Bartleman

Hey guys
Here's the Bartleman info with footnotes. Dan - I can't find my notes right now with the thesis information for footnotes 12 & 13 (I think it got mixed up with my exam stuff, but I can't find it). Do you think you could put the info in for me? I've included some text at the end of this post to be included on the right hand side and I've footnoted it so that the footnotes follow those of the left hand side. (You'll see that the left hand footnotes go from 1 to 7, as the other ones are in the right hand text). I wasn't sure how you wanted to deal with the numbering.

Life in Scotland

Peter Bartleman was born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, around 1823. In 1851, he was living with his mother, an agricultural labourer, and working as a blacksmith at Gifford Gate, Haddington. [LINK TO Haddington was the birthplace of John Knox, and had once been the fourth largest town in Scotland. At one time it was larger than Glasgow, but by 1851 numbered a mere 5,496 residents. 1] Although his reasons for leaving Scotland and joining Kenneth McKenzie [LINK TO KENNETH MCKENZIE’S PAGE] on Vancouver Island are unclear, it is likely that it was due to the poor economic situation in Scotland at the time, and perhaps Bartleman felt he would do better in Canada [LINK TO BLURB ABOUT AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND – TEXT AT END OF POST]. However, he was soon to discover that life in the small colony of Vancouver’s Island was not as rosy as he may have imagined.

Journey to Canada

After embarking on the Norman Morison on August 14, 1852 Bartleman and his new wife endured a difficult crossing, during which they survived a four-day hurricane with snow off of Cape Horn in November, and a number of adults and children died in the crossing.[LINK TO PASSENGER LIST OF N.M. with caption “Part of the passenger list showing those “men, women and children engaged to go to Vancouver’s Isld with Mr K McKenzie, August 1852”]. They arrived in the harbour on January 21, 1853 and finally made their way to Craigflower Farm on Monday, 24 January, 1852. A temporary blacksmith’s shop was erected on March 4, 1852. 7

Life at Craigflower

However, life at the new farm did not run smoothly, and McKenzie notes that Bartleman was “left off work in consequence of refusing to do my orders” on June 24, 1853.8 The diary of another labourer, Robert Melrose [LINK TO MELROSE PAGE] notes on a number of occasions “Peter Bartleman stricken work.” 9 Three days later, Mr. Thomas Hall, the Victoria constable was summoned, and McKenzie paid $5.00 for 5 warrants to apprehend five escaped labourers, Bartleman included. 10 While at least two farm workers, William and John Weir made good their escapes for a short time before ending up in prison, neither Bartleman nor John Russel, the other blacksmith, were as fortunate, and both were immediately brought back to the farm. Two days later, Bartleman was once again hard at work [LINK TO BLURB ABOUT P.B. WORK: Bartleman’s duties appear to have been somewhat varied, given the fact that his official position on the farm was blacksmith. He made padlocks for Craigflower, as well as shoes (presumably horseshoes) for Mssrs Skinner, McAuby, Greib and McKenzie. On June 28, 1853, he received an order from Mr. McDonald for 2 soap plates, 2 cups and saucers, 2 knives and forks, 2 spoons, one tin teapot, one tin pan and one pitcher. In October of the same year, he received an order from Mrs. McKenzie for one tin pitcher. However, he was also recorded as having packed and carted biscuits. It is possible that he was needed for other tasks around the farm due to the difficulties incurred in retaining reliable labour. For his services, Bartleman received ₤7/10/- quarterly in 1853, and sometimes also accepted money in lieu of rations. At such times, he seems to have received an additional sum of ₤2/16/- per month.11]

Conflicts with Kenneth McKenzie

Almost a year and a half after arriving on the farm, Bartleman moved into Fort Victoria, for reasons which are also unclear. However, it may have been due to a personality conflict with Kenneth McKenzie, the bailiff of Craigflower. Bartleman seems to have frequently quarreled with the bailiff, having tried to escape to Sooke, in addition to setting up his own shop on Craigflower property and using McKenzie’s coal to fuel it. This resulted in McKenzie “attacking and destroying” the shop and taking him to court. 12 However, due to a number of technicalities in the case, McKenzie’s attempts to exert control over his worker were thwarted, and the end result was that Bartlemanm “set up on his own account upon Captain Cooper’s claim, laughing at us, our ‘contracts’ and the ‘Court of Justice.’” 13 Labour records [LINK TO IMAGE OF LABOUR BOOKS: Caption: “The page from Kenneth McKenzie’s labour books for the week of September 16-21 1861. Note the number of absences attributed to Peter Bartleman.”] reveal that Bartleman had a number of conspicuous absences during his time at Craigflower which went unexcused, and between the period 1852 and 1857, a fellow labourer frequently recorded in his diary “P. Bartleman, ¾ d[runk].” 14 It was not just McKenzie with whom Bartleman quarreled, but also with his fellow blacksmith, for on March 21, 1854, it is recorded that “John Russel & Peter Bartleman fought a battle. J. Russel ½ d[runk].” 15

The situation between Bartleman and the rest did not seem to have improved, and appears to have reached new heights on April 12, 1855, when he was sentenced to be sent home. 16 This, however, never came to pass, for a year later, Bartleman addressed a letter to Mr. Margery from Esquimalt, stating that “at the time [he] left Mr. McKenzie, there was a balance in my favour of ₤2/9/10, which you say is forfeited. I beg to say that I never received any money from Mrs. McKenzie and from what transpired, I do not see that I am liable for passage money. I am, sir, your ob[edient] servant, Peter Bartleman.”17 Bartleman must have succeeded in thwarting all attempts at curbing his behaviour and sending him home, for he can be found living in Saanich with his children in 1891 at the age of 65, still working as a blacksmith. He appears to have died at the respectable age of 82 in 1907 in Kamloops.

Epilogue (I couldn't think of a better term; if you can, please change it)

Like others on this site, Peter Bartleman represents the ordinary working man who helped to build the colony of Vancouver Island into what we know it today. Those who arrived on the Norman Morison with Kenneth McKenzie in 1852 represent a small but vital cross-section of settlers who were cogs in the machine of Empire during the nineteenth-century. These settlers arrived with both their aspirations and their personal flaws and helped to contribute to the establishment of a successful colony.

Notes
1. 1851 Census of Scotland, 1851 http://www.ancestry.com/ (March 30, 2007).
7. Robert Melrose, “The Diary of Robert Melrose,” British Columbia Historical Quarterly VII, No. 2 (1943), 119-134.
8.British Columbia Archives (hereafter BCA), Kenneth McKenzie, Family, Personal and Business Papers, A-01392, Box 10, File 2, Day Book of Kenneth McKenzie, 24 June 1853.
9. Melrose, “The Diary of Robert Melrose,” 119-134.
10. BCA, Kenneth McKenzie, Family, Personal and Business Papers, A-01392, Box 10, File 2, Day Book of Kenneth McKenzie, 29 June 1853.
11. BCA, Kenneth McKenzie, Family, Personal and Business Papers, A-01392, Box 10, File 2, Day Book of Kenneth McKenzie, 3 December 1853.
12.
13.
14. Robert Melrose, “The Diary of Robert Melrose: Part II,” British Columbia Historical Quarterly VII, No. 3 (1943), 198-219.
15. Robert Melrose, “The Diary of Robert Melrose: Part II,” 198-219.
16. Robert Melrose, “The Diary of Robert Melrose: Part II,” 198-219.
17. BCA, Kenneth McKenzie, Family, Personal and Business Papers, A-01482, Box 18, File 1, Accounts, Receipts, Promissory Notes and Business Papers, 6 March 1856.

Text on Scottish agriculture to link to in the right window:

The agricultural situation in Scotland had always been poorer than that in England, and even as far back as the seventeenth century, England had worried about an influx of poor and ragged Scots migrating southwards. Whereas English labourers were generally relatively well-clothed, some Scottish labourers did not even have shoes, and their quality of life was generally lower. Matters did not much improve, and “by 1840, the agrarian revolution in Britain had reduced many farm servants to the status of labourers.” 2 Even by the early twentieth century, “the foot-plough and hand-winnowing [were] still…common” in some parts of Scotland, while more advanced farming techniques, requiring “heavy capitalization” were being utilized in England. 3 . In the later part of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, there had been a population increase that had created a “glut of agricultural labour in the south [of Scotland]. 4 . Therefore, throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, labour was readily available to farmers, often at low cost. “Indeed, the problem became one of supporting through the Poor Law an increasing population of agricultural labourers many of whom were surplus to requirements even at the busy season.” 5. Thus, it is perhaps not surprising that many men signed on to work with Kenneth McKenzie, as it offered them a way to escape the uncertainties that must have faced them in Scotland. Signing on with a company promised a term of stability and employment, as well as a place to live. Due to the hiring practices in Scotland, to be unemployed also often meant being homeless, as “cottages surplus to such requirements [on the farm] were pulled down and the building of new accommodation rigorously controlled.” 6.

Notes:

2. Alastair Orr, “Farm Servants and Farm Labour in the Forth Valley and South-East Lowlands,” in Farm Servants and Labour in Lowland Scotland 1770-1914, ed. T.M. Devine (Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd, 1984), 30.

3. Kenneth O. Morgan, The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 477.

4. T.M. Devine, “Introduction: Scottish Farm Service in the Agricultural Revolution” in Farm Servants and Labour in Lowland Scotland 1770-1914, ed. T.M. Devine (Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd, 1984), 3.

5. T.M. Devine, “Introduction”, 3.

6. T.M. Devine, “Introduction,” 6.