University of Guelph Library
Scottish settlement and emigration at Guelph
Memoirs of Darien, 1715
Many aspects of Scottish emigration and accounts of settlers from the seventeenth century to the present are covered in Archival and Special Collections and the general library collection. For the very earliest period of colonization, the Plantation in Ulster which began c.1610, some original sources are digitized works that registered University of Guelph students and faculty can consult online using Early English Books Online (EEBO), a full-text searchable collection.
For the next major period of Scottish emigration, the ill-fated Darien Scheme to establish a Scottish colony on the isthmus of Darien in Central America, there are contemporary print materials that consist chiefly of pamphlets and small monographs and, of course, government publications (e.g., acts). Guelph's special collections hold over one-third of the Darien items listed in the larger J.J. Spencer Collection at the University of Glasgow. Also, there are digitized resources available for registered University of Guelph students and faculty in the Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).
Immigration to Canada after the American Revolution includes many topics such as rural depopulation, the Lowland enclosures, the Highland clearances, immigration to Ontario, and Canadian resettlement, e.g. the Red River scheme established by Lord Selkirk. The library's Regional Collections include the Goodwin-Haines, Fasken, Mickle, Lizars, and H.B. Timothy collections, all of which are concerned with Scottish emigrants to Ontario. The Watt-Argo family correspondence is described in detail in Collection Update. Printed book resources are readily available for Scottish emigration to Canada. For Canada, there are more than one hundred rare books and many of these are applicable to Scottish settlement, including the pioneering effort in Nova Scotia in 1629.
There are a number of archival resources for settlement to the Guelph area and adjacent region, based mostly on family records. This material includes: personal letters, business and farm records, account books, family genealogies, local histories, travel information, newspaper clippings, land documents, posters, information on community events, and many other types of original and print records. Major holdings include the following:
| Archival Resources | Call Number |
|---|---|
| Account book of Thomas Arkell, 1854-1886 | XA1 MS A009 |
| Beattie Family fonds, 1505 - 1968 | XS1 MS A099 |
| Brough Family fonds, 1834-1864 | XS1 MS A224 |
| John Duncan Family papers, 1837-1910 | XS1 MS A151 |
| Fasken Family collection, 1784-1887 | XR1 MS A180 |
| Goodwin-Haines collection, 1774-1809 | XR1 MS A120- |
| Good Family correspondence, 1841-1875 | XS1 MS A200 |
| Govan Family fonds, 1842-1981 | XS1 MS A011 |
| Houston-McNeely-Blair Family papers, 1832-1966 | XS1 MS A080 |
| H.A. McIntosh farm records, 1910-1912 | XA1 RHC A0460 |
| Kelly Family correspondence, 1893-1896 | XA1 RHC A0455 |
| D.M. Macpherson papers, 1885-1958 | XA1 MS A083 |
| Mickle Family collection, 1710-1950 | XR1 MS A279 |
| Miller-Davidson Family collection, 1867-1945 | XA1 MS A139 |
| Smibert Family fonds, 1825-1863 | XS1 MS A017 |
| H.B. Timothy Collection | XR1 MS A277 |
Scottish settlement in Canada is an important area of study and Guelph's holdings are a primary resource for researchers, students, and local historians.