There were no restrictions on leaving England. Anyone could go. The only qualification was the ability to fine the fare.
We do not know the exact date that John sailed for America, leaving his wife and children in Wiltshire. The plans apparently were that he would later send money for them to come also. It is said that John came with a friend from Wiltshire by he name of Emmanuel Mortimer. So far this has not been proved.
Passage to America was by sailing vessel and the journey took approximately four to seven weeks. We can surmise that John came by steerage (below deck), and not in a first class cabin.
Passengers were given a certain amount of food and water (no meat) and were expected to bring some of their own food and cook their own meals on board ship. The British Passenger Acts of 1842 said "Each passenger to be given weekly seven pounds of bread, biscuit, flour, oatmeal, or rice, or the equivalent in potatoes". This was to be supplied uncooked, and was intended as no more than an insurance against starvation, The Acts also said that each passenger was to have at least ten square feet of space between decks.
In the 1848 Acts the space for each steerage passenger was increased from ten to twelve square feet. The 1849 Acts increased the food ration. As well as the weekly seven pounds of food stipulated by the 1842 Acts, oatmeal, tea, rice, sugar, and molasses were to be given out twice a week. (But there was still no meat or vegetables; the ration was still only meant to pervent starvation, and passengers still had to bring much of their own food.)
Although many manifests of ship's passenger lists have been saved and filmed by the National Archives and there are some indexes to passengers coming to America, no entry for John Gay was found.
In examining the information from the 1850 census, it shows that Emmanuel's first child, Matilda, was born in England five years before. Thus Emmanuel must have brought a wife and child with him from England sometime in about 1845. The second child, Allen, is listed as being born in New York and was three years old in 1850, thus being born sometime in 1846/47. Also living in the same household are Siman (Simeon-brother) and Sarah Mortimer (Sister in Law) apparently relatives of Emanuel.
A further check of the records on Allen Mortimer indicates that he was born in November 1846 in Waterloo, New York. This is evidence that Emmanuel Mortimer spent some time in New York before coming to Wisconsin.
At some point in time, both John Gay and Emmanuel Mortimer decided to come to Wisconsin to settle.
Under the Land Acts in effect at the time. a person could claim land by settling on it while beginning to develop the land. You could hold the land for one year before paying for it. The alternative was to pick out the land you wanted from a plat map (most of the land in Wisconsin had been surveyed prior to 1848 when Wisconsin became a State), pay for it right away and then develop it.
Land was being sold in Wisconsin for $1.25 an acre.
What we do know for certain from Milwaukee Land Office Records is that in May of 1848 Emmanuel Mortimer purchased his 40 acres of land and in November of that same year, John Gay purchased the first 40 acres of the home farm for a grand total of $50.00. He chose 40 acres in the Town of Elba in Dodge County adjacent to the Crawfish River. Emmanuel Mortimer had 40 acres of land right next to John Gay. (source-Land Office Tract Book, Vol.63, page 71)
In addition, the files of the Milwaukee Land Office stored at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., contained the copy of a receipt for the $50.00 John paid on November 21, 1848, no doubt a lot of money to John at he time. This is the first documented evidence that John was in Wisconsin by 1848.
Neither John nor Emmanuel had much money at first and food was primarily game and fish. (Story from Harry Bay son of John and Minna Gay).
In 1850, the land patent was obtained by John Gay. The land patent document (in the possession of Earl Gay, Town of Elba) was signed by President Zachary Taylor and is dated January 1, 1850.
Also, in about 1850, John was able to send for his wife Elizabeth and family. (The 1900 Federal census indicates that son George Gay had come to America in September 1850.) Six of John and Elizabeth's children came to the new land -- Jane (who had been married in England and had several children born in England) Ann, George, Lot, Elizabeth and Emma. A son Robert stayed in England.
By this time, John's friend, Emmanuel Mortimer, had sold his 40 acres to John and had left the area. He did not, as some family stories say, "return to England" as further research shows.
Emmanuel Mortimer applied to become a U.S. sitizen on 6 June 1848 shortly after the purchas of his land. If the information on thes record is correct, it stated that he arrived in the port of New York in June, 1845. No application for citizenship was found for the immigrant John Gay.
In the early 1850's the Mortimer family moved to the Town of Chilton in Calumet County. The 1860 and 1870 Federal census show the enumeration of the Mortimer family in the Town of Chilton.
Emmanuel died in December 1877, obituary from the Chilton Times of 22 December 1877. He is buried with his wife Jermina in the Portland Cemetery (also know as Brant Cemetery) in the Town of Chilton, Calumet County.
After only about 15 years in America, John Gay died in February of 1860. He was buried in the Grove Prairie Cemetery (also known as the Gibson Cemetery) in the nearby Town of Lowell, not far from the home farm. The gravestone gives the date of death as February 27, 1860 and his age as 62. My Links
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