Emigration of Sayces to the Colonies

Records relating to emigration from the UK in the 1700’s are rare. Settlers in the colonies of that time were principally either rich landlords or sailors who had abandoned the sea life to settle. For example, reference is made in a 1834 document of Fortune Sayce (b.1768), a negro carpenter, who was a slave to Marie Seraphine Davies in Trinidad¹. Was he named after a landlord or a sailor?

With the advent of assisted passage to the colonies in the 1800’s, a number of Sayce families emigrated to the colonies. However, passenger lists and other records relating to this movement of Sayce’s provides very little help as most of these records referred to ‘Mr’, ‘Mrs’ or ‘Miss’ Sayce. Also many records only gave peoples initials, and ages / date of births are mostly inaccurate.

I will shortly be adding to this page a list of Sayce’s who left the United Kingdom for the colonies.

References

1. Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 (online database). Public Record Office Reference T.71 518, dated 25th January 1834.