Becoming Scots-Irish
For Americans whose roots are deep in Appalachian soil, having “Scotch-Irish” (more correctly, Scots-Irish) heritage is a given. Many of us were raised on stories of ancestors migrating into the mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama from Tidewater Virginia and Pennsylvania, seeking space to breathe and land of their own. It has been said that they chose the mountains because the lush green peaks and hollows of the Blue Ridge and Great Smokies reminded them of home. Whether it was a former home in Ireland or in Scotland was never made completely clear for understanding our heritage can get rather confusing. Are we transplanted Highlanders, Lowlanders, or plain Irish with a funny name?
For anyone claiming Scots-Irish ancestry, the answer is often found originally in Lowlands Scotland with the Irish bit added somewhere after 1610. To know how this came to be, one must look much farther back to the time of the Norman Conquest. A little over 100 years after firmly planting themselves in England, Henry II (1139-1189) and his Norman noblemen turned their gaze westward.
In 1171, Henry’s Norman knights invaded Ireland for the first time, beginning a 500 year struggle to dominant the Irish whom they deemed an inferior race. Over the centuries, it became customary for English kings to reward Anglo-Norman families with conquered Irish lands in the hope they would help subdue the native Irish. Most of these plans failed. Through intermarriage and other associations, many of the Anglo-Normans became as Irish as the natives. They turned on their benefactors and joined in the Irish struggle to resist English domination. By the reign of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558-1603), trying to keep the Irish in check had become a serious drain on the royal exchequer.[1]
Tired of her countrymen becoming Irish to the core, Elizabeth fell upon a new scheme for ensuring her transplanted subjects remained British in heart, mind, and soul. Instead of a few noblemen who would soon turn into Anglo-Irishmen and join the resistance, she would send hundreds of her subjects to form a colony. The plan involved awarding lands to English noblemen who could guarantee bringing enough Englishmen with them to form a “planation.” The native Irish would be driven from their lands and the English would move in. Elizabeth’s colonization attempts failed due to the English being outnumbered by the usurped Irish, who unsurprisingly, raided, burned property, and generally harassed these unwelcome interlopers. In addition, the number of English induced to migrate was not sufficient to provide a strong military presence while trying to make a go of their farms. Unhappy colonists usually returned home to England.[2]
With James I of England (James VI of Scotland), the English plantation scheme was revised once more. In 1603, as Elizabeth lay on her deathbed, the English under the leadership of Lord Mountjoy instituted an Irish policy so harsh that the Ulster region was all but depopulated through starvation. The door was now open for a permanent English presence in Ireland. Emptying the Ulster region of its native Irish coupled with the burgeoning private enterprise of English lords and Scottish lairds sealed its fate.
James I’s plan was simple and economical. He would reward with Irish lands English and Scottish gentry and nobility, veterans of the Irish wars, the London Companies, the Established Church of Ireland (Anglican Church), and Trinity College in Dublin (founded 1592). Initially, Scotsmen were not considered for participation in the plantation scheme, but in 1609, a letter to the Scottish Privy Council changed that. James’s English advisors recognized that those living in southwestern Scotland were a mere thirty miles across the sea from Ulster and had far greater inducements to emigrate than their countrymen to the south in England’s gentler climate.
By 1611, 81,000 Ulster acres had been granted to fifty-nine Scotsmen, five of whom were lords and the rest were gentry. An English or Scots “undertaker”, as the recipients of Irish land were called at the time, was bound by agreement with the crown to bring “forty-eight able men of an age eighteen and upwards, being born in England or the inward parts of Scotland” (i.e., the Lowlands), to grant farms to his tenants, and to maintain muskets and hand weapons sufficient to arm himself and his tenants. Life in Scotland at the time was difficult, some might say brutal. The subsistence farmers of the Lowlands could barely feed their families. Horse thieving and marauding filled in the gaps created by desperation. Emigration to a land of rich soil and better growing conditions must have seemed a Godsend.[3]
In the years 1610 through 1697, a steady stream of Lowlands Scots, as many as 200,000, flowed into the Ulster region to the counties of Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, Donegal, Cavan, Fermanagh, and Derry. Unlike earlier transplants, they did not give up and go home nor did they become fully Irish. Staunch Presbyterians, they retained their Protestant faith and remained loyal British subjects. They stayed in Ireland until the call of the New World had many of them packing up for another chance at land and freedom. The 1800’s would see a second wave of Scottish migration into Ireland because of the Highland Clearances.[4] Whether of Highland or Lowland origin, these transplanted Scots poured into Pennsylvania and Tidewater Virginia before spreading inland to the mountains. Historians, sociologists, and anthropologists who have studied the Appalachian people say their strong Scots-Irish heritage can be traced through speech patterns, word usage, music, and traditions. That, however, will be the subject of a later post.
For me, the answer to the question of Lowlands or Highlands Scots heritage isn’t an either/or proposition, but rather the answer is probably both. Either way, my people are counted among those who were born fighting, as long ago Scots-Irish were said to have been.[5]
Gallery
Notes
[1] Leyburn, James G, The Scotch-Irish: a Social History (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1962), 83-87.
[2] Leyburn, 87.
[3] Leyburn, 88-94.
[4] http://www.ulsterscotssociety.com/about.html, accessed July 6, 2015.
[5] Webb, Jim, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. (New York: Broadway Books, 2005).
What a wonderful explanation. I’ve never seen the whole story laid out so clearly–and that history of course determined what happened in the Partition in the 20th century, and explains why Donegal is attached to the Republic by a strip only five miles wide at one point. Donegal, which was much less fertile than the rest of Ulster, was where many Catholic Irish displaced by the Scots and British had fled, and the emerging Northern Ireland did not want their Protestant country diluted by such a strong Catholic base. The line was drawn to include as much of the more prosperous east as possible, thus the thin thread connecting Donegal to the rest of Ireland.
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Love the extra info, Beppie! I tried to explain a very complicated situation in a short space. Glad you found it interesting!
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Very informative article. I loved all your graphics.
I am Scot-Irish. Neil of Nine Stones, an Irish king (there were plenty of those) took a Scottish Bride from the Isle of Barra. Their descendants moved to Barra and the Macneill Clan became seamen. Since it’s a small island, there wasn’t much else to do. Eventually, they became more like pirates with a contempt for the English and, in 1746, they sank an English ship. They were all kicked off Barra which was taken over for a while by the Macdonald clan. Half were exiled to Wilmington, North Carolina, and the other half (my ancestors) were sent to Nova Scotia and settled mostly in the hilly country of New Breton. You’re right, they seem to love hills and mountains.
I really enjoyed your post.
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Sarah, that is one terrific story. It would serve as a great background for a novel.
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Wow, love the family history, Sarah! My “Scotch-Irish” people wound up in the north Georgia mountains via North Carolina. I am always reminded of the Robert Burns poem “My Heart’s in the Highlands” when the subject of Scotland arises.
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Reblogged this on NEVA BROWN & BOOKS.
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Love your post, Linda. I never thought of myself as Scotch or Irish, but the Ancestry.com DNA test proved otherwise. My ancestors settled in the Pennsylvania hillsides before migrating to Ohio. No Indians in my DNA, but 10% Irish. Who would have thought?
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I am thinking of doing the Ancestry DNA thing. Glad I am not the only one that curious about the percentages of my ancestral bits and parts!
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Amazing post. So informative. I come from well documented family lines, so have always known I was ‘Scotch Irish’ as my dear grandmother referred to us, before we were told that was incorrect. I now go with Scots-Irish too. But the old ones didn’t. Wonderful to see such a great post.
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Thank you for dropping by, Beth! The older generation of my family also referred to us as Scotch-Irish. Being teetotaling Southern Baptists, they didn’t get the joke when someone would say, “Scotch is a drink, not a group of people!”
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Right. They wouldn’t. Neither did my strict Presbyterian folk. 🙂 Although there were some black sheep in the family, including Sam Houston, thought very wild.
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Linda, you really outdid yourself, summing up all of the pertinent history. I’ve read a lot of historical research books, and I would have loved to had your article as a starting point because the Scots-Irish background is very hard to trace through all the twists and turns of history, IMHO. Superb job! Loved reading this article.
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So glad you enjoyed the post, Hebby! The two books cited in the bibliography are great starting places. In addition, I recommend How the Scots Invented the Modern World.
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Very well informed post. As someone who lives in the North of Ireland and has a lot of Irish-American followers who don’t know the history, it’s refreshing to read this post. I wonder if the question is still relevant to those of Stots-Irish descent… would you rather be a descendant of those who first came to Ireland to conquer, or of one of the natives who would resist those who would conquer??? Really enjoyed the comments to your fine post. steVe
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Thank you, Steve, for your kind comments. I am somewhat hesitant to attempt to answer your question for I fear that I may misrepresent or step on toes; therefore, I will answer based solely upon my own experience and personal observation.
The stories passed down through my family focused more on Scots heritage than on Irish heritage. It was never said that our family was Irish, but rather Scots-Irish, although I strongly suspect that we have some pure Irish ancestry as well. I might suggest that one’s Scots and/or Irish ancestry could be traced through DNA testing, but I can’t help wondering if the Scots and the Irish are difficult to distinguish genetically due to the eons of traffic back and forth between southern Scotland and eastern Ireland. I have read that the ancient Scots who settled what is present day Scotland, as did the Picts, were originally from Ireland. A Celt by any other name?Americans have a very fuzzy idea of Scots heritage at best. Highland games are popular over here and everybody claims to be a Highlander. Yeah. Right. Most of us have a big dose of Lowland Scots, too.
From my personal observation, Americans whose families have been in the New World as long as mine has enjoy genealogy as a hobby, but don’t spend too much time stressing about where our ancestors originated because there are so many of them and they came from so many different places, including the New World itself. We’re just glad to have an idea of who the ancestors were. For example, we know that the main lines in my family trace back to the early 1700’s, all on this side of the pond. We count among our ancestors Scots, English, Dutch, German, maybe Irish (depending on where our Collins relations originated), and Cherokee, Creek, and/or both. And this information is based solely on the surnames in the family. No doubt deeper research would reveal bits and pieces from other locations as well. The thing about so many Americans, myself included, is that we are basically mongrels, as an English friend once pointed out. And by the way, we are damned proud of it.
I don’t want to appear harsh or uncaring in what I will say below. Watching the struggle in northern Ireland from over here is depressing and makes one very sad. For me, however, I can’t change what happened hundreds of years ago; therefore, answering your question is irrelevant to my life. Because I probably have ancestors who came down on both sides of the issue, just like my ancestors did in the case of our Civil War, I really can’t choose one or the other. To do so would be to deny a part of my ancestry and change who I am. Actually, it could even void my existence. I’m sure you’ve heard the dire warnings about messing with historical events if we ever get this time travel thing down. I have written about my Scots and Scots-Irish ancestry because it is the part about which I know the most. I could just as easily write about how much German and Moravian influence there is in the same region that was settled by the Scots-Irish.
Thank you for asking your question and I hope I haven’t gone on too long! 🙂
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My heritage sounds a lot like yours, also dating back to the Great Ulster Migration of the early 1700’s and landing in PA. It certainly makes history come alive, doesn’t it?
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I agree, Sandra. Looking into one’s personal past makes history live!
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Well that was a great response to my ‘throwing the cat amongst the pigeons’. I am always curious as to how much information American’s (and others) actually have on where their family’s origins lay.
I’m relieved that you didn’t answer the question one way or the other and instead gave an honest opinion based on what you actually know, which is quite a lot and not so ‘fuzzy’.
We in Ireland have a great relationship with our Celtic cousins in Scotland. It is actually very hard to separate us at times as we are so similar in many aspects.
You did answer my question, but also confirmed my other theory that people on that side of the water stopped paying any real attention to Northern Ireland some time ago. I can’t blame you really. The ‘struggles’ as you put it were depressing.
Fortunately, the ‘struggles’ you referred to stopped around two decades ago. We have had peace since then and there are are only ever small pockets of discontent popping up from time to time, mostly in areas that have been most affected by sectarian violence in the past. Much less so frequent than the racial tensions existing in other countries for example.
We have had the Queen of England in Dublin, addressing functions in the Irish language, we have had the head of the Republican movement (IRA) shaking hands with English Prime Ministers and Monarchy.
The tourist port of Belfast was visited by approx forty cruise ships last year and increase yearly. The struggles have long since gone and 99% of the population of Northern Ireland (only 1.5million) have moved on.
I fear that most of the world stopped watching us years ago, and still have the same picture in their heads. But we are slowly putting this small island on the map for the right reasons.
Keep watching my blog ireland2day and you might get a real picture of things here. I look forward to your future posts and welcome your thoughts and opinions.
Conversations like this are what makes blogging great.
Many thanks and good luck with your blog!
steVe
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Thank you, Steve for clearing things up regarding Northern Ireland. My apologies for leaving readers with an inaccurate impression. I did know about all of the things you mentioned and that most persons there had moved on from previous problems. I should have used the past tense in my “watching the struggles” statement. As you might have guessed, I was trying very hard to tiptoe around a potentially painful subject. In addition, our, ahem, “friends” in the media do none of us any favors by screaming how awful things are and then racing away to the next big headline without any follow-up or fact checking in the first place. We on this side of the Atlantic are certainly not strangers to this type of “journalism.”
While I have not been fortunate enough to visit Ireland yet, many friends have traveled there extensively and praise all parts of the island as beautiful and filled with wonderful people. The group I sing with, the Texas Master Chorale, is in discussion as I write about our next group trip being to Ireland. I look forward to reading and learning more about your lovely home!
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I have located a Great-grandmother from Ireland. 🙂 Still trying to find out exactly where in Ireland she came to America from.
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We Americans often have complicated genealogies!! Good luck with your search, Angelina!
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Loved this post, Linda! Thank you, too for sharing your bibliography sources. I’m mostly Scots and English with some Irish and Welsh tossed in for good measure. So far, I know I’m from Clan MacGregor, Clan Bruce and Clan Crawford. I don’t know enough about the Irish lines to say anything other than I know there is some woven in.
Our history is exciting, isn’t it?
Hugs,
Tambra
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Right you are, Tamara. Here is a really great website for the MacGregors:
http://hal_macgregor.tripod.com/gregor/Gregor.htm
If you haven’t checked it out already, you might want to give it a peep.
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Great summary of the complicated, interwoven histories of our three countries. From the early 1800s there was also a trickle of Catholic Irish immigration to Scotland, seeking summer work as agricultural labourers. A deck passage from ireland to Greenock cost 6d (www.educationscotland.gov.uk). After the potato famine of 1845, many more of them emigrated Scotland and formed settled communities.
Madeleine (Scots, Orcadian and Manx ancestry)
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Thank you for that very interesting tidbit, Madeleine! One forgets that or never considered in the first place that the Irish did not come just to America when the famine struck. It’s a shame that the Scots and the Irish do not acknowledge how much they really have in common. Or at least to my knowledge, they don’t. Perhaps I am wrong in this. Anyone with more information would be most welcome to comment.
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