Tweet
For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
I found this video where the Scottish Government is meeting in Aberdeen and they recorded the meeting. See
I might add the video takes around 4 minutes before it starts or at least it did when I watched it.
Saltire Award to be presented to Currie at Scottish Heritage Weekend
Laurinburg, NC - The Saltire Award will be awarded to Robert Currie, of New Jersey, at the Scottish Heritage Awards Banquet held on Friday evening, March 20, at St. Andrews University. The public is cordially invited to attend.
The award is given by the Scottish Heritage Center at St. Andrews University to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the preservation and interpretation of Scottish history and culture here in the United States.
Currie is descended from Neil Currie, a crofter who was “cleared” from the Island of Arran in 1828.
“True to his Scottish heritage, Robert Currie has become an instrumental leader in preserving and perpetuating interest in not only his own ancestry but the shared legacy of all Scottish-Americans,” said Scottish Heritage Center Director Bill Caudill.
Currie currently serves as President of the Clan Currie Society worldwide. The Clan Currie, known in Gaelic as “MacMhuirich,” served for 800 years as the bards to the Lords of the Isles – preserving the epic poetry, songs, historical stories and lore of the major families of the Western highlands and islands of Scotland.
Originally formed in 1959 in Glasgow, Scotland, Currie re-established the Clan Currie Society in 1991 as an international non-profit Scottish historical and cultural society. Under his leadership, the Society provides a number of Scottish cultural programs around the world. Programs include the “Pipes of Christmas” fundraising concert held each holiday season in New York, the National Tartan Day program at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, as well as the annual MacMhuirich Academic Symposium. The Society also sponsors the U.S. National Scottish Harp Championship as well as a prize for Gaelic literature at the Royal National Mod held annually in Scotland.
Currie was also instrumental in the design of the “Ellis Island Tartan” – a tartan intended for the descendants of all immigrants who came through Ellis Island in New York City regardless of their ethnic origins. In 2004 he completed a documentary film on Scottish culture narrated by Academy Award winning actor Cliff Robertson. In 2013 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts from Napier University in Edinburgh for his commitment to promote Scottish heritage around the world.
Currie is especially anxious to recruit new members for the Clan Currie Society. As the name Currie is one which is still found prominently in this area he is anxious to meet as many descendants of that name in the Carolinas as possible.
“We share common ancestry as well as a pride in our name, and I would very much like to meet and hopefully involve as many of the Currie name in our organization as possible,” he said.
The Clan Currie Society is present at a number of Scottish gatherings in the USA, and provides scholarship support and financial assistance to students attending a variety of Scottish arts institutions and organizations such as the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the National Piping Center, Edinburgh Napier University, Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, and the Gaelic College of Arts in Nova Scotia. The Society also funds a research prize at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic medium university, on the Island of Skye.
Professionally, Currie holds a BS degree in Marketing and a MA degree in Corporate and Organizational Communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University. For over 30 years he has held senior positions with leading industrial chemical and building materials manufacturers. In 2005 he was named “Communicator of the Year” by the International Association of Business Communicators. He and his wife Suzanne live in New Jersey and have two adult daughters, Claire and Hilary.
The Scottish Heritage Awards Banquet is one of the events of the Scottish Heritage Weekend at St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina. For registration information for the Awards Banquet, as well as the Charles Bascombe Shaw Memorial Scottish Heritage Symposium, please visit: www.sapc.edu/shc/images/2015SHBrochure.pdf Pre-registration is required for all events. For questions or further information, phone the Scottish Heritage Center at (910)277-5236 or email rsvp@sa.edu.
About St. Andrews University
At St. Andrews University, a branch of Webber International University, the focus is on classroom teaching, active and collaborative learning, academic advising, enriching experiences, and student-faculty interaction. Both traditional residential students and adult learners have a range of undergraduate liberal arts and sciences majors and the Master of Business Administration degree available to them in a curriculum that is practical in its application and global in its scope. Student success is promoted through academic support programs, and career/job placement services. Generally, 35 states and 8 foreign countries are represented in the diverse student body. There are several academic honor societies, an honors program, an award-winning pipe band, a university press, and both interdisciplinary and international study opportunities.
With a Major in Therapeutic Horsemanship and a Minor in Equine Business Management, the well-known equestrian program is housed in a modern 300-acre facility. And its highly competitive Dressage, Hunt Seat, and Western teams have won many regional and national championships. NAIA men’s and women’s teams compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, and track and field; along with men’s baseball and wrestling, and women’s softball and volleyball. Lacrosse competes in the Southeastern Lacrosse Conference, and in both the Men’s and Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Associations.
Tons of reading and viewing pleasure for you this week and especially on Canada for which see more below.
Electric Canadian
Official Bird of Canada
We don't have an Official Bird of Canada but it is hoped one will be chosen in 2017 and the campaign is on to find one. We have done a profile of the Gray Jay which was called the Canadian Jay and an effort is under way to get the name back. A great little bird and we've done a profile on it which you can read at:http://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/grayjay.htm
Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness
I came across this 6 video set on YouTube and not only did I enjoy it very much indeed but it then led me to do profiles on 3 people that did a great job of work for Canada which he profiled in the videos.
This set of videos can be viewed at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...wilderness.htm
The three profiles I did as a result include...
David Thompson
He contributed most to the mapping of the west. "IT gives me a great deal of pleasure to have the opportunity of submitting a few of the facts on which I venture to claim that David Thompson, of whose achievements but little note has been taken. was the greatest land geographer that the British race has produced."
The profile on him includes 2 videos and you can read and watch this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...pson_david.htm
Dr John Rae
He completed the discovery of the North West Passage.
Dr. Rae published but one book, the “Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847.” His other expeditions are described in brief reports addressed to the Royal Geographical Society, and he is the author of papers on the Eskimo, on the navigation of Hudson’s Bay, and on Polar exploration; but his written contributions, though they testify to his thoroughness and accuracy and to his rare qualifications, bear no proportion to the magnitude and the solidity of his work. He wrote with simplicity and force, but he was more concerned to do things worthy of record than to record them. He had the gifts of the born explorer, the habit of exact observation, courage and fertility of resource, untiring energy, activity and strength; and with these a firmness and generosity of character that won the respect and the affection of men.
I found his book and a YouTube video of a lecture given on him which you can see at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/john_rae.htm
Samuel Hearne
He opened up the North West.
TO BE a successful explorer one needs to possess exceptional bodily stamina, dogged courage, a dream which is more than merely a duty. There must also exist a terra incognita, together with the needs and the means for its discovery. Because all these conditions were present at the lonely trading post of Prince of Wales Fort on the north-west coast of Hudson Bay in the year 1769, a young Englishman of twenty-four, by name Samuel Hearne, was lifted from the obscurity of his fellows to a fame that will endure as long as' the annals of Canada’s northern development.
Didn't find a specific video about him but did find a more general video in which he is included and also a copy of his book, "A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean" and a brief biography of him which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/hearne.htm
Canada House in London reopened today by Queen Elizabeth
Queen gets new keys similar to set presented to grandfather King George V in 1925.
Queen Elizabeth has officially reopened Canada's newly refurbished high commission in London, after years of renovation and a consolidation of offices from other buildings.
The Queen arrived at Canada House on Trafalgar Square with Prince Philip on Thursday morning.
She toured the new facilities and was presented with a set of keys to the building — a similar set to the one presented to her grandfather, King George V, when he opened the building in 1925.
You can read more about this and see a video at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canada-...beth-1.2962948
Extreme Weather Alert
Issued at 10:48 a.m. EST Thursday 19 February 2015
As various parts of Canada and the USA and for that matter Scotland are seeing some very cold weather I thought I'd copy you into this local alert I received today at my home in Chatham. I'm also told that February 2015 is now already recognised as the coldest month ever in Canadian history.
Summary
Bitterly cold arctic air has once again returned to Southern Ontario. Strong and gusty northwest winds will combine with the frigid temperatures to produce extremely cold wind chill values of minus 30 to minus 35 today through Friday morning. People outdoors should exercise caution and dress appropriately as frostbite on exposed skin is possible in as little as 10 minutes. Wind chills will slowly improve by Friday afternoon as temperatures moderate somewhat.
Details
Watch for cold related symptoms and complaints which include: - Respiratory: shortness of breath, wheezing and cough - Cardiovascular: chest pain and arrhythmias - Circulation: colour change of finger and toes, pain, numbness and tickling sensation in extremities - Muscle: pain, stiffness, swelling, restricted movement, weakness - Skin: itching, pale. If you experience these symptoms when exposed to the cold, move indoors and begin warming. Protect yourself. - On sunny days wear sun glasses, lip balm and sunscreen to protect your skin from UV and keep it moisturized to help prevent windburn. - Wear a face mask and goggles if you are participating in winter activities such as skiing, snowmobiling and skating to protect your face from frostbite and windburn. - Keep moving (especially your hands and feet) to keep your blood flowing and maintain your body heat. - Drink enough fluids, but avoid very cold drinks and consume warm meals regularly. Extreme cold warnings are issued when very cold temperatures or wind chill creates an elevated risk to health such as frost bite and hypothermia. Environment Canada meteorologists will update alerts as required, so stay tuned to your local media or Weatheradio.
CHAP Program
I have today signed up for this program which is local to me but I understand similar services are available in other parts of Canada. I intend to profile this service which is for people 60 and over as I get to learn more about it. I posted up a message on this program in our community where you can learn a little more and watch a video at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/show...CHAP-for-short
Electric Scotland
Christopher North, A Memoir of John Wilson
By His Daughter Mrs Gordon (1863).
We have now added the two sets of books on his writings and so now completes this account of him and his work.
You can read all this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/north/
George Douglas, Eighth Duke of Argyll K.G., K.T. (1823 - 1900)
Autobiography and Memoirs edited by the Dowager Duchess of Argyll with Portraits and Illustrations in two volumes.
I'm sorry to say that I discovered I'd made an error on the links to the chapters of this book which I've now corrected. As no-one told me about this I can only assume that you aren't reading it but I can assure you it is an excellent read.
You can read this book as I get it up at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../argyllndx.htm
Enigma Machine
Added puzzle 98 which you can get to at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma098.htm
Memoir of the Rev. Wm. C. Burns, M.A.
A new book we're starting.
The materials from which the narrative has been drawn are—1st, My own personal recollections and those of other intimate friends; 2d, Private letters addressed chiefly to members of his own family; and 3d, Copious journals, extending over the whole period of his home ministry, and continued, though in a briefer and more fragmentary manner, during the early years of his residence in China. From these last I have quoted very largely, but not more so I believe than those who are really interested in his work would wish me to have done. Indeed, the difficulty often was merely to extract from a document, which many readers doubtless would have wished to possess entire.
To the many friends to whom I have been indebted for valuable materials, I have made acknowledgment in the course of the work at the places where their communications have been used; but I would here specially mention the names of the late Rev. Dr. Burns, of Toronto, who contributed the tenth chapter; the Rev. Duncan M‘Gregor, M.A., of Dundee, and the Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick, of Dublin, who furnished the graphic sketches of my Brother’s labours in Edinburgh and Dublin; and the Rev. Carstairs Douglas, M.A., of Amoy, to whose loving and painstaking endeavours I am indebted for almost all the precious memorials from China which enrich the closing chapters.
My single aim has been to present a true and life-like picture of him whose footsteps I had undertaken to trace; and that thus being dead he may yet speak, just as he spoke while he was with us, to the praise of that divine grace which he so greatly magnified, and by which alone, as he so profoundly felt, he was what he was.
Free Church College, Glasgow, December 6th, 1869.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...urns/index.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got up Section 2 of the March 2015 edition which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft/
Scottish Street Poetry
After the story last week John Henderson sent in a contribution which I've added to the foot of Page 5 at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...t/spoetry5.htm
Harry Lauder
Got in a wee medley of his songs which you can listen to at the foot of his page. Thanks to John Henderson for sending this in to us.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...uder_harry.htm
The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedea
The Original, Antiquated, and Natural Curiosities of the South of Scotland.
Added this to our pdf books page as item 108 which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/index.htm
Sketches of the Olden Times in Perthshire
By Robert Scott Fittis (1878).
Added this book to the foot of our Perth page at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/perth
Poetry by John Henderson
John has sent in a number of poems which we've added to the foot of his page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
The poems include...
The Loch Ness Monster Has His Say!
Cockcrow
Grasp Opportunies
A Supper For All Seasons
Clegs
The St Clair Papers
Added this two volume publication to our General Arthur St Clair page. Recent research is suggesting this person is much more important to American history than anyone had thought so the more information we can get about him the better we'll recognise his importance.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/stclair/
The Story of the Highland Regiments
By Frederick Watson (1915)
We already have a ton of information on Scottish Regiments but in many ways this book is an awesome introduction to our Highland Regiments.
You can download this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...dregiments.pdf
The Life and Campaigns of Major-General J. E. B. Stuart
Commander of the Cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia by H. D. McClellan, A.M. Late Major, Assistant Adjutant-General, and Chief of Staff of the Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia (1995) (pdf)
This is adding more information to the contribution of the Scots-Irish to America. You can read this book at
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ish/stuart.pdf
Windham, New Hampshire
A Scots-Irish Settlement
I came across a Supplement issue telling of this Scots-Irish settlement in this area and on further investigation I found two other books by the same author and so thought I'd make all three available for you to read. The Supplement that I first read starts with a good description of the Scots-Irish race.
You can read these books at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/nh/
THE STORY
As I've been working recently on the Scots-Irish I thought I'd bring you this story which was an article sent to us by the author Raymond Campbell Paterson.
The Scots-Irish: The Thirteenth Tribe
“A man with God is always in the majority”
John Knox
“I love Highlanders, and I love Lowlanders, but when I come to that branch of our race that has been grafted on to the Ulster stem I take off my hat in veneration and awe”
Lord Rosebery
Let us begin by asking a simple question-who are the Scots-Irish? Simple questions very rarely have simple answers, and the answer to this one is more complex than most. Much depends, moreover, on where in the world it is posed. In Britain the term is virtually unknown, and most people would assume that it meant some kind of hybridisation between the Irish and the Scots. Only the Protestant communities of Northern Ireland would generally recognise what is meant, though very few would now accept the designation for themselves, preferring to be described as British or Ulstermen. Only in North America, where the term was invented, would one be likely to encounter an immediate recognition; but even here there are problems. Many of the descendents of the original Scots-Irish settlers would happily wear kilts and tartan on commemorative days, though this would have been a shock to their ancestors, who took particular trouble to distance themselves from all things Celtic and Gaelic. The task of this article is to attempt what is always a dangerous endeavour: the separation of myth and reality, and thus uncover the roots of one of the most remarkable branches of the Scottish-and Irish-race.
The story begins with an ending. In March 1603, the same month that James VI of Scotland began James I of England and Ireland, the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, chiefs of the O’Neills and the O’Donnells, the leading families of the ancient province of Ulster, surrender to the English. Thus concluded the Nine Years War, the latest in a long line of struggles to arrest the steady expansion of English power in Ireland. It was in Ulster that Celtic Ireland had made its last stand against a foreign invader, all the more unwelcome because he now came garbed in a cloak of militant Protestantism, a direct challenge to an ancient Catholic tradition. It had been a particularly bitter struggle, and Ulster had been devastated. The northeastern counties of Antrim and Down, within sight of the coast of Scotland, are described by contemporary writers as ‘all waste’.
For James the conclusion of the Nine Years War came as a welcome addition to his new glories; it also presented him with a problem and an opportunity. As a man and a king he was no more sympathetic to Gaelic traditions and culture than his Tudor predecessors on the English throne. While still King of Scots he had been preoccupied with the problems posed by his own minorities in the Highlands and Islands, whom he once described as ‘utterly barbarous.’ In the 1590s he had even sponsored a scheme of internal colonisation or plantation, handing over the island of Lewis to a party of Lowland adventurers. These men were to bring civilisation and commerce to the western Isles, in a project that allowed for the wholesale extermination of the local Gaelic clans. Faced with the widespread hostility of the Highland communities, the Lewis plantation was a costly failure: the idea, however, remained fixed in the royal mind.
In Ulster, unlike the Scottish Highlands, the local people had been severely demoralised. Plantation was not a new idea in Ireland, but past schemes had achieved very little. To begin with James showed little interest in a fresh project but for a series of unusual opportunities. The first involved two rather shady Lowland opportunists, the kind of men all too attractive to the enterprising king. James Hamilton was a university don and a spy; and Sir Hugh Montgomery, his partner, was an Ayrshire laird. Together they helped Conn O’Neill, an Irish chieftain, escape from Carrickfergus Castle, where he had been imprisoned for rioting, and offered to obtain a royal pardon for him in return for a share of his substantial estates in Antrim and Down. James, originally hostile to the proposal, became the fourth partner in the enterprise, no doubt amused by the audacity of Hamilton and Montgomery. Both men proposed to bring over large parties of Scots Lowlanders to replenish the depopulated areas, thus reviving the hitherto discredited idea of plantation. James now had a way of driving a Lowland, Protestant and English-speaking wedge into the heart of a Gaelic and Catholic world. In granting Hamilton the territory of Upper Clandeboy and Great Ardes, James emphasised the intention “…of inhabiting the same, being now depopulated and wasted, with English and Scottish men; and the carrying of men, cattle, corn and all other commodities from England and Scotland into the said territories. Also, to have liberty to alien [grant] to any English or Scottish men, or of English and Scottish name and blood, and not to have the mere Irish.”
Ireland was formally an English possession, so it was important to emphasise English as well as Scottish settlement, though for reasons of geography and temperament, the new plantation was almost exclusively Scottish, as James himself clearly recognised it would be: ‘The Scots are a middle temper, between the English tender breeding and the Irish rude breeding and are a great deal more likely to adventure to plant Ulster than the English.’
Taking the lead of Montgomery and Hamilton, land hungry Scots crossed the North Channel in ever increasing numbers. What they found would have daunted all but the hardiest spirits: ‘…parishes were now more wasted than America (when the Spanish landed there)…for in all those three parishes [Glenabbey, Donaghdee and Newtonards] thirty cabins could not be found, nor any stone walls, but ruined roofless churches, and a few vaults at Grey Abbey, and a stump of an old castle in Newton, in each of which some gentlemen sheltered themselves at their first coming over.’ But the land was good and largely unfarmed, as the native Irish economy had been pastoral rather than arable. Settlers were also encouraged by the promise of long leases, far better than the unfavourable terms in their native Scotland, where short leases acted as a disincentive to good husbandry and improvements. Plantation, the Scots were soon to show, could be made to work, especially when it was supported by adequate military force.
A second and more significant opportunity came in September 1607. Although Hugh O’Neil, Earl of Tyrone, and Hugh O’Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnel, had made their peace with the government some years before, they had been subject to almost continual harassment by the Dublin authorities. Fearing for their safety, the two chiefs left for the continent, never to return, an episode famous in Irish history as ‘The Flight of the Earls.’ James now had huge territories in central and western Ulster: Hamilton and Montgomery’s free enterprise scheme was supplemented by the Plantation of Ulster. Land was granted to men known as ‘undertakers’, who pledged themselves to bring over settlers from England and Scotland; only the more inferior lands were to be allotted to the native Irish. This time more English settlers began to make an appearance, though they continued to be numerically weaker than their Scottish cousins. This is hardly surprising: England was richer and far more settled than Scotland, and Ireland remained a dangerous frontier. Native Irish chieftains, deeply resentful of their changing circumstances, took to the wilds as outlaws, and as ‘woodkernes’ represented a real threat to the more isolated settlers, many of whom were wiped out in midnight raids. The descendants of the Scots migrants were later to face a similar threat on the American frontier. While the Irish raiders were tough, the Scots were even tougher. Many of the early migrants came from the Scottish borders, men with names like Armstrong, Bell and Elliot, where they had been hardened in an age-old struggle with the English.
Despite the woodkerns-and the wolves-the Plantation survived and prospered. In 1634 Sir William Brereton, in a journey through Ayrshire noted that: ‘Above the thousand persons have, within the last two years past, left the country wherein they lived…and are gone for Ireland. They have come by one hundred in company through the town, and three hundred have gone on hence together, shipped for Ireland at one tide…” By 1640 it is estimated that as many as 100,000 Scots had settled in Ulster compared with some 20,000 migrants from England.
As well as new modes of farming the Scots brought a strict Calvinist doctrine, which by the late 1630s was taking a firmly Presbyterian shape, as opposed to the episcopacy favoured by the king. Later in the century an Anglican opponent of the puritans detailed the impact of Scottish Presbyterianism on Ulster:
“Hereupon followed the plantation of Ulster, first undertaken by the city of London, who fortified Coleraine and built Londonderry, and purchased many thousand acres of land in the parts adjoining. But it was carried on more vigorously, as most unfortunately withal, by some adventurers of the Scottish nation who poured themselves into this country as the richer soil; and, though they were sufficiently industrious in improving their own fortunes there, and setting up preaching in all churches wheresoever they fixed, yet whether it happened for the better or the worse, the event hath showed. For they brought with them hither such a stock of Puritanism, such as contempt of bishops, such a neglect of the public liturgy, and other divine offices of this church, that there was nothing less to be found amongst them than the government and forms of worship established in the church of England.”
Charles I, James son and successor, in attempting to force Scotland to accept the English forms of worship, took a path that led directly to the Civil Wars. This had a profound effect on the Protestant settlers in Ulster. Although the Scots had originally been made welcome by the English Lord Deputy in Dublin, their enthusiasm for Presbyterianism made them politically suspect. Confronted by official hostility they faced an even greater threat in 1641 when the native Irish rose in revolt, venting years of frustration on the bewildered and badly frightened settlers.
The colony survived, though it entered a prolonged period of stagnation and crisis, which only really came to an end with the defeat of the Catholic Jacobites in the war of 1689-1691. During the wars the Ulster Scots had played a full part, assisting, amongst other things, in the famous siege of Londonderry. Among their rewards they could expect, at the very least, a measure of religious toleration: after all, the revolution settlement had at last conceded the right of Scotland to a Presbyterian church after years of Stewart persecution. But the Ulster Presbyterians were in caught in a paradox: though the reign of William of Orange brought a measure of calm, they were still subject to a religious establishment in Dublin, which remained strictly Anglican in outlook. During the reign of Queen Anne the Presbyterians, though part of the victorious Protestant party, were to find themselves just as outcast as their despised Catholic neighbours.
The successive wars had the effect of once again depopulating the fields of Ulster: many of the original settlers had been killed or had returned to Scotland for their own safety. An appeal was made for fresh settlers, with twenty-year farm leases being held out as bait. Thus began the last great wave of Scots migration to Ulster. In the decade up to 1700 an estimated 50,000 people made the crossing. Politically this last wave was among the most significant, especially for the future of America and the creation of that unique outlook that was in time to be known as Scots-Irish.
By 1707, the year that the Scottish parliament merged with its English cousin, the Protestant colony of Ulster was a hundred years old. The differences that had existed between the original settlers, whither Scots or English, had largely ceased to exist. It is now possible to discover a distinct Protestant Ulster identity, recognisably unique and distinct from the sources of origin. With the absence of outmoded feudalism, still present in Scotland, looser kinship ties, and a freer labour market the Ulster Protestants began to develop in an unanticipated direction. If anything religion provided the common bond, rather than race, uniting dissenters of differing faiths, though it is also true to say that the Scots settlers had acquired a cultural domination over their English counterparts. Though loyal to the crown, they were a people who, through decades of adversity, had become self reliant, and never quite lost the feeling that they were surrounded by a hostile world: ‘They learned from hard experience’, one commentator noted ‘that one must fight for what he has; that turning the other cheek does not guarantee property rights; in short, that might is right, at least in the matter of life and land ownership.’ In the early years of the eighteenth century they found themselves once again under attack, though this time from a totally unexpected direction.
In 1704 the government of Queen Anne, dominated by the Anglican High Church party, passed an act that had a direct bearing on the Ulster Scots. All office holders were obliged to take communion in the Established Church, a measure which at a single stroke virtually wiped out much of the civil administration in the north of Ireland. It was even seriously suggested that Presbyterian ministers could be brought before Anglican church courts, charged with fornicating with their own wives. The worst features of the new legislation was removed by the Toleration Act of 1719, but the damage had been done, and full discrimination against the Presbyterians was not finally ended until the middle of the nineteenth century. The irony and unfairness of the new policy was pointed out, amongst others, by Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe:
‘It seems somewhat hard, and savours of the most scandalous ingratitude, that the very people who drank deepest of the popish fury, and were the most vigorous to show their zeal and their courage in opposing tyranny and popery, and on the foot of forwardness and valour the Church of Ireland recovered herself from her low condition, should now be requited with so injurious a treatment as to be linked with the very Papists they fought against…There will certainly be no encouragement to the Dissenters to join with their brethren the next time the Papists shall please to take arms and attempt their throats. Not but they may be fools enough as they always were to stand in the gap.’
The Ulster Presbyterians had endured-and survived-past waves of religious discrimination, and would most likely have continued to thrive in the face of official hostility. But in the early years of the new century they were faced with an additional challenge, one that threatened the whole basis of their economic existence in Ireland. By 1710 most of the farm leases granted to the settlers in the 1690s had expired; new leases were withheld until the tenants agreed to pay greatly increased rents, which many could simply not afford to do. Rather than submit to these new conditions whole communities, led by their ministers, began to take ship for the Americas: a new exodus was about to begin. In 1719, the year after the first great wave moved west, Archbishop William King wrote an account of the migration from Ulster, pinpointing the real source of the upheaval:
‘Some would insinuate that this in some measure is due to the uneasiness dissenters have in the matter of religion, but this is plainly a mistake; for dissenters were never more easy as to that matter than they had been since the Revolution [of 1688] and are at present; and yet never thought of leaving the kingdom, till oppressed by the excessive rents and other temporal hardships: nor do any dissenters leave us, but proportionally of all sorts, except Papists. The truth is this: after the Revolution, most of the kingdom was waste, and abandoned of people destroyed in the war: the landlords therefore were glad to get tenants at any rate, and let their lands at very easy rents; they invited abundance of people to come over here, especially from Scotland, and they lived here very happily ever since; but now their leases are expired, and they are obliged not only to give what they paid before the Revolution, but in most places double and in many places treble, so that it is impossible for people to live or subsist on their farms.’
As the years passed thousands of people crossed the Atlantic from Ulster, just as their ancestors had crossed the North Channel from Scotland a century or more before. However, by 1750 the pace of migration began to slow, as relatively normal conditions returned to Ulster after years of economic dislocation. The period of calm was all too brief. In 1771 a fresh wave of migration began, once again induced by the greed of the landlords, which was arguably to have serious consequences for the security of the British Empire in North America. Faced with a fresh series of rent hikes, local people at first mounted some resistance, gathered together in an organisation known as the Hearts of Steel; but the landlords had the law and the army on their side. In the short period left before the outbreak of the American Revolution a further 30,000 Ulstermen left for the colonies, joining some 200,000 who had already made their homes there earlier in the century. The contemporary image of the Ulster Protestant is most commonly that of the Orangeman, with all of his exaggerated loyalty to Britain and the Crown. For the dispossessed of the 1770s the opposite was true: they had lost everything, and came to America with an intense hostility towards all things British.
For the original Quaker and Puritan settlers of the thirteen colonies, largely English in origin, the emigrants of Ulster, an increasingly common sight, were usually described as ‘Irish.’ To counter this misconception the newcomers adopted the older description of ‘Scots’. It was in this semantic exchange that a new breed took shape: they were the ‘Scots-Irish.’ For many years these people had lived on a frontier in Ireland, and it seemed natural for them to push on to a new frontier, where land was both plentiful and cheap, introducing a new urgency and dynamism into a rather complacent colonial society. Before long these ‘backwoodsmen’, distrustful of all authority and government, had established a hold on the western wilderness, fighting Indians and wolves in much the same way that they had once fought wolves and woodkern. In Pennsylvania the Scots-Irish established an almost complete domination of the outer reaches of the old Quaker colony. It was a dangerous life, but one which has established a lasting image in American history and folklore:
‘He was a farmer so far as was needful and practicable out of the reach of all markets, though as often as not his corn was planted and his grass mown, with the long-barrelled short-stocked ponderous small-bore rifle upon which his life so often hung, placed ready and loaded against a handy stump. What sheep he could protect from the bears and the wolves, together with a patch of flax, provided his family with covering and clothing. Swarthy as an Indian and almost as sinewy, with hair falling to his shoulders from beneath a coon-skin cap, a buck-skin hunting shirt tied at his waist, his nether man was encased in an Indian breach-clout, and his feet clad in deer-skin and moccasins.’
With the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 the Scots-Irish, in interesting contrast to many of their Scottish cousins, were among the most determined adherents of the rebel cause. Their frontier skills were particularly useful in destroying Burgoyne’s army in the Saratoga campaign; and George Washington was even moved to say that if the cause was lost everywhere else he would take a last stand among the Scots-Irish of his native Virginia. Serving in the British Army, Captain Johann Henricks, one of the much despised ‘Hessians’, wrote in frustration ‘Call it not an American rebellion, it is nothing more than an Irish-Scotch Presbyterian Rebellion.’ It was their toughness, virility and sense of divine mission that was to help give shape to a new nation, supplying it with such diverse heroes as Davy Crocket and Andrew Jackson. They were indeed God’s frontiersmen, the real historical embodiment of the lost tribe of Israel.
That's it for this week and as the weekend is almost here I hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
I found this video where the Scottish Government is meeting in Aberdeen and they recorded the meeting. See
Saltire Award to be presented to Currie at Scottish Heritage Weekend
Laurinburg, NC - The Saltire Award will be awarded to Robert Currie, of New Jersey, at the Scottish Heritage Awards Banquet held on Friday evening, March 20, at St. Andrews University. The public is cordially invited to attend.
The award is given by the Scottish Heritage Center at St. Andrews University to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the preservation and interpretation of Scottish history and culture here in the United States.
Currie is descended from Neil Currie, a crofter who was “cleared” from the Island of Arran in 1828.
“True to his Scottish heritage, Robert Currie has become an instrumental leader in preserving and perpetuating interest in not only his own ancestry but the shared legacy of all Scottish-Americans,” said Scottish Heritage Center Director Bill Caudill.
Currie currently serves as President of the Clan Currie Society worldwide. The Clan Currie, known in Gaelic as “MacMhuirich,” served for 800 years as the bards to the Lords of the Isles – preserving the epic poetry, songs, historical stories and lore of the major families of the Western highlands and islands of Scotland.
Originally formed in 1959 in Glasgow, Scotland, Currie re-established the Clan Currie Society in 1991 as an international non-profit Scottish historical and cultural society. Under his leadership, the Society provides a number of Scottish cultural programs around the world. Programs include the “Pipes of Christmas” fundraising concert held each holiday season in New York, the National Tartan Day program at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, as well as the annual MacMhuirich Academic Symposium. The Society also sponsors the U.S. National Scottish Harp Championship as well as a prize for Gaelic literature at the Royal National Mod held annually in Scotland.
Currie was also instrumental in the design of the “Ellis Island Tartan” – a tartan intended for the descendants of all immigrants who came through Ellis Island in New York City regardless of their ethnic origins. In 2004 he completed a documentary film on Scottish culture narrated by Academy Award winning actor Cliff Robertson. In 2013 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts from Napier University in Edinburgh for his commitment to promote Scottish heritage around the world.
Currie is especially anxious to recruit new members for the Clan Currie Society. As the name Currie is one which is still found prominently in this area he is anxious to meet as many descendants of that name in the Carolinas as possible.
“We share common ancestry as well as a pride in our name, and I would very much like to meet and hopefully involve as many of the Currie name in our organization as possible,” he said.
The Clan Currie Society is present at a number of Scottish gatherings in the USA, and provides scholarship support and financial assistance to students attending a variety of Scottish arts institutions and organizations such as the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the National Piping Center, Edinburgh Napier University, Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, and the Gaelic College of Arts in Nova Scotia. The Society also funds a research prize at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic medium university, on the Island of Skye.
Professionally, Currie holds a BS degree in Marketing and a MA degree in Corporate and Organizational Communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University. For over 30 years he has held senior positions with leading industrial chemical and building materials manufacturers. In 2005 he was named “Communicator of the Year” by the International Association of Business Communicators. He and his wife Suzanne live in New Jersey and have two adult daughters, Claire and Hilary.
The Scottish Heritage Awards Banquet is one of the events of the Scottish Heritage Weekend at St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina. For registration information for the Awards Banquet, as well as the Charles Bascombe Shaw Memorial Scottish Heritage Symposium, please visit: www.sapc.edu/shc/images/2015SHBrochure.pdf Pre-registration is required for all events. For questions or further information, phone the Scottish Heritage Center at (910)277-5236 or email rsvp@sa.edu.
About St. Andrews University
At St. Andrews University, a branch of Webber International University, the focus is on classroom teaching, active and collaborative learning, academic advising, enriching experiences, and student-faculty interaction. Both traditional residential students and adult learners have a range of undergraduate liberal arts and sciences majors and the Master of Business Administration degree available to them in a curriculum that is practical in its application and global in its scope. Student success is promoted through academic support programs, and career/job placement services. Generally, 35 states and 8 foreign countries are represented in the diverse student body. There are several academic honor societies, an honors program, an award-winning pipe band, a university press, and both interdisciplinary and international study opportunities.
With a Major in Therapeutic Horsemanship and a Minor in Equine Business Management, the well-known equestrian program is housed in a modern 300-acre facility. And its highly competitive Dressage, Hunt Seat, and Western teams have won many regional and national championships. NAIA men’s and women’s teams compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, and track and field; along with men’s baseball and wrestling, and women’s softball and volleyball. Lacrosse competes in the Southeastern Lacrosse Conference, and in both the Men’s and Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Associations.
Tons of reading and viewing pleasure for you this week and especially on Canada for which see more below.
Electric Canadian
Official Bird of Canada
We don't have an Official Bird of Canada but it is hoped one will be chosen in 2017 and the campaign is on to find one. We have done a profile of the Gray Jay which was called the Canadian Jay and an effort is under way to get the name back. A great little bird and we've done a profile on it which you can read at:http://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/grayjay.htm
Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness
I came across this 6 video set on YouTube and not only did I enjoy it very much indeed but it then led me to do profiles on 3 people that did a great job of work for Canada which he profiled in the videos.
This set of videos can be viewed at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...wilderness.htm
The three profiles I did as a result include...
David Thompson
He contributed most to the mapping of the west. "IT gives me a great deal of pleasure to have the opportunity of submitting a few of the facts on which I venture to claim that David Thompson, of whose achievements but little note has been taken. was the greatest land geographer that the British race has produced."
The profile on him includes 2 videos and you can read and watch this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...pson_david.htm
Dr John Rae
He completed the discovery of the North West Passage.
Dr. Rae published but one book, the “Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847.” His other expeditions are described in brief reports addressed to the Royal Geographical Society, and he is the author of papers on the Eskimo, on the navigation of Hudson’s Bay, and on Polar exploration; but his written contributions, though they testify to his thoroughness and accuracy and to his rare qualifications, bear no proportion to the magnitude and the solidity of his work. He wrote with simplicity and force, but he was more concerned to do things worthy of record than to record them. He had the gifts of the born explorer, the habit of exact observation, courage and fertility of resource, untiring energy, activity and strength; and with these a firmness and generosity of character that won the respect and the affection of men.
I found his book and a YouTube video of a lecture given on him which you can see at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/john_rae.htm
Samuel Hearne
He opened up the North West.
TO BE a successful explorer one needs to possess exceptional bodily stamina, dogged courage, a dream which is more than merely a duty. There must also exist a terra incognita, together with the needs and the means for its discovery. Because all these conditions were present at the lonely trading post of Prince of Wales Fort on the north-west coast of Hudson Bay in the year 1769, a young Englishman of twenty-four, by name Samuel Hearne, was lifted from the obscurity of his fellows to a fame that will endure as long as' the annals of Canada’s northern development.
Didn't find a specific video about him but did find a more general video in which he is included and also a copy of his book, "A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean" and a brief biography of him which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/hearne.htm
Canada House in London reopened today by Queen Elizabeth
Queen gets new keys similar to set presented to grandfather King George V in 1925.
Queen Elizabeth has officially reopened Canada's newly refurbished high commission in London, after years of renovation and a consolidation of offices from other buildings.
The Queen arrived at Canada House on Trafalgar Square with Prince Philip on Thursday morning.
She toured the new facilities and was presented with a set of keys to the building — a similar set to the one presented to her grandfather, King George V, when he opened the building in 1925.
You can read more about this and see a video at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canada-...beth-1.2962948
Extreme Weather Alert
Issued at 10:48 a.m. EST Thursday 19 February 2015
As various parts of Canada and the USA and for that matter Scotland are seeing some very cold weather I thought I'd copy you into this local alert I received today at my home in Chatham. I'm also told that February 2015 is now already recognised as the coldest month ever in Canadian history.
Summary
Bitterly cold arctic air has once again returned to Southern Ontario. Strong and gusty northwest winds will combine with the frigid temperatures to produce extremely cold wind chill values of minus 30 to minus 35 today through Friday morning. People outdoors should exercise caution and dress appropriately as frostbite on exposed skin is possible in as little as 10 minutes. Wind chills will slowly improve by Friday afternoon as temperatures moderate somewhat.
Details
Watch for cold related symptoms and complaints which include: - Respiratory: shortness of breath, wheezing and cough - Cardiovascular: chest pain and arrhythmias - Circulation: colour change of finger and toes, pain, numbness and tickling sensation in extremities - Muscle: pain, stiffness, swelling, restricted movement, weakness - Skin: itching, pale. If you experience these symptoms when exposed to the cold, move indoors and begin warming. Protect yourself. - On sunny days wear sun glasses, lip balm and sunscreen to protect your skin from UV and keep it moisturized to help prevent windburn. - Wear a face mask and goggles if you are participating in winter activities such as skiing, snowmobiling and skating to protect your face from frostbite and windburn. - Keep moving (especially your hands and feet) to keep your blood flowing and maintain your body heat. - Drink enough fluids, but avoid very cold drinks and consume warm meals regularly. Extreme cold warnings are issued when very cold temperatures or wind chill creates an elevated risk to health such as frost bite and hypothermia. Environment Canada meteorologists will update alerts as required, so stay tuned to your local media or Weatheradio.
CHAP Program
I have today signed up for this program which is local to me but I understand similar services are available in other parts of Canada. I intend to profile this service which is for people 60 and over as I get to learn more about it. I posted up a message on this program in our community where you can learn a little more and watch a video at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/show...CHAP-for-short
Electric Scotland
Christopher North, A Memoir of John Wilson
By His Daughter Mrs Gordon (1863).
We have now added the two sets of books on his writings and so now completes this account of him and his work.
You can read all this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/north/
George Douglas, Eighth Duke of Argyll K.G., K.T. (1823 - 1900)
Autobiography and Memoirs edited by the Dowager Duchess of Argyll with Portraits and Illustrations in two volumes.
I'm sorry to say that I discovered I'd made an error on the links to the chapters of this book which I've now corrected. As no-one told me about this I can only assume that you aren't reading it but I can assure you it is an excellent read.
You can read this book as I get it up at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../argyllndx.htm
Enigma Machine
Added puzzle 98 which you can get to at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma098.htm
Memoir of the Rev. Wm. C. Burns, M.A.
A new book we're starting.
PREFACE
The difficulty I anticipated in writing the Biography of one so nearly related to me was very soon forgotten as I proceeded with my task, and felt more and more deeply how utterly insignificant are all such earthly ties, in presence of the higher relations of that eternal kingdom in which my lamented Brother so entirely lived. If, while he was still with us, it was possible for those most closely connected with him in some measure to know him “ after the flesh,” one instantly felt so soon as he had passed within the veil that henceforth we could know him so no more.The materials from which the narrative has been drawn are—1st, My own personal recollections and those of other intimate friends; 2d, Private letters addressed chiefly to members of his own family; and 3d, Copious journals, extending over the whole period of his home ministry, and continued, though in a briefer and more fragmentary manner, during the early years of his residence in China. From these last I have quoted very largely, but not more so I believe than those who are really interested in his work would wish me to have done. Indeed, the difficulty often was merely to extract from a document, which many readers doubtless would have wished to possess entire.
To the many friends to whom I have been indebted for valuable materials, I have made acknowledgment in the course of the work at the places where their communications have been used; but I would here specially mention the names of the late Rev. Dr. Burns, of Toronto, who contributed the tenth chapter; the Rev. Duncan M‘Gregor, M.A., of Dundee, and the Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick, of Dublin, who furnished the graphic sketches of my Brother’s labours in Edinburgh and Dublin; and the Rev. Carstairs Douglas, M.A., of Amoy, to whose loving and painstaking endeavours I am indebted for almost all the precious memorials from China which enrich the closing chapters.
My single aim has been to present a true and life-like picture of him whose footsteps I had undertaken to trace; and that thus being dead he may yet speak, just as he spoke while he was with us, to the praise of that divine grace which he so greatly magnified, and by which alone, as he so profoundly felt, he was what he was.
Free Church College, Glasgow, December 6th, 1869.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...urns/index.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got up Section 2 of the March 2015 edition which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft/
Scottish Street Poetry
After the story last week John Henderson sent in a contribution which I've added to the foot of Page 5 at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...t/spoetry5.htm
Harry Lauder
Got in a wee medley of his songs which you can listen to at the foot of his page. Thanks to John Henderson for sending this in to us.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...uder_harry.htm
The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedea
The Original, Antiquated, and Natural Curiosities of the South of Scotland.
The Original, Antiquated, and Natural Curiosities of the South of Scotland containing Sketches of Eccentric Characters and Curious Facts, with Explanations of Singular Words, Terms, and Phrases; interspersed with Poems, Tales, Anecdotes, etc., and various other strange matters; the whole illustrative of the Ways of the Peasantry and Manners of Caledonia drawn out and Alphabetically arranged by John MacTaggart (1824)
Added this to our pdf books page as item 108 which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/index.htm
Sketches of the Olden Times in Perthshire
By Robert Scott Fittis (1878).
Added this book to the foot of our Perth page at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/perth
Poetry by John Henderson
John has sent in a number of poems which we've added to the foot of his page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
The poems include...
The Loch Ness Monster Has His Say!
Cockcrow
Grasp Opportunies
A Supper For All Seasons
Clegs
The St Clair Papers
Added this two volume publication to our General Arthur St Clair page. Recent research is suggesting this person is much more important to American history than anyone had thought so the more information we can get about him the better we'll recognise his importance.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/stclair/
The Story of the Highland Regiments
By Frederick Watson (1915)
We already have a ton of information on Scottish Regiments but in many ways this book is an awesome introduction to our Highland Regiments.
You can download this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...dregiments.pdf
The Life and Campaigns of Major-General J. E. B. Stuart
Commander of the Cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia by H. D. McClellan, A.M. Late Major, Assistant Adjutant-General, and Chief of Staff of the Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia (1995) (pdf)
This is adding more information to the contribution of the Scots-Irish to America. You can read this book at
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ish/stuart.pdf
Windham, New Hampshire
A Scots-Irish Settlement
I came across a Supplement issue telling of this Scots-Irish settlement in this area and on further investigation I found two other books by the same author and so thought I'd make all three available for you to read. The Supplement that I first read starts with a good description of the Scots-Irish race.
You can read these books at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/nh/
THE STORY
As I've been working recently on the Scots-Irish I thought I'd bring you this story which was an article sent to us by the author Raymond Campbell Paterson.
The Scots-Irish: The Thirteenth Tribe
“A man with God is always in the majority”
John Knox
“I love Highlanders, and I love Lowlanders, but when I come to that branch of our race that has been grafted on to the Ulster stem I take off my hat in veneration and awe”
Lord Rosebery
Let us begin by asking a simple question-who are the Scots-Irish? Simple questions very rarely have simple answers, and the answer to this one is more complex than most. Much depends, moreover, on where in the world it is posed. In Britain the term is virtually unknown, and most people would assume that it meant some kind of hybridisation between the Irish and the Scots. Only the Protestant communities of Northern Ireland would generally recognise what is meant, though very few would now accept the designation for themselves, preferring to be described as British or Ulstermen. Only in North America, where the term was invented, would one be likely to encounter an immediate recognition; but even here there are problems. Many of the descendents of the original Scots-Irish settlers would happily wear kilts and tartan on commemorative days, though this would have been a shock to their ancestors, who took particular trouble to distance themselves from all things Celtic and Gaelic. The task of this article is to attempt what is always a dangerous endeavour: the separation of myth and reality, and thus uncover the roots of one of the most remarkable branches of the Scottish-and Irish-race.
The story begins with an ending. In March 1603, the same month that James VI of Scotland began James I of England and Ireland, the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, chiefs of the O’Neills and the O’Donnells, the leading families of the ancient province of Ulster, surrender to the English. Thus concluded the Nine Years War, the latest in a long line of struggles to arrest the steady expansion of English power in Ireland. It was in Ulster that Celtic Ireland had made its last stand against a foreign invader, all the more unwelcome because he now came garbed in a cloak of militant Protestantism, a direct challenge to an ancient Catholic tradition. It had been a particularly bitter struggle, and Ulster had been devastated. The northeastern counties of Antrim and Down, within sight of the coast of Scotland, are described by contemporary writers as ‘all waste’.
For James the conclusion of the Nine Years War came as a welcome addition to his new glories; it also presented him with a problem and an opportunity. As a man and a king he was no more sympathetic to Gaelic traditions and culture than his Tudor predecessors on the English throne. While still King of Scots he had been preoccupied with the problems posed by his own minorities in the Highlands and Islands, whom he once described as ‘utterly barbarous.’ In the 1590s he had even sponsored a scheme of internal colonisation or plantation, handing over the island of Lewis to a party of Lowland adventurers. These men were to bring civilisation and commerce to the western Isles, in a project that allowed for the wholesale extermination of the local Gaelic clans. Faced with the widespread hostility of the Highland communities, the Lewis plantation was a costly failure: the idea, however, remained fixed in the royal mind.
In Ulster, unlike the Scottish Highlands, the local people had been severely demoralised. Plantation was not a new idea in Ireland, but past schemes had achieved very little. To begin with James showed little interest in a fresh project but for a series of unusual opportunities. The first involved two rather shady Lowland opportunists, the kind of men all too attractive to the enterprising king. James Hamilton was a university don and a spy; and Sir Hugh Montgomery, his partner, was an Ayrshire laird. Together they helped Conn O’Neill, an Irish chieftain, escape from Carrickfergus Castle, where he had been imprisoned for rioting, and offered to obtain a royal pardon for him in return for a share of his substantial estates in Antrim and Down. James, originally hostile to the proposal, became the fourth partner in the enterprise, no doubt amused by the audacity of Hamilton and Montgomery. Both men proposed to bring over large parties of Scots Lowlanders to replenish the depopulated areas, thus reviving the hitherto discredited idea of plantation. James now had a way of driving a Lowland, Protestant and English-speaking wedge into the heart of a Gaelic and Catholic world. In granting Hamilton the territory of Upper Clandeboy and Great Ardes, James emphasised the intention “…of inhabiting the same, being now depopulated and wasted, with English and Scottish men; and the carrying of men, cattle, corn and all other commodities from England and Scotland into the said territories. Also, to have liberty to alien [grant] to any English or Scottish men, or of English and Scottish name and blood, and not to have the mere Irish.”
Ireland was formally an English possession, so it was important to emphasise English as well as Scottish settlement, though for reasons of geography and temperament, the new plantation was almost exclusively Scottish, as James himself clearly recognised it would be: ‘The Scots are a middle temper, between the English tender breeding and the Irish rude breeding and are a great deal more likely to adventure to plant Ulster than the English.’
Taking the lead of Montgomery and Hamilton, land hungry Scots crossed the North Channel in ever increasing numbers. What they found would have daunted all but the hardiest spirits: ‘…parishes were now more wasted than America (when the Spanish landed there)…for in all those three parishes [Glenabbey, Donaghdee and Newtonards] thirty cabins could not be found, nor any stone walls, but ruined roofless churches, and a few vaults at Grey Abbey, and a stump of an old castle in Newton, in each of which some gentlemen sheltered themselves at their first coming over.’ But the land was good and largely unfarmed, as the native Irish economy had been pastoral rather than arable. Settlers were also encouraged by the promise of long leases, far better than the unfavourable terms in their native Scotland, where short leases acted as a disincentive to good husbandry and improvements. Plantation, the Scots were soon to show, could be made to work, especially when it was supported by adequate military force.
A second and more significant opportunity came in September 1607. Although Hugh O’Neil, Earl of Tyrone, and Hugh O’Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnel, had made their peace with the government some years before, they had been subject to almost continual harassment by the Dublin authorities. Fearing for their safety, the two chiefs left for the continent, never to return, an episode famous in Irish history as ‘The Flight of the Earls.’ James now had huge territories in central and western Ulster: Hamilton and Montgomery’s free enterprise scheme was supplemented by the Plantation of Ulster. Land was granted to men known as ‘undertakers’, who pledged themselves to bring over settlers from England and Scotland; only the more inferior lands were to be allotted to the native Irish. This time more English settlers began to make an appearance, though they continued to be numerically weaker than their Scottish cousins. This is hardly surprising: England was richer and far more settled than Scotland, and Ireland remained a dangerous frontier. Native Irish chieftains, deeply resentful of their changing circumstances, took to the wilds as outlaws, and as ‘woodkernes’ represented a real threat to the more isolated settlers, many of whom were wiped out in midnight raids. The descendants of the Scots migrants were later to face a similar threat on the American frontier. While the Irish raiders were tough, the Scots were even tougher. Many of the early migrants came from the Scottish borders, men with names like Armstrong, Bell and Elliot, where they had been hardened in an age-old struggle with the English.
Despite the woodkerns-and the wolves-the Plantation survived and prospered. In 1634 Sir William Brereton, in a journey through Ayrshire noted that: ‘Above the thousand persons have, within the last two years past, left the country wherein they lived…and are gone for Ireland. They have come by one hundred in company through the town, and three hundred have gone on hence together, shipped for Ireland at one tide…” By 1640 it is estimated that as many as 100,000 Scots had settled in Ulster compared with some 20,000 migrants from England.
As well as new modes of farming the Scots brought a strict Calvinist doctrine, which by the late 1630s was taking a firmly Presbyterian shape, as opposed to the episcopacy favoured by the king. Later in the century an Anglican opponent of the puritans detailed the impact of Scottish Presbyterianism on Ulster:
“Hereupon followed the plantation of Ulster, first undertaken by the city of London, who fortified Coleraine and built Londonderry, and purchased many thousand acres of land in the parts adjoining. But it was carried on more vigorously, as most unfortunately withal, by some adventurers of the Scottish nation who poured themselves into this country as the richer soil; and, though they were sufficiently industrious in improving their own fortunes there, and setting up preaching in all churches wheresoever they fixed, yet whether it happened for the better or the worse, the event hath showed. For they brought with them hither such a stock of Puritanism, such as contempt of bishops, such a neglect of the public liturgy, and other divine offices of this church, that there was nothing less to be found amongst them than the government and forms of worship established in the church of England.”
Charles I, James son and successor, in attempting to force Scotland to accept the English forms of worship, took a path that led directly to the Civil Wars. This had a profound effect on the Protestant settlers in Ulster. Although the Scots had originally been made welcome by the English Lord Deputy in Dublin, their enthusiasm for Presbyterianism made them politically suspect. Confronted by official hostility they faced an even greater threat in 1641 when the native Irish rose in revolt, venting years of frustration on the bewildered and badly frightened settlers.
The colony survived, though it entered a prolonged period of stagnation and crisis, which only really came to an end with the defeat of the Catholic Jacobites in the war of 1689-1691. During the wars the Ulster Scots had played a full part, assisting, amongst other things, in the famous siege of Londonderry. Among their rewards they could expect, at the very least, a measure of religious toleration: after all, the revolution settlement had at last conceded the right of Scotland to a Presbyterian church after years of Stewart persecution. But the Ulster Presbyterians were in caught in a paradox: though the reign of William of Orange brought a measure of calm, they were still subject to a religious establishment in Dublin, which remained strictly Anglican in outlook. During the reign of Queen Anne the Presbyterians, though part of the victorious Protestant party, were to find themselves just as outcast as their despised Catholic neighbours.
The successive wars had the effect of once again depopulating the fields of Ulster: many of the original settlers had been killed or had returned to Scotland for their own safety. An appeal was made for fresh settlers, with twenty-year farm leases being held out as bait. Thus began the last great wave of Scots migration to Ulster. In the decade up to 1700 an estimated 50,000 people made the crossing. Politically this last wave was among the most significant, especially for the future of America and the creation of that unique outlook that was in time to be known as Scots-Irish.
By 1707, the year that the Scottish parliament merged with its English cousin, the Protestant colony of Ulster was a hundred years old. The differences that had existed between the original settlers, whither Scots or English, had largely ceased to exist. It is now possible to discover a distinct Protestant Ulster identity, recognisably unique and distinct from the sources of origin. With the absence of outmoded feudalism, still present in Scotland, looser kinship ties, and a freer labour market the Ulster Protestants began to develop in an unanticipated direction. If anything religion provided the common bond, rather than race, uniting dissenters of differing faiths, though it is also true to say that the Scots settlers had acquired a cultural domination over their English counterparts. Though loyal to the crown, they were a people who, through decades of adversity, had become self reliant, and never quite lost the feeling that they were surrounded by a hostile world: ‘They learned from hard experience’, one commentator noted ‘that one must fight for what he has; that turning the other cheek does not guarantee property rights; in short, that might is right, at least in the matter of life and land ownership.’ In the early years of the eighteenth century they found themselves once again under attack, though this time from a totally unexpected direction.
In 1704 the government of Queen Anne, dominated by the Anglican High Church party, passed an act that had a direct bearing on the Ulster Scots. All office holders were obliged to take communion in the Established Church, a measure which at a single stroke virtually wiped out much of the civil administration in the north of Ireland. It was even seriously suggested that Presbyterian ministers could be brought before Anglican church courts, charged with fornicating with their own wives. The worst features of the new legislation was removed by the Toleration Act of 1719, but the damage had been done, and full discrimination against the Presbyterians was not finally ended until the middle of the nineteenth century. The irony and unfairness of the new policy was pointed out, amongst others, by Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe:
‘It seems somewhat hard, and savours of the most scandalous ingratitude, that the very people who drank deepest of the popish fury, and were the most vigorous to show their zeal and their courage in opposing tyranny and popery, and on the foot of forwardness and valour the Church of Ireland recovered herself from her low condition, should now be requited with so injurious a treatment as to be linked with the very Papists they fought against…There will certainly be no encouragement to the Dissenters to join with their brethren the next time the Papists shall please to take arms and attempt their throats. Not but they may be fools enough as they always were to stand in the gap.’
The Ulster Presbyterians had endured-and survived-past waves of religious discrimination, and would most likely have continued to thrive in the face of official hostility. But in the early years of the new century they were faced with an additional challenge, one that threatened the whole basis of their economic existence in Ireland. By 1710 most of the farm leases granted to the settlers in the 1690s had expired; new leases were withheld until the tenants agreed to pay greatly increased rents, which many could simply not afford to do. Rather than submit to these new conditions whole communities, led by their ministers, began to take ship for the Americas: a new exodus was about to begin. In 1719, the year after the first great wave moved west, Archbishop William King wrote an account of the migration from Ulster, pinpointing the real source of the upheaval:
‘Some would insinuate that this in some measure is due to the uneasiness dissenters have in the matter of religion, but this is plainly a mistake; for dissenters were never more easy as to that matter than they had been since the Revolution [of 1688] and are at present; and yet never thought of leaving the kingdom, till oppressed by the excessive rents and other temporal hardships: nor do any dissenters leave us, but proportionally of all sorts, except Papists. The truth is this: after the Revolution, most of the kingdom was waste, and abandoned of people destroyed in the war: the landlords therefore were glad to get tenants at any rate, and let their lands at very easy rents; they invited abundance of people to come over here, especially from Scotland, and they lived here very happily ever since; but now their leases are expired, and they are obliged not only to give what they paid before the Revolution, but in most places double and in many places treble, so that it is impossible for people to live or subsist on their farms.’
As the years passed thousands of people crossed the Atlantic from Ulster, just as their ancestors had crossed the North Channel from Scotland a century or more before. However, by 1750 the pace of migration began to slow, as relatively normal conditions returned to Ulster after years of economic dislocation. The period of calm was all too brief. In 1771 a fresh wave of migration began, once again induced by the greed of the landlords, which was arguably to have serious consequences for the security of the British Empire in North America. Faced with a fresh series of rent hikes, local people at first mounted some resistance, gathered together in an organisation known as the Hearts of Steel; but the landlords had the law and the army on their side. In the short period left before the outbreak of the American Revolution a further 30,000 Ulstermen left for the colonies, joining some 200,000 who had already made their homes there earlier in the century. The contemporary image of the Ulster Protestant is most commonly that of the Orangeman, with all of his exaggerated loyalty to Britain and the Crown. For the dispossessed of the 1770s the opposite was true: they had lost everything, and came to America with an intense hostility towards all things British.
For the original Quaker and Puritan settlers of the thirteen colonies, largely English in origin, the emigrants of Ulster, an increasingly common sight, were usually described as ‘Irish.’ To counter this misconception the newcomers adopted the older description of ‘Scots’. It was in this semantic exchange that a new breed took shape: they were the ‘Scots-Irish.’ For many years these people had lived on a frontier in Ireland, and it seemed natural for them to push on to a new frontier, where land was both plentiful and cheap, introducing a new urgency and dynamism into a rather complacent colonial society. Before long these ‘backwoodsmen’, distrustful of all authority and government, had established a hold on the western wilderness, fighting Indians and wolves in much the same way that they had once fought wolves and woodkern. In Pennsylvania the Scots-Irish established an almost complete domination of the outer reaches of the old Quaker colony. It was a dangerous life, but one which has established a lasting image in American history and folklore:
‘He was a farmer so far as was needful and practicable out of the reach of all markets, though as often as not his corn was planted and his grass mown, with the long-barrelled short-stocked ponderous small-bore rifle upon which his life so often hung, placed ready and loaded against a handy stump. What sheep he could protect from the bears and the wolves, together with a patch of flax, provided his family with covering and clothing. Swarthy as an Indian and almost as sinewy, with hair falling to his shoulders from beneath a coon-skin cap, a buck-skin hunting shirt tied at his waist, his nether man was encased in an Indian breach-clout, and his feet clad in deer-skin and moccasins.’
With the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 the Scots-Irish, in interesting contrast to many of their Scottish cousins, were among the most determined adherents of the rebel cause. Their frontier skills were particularly useful in destroying Burgoyne’s army in the Saratoga campaign; and George Washington was even moved to say that if the cause was lost everywhere else he would take a last stand among the Scots-Irish of his native Virginia. Serving in the British Army, Captain Johann Henricks, one of the much despised ‘Hessians’, wrote in frustration ‘Call it not an American rebellion, it is nothing more than an Irish-Scotch Presbyterian Rebellion.’ It was their toughness, virility and sense of divine mission that was to help give shape to a new nation, supplying it with such diverse heroes as Davy Crocket and Andrew Jackson. They were indeed God’s frontiersmen, the real historical embodiment of the lost tribe of Israel.
That's it for this week and as the weekend is almost here I hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
Comment