The Clearances and Scottish Emigration
The Irish Famine and its resulting emigration are well known. Less familiar to many is the parallel story of the Scottish Clearances, which forced thousands of people from their homes and sent them overseas in search of survival.
For those tracing Scottish ancestry, understanding the Clearances can help explain why so many family lines suddenly appear in Canada, Australia, or the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries. The records of this period, though sometimes patchy, document one of the more turbulent chapters in Scottish history.
The Roots of Displacement
The Clearances did not begin overnight. Their origins are linked to the failed Jacobite risings, particularly the rebellion of 1745 that ended at Culloden. After Bonnie Prince Charlie's defeat, the British government moved to crush Highland culture and the clan system that had sustained it for centuries.
The Disarming Act of 1746 restricted Highland men from wearing tartan and traditional Highland dress, part of broader efforts to suppress clan identity. This restriction remained in place until 1782. Weapons were confiscated. Military roads and forts were built to control the population. Clan chiefs, once protectors of their people, began to see their lands differently. Under increasing pressure to modernise and generate income, many turned to sheep farming or reorganised their estates into tenant crofts, both of which required far fewer workers than traditional agriculture.
Even before Culloden, some Scots had already left. The failed rising of 1715 prompted an early wave of emigration, with families leaving for the American colonies. But after 1746, the trickle became a steady flow.
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The most intensive phase of the Clearances ran roughly from the 1780s to the 1850s, with significant displacement continuing through the Highland Potato Famine of the 1840s. During this time, landlords across the Highlands and Islands evicted tenants to make way for large sheep farms. The methods used varied, but the results were consistent: entire communities were uprooted.
Some evictions were carried out with notice and at least the appearance of legality. Others were not. There are documented cases of homes being burned while families watched, leaving them with no choice but to leave. In Sutherland, the Countess of Sutherland and her factor Patrick Sellar became notorious for the harshness of their clearances. Sellar was tried for culpable homicide in 1816, though he was acquitted.
The cleared tenants were sometimes offered land on the coast, where they were expected to take up fishing or kelp harvesting. Many of these plots were too poor to support a family. When the kelp industry collapsed and potato blight struck in the 1840s, conditions worsened further. The economic pressures of the Industrial Revolution also shaped landlord decisions, as wool and meat production offered more reliable returns than traditional rents. Emigration became a common recourse for survival amid these dire local conditions.
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Where the Emigrants Went
Scots who left during the Clearances settled in several regions. Canada received the largest numbers, particularly Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, and parts of Ontario. The name Nova Scotia itself means New Scotland. In some Canadian communities, Gaelic was still spoken into the 20th century, and Highland cultural practices including music, dance, and storytelling took root in ways that outlasted their suppression in Scotland.
Others went to the United States, with North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and New York all receiving Scottish settlers before and after the American Revolution. Australia and New Zealand also received Scottish emigrants, especially from the 1830s onwards when assisted passage schemes made the journey more affordable. In New Zealand, Scottish settlers established communities where Gaelic traditions persisted for generations.
The conditions on emigrant ships were often grim. Overcrowding, disease, and inadequate food meant that not everyone survived the crossing. Those who did faced the hard work of building new lives in unfamiliar places, often starting with very little.
Tracing Clearance Ancestors
If you believe your ancestors were affected by the Clearances, several resources can help. Scotland's People, the official government source for Scottish records, holds parish registers, census returns, and statutory records that may show family movements. The National Records of Scotland also holds estate papers and emigration records that can provide context.
Highland Archive centres in Inverness, Wick, and Fort William hold local records that may include estate rentals, removal lists, and correspondence between landlords and factors. The Am Baile website, run by High Life Highland, offers digitised photographs, documents, and oral histories related to Highland history.
For those whose ancestors settled in Canada, Library and Archives Canada holds passenger lists, land grants, and census records. Similar resources exist for the United States, Australia, and New Zealand through their respective national archives.
The Clearances remain a sensitive subject in Scotland. For family historians, they offer both a challenge and an opportunity: the chance to understand not just where ancestors went, but why they had no choice but to leave.
How wonderful that you're continuing your father's research. The Highland Clearances can indeed create frustrating gaps in family records, as many crofters were displaced with little documentation.
For pre-1850s Highland research, parish registers are your best starting point, though coverage can be patchy. The National Records of Scotland holds many of these, now digitised on ScotlandsPeople. Estate papers sometimes list tenants and can be found in local archives or the National Library of Scotland.
Also check emigration records and passenger lists, as cleared families often sailed together. The Highland Family History Society specialises in exactly these challenges and could offer invaluable guidance. Don't lose heart – many researchers have successfully traced cleared families back further with patience and the right resources.
Best of luck with your search.
The three real issues were firstly the crushing of the clan system after the 1745 rebellion (which as a point of fact was not England against Scotland as reported in the piece - history is never that simple and there were many Scots in the redcoat Army fighting against the Highlanders an d supported by most lowlanders). Once the clan systems familial bonds had been systemically broken after Culloden in 1746 there was a hiatus in the previous clan support network and the clansmen were on their own and living as tenant farmers rather than claymore wileders in times of trouble.
Secondly the success of kelp processing as a cash crop which boomed during the Napoleonic wars but went into freefall after they finished.
Thirdly the potato (staple crop) yields tumbled after the blight arrived.
It was all made worse because post Culloden there had been an unprecedented population boom all over the Highlands. And when lack of support, money and food combined at the same time the population quickly became destitute.
In most cases the Highland Clearances happened because the population was destitute and had no option but to seek new horizons and the New Worlds were as good a place to head for as the lowland cities, although many went there too.
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