Earl Grey's PAUPER IMMIGRATION SCHEME to Australia


Famine and poverty in Ireland drove many young women to the dreary walls of the workhouse. Earl Grey, the British Secretary of State for the colonies (a member of Lord John Russell's Whig government) thought he could solve Australia's problems of a shortage of labour and an imbalance of the sexes, by alleviating the overcrowding in Ireland's famine filled workhouses. As part of Earl Grey's PAUPER IMMIGRATION SCHEME over 4,000 female orphans arrived in Australia from Irish workhouses between October 1848 and August 1850.

The ROMAN EMPEROR (arrived Adelaide October 23, 1848) was in due course followed by RAMILIES (arrived Adelaide March 24th, 1849, possible with some Irish orphans), then the INCONSTANT (arrived Adelaide June 7, 1849, with 186 Irish orphans), and afterwards by the ELGIN (arrived Adelaide Sept 12, 1849 with 196 Irish orphans) making in all 606 orphan girls sent from the Irish Workhouses to Adelaide.

The arrival of the first ship (THE ROMAN EMPEROR) sent to this colony of South Australia, had 246 orphans (238 female, 8 male) from the Irish Workhouses. The secretary of the Orphan Immigration Committee, M. Moorhouse informed parties 'desirous of engaging the services of any of these immigrants, to apply to the Emigration Agent or at the Native School'. The Lieutenant Governor announced that all were engaged by the Colonists within 14 days from their arrival in the Colony - the first twenty who entered service having conducted themselves so creditably as to create a feeling as much in favour of the Emigrants as it had before been adverse.

Some colonists saw the arrival of these female orphans as a signal for anti-Irish and anti-Roman Catholic elements to give free rein to their prejudice. The newspapers warned that most of the Belfast Irish Orphans were addicted to bad language and behaved in a mutinous manner, and that the colony would become a receptacle for thieves, juvenile bastards and prostitutes. The SA REGISTER Newspaper (Oct 25, 1848) reported "Irish orphans looked to be a tough lot". The EARL GREY and the ROMAN EMPEROR sailed almost together, with nearly the same number of Orphan girls, selected by the same officers - Lieutenant Henry (Immigration Officer), and Edward Senior (of the Poor Law Commissioners). Most of the Emigrant orphans came from the Belfast, Cookstown, Dungannon and Magherafelt Workhouses.

The PAUPER IMMIGRATION SCHEME was brought to an end by 1850 as a direct result of such negative reactions. The Emigration Board at Adelaide reported that the girls on the ROMAN EMPEROR, which arrived in Port Adelaide on October 26th 1848, were selected from the same list as those on the EARL GREY (destined for Brisbane) and would have gone out in that ship had there been room.

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Source: Irish Orphan Girls, 'Barefoot And Pregnant? - Irish Famine Orphans In Australia' ISBN 0 949672 25 4.
This book contains a detailed Orphan Register of many of the young women that travelled to Australia under the PAUPER IMMIGRATION SCHEME.