This article, originally published in June 2016, has generated more views than anything I’ve written on this blog. That makes me think I’m not the only one who has spent some time on Google learning about the Scots-Irish. Here it is again, just in case you missed it.
Happy 2019! May your brick walls crumble …
Robin
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Introduction
This is a non-academic discussion of Scots-Irish (or Scotch-Irish) history from about 1600 to roughly the mid-eighteenth century. The focus is on Scots-Irish migration. The objective is to provide family history researchers an overview regarding where their Scots-Irish ancestors came from, and when and why they migrated.
When I started doing family history research, I had no idea what “Scots-Irish” meant. I had a vague idea (I must blush) that it meant one had mixed Irish and Scottish ancestry. Turns out I am an awful student of history. The Scots-Irish were Protestant Scots who settled in northernmost Ireland – specifically, in the province of Ulster – and later migrated from Ireland to the colonies.
Background
We need to start with a bit of Irish political history and geography.
Ireland was traditionally divided into four provinces: Ulster, Connaught, Leinster, and Munster. Ulster, the focus of interest in this article, was located in the northernmost part of Ireland. Nine counties made up Ulster: (1) Antrim, (2) Down, (3) Armagh, (4) Derry, (5) Fermanagh and (6) Tyrone, plus (7) Cavan, (8) Monaghan, and (9) Donegal.
Here is a map showing the four traditional Irish provinces and the counties comprising them.
The history of the relationship among Ireland, Scotland and England is way beyond my expertise. Suffice it to say that, in 1603, the Kingdom of England – which included England, Wales and those parts of Ireland controlled by the English – was united with the Kingdom of Scotland. King James VI of Scotland became James I of England and Scotland.
King James is a big star in this narrative.
Fast forward in time two centuries. In 1800, the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” came into being, composed of all of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England. In 1922, the Republic of Ireland gained independence from the United Kingdom. Oversimplifying the matter considerably, a vocal Protestant minority whose existence can be traced back to James I (more on that shortly) wanted no part of a predominantly Catholic Ireland. Those Protestants were concentrated in Ulster. To prevent civil insurrection, the British allowed the nine Ulster counties to decide by vote whether they wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom. The northeastern part of Ulster (the first six Ulster counties in the list above) voted to remain a part of the United Kingdom. The British partitioned those six counties to form Northern Ireland. The remaining three counties which had been part of the province of Ulster – Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal – became a part of the Republic of Ireland. After the partition and Ireland’s independence, the U.K. was composed of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Perhaps you have an ancestor with a classic Scots-Irish name – Alexander, Rankin, Gillespie, Ewing, Steele, Kerr, Caldwell, McQuiston, Denny, or Wallace – who was born, say, in Letterkenny, County Donegal in the 1600s. In light of Irish history, it would be correct to say he or she was born in Ulster (the province), or (more colorfully) the “Ulster Plantation,” or (geographically) the northern part of Ireland. It would not be correct to say he or she was born in Northern Ireland, a country that didn’t come into existence for another three centuries. I am still trying to correct all the instances in which I have made that error.
But it would almost certainly be correct to say that your ancestor was Presbyterian. Solid fact #1: it is almost redundant to describe someone as a Scots-Irish Presbyterian.
The factors that drove the migration of the Scots-Irish from Scotland to Ulster and then to the colonies are more complicated. What ultimately became known as the “Irish Troubles” seems to be a cautionary tale about unintended consequences.
Original settlement of the Ulster Plantation
As noted above, James I of Great Britain, aka James VI of Scotland, became the first king of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1603. James was a Protestant rather than a Catholic or an Anglican (the official church of England after Henry VIII’s dispute with the Pope over his divorce).
Also in 1603, the leading Irish Catholic families of Ulster surrendered to end the Nine Years War, which had been an effort to stop the expansion of English power in Ireland. Large Irish landowners fled the country, leaving behind estates of roughly 500,000 acres. James appropriated those estates for the crown. In 1607, James claimed almost six counties of additional land. Not surprisingly, many of those who lost their land had been the leading opponents of English control of Ireland. They were native Irish and Catholic.
James also ordered thousands of remaining Irish Catholic tenants to move from Ulster to other parts of Ireland. This created the opportunity to repopulate land taken from rebellious Irish landowners with more reliably loyal Protestants from England and Scotland. The crown made liberal offers of land and other inducements to accomplish that end. People heard; they came.
James correctly predicted that more Scots than English would relocate to Ulster, a fairly barren place (then), too rough for what James perceived to be the more delicate English temperament. A sizeable population – notable primarily for their Presbyterianism – made the short trip across the channel from Scotland into the northern part of Ireland. During 1610 through 1612, an estimated ten thousand Scots, mostly from the Scottish Lowlands, settled in Ulster. As many as 50,000 Lowland Scots had settled in Ulster by 1620.
Needless to say, the remaining native Irish Catholics thoroughly detested the Protestant Scots settlers. The feeling was mutual.
The Irish Rebellion of 1641
It didn’t take long for this simmering caldron to boil over. Beginning in October 1641, a bloody episode called the “Irish Rebellion” began. It first erupted in Ulster, when native Irish Catholics surprised Protestant settlers and killed them in large numbers. The Irish were apparently afraid that the English Parliament was going to gin out some new repressive anti-Catholic legislation. The attacks may have been preemptive action to “disarm” the Ulster Protestants, who would have been charged with enforcing any such laws. Considering the “legacy of hatred built into the Ulster Plantation,” the violence – says The Oxford History of Britain, in a masterful case of British understatement – “inevitably got out of hand.” A Covenanter army arrived from Scotland to help protect the Ulster Scots, to little avail. “Massacre” is the appropriate term. Although estimates vary wildly, a BBC website suggests that thirty percent of the Protestant population in Ulster died.
The Irish Rebellion lasted for almost ten years, spreading to other areas of Ireland during the English Civil Wars. It ended when the armies of Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland and slaughtered the inhabitants of Drogheda and Wexford, Irish Catholic towns on the east coast.
Not long thereafter, other religious persecution blossomed across the channel in Scotland. Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II and James II set about trying to force Episcopacy down the throats of the Scottish. This created conflicts between Presbyterians and the Bishops of the Anglican establishment. It culminated in an intense phase of persecution in the 1680s, a period appropriately referred to as “the killing times.” The victims were Presbyterian Scots.
The killing times gave rise to the second large migration of Protestants from their homeland in Scotland to the relatively safe Ulster. Imagine thinking of Ulster as safe, after that 1641 massacre! This second migratory wave took place from about 1683 to 1689, when William and Mary (Protestants) assumed the throne.
Economic troubles
It wasn’t just religious persecution that drove these migrations. Economic issues also played a major role, of course. Both the English and Irish parliaments contributed, as did Mother Nature.
The first legislative targets were beef and beef products. After the Cromwellian civil wars of the 1640s, the export of cattle from Ireland to England increased substantially, as did exports of beef, cheese and butter. This adversely impacted English cattle raisers, who persuaded the Parliament of Charles II (after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660) to pass an act prohibiting the shipping of cattle, beef, cheese and butter from Ireland to England or to any of the English colonies. I imagine that cut into the profitability of raising Irish cattle, although I haven’t found any relevant data.
The next legislative blow was to the Ulster wool industry, which had grown rapidly in northern Ireland in the late 1600s. Irish wool and wool product exports hurt sheep raisers in England, so government swung into action. In 1698, under pressure from the English, the Irish Parliament placed heavy duties on Irish export of manufactured wool. In 1699, the English Parliament passed an act forbidding the export from Ireland of all goods made or mixed with wool – except to England and Wales. This immediately crippled the wool industries in Ulster: woolen factories closed down virtually overnight. This started the first migration of the Scots-Irish to America at approximately the turn of the century. Most of those early immigrants settled in New England.
Meanwhile, taxes on the Ulster Scots were going up, as were rents. “Rack renting” became the practice. This means that landlords raised rents on land, evicted tenants who couldn’t pay, then rented to the highest bidder. By the early 1700s, most of the leases granted to settlers in the 1680s migration from Scotland to Ulster were expiring, making this practice widespread. Annual “rack rents” were sometimes equal to the total value of the land.
1717: the “Great Migration” to the colonies begins
Religious persecution reared its ugly head again, with Anglicans back in charge in England. In 1704, the English Parliament passed the Test Act, requiring all government officials, and all town, county and army officers, and all lawyers, to take communion according to the forms and rites of the Church of England. This effectively wiped out most of the civil service in northern Ireland. In 1714, the Schism Act required all school teachers to secure a license from a bishop of the Anglican Church. A bishop could grant a license only to those who conformed to the Test Act. Goodbye, teaching jobs.
Nature piled on. There was a serious drought in Ireland caused by six years of insufficient rainfall during 1714 through 1719. That was undoubtedly the final straw. The first wave of the “Great Migration” began in earnest during 1717-1718. During 1717, more than 5,000 Ulster residents left for the colonies. During the next three years, nearly a hundred ships sailed from ports in the north of Ireland, carrying in all as many as 25,000 passengers. They were virtually all Presbyterian.
Pennsylvania was the primary destination: the Pennsylvania Secretary of State expressly invited settlement by new immigrants. By 1720, “go to America” from Ulster meant migrating to one of the Delaware River ports. For most of the Great Migration, the majority of Scots-Irish entered the colonies through Philadelphia, Chester, or New Castle, Delaware. Most of these immigrants settled in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester and Lancaster counties, Pennsylvania.
During 1725 through 1729, the exodus from Ulster became so large that the English Parliament appointed a commission to investigate the cause, fearing a loss of the entire Protestant population in Ulster. The main problems were identified as rack rents and general poverty.
The largest wave of migration began in 1740-41, when an estimated 400,000 Irish died in the famine of those years. For the next decade, Scots-Irish arrived in the colonies in huge numbers. By then, the power elite in Pennsylvania had become alarmed at the prospect that the Scots-Irish would take over the government. Consequently, Pennsylvania landowners quit selling land to the immigrants, because land ownership conferred voting rights. Fortunately, Lord Granville was advertising cheap and abundant land for sale in North Carolina. The result was a huge migration from Pennsylvania to the Piedmont Plateau of North Carolina via the Great Wagon Road of the Shenandoah Valley. One landowner on the Great Wagon Road route estimated that 5,000 wagons crossed the James River in Virginia in 1755, mostly bound for the huge area that was then Rowan County, North Carolina. Some dropped out and settled along the way, especially in Augusta County, Virginia.
In 1771, a final large wave of immigration from Ulster began, again caused by rack rents. There was some violent and ultimately useless resistance to rent increases by Ulster residents, all Presbyterians, known as the “Hearts of Steel” or “Steelboys.” Landowners, with the law and the army on their side, prevailed. In the few years left before the Revolution, an additional 30,000 Ulster residents reportedly left for the colonies.
Estimated numbers of Scots-Irish in the colonies vary wildly, and I have no knowledgeable basis for discriminating among them. One source estimates that, by 1776, 300,000 people — one-sixth of the (white) population of all the colonies — were Scots-Irish. Yet another source puts the number of Scots-Irish in the colonies at the start of the Revolution at 230,000. In any event, with a total white and black population of about 2.5 million in the mid-1770s, even the smaller of those estimates is a significant percentage of the total.
Those Ulster immigrants had no love for the English. They became the heart of the American Revolution – not the intellectual heart, but the muscle. Captain Johann Henricks, a Hessian mercenary in the British army, wrote, “[c]all it not an American rebellion, it is nothing more than an Irish-Scotch Presbyterian Rebellion.”
Solid fact #2: “Scots-Irish” and “Tory” are mutually exclusive terms. If you have a male Scots-Irish ancestor who was in his twenties or thirties during roughly 1775-1785, you almost certainly have a Revolutionary War veteran on your family tree. Happy hunting!
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Sources. I clicked rapidly among websites looking for information, e.g., Googling “when was the Restoration,” without making decent notes of my sources. This list undoubtedly omits dozens of other credible websites containing historical information which I used to help prepare this post. I apologize for failing to list them all.
- “Scotch-Irish.” Dictionary of American History. 2003. Retrieved June 19, 2016 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401803772.html
- “Henry the VIII and Ireland.” 2015. Retrieved June 24, 2016 from The History Learning Site.co.uk: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/tudor-england/henry-viii-and-ireland/
- Kenneth O. Morgan, The Oxford History of Britain (Oxford: The Oxford University Press, 1999, upated edition 2010). In 1707, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland merged. I don’t know the difference between the 1707 “merger” and the 1603 “union,” described in a couple of the articles I read as a “personal union” under the crown.
- Online excerpts at various websites from James G. Leyburn, The Scotch-Irish, A Social History (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1962).
- “Wars and Conflict: the Plantation of Ulster.” Retrieved June 25, 2016: bbc.co.uk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/plantation/planters/es10.shtml. This location has been archived and is no longer being maintained.
- “Covenanters” were Scots who were opposed to interference by British royalty in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. See Scottish Covenanters Memorial Association, retrieved June 24, 2016: http://www.covenanter.org.uk/WhoWere/
- Ulster Historical Foundation retrieved June 25, 2016: http://www.ancestryireland.com/history-of-the-irish-parliament/background-to-the-statutes/manufacturing-mining/
I bought several books on the Scots-Irish migration to North Carolina. believe your is the most concise and clearest explanation that I have read. Thank you, I will save this article to let my kida read it when they are ready.
Michael Moore
My mother’s mother was a Willis so I am in the process of researching this line in my family, trying to find the parents of my great grandfather, George Washington Willis. Finding his parents have been a brick wall for me, I have been following your blog on the Willis lines. Thank you for sharing your info with us. That being said, I also have lines on my father’s mothers Ramsey lines and I have Steele families in that line. My DNA shows I have Scottish/Welsh. I can trace the Steele back to Andrew Steele 1743 • Augusta County, Virginia (married Mary Ramsey 1747 • Augusta County, Virginia, daughter of John Ramsey and and Mary Black) and his father, Samuel Steele Birth ABT 1709 • Ireland-20 JAN 1790 • Augusta County, Virginia. I find that it is interesting that you bring up the name “Steele” in this article and that I believe they were in County Donegal, Ireland. I appreciate the work you have put into your research and will continue to follow your blog as you have helped me locate some of my Willis ancestors who descended from Andrew Willis Birth 1690 • Dorchester County, Maryland-Death 1738 • Dorchester County, Maryland.
Thank you. Trish Funderburg Walls
Trish, I love the Steeles; anywhere you find one (through about 1850, anyway), you KNOW that you are in the middle of a bunch of Scots-Irish! Augusta County is full of them, as are the counties near the Delaware River ports — e.g., New Castle Co., DE, Cecil Co., MD, Chester/Lancaster/Lumberland/Franklin, PA. My husband Gary Willis is the author of all the Willis articles, so I will pass on your kind words to him. I’m sure he will keep his eyes peeled for your George W. Willis.
And you are quite welcome. Doing this is our idea of fun!
Robin
Robin or Gary –
Very good information. Well put together and well written. I’ll be spending more time going through your stories and info!
I have a question for you. I’m a descendant of the Browns who were in Tishomingo County, MS in the mid-1800s. Families that appear to have been allied to mine were Waldrip, Swain, Estes, Rankin and Derryberry. There were a number of marriages between members of these families, so when I came across your site it certainly caught my attention.
I’ve shared your site with one of my DNA cousins who is a Swain descendant.
I’d love to discuss this specific period in your family’s history. Is it possible to email you directly? You can email me directly anytime.
Thanks, and terrific work!
Jeff Brown
Jeff, we are undoubtedly related, at least by marriage: I have both Rankin and Estes ancestors in Tishomingo (my great-grandfather was born there), and they are well-mixed with Swains and Derryberrys. I will send you an email so that we can communicated directly. And thanks for the kind words! I hope you and your Swain cousin have subscribed to the blog!
Robin
Robin – I subscribed today and pointed her to your blog. Terrific stuff!
Here are a few names I’ve consistently seen with my Browns: Rankin, Estes, Swain, Merchant, Derryberry and Waldrip. There may be a couple others I’m forgetting. If you come across those names, maybe you’ll see them in the pattern as well. All appear to have been Scots-Irish and it looks like traveled together, married, and were involved in other legal ways.
Thanks again for all the work. I’ll be following!
Jeff
Jack County, Texas
Jeff, you’re definitely right about these families (or at least the ones I know — Derryberry, Swain, and Estes) traveling together. Samuel Rankin (my ancestor) was a “new” addition to the Tishomingo crowd, and he and his wife (Mary Frances Estes) moved on to Jefferson Co., AR. An Estes who married a Derryberry went to Little River Co., AR. 2 Estes brother and their sister Martha Ann Estes Swain went to McLennan Co., TX.
One minor quibble: the Estes weren’t Scots-Irish. The immigrant Estes ancestor of the Tishomingo Estes (Lyddal Bacon Estes and his wife Nancy Winn Estes of Lunenburg) was an Abraham Estes from Kent, England. His Estes/Eastes line traces back nicely in Kent to the 1400s. Good ol’ Anglican marriage/death/birth records …
Samuel Rankin, however, was Scots-Irish through and through. Most of the Rankins I’ve studied have also been Ulster immigrants. The ones for whom there is no clue of origin, there is usually another solid hint: they were Presbyterian.
Fun stuff.
Regards,
Robin
Trish,
I think the father of your George Washington Willis was Charles B Willis, son of Jarvis Willis the Rev War Vet, son of John Willis and Nancy LNU, son of Andrew Willis and Rebecca Goostree, son of John the Immigrant Willis. I am working on a major project on the descendants of John the Immigrant and would love any info you can share about the descendants of George W.
Thanks, Gary Willis
I know we’ve already corresponded on this Gary but I still wanted to add this here in this comment:
No, this is not isn’t my George.
Hi Gary, thanks for getting back with me. I should have explained my George to you. My George was born 10 November 1865 in Alabama. He appears in the 1870 census in Holmes, Mississippi with what appears to be his siblings, living with their grandfather. Charles Monroe Willis1802 Mississippi-died aft 1870 in Richland, Holmes, Mississippi. I was contacted about a year ago by Vern Willis. I can verify my George Washington Willis as my great grandfather with documentation. The siblings listed living with Charles Monroe are too young for him so we believe something happened to their parents and are left living with their grandfater.
These 4 children are:
Ann Willis 1859–
Charley M Willis 1860-1829
Emeline (Emma) 1861-1829
George Washington Willis 1865-1841
As I said, I can verify my George and Vern has determined through DNA tests from me and the descendants of Charley and Emeline that we are all three of the same family lines. And by tracing the these other children we can document them all being in areas together.
I have been researching my George for some time and could never find him with parents in 1870. I finally sent for and just received about 3 weeks ago the death record for George. It gives his fathers name as Charles and born in Alabama and no name for his mother.
From Charles Monroe, Vern and you have connected us with C. M. father is Henry Willis 1784 then Jarvis Willis 6 Dec 1758 Dorchester County, Md., John Willis 1725 Dorchester County, Md., Andrew Willis 1690 Dorchester.
So this is my line. I do enjoy reading your post and will continue to follow them. Thanks againg for your info.
Trish
Trish,
Thanks for your comment. Several of us have been trying without success to tie this family back too the Maryland Group in th eWillis DNA Project. We will keep plugging away and something will break for us sooner or later.
Gary
Hello Robin!
First, thank you for this wonderful site. It’s so fun to read where you and your husband have wandered to find your ancestral past.
My name is Leah and I have been semi-successfully researching my Rankin line, but eventually hit my armchair brick wall.
Based on what I have at my disposal, I have been able to track my ancestor 3GG – Robert Emmett Rankin (b. 1815, KY d. 1883, TX) through Arkansas marriage to Mary Augusta Cunliffe through LA to TX.
I would be interested in a discussion with you if at all possible.
Thank you again!
Leah
Leah, thanks for commenting! I will send a private email so we can talk more easily about your Rankins.
Regards,
Robin
Robin
I am interested in James Rankin married to Rebecca Fraser. Do you know where they lived? I have Rebecca in Kent Co Maryland. I have traced her through Kentucky to Posey County after her marriage to Jonathan Jaquess.
I am related to the Frasers through Elizabeth Fraser and the Casey side.
Jud Scott
Jud, those names ring a bell but a quick search of my files didn’t produce anything. Where is the last place that you found James Rankin appearing in the records, and when was it? Did you find him in any census?
Hello there, I just came across your website today. My 3rd Great Grandfather Hugh Rankin was born on May 11, 1789 in Cavan, Derry Co. Northern Ireland. He had three brothers Thomas b. 1797, John b. 1803-1807 Matthew b. 1812, all born in the same place and all listed in Canada as Presbyterians. They arrived in Canada circa 1826 and settled in Augusta Township, Grenville, Ontario, Canada where he was married in 1830. Several brothers married McIntosh sisters who immigrated to Ontario, Canada from Londonderry, Ireland. I am able to trace the family from this point on. I noticed most of your information is those Rankin’s who went to the USA at earlier dates. Are you aware of any information regarding those who came to Canada? Much appreciated
Barbara, I’m so glad to hear from you! I am just starting to learn about Canadian Rankins. There are a bunch of you out there!
Robin