Emigration of Scotch and Scotch-Irish to America (3)

From Scotch and Irish Seeds in American Soil by Rev. J. G. Craighead

previous page | contents | start of chapter | next page

CHAPTER IX. … continued

James Logan, who at this period was president of the Proprietary Council of Pennsylvania and identified with the Quakers, and who was unfriendly to the emigrants arriving from Ireland, states that it is “the common fear that if they [the Scotch-Irish] continue to come, they will make themselves proprietors of the province.” He further, in 1729, expresses “himself glad to find that the Parliament is about to take measures to prevent their too free emigration to this country. It looks as if Ireland is to send all her inhabitants thither; for last week not less than six ships arrived, and every day two or three arrive also.” Another authority states that in 1729 “there arrived in Pennsylvania from Europe six thousand two hundred and eight persons, and of these more than five thousand were from Ireland.” Dr. Baird, in his History of Religion in America, states that “from 1729 to 1750 about twelve thousand annually came from Ulster to America.”

These emigrants entered the country mainly at the ports of Boston, Philadelphia and Charleston. Those landing at Boston settled chiefly in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Previous to this period, and, in fact, from the first settlement of New England, a large number of Presbyterians had found homes in its several colonies. Cotton Mather tells us “that previous to the year 1640 four thousand Presbyterians had arrived.” Writing a few years later, he says: “We are comforted with great numbers of the oppressed brethren coming from the north of Ireland. The glorious providence of God, in the removal of so many of a desirable character from the north of Ireland, hath doubtless very great intentions in it.” Others estimate the number of Presbyterian colonists in New England as high as twenty-two thousand. These it is difficult to designate, as they united largely with Congregationalists in public worship, on the terms of union that had been agreed upon in London prior to 1640; which union Mather states “existed between these parties almost from the first settlement of the country.” The evidence of this union and the influence of this Presbyterian element are seen in the fact that the early churches of Salem, Charleston, Boston and elsewhere in New England had ruling elders, while in 1640 and in 1680 respectively all the ministers and elders from each church met in synod at Cambridge, and by distinct act recognized the Presbyterian form of church government.

Nor need there be any surprise expressed at the synod’s action, for, independent of the leavening influence of Presbyterianism upon the churches, the form of order of the church of Leyden, the mother-church of the Plymouth colony, was the same as that of the French Presbyterian churches. Plymouth was modeled after Leyden, and the constitution of the Plymouth church was copied by all the other churches.

Presbyterians, in comparatively limited numbers, also settled in New England at the period when the largest emigration took place from Ireland. In 1719, Derry was settled, and subsequently congregations were organized at Pelham and Boston, Massachusetts, and a presbytery was formed in 1745, and a synod, consisting of three presbyteries, in 1775 at Seabrook. Presbyterianism, however, never acquired much strength, owing probably to the plan of union, and many of the Presbyterian settlers subsequently found their way into Pennsylvania, and helped to swell the tide which was pouring into that State through the port of Philadelphia.

These immigrants first occupied the eastern and middle counties of Pennsylvania and the adjoining regions of Delaware and Maryland. Such as landed at more southern ports located themselves on the fertile lands of North and South Carolina and Georgia, and were afterward joined by large numbers of their brethren who had originally settled in the more northern provinces. Owing to the rapid increase of emigration and the occupancy of the best farming-lands in central Pennsylvania, many of the Scotch-Irish in the latter State were led to turn their steps southward, and found homes for their families in the fertile valleys of Virginia. At a later period western Pennsylvania was occupied by the descendants of the settlers in the middle counties of the State, and those of the more southern colonies passed westward to the country then called “between the mountains,” now known as Kentucky and Tennessee. From these points of radiation the Scotch-Irish have extended to all parts of the Union, and being an intelligent, resolute and energetic people have left their impress upon the institutions of all the States where they have settled.

Referring to this great exodus from the north of Ireland, the Rev. Dr. Foote, the historian of Virginia and North Carolina, says: “In the early part of the eighteenth century the emigration began, and, like the mighty rivers in the New World, went on in a widening and deepening current to pour into the vast forests of America multitudes of hardy, enterprising people. All the colonies from New York southward were enriched by shiploads of these people, that came with little money, but with strong hands and stout hearts and divine principles, to improve their own condition and bless the province that gave them a home.” Many of these voluntary exiles landed at Philadelphia, and after a short stay with their friends and countrymen in Pennsylvania, removed to the inviting valley of Virginia, or the more distant banks of the Catawba in the Carolinas. It thus came to pass that “in the southern part of the valley of Virginia and in the Mesopotamia[4] of North Carolina and large districts of South Carolina, the Scotch-Irish had the pre-eminence both in time and numbers.”

With very rare exceptions, these colonists were Protestants, and were either communicants in the Presbyterian Church or strongly attached to its doctrines and polity. Families generally united in forming settlements, fixing their residences sufficiently near each other to furnish mutual help and protection from the savage foes who lurked in the surrounding forests, to gratify their social feelings, and to enjoy the privileges of religious worship. Wherever they formed a settlement, among the first things they did, after providing a shelter for their families, was to organize congregations for Christian worship and erect a tabernacle to the Lord. This being their custom, we are not surprised to learn that in a decade from the time that these pioneer emigrants ventured into the valley of Virginia, there were at least twelve Presbyterian congregations organized. In answer to their earnest appeal, the synod of the Presbyterian Church appointed two of its members to visit them and to secure for them the favor of the governor, in order that they might enjoy their own methods of worship. And about the same period Samuel Blair, writing respecting a particular congregation, adds, “All our congregations in Pennsylvania, except two or three, chiefly are made up of people from that kingdom” (Ireland).

previous page | contents | start of chapter | next page

NOTES

[4] The country between the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers.