The Garland family seem to have originated from Dorset and also did business in Newfoundland. John Watts Garland is a possiblity; I think he is the J.W. Garland listed as a merchant in Lisbon in 1810 (dealing in "Stationery, lead, iron and steel, and codfish"), and here he is mentioned as of Lisbon in the will of his father, Thomas, in 1828:
http://www.willtranscriptions.co.uk/surnames/g-h-i/garland_thomas_g74.htmhttp://ngb.chebucto.org/Newspaper-Obits/nflder-1831-34.shtml - and he died in Lisbon in 1834.
His will is online from here (wonder if it might mention the Coverly boys?):
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/(might have been another member of this family, but he seems to have been the one in Lisbon the longest).
The survivors were picked up by a Portuguese merchant ship, the Condega da Fonte, on its way to Lisbon, which was the reason they were first brought there as opposed to any other place.
Worth quoting, from the archive.org link below:
You will perceive Gentlemen by the accompanying List of the saved that numerous young Children are included. The Parental affection never shone with greater lustre than on this occasion. Mothers and Fathers apparently regardless of themselves caught up their young Children and threw them into the Boats, and in one family (Barrie's) the eight junior
are preserved, one only a Child of fifteen months old, while the noble Parents with their Eldest Son and Daughter are numbered
with the dead.
Regarding the adoption/taking in of children:
I have considered it to have been my duty to have allowed several young Boys and Girls who have become Orphans to be taken by the different English Gentlemen here desirous of having them and who have pledged themselves to provide for them, considering it a better prospect than any they can have at home.
"I" in this case is Lieutenant Mudge, of the Royal Navy, who was aboard the ship (as emigrant agent?).
Although some of the survivors were sent back to Scotland soon afterwards, it may have been the case for Thomas and Charles, and some of the other children, that they didn't have relatives in Scotland who they could be returned to; or it may have been that it was thought/assumed that their relatives back home might not have been able (financially) to provide for two extra children.
They probably were not adopted as such (clearly didn't take the name) but provided with accomodation and education by Mr Garland (perhaps in his house), and potentially apprenticed to someone in the British community in Lisbon. With the Garland family heavily involved in shipping and trade, Thomas could have been working on ships and ended up in Edinburgh for business.
Do you have the original image of Thomas' marriage in Scotland? Just wondering if it gave any hints, or perhaps if any later records (such as the marriage of his child) mention his occupation.
Also possibly of interest, Thomas Coverley the "gentleman's servant" travelling to the US in 1834, aged 25:
http://castlegarden.org/quick_search_detail.php?p_id=4244941Although he is listed as slightly younger, the Thomas Coverly, "merchant" b. Scotland in Florida in 1850 (who then disappears, at least as far as I can see).
