Note (Jody Gray): In our Adams family lineage, there is 4th Great-Grandmother, Nancy Etchison who married 4th Great-Grandfather, Nimrod Adams. In this book there is a Nancy Atchison who married James Kinnear... I created a media document for 4GGM Nancy Etchison's Ancestry.com profile page as a reference in case there is confusion between the two Nancy's. During my research to find the parentage of Nancy Etchison; I found various spellings of her surname and Atchison is one. During my research of the Hendry Family (Gray-Piper Family Tree) Thomas Hendry (1720-1780) born in Northern, Ireland, Ulster Plantation, Donegal; I came across Ulster Scotch-Irish Surnames and among those were both Adams and Etchison. Historical Misc, Blog Post: Ulster and Scotch-Irish Surnames -http://historicalandmisc.blogspot.com/2016/03/ulster-and-scots-irish-surnames.html Muster Roll of the County Donnagall (1630), Donegal: Adams. Gray-Piper, Blog Post: The Hendry Family and the Church of Scotland -http://gray-adamsfamily.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-hendry-family-and-church-of-scotland.html Ulster Ancestry -Origins in Ulster, of Irish and Plantation Scottish: Adams; Aiken, Aitken, Eakins, Aiken.
Some resources: History of Lancaster County, in the State of Pennsylvania, by J.I. Mombert, D.D. pub 1869; Ancient Windsor, Connecticut, 1635-1891, by Henry R. Stiles, A.M.M.D. pub 1892. Colonial Families of the United States; Memoir of Jefferson Davis, by his wife.
A short history of the Scotch-Irish previous to their emigration to America.
''At the end of the fourth Century, Ireland was still a pagan land ruled by ruthless chiefs whose people had reached a point where a strong human influence was needed. Without this influence the very perfection of the time would have been a danger like the ripeness which comes before decay. The renovating power came in the lesson of loving kindness and tender mercy that had been taught by the shores of Galilee. The messenger was Succat, son of Calpum, sumamed the Patrician, or Patricius, a title given to Roman Citizens of noble birth. This messenger is known to us as Saint Patrick. In all probability his birthplace was Scotland, near the Clyde, in the north of the Roman province of Britain. The territory north of the Clyde was held in part by the Caledonian Picts, and part by Scoti, colonists from Ireland who brought with them their civilization and language. In one of the feuds among the rival tribes, a raid was made into the territory of the Roman provinces south of the Clyde, and the boy Succat was taken prisoner and carried away captive into Ireland, where after a time he proceeded to baptize and to bless Irish men and women, sons and daughters, except a few who would not receive faith or baptism.
Saint Patrick was bom in North Britain of noble parentage; while a boy he was brought a captive to Ireland, where he remained as a herdsman for six years. When he returned to his native land he learned in a vision that he was ?. He began his missionary and built churches and established of Ireland. A learned writer has was the father. Saint Bridget was ? of Erin — both monks and m 453 ; she was the daughter of a famous Leinster chief. Her whole life was surrounded with stories of marvels. When asked to choose one of the virtues declared in the Beatitudes she chose "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Far more important than any single side of her work was the way in which the whole life of this woman of genius and inspiration raised the ideal of womanhood in Ireland. Her influence in this respect lasts to this day, for in no other country is the ideal of womanly purity held so high — she died in 525.
The third patron saint of Ireland, Saint Columba, was born at Gartan in Donegal about 621. His father was one of the Chiefs of Irish Dalradia, while his mother belonged to the royal family of Leinster. Columba was, in fact, a great great grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The cause of his exile was as follows: A dispute arose over a copy of the Book of Psalms which Columba made from a manuscript belonging to Saint Finnian, his teacher at Clonard and Molville. Finnian claimed the copy. Columba refused to give it up. The dispute was referred to Diar-maid. The king followed the principles laid down in Brehon Laws: "To every cow belongs its calf," decided that to every book belongs its copy, the earliest decision on copyright recorded in our history. He therefore awarded the copy to Finnian. Columba refused to accept the decision and appealed for aid to his tribe. A fierce dispute arose culminating in a great battle at Cooldrevin, near Drumcliff a few miles north of Sligo. This battle was fought in 561, and the partisans of Columba were completely victorious."
Name of Author Unknown.
Saint Patrick was bom in North Britain of noble parentage; while a boy he was brought a captive to Ireland, where he remained as a herdsman for six years. When he returned to his native land he learned in a vision that he was ?. He began his missionary and built churches and established of Ireland. A learned writer has was the father. Saint Bridget was ? of Erin — both monks and m 453 ; she was the daughter of a famous Leinster chief. Her whole life was surrounded with stories of marvels. When asked to choose one of the virtues declared in the Beatitudes she chose "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Far more important than any single side of her work was the way in which the whole life of this woman of genius and inspiration raised the ideal of womanhood in Ireland. Her influence in this respect lasts to this day, for in no other country is the ideal of womanly purity held so high — she died in 525.
The third patron saint of Ireland, Saint Columba, was born at Gartan in Donegal about 621. His father was one of the Chiefs of Irish Dalradia, while his mother belonged to the royal family of Leinster. Columba was, in fact, a great great grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The cause of his exile was as follows: A dispute arose over a copy of the Book of Psalms which Columba made from a manuscript belonging to Saint Finnian, his teacher at Clonard and Molville. Finnian claimed the copy. Columba refused to give it up. The dispute was referred to Diar-maid. The king followed the principles laid down in Brehon Laws: "To every cow belongs its calf," decided that to every book belongs its copy, the earliest decision on copyright recorded in our history. He therefore awarded the copy to Finnian. Columba refused to accept the decision and appealed for aid to his tribe. A fierce dispute arose culminating in a great battle at Cooldrevin, near Drumcliff a few miles north of Sligo. This battle was fought in 561, and the partisans of Columba were completely victorious."
Name of Author Unknown.
SCOTCH-IRISH.
''During the Irish rebellions in the reign of Elizabeth, the Province of Ulster, embracing the northern counties of Ireland, was greatly depopulated, and it became a favorite project with her successor, James I, to people those counties with a protestant population, the better to preserve order, and introduce a higher state of cultivation in that portion of his dominions. To promote this object, liberal offers of land were made, and other inducements held out in England and Scotland, for persons to occupy this wide and vacant territory. The project was eagerly embraced; companies and colonies were formed, and the individuals without organization were tempted to partake of the advantageous offers of the government. A London company, among the first to enter upon this new acquisition, established itself at Derry, and gave such a character to the place as to cause it to be afterwards and forever known as the renowned city of Londonderry.
The first emigration from Scotland was chiefly from the Highlands where agricultural resources were scanty and often wholly cut off, and where the fruits of hibor were gathered from a sterner soil. Sir Hugh Montgomery, the sixth Laird of Braidstone, a friend and follower of King James, was among the earliest to obtain possession of forfeited land in the county of Down, and laid his rough hand upon many a broad acre. The coast of Scotland is within twenty miles of the county of Antrim in Ireland, and across this firth or strait flowed from the northeast a population distinguished for thrift, industry and endurance, which has given a peculiar and elevated character to that portion of the emerald isle. It is said that clan McDonald contributed largely to this emigration, and was among the first of the Scottish nation to plant upon its shores. They were scattered chiefly in the counties of Down, Bangor, Derry and Belfast, and the principal cities of those counties.
—1
''During the Irish rebellions in the reign of Elizabeth, the Province of Ulster, embracing the northern counties of Ireland, was greatly depopulated, and it became a favorite project with her successor, James I, to people those counties with a protestant population, the better to preserve order, and introduce a higher state of cultivation in that portion of his dominions. To promote this object, liberal offers of land were made, and other inducements held out in England and Scotland, for persons to occupy this wide and vacant territory. The project was eagerly embraced; companies and colonies were formed, and the individuals without organization were tempted to partake of the advantageous offers of the government. A London company, among the first to enter upon this new acquisition, established itself at Derry, and gave such a character to the place as to cause it to be afterwards and forever known as the renowned city of Londonderry.
The first emigration from Scotland was chiefly from the Highlands where agricultural resources were scanty and often wholly cut off, and where the fruits of hibor were gathered from a sterner soil. Sir Hugh Montgomery, the sixth Laird of Braidstone, a friend and follower of King James, was among the earliest to obtain possession of forfeited land in the county of Down, and laid his rough hand upon many a broad acre. The coast of Scotland is within twenty miles of the county of Antrim in Ireland, and across this firth or strait flowed from the northeast a population distinguished for thrift, industry and endurance, which has given a peculiar and elevated character to that portion of the emerald isle. It is said that clan McDonald contributed largely to this emigration, and was among the first of the Scottish nation to plant upon its shores. They were scattered chiefly in the counties of Down, Bangor, Derry and Belfast, and the principal cities of those counties.
—1
THE BARON KINNEAR (Alexander Smith Kinnear), of Spumes, Orkney, in the United Kingdom, one of the Senators of the College of Justice, Hon. L.L.D. (Edinburg), Advocate Scotch bar 1856, Dean of the Faculty of advocates 1881-2, Q. C. 1881, a Lord of Session (Scotland) from 2 Jan., 1882, b. 3 Nov., 1833; created a peer 5 Feb., 1897.
The Kinnear Family and their Kin...
It will throw light on some of what follows to notice here, that Ireland has been divided into four great Provinces, viz.: Ulster, Leinster, Connaught and Munster, which are again divided into thirty-two counties containing two thousand four hundred parishes.
Ulster, which occupies the northern part of the Kingdom, contains nine counties, viz.: — Antrim, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan and Tyrone.
Leinster, situated to the east contains twelve counties, viz.: — Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Kings, Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen's, Westmeath, Mexford and Wicklen.
Connaught, towards the west contains five counties, viz. : Calway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.
Munster, which occupies the south part of the Kingdom, containing six counties, viz.: — Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.
It will throw light on some of what follows to notice here, that Ireland has been divided into four great Provinces, viz.: Ulster, Leinster, Connaught and Munster, which are again divided into thirty-two counties containing two thousand four hundred parishes.
Ulster, which occupies the northern part of the Kingdom, contains nine counties, viz.: — Antrim, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan and Tyrone.
Leinster, situated to the east contains twelve counties, viz.: — Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Kings, Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen's, Westmeath, Mexford and Wicklen.
Connaught, towards the west contains five counties, viz. : Calway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.
Munster, which occupies the south part of the Kingdom, containing six counties, viz.: — Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.
The Kinnear's, according to tradition, received donations of land from the Crown of England, over and above their wages, for their bravery and fidelity in military achievements.
About the year 1682, James Kinnear, his wife and family emigrated from Scotland, and settled in Londonderry, Ireland, at the time of the Revolution, 1688…
Rev. David Kinnear (No. 135), in his history of the Kinnear Family in Pennsylvania and Ohio, traced their ancestry to one James Kinnear, who emigrated from Scotland to Londonderry, Ireland; he is said to have had but one child, William Kinnear (No. 2), who had by his first marriage, one son, James Kinnear (No. 3), who married Nancy Atchison and came to America; as none of his children lived to maturity his line became extinct.
In the year 1165, King William granted to one William* De Kyner, a tract of land in St. Andrews Parish, County of Fife, Scotland, known as Kyner, or "Kyner Place," the first transfer of this land was to Symon De Kyner, in 1213 ; and the next to his son of the same name; in 1234; it was next transferred to John Kenner, in 1286, and next to his son of the same name, he held it until 1390....
William Kinnear was married twice, by his first wife, whose name is unknown, he had one son: James Kinnear, who married in Ireland, Nancy Atchison, and came to America before the Revolutionary War.
3. i. JAMES Kinnear; m. Nancy Acthison. They came to America long before the Revolutionary War; both died in Centre County, Pennsylvania; they had no children.
James Kinnear. This son became in his youth a zealous and faithful member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, in consequence of which he suffered much persecution...on leaving his father's house he went to the north of Ireland, and was married there to Nancy Atchison, soon afterward, to escape persecution; they came to America and settled in Philadelphia before the Revolutionary War.
He became a merchant and did well financially; he was in business about forty years; they had several children but only a son, William Kinnear, lived to a mature age… this sedentary avocation brought on consumption, of which he died in Philadelphia; after his death Mr. and Mrs. Kinnear moved to Centre County, Pa.; they had long been faithful members of the Methodist Church; he died in peace at his home in Centre County... Thus this branch of the family became extinct…
About the year 1682, James Kinnear, his wife and family emigrated from Scotland, and settled in Londonderry, Ireland, at the time of the Revolution, 1688…
Rev. David Kinnear (No. 135), in his history of the Kinnear Family in Pennsylvania and Ohio, traced their ancestry to one James Kinnear, who emigrated from Scotland to Londonderry, Ireland; he is said to have had but one child, William Kinnear (No. 2), who had by his first marriage, one son, James Kinnear (No. 3), who married Nancy Atchison and came to America; as none of his children lived to maturity his line became extinct.
In the year 1165, King William granted to one William* De Kyner, a tract of land in St. Andrews Parish, County of Fife, Scotland, known as Kyner, or "Kyner Place," the first transfer of this land was to Symon De Kyner, in 1213 ; and the next to his son of the same name; in 1234; it was next transferred to John Kenner, in 1286, and next to his son of the same name, he held it until 1390....
William Kinnear was married twice, by his first wife, whose name is unknown, he had one son: James Kinnear, who married in Ireland, Nancy Atchison, and came to America before the Revolutionary War.
3. i. JAMES Kinnear; m. Nancy Acthison. They came to America long before the Revolutionary War; both died in Centre County, Pennsylvania; they had no children.
James Kinnear. This son became in his youth a zealous and faithful member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, in consequence of which he suffered much persecution...on leaving his father's house he went to the north of Ireland, and was married there to Nancy Atchison, soon afterward, to escape persecution; they came to America and settled in Philadelphia before the Revolutionary War.
He became a merchant and did well financially; he was in business about forty years; they had several children but only a son, William Kinnear, lived to a mature age… this sedentary avocation brought on consumption, of which he died in Philadelphia; after his death Mr. and Mrs. Kinnear moved to Centre County, Pa.; they had long been faithful members of the Methodist Church; he died in peace at his home in Centre County... Thus this branch of the family became extinct…
XIV PREFACE.
This was the first protestant population that was introduced into Ireland, the Presbyterians of Scotland furnishing the largest element; and they have maintained their ascendancy to the present day against the persevering efforts of the Episcopalians on the one hand, and of the Romanists (Papal/Catholic), bigoted and numerous, by whom they were surrounded on the other. The first Presbyterian church established in Ireland was in Ballycarry, in the county of Antrim, in 1613.
Although the rebellions of 1716 and 1746, against the House of Hanover, made large additions to the Scotch population in the north of Ireland, yet by far the largest accession to this colonization were occasioned by religious persecutions in the time of the latter Stuarts. That fated race, blind to the dictates of justice and humanity, devoted with sullen bigotry to their peculiar notions in religion and politics, pursued a system of measures best calculated to wean from their support subjects the most devoted to their cause. The Scottish race was bound to the Stuarts by a national prejudice and sincere affection. But they were imbued with a religious enthusiasm, inspired by Knox, their great apostle, which ruled their consciences, and rendered the sanctions of a higher law superior to their patriotism, or their attachment to their native sovereigns. Rather they believed that true patriotism consisted in maintaining the religion transmitted by their fathers.
When, therefore, the Charles's and James H endeavored to introduce prelacy among them, and to force it upon their consciences by arbitrary laws and the iron hoofs of the dragoons of Clavertiouse, very many of these hardy, persistent and enduring Presbyterians having suffered to the bitter end of cruelty and oppression abandoned the land of their birth, the home of their fondest affections, and sought an asylum among their countrymen in the secure retreats of Ulster or fled across the ocean. They carried their household goods with them; and their religious peculiarities became more dear in the land of exile, for the dangers and sorrows through which they had borne then. Presbyterianism was transported from Geneva to Scotland by John Knox, who composed his first Book of Discipline, containing the substance of his intended policy, in 1561. In 1566 a general assembly approved the Discipline; and all church affairs after that time were managed by the Presbyteries and General Assemblies. They did not at first formally deprive the bishops, who had ecclesiastical jurisdiction, of their power, but they went on gradually and, steadily doing it as they acquired confidence and strength. In 1574 they voted bishops to be only pastors of one parish; in 1577 they decreed that bishops should be called by their own names without title; and next year they declared the name of bishop to be a nuisance. In 1580 they pronounced with one voice in the General Assembly that diocesan episcopacy was unscriptural and unlawful. The same year King James and his family, with the whole Scotch nation, subscribed a confession of faith, embracing the "solemn league and covenant,'' obliging them to maintain the protestant doctrine and Presbyterian government. Thus, in the space of twenty years grew up this formal, extensive and powerful institution, twining itself over the Scottish mind with stem and inflexible bands, which death only could solider; and for which home, country, life — all things beside— were freely given up. James had hardly become secure and easy on his English throne when he began his attack upon the religious system of his early life, and of his native country, and his successors followed it up with a pertinacity worthy of a better cause. The attempts to establish the church of England over Scotland, and destroy the religious system so universally established and so dearly cherished by that devoted people, was pursued by Charles and James the 2nd, by persecutions as mean, as cruel, and as savage as any that have disgraced the annals of religious bigotry and crime. And they did not cease until they had greatly depopulated Scotland, and were stripped of their power by the happy revolution under William and Mary, which restored repose to a distracted and long suffering people. Scotland, a country no larger than Maine, with a population at the close of the seventeenth century of a million, and in 1800 not so much as the present population of Massachusetts and Maine; with agricultural and other resources by no means equal to ours — of which a writer in a recent number of the Ecklinburg Review, on the Highlands, says : "At the end of the 17th century the chief social feature of the Highlands was famine and another was emigration." Yet this country has contributed largely by emigration, to furnish numerous and prominent settlers for many other lands; to the nation with which he is connected, profound statesmen, brilliant writers, and men the most renowned in every department of scientific and philosophical research.
This is the race, composed of various tribes flowing from different parts of Scotland, which furnished the materials of the Scotch-Irish immigration to this country. By their industry, frugality and skill they had made the deserted region into which they had moved a comparatively rich and flourishing country. They had improved agriculture and introduced manufactures, and by the excellence and high reputation of their productions had attracted trade and commerce to their markets, so as to excite the jealousy of government in the reigns of Anne and the first
George, notwithstanding that by their efforts and example the prosperity of the whole island had been promoted. The patronizing government began to recognize then in the shape of taxes and embarrassing regulations upon their industry and trade. The same jealousy controlled that government afterwards, in regard to the American Colonies, by which the commerce and enterprise of their subjects on this side of the ocean were, in like manner, hampered and restricted, so that they were hardly permitted to manufacture articles of the most common necessity, but were driven to import them from the mother country as glass, nails, hats, cloth, etc.
These restrictions occasioned great distress, not only in the north of Ireland but throughout the whole island. To this, Duglass (p. 368) says, ''was added an extravagant advance in rents by landlords, whose long leases were now expired." The energetic and self-willed population of the
north of Ireland, animated by the same spirit which subsequently moved the American mind, determined no longer to endure these oppressive measures ; and they sought by another change to find a freer verge for the exercise of their industry and skill, and for the enjoyment of their religion. One of their spiritual leaders, the Rev. Mr. McGregor, in a sermon which he preached on the eve of departure from Ireland, assigns the following reasons for their removal to America: First. To avoid oppressive and cruel bondage. Second. To shun persecution. Third. To withdraw from the communion of idolaters. Fourth. To have an opportunity of worshiping God according to the dictates of conscience and His inspired word. He looked at it chiefly from a religious point of view; others from a material and commercial standpoint. It was undoubtedly suggested and promoted by a variety of motives gradually operating upon the mass of the population which brought them to the determination, solemn and painful, to sunder the ties which had bound them firmly to their adopted country, and impelled them to seek new and doubtful homes in a wild, unexplored and far-distant land. The first immigration of these people to this country was to the middle and southern Colonies. As early as 1684 a settlement was formed in New Jersey, and in 1690 small groups were found in the Carolinas, Maryland and Pennsylvania. But it was not until the reigns of Anne and George I that large numbers, driven by oppressive measures of government and disastrous seasons, were induced to seek, even in the wilderness, a better home than their old settled region could give them. Gordon says: "Scarcity of corn, generally prevalent from discouragement of industry, amounted in 1728 and the following year almost to a famine, especially ions to America, which have since in- 3000 people annually from Ulster; afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, mostly in 1728 to divert the horrors of Tote to the English ministry March 7, seven ships then lying at Belfast that 000 passengers; most of them cannot work at home." He also says: "3100 men, women and children went from Ireland to America in 1727, and 4200 in three years, all protestants.' The principal seats of these emigrations were Pennsylvania and the middle states' The above is taken from an article in the New England Hist, and Gen. Register for July, 1858, by the Hon. William Willis of Portland, Me.
This was the first protestant population that was introduced into Ireland, the Presbyterians of Scotland furnishing the largest element; and they have maintained their ascendancy to the present day against the persevering efforts of the Episcopalians on the one hand, and of the Romanists (Papal/Catholic), bigoted and numerous, by whom they were surrounded on the other. The first Presbyterian church established in Ireland was in Ballycarry, in the county of Antrim, in 1613.
Although the rebellions of 1716 and 1746, against the House of Hanover, made large additions to the Scotch population in the north of Ireland, yet by far the largest accession to this colonization were occasioned by religious persecutions in the time of the latter Stuarts. That fated race, blind to the dictates of justice and humanity, devoted with sullen bigotry to their peculiar notions in religion and politics, pursued a system of measures best calculated to wean from their support subjects the most devoted to their cause. The Scottish race was bound to the Stuarts by a national prejudice and sincere affection. But they were imbued with a religious enthusiasm, inspired by Knox, their great apostle, which ruled their consciences, and rendered the sanctions of a higher law superior to their patriotism, or their attachment to their native sovereigns. Rather they believed that true patriotism consisted in maintaining the religion transmitted by their fathers.
When, therefore, the Charles's and James H endeavored to introduce prelacy among them, and to force it upon their consciences by arbitrary laws and the iron hoofs of the dragoons of Clavertiouse, very many of these hardy, persistent and enduring Presbyterians having suffered to the bitter end of cruelty and oppression abandoned the land of their birth, the home of their fondest affections, and sought an asylum among their countrymen in the secure retreats of Ulster or fled across the ocean. They carried their household goods with them; and their religious peculiarities became more dear in the land of exile, for the dangers and sorrows through which they had borne then. Presbyterianism was transported from Geneva to Scotland by John Knox, who composed his first Book of Discipline, containing the substance of his intended policy, in 1561. In 1566 a general assembly approved the Discipline; and all church affairs after that time were managed by the Presbyteries and General Assemblies. They did not at first formally deprive the bishops, who had ecclesiastical jurisdiction, of their power, but they went on gradually and, steadily doing it as they acquired confidence and strength. In 1574 they voted bishops to be only pastors of one parish; in 1577 they decreed that bishops should be called by their own names without title; and next year they declared the name of bishop to be a nuisance. In 1580 they pronounced with one voice in the General Assembly that diocesan episcopacy was unscriptural and unlawful. The same year King James and his family, with the whole Scotch nation, subscribed a confession of faith, embracing the "solemn league and covenant,'' obliging them to maintain the protestant doctrine and Presbyterian government. Thus, in the space of twenty years grew up this formal, extensive and powerful institution, twining itself over the Scottish mind with stem and inflexible bands, which death only could solider; and for which home, country, life — all things beside— were freely given up. James had hardly become secure and easy on his English throne when he began his attack upon the religious system of his early life, and of his native country, and his successors followed it up with a pertinacity worthy of a better cause. The attempts to establish the church of England over Scotland, and destroy the religious system so universally established and so dearly cherished by that devoted people, was pursued by Charles and James the 2nd, by persecutions as mean, as cruel, and as savage as any that have disgraced the annals of religious bigotry and crime. And they did not cease until they had greatly depopulated Scotland, and were stripped of their power by the happy revolution under William and Mary, which restored repose to a distracted and long suffering people. Scotland, a country no larger than Maine, with a population at the close of the seventeenth century of a million, and in 1800 not so much as the present population of Massachusetts and Maine; with agricultural and other resources by no means equal to ours — of which a writer in a recent number of the Ecklinburg Review, on the Highlands, says : "At the end of the 17th century the chief social feature of the Highlands was famine and another was emigration." Yet this country has contributed largely by emigration, to furnish numerous and prominent settlers for many other lands; to the nation with which he is connected, profound statesmen, brilliant writers, and men the most renowned in every department of scientific and philosophical research.
This is the race, composed of various tribes flowing from different parts of Scotland, which furnished the materials of the Scotch-Irish immigration to this country. By their industry, frugality and skill they had made the deserted region into which they had moved a comparatively rich and flourishing country. They had improved agriculture and introduced manufactures, and by the excellence and high reputation of their productions had attracted trade and commerce to their markets, so as to excite the jealousy of government in the reigns of Anne and the first
George, notwithstanding that by their efforts and example the prosperity of the whole island had been promoted. The patronizing government began to recognize then in the shape of taxes and embarrassing regulations upon their industry and trade. The same jealousy controlled that government afterwards, in regard to the American Colonies, by which the commerce and enterprise of their subjects on this side of the ocean were, in like manner, hampered and restricted, so that they were hardly permitted to manufacture articles of the most common necessity, but were driven to import them from the mother country as glass, nails, hats, cloth, etc.
These restrictions occasioned great distress, not only in the north of Ireland but throughout the whole island. To this, Duglass (p. 368) says, ''was added an extravagant advance in rents by landlords, whose long leases were now expired." The energetic and self-willed population of the
north of Ireland, animated by the same spirit which subsequently moved the American mind, determined no longer to endure these oppressive measures ; and they sought by another change to find a freer verge for the exercise of their industry and skill, and for the enjoyment of their religion. One of their spiritual leaders, the Rev. Mr. McGregor, in a sermon which he preached on the eve of departure from Ireland, assigns the following reasons for their removal to America: First. To avoid oppressive and cruel bondage. Second. To shun persecution. Third. To withdraw from the communion of idolaters. Fourth. To have an opportunity of worshiping God according to the dictates of conscience and His inspired word. He looked at it chiefly from a religious point of view; others from a material and commercial standpoint. It was undoubtedly suggested and promoted by a variety of motives gradually operating upon the mass of the population which brought them to the determination, solemn and painful, to sunder the ties which had bound them firmly to their adopted country, and impelled them to seek new and doubtful homes in a wild, unexplored and far-distant land. The first immigration of these people to this country was to the middle and southern Colonies. As early as 1684 a settlement was formed in New Jersey, and in 1690 small groups were found in the Carolinas, Maryland and Pennsylvania. But it was not until the reigns of Anne and George I that large numbers, driven by oppressive measures of government and disastrous seasons, were induced to seek, even in the wilderness, a better home than their old settled region could give them. Gordon says: "Scarcity of corn, generally prevalent from discouragement of industry, amounted in 1728 and the following year almost to a famine, especially ions to America, which have since in- 3000 people annually from Ulster; afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, mostly in 1728 to divert the horrors of Tote to the English ministry March 7, seven ships then lying at Belfast that 000 passengers; most of them cannot work at home." He also says: "3100 men, women and children went from Ireland to America in 1727, and 4200 in three years, all protestants.' The principal seats of these emigrations were Pennsylvania and the middle states' The above is taken from an article in the New England Hist, and Gen. Register for July, 1858, by the Hon. William Willis of Portland, Me.
Historical Sketch of the Monnett Family **written by an ancestor, presented like a “saga”...
Scotch and Scotch-Irish Youngs.
"A Scotchman direct on my mother's side, Scotchman via Ulster on my father's side, I hope to discourse impartially. A Scotch-Irishman is a Scotchman born in Ireland — born there actually or in person of ancestor, with possible flavoring of Puritan, Quaker, or Huguenot; yet never inter-marrying with Irish; Scotchman forever, amongst shamrock or goldenrod. Ireland's Columba evangelized , Scotland. Scotland gave Ireland St. Patrick.
Panorama unfolds — savages gospelized, exalted Into a Kenneth Macalpine, Wallace Bruce, John Knox, Robert Bums, Walter Scott, Alexander Duff, Hamilton, Chalmers, Drummond, Gladstone. Scotch colony transplanted to sou of Erin, betwixt Giant's Causeway — Grampian Range extended under sea, and Carlingford Lough, Scot and Irishman warring everlastingly, Presbyterian, Ulsterman ground beneath tyranny's iron heel, migrating for freedom's cause to America, principally to Pennsylvania, most venturesome filing along Juniata to Alleghenies and westward, battles with French and Indians and British, and forest with ravenous wild animals and rattlesnakes, with hunger and cold; conquering every foe, pioneers to Carolinas, indicting Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, furnishing author and one-fourth the signers to the declaration of July 4, 1776; half the presidents of the United States, Scotch blood ceasing to flow when Abraham Lincoln's heart stopped beating; producing half of the Presbyterian ministers, besides soldiers, jurists, inventors, educators beyond reckoning; building Pittsburgh and Allegheny and adjacent institutions of learning.Washington and Jefferson ranking topmost in America for proportion of great public men graduated or prepared; Christianity, the passion — matchless record of the race, 'Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers.' To lift your being to its loftiest, make their God your God.
Panorama unfolds — savages gospelized, exalted Into a Kenneth Macalpine, Wallace Bruce, John Knox, Robert Bums, Walter Scott, Alexander Duff, Hamilton, Chalmers, Drummond, Gladstone. Scotch colony transplanted to sou of Erin, betwixt Giant's Causeway — Grampian Range extended under sea, and Carlingford Lough, Scot and Irishman warring everlastingly, Presbyterian, Ulsterman ground beneath tyranny's iron heel, migrating for freedom's cause to America, principally to Pennsylvania, most venturesome filing along Juniata to Alleghenies and westward, battles with French and Indians and British, and forest with ravenous wild animals and rattlesnakes, with hunger and cold; conquering every foe, pioneers to Carolinas, indicting Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, furnishing author and one-fourth the signers to the declaration of July 4, 1776; half the presidents of the United States, Scotch blood ceasing to flow when Abraham Lincoln's heart stopped beating; producing half of the Presbyterian ministers, besides soldiers, jurists, inventors, educators beyond reckoning; building Pittsburgh and Allegheny and adjacent institutions of learning.Washington and Jefferson ranking topmost in America for proportion of great public men graduated or prepared; Christianity, the passion — matchless record of the race, 'Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers.' To lift your being to its loftiest, make their God your God.
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