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Scots—as individuals and in families—have been in North Carolina since
the beginning of permanent settlement. The first Proprietary governor of
Albemarle, William Drummond, was born in Scotland, and later Scots-such
as the Glaswegian Thomas Pollock, who came to North Carolina in
1683-achieved prominence in the mercantile and political life of the
colony. The earliest surviving court and land grant records reveal
modest numbers of distinctively Scottish names.
The first sizable group of Scots to arrive in North Carolina in a body
was the so-called Argyll Colony of 1739, which came from the Highland
county of Argyll and settled on the Cape Fear River between Cross Creek
and the Lower Little River. Numbering some 350 men, women, and children,
the group was led by Highland gentry who provided much of the financing
for the venture and received the largest grants of land. Gabriel
Johnston, a Lowland Scot and North Carolina governor from 1734 to 1752,
was accused of showing favouritism to his compatriots, and the General
Assembly exempted the newcomers from taxation for ten years after their
arrival.
The second large wave of Highland immigrants began in the late 1760s and
reached its peak in 1774. It is not known exactly how many Highlanders
came to North Carolina, but in 1784 James Knox estimated that 20,000
Highlanders migrated to America during this second wave. Most of the
Highlanders who came as part of the second wave settled in the Upper
Cape Fear region that includes modern-day Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, and
Moore Counties. Many Highlanders lived in the rural areas on the roads
leading to the town of Cross Creek (later Fayetteville), which was
chartered by the General Assembly in 1760. The abundance of pine trees
in the Sandhills enabled these settlers to make their living in naval
stores, extracting the sap and processing it into tar, pitch, and
turpentine, which they sent down the Cape Fear River to Wilmington on
flatboats made of logs. Many Highlanders were also small farmers growing
crops and raising horses, cattle, and hogs.
Other individuals and families found their way directly from the
Scottish Highlands to North Carolina during the remainder of the
colonial era, mainly through the ports of Brunswick and Wilmington. The
colony, in fact, came to be extolled as "the best poor man's country" as
promotional tracts and letters home praised its climate and soil and the
ease with which land could be acquired. Lowland Scots also immigrated
individually or in small groups to North Carolina and other colonies
throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Because Lowland
Scots were widely dispersed and more readily assimilated in the
colonies, their story is less easily told than that of their Highland
compatriots. While there were far fewer Lowland Scots than Highland
Scots in North Carolina, some Lowlanders filled important roles as
merchants, high-ranking officials, or military officers. Others ranged
from poor immigrants and indentured servants to well-educated teachers,
physicians, and clergymen.
The migration of Scotch-Irish settlers to America began in the 1680s but
did not occur in large numbers until the 1720s. Pennsylvania was the
most popular destination, but Scotch-Irish immigrants also settled in
South Carolina, New Jersey, and Maryland. The Scotch-Irish, or Ulster
Scots, were descendants of the Lowland Scots, whom James I of England
had settled in Ulster, the northern and most isolated and conservative
part of Ireland. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the native aristocracy
of Ulster had rebelled against the English government and its newly
established Anglican Church. The earliest concentrated settlement of
Scotch-Irish immigrants in North Carolina was in Duplin and New Hanover
Counties around 1740. The Scotch-Irish were also the largest ethnic
group among the settlers in the Carolina backcountry in the eighteenth
century, and they were the largest group among the pioneers who crossed
the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains and settled in south-western North
Carolina in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Although the Scottish emigrants, in coming to America, were assured
freedom to exercise their Presbyterian religion at a time when the
Stuart monarchy favoured spreading the Anglican Church throughout the
British Isles, the most important motivation for Scottish emigration was
economic. Profound changes in agricultural organization following the
Jacobite insurrection of 1745 raised rents to unprecedented heights and
resulted in large numbers of evictions. Entire communities often
emigrated, with the enterprise many times being organized by "tacksmen"-leaseholders
who traditionally held long leases from the landowner and in turn rented
to tenants.
Several North Carolina Scots gained prominence in the colony, with
Governor Johnston, Royal Council member John Rutherfurd, and official
and planter James Murray being examples. Scots were also important in
the religious life of the colony, being well represented among both
Presbyterian and Anglican clergy. A Scottish immigrant, James Innes, was
a notable military leader in the French and Indian War(1754-63). The
military prowess of North Carolina Loyalist Scots was put to the test at
the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776. Although they
suffered a bloody defeat in that contest, Scots constituted the backbone
of North Carolina Loyalism throughout the war, and with the
establishment of independence many of them sought refuge in the British
colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
After the Revolutionary War, Scottish immigration to North Carolina
gradually resumed and continued until the War of 1812. The number of
immigrants who came to the state during this period is unknown, but
Scottish port records of the 1790s and the opening years of the
nineteenth century list several dozen emigrant vessels clearing for
North Carolina, mainly Wilmington. After the War of 1812, at least a
trickle of immigration resumed: in 1820, for example, a ship carrying
migrants was cleared from Campbelltown to Wilmington. The U.S. Census of
1850 listed some 1,200 Scottish-born citizens in North Carolina, most of
them residing in the counties of Cumberland, Moore, Robeson, and
Richmond. In the census of 1880 the number was down to some 400. A
Scottish corporation in the 1880s purchased land in Madisonand Haywood
Counties with a view to bringing in Scottish settlers. The venture was
unsuccessful, as was the effort to bring Highland crofters (tenant
farmers) to the Sandhills at about the same time. A similar attempt of
the early 1890s to attract Scots to the lands of J. Bryan Grimes in Pitt
County fared little better.
Immigrants from the Scottish Highlands often retained distinctive
elements of their culture. The Gaelic language was spoken by some to at
least a limited extent until the mid-nineteenth century. Presbyterianism
continues to flourish in the areas of Scottish settlement, and Scottish
music influenced the development of local musical forms. Clan societies
and the Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain and elsewhere in North
Carolina continue to help keep alive a sense of the importance of the
state's Scottish heritage.
Early arrivals included:
- Douglas, Alexander, 22 Husbandman, Scotland from London to Carolina on
the "Briton" A. Urquhart, November 1774
- Douglas, Alexander, clergyman.
Edu. Edinburgh Uni. sh. 1750. sett. St. James, South Carolina
- Douglas, Alexander, 52, B. 1723, Labourer, Perth,
from Leith to Philadelphia May 1774 on the "Friendship", T. Jann.
- Douglas,
Alexander. 46. Farmer. Born in Scotland. Wife Catherine 46, born in
North Carolina: Hugh, aged 14; Mary aged 11; Archibald, aged 9; Sarah,
aged 11. Mentions also Nancy Poston, aged 55, born in North Carolina.
Chesterfield County, South, Carolina.
- Douglas, Angus: Born in Scotland
during 1759. Died in Richmond County, North Carolina during
1819.
- Douglas, Anthony. aged 42. Merchant. Born in Scotland - Kershaw
county, South, Carolina
- Douglas, Archibald. Scottish Highlander.
Settled in New Hanover and Bladen Counties, North Carolina. Allocated
land grants during June 1740.
- Douglas, Campbell. born in
Kirkcudbrightshire during 1782. Grocer in Charleston, North Carolina.
Nat. 19 October 1813, Charleston, South Carolinall.
aged 69. an accountant. Born in Scotland. Charleston, South Carolina.
- Douglas, Daniel. Born in Scotland ca 1735. Married Effie McLean. Died
in Richmond County, North Carolina in 1816.
- Douglas, James, Born in
Galloway during 1772. mariner. Nat. 10 December 1804, Charleston,
South Carolina.
- Douglas, James. born in the Lothians during 1776.
Turner. Nat. 16 October 1805, Charleston, South Carolina.
-
Douglas, James
Kennedy. Born in Scotland. Nat. 14 May 1804, Charleston, South
Carolina.
- Douglas, Jane. To Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, bef 1766. M. Henry
Downs (1708-1778) (3)
- Douglas, John. Aged 60. Carpenter. Born in
Scotland. Marion County, South Carolina.nbsp; Born near Edinburgh during 1773. Cabinetmaker. Nat. 24
September 1802. Charleston, South Carolina.
- Douglas, John: Born in
Scotland. emigrated to America during 1788. Settled in South Carolina
during 1790. Nat. 4 November 1806. Marlborough, South Carolina.
- Douglas,
John - Labourer, Dundee Angus. . From Kircaldy to Brunswick, North
Carolina. June 1775 on the "Jamaica Packet". T. Smith
- Douglas, John.
Born in Edinburgh. Nat. 29 December 1799. South Carolina; Aged 50. Coachbuilder. Born in Scotland. Wife,
Rachel, aged 50. Born in North Carolina. Elizabeth, aged 19, born in
Marion County, South Carolina.
- Douglas, John 1723-1796 Settled Charlotte,
North Carolina, M. 1744 Catherine Marion daughter Nancy
- Douglas, William, probably from Newton Stewart, Wigtonshire. settled
Camden, South Carolina, 1824 (related to James Kennedy Douglas, above?).
Notes:
(3)
Sometimes referred to as Lady
Jane Douglas.
No parents have been identified.
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