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ABSTRACT
Using data from six sample parishes, this article examines the migration of predominantly agricultural labour across the Anglo-Scottish border in the mid-nineteenth century. The main purpose is to establish the extent to which the Border formed a barrier to movement at this time. A largely similar agricultural system within the Border region, with a specific character to its employment processes, appears to have been significant in reducing any negative impact upon the movement of labour. Furthermore, an examination of features such as religion, co-habitation and marriage patterns, suggests that for many Border residents, being born in the neighbouring country but living in the other one does not appear to have constituted any significant deterrent to social interaction.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 A.P. Cohen, ‘Boundaries and Boundary Consciousness: Politicising Cultural Identity’, in The Frontiers of Europe (London: A & C Black, 1998), 22–35; T.M. Wilson and H. Donnan, Nation. State and Identity at International Borders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
2 D. Conversi, ‘Reassessing Current Theories of Nationalism: Nationalism as Boundary Maintenance and Creation’, in Political Geography: A Reader (London: Arnold, 1995), 73–85; H. Van Houtum and T. Van Naerssen, ‘Bordering, Ordering and Othering’, Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 93 (2002): 125–36.
3 R. Gielis, ‘Borders Make the Difference: Migrant Transnationalism as a Border Experience’, Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 100 (2009): 598–609; H.F. Wilson, ‘On Geography and Encounter: Bodies, Borders, and Difference’, Progress in Human Geography 41 (2017): 451–71.
4 C.G. Pooley, ‘The Role of Migration in Constructing Regional Identity’, in An Agenda for Regional History (Newcastle upon Tyne: Northumbria University Press, 2007), 63–84.
5 J.T. White, The Scottish Border and Northumberland (London: Eyre Methuen, 1973); R. Lomas, County of Conflict. Northumberland from Conquest to Civil War (East Lothian: The Tuckwell Press, 1996); K. Terrell and M. Bruce, eds., The Anglo-Scottish Border and the Shaping of Identity, 1300–1600 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
6 N. McCord and R. Thompson, The Northern Counties from AD 1000 (London: Longman, 1998), 149.
7 M.M. Meikle, A British Frontier? Lairds and Gentlemen in the Easter Borders, 1540–1603 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2004).
8 R.A. Dodgshon, ‘Agricultural Change and Its Social Consequences in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, 1600–1780’, in Ireland and Scotland, 1600–1850. Parallels and Contrasts in Economic and Social Development (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1983), 50–1.
9 P.D. Wright, Life on the Tyne. Water Trades on the Lower River Tyne in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, a Reappraisal (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), 49.
10 C. Sassi, ‘The (B)order in Modern Scottish Literature’, in The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth Century Scottish Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), 146.
11 G.W. Barrow, ‘The Anglo-Scottish Border’, Northern History 1 (1966): 21–42.
12 M. Netzloff, ‘“Counterfeit Egyptians” and Imagined Borders: Jonson’s the Gypsies Metamorphosed’, ELH 68 (2001): 763.
13 A. Geddes, ‘Changes in Rural Life and Landscape, 1500–1950’, in Scientific Survey of South East Scotland (Edinburgh: British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1951), 126–34.
14 B.W. Robertson, ‘The Border Farm Worker 1871–1971: Industrial Attitudes and Behaviour’, Journal of the Agricultural Labour Society 2 (1973): 65–93; B.W. Robertson, ‘In Bondage: The Female Farm Worker in South East Scotland’, in The World is Ill Divided (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990), 117–35.
15 J. Bailey and G. Culley, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Northumberland (London: Board of Agriculture, 1794).
16 White, The Scottish Border, 125.
17 R. Gill, Competing Convictions (London: SCM Press, 1989).
18 Anon, ‘On the Hiring Markets in the Counties of Northumberland, Berwick and Roxburgh’, Quarterly Journal of Agriculture 5 (1834–5): 379–86; H.M. Neville, A Corner in the North (Newcastle upon Tyne: Andrew Reid & Co., 1909); J. Wilson, ‘Minutes of Evidence’, in Report for the Commissioners for Inquiry into the Administration and Practical Operation of the Poor Laws (London: Parliamentary Papers, 1834 [44]), xxvii.
19 J. Grey, ‘A View of the Past and Present State of Agriculture in Northumberland’, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England XVIII (1841–2): 151–92; T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People, 1560–1830 (Edinburgh: Collins, 1969); J. Long, Conversations in Cold Rooms (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1999).
20 Neville, A Corner in the North, 10; T.M. Devine, ‘Social Stability and Agrarian Change in the Eastern Lowlands of Scotland, 1810–1840’, Social History 3 (1978): 331–46.
21 Sir John Sinclair, Old Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol 3 Eastern Borders (Edinburgh: W. Creech, 1791).
22 Robertson, ‘The Border Farm Worker’ and ‘In Bondage’ and Long, Conversations in Cold Rooms.
23 Neville, A Corner in the North, 9.
24 T. Barrow, ‘Corn, Carriers and Coastal Shipping. The Shipping and Trade of Berwick and the Borders, 1730–1830’, Journal of Transport History, 21 (2000): 6–27.
25 E. Higgs, A Clearer Sense of the Census. The Victorian Censuses and Historical Research. (London: HMSO, 1996).
26 J. Bain, ed., The Border Papers: Calendar of Letters and Papers relating to the Affairs of the Borders of England and Scotland, Vol. 1 (London: HM Register House, 1894).
27 K. Wrightson, ‘The Re-Making of the North East, 1500–1760’, in Northumbria: History and Identity, 547–2000 (Chichester: Phillimore, 2007), 140.
28 J. Philipson, ‘Whisky Smuggling on the Border in the Early Nineteenth Century’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th Series XXXIX (1961): 151–163.
29 White, The Scottish Border, 197.
30 White, The Scottish Border, 155.
31 Wilson, ‘Minutes of Evidence’, 120A.
32 Ibid.
33 J. Sykes, Local Records, or Historical Register of Remarkable Events, II (Newcastle upon Tyne: T. Fordyce, 1831), 295.
34 Anon, ‘On the Hiring Markets’.
35 R. Houston, ‘“Frequent Flitting”: Geographical Mobility and Social Structure in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Greenlaw’, Scottish Studies 27 (1983): 31–47.
36 Ibid.
37 Long, Conversations in Cold Rooms, 87.
38 Wilson, ‘Minutes of Evidence’, 120A.
39 Long, Conversations in Cold Rooms, 97.
40 A. Somerville, The Autobiography of a Working Man (London: Macgibbon & Kee, 1848, 1967 edition).
41 M. Robson, ‘The Border Farm Worker’, in Farm Servants and Labour in Lowland Scotland, 1770–1914 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1984), 85.
42 J. Grey, ‘Agriculture in Northumberland’, 189.
43 W.S. Gilly, The Peasantry of the Border … an Appeal on their Behalf (Edinburgh: Bratton Publishing Ltd., 1842, 1973 edition).
44 Ibid.
45 See, for example, M. Gray, ‘Migration in the Rural Lowlands of Scotland, 1750–1850’, in Ireland and Scotland 1600–1850. Parallels and Contrasts in Economic and Social Development (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1983), 110.
46 A. Digby, ‘The Labour Market and the Continuity of Social Policy after 1834: The Case of the Eastern Counties’, The Economic History Review 28 (1975): 69–83; I.D. Whyte, Migration and Society in Britain, 1550–1830 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000).
47 M. Barke, ‘Northumberland and Durham Settlements, 1801–1911’, in Northumbria: History and Identity, 547–2000 (Chichester: Phillimore, 2007), 200–1.
48 R. Anthony, Herds and Hinds. Farm labour in Lowland Scotland, 1900–1939 (East Lothian: Tuckwell Press, 1997).
49 Houston, ‘“Frequent Flitting”’, 37.
50 A. Munden, ed., The Religious Census of 1851: Northumberland and County Durham (The Surtees Society, 216, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2013), 216.
51 Gill, Competing Convictions.
52 Munden, The Religious Census of 1851, 65.
53 Gill, Competing Convictions, 84.
54 Ibid., 94.
55 Ibid., 83.
56 Neville, A Corner in the North, 29.
57 White, The Scottish Border, 201.
58 D. Welsh, Ed., Leaves from a Peasant’s Cottage Drawer. Robert Davidson 1778–1855 (Leicester: Matador, 2008).
59 Berwickshire News and General Advertiser, February 1, 1870.
60 Gilly, The Peasantry of the Border; M. Barke, ‘Rural Housing in Early Nineteenth-Century Northumberland’, The International Journal of Regional and Local Studies 6 (2010): 24–37.
61 E.G. Ravenstein, ‘The Laws of Migration’, Journal of the Statistical Society of London 48 (1885):167–235.
62 Robson, ‘The Border Farm Worker’, 71.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Michael Barke
Michael Barke was Reader in Human Geography in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences until his retirement in 2016.
Helen King
Helen King is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences.
David Welsh
David Welsh is a retired Senior Lecturer in Government and Politics at Northumbria University.