'A Small Cup Soon Overflows’. Emigration and Migration from Guernsey in the Nineteenth Century

This is a study of nineteenth-century Guernsey emigration. The key research question was ‘what decisions and events made families emigrate from this island in the nineteenth century and what can be learned about Britain, Guernsey’s identity, mobility, emigration, the nature of islanders and ‘island-ness’ in an historical context?’ To answer these complex questions, the primary research constructed 78 main databases from thousands of archival documents. From a wide range of sources, the research also identified 28,000 individuals who left the island between 1800 and 1899. The quantitative chapters follow the flow of migration, whilst the qualitative chapters focus on the nature and identity of the emigrants as socio-economic groups; the elite merchants, the middle class and the asset poor. The study reveals a much greater participation in emigration than in any European country: at times, for example, at a rate of five times greater than the average British region. Although emigrants went to traditional destinations like Australia, they also moved to over 70 destinations as diverse as Batavia and Peru. The ‘pushes’ were complex and included restrictive inheritance laws, lack of work and pressures from the British government. The ‘pulls’ included work, entrepreneurial or trading opportunities and military careers. Meanwhile, many migrants moved from the island across Britain, with most finding their way to Middlesex, southern coastal communities and the neighbouring island of Jersey. This study explains much about the mobility of Guernsey emigrants and migrants and also illuminates aspects of their decision-making, thus enhancing our knowledge of nineteenth-century British and British island emigration.