Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

Original data: Hanna, Charles A. The Scotch-Irish or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland and North America, Vol. 2. New York, NY: Putnam, 1902. (New York, privately printed, 1899.)

Donated by Margaret Johnson

The extent to which the Presbyterian settlements of Scottish people had become spread over the American colonies down to the year 1760 may be inferred from the fact that there were one hundred and five ministers on the roll of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia , which met in that year. It is stated by Dr. Alfred Nevin that there were at that time two hundred Presbyterian congregations in the country. This estimate is very much below the actual number. Three hundred would be nearer right. There were more than sixty congregations in New Jersey ; from eighty to one hundred in Pennsylvania and Delaware ; upwards of forty in New England; about forty in Maryland and Virginia; more than twenty in New York; from fifteen to twenty in North Carolina ; and about twenty in South Carolina . In the following list, the names of the ministers on the roll of the Synod in 1760 are given, with the names of the congregations under their care, and the probable date of organization of each congregation. From this data, we can determine approximately the time of settlement of many of these communities.

Presbytery of New York .--Timothy Allen , Ashford, Mass. ; Enos Ayres , Blooming Grove, Orange County, N. Y. ; David Bostwick , New York City (1707 ); John Brainerd, Newark, N. J. ; Abner Brush ; Alexander Cumming, New York (1707 ) or Boston (1727 ); John Darby ; Jonathan Elmer, New Providence, N. J. ; Chauncey Graham , Rumbout (before 1748 ) and Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ; Jacob Green , South Hanover (Madison), N. J. (1747 ); Simon Horton , Newtown, L. I. ; Timothy Johnes , Morristown, N. J. 1733 ); Abraham Kettletas , Elizabethtown, N. J. (1667 ); Hugh Knox , Saba Island, West Indies ; Silas Leonard , Goshen, N. Y. (1720 ); John Maltby , Bermuda Island ; John Moffatt , Wallkill, Orange county, N. Y. (1729 ); John Piersen . Mendham (1735-38 ), N. J. ; Aaron Richards , Rahway, N. J. (1741 ); Azel Roe , licensure reported 1760 ; Caleb Smith , Orange, N. J. ; John Smith , Rye and White Plains, N. Y. ; Nathaniel Whitaker , Chelsea, Conn. ; Benjamin Woodruff , -. Vacancies: Florida (1750 ); Pittsburgh (1747 ); Union (1743 ); Cherry Valley (1741 ); Albany (1760 ); Middlefield (1755 ); Cambridge (1761 ); Salem (1761-64 ).

Presbytery of Suffolk, Long Island .--Eliphalet Ball , Bedford, Westchester county, N. Y. ; Moses Baldwin ; James Brown , Bridgehampton, L. I. ; Samuel Buel , East Hampton, L. I. ; Thomas Lewis , Hopewell (1709 ) and Maidenhead, N. J. (1709 ); Ebenezer Prime , Huntington, L. I. ; Abner Reeve , Moriches and Ketchabonock, L. I. ; Samuel Sackett , Hanover and Crompond, N. Y. ; Benjamin Talmage , Brookhaven, L. I. ; Sylvanus White , Southampton, L. I.

Presbytery of New York--David Austin, ordained, 1788--Ebenezer Bradford, licensure reported, 1775; Mathias Burnet, licensure reported, 1774; John Burton (received from Scotland), 1785; Jedediah Chapman (received), 1766; Oliver Deeming, ordination reported, 1771; Thaddeus Dodd, ordination reported, 1778; Peter Fish, licensure reported, 1781; Lemuel Fordham, licensure reported, 1781; James Glassbrook (received from England), 1786; Joseph Grover (received from New England), 1774; Thomas Jackson (received from Scotland), 1767; John Joline, ordination reported, 1781; Andrew King, first enrolled, 1778; Amzi Lewis (received from New England), 1770; John Lindley, licensure reported, 1786; Samuel McCorkle, licensure reported, 1774; John McDonald (received from Scotland), 1785; Alexander Miller, licensure reported, 1768; Jonathan Murdock, ordination reported, 1771; John Murray (received from Ireland), 1764; Joseph Periam, licensure reported, 1774; revocation reported, 1775; Peter Stryker, ordained, 1788; James Thompson (received from Scotland), 1786; James Tuttle, licensure received, 1767; James Wilson (received from Scotland), 1785; James Wilson, 2d (licentiate from Scotland), 1786; John Young, first enrolled, 1788.

Presbytery of Suffolk, Long Island--Joseph Avery, licensure reported, 1771; Nehemiah Barker, first enrolled, 1764; John Blydenburgh, licensure reported, 1772; Wait Cornwall, ordination reported, 1788; John Davenport, ordination reported, 1775; Benjamin Goldsmith, licensure reported, 1763; Joshua Hart, ordination reported, 1772; Asa Hillyer, licensure reported, 1788; Samson Occam (an Indian), first enrolled, 1764; Thomas Payne (received), 1764; Elam Potter, ordination reported, 1767; Ezra Reeves, first enrolled 1761; David Rose, ordination reported, 1766; Thomas Russell, ordination reported, 1788; Noah Wetmore, first enrolled, 1788; Joshua Williams, ordination reported, 1786; Nathan Woodhull, ordination reported, 1786; William Woodhull, licensure reported, 1768; Aaron Woolworth (received from New England), 1788.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States was constituted at Philadelphia on the third Thursday of May, 1789, succeeding the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, which had been divided the year before into the four Synods of New York and New Jersey, Philadelphia, Virginia, and the Carolinas. In the volume containing the published records of the General Assembly from 1789 to 1820, are given from year to year the reports of the various Presbyteries composing the Assembly, showing the different congregations and minister in each Presbytery. Those reports show nearly all of the American Presbyterian congregations which were in existence at the close of the eighteenth century.)

The Associate Presbytery of New York , which was organized in New York City , May 20, 1776 , included in its territory not only the State of New York , but New England in addition. This Presbytery met at Wallkill, New York , in October, 1778 , and ordained Rev. David Annan as minister for Peterboro, New Hampshire . In September, 1782 , the Presbytery met at Peterboro , and admitted the Long Lane congregation of Boston . On October 31st of the same year, upon the union of the Associate and Reformed churches of America , this Presbytery became a part of the Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. New York Presbytery met at Londonderry , February 12, 1783 , and ordained Rev. William Morrison . The Rev. Robert Annan was installed as pastor of the Long Lane Congregation of Boston on September 25th of the same year. Messrs. James Anderson and - Whipple were received in 1784 . In May, 1786 , Middlefield and Chester, Mass. , were taken under the care of the Presbytery. Rev. John Houston was sent as a missionary to Ryegate and Barnet in 1786 ; and on June 2, 1786 , the name of the Presbytery was changed from New York to Londonderry . In 1788 it was called the Associate Reformed Presbytery of New England . In 1790 the Rev. Zaccheus Colby and his congregation at Pembroke were admitted; and in the following year Samuel Toombs was received from the Presbytery of New York , and Andrew Oliver licensed (installed as minister at Pelham , West, in 1793 ). In 1793 the Associate Reformed Presbytery of New England united with the Presbytery to the Eastward under the name of the Presbytery of Londonderry .

The Reformed Presbyterian Church in America was first organized into congregations by the Rev. John Cuthbertson , who came from Ulster in 1751 , and labored as a missionary through the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania and New York for nearly forty years. In 1773 , he was joined by the Rev. Messrs. Matthew Lind and Alexander Dobbin , both also from the North of Ireland ; and on March 10, 1774 , these three ministers met at Paxtang , near Harrisburg, Penn. , and constituted themselves as the Reformed Presbyterian Presbytery of North America . Mr. Cuthbertson retained the charge of Middle Octorara and Muddy Creek congregations, in Lancaster county , and Lower Chanceford , in York county ; Mr. Lind located at Paxtang , in what is now Dauphin county , and had the care of that church, together with Stony Ridge , in Cumberland county . Mr. Dobbin became minister to Rock Creek church in what is now Adams county , and East Conococheague , now Greencastle , in Franklin county . David Telfair , who had supplied the congregation of Shippen Street, Philadelphia , for some ten or twelve years, joined the Presbytery in 1780 . In December, 1781 , this Presbytery adopted the terms of union as adopted and offered by the Associate Presbytery of New York , and all its ministers and fully organized congregations went into the union consummated on the 1st of November, 1782 , which originated the Scotland for a supply of ministers. In 1789 , the Rev. James Reid visited America and surveyed the whole field from New York to South Carolina , returning home in 1790 . James McGarragh was sent from Ireland in 1791 , and William King from Scotland in 1792 . They were followed by James McKinney in 1793 ; and the three ministers were authorized to manage the affairs of the Reformed, or Covenanter, Church as a Committee of the Presbytery in Scotland , which they continued do until the organization of a new Presbytery at Philadelphia in 1798 . All three settled in Chester district, South Carolina .

The Scot in North Britain, North Ireland and North America, Vol. 2

In the city of New York Scotch and Scotch-Irish emigrants began to settle before 1700 . Francis Makemie preached to the Presbyterians there in January, 1707 , for which service he was arrested and imprisoned. The Presbyterian congregation in New York was not formally organized, however, until 1717 . A number of Scotch-Irish emigrants settled in the vicinity of Goshen, Orange county, New York , before 1720 . In that year their church at Goshen was organized. During the decade from 1720 to 1730 some forty families from the North of Ireland settled along the Wallkill River in what are now Orange and Ulster counties . At Bethlehem , in Orange county , and at Wallkill , in Ulster , these people organized two churches about 1729 , and in September of that year applied to the Philadelphia Synod for ministers to preach to them. These settlers were joined in 1731 by a second colony from the North of Ireland , with which came Charles Clinton and his sister, Christiana Clinton Beatty , the former the father and grandfather of two Revolutionary generals and two governors of New York ; the latter the mother of two noted Presbyterian divines, both named for her brother, Charles Clinton .

The dividing line between the French and English possessions in America was left in dispute by the Peace of Utrecht , and in 1731 the French governor of Canada made a movement to secure a large part of the disputed territory for France by building a fortress at Crown Point . Great alarm was felt along the northern frontier of New York ; for it was realized that in case of war much greater facility would be afforded to the murderous expeditions of the French and Indians than ever before. The obvious counter-movement would have been for New York to build a fort at Ticonderoga , but the governor and the Assembly were in constant conflict with each other, and nothing was done. Even Fort Anne was left in ruins, and no defences were erected at the head of Lake Champlain or Lake George . Fort Saratoga , however, was still kept up, though not in a proper manner.

The only move towards counteracting the French advance was an attempt made to settle the territory above the Saratoga patent with a colony of fearless 1735 a proclamation was issued by the governor inviting "loyal Protestant Highlanders" to settle the lands between the Hudson and the northern lakes,--the men of the tartan and claymore being considered the best defenders that the province could have. In 1737 , Captain Lauchlin Campbell , of Islay , a Highland soldier of distinguished courage, came to America in response to this proclamation, and went over the territory of Washington county to see if a colony could be located there. He was satisfied with the locality, and according to his statement, which was in all probability true, Lieutenant-Governor Clarke (acting governor) promised him a grant of thirty thousand acres for the use of a colony, free of all expenses except surveying-fees and quitrent.

Campbell returned to Scotland , sold his property there, raised a company of four hundred and twenty-three adults, to come to America , and in 1738 crossed the Atlantic with a part of his charge. On his arrival, the governor insisted on his full fees and a share in the land. This Campbel refused to give,--the fees he was perhaps unable to give. Governor Clarke pretended to be very anxious to aid the emigrants, and recommended the Legislature to grant them assistance. But the Legislature was, as usual, at war with the governor and refused to vote money to the emigrants, which they suspected with good reason, the latter would be required to pay to the colonial officials for fees. The members of the colony were obliged to separate to earn their livings.

A full account of this enterprise was set forth by a son of Lauchlin Campbell in a "Memorial" to the Lords of Trade, printed in the Documentary and Colonial History of New York , vol. vii., p. 630, from which the following extract has been made:

To the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of Trade, etc., memorial of Lieut. Donald Campbell of the Province of New York Plantation , humbly showeth:

That in the year 1734 , Colonel Cosby being then governor of the province of New York , by and with the advice and assent of his Council published a printed advertisement for encouraging the resort of Protestants from Europe to settle upon the northern frontier of the said province (in the route from Fort Edward to Crown Point ) promising to each family two hundred acres of unimproved land out of one hundred thousand acres purchased from the Indians, without any fee or expenses whatsoever, except a very moderate charge for surveying, and liable only to the King's quitrent of one shilling and nine pence farthing per hundred acres, which settlement would at that time have been of the outmost utility to the province, and these proposals were looked upon as so advantageous that they could not fail of having a proper effect.

That these proposals, in 1737 , falling into the hands of Captain Lauchlin Campbell , of the Island of Islay , he the same year went over to North America , and passing through the province of Pennsylvania , where he rejected many considerable offers that were made to him, he proceeded to New York , Cosby was deceased, George Clarke , Esq., then governor, assured him no part of the lands were as yet granted; importuned him and two or three persons that went over with him to go up and visit the lands, which they did, and were very kindly received and greatly caressed by the Indians. On his return to New York he received the most solemn promises that he should have a thousand acres of land for every family that he brought over, and that each family should have, according to their number, from five hundred to one hundred and fifty acres, but declined making any grant till the families arrived, because, according to the constitution of that government, the names of the settlers were to be inserted in that grant. Captain Campbell accordingly returned to Islay , and brought from thence, at a very large expense, his own family and thirty other families, making in all one hundred and fifty-three souls. He went again to visit the lands, received all possible respect and kindness from the government, who proposed an old fort, Anne , to be repaired, to cover the new settlers from the French Indians. At the same time, the people of New York proposed to maintain the people already brought till Captain Campbell could return and bring more, alleging that it would be for the interest of the infant colony to settle upon the lands in a large body; that, covered by the fort, and assisted by the [friendly] Indians, they might be less liable to the incursions of enemies;

That to keep up the spirit of the undertaking, Governor Clarke , by a writing bearing date the 4th day of December, 1738 , declared his having promised Captain Campbell thirty thousand acres of land at Wood Creek , free of charges, except the expenses of surveying and the King's quitrent, in consideration of his having already brought over thirty families, who, according to their respective numbers in each family, were to have from one hundred and fifty to five hundred acres. Encouraged by this declaration, he departed in the same month for Islay , and in August, 1740 , brought over forty families more; and under the faith of the same promises made a third voyage, from which he returned in November, 1740 , bringing with him thirteen families, the whole making eighty-three families, composed of four hundred and twenty-three persons, all sincere and loyal Protestants, and very capable of forming a respectable frontier for the security of the province;

But after all these perilous and expensive voyages, and though there wanted but seventeen families to complete the number for which he had undertaken, he found no longer the same countenance or protection, but on the contrary it was insinuated to him that he could have no land either for himself or the people but upon conditions in direct violation of the faith of government, and detrimental to those who upon his assurances had accompanied him into America [i. e., that he should bribe the officials for their assistance in securing legislative approval of the grant]. The people also were reduced to demand separate grants for themselves, which upon large promises some of them did, yet more of them never had so much as a foot of land, and many listed themselves to join the expedition to Cuba ;

That Captain Campbell , having disposed of his whole fortune in the Island of Islay , expended the far greatest part of it from confidence in these fallacious promises, found himself at length constrained to employ the little he had left in the purchase of a small farm, seventy miles north of New York , for the subsistence of himself and his family, consisting of three sons and three daughters. He went over again into Scotland in 1745 , and having the command of a company of Argyleshire men, served with reputation under his Royal Highness , the Duke, against the rebels. He went back to America in 1747 , and not long after died of a broken heart.

In January, 1763 , Donald , George , and James Campbell , sons of Lauchlin Campbell , presented a petition asking for a grant of a hundred thousand acres between Batten Kill and Wood Creek . It is difficult to account for the seeming exorbitance of this request, as under the terms of his contract with Governor Clarke , Lauchlin Campbell would have been entitled to only eighty-three thousand acres. It has been suggested that the Campbells intended, or claimed that they intended, to provide for the descendants of the colonists who had expected to settle under their father's direction. A more probable explanation, in view of what had happened before, would be, that it was designed to use a portion of the grant as a bribe to secure the passage of the act.

The petition was rejected on the ground that the orders of the English government positively forbade the granting of over a thousand acres to any one person. Nevertheless, it was felt that Captain Campbell had been very badly treated, and there was a disposition on the part of the colonial authorities to give some relief to his children. Accordingly, in the autumn of that year, a grant of ten thousand acres in the present township of Argyle, Washington county , was made to the three brothers before named, their three sisters, and four other persons, three of whom were also named Campbell .

On the 2d of March, 1764 , Alexander McNaughton and one hundred and six others of the original Campbell immigrants and their descendants petitioned for one thousand acres to be granted to each of them "to be laid out in a single tract between the head of South Bay and Kingsbury , and reaching east towards New Hampshire and westwardly to the mountains in Warren county ." The committee of the Council to whom this petition was referred reported May 21, 1764 , recommending that forty-seven thousand seven hundred acres should be granted to them, between the tract already granted to Schuyler and others Fort Edward , and the tract proposed to be granted to Turner and other Salem ). The grant was made out in conformity with the recommendation of the Council, and specifies the amount of land that each individual of the petitioners was to receive, two hundred acres being the least and six hundred acres the most that any individual obtained. It also appoints five men as trustees, to divide and distribute the lands as directed. By the same instrument, the tract was incorporated as a township, to be named Argyle , and to have a supervisor, treasurer, collector, two assessors, two overseers of highways, two overseers of the poor, and six constables, to be elected annually by the inhabitants on the first day of May .

This grant included a large portion of what is now the northern half of the township of Greenwich , and a portion of the township of Fort Edward .

The townships in which these Scottish Highlanders settled were directly west of what is now Salem township, Washington county . Settlements were made in the latter township early in the year 1762 , by James Turner , Alexander Conkey , Pelbam , in Massachusetts , to which reference has already been made. Salem township consists largely of the tract of twenty-five thousand acres, granted August 7, 1764 , to James Turner and others. One-half of the land covered by the patent, however, in accordance with a not uncommon custom of the time, became the property of Oliver De Lancey and Peter Du Bois , two government officials, whose services presumably aided in securing the grant. De Lancey and Du Bois sold their share of the land in 1765 to the Rev. Thomas Clark and his Scotch-Irish congregation, who had emigrated the year before from Ballybay, county Monaghan, Ireland . Mr. Clark , a native of Scotland , was a follower of Ebenezer Erskine , and in 1748 had been called as their minister by a portion of Mr. Jackson 's congregation in Ireland , which had seceded from the main body. At Ballybay he is said to have labored with great success, but amid many trials and persecutions. He refused to take an oath by "kissing the book," believing it to be unscriptural; and although he entered the army while a student, and fought against the Pretender, yet he would not take the Oath of Abjuration, because it recognized the King as the head of the Church. Taking advantage of these things, some of his enemies had him arrested by the civil authorities in 1754 , and he was imprisoned in the jail at Monaghan . From his place of confinement he preached every Sabbath to as many of his people as could convene. When the day of his trial came, it appeared that he had been imprisoned on a fraudulent charge, and he was released. In 1763 Mr. Clark received invitations to visit two settlements in America , one in Rhode Island and the other near Albany . Wearied with his contendings he regarded these calls favorably, and his Presbytery gave him leave of absence for one year. But when he came to sail from Newry on the 16th of May, 1764 , it was found that the greater part of his congregation, some three hundred persons, were ready to sail with him. They all embarked together, and after arriving in New York settled temporarily at Stillwater . Thence a portion of his parishioners removed to Abbeville district, South Carolina , but a majority of them settled with Mr. Clark at Salem . His pastoral relation had never been disturbed; his church had simply been transplanted; and he continued at Salem as the pastor of the eight ruling elders and one hundred and fifty communicants and their children, who had come with him from Ballybay . He resigned his ministry at Salem in 1782 , and three years later removed to Abbeville district, where he was installed as minister of Cedar Spring and Long Cane congregations, dying there in 1792 .

From 1764 to 1774 the township of Hebron , lying north of Salem in Washington county , was largely granted in patents of two thousand acres each, issued to commissioned officers, and in lots of two hundred acres each to non-commissioned officers, and lots of fifty acres each to privates who had served in the French and Indian War. These grants were made mostly to the officers and men of the 77th Regiment, Montgomery 's Highlanders, America for seven years, taking part in the capture of Fort Duquesne and the reduction of Ticonderoga . Their term of service having expired, they were discharged in New York City . They took up the lands in Washington county , owing to a proclamation made by the King in October, 1763 , offering land in America , without fees, to all officers and soldiers who had served on that continent, and who desired to establish their homes there.

The principal part of Cambridge township , in the southern part of Washington county , was granted to Isaac Sawyer and others in 1761 . To induce settlements on this land, the patentees gave one hundred acres to each of the first thirty families who should become actual settlers. The names of these first settlers are nearly all Scottish, and they probably came from the Scotch-Irish settlements of Coleraine and Pelham in Massachusetts and from Connecticut , as well as from the North of Ireland and Scotland direct. Many of the latter were Covenanters, and these were visited in 1764 by Rev. John Cuthbertson , the noted missionary, who spent forty years (1751 -1790 ) in travelling between the scattered congregations of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire . From a manuscript copy of Cuthbertson 's diary, it appears that he visited Orange county, New York , in 1759 , where he spent the month of September in missionary labor along the Wallkill . Returning in 1764 , he continued his journey to Albany , and in August arrived at Cambridge . He made a second visit in 1766 , and another in October, 1769 , at which time he ordained two ruling elders. The Rev. Thomas Clark , of Salem , also visited and preached to the settlers at Cambridge , and in April, 1769 , also ordained a number of elders at that place.

Besides the Scottish outpost planted near the head of Lake Champlain by Lieutenant-Governor Clarke , he also granted, in 1738 , a tract of eight thousand acres in Otsego county , on what was then the western frontier of the province, covering the present township of Cherry Valley . This grant was made for the same reasons which had induced the authorities to promise the grant to Lauchlin Campbell , namely, the desire to obtain a population on the frontier which would protect the province from the incursions of the Indians and the encroachments of the French. The patent was issued to John Lindesay and three associates. Mr. Lindesay was a Scottish gentleman, of some fortune and distinction. He purchased the interest of his associates, and by his influence induced a settlement on the lands of several families, comprising about thirty persons, originally from Scotland and Ulster . A few years afterwards small settlements were made at other points in the vicinity, along the valley of the Susquehanna River . Middlefield was settled by the Scotch-Irish in 1755 . These settlements increased very slowly, in consequence of the fear of Indian hostilities. By 1765 there were about forty families located at Cherry Valley , and ten years later the number of families was nearly sixty. Mr. Lindesay began his settlement about 1740 . While in New York City , preparing for the removal of his family, he formed a friendship with the Rev. Samuel Dunlop , a young Presbyterian minister of Ulster birth, and persuaded him to join in the colonization of the land. Mr. Dunlop accordingly visited Londonderry, New Hampshire , and induced a number of his friends there to accompany him to the settlement. Here, about 1743 , he established a classical school at his dwelling--the first school of the kind west of the Hudson .. Cherry Valley was still a frontier settlement at the commencement of the Revolution. On October 11, 1778 , it was attacked by the Tories and Indians, under the lead of Walter Butler and Joseph Brant . Thirty-two of the inhabitants, mostly women and children, were massacred in cold blood, and sixteen Continental officers and soldiers were killed. The remainder of the inhabitants were carried off as prisoners, and all the buildings in the settlement burned. For seven years the site remained waste, and it was not until 1784-85 that the survivors and friends of the victims began to return and rebuild.

Glen township, Montgomery county, New York , was settled in 1740 by sixteen familes from Ireland . These afterwards removed, from fear of the Indians.

Monroe township, Orange county , was settled by a number of Scotch-Irish families who came in 1742 . Much of Orange county was first occupied by emigrants of Scottish descent from the North of Ireland , who began to make settlements along the Wallkill River as early as 1729 .

Harpersfield township, Delaware county , was settled by emigrants from Scotland or Ulster in 1771 . Kortright township , in the same county, was also settled by Scottish emigrants before 1785 , and Bovina township by settlers from Scotland and Connecticut some ten years later.

Ballston township , in Saratoga county , was settled in 1770 by a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Eliphalet Ball , and several members of his congregation, who removed from Bedford, New York . Soon after their arrival a large number of Presbyterian emigrants came in from Scotland , Ireland , New Jersey , and New England , many of whom a few years later took an active part in the battle of Saratoga . Stillwater township , in the same county, was settled by Scottish and New England emigrants, many from the vicinity of Litchfield, Conn. , in 1763 Broadalbin township , in Fulton county , was settled by James McIntyre and other emigrants from Scotland , soon after the close of the Revolution.

New Scotland township, Albany county , was settled by emigrants from Scotland who began to locate there before 1786 .

Albany itself received a substantial emigration from Scotland and the North of Ireland before 1760 . In that year, a Presbyterian Church was organized there, composed chiefly of members of Scottish descent.

Sir William Johnson , who had taken a prominent part in the defence of New York against the French at Crown Point and Lake George in 1755 , received from the Crown a grant of one hundred thousand acres of land Mohawk River , in the vicinity of Johnstown, Tryon (now Fulton) county . In order to secure tenants for this land, he appointed agents to visit the Scottish Highlands, where he obtained as many colonists as he desired, all of whom were of the Roman Catholic faith. They embarked for America during the month of August, 1773 . The Gentleman's Magazine for September 30, 1773 , in speaking of these emigrants, states: "Three gentlemen of the name of MacDonnell , with their families, and four hundred Highlanders from the counties [districts] of Glengarry , Glenmorison , Urquhart , and Strathglass , lately embarked for America , having obtained a grant of land in Albany ." The three gentlemen here referred to were the MacDonnells of Aberchalder , Leek , and Collachie ; there was also a fourth MacDonnell , of Scotas . They had fought for the Pretender in 1745 , and in order to mend their shattered fortunes were willing to remove to America . These men made their homes in what was then Tryon county , about thirty miles from Albany , where now stands the town of Gloversville . Tracts varying from one to five hundred acres were granted to certain families, all subjected to the lord of the manor as under the feudal system. Here the Highlanders settled, and they soon became deeply attached to the interests of Sir William Johnson and his family. On the death of the former in 1774 , they transferred their allegiance to his son, Sir John Johnson ; and on the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, followed their master into the British army. The majority of them served in the first and second battalions of the King's Royal Regiment of New York .

Not being permitted to remain in the United States after the termination of the Revolutionary War, the Scotch retainers of Sir John Johnson were granted lands in Canada by the British government. The officers and men of the first battalion settled in a body at Glengarry, Ontario , occupying the first five townships west of the boundary line of Quebec province , being the present townships of Lancaster , Charlottenburgh , Cornwall , Osnabruck , and Williamsburgh . Those of the second battalion removed farther west to the Bay of Quinte , settling in the counties of Lennox and Prince Edward . They were joined in the month of September, 1786 , by five hundred of their kinsfolk from Knoydart who had sailed with the Rev. Alexander MacDonnell from Greenock , in the ship MacDonald.

In the first half of the seventeenth century Sir William Alexander , a favorite of James I. , tried to found a new Scotland in America . The only existing memorial of that attempt is the name Nova Scotia , and the titles of a number of Scottish noblemen, whose ancestors of that period were created by James barons of Nova Scotia . A more successful attempt was made after the forced evacuation of the French from that province in 1755 . About the year 1760 , a party of Scotch-Irishmen, many of them from Londonderry, New Hampshire , started a permanent settlement at Truro , in Colchester county . Other Scotch-Irish settlers followed, their descendants becoming numerous, and peopling several neighboring towns.

Colonel Alexander McNutt , an agent of the British government, arrived in Halifax October 9, 1761 , with more than three hundred settlers from the North of Ireland . In the following spring, some of these removed to Londonderry , while many settled at Onslow and Truro .

The Hector was the first emigrant ship from Scotland to come to Nova Scotia . It arrived in the harbor of Pictou , September 15, 1773 , bringing about two hundred emigrants from Ross-shire . The pioneers who came in that vessel formed the beginning of a stream of emigrants from Scotland , which flowed over the county of Pictou , the eastern portions of Nova Scotia , Cape Breton , Prince Edward Island , portions of New Brunswick , and some of the upper provinces. Simcoe county, Ontario , is almost entirely settled by men and women of Ulster or Scottish descent. The county of Restigouche in Nova Scotia , is almost wholly Scottish, and the names of its townships--Glenelg , Glenlivet , Dunlee , and Campbelltown , show conclusively the very districts in Scotland from which its early settlers came. "The town and whole district of Pictou ," says MacGregor , in his work on British America , "are decidedly Scottish. In the streets, within the houses, in the shops, on board the vessels, and along the roads, we hear little but Gaelic and broad Scotch." The places in the maritime provinces of Canada where the Gaelic language prevails or is still largely spoken are the counties of Pictou and Antigonish ; Earltown , the county of Colchester ; a part of the county of Guysborough ; the island of Cape Breton ; Prince Edward Island ; and some settlements along the Bay of Chaleur , in New Brunswick . In Glengarry county, Ontario , Gaelic still continues to be the language of the people, and it is there spoken as purely as it is in Dingwall or Lewis . According to a census taken in 1852 there were in Glengarry county 3228 McDonalds , 551 McMillans , 41 McDougalls , 40 McRaes , 473 McLeods , 415 Grants , 399 Camerons , 312 McLennans , 304 Campbells , 133 Chisholms , 50 Cattenachs , 262 McIntoshes , 176 Frasers , 114 McGregors , and representatives of nearly every other name peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland . A story told in Canada is to the effect that a Yankee who visited Ontario for the first time, concluded that he really was in Scotland , for the queen's representative was a Scot; the prime minister was a Scot; the members of the cabinet he met were Scots; he heard the Doric spoken in all the government offices; saw that all the large stores were owned by "Macs"; and that a large number of the towns he passed on the railway bore Scottish names.

In 1772 , John MacDonald of Glenaladale , with two hundred persecuted Catholic Highlanders from the island of South Uist emigrated to Prince Edward Island , where he had purchased a tract of forty thousand acres on the north coast, at the head of Tracadie Bay , almost due north of Charlottetown . There, in 1776 , he organized a company from his followers and Prince Edward Island in 1774 , by Wellwood Waugh , of Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire . Their first crops were ruined by a visitation of locusts, and they removed to Pictou . After 1783 , there were considerable additions to this colony, the largest number coming from the 82d, or Hamilton Regiment, which had been on duty under General McLean , at Halifax and in the United States . This regiment, which was composed almost entirely of Scots, was disbanded at Halifax , and had a large tract of land set apart for it in Pictou , known as the "82d Grant."

Concerning the Scots in the Northwest Territory , Dr. Peter Ross , in his book on Scotland and the Scots, quotes from Mr. David Scott as follows:

After the English Government found it necessary for the Hanoverian succession to disarm the Highlanders, and break up, so far as they could, the ancient loyalty of the clans to their chieftains, and the ancient protection which the chief, as in honor bound, extended to every member of his clan, a large number of Scottish gentlemen turned their attention toward Canada , as a country which offered many inducements in the way not only of exciting adventure but also of prosperous commerce. These emigrants of noble descent did not settle as cultivators of the soil, but banded together and formed themselves into a trading concern, which grew, in the course of years, into a vast partnership known as the "Northwest Company." Over the interior of the Canadas the merchants spread a great network of stations, each of them presided over by a clerk, who (if he behaved well) rose in the course of time to a junior partnership. The principal trade was in furs, and in order to obtain the furs it was necessary to barter with the Indians. So it came to pass that these pioneers of Canadian commerce bought from the old country cheap articles in the shape of clothing, knives, muskets, and other commodities suitable for exchange with the Indians, and sent back valuable furs, which found their way to every available market in Europe .. . . . Once a year the whole company of shareholders met to transact business, and then the scene was like a gathering of the clans in the forests of the far West. The names of the old chieftains were those familiar among them--Cameron and Chisholm and Mackenzie --the free and rough hospitality was the same. . . . To this very day, though the reign of the first Northwest Company of Canada is long over, you may find relics of these old Celtic families among the citizens of Montreal and Toronto . . . . Instead of the grandees of the Northwest Company Farther Canada has been taken possession of by an humbler class of our countrymen, who are content to till the ground they own for a livelihood. Whole villages of the Far West are Celtic in origin, and we may hear the Gaelic tongue almost as readily among the Canadian pines as in the glens of Inverness-shire or among the boatmen of green Islay itself.

While the settlements of the Scotch-Irish in New England , Virginia , and the Carolinas were numerous, and represented a population of many thousand families, the great majority of the Ulster emigrants to America first landed on the Delaware shore . Most of the passenger ships sailing from Ireland during the eighteenth century were bound for ports in the Quaker colony. Pennsylvania thus became the centre of the Presbyterian settlements in the New World , and from that province, after 1735 , a continuous stream of emigration flowed to the South and West.

The emigrants to Pennsylvania usually landed at one of the three ports, Lewes , Newcastle (both in Delaware , which was then part of Pennsylvania ), or Philadelphia . Presbyterian congregations were gathered in all of these towns before 1698 . During the first decade of the eighteenth century the Scotch-Irish made settlements along White Clay , Red Clay , and Brandywine creeks in Newcastle county, Delaware , and at the head of Elk creek on both sides of the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary, at its intersection with the Delaware line. John McKnitt Alexander , who took a prominent part in the Mecklenburg (North Carolina ) Convention of 1775 , was descended from one of the four families of that name who had settled at New Munster on the east side of Elk creek , in Cecil county, Maryland , "some years before 1715 "--possibly as early as 1683 , in which year the tract had been surveyed for Edwin O'Dwire , and "fifteen other Irishmen."

Original data: Hanna, Charles A. The Scotch-Irish or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland and North America, Vol. 2. New York, NY: Putnam, 1902. (New York, privately printed, 1899.)