Frigate Symmetry

Mr Brown first parson in the colony

Roberson House in Santa Catalina

The Scottish colony in Santa Catalina, Argentina

By prof. Haydee Epifanio and Sociology Grad. Eduardo Marcet
This text has been translated from Spanish into English for a special request ;this translation is fully dedicated to the Frew family .I hope you would enjoy this piece of history .
Ana Laura Marcet.

INTRODUCTION
In the early 1820s, the province of Buenos Aires extends its borders towards the virgin lands at the south-west (the city of Tandil is founded in 1823). Thus, the province’s extension is doubled, leaving the State a vast territory, which would be given to livestock farmers under a system called emphyteusis.
In order to populate these lands and make them yield, it was necessary to increase an already insufficient labor force, especially for agricultural work. Thus several different plans are conceived in order to attract European settlers, who should be industrious, and devote themselves to agricultural and craftsmanship labors. And the greater the profit from these activities became, the more the value of these public lands would increase, guaranteeing more solvency, which would back the loans the Government planned to have.
There was also the intention to foster cultural, religious, and even social change. Bernardino Rivadavia (first Argentine president) stated that “we should be as liberal and generous as we can concerning whatever related to foster and attract European immigration. An increase in population is not only the State’s first and most important necessity after freedom, but the most efficient, and maybe the only, means of destroying the degrading Spanish customs and the terrible separation into castes; and of creating an homogenous, industrious and moral population, the only solid foundation for equality, freedom and, as a result, for a Nation’s prosperity.
Thus Rivadavia sent an immigration bill to Congress, sanctioned as law on August 24th 1824.
Many years later, after tireless negotiations, he manages to set forth several projects, among which the most significant are those carried out by J. T. Barber Beaumont and the Santa Catalina colony fostered by the Robertson brothers.
Concerning Beaumont’s colonization attempts, they run into several obstacles that made them fail. The immigrants did not even manage to organize as a colony, as they were driven out of the Province of Entre Ríos and the city of San Pedro (Province of Buenos Aires), where they intended to settle as the Government provided no support to carry these projects out.
Regarding the project by the Robertson brothers, Rivadavia – then the Home Secretary under Martín Rodríguez as governor of Buenos Aires – signed a decree accepting the brothers’ proposals.
It is worth noting in this contract with Rivadavia that the Robertsons already glimpsed some of the difficulties which would affect this Scottish colony when they insisted in the utmost need of state support.
Another petition Rivadavia agrees to is the freedom to practice the Protestant creed. It should be taken into account that this was a precedent for religious tolerance granted in 1825 as a part of a treaty with Great Britain.

II – THE COLONISTS’ JOURNEY FROM SCOTLAND TO BUENOS AIRES

To transport the colonists, John Parish Robertson fit out a ship, the frigate The Symmetry of Scarboro, under the command of Cp. W. Cochrane, who had previously travelled with him in his journey from the River Plate. Most colonists came from the Southwestern Scottish Lowlands.
On May 22nd 1825, the shipped out in Port Leith, near Edinburgh, and arrived at Buenos Aires on August 11th after a 78-day journey.
The utmost harmony prevailed during the trip. The captain and all his officers worked to reduce every setback originating from a long sea-journey in every conceivable way, which turned the trip into a pleasant and enjoyable voyage.
The colonists remained in the city only for a few days. Then they moved to the colony in caravans, safely reaching their destination in Santa Catalina, where they stayed in temporary lodgings until they could be taken to their own places.

III – THE COLONISTS’ SETTLEMENT IN THE FARMHOUSES LOCATED IN SANTA CATALINA, MONTES GRANDES AND LAGUNA.

Among the British merchants that travelled to these lands the brothers John and William Parish Robertson are worth mentioning.
After setting up businesses in Paraguay and Corrientes, they moved to Buenos Aires in 1816. John goes into a partnership with Thomas Fair and returns to England in a rented ship loaded with product from Corrientes and Paraguay. After coming and going several times, he settles in Liverpool. Meanwhile, his brother returned to Corrientes in 1817, where he remained stockpiling leather with the help of Pedro Campbell.
Back in Buenos Aires, William frequently visits the social circles. Engaged to one of Mackinlay’s daughters, he traveled to England to visit his family, meeting his brother. They came back together to the River Plate in August 1820 in loaded ships headed to Valparaiso. Even though John stopped first in Buenos Aires, he then went to the neighboring country also extending his business to Peru.
William, already married, manages a vast commercial venture in Buenos Aires, extending over the coast area and some cities in Chile and Peru, where his brother was travelling. He is also a shareholder of the Banco de Descuentos (Discounts Bank).
In 1824, John returned to Buenos Aires on his way to England, where he is appointed by Governor Las Heras alongside Félix Castro to negotiate a loan with London, which is finally granted by the Baring House.
The Robertson brothers maintained a regular correspondence with their grandfather, John Parish of Bath – center of their commercial relationship with Britain – who “used to provide political information to the Foreign Office, as well as to Lord Liverpool”.
It was mentioned above that Rivadavia had signed a contract with Robertson in 1824, but a year later the resources necessary to this enterprise had not arrived and the lands promised, located to the south of the Buenos Aires province, were exposed to the Indians’ attack, and the contract was therefore rejected by the investors so as not to expose the colonists to certain disaster.
Thus the Robertsons, counting with the support of eight Scottish families of farmers who could afford the journey, tools and maintenance for some time, even though they had to pay for everything else, bought three farmhouses located 17 miles away from Buenos Aires, which belonged to several landowners and extending over 16,000 acres.
The Montes Grandes farmhouse had been sold by Francisco Ramos Mejía to Miguel Estanislao Soler in 1822. It was formed by two sorts of ranches, each measuring 300 varas (852.3 ft) per 9,000 varas (25,569 ft) in length, forming as one.
From this sale 2841 feet (1,000 varas) were excluded from the sector starting from the Matanza stream, reaching to the post by its tenant García. In 1824, Soler sells this land to Thomas Whitfield and Jorge MacFarlane, who in turn sold it to Gibson the following year, and Gibson to the Robertsons.
The small ranch of Santa Catalina, after being owned by several people, belonged to Manuel Arrotea, who sold part of it to Félix Castro in 1825, and Castro to William Parish Robertson.
As regard La Laguna farm, it had been acquired in 1812 by Diego Barton, who later sells it to the Robertsons.
The colonists settle in these three farmhouses. The initial group was formed by 220 people, 78 of which were children. Among the adult population there were eight farmers, one architect, a doctor, three scribes, several craftsmen, pawn, servants, etc.
As they arrived in August, an unfavorable time for house building, the families were distributed within half a dozen huts in deplorable conditions, already built in Santa Catalina, until the actual houses could be built.
Each of the colonists was given an extension of land enough for agriculture, dairy work and foraging.
The bricks and most adobe used in construction were manufactured within the Colony itself. The farmers’ houses, for six or seven rooms large each (Scottish style), built according to Architect Adams’ instructions, were comfortable and solid. Each held a beautiful, uninterrupted view over the surrounding pampa.
In Sta. Catalina farm, the Robertsons’ home, a sector of the land was reserved for future settlements, and a huge building was set up, where the mechanic’s, carpenter’s and blacksmith’s workshops were set. An inn and a huge mill were also built. To clean up the abounding thistle, Mr. Tweedle, the colony’s main gardener, invented an ingenious machine.
The colonists introduced in Sta. Catalina the tala fences (Celtis Tala, a thorny plant no animal can destroy), which were cheaper to build than the more costly and insecure ditches, previously used.
In 1828 the Robertsons send the bill to the Government with all the expenses they had to incur during the four years since the settlement contract was signed: £60,000 including the transportation of colonists and the purchase of tools, land, housing, fences, etc.
Thus the colonists did not own the land but were tenants to the Robertsons.

IV – THE COLONY’S AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH BUENOS AIRES.

Shortly after the settlement, more people moved to the colony, mostly from the Beaumont Association and other companies who had deceived people who wanted to emigrate and, upon landing, found themselves isolated and unprotected. Others were British subjects who had arrived to Argentina before 1825, especially Scots and mostly Protestants who moved into the city because of their similar customs, language and religious practice.
The uncultivated fields soon became gardens, estates, farms and woods, with thousands of both fruit and forest trees being planted.
The colony provided Buenos Aires city with agricultural products, as well as butter (of excellent quality and sold in one-pound bars) and cheese.
The amount of corn harvested kept the price for this cereal low when, in other products, the price went up three or four times their original value.
These colonists can also be credited with spreading the domestication of cattle and sheep.
Since John Parish Robertson was in Britain when the colonists were hired, he himself selected people of verifiable aptitude and probity, making industrious labor prevalent in the Colony, as the colonists kept the moderation and moral customs acquired in their home country. They did not only live in harmony with each other but also with their Argentine neighbors.
According to the report sent by Robertson to the Government in 1828, the Colony’s population amounted to 514 people, 326 of which were Scots and the rest, Argentinians.
The same report stated that the Colony contained 31 brick houses with 145 rooms and 47 huts with 70 rooms.
As regards agriculture, it stated there were 1,040 acres cultivated with peach trees and other plants; 2,148 cultivated and fences acres and 12,812 acres with pastures.
Mostly corn was cultivates, the starch of which was of excellent quality and was hard to distinguish from wheat’s.
As regards cattle, there were 2,757 dairy cows and domesticated oxen, and 990 Pampa and English sheep in the Colony.

V. CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN CHAPEL AND ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST SHEPHERD.

As no decision had been made regarding religious practice, the colonists occasionally attended American or British churches in Buenos Aires, served by Mr. Parvin and Mr. Armstrong respectively, or these two travelled to the Colony.
The colonists soon became aware they needed a church and a school. Dr. Thomas Chalmers was instructed to find someone fit to be their shepherd and teacher. Mr. William Brown, from Fifeshire, was selected; having taken his studies in the University of St. Andrew (Aberdeen), was ordained by the Presbyter of Glasgow. He came to Argentina by the end of 1826 and was 26 years old when he arrived.
Meanwhile, under Architect Adams’s direction, a nice Scottish chapel was built in La Laguna farm.
The young could therefore have the benefits of education and religious services were held regularly.
The Colony was surrounded by the Argentine population. Some of them, attracted by the new practice, sometimes gathered around the church and kept a respectful silence. Mr. Robertson used to gather them on Sunday morning, before the public service, to read and explain them the Scripture in Spanish.
The Scottish Presbyterians in Buenos Aires city also wished to have their own church and shepherd. Before they could become a reality, Mr. Brown held services every other Sunday at his place at 64 México St. (where he had moved after the Argentinian Civil War of the 1820s), alternating with the services for the Colony.

VI. THE WAR WITH BRAZIL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR THE COLONY

As seen above, the Colony initially prospered. But despite that, several factors combined and made it fail. One of them was probably not giving the tenants ownership of the land. They could only count with their own production to pay the lease to the Robertsons and these in turn depended on their timely payment in order to fulfill their obligations.
The great draught in the late 1820s made the farmers delay their payments and, if that was not enough, devaluation made matters worse. The Robertson also suffered a great loss as international traders, due to the blockade to the Port of Buenos Aires during the war with Brazil and the crisis brought on by the possibility of peace.
President Rivadavia’s resignation in 1827 was the last straw that swept away their hopes to receive any help from the State, ruining them.
The civil war which devastated the Buenos Aires province as a consequence of the Unitarian coup d’état not only affected the colonists’ activities, but also their lives: some moved to the city, while others spread on the countryside—Cañuelas, Ranchos, Monte, Quilmes, Chascomús, etc.
The Colony also witnessed the fight between Federals and Unitarians. Lavalle camps in Los Tapiales, Altoaguirre (today Mercado Central), while Rosas did the same at his Del Pino Estate in Cañuelas. On April 16th 1829, both forces meet near Sta. Catalina. Let us imagine the scene, where both armies are fully equipped with horses and they come and go all the time…
The confiscation and the frightening presence of the gaucho cavalry, who camped in the Presbyterian chapel, were the final straw that destroyed the Scottish colony. Only a few houses stood standing, as even the church disappeared in the town’s ruins, and only a few farmers stayed.
The Colony’s failure, where the Robertsons had invested most of their patrimony forced them to sell their lands: the Sta. Catalina farm was sold to Guillermo Tayleur while Montes Grandes and La Laguna to Tomás Fair. John had returned to Britain in 1830 while William did so in 1834.
However, most immigrants did not have the same fate as the Robertsons. These Scots settled in Argentina, where many of them prospered, either as innovating shepherds or as skilled craftsmen. Their industry contributed to the development and progress of their adopted country where they were always treated with hospitality and the utmost respect for their customs and beliefs.

VII – BIBLIOGRAPHY

De Paula, Alberto S. J. : “El arquitecto Richard Adams y la colonia escocesa de Santa Catalina”, in Anales del Instituto de Arte Americano y Estética. University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Buenos Aires, 1968.
“La estancia de Santa Catalina en Lomas de Zamora” in Revista de la Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, #2, 1983.
De Paula, Alberto S. J. & R. Gutiérrez: Lomas de Zamora desde el siglo XVI hasta la creación del partido (1861). Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, La Plata, 1969.
Dodds, James, Records of the Scottish settlers in the River Plate and their churches, 1897.
Drysdale, J. Monteith, A hundred years in Buenos Aires: St. Andrew’s Scots church (1829-1929). 1939.
Epifanio, Haydée & Eduardo Marcet, “Los colonos escoceses en Monte Grande (1825-1835)” Magazine El Tala, pub. by Junta de Estudios Históricos de Esteban Echeverría, #3 & 4, Monte Grande, 1988.
Merchant, R.M. et al., One hundred years of Christian faith and witness – An historical record of the Scotch Presbyterian Church – Chascomús (1857-1957). 1957
Translation from Spanish :Gustavo D Queipo- English Translator Lenguas Vivas Buenos Aires