Thanks to everyone who has responded on this. The 1817 group that Moodie organised was one of several which he set up coming from all over the UK. The original intention of the deal seems to have been to provide skilled labour for his estate there, but once in South Africa many seem to have seen that the terms weren't particularly good and set out on their own. I have found a record in The Scotsman of a ship which left Leith to take some (possibly all) of the 200 as far as London but it was a bit early for the local papers that would probably given a clearer account twenty or so years later. On the poverty issue, I am sure that there are various modern parallels. One thing that has struck me from going through the farm tenancy records in the century or so before this particular emigration scheme was the extent to which most of the tenant farming families were permanently in debt, often many years behind in their rents. The pressure would therefore have been on younger sons to enter trades or emigrate. In the course of just 50 years, virtually all of the farming Scoons in the Hawick area emigrated; those round Langholm and Canonbie lasted rather longer. Donald Grant Scoon One Name Study (GOONS #5642) www.donjgrant.me.uk/schp.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ In a message dated 15/01/2012 22:12:48 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: They probably left Scotland for the same reasons that so many today are looking to move - overpopulation, poverty and the promise of opportunities elsewhere. I noticed in the Scotsman a couple of days ago that 1 in 5 Scots now lives in poverty. That is a horrendous number. Cliff.