 38, (1986) pp.6-10, and part 2, Devon Family Historian, vol. 41, (1986) pp.13-17. [Based on a transcript of Port Books material at the National Archives as extracted by Peter Wilson Coldham]

Wooden, Joseph L. A History of Exeter, Ontario. Exeter, Ontario (1973) viii, 323 pp. [WSL: s971.35/EXE/WOO] [Contains much information about the origins of numerous immigrants from North Devon.] [Online copy] (login required)

Devonshire Emigrants to Maine, U.S.A. Western Antiquary, vol. 18 (1885), pp.140-144.

Americanus, The Plymouth Company and the Settlement of Maine in New England. Devon & Cornwall Notes and Queries, vol. 18 (1934-5), pp.134-138.

Westward Ho! Movement & Migration: Notes from a conference, Southwest Family History Societies' Residential Conference, 3-6 April 2003, Exeter University (2003). [DFHS Library p304.8]

Transcription - Passenger list, "Cosmopolite", Plymouth to New York City, 1835.

Detailed listing of passengers on the Barque "John" which sank in 1855 shortly after leaving Plymouth Sound, bound for Quebec.