The conditions under which agricultural labourers lived is described in the 'Ag Lab' page and the Keynes families in southern Wiltshire suffered the same conditions.  Historians generally agree that southern Wiltshire was amongst the worst affected areas in the late 18th Century and the first half of the 19th.

In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, unemployment rose and the price of grain dropped so that farmers were forced to lower wages.  This was also the time of 'inclosures' when open fields which traditionally had allowed labourers to 'glean' some additional grain to supplement their family's diet and gave them access to supplements like nuts and berries and allowed them to graze an animal or two, deprived them of these resources which traditionally had allowed them to keep above the subsistence level.  These were now denied to them and so families became more and more desperate.  Many families turned to poaching to provide much needed protein and in fact some KEYNES family members were jailed for poaching (see 'Criminals' - our felonious past).

So it was that families were becoming increasingly destitute with little hope for improvement in the future.  Many influential, socially responsible men in Wiltshire were aware of the severity of the problem and sought means of alleviating it.  Such a man was Earl Bruce, who saw emigration as a means of reducing the problem.  He organised the "Wiltshire Emigration Society" to arrange and fund a system of allowing suitable families to emigrate to Australia.

The Society made arrangements for the transport, advertised the opportunity within the southern Wiltshire area and eventually approved applicant families and arranged the details of travel.

Keros KEYNES, his wife Elizabeth and children Ellen, Kadmiel and Susan were accepted for emigration to South Australia and eventually sailed on the "Marion" in 1851.