From - History of the Scotch-Irish or Ulster Scot
By Linda Merle
Scotland
Most Ulster Scots were in Scotland before they migrated to Ireland. MOST but not ALL!
Most of them were in areas of Scotland adjacent
to Ireland. The largest migration of Scots to Ireland was in the early
1600's. Due to lack of definitive records, we do not have exact numbers,
but in the early 1600's 120,000 are believed to have migrated -
In the early 1600's Ireland was the primary
destination for migrating Scots because it provided opportunities that
Scotland couldn't offer-- and Scots were not welcome in English
colonies. Protestants were welcome. Catholic Scots, of which
there are many, were not welcomed by the government in Ireland, though
some did come, largely at the behest of Scottish Catholic lords, on
whose lands in Scotland they may have already been living. But the bulk
were Presbyterian lowlanders. They include a group of Protestant
lowlanders that the Scottish government settled in Kintyre.
An unknown number of Scots fled back to Scotland in the 1630's to avoid religious persecution in Scotland.
Ulster
The Ulster Irish spoke of course Irish, which was
simply a different dialect of Gaelic. Scots and Irish could communicate
without difficulty. This isn't surprising since the Scotti, an Irish
tribe, moved from Ireland originally. They also followed similar naming
patterns to the Irish. There were sons of Hughs, Johns, and James
everywhere. So they sometimes ended up with the same or similar surnames
as the incoming Scots.
In 1641, many Ulster Scots were killed by the
Irish in the Rising, but we are not sure how many.
In the 1680's more Scots came to Ireland, fleeing the Killing Times in south western Scotland.
In the late 1690's, another period of enhanced
Scots immigration to Ireland occurred after King William secured his
throne. Apparently, whole new towns and villages sprang up at this time.
There is also evidence of a famine in Scotland which caused increased
migration.
After the Williamite Settlement, there were no
large movements of Scots to Ireland because economic conditions in
Ireland were not good. Sometimes, they fled to Ireland to avoid
religious persecution, though sometimes they fled back to Scotland to
escape it in Ireland. People also moved in both directions at various
times to avoid political problems. People also migrated seasonally to
Scotland to work on farms.
The surnames of the non-British settlers rapidly became anglicized so that they can be difficult to identify by surname alone.
Finally, Irish assimilated into the Ulster Scots
ethnic group. As Irish converted to Protestantism, descendants assumed
their families came from Scotland as they adopted the myths of the
Ulster Scot as their own. However some don't! Surnames were fluid.
Adopting a new ethnic identity was very simple: drop the O. Some Irish
surnames began with Mac as well as Scots. By dropping the Mac, the name
was anglicized and indistinguishable from English surnames.
In the 1600's, there appears to have been an
ethnic fluidity in Ireland. Your "ethnicity" was determined more by your
choice of religion rather than your ancestrage.
Often, it was difficult to tell a Scot from an
Irish because in many cases, they shared a common culture and spoke a
common tongue. They had similar cultures.
In the late Middle Ages, a new phenomena began to
occur that would have a massive impact on Ireland. Irish lords began to
hire Scottish mercenaries to help fight their intertribal and wars with
the English. They were called Galloglass soldiers from the Irish gall
oglaigh or stranger soldiers. They were apparently from the western
Scotland and of mixed Scots and Viking origin. They changed the course
of history in the 1500's. Through one dynastic marriage, an Irish lord
got 10,000 of these soldiers. Some of them settled down in Ireland and
established clans of their own. The McSweenies are one example of a
galloglass clan who assimilated into the Irish. If they stayed Catholic,
they assimilated into the Irish and lost their ethnic identity as
Scots.
As mentioned, the majority of the Ulster Scots
came in the Ulster Plantation period. They came willingly, recruited by
their lairds, many of whom were also acquiring Irish estates. Their
forte was not only farming but also the skilled labor required to create
a colony. They could build homes, raise livestock, blacksmith, and so
on.
Colonial United States
Many other peoples came to the new world before the Ulster Scots. They did not begin coming in large numbers in 1718.New England
The first to emigrate came to Boston. Their
ministers were invited by the Rev. Cotton Mather. In 1781, the first
five ships arrived in Boston harbor. However, they did not receive a
warm welcome since they were very different from the ethnocentric
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Massachusetts was a theocracy aimed at a
homogeneous society.
The Ulster Scots attempted to set up insular,
isolated colonies in which they could be themselves, but the New
Englanders literally tore down their meeting houses. Hence, the Scotch
Irish moved to the frontier in search of places beyond the control of
Massachusetts. As Massachusetts moved in to control them, they moved on.
Hence, they are to be found in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Western
Massachusetts.
They continued to migrate westward to New York
(Newburgh area) and beyond to Pennsylvania. Then they joined other
newcomers in the Great Migration southward and westward.
The first five ships who brought Ulster immigrants are know as the Five Ships.
Southern Colonies
The Scotch-Irish, moving down the Wagon Road from
the north, were joined by countrymen arriving from Ulster. They moved
southward and settled the inland Great Valley of Virginia first, then
moved to the hilly Carolina Piedmont area to the south. In the 1750's
and later, the Scotch-Irish were still arriving via Philadelphia and
then traveling by land up to 700 miles southwest to the Carolinas.
However, they also entered through Charleston though almost none are
known to have entered ports in North Carolina.
In 1761, the colony
offered to pay passage for these poor Protestants but required a
certificate from their church testifying that they were of good
character. These terms expired in 1768 though the Council ruled that
poor Protestants would still be given land free of charge but still were
charged various fees. They, also, had to travel to the land and to
appear in person before the Governor in Council to request land.
Thus the names of grantees appear in the Council records.
Families from Ulster and elsewhere (Pennsylvania,
Scotland) began to flood in. In the 1750s, while still more came in the
1760s and even after the bounties expired. They continued to come after
the Revolution. Note that, some Catholics also came from Ireland,
including a few that were granted land though their religion was known.
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