A question about ships lists

[Isobell21]

My late husband's ggrandfather is found in Quebec in 1851 as a servant he is 20 years old,working for a very prominant man who was a lawyer,judge and politition  in his private life also as an Officer in the British Army, at that time the British were the ruling government.The Census of lower Canada (of which Quebec is a part) gives his Country of Birth as England.I have wondered if he was an indentured servant? he was one of five people working for Mr E. Bowen and the only one not born in Quebec.
I have tried the ships list,to no avail.I have read the ships captains were not obliged to keep list at the time,I have wondered if such  lists would be kept by the UK of outward bound passengers, and people leaving the country to work.

[Seahorse2]

Dear Isobel

You may have already discovered this source of information produced by P&O and entitled "Passengers and emigration ...". I'm sure that you will find that it is very informative and hopefully, goes some way to answer your question:

http://www.poheritage.com/Upload/our-archive/research-guides/passengers/passengers_emigration/Passengers%20and%20Emigration%20-%20Web.pdf


I wish you luck with your search and add a thought: the British Army used to allocate soldiers to be an officer's personal servant (called a 'batman') to carry out the duties of a valet. Often, senior officers leaving the service would take their batman with them into civilian life. A similar situation existed in the Royal Navy where the ship's Captain took his coxswain from ship to ship an often on into civilian life upon retiral. The coxswains duties require him attend upon his captain to attend to his needs and assure his personal safety at all times.     

Best wishes

Barry

[km1971]

The National Archives only has outward passenger lists from 1890. He may have worked on a merchant ship and signed off/deserted once he got to Canada. Here is a link to researching merchant seaman - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/merchant-shipping-crewlists-agreements-1747-1860.htm

Also - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/emigrants.htm

Ken

[jorose]

No outgoing lists and the incoming to Canada are very sparse at this time (although he might have also come through the US and over the border).  So there's no need for there to have been special circumstances - the shipping list might simply have not survived.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/introduction.aspx