Just want to say this is one of the most-informative threads I've seen on any genealogy forum. Kudos to all who have contributed.
Bill Cross
----- Original Message -----
From: qvarizona
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 7:10 PM
Subject: Re: The Highland Clearances
Great exchange of information. Thank you all. Must make a comment, though, regarding the Scots who settled "temporarily" in Ulster. (What's a 100 years or so to a group of Presbyterians who didn't believe in mingling with the masses? Because it took another 100 years in Virginia before my own Scotch-Irish ancestors began to mingle, I am what's considered "genealogically deprived--meaning I don't have as many ancestors as most people.)
I don't think the Scots-Irish "bailed out of Ulster" with the founding of Jamestown, as they weren't in Ulster yet. In 1606, James I (of England, VI of Scotland) approved a colony named for him at Jamestown, and three years before this he expressed his hope "that the sea-coasts [of Ulster] might be possessed by Scottish men who would be traders. . . . " It wasn't until Mar 1609, however, that the English Privy Council allowed Scotsmen to participate as "undertakers" in the Ulster Plantation. The number of original applicants was reduced from 77 to 59; five of them noblemen and the rest gentry; all of them Lowlanders. They were in Ulster by Sept. of that year.
Through the periods of the pioneer Scot in Ulster (1609-1634), the Hard Years (1634-1690) Scots came to Ulster in large numbers. During the same period, particularly during the years of 1636 and 1684, there were migrations back to Scotland and a few small groups went to America, so that by 1717 there were already a few Ulstermen in at least half of the American colonies when the Great Migration began and the Scotch-Irish began to "bail out" of Ulster in great numbers. (Source: Leyburn)
James G. Leyburn's The Scotch-Irish, A Social History, is arguably the most insightful history covering the removal of Lowlander Scots from England to the Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland and their successive migrations to America--primarily to PA, then VA, and later the Carolinas et al-- where they are now referred to as the Scotch-Irish. Dr. Leyburn notes that while a few Highlanders may have ended up in Ulster, King James had specifically excluded them from his Plantation of Ulster. He was as concerned about controlling the Highlander as he was the Irish. For this reason, it would seem the Highlanders should not be included in the term, "Scotch-Irish." One of the best accounts of Highlanders in America is Graham's Colonists from Scotland.
Leyburn's book is available at UNC at Chapel Hill for less than $15 I think. http://sunsite.unc.edu/uncpress/
Sorry if I sound like a commercial, but every time I mention Leyburn's book, I get enthused again. I'll probably begin to reread it tonight!
Joanne
A descendant of Beggs, Humes, Gilmore, Paxton, Poage and Rowland---
All early settlers in the Valley of Virginia.
----- Original Message -----
From: Clayton Gullatt
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 10:49 AM
Subject: [VA-ROOTS] The Highland Clearances
I find Paul and Katie are both right.
The Highland Clearances were started about 1762. I believe the Lowland
Clearances started before that. The Highland Chiefs and the English were merciless
in their clearance of small land holders by the thousands.
The Chiefs' men and the English burned the crofts people lived in and threw
them out regardless of the weather and without regard to age or health. It was
a matter of move or die of exposure. The English and the Highland Chiefs
decided it was more profitable to raise sheep than have crofters living on the land
plus it got rid of a lot of trouble makers who liked to fight the English. So
Scotland became a land of more sheep than people. A great many of these
Highlanders came directly to America, Canada, the Caribbean Islands and elsewhere
without going through Northern Ireland.
Also many supporters of the Stuart Kings were regularly expelled directly to
the colonies. See Flora MacDonald and her supporters. Poor Flora always seem
to be on the losing side. Expelled from Scotland to NC for hiding Bonnie Prince
Charlie, she then supported the English during the Revolutionary War and went
to Nova Scotia and finally England.
1739-MacDonald of Sleat and MacLeod of Dunvegan sell selected clan members as
indentured servants to land owners in the Carolinas
1746-Following the Battle of Culloden surviving Highlanders are sent to the
Caribbean as slaves.
Here's a link to more. http://site.yahoo.com/np/highclear.html
The Scots-Irish starting bailing out of Northern Ireland for America with the
founding of Jamestown settling from ME to GA. And who could blame them.
Clay Gullatt Mount Airy
a descendant of MacRae
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