[WED]Wedmore to Iowa. Do you know the ship and date ?

[Stanley Castle]

Nothing specific to the Wedmore to Iowa discussion but might be connected.

In 1834 when the Royal Commission the Poor Laws reported and they
recommended that money from the parish rates should be used to finance
emigration. Provision was made under the Poor Law Act of 1834 to provide
financial assistance for emigration to the British colonies. Between 1835
and1837 6,403 people from 20 counties in the south of England were assisted
by their parishes to emigrate. In 1837 the Churchwardens and overseers in
Banwell had numerous applications from Banwell paupers who wished to
emigrate to the "British Settlement in America". 37 Banwell paupers
including children sailed from Bristol to Quebec in April 1837. The passage
money was just short of £100 per head with an additional £40 for clothing
and £5 for the trip to Bristol. The migrants paid £9 towards the costs.
The Poor Law Commissioners emigration scheme lasted until 1870 the number of
emigrants using this scheme petered out because the local administrators
found that it was too expensive.

Ref. D Frazer (Ed), The New Poor Law in the Nineteenth Century, Pub.
MacMillan 1976.