In Australia colonists were continually asking for agricultural labourers.  In order for the Wiltshire labourers to emigrate, assistance for the passage had to be found;  main form of assistance came from the Colonial Office;  the SA Government sent part of the revenues from the sales of land to the Colonial Office for paying passages of emigrants - they also nominated the sort of emigrant they wanted.  Despatching the emigrants was managed by a small branch of the Colonial Office at #9 Park St, Westminster known as the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners;  they chartered ships, vetted selection of the emigrants, collected deposits emigrants had to pay and looked after them at the port of embarkation.  Arranging for would-be emigrants to get in touch with Commissioners in Park St was done by agents employed by the colonial government.  These agents included parish authorities (“the vestries”) working under the supervision of the Poor Law Commissioners.  Attempts were made to get landowners and parish vestries to contribute to the cost of emigration but farmers who paid the bulk of parish rates refused.  So Lord Bruce was instrumental in forming the Wiltshire Emigration Association which took shape in 1850.

The Wiltshire Emigration Association

Bruce and a secretary ran the Association from an office in Marlborough.  The Association paid the railway fares from Chippenham to Plymouth and saw that the emigrants turned up;  Bruce put ads in local papers at Christmas time 1850.

Emigrants included a compact little group from Shalbourne and a sprinkling from villages near Swindon, from Manningford, Urchfont, Great Cheverell, Berwick St Leonard and Warminster.  Most of the labourers had left school by the age of 9.

Bruce not only paid some deposits, but travelled with the largest party to Plymouth and inspected the 2 ships on which they were about to embark - the 'John Knox' and the 'Marion'.

Every emigrant was given a bible and a prayer book by the Emigrants’ Employment Society.

The John Knox was routed to Port Philip in Victoria and the Marion to Port Adelaide in South Australia.  Keros and his family were allotted to the Marion.  Click on Marion to see references to the 150th Anniversary celebrations at Edithburgh, a description of the voyage and its ultimate wrecking and the saving of the emigrants.