Migratory patterns of people in four settlements in Lincolnshire 1851-1901

Migration in England and Wales during the nineteenth-century has been much studied in the past century. In the mid-1880s E.G. Ravenstein analysed the 1881 census reports relating to the migration of people from rural to urban environments, because there was concern that people were leaving agricultural employment in order to settle in towns and cities, thus causing food production to be at risk. Ravenstein put his research into a paper entitled “the laws of migration”, and they have been the basis for many migration research projects since that time. This thesis examines migration from a micro-history standpoint, thus four small settlements situated within a few miles of each other were selected for research. The years covered were from 1851 to 1901 and used the census enumerators’ books, civil records of births, marriages and deaths, trade directories, and newspaper articles, to trace the migratory journeys of the males from those settlements. The research was placed against the events that were happening nationwide. The transport systems were explored; the industrial advances that were taking place in the mill towns and factories were looked at; the presence of kith and kin in receiving towns and cities were examined, together with the provision of schools; and finally, the males reactions to the Agricultural Depression of the late nineteenth century were analysed. This ensured that a micro-historical, or “total history” approach was used to highlight the movements of the males, and their motivations for either staying in or leaving the settlements. This approach revealed that when migration was researched countrywide, the detail of the many small migrations was obscured. It was found that most males did not migrate to the towns and cities but made short circular moves locally. The thesis closed with an examination of the settlements in the twenty-first century.