Scotlands Mark on America | Page 5

of his unspeikable love and tindir affectioun" for his Scottish subjects had decided that they were to be allowed a share, and he adds, that here is a great opportunity for Scotland since "we haif greitt advantaige of transporting of our men and bestiall [i.e., live stock of a farm] in regairde we lye so neir to that coiste of Ulster." Immediately on receipt of this letter the Scottish Privy Council made public proclamation of the news and announced that those of them "quho ar disposit to tak ony land in Yreland" were to present their desires and petitions to the Council. The first application enrolled was by "James Andirsoun portionair of Litle Govane," and by the 14th of September seventy-seven Scots had come forward as purchasers. If their offers had been accepted, they would have possessed among them 141,000 acres of land. In 1611, in consequence of a rearrangement of applicants the number of favored Scots was reduced to fifty-nine, with eighty-one thousand acres of land at their disposal. Each of these "Undertakers," as they were called, was accompanied to his new home by kinsmen, friends, and tenants, as Lord Ochiltree, for instance, who is mentioned as having arrived "accompanied with thirty-three followers, a minister, some tenants, freeholders, [and] artificers." By the end of 1612 the emigration from Scotland is estimated to have reached 10,000. Indeed, before the end of this year so rapidly had the traffic increased between Scotland and Ireland that the passage between the southwest of Scotland and Ulster "is now become a commoun and are ordinarie ferrie," the boat-men of which were having a rare time of it by charging what they pleased for the passage or freight. In the selection of the settlers measures were carefully taken that they should be "from the inwards part of Scotland," and that they should be so located in Ulster that "they may not mix nor intermarry" with "the mere Irish." For the most part the settlers appear to have been selected from the shires of Dumbarton, Renfrew, Ayr, Galloway, and Dumfries. Emigration from Scotland to Ireland appears to have continued steadily and the English historian Carte estimated, after diligent documentary study, that by 1641 there were in Ulster 100,000 Scots and 20,000 English settlers. In 1656 it was proposed by the Irish government that persons "of the Scottish nation desiring to come into Ireland" should be prohibited from settling in Ulster or County Louth, but the scheme was not put into effect. Governmental opposition notwithstanding emigration from Scotland to Ireland appears to have continued steadily, and after the Revolution of 1688 there seems to have been a further increase. Archbishop Synge estimated that by 1715 not less than 50,000 Scottish families had settled in Ulster during these twenty-seven years. It should be also mentioned that "before the Ulster plantation began there was already a considerable Scottish occupation of the region nearest to Scotland. These Scottish settlements were confined to counties Down and Antrim, which were not included in the scheme of the plantation. Their existence facilitated Scottish emigration to the plantation and they were influential in giving the plantation the Scottish character which it promptly acquired. Although planned to be in the main an English settlement, with one whole county turned over to the city of London alone, it soon became in the main a Scottish settlement."
The Scots were not long settled in Ulster before misfortune and persecution began to harass them. The Irish rebellion of 1641, said by some to have been an outbreak directed against the Scottish and English settlers, regarded by the native Irish as intruders and usurpers, caused them much suffering; and Harrison says that for "several years afterward 12,000 emigrants annually left Ulster for the American plantations." The Revolution of 1688 was also long and bloody in Ireland and the sufferings of the settlers reached a climax in the siege of Londonderry (April to August, 1688). They suffered also from the restrictions laid upon their industries and commerce by the English government. These restrictions, and later the falling in of leases, rack-renting by the landlords, payment of tithes for support of a church with which they had no connection, and several other burdens and annoyances, were the motives which impelled emigration to the American colonies from 1718 onwards. Five ships bearing seven hundred Ulster Scots emigrants arrived in Boston on August 4, 1718, under the leadership of Rev. William Boyd. They were allowed to select a township site of twelve miles square at any place on the frontiers. A few settled at Portland, Maine, at Wicasset, and at Worcester and Haverhill, Massachusetts, but the greater number finally at Londonderry, New Hampshire. In 1723-4 they built a parsonage and a church for their minister, Rev. James MacGregor. In six years they had four