Why Did the Culberts Leave Ireland?

Why did the John Culbert-Mary Ward family leave Ireland? The short answer is: we don't know.

1939 map of Great Britain & Ireland. Image found on eBay.

It wasn't the Potato Famine that caused them to leave their homeland. The Culbert family arrived in Canada in 1840, five years before the famine began.

It's surmised that "the likely reason for leaving Ireland was that country's deteriorating  economic conditions coupled with the availability of cheap land in Upper Canada. They would also have expected an improved economic outlook there for John and Mary's children. In addition they had friends who already were homesteading in Biddulph Twp. which was being settled predominantly by the Irish."[1]

Let's address these possible reasons for leaving Ireland, one at a time:

1. Deteriorating economic conditions in Ireland:

The map below indicates the level of poverty in Ireland in 1841, the year after the Culbert family left the country...
 

Source: IrelandStory

We don't know the Culbert family's financial status in Ireland. It's said that John Culbert worked as a brick layer for his father-in-law. 

An elderly relative (name unrecorded) asked where the Culbert family lived and he replied, "on Colonel Draught's." As yet, I haven't discovered the identity of Colonel Draught but this indicates that the Culberts may have been tenant farmers.

UPDATE: According to someone who left a comment on the blog, his name was Colonel Drought, not Colonel Draught.

The Culbert family left Ireland at a time when many people were poor tenant farmers, renting land from rich, absentee landlords. Many farms were owned by English gentry who seldom set foot on Irish soil and relied on middlemen to collect the rents. Farms were split up, becoming smaller and smaller so that farmers could no longer make a living or feed their large families from their small patch of land, especially as rents continued to increase.

Decades after the Culberts left Ireland, landlords turned to evicting tenants. Landlords found it was more profitable to use their tenants' properties as pasture rather than renting out the land to families.

This period of agitation saw armed police and British soldiers using battering rams to break down doors and forcibly evict Irish tenants from their homes...

Image from the collection of Maggie Blanck.

2. Availability of cheap land in Upper Canada:

The Canada Company played a big role in promoting Canada to the Irish. This large land development company assisted emigrants by providing low fares on ships, inexpensive land, and tools and provisions to get the settlers started in the New World.

One Canada Company agent in particular was successful in bringing the Irish to Biddulph Township: Colonel James "Big Jim" Hodgins, the first white settler in that township.

Image via Robert Passmore.

 3. The Culberts had friends who already were homesteading in Biddulph Township:

Irish families often settled in Canada in groups, and were later joined by friends and relatives from the old country. It's said that John and Mary Culbert had friends named Rollins (or Rawlins) from Ireland who had moved to Canada prior to them and lived near the property they purchased. The Culbert family stayed with the Rollins/Rawlins family until they built a log house of their own.  

So, to recapitulate, we don't know the reason the Culbert family left Ireland but it's likely that the above three factors all came into play.

References:
[1] Taylor, Grant W., A History of the John Culbert – Mary Ward Family and Their Descendants  1828 – 1995” Volume 1, Branches 5-6-7-8-9, page 2.