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New Publication Connects Americans to their Irish and Scottish Forebears

New Publication Connects Americans to their Irish and Scottish Forebears

The new consolidated edition of Scots-Irish Links [1575-1875], by David Dobson identifies over 15,000 Scots-Irish inhabitants of the Ulster Plantation, and the indexes to those two volumes name an astounding 33,000 people connected to those inhabitants.

Of course, even those numbers cannot compare with the wave of Scots who transplanted to Ireland. In the 17th-century alone, the period of greatest migration, as many as 100,000 may have taken part in establishing the Plantation of Ulster, with additional Scots traveling to Northern Ireland in diminishing numbers for the next 200 years. 

The descendants of the early Scottish settlers, as Dr. Dobson observes, “became the single most important ethnic group to settle in America during the eighteenth century—the Scotch-Irish. For many of their descendants, involved in tracing their ancestry, it is generally difficult to make the trans-Atlantic connection but even more difficult to make the link to Scotland.”  While  Scots-Irish Links [1575-1875] Consolidated Edition does not identify everyone who took part in the establishment of the Plantation of Ulster, it is now by far the greatest source on that topic. Following are some examples from both volumes of what genealogists can expect to find when they look for their Scots-Irish and Scottish forebears.

PEEBLES, JOHN, jr. of Pethirland, Beith Ayshire, resident of the parish of Balliemoney, County Antrim, husband of Janet, daughter of Reverend Alexander Campbell and his wife Elizabeth Smieton in Stevenston, Ayshire, 1632. John Peeble’s marriage to Janet Campbell was declared null and void by Andrew Monypenny, commissary to Robert, Bishop of Down and Conver, on the basis of Janet’s existing marriage to James Bryding in 1621. (SRO.R.S.Ayr:5.327)

BOYD, Colonel DAVID, purchased lands from Sir Hugh Montgomery of the Andes, which were forfeit on his death to the Crown as he as not a denizen of Ireland, were granted to his son and heir Robert Boyd ‘for good and faithful services’ on 22 March 1624 [Cal.SP.Ire.1624/1173, 1392]

HAMILTON, Sir CLAUD, of Lerleprivick, was granted Irish denization and a grant of 1000 acres at Clovin in the barony of Tullachouchoe, County Cavan, 14 August 1610, [IPR] [TCD.ms#N2/2]; Undertaker in Precinct of Strabane, County Tyrone, 1611. [Cal.SP.Ire. 1611/384]; Undertaker of the Precinct of Tullochone, County Cavan, 1611, with 3000 acres, appeared at a muster in 1618 with 62 men, 2 muskets, 9 calivers, 32 pikes, 3 halberds and 42 swords [Cal.SP.Ire.1611/384; 1612/608; 1618/501] dead by March 1619, had owned 2000 acres at EdinKilliny, County Tyrone. [Carew Mss211/127]

MAXWELL, ARTHUR, in Drumbeg, County Down, subscribed to his will on 2 November 1720, reference to his wife Anne, sister Margaret Maxwell or Hamilton, her sons James a merchant in Belfast, Arthur a merchant in Liverpool, Archibald a merchant in Rotterdam, daughters Mary and Ann, grand-nephew Maxwell Hamilton son of Arthur Hamilton in Liverpool, niece Katherine Hamilton or Mankin, James Hamilton her brother, her husband Michael and son Arthur, sister in law Mrs Elinor Stewart and her daughter, Anne, niece Ann Stewart of Newry and children Arthur, Alexander, James and Katherine, niece Katherine Rainey . . . .  Probate 25 February 1721 Dublin

SINCLAIR, Reverend JOHN, born around 1640, minister of Leckpatrick and of Camus-juxta-Mourne, parish of Strabane, from 1660s, married (2) Anna Galbraith, died in March 1702, father of Elizabeth, Ezachial, John, William, Anne, Elizabeth, Andrew and Rebecca [Leckpatrick gravestone]

EDMONSTONE, AMMA HELENA, of Broadisland, County Antrim, widow of Archibald Edmonstone, and sister and heir of Walter Scott the younger, gentleman, or heir to Colonel Walter Scott, senior, on the first part, and Sir Robert Adair of Ballymenoch, son and heir of the said Anna Helena Edmonstone on the second part, James Montgomery of Rosemount, County Down, on the third part, and Robert Dollay of Dublin and his son Alexander Dollay on the fourth and fifth parts, respecting the lands of Wauchton in Scotland. Robert Montgomery was married to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the said Archibald, and Anna Helena, his youngest daughter was married to the said Alexander Dollay. Agreement dated 23 October 1696. [NAS.GD97.Sec.1/576]

CAMPBELL, WILLIAM, son of William Campbell of Wester Kames and nephew of Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck, settled in northern Ireland prior to 1689. He served as a Major in the defence of Londonderry in 1689. He had two sons James born 1690, and Samuel born 1695, both emigrated to America and settled in Boston, Massachusetts in 1728 [SHS.22.89]

CATHCART, THOMAS, second son of Samuel Cathcart, a farmer in the parish of Ahoghill, County Antrim, matriculated at Glasgow University in 1796, graduated MA in 1800. [RGG#103]

O’CONNOR, ARTHUR, an Episcopalian member of the Society of United Irishmen, a political prisoner who was transported from Belfast to Greenock on the Aston Smith in March 1799, imprisoned in Fort George, Inverness.

CAITHNESS, JEAN, in Glenvale, Belfast, heir to her mother Catherine Eaton, wife of James Caithness a weaver in Brechin, who died on 30March 1870. [NAS.S/H]

FUBISTER, JOHN, a watchmaker in Londonderry, heir to his sister Isabella Fubister in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, who died on 28 August 1876, re property in Richmond Place, Edinburgh, 20 December 1876. [NAS.S/H]

FOWLER, LYDIA ACTON, born 26 November 1766 in Ipswich, England, widow of William Fraser in Dublin, died in Mossbank, Skye on 9 October 1847, mother of Thomas Fraser, Sheriff Substitute of Skye, born in Dublin 16 September 1809, died in Mossbank, Skye, on 4 July 1876, his wife Lucinda Mary Short, born 8 January 1816 in Carlisle Fort, Ireland, died in childbed at Mossbank on 26 October 1848 [Portree, Skye, MI]

2 thoughts on “New Publication Connects Americans to their Irish and Scottish Forebears

  1. I descend thru my mother from James Hamilton of Meadville, Pennsylvania. He had several children and owned a big farm. The Hamilton farm is still there owned by families who descend from Jame’s youngest son. One of his older son’s Jonathan Hamilton and Nancy Adams his first wife were my ancestors and did not inherit the farm. Their daughter Sarah Hamilton married David Bower from Mesopotamia, Ohio. They are both buried behind a Methodist church in Mesopotamia, Ohio. Their daughter Rose (Bower) Foley was my great grandmother and she was a Methodist in Oil City, Pennsylvania. One of David’s ancestors a woman died at sea coming here and she had a brother who was an Old Order Brethren in Amwell, New Jersey. The Brethren were Swiss/Germans who didn’t believe in taking oaths or joining armies because they said Christians should not kill Christians (Catholics and Protestants) My David Bower survived the Civil War but several of his Bower relatives were killed. My dad’s side were all Polish and French Catholics. These divisions still go on today here in churches and politics. I believe the Reformed people who came here were people who no longer wanted to abide by the rules of the Pope, Rabbis and Mohammad. Name spellings and complete names were changed when they crossed borders. Americans like myself come from a mixed religious ancestry. There’s the saying, “Drink the water from your own well.” Recently I read singer and evangelist Pat Boone’s oldest daughter’s book. She and her husband converted to Catholics after they married. She believed and said in her book there was nothing to Reform.

    1. What a fascinating family story!

      Genealogical.com

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