In an era before railways, moving around Scotland and England was not easy and in general was prohibitively expensive for many. When times were tough and agricultural labourers were finding it hard to feed their families, their thoughts turned to making a new start by emigrating to the New World. In some cases, financial help with the cost of the passage to the New World was available through emigration societies or local landowners. But this help rarely extended to the cost of surface transport to the port of departure. Consequently, it made sense to depart from a port as close to home as possible.
It was for that reason that Annan Waterfoot became important for emigration from the Borders in the early years of the 19th century. At Waterfoot, about a mile downstream of the town at the mouth of the River Annan, there was sufficient draft to allow reasonably sized sea-going vessels to berth at the piers there. Sailing ships of 200-300 tons departed regularly for ports like St Johns and Quebec in Canada with perhaps 150 souls on board seeking a new life.
An 1832 report in the Carlisle Patriot newspaper describes emigrants departing from Annan to join an emigrant ship at Maryport, a port on the other side of the Solway Firth. ‘Emigrants for Canada to sail by the Donegal of Maryport have, during the first 2 days of this week, arrived at Annan, principally from Roxburghshire and the neighbourhood of Hawick and Jedburgh. They were of all ages, from infants hanging at the breast, to old men and women of apparently 70 and 80 years of age; and many of them seemingly opulent farmers and their families. On Tuesday nearly 30 carts heavily laden with luggage passed through this place. The whole sailed this morning in four vessels previously engaged to convey them. The numbers are computed at 150 or 160; and it is also said that squad is only the advance guard of the body preparing to follow them.’
Undoubtedly, many of those who emigrated to Canada from Dumfriesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire around the 1820s would have joined their ship at Annan for the 6 week journey to Canada.
By the middle of the 1830s, larger steamships up to 500 tons were introduced to provide a twice-weekly passenger service to Liverpool. I became aware of this when a family history client came to me to discover more about the links between Annan and Liverpool in his own family. Family members from Annan travelled back and forth regularly in the 1830s and 1840s operating as ‘travelling drapers’. With the coming of the railways by the end of the 1840s, steamships became uncompetitive and the service ceased operation although cargo ships continued to run from Annan to Liverpool for many years to follow.
There was an attempt to revive a passenger service in 1899 but it failed to receive the backing it needed. Annan remained as a fishing port but it’s importance as a trading port declined significantly thereafter.
Hello Andrew,
I hope all is well with you.
Your article about the Annan Waterfoot interests me, not least because my three times great-grandfather, Robert Jardine (1793-1846) of Lochmaben, Dumfries-shire, landed in New Brunswick around 1819. He and his younger brother, John, petitioned for timber rights and soon formed a ship-building business in Richibucto, New Brunswick, just opposite Prince Edward Island. From contemporary newspaper reports and a 27 Dec 1827 Lochmaben, Dumfries-shire baptism record, it’s clear that the brothers returned to Scotland from time to time. Who knows…maybe aboard one of their own ships.
From what I read in your article, the mouth of the Annan may well have been the port where the brothers commuted back and forth between Scotland and New Brunswick.
I spent a very short time in Dumfries-shire in September 2023, which included a drive to Carsethorne, part of the port of Dumfries, near the mouth of the River Nith. I’ve read that Carsethorne was a port where emigrants also boarded ships bound for Canada and the USA.
Understanding that early 19th century shipping records–much less passenger manifests–are to be found, can you suggest some places I might look?
And what on earth did two brothers from a wee dwelling across the River Annan from Applegarth, know about becoming timber merchants and shipbuilders?
Your comments and recommendations for further reading will be most welcome.
Thanks, and have a great 2025!
Hello Patricia,
A look in the British Newspaper Archive (BNA) shows details of lots of ships transporting timber and passengers between Annan and Miramichi/Richibucto during that period. In that particular period there is no current coverage in the BNA for Dumfries newspapers of that period but the details also featured regularly in other fairly local papers like the Carlisle Patriot and the Cumberland Pacquet which are present in the BNA. There were Dumfries newspapers at that time which are as far as I am aware are only available to view on microfiche in the Ewart Library , Dumfries. Not much use for you I’m afraid ! But with all the shipping register notices and ads in the papers I think you could easily build up details of the ships which made the crossing and when they did it. The BNA is available on its own or via Find My Past.
Dumfries effectively had two ports on either side of the River Nith – Carsethorn, and Glencaple. I think someone from Applegarth would have been more likely to use Annan as the port.
As for how the brothers got into shipbuilding, it was very much a time for taking opportunities where they arose and making the most of them. Look for example at the case of William Jardine, who must have been born very close to Robert about ten years previously who went on to establish the huge Jardine Matheson conglomerate in Hong Kong.
Thank you so much for your prompt and helpful reply. I’ll try what you suggest. For some years I’ve had a full subscription to FindMyPast, where I’d found, for example, an AP&J 1834 advertisement for passengers to sail aboard the Jardine-built brig, Annandale out of Aberdeen to Quebec City. And in a Dumfries and Galloway Standard and Advertiser, the 1845 death notice for Margaret COWAN, 87, widow of John JARDINE in Park.
I can see, now, why Annan would be the more likely ocean port for my family people living on the riverbank in Park. In early 1800s, was the River Annan navigable (used by travellers to reach the coast) between, say, Applegarth and the port of Annan?
Thanks again,
P
I’ll revisit some NLS maps of the period, too.
If you look at one of the early Ordnance Survey maps for Annan you’ll see a number of piers marked on the River Annan. However these don’t go any further up stream than the town of Annan itself. As I understand it, the larger vessels would berth at Waterfoot right at the mouth of the river while smaller vessels could access Annan Harbour in the town itself about a mile or so upstream.
Thank you again, Andrew. Looking at the 1855 Ordnance Survey map and Crawford’s earlier 1804 map, I see what you mean. In the former, I see “pier” marked as far as Annan. Upriver from there are a number of weirs with no canal bypasses shown.
I’m just trying to picture some apt routes, overland and/or by waterway, my Jardines may have used between Lochmaben and Annan Waterfoot between 1818 and 1845.
In December 1827, my third great-grandfather, Robert Jardine, somehow managed to be in Lochmaben: “David, son to Robert Jardine of Richibucto but originally of Park in this parish, and Elizabeth Bell in Lochbank his wife, was born upon the 13 Septr and baptized upon the 27 December 1827”