THIS IS FINDON — These Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

  click to enlarge

St. John the Baptist Church with the sea in the distance.... taken from near Muntham Clump in the summer of 2010

EMIGRATION TO CANADA in 1936

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003.

Two years after the Reverend George Booth's arrival in Findon, there was an unusual exodus from the village.  His congregation at St. John the Baptist Church dwindled when a group of thirty-seven venturesome villagers emigrated and sought and better life and left behind one of hardship and poverty. 

The reason for their departure in the nineteenth century was agricultural depression and the fact that there were more inhabitants than could be found work. The population had over-reached the maximum the land could support and one of the options was emigration. 

Findonians were part of a larger movement of working-class people from the south of England to Ontario.   In the 1830s, over 1,800 people were sent out from Sussex to Canada in chartered ships with an emigration scheme under the auspices of the wealthy George Wyndham the 3rd Earl of Egremont, and other landlords. 

The younger sons of families were forced to move away and set sail in search of a new life in Toronto, Canada, described in those days as Upper Canada.  They left Findon to face the harsh Canadian winters and hot summers. My guess is that the new settlers were allotted plots of land on which to build their houses and become more or less self-sufficient — perhaps they considered this preferable to working for the Lord of the Manor of Findon for a pittance.

During 1836 there was a sudden wave of emigration to what seemed a new Promised Land. Thirty-seven people had emigrated to Canada from Findon because of lack of agricultural employment for the men — a large proportion from a population of around 545. They were villagers such as Thomas Clemons with his wife and nine children; William Berry and his wife and six children; Reuben Lillywhite and his wife; John Hunter and his wife; James Dale and his wife; George Lillywhite, his wife and two children; Daniel Lillywhite, his wife and two children; Luke Clemons; Edward Berry; and two children of Daniel Lillywhite’s wife belonging to Tarring Parish.

The transportees were the poor of the village and the families of the following left Findon, never to return —

This emigration came under the sanction of the Commissioners and took place starting on June 1835  and was at a cost of £200. This was —

"raised or borrowed either from the Exchequer Office or from private individuals".

 It is wondered how they fared their first winter in Canada in 1836 compared with that of the community they had left behind.

I have endeavoured to trace one of the families after the voyage —  that of the Clements.

Thomas Clements had been born not far from Findon, in nearby Worthing on 8th March 1787.   Alice Ann Florence was born in London on 19th October 1792.    They met and married on 11th October 1814.  

The couple had a total of sixteen children, seven of these died in infancy.   By 1824 they were living in Findon and in 1836 the nine boys and girls accompanied them to Canada when they went to seek their fortune:

Let us see what happened to Mr and Mrs Thomas Clements and their nine offspring on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Alice Ann Florence Clements died in East Oxford Township, Oxford County, Ontario (she was 16 days from her 65th birthday).  She was buried 3rd October 1856 in Greenwood Cemetery, Brantford, Brant County, Ontario. 

At the time of their mother's death in 1856, eight of the Clement children were still living in Canada (their son, Richard, had died a few years before in 1851).

Thomas Clements Senior passed away in 1863.   He was buried on 11th December 1863 in Greenwood Cemetery along with his wife.

It appears that none of the Clements children ever returned to Findon — or Sussex, and they all eventually died in the new country that had taken them in.

The Clements dynasty was certainly industrious and became well known professionally in their fields.  The grandson of Thomas Clements and Alice Ann Florence became the Minister of Public Works for the Province of Manitoba.

"Think before emigrating to Canada" was the warning 90 years ago.   It is always greener on the other side.....and it's a long way back to Sussex.   In 1920, it was reported that local ex-servicemen and their families wanting to emigrate to Canada, should think again.  

They were given the warning that many in the past who had decided to make their fortunes by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in search of a good life in Ontario, were actually living in tents!

Read more on The Life and Times of George Booth and how he went down in Findon's history.

This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.