Scottish Highlanders on the Eve of the Great Migration, 1725-1775: The Northern Highlands

Description

This is part of a series of books by David Dobson designed to identify the origins of Scottish Highlanders who traveled to America prior to the Great Highland Migration that began in the 1730s and intensified thereafter. The first three volumes in the series covered Scottish Highlanders from Argyll, Perthshire, and Inverness-shire; this latest volume pertains to the people of the Northern Highlands.

This volume covers the Northern Highlands, an area that includes the counties of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, and Cromarty. The main clans traditionally associated with the Northern Highlands were: Mackay, McLeod, Sutherland, Sinclair, Gunn, Munro, Ross, and Mackenzie, all of whom are represented in this volume. The Northern Highlanders were among the pioneers of colonial Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and the Canadian Maritimes. Among the vessels that brought them to these places were the Hector to Nova Scotia in 1773, the Friendship to Philadelphia in 1774, and the Peace and Plenty to New York in 1774.

While the present volume is not a comprehensive directory of all people living in the Northern Highlands during the mid-18th century, it does pull together references to more than 2,100 18th-century inhabitants. In all cases, Dr. Dobson gives each Highlander’s name, a place name or county within the Highlands, a date (of birth, residence, etc.), and the source. In the majority of cases, we also learn the identities of relatives, the individual’s employment, vessel traveled, or other defining characteristic. Among the primary sources Dr.Dobson consulted were the Northern Highland militia lists naming the participants who opposed the Jacobites in 1745-1746.