Secondhand Sons: The life and times of the Remittance Men

7 days ago

What to do with the wayward sons?

A photo of a young man from the 19th century with a parted hairstyle and suit and tie. — Frederick Montague DelaFosse as a young man.

British-born, Frederick Montague DelaFosse was out of luck. His mother had abandoned him in 1867 when he was six. His father, a British army artillery captain, died in the colony of India just as Frederick turned eight. Although he was adopted and raised in England by his well-connected and wealthy uncle, a merchant for the East India Company, Frederick struggled academically. Playing more cricket than completing his papers, Frederick finished at the bottom of his class at the prestigious Wellington College. It was obvious to his uncle that the boy had little prospects. So, on a springtime walk through the streets of London with his uncle, Frederick was informed that he was being sent to Canada to “try your hand at farming in the Canadian backwoods.”

Frederick had joined the growing ranks of young aristocratic men being shipped to outposts of the British empire, in this case, the Commonwealth country of Canada.. Hailing from landed gentry and titled families, they were second or third sons, not apt to inherit land or money. Some had squandered their allowances on gambling, drinking, and other vices, becoming an embarrassment that was to be “sent away”. Some went willingly to discover prosperity that would reflect well on their families back home. All were sent away with the promise of a monthly stipend, or “remittance,” to support their new endeavors. As they settled across the globe, these disenfranchised young men would come to be known as Remittance Men.

From 1815 to 1850, before the heyday of Remittance Men, there had been an explosion of immigration from Britain to modern-day Canada. The Industrial Revolution drastically changed the textile, coal, and iron industries, introducing automation that left manual laborers without work or skills to meet new production demands. Improvements in standards of living and food production led to a population boom, overcrowding already dense cities. As many as 800,000 Britons traveled westward across the Atlantic seeking new lives and fortunes in the burgeoning lands of British North America.

These immigrants became the pioneers of expansion for the British in what would one day be the country of Canada. They started towns, built ranches, opened stores, suppressed native populations (a horrific tragedy that haunts Canada to this day), and helped to form the backbone of a new country. Their willingness to translate the hard work they left into the fortitude to explore and survive, cemented British control of upper North America. By the mid-1800s, with a large British population ensconced, many saw Canada as a place, not where one could survive but thrive.

As the Industrial Revolution marched on, aristocratic families in Britain felt its effects as well. Many new names and families were entering the ranks of the rich and privileged, causing an economic and social pinch. Not as separated from the hoi polloi as they had once been, the aristocracy sought to reign in certain aspects of their estates that would lead to further degradation. One area they were still able to influence, concerned their sometimes wayward and "superfluous" offspring; specifically what to do with them once they had become a financial burden. Cheaper to send away with a monthly remittance rather than keep at home, these young men immigrated to all corners of the British domain.

Later in his life, DelaFosse penned the book English Bloods, a semi-fictionalized account of his banishment to the Canadian wilderness. He recounts his willingness to travel to Canada was partly due to British merchants (knowing they could make a tidy profit selling supplies) who circulated manuals depicting Canada as a place where settlers could find adventure and fortune. DelaFosse wrote:

“My uncle told me he would soon have the business arranged and presented me with various pamphlets dealing with the country. I discovered that Canada possessed boundless resources, and when I read of its wonderful prairies and magnificent forests, of its splendid lakes and rivers, of the fishing and the hunting, of its glorious summers and bright and cheery winters, the sporting heart within me leapt and I was almost reconciled to the abandoning of my summer's cricketing.”-English Bloods p.10

The hard reality

"First day in the West". Young men travel to Canada to make their fortunes.

When these young Remittance Men landed on Canadian shores, they were surprised to find that the brochures did not faithfully represent what they encountered. Eastern Canadian cities were already well established and much like English ones. Landing with no social ties and an air of superiority towards this “uncouth” colony, these young men went from insiders, with families of wealth and influence, to pretentious outsiders. Seen as snobbish and too reliant on their parents’ bank accounts, the earlier wave of British immigrants, who had settled just decades before, shunned them.

Hoping to find fortune in the West, many Remittance Men tried farming and ranching. Some did succeed, but not before many of them had squandered the small sums sent from home on alcohol, gambling, and ill-guided investments. Locals labeled them as tenderfoots, greenhorns, and “dudes,” a word derived from the German word “dudendop” meaning lazy fellow. An 1895 article in the Alberta Tribune said of these young Englishmen, “[they] dress themselves up in the garb of cowboys, [with] spurs the size of small cart-wheel [and] hats cut with a scissor and covered with mud to look old and tough.”

In his travelogue, By Ocean, Prairie, and Peak, the Reverend Alexander Boddy related the following when visiting Winnipeg. “There is a class of men here who are called ‘Remitters’ or ‘Remittancemen.’ They are loafers who go round trying to negotiate loans. They are always expecting a remittance in a few posts from the Old Country.”

Quickly becoming a stereotype and trope, Remittance Men, had gained a reputation that would never fully be shaken. Cartoons and parodies were published in newspapers, and jokes were circulated. One recalls the story of a young Brit thrown in jail for drunkenness. While serving his time he was made to cut firewood for the jailhouse. Later when his father wrote to ask how he was getting along, the young man wrote that he had landed a prestigious job, “cutting cordwood for the government.”

The famous political cartoonist Arthur G. Racey's series “An Englishman in Canada” lampooned Remittance Men as dimwitted, naïve aristocratic caricatures. They also appeared in novels such as L.V. Kelly’s 1913 The Range Men and in popular songs and ballads such as “The Young British Rancher.”

Making a go of it

In 1878, Frederick DelaFosse entered into his new Canadian life with innocent eyes. “The spirit of adventure was strong within me,” he wrote, “and much as I regretted leaving England I did look forward with a vast amount of ardour to entering on life in the wonderful land that lay across the Atlantic.”

Caption: "Roger Vardon" when he wrote "English Bloods". Frederick DelaFosse. "Roger Vardon" was the nom de plume DelaFosse used at the time. — Caption: "Roger Vardon" when he wrote "English Bloods". Frederick DelaFosse. "Roger Vardon" was the *nom de plume* DelaFosse used at the time.

He started as a farming pupil in Ontario under the tutelage of a retired British army captain who knew little about the subject. Discouraged, he headed west to Winnipeg; first working on a survey crew, then cutting cordwood, and eventually as a railroad worker. Seven years later, in 1885, he realized he had taken in his “fill of adventure and hardship,” and returned east to Peterborough. Delafosse made Peterborough his permanent home, serving as its chief librarian from 1910 to 1946, and penned his book English Bloods (under the nom de plume Roger Vardon) while living in the city. In 1965 Peterborough honored Delafosse’s legacy by naming a new branch of the library after him.

Not all Remittance Men failed at the dream of adventure and enterprise in the Canadian West. Edward George Everard Ffolkes came from aristocratic bloodlines and was very particular about the spelling of his last name. His father was a wealthy reverend, his brother a baron, and his uncle was a landowner with an 8,000-acre estate. Edward found being a country gentleman in England difficult and like DelaFosse, was no great student; but he had always been good with his hands. He immigrated to Manitoba in 1881 at the age of nineteen and by the spring of 1883, “had built up a profitable farm with an inventory which included two teams of horses, a small herd of dairy cows, a binder, a reaper, and a small grist-cum-sawmill.”

In reality, many Remittance Men did not fit the stereotypes so quickly carved out by their new country. In one account, a pioneer rancher from Alberta described the Remittance Men he knew as a “happy-go-lucky lot, always satisfied with what was done for them.” A wife of an Alberta settler recalled Remittance Men as “very courteous, very appreciative, very considerate.”

Back home in Britain, immigration authorities were working on damage control, trying to lessen the black eye the trope of the Remittance Man had brought. Harvey Philpot, the Canadian guidebook author, warned British parents that, “sending to Canada the son who…has brought discredit upon his family in England, hoping thereby to give him a chance of…eventually becoming respectable [was] never a crueler mistake made.” He went on to describe young men cut adrift from family and friends, “sinking lower and lower,” and “long ago lamented as dead by his friends.”

In the end, Remittance Men met various fates. Some found a new life and vitality in their new homelands while others faded into poverty and obscurity. Few truly found what they and their families were looking for, and many simply returned home in further disgrace.

DelaFosse did find a new life in Canada and his memoir reflects the humility and hardships, not just for Remittance Men like himself, but for all those who came seeking something better than they left behind.

“It was only when we had been a considerable time in the country that we realized what very ordinary beings we were and how much the grit and the determination of those poorer than ourselves were to be admired. I often wonder why, when governments and communities erect monuments to heroes, they forget to erect one to the honour of the Pioneer.”

-English Bloods p.184

Nate Barker is a creator and freelance writer huddled down in a small niche of Northern New York. Through the years, he has followed his passions and encourages others to do the same. He went to college, and even got a master’s degree, but that was a long time ago. He has come to realize that life, just like history, is grander than the sum of its parts. You can find him at www.thebullybeard.com