Among the many migrants to the colony of Victoria in the 1850s were James and Elizabeth Maxwell, who arrived with their family in 1853. James and Elizabeth Maxwell’s migration story gives an example of migration from the Scottish lowlands that was preceded by ‘local migration’.

In considering migration from Scotland, there were many “varieties of Scottish emigrants” as far as motives were concerned. For a certain subset of Scottish migrants, “local emigration was frequently a prelude for overseas emigration”. Changes in agriculture and tenancy arrangements meant a change in societal norms, compounded by increases in population. Ties to the land were weakened and people began seeking opportunities wherever they were to be found, which was quite often in larger towns and cities. Rather than inherit an occupation (as had generally happened in the past), people exercised conscious choices about their employment and therefore where they lived. This ‘local migration’ occurred particularly in rural lowland Scotland. The ability to improve one’s lot in life by moving about rural Scotland (‘local migration’) resulted in a higher likelihood of considering overseas migration.¹

The propensity of the Maxwell family to ‘migrate’ about rural lowland Scotland can be seen in the marriage record of James and Elizabeth, birth records of their children, and in census records. James Maxwell, born in Perthshire, married Elizabeth Mitchell in her birthplace of Mauchline, Ayrshire, in 1832.² After they married, the Maxwells lived in various towns within Ayrshire over a period of almost 20 years. They were living in Sorn for the birth of the first child, Mauchline for children two through to five, then Dundonald for child six through to child eight.³ Later, when the 1851 census was undertaken, they were in Loan.⁴

The Maxwell family, having exercised their choice in their ‘local migration’, then decided to emigrate to Australia. We can’t know with certainty their motives for leaving Scotland, but for most emigrants the choice to leave was “more an expression of liberty … than desperation”.⁵ There is no evidence to suggest any desperate situation the Maxwells were trying to escape from, so presumably they continued the pattern that had started when they were married; as they had moved around Ayrshire, so now they moved to Australia.

James and his wife migrated with 6 children; John, Margaret, Robert, James, William and Elizabeth.⁶ (There are records of a further two daughters born in Scotland, but presumably they had died as infants or young children; there is no further record of them to be found.⁷) John, the eldest child in the family, was 19 years old and the youngest was Elizabeth, who was about two.⁸ Crossing the oceans for the family began in the major shipping port of Liverpool, England, where many migrant ships made their departure. Given the hundreds of kilometres between Ayr and Liverpool, it must have been a significant journey for the Maxwell family, especially considering they travelled with a large family of 6 children.

James and Elizabeth and the children travelled on the ‘Kate’, a migrant ship carrying unassisted passengers to Australia. The fact that they were unassisted passengers (meaning they paid their own way without any government subsidy) would seem to confirm that their motive for migration was more “liberty … than desperation”.⁹

The Maxwells were one of the first 50 people listed in the clerk’s passenger list for the ‘Kate’ (there were about 370 people in total).¹⁰ It’s possible they were one of the first passengers to be boarded, and then had to wait for the decision to set sail. The ship, with passengers and crew on board, was anchored in the river at Liverpool for over a week until it finally set sail.¹¹ Presumably the ship was waiting to be filled to capacity so that a maximum profit was made from the voyage. The emigration commissioner also inspected the ship during this time and, being satisfied that most passengers were healthy enough to make the voyage (one family were obliged to leave the ship due to the wife’s ill-health),  he gave permission for the ship to sail.¹²

The ‘Kate’, under the direction of Captain Rea, left Liverpool under a light wind on the 13th of December 1852. There were 3 other ships that left Liverpool on the same day bound for Melbourne.¹³ During the many weeks that the ship sailed, there would have been plenty of time for the passengers to get to know one another. The passenger list tells us that there was only one family who paid the rate for their own cabin; the rest of the passengers were all in the steerage section together. The passenger list includes quite a number of families with children in addition to the Maxwells.¹⁴ It’s probable that the children from varying families played together to pass the time on board. Maybe the parents got to know one another as their children played together. A fellow steerage passenger, Richard Hall, observed that “the children screaming loud and laughing … is the order of the day”.¹⁵ Over 4 months after leaving Liverpool, the ‘Kate’ arrived in Melbourne in April 1853.¹⁶

Not a great deal is known of the Maxwell’s movements immediately after arriving in Melbourne in 1853 . What is known is that by 1858 they were living in Kyneton when their final child, Jane was born. (A son, George, was also born in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1855.) James, Elizabeth and their children went on to live a well-documented life in the Kyneton area; and James and Elizabeth both lived there until their deaths. The ‘local migration’ pattern that was a part of life for the Maxwell family in Scotland ended once they had settled themselves into life in Australia.

Reference list
¹ Eric Richards, ‘Varieties of Scottish emigration in the nineteenth century’, Australian Historical Studies, 1985, 21(85), pp 475-479.
² Christening of James Maxwell, christened 18 June 1806, Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950, FamilySearch; ‘Some Sorn marriages’, Ayrshire roots website, n.d., http://www.ayrshireroots.co.uk/Towns/Sorn/Sorn%20Marriages.htm, accessed 14 November 2016.
³ Census record for Maxwell family, Dundonald, 1851, Census of Great Britain, National Records of Scotland, 590/6/19, pp 19-20; Christening of Janet Maxwell, 24 December 1839, Scotland Births and Baptisms, Mauchline, Ayrshire, digitised FHL microfilm 1041395, FamilySearch, accessed 23 June 2022; Birth of Margaret Maxwell, 17 March 1842, Mauchline, Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms 1564-1950, Ancestry.com, accessed 24 October 2016.
⁴ Census record for Maxwell family, 1851, Census of Great Britain.
⁵ Eric Richards, ‘Varieties of Scottish emigration in the nineteenth century’, p 478.
⁶ Passenger list entry for James Maxwell, Kate, departing Liverpool, 7 December 1852, Inward Overseas Passenger Lists: Apr – May 1853 British and Foreign Ports, Colonial Secretary’s Office, Public Record Office Victoria, North Melbourne, VPRS 947, pp 141 – 145.
⁷ Christening of Janet Maxwell; Birth of Margaret Maxwell.
⁸ Passenger list entry for James Maxwell, Kate, departing Liverpool, 7 December 1852, Inward Overseas Passenger Lists: Apr – May 1853 British and Foreign Ports, Colonial Secretary’s Office, Public Record Office Victoria, North Melbourne, VPRS 947, pp 141 – 145; Passenger list entry for Elizabeth Maxwell, Kate, departing Liverpool, 7 December 1852, Inward Overseas Passenger Lists: Apr – May 1853 British and Foreign Ports, Colonial Secretary’s Office, Public Record Office Victoria, North Melbourne, VPRS 947, pp 141 – 145.
⁹ Eric Richards, ‘Varieties of Scottish emigration in the nineteenth century’, p 478.
¹⁰ Passenger list entry for James Maxwell.
¹¹ Richard Hall, Diary of Richard Hall of Bury, Lancashire, England : voyage to Australia in the ship Kate [facsimile], 1852, Eureka Centre Ballarat.
¹² Diary entry for 6 December 1852, Richard Hall, Diary of Richard Hall of Bury, Lancashire, England : voyage to Australia in the ship Kate [facsimile], 1852, Eureka Centre Ballarat.
¹³ ‘Monday, December 13’, Liverpool Mail, 18 December 1852, n.p.
¹⁴ Passenger list, Kate, departing Liverpool, 7 December 1852, Inward Overseas Passenger Lists: Apr – May 1853 British and Foreign Ports, Colonial Secretary’s Office, Public Record Office Victoria, North Melbourne, VPRS 947, pp 141 – 145.
¹⁵ Diary entry for 5 December 1852, Richard Hall, Diary of Richard Hall of Bury, Lancashire, England : voyage to Australia in the ship Kate [facsimile], 1852, Eureka Centre Ballarat.
¹⁶ ‘Ship news’, Cornwall Chronicle, 20 April 1853, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page6228900, accessed 16 June 2022.
¹⁷ Birth registration of Jane Penelope Maxwell, born 1858, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, 1858/8021 (index only; no image currently available).
¹⁸ ‘No title’, Kyneton Observer, 8 June 1875, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240920032, accessed 1 June 2019; ‘No title’, Kyneton Observer, 25 February 1882, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240796334, accessed 1 June 2019.