Historical immigration to Great Britain
Encyclopedia
Historical immigration to Great Britain concerns the inward movement of people, cultural and ethnic group
s into island Great Britain before 1922, Immigration during and after 1922 is dealt with at the article Immigration to the United Kingdom (1922-present day).
Modern humans first arrived in Great Britain during the Palaeolithic era, but until the arrival of the Romans
(1st century BC) there was no historical record. With the fall of the Roman Empire, Anglo-Saxons
(c.
5th century AD) and Viking
s (8th century AD) migrated to Great Britain. In 1066, the Normans
successfully took control of England
and, in subsequent years, there was some migration from France. In the 19th century, immigration by people outside Europe began on a small scale as people arrived from the British colonies
. This increased during the 20th century.
DNA
provides a direct record of the effects of immigration on the population. Studies of DNA suggest that the biological influence on Britain of immigration from the Norman conquests up till the 20th century was rather small; marked more by stability than change.
invasion of Great Britain was led by Julius Caesar
in 55 BC; the second, a year later in 54 BC. The Romans had many supporters among the Celt
ic tribal leaders, who agreed to pay tributes to Rome in return for Roman protection. The Romans returned in AD 43, led by the Emperor Claudius
, this time establishing control, and establishing a province Britannia
. Initially an oppressive rule, gradually the new leaders gained a firmer hold on their new territory which at one point stretched from the south coast of England to Wales
and as far away as southern Scotland
(though they did not hold the latter for long).
Over the 400 years of Roman occupation of Britain, the majority of settlers were soldiers garrison
ed on the mainland
. It was with constant contact with Rome and the rest of Romanised Europe through trade and industry that the elite native Britons themselves adopted Roman culture and customs, though the majority in the countryside were little affected.
) mercenaries were employed in Gaul by the Roman empire and it is speculated in a similar manner, Germanic immigrants to Britain arrived at the invitation of the ruling classes. In the Post-Roman period the traditional division into Angles
, Saxons
and Jutes
(Anglo-Saxons
) is first seen in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
by Bede
, however historical and archæological research has shown that a wider range of Germanic peoples from the coast of Frisia
, Lower Saxony, Jutland
and Southern Sweden
also moved to Britain in this era.
After the withdrawal of the last Roman soldiers from Britain in the early 5th century, the number of newcomers increased, and it is speculated that relations with the ruling Romanised Britons became strained. By about 449, open conflict had broken out, and the immigrants began to establish their own kingdoms in what would eventually become the Heptarchy
.
n Scots started raiding north-western Britain from their base in north-east Ireland. After the Roman withdrawal, this developed from piracy to full-scale invasion and, within a hundred years, they had established a kingdom in Argyll
.
between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. This tide has varied over the centuries in response to politics, economics and social conditions of both places. Today, millions of residents of Great Britain are either from the island of Ireland or have Irish ancestry.
raid of Britain is 789 when, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
, Portland
was attacked. A more exact report dates from 8 June 793, when the cloister
at Lindisfarne
was pillaged by foreign seafarers. These raiders, whose expeditions extended well into the 9th century, were gradually followed by armies and settlers who brought a new culture and tradition markedly different from that of the prevalent Anglo-Saxon society. These enclaves rapidly expanded, and soon the Viking warriors were establishing areas of control to such an extent that they could reasonably be described as kingdoms
.
The Danelaw
, established through the Viking conquest of large parts of England, was formally established, as a result of the Treaty of Wedmore
in the late 9th century, after Alfred the Great
had defeated the Viking Guthrum
at the Battle of Ethandun. The Danelaw represented a consolidation of power for Alfred; the subsequent conversion of Guthrum to Christianity underlines the ideological
significance of this shift in the balance of power. The Danelaw was gradually conquered by the Anglo-Saxons in later years. In parts of England today, the influence of the Vikings can still be seen, particularly in place names in the East Midlands and the north.
Between 1016 and 1042 England was ruled by Danish kings but the Anglo-Saxons then regained control until 1066.
point of view, William the Conqueror was considered the legitimate heir to the realm (as explained in the Bayeux Tapestry
), and the invasion was required to secure this against the usurpation of Harold Godwinson
.
In the years following the invasion to 1204, Normandy
and England kept their close connection. This was in part secured by granting aristocrats lands in both domains, giving an incentive on all levels to maintain the union. The influx of Norman military and ecclesiastical aristocracy changed the nature of the ruling class in England, leading to the creation of an Anglo-Norman
population.
There was further immigration and emigration during the time of the Angevin Empire
from much of the west coast of France. After the loss of much of the Angevin lands in 1202, the strong trade links between Gascony
and England led to a flow of people between the lands.
(as opposed to the Roma, who are more common in parts of Central and Eastern Europe
), consisting of tribes originating in South Asia (the Indian subcontinent
) around 800, began arriving in sizable numbers in Western Europe in the 16th century, including in the British Isles. Mostly speakers of a dialect of the Romani language
(a language very similar to Sanskrit
and other Indic languages
) and initially mainly travellers largely working as Hawkers, Basket Weavers
; also as Ostler
s, Jockeys and many other occupations working with horses.
Although not normally included as British Asian
s, the Roma and Sinti (also known as "Gypsies") originated in parts of what are now North India
and Pakistan
. They began travelling westward around 1000, though they have mixed with West Asians and Europeans over the centuries.
s, French Protestants facing a new wave of persecution, began arriving in England in numbers around 1670. King Charles II
offered them sanctuary, and in all some 40–50,000 arrived. Many settled in the Spitalfields
area of London, and, being former silk-weavers
, brought new energy to this industry in the area and raised silk to an important fashion item in Britain. It has been estimated that as many as a quarter of London's population today have a Huguenot ancestor.
, have settled in Great Britain since the East India Company
(EIC) recruited lascars to replace vacancies in their crews on East Indiamen whilst on voyages in India. Many were then refused passage back, and were marooned in London. There were also some ayahs
, domestic servants and nannies
of wealthy British families, who accompanied their employers back to "Blighty
" when their stay in Asia came to an end.
The number of Indian
seamen employed on British ships was so great that the British tried to restrict this by the Navigation Act of 1660, which restricted the employment of non-British sailors to a quarter of the crew on returning East India Company ships. Baptism records in East Greenwich
suggest that young Indians from the Malabar Coast
were being recruited as servants at the end of the 17th century, and records of the EIC also suggest that Indo-Portuguese cooks from Goa
were retained by captains from voyage to voyage. In 1797, 13 were buried in the parish of St Nicholas at Deptford
.
Since the 17th century, the East India Company brought over thousands of South Asian scholars, lascars and workers (who were mostly Bengali
and/or Muslim
) to Britain, most of whom settled down and took local white British
wives, due to a lack of Asian women in Britain at the time. Due to the majority of early Asian immigrants being lascars, the earliest Asian communities were found in port towns. Naval cooks also came, many of them from the Sylhet Division
of what is now Bangladesh
. One of the most famous early Bengali
immigrants to Britain was Sake Dean Mahomed, a captain of the British East India Company. In 1810, he founded London's first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House. He is also reputed for introducing shampoo
and therapeutic massage to the United Kingdom.
By the mid-19th century, there were at least 40,000 Indian seamen, diplomats, scholars, soldiers, officials, tourists, businessmen and students arriving to Britain, more than 25,000 of whom were lascar seamen (in 1855). By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were around 70,000 South Asians in Britain, 51,616 of whom were lascar seamen (when World War I began).
, but others attained highly respected positions in society, e.g. Ignatius Sancho
and Francis Barber
– a servant to Dr Samuel Johnson
who became a beneficiary of his will. These ships stopped carrying black people to Britain after it banned slave trading in 1807.
Following the British defeat in the American War of Independence over 1,100 black loyalist
troops who had fought on the losing side were transported to Britain, but they mostly ended up destitute on London's streets and were viewed as a social problem. The Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
was formed. They distributed relief and helped the men to go abroad, some to Canada. In 1786, the committee funded an expedition to Sierra Leone
of 280 black men, 40 black women and 70 white wives and girlfriends. The settlement failed and within two years all but 60 had died.
n Jews suffered bitter persecutions, and British Jews led fund-raising to enable their Russian co-religionists to emigrate to the United States. However, out of some 2,000,000 who left Russia by 1914, around 120,000 settled permanently in Britain. One of the main concentrations was the same Spitalfields
area where Huguenots had earlier congregated. Immigration was reduced by the Aliens Act 1905
and virtually curtailed by the 1914 Aliens Restriction Act.
Modern genetic evidence, based on analysis of the Y chromosome
s of men currently living in Britain
, the Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland, Friesland
, Denmark, North Germany, Ireland, Norway
and the Basque Country
, is consistent with the presence of some indigenous component in all British regions. For the sake of this study samples from the Basque Country were considered indigenous (a putative paleolithic Y chromosome). These studies cannot significantly distinguish between Danish, Frisian and German (Schleswig-Holstein
) Y chromosomes although the Frisians were slightly closer to the indigenous samples. Areas with the highest concentration of Germanic (Danish-Viking/Anglo-Saxon) Y chromosomes occurred in areas associated with the Danelaw
and Danish-Viking settlement, especially York and Norfolk. In these areas, about 60% of Y chromosomes are of Germanic origin.
It should be noted that this indicates an exclusively male component. The extent of Danish/Anglo-Saxon contribution to the entire gene pool of these areas is also dependent on the migration of women. For example, if it is assumed that few or no Germanic women settled in these areas, then the Germanic contribution to the gene pool is halved to 30%, and in turn if greater numbers of women did settle, the contribution could be even higher than 60%.
Current estimates on the initial contribution of Anglo-Saxon migrants range from less than 10,000 to as many as 200,000, although some recent Y-chromosome studies posit a considerably large continental (Germanic) contribution to the current English gene pool (50–100%). A recent study by a team from the Department of Biology at University College London
based on computer simulations indicate that an apartheid-like social structure in early Anglo-Saxon England provides a plausible explanation for a high-degree of continental male-line ancestry in England.
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
s into island Great Britain before 1922, Immigration during and after 1922 is dealt with at the article Immigration to the United Kingdom (1922-present day).
Modern humans first arrived in Great Britain during the Palaeolithic era, but until the arrival of the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
(1st century BC) there was no historical record. With the fall of the Roman Empire, Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
(c.
Circa
Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
5th century AD) and Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
s (8th century AD) migrated to Great Britain. In 1066, the Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
successfully took control of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
and, in subsequent years, there was some migration from France. In the 19th century, immigration by people outside Europe began on a small scale as people arrived from the British colonies
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. This increased during the 20th century.
DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
provides a direct record of the effects of immigration on the population. Studies of DNA suggest that the biological influence on Britain of immigration from the Norman conquests up till the 20th century was rather small; marked more by stability than change.
Prehistoric settlement
For the settlement of Great Britain before the arrival of the Romans see the article Prehistoric settlement of Great Britain and IrelandRoman Empire
The first RomanAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
invasion of Great Britain was led by Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
in 55 BC; the second, a year later in 54 BC. The Romans had many supporters among the Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic tribal leaders, who agreed to pay tributes to Rome in return for Roman protection. The Romans returned in AD 43, led by the Emperor Claudius
Claudius
Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...
, this time establishing control, and establishing a province Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
. Initially an oppressive rule, gradually the new leaders gained a firmer hold on their new territory which at one point stretched from the south coast of England to Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and as far away as southern Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
(though they did not hold the latter for long).
Over the 400 years of Roman occupation of Britain, the majority of settlers were soldiers garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
ed on the mainland
Mainland
Mainland is a name given to a large landmass in a region , or to the largest of a group of islands in an archipelago. Sometimes its residents are called "Mainlanders"...
. It was with constant contact with Rome and the rest of Romanised Europe through trade and industry that the elite native Britons themselves adopted Roman culture and customs, though the majority in the countryside were little affected.
Angles, Saxons and Jutes
Germanic (FrankishFranks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
) mercenaries were employed in Gaul by the Roman empire and it is speculated in a similar manner, Germanic immigrants to Britain arrived at the invitation of the ruling classes. In the Post-Roman period the traditional division into Angles
Angles
The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
, Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
and Jutes
Jutes
The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutæ were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples of their time, the other two being the Saxons and the Angles...
(Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
) is first seen in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
by Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
, however historical and archæological research has shown that a wider range of Germanic peoples from the coast of Frisia
Frisia
Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...
, Lower Saxony, Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
and Southern Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
also moved to Britain in this era.
After the withdrawal of the last Roman soldiers from Britain in the early 5th century, the number of newcomers increased, and it is speculated that relations with the ruling Romanised Britons became strained. By about 449, open conflict had broken out, and the immigrants began to establish their own kingdoms in what would eventually become the Heptarchy
Heptarchy
The Heptarchy is a collective name applied to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of south, east, and central Great Britain during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, conventionally identified as seven: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex...
.
Scots
During the 5th century, the Dál RiataDál Riata
Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...
n Scots started raiding north-western Britain from their base in north-east Ireland. After the Roman withdrawal, this developed from piracy to full-scale invasion and, within a hundred years, they had established a kingdom in Argyll
Argyll
Argyll , archaically Argyle , is a region of western Scotland corresponding with most of the part of ancient Dál Riata that was located on the island of Great Britain, and in a historical context can be used to mean the entire western coast between the Mull of Kintyre and Cape Wrath...
.
Irish
From prehistory to the present, there has been a continuous process of movement of people across the Irish SeaIrish Sea
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. This tide has varied over the centuries in response to politics, economics and social conditions of both places. Today, millions of residents of Great Britain are either from the island of Ireland or have Irish ancestry.
Vikings
The earliest date given for a VikingViking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
raid of Britain is 789 when, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
, Portland
Isle of Portland
The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...
was attacked. A more exact report dates from 8 June 793, when the cloister
Cloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
at Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
was pillaged by foreign seafarers. These raiders, whose expeditions extended well into the 9th century, were gradually followed by armies and settlers who brought a new culture and tradition markedly different from that of the prevalent Anglo-Saxon society. These enclaves rapidly expanded, and soon the Viking warriors were establishing areas of control to such an extent that they could reasonably be described as kingdoms
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
.
The Danelaw
Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
, established through the Viking conquest of large parts of England, was formally established, as a result of the Treaty of Wedmore
Treaty of Wedmore
The Peace of Wedmore is a term used by historians for an event referred to by the monk Asser in his Life of Alfred, outlining how in 878 the Viking leader Guthrum was baptised and accepted Alfred as his adoptive father. Guthrum agreed to leave Wessex and a "Treaty of Wedmore" is often assumed by...
in the late 9th century, after Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
had defeated the Viking Guthrum
Guthrum
The name Guthrum corresponds to Norwegian Guttom and to Danish Gorm.The name Guthrum may refer to these kings:* Guthrum, who fought against Alfred the Great* Gorm the Old of Denmark and Norway* Guthrum II, a king of doubtful historicity...
at the Battle of Ethandun. The Danelaw represented a consolidation of power for Alfred; the subsequent conversion of Guthrum to Christianity underlines the ideological
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
significance of this shift in the balance of power. The Danelaw was gradually conquered by the Anglo-Saxons in later years. In parts of England today, the influence of the Vikings can still be seen, particularly in place names in the East Midlands and the north.
Between 1016 and 1042 England was ruled by Danish kings but the Anglo-Saxons then regained control until 1066.
Normans
The Norman invasion of Britain is normally considered the last successful attempt in history by a foreign army to take control of the Kingdom of England by means of military occupation. From the NormanNormans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
point of view, William the Conqueror was considered the legitimate heir to the realm (as explained in the Bayeux Tapestry
Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth—not an actual tapestry—nearly long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings...
), and the invasion was required to secure this against the usurpation of Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...
.
In the years following the invasion to 1204, Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
and England kept their close connection. This was in part secured by granting aristocrats lands in both domains, giving an incentive on all levels to maintain the union. The influx of Norman military and ecclesiastical aristocracy changed the nature of the ruling class in England, leading to the creation of an Anglo-Norman
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
population.
There was further immigration and emigration during the time of the Angevin Empire
Angevin Empire
The term Angevin Empire is a modern term describing the collection of states once ruled by the Angevin Plantagenet dynasty.The Plantagenets ruled over an area stretching from the Pyrenees to Ireland during the 12th and early 13th centuries, located north of Moorish Iberia. This "empire" extended...
from much of the west coast of France. After the loss of much of the Angevin lands in 1202, the strong trade links between Gascony
Gascony
Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...
and England led to a flow of people between the lands.
Romani
Mainly SintiSinti
Sinti or Sinta or Sinte is the name of a Romani or Gypsy population in Europe. Traditionally nomadic, today only a small percentage of the group remains unsettled...
(as opposed to the Roma, who are more common in parts of Central and Eastern Europe
Roma in Central and Eastern Europe
Roma are a subgroup of the Romani people , who live primarily in Central and Eastern Europe , as well as in the Balkans and Western Anatolia, and as recent immigrants in Western Europe and the Americas...
), consisting of tribes originating in South Asia (the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
) around 800, began arriving in sizable numbers in Western Europe in the 16th century, including in the British Isles. Mostly speakers of a dialect of the Romani language
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
(a language very similar to Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and other Indic languages
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
) and initially mainly travellers largely working as Hawkers, Basket Weavers
Basket
A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are...
; also as Ostler
Ostler
Ostler is a surname, and may refer to:*Blake Ostler, American attorney*Gordon Ostlere, English surgeon and anaesthetist*Nicholas Ostler, British linguist*William Ostler, English actor...
s, Jockeys and many other occupations working with horses.
Although not normally included as British Asian
British Asian
British Asian is a term used to describe British citizens who descended from mainly South Asia, also known as South Asians in the United Kingdom...
s, the Roma and Sinti (also known as "Gypsies") originated in parts of what are now North India
North India
North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. They began travelling westward around 1000, though they have mixed with West Asians and Europeans over the centuries.
Huguenots
The HuguenotHuguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
s, French Protestants facing a new wave of persecution, began arriving in England in numbers around 1670. King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
offered them sanctuary, and in all some 40–50,000 arrived. Many settled in the Spitalfields
Spitalfields
Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to many markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, founded in the 17th century, Sunday...
area of London, and, being former silk-weavers
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
, brought new energy to this industry in the area and raised silk to an important fashion item in Britain. It has been estimated that as many as a quarter of London's population today have a Huguenot ancestor.
Indians
People from South Asia, also known as the Indian subcontinentIndian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
, have settled in Great Britain since the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
(EIC) recruited lascars to replace vacancies in their crews on East Indiamen whilst on voyages in India. Many were then refused passage back, and were marooned in London. There were also some ayahs
Ayah (disambiguation)
Ayah may refer to:* Ayah, a verse of the Qur'an* Ayah or Amah , a domestic servant* Paul Abine Ayah , member of the National Assembly of Cameroon* Princess Ayah bint Al Faisal , Jordanian princess...
, domestic servants and nannies
Nanny
A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
of wealthy British families, who accompanied their employers back to "Blighty
Blighty
Blighty is a British English slang term for Britain, deriving from the Hindustani word vilāyatī , from Persian vilayet and ultimately from Arabic wilayah, originally meaning something like "province"...
" when their stay in Asia came to an end.
The number of Indian
British Indian
The term British Indian refers to citizens of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian descent, and Indian-born people who have migrated to the UK...
seamen employed on British ships was so great that the British tried to restrict this by the Navigation Act of 1660, which restricted the employment of non-British sailors to a quarter of the crew on returning East India Company ships. Baptism records in East Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
suggest that young Indians from the Malabar Coast
Malabar Coast
The Malabar Coast is a long and narrow coastline on the south-western shore line of the mainland Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing mountain...
were being recruited as servants at the end of the 17th century, and records of the EIC also suggest that Indo-Portuguese cooks from Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
were retained by captains from voyage to voyage. In 1797, 13 were buried in the parish of St Nicholas at Deptford
Deptford
Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...
.
Since the 17th century, the East India Company brought over thousands of South Asian scholars, lascars and workers (who were mostly Bengali
British Bangladeshi
A British Bangladeshi is a person of Bangladeshi origin who resides in the United Kingdom having emigrated to the UK and attained citizenship through naturalisation or whose parents did so; they are also known as British Bengalis...
and/or Muslim
Islam in the United Kingdom
Islam has been present in the United Kingdom since its formation in 1707, though it was not legally recognised until the Trinitarian Act in 1812. Today it is the second largest religion in the country with estimates suggesting that by 2010 the total Muslim population had reached 2.869 million.The...
) to Britain, most of whom settled down and took local white British
White British
White British was an ethnicity classification used in the 2001 United Kingdom Census. As a result of the census, 50,366,497 people in the United Kingdom were classified as White British. In Scotland the classification was broken down into two different categories: White Scottish and Other White...
wives, due to a lack of Asian women in Britain at the time. Due to the majority of early Asian immigrants being lascars, the earliest Asian communities were found in port towns. Naval cooks also came, many of them from the Sylhet Division
Sylhet Division
Sylhet Division , also known as Greater Sylhet or Sylhet region, is the northeastern division of Bangladesh, named after its main city, Sylhet...
of what is now Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
. One of the most famous early Bengali
Bengali people
The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...
immigrants to Britain was Sake Dean Mahomed, a captain of the British East India Company. In 1810, he founded London's first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House. He is also reputed for introducing shampoo
Shampoo
Shampoo is a hair care product used for the removal of oils, dirt, skin particles, dandruff, environmental pollutants and other contaminant particles that gradually build up in hair...
and therapeutic massage to the United Kingdom.
By the mid-19th century, there were at least 40,000 Indian seamen, diplomats, scholars, soldiers, officials, tourists, businessmen and students arriving to Britain, more than 25,000 of whom were lascar seamen (in 1855). By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were around 70,000 South Asians in Britain, 51,616 of whom were lascar seamen (when World War I began).
Africans
During the 18th century, a substantial population of black people, thought to number about 15,000 by mid-century, were brought to Britain initially largely as the captain's share of the cargo of transatlantic slave ships. Many of these people became servants in aristocratic households and are frequently depicted in contemporary portraits of the family – often depicted in a similar manner to family pets. Many black people became part of the urban poor and were often depicted in the caricatures and cartoons of William HogarthWilliam Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
, but others attained highly respected positions in society, e.g. Ignatius Sancho
Ignatius Sancho
Ignatius Sancho was a composer, actor, and writer. He is the first known Black Briton to vote in a British election. He gained fame in his time as "the extraordinary Negro", and to 18th century British abolitionists he became a symbol of the humanity of Africans and immorality of the slave trade...
and Francis Barber
Francis Barber
Francis Barber was the Jamaican manservant of Samuel Johnson in London from 1752 until Johnson's death in 1784. Johnson made him his residual heir, with £70 a year to be given him by Trustees, expressing the wish that he move from London to Lichfield in Staffordshire, Johnson's native city...
– a servant to Dr Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
who became a beneficiary of his will. These ships stopped carrying black people to Britain after it banned slave trading in 1807.
Following the British defeat in the American War of Independence over 1,100 black loyalist
Black Loyalist
A Black Loyalist was an inhabitant of British America of African descent who joined British colonial forces during the American Revolutionary War...
troops who had fought on the losing side were transported to Britain, but they mostly ended up destitute on London's streets and were viewed as a social problem. The Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
The Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor was a charitable organization founded in London in 1786 to provide sustenance for distressed people of African and Asian origin...
was formed. They distributed relief and helped the men to go abroad, some to Canada. In 1786, the committee funded an expedition to Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
of 280 black men, 40 black women and 70 white wives and girlfriends. The settlement failed and within two years all but 60 had died.
Germans
Over the 19th century a substantial population of German immigrants built up in Britain, numbering 28,644 in 1861. London held around half of this population, although other notable communities existed in Manchester, Bradford among others. The German immigrant community was the largest group until 1891, when it came second only to Russian Jews. There was a mixture of classes and religious groupings, and a flourishing culture built up, with the growth of middle and working class clubs. Waiters and clerks were two main occupations, and many who worked in these professions went on to become restaurant owners and businessmen, on a large scale. This community maintained its size until the First World War, where public anti-German feeling became very prominent and the Government enacted a policy of forced internment and repatriation. The community in 1911 had reached 53,324, but fell to just over 20,000 after the war.Russian Jews
England has had small Jewish communities for many centuries, subject to occasional expulsions, but British Jews numbered fewer than 10,000 at the start of the 19th century. After 1881 RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Jews suffered bitter persecutions, and British Jews led fund-raising to enable their Russian co-religionists to emigrate to the United States. However, out of some 2,000,000 who left Russia by 1914, around 120,000 settled permanently in Britain. One of the main concentrations was the same Spitalfields
Spitalfields
Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to many markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, founded in the 17th century, Sunday...
area where Huguenots had earlier congregated. Immigration was reduced by the Aliens Act 1905
Aliens Act 1905
The Aliens Act 1905 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Act for the first time introduced immigration controls and registration, and gave the Home Secretary overall responsibility for immigration and nationality matters...
and virtually curtailed by the 1914 Aliens Restriction Act.
Y chromosome analysis
- From Genetic analysis section, Sub-Roman BritainSub-Roman BritainSub-Roman Britain is a term derived from an archaeological label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity: the term "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the potsherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a...
Modern genetic evidence, based on analysis of the Y chromosome
Y chromosome
The Y chromosome is one of the two sex-determining chromosomes in most mammals, including humans. In mammals, it contains the gene SRY, which triggers testis development if present. The human Y chromosome is composed of about 60 million base pairs...
s of men currently living in Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, the Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland, Friesland
Friesland
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...
, Denmark, North Germany, Ireland, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and the Basque Country
Basque Country (historical territory)
The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....
, is consistent with the presence of some indigenous component in all British regions. For the sake of this study samples from the Basque Country were considered indigenous (a putative paleolithic Y chromosome). These studies cannot significantly distinguish between Danish, Frisian and German (Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
) Y chromosomes although the Frisians were slightly closer to the indigenous samples. Areas with the highest concentration of Germanic (Danish-Viking/Anglo-Saxon) Y chromosomes occurred in areas associated with the Danelaw
Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
and Danish-Viking settlement, especially York and Norfolk. In these areas, about 60% of Y chromosomes are of Germanic origin.
It should be noted that this indicates an exclusively male component. The extent of Danish/Anglo-Saxon contribution to the entire gene pool of these areas is also dependent on the migration of women. For example, if it is assumed that few or no Germanic women settled in these areas, then the Germanic contribution to the gene pool is halved to 30%, and in turn if greater numbers of women did settle, the contribution could be even higher than 60%.
Current estimates on the initial contribution of Anglo-Saxon migrants range from less than 10,000 to as many as 200,000, although some recent Y-chromosome studies posit a considerably large continental (Germanic) contribution to the current English gene pool (50–100%). A recent study by a team from the Department of Biology at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
based on computer simulations indicate that an apartheid-like social structure in early Anglo-Saxon England provides a plausible explanation for a high-degree of continental male-line ancestry in England.