Born in Chile

 By Robert Watson

Hugh Blackwood who spent most of his life in Cumnock and died in 1929 is buried in the town Glaisnock Street cemetery. Hugh was born in Chile in 1856. Descendant Robert Watson explains how this came about.

In 1849 The Hudson's Bay Company gained commercial rights to Vancouver Island from the British Government. They aimed to mine for coal on the island, planning to sell coal in San Francisco where prices were high. Their existing labourers and miners were flocking to the California gold rush and unable to recruit native people, experienced miners from Scotland were sought. The Hudson's Bay Company Agent in Scotland David Landale had been commissioned in early 1853 to recruit 40 miners and their families from Ayrshire to emigrate to Vancouver Island. The plan was to travel by train to London where the company had contracted the Colinda to sail to British Columbia - a scheduled 5 month voyage.

Thomas Blackwood, his wife Elizabeth Crawford and their two year old daughter joined 30 other families to travel from Kilmarnock, in August 1853, to London. They boarded the ship The Colinda.

The captain of the Colinda, John Powell Mills, had failed to provision the ship adequately. He proved an incompetent ships master and against a background of increasingly harsh conditions, relations with the ships passengers and crew deteriorated to the extent that they demanded the ship put in to a port in Chile. At one point Captain Mills challenged the ships doctor Henry Coleman to a duel. Through the British Consulate in Valparaiso Captain Mills unsuccessfully attempted to have them tried for mutinous & piratical conduct. Passengers, crew and Dr Coleman testified against the captain and the charges were dismissed. 

The Blackwood family and other miners families refused to continue with Captain Mills to British Columbia. Instead they were recruited by Thomas Garland who in 1852 had set up the 'Compania de Lota' to exploit the coal deposits in that area far south of Valparaiso.

Their son Hugh Blackwood was born in Lota in 1856 and was sent back to Ayrshire to be educated. Initially returning to Dalmellington, Ayrshire to stay with his grandmother Catherine Blackwood nee Campbell, he eventually settled in Cumnock, married Martha Armstrong and raised a large family.

The rest of the Hugh's siblings remained in Chile and successfully raised families and there are now many descendants of Thomas Blackwood and Elizabeth Crawford both in Chile and elsewhere in the world.

A nephew of Hugh (the son of his brother William (Guillermo)) was Juan Manuel Blackwood. Manuel was the 2nd engineer aboard the Yelcho which was the Chilean ship which rescued the crew of the Shackleton Antarctic expedition from Elephant Island in 1916. 

Hugh Blackwood’s family in Cumnock about 1910

 You can read more about the Blackwoods on Robert’s blog HERE.

The photo below is Hugh’s brother William aka Guillermo (seated) and his family in Chile c. 1905.