By the late seventeenth century there were hundreds of baronies in Scotland; however, in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745-1746, the British government enacted the Heritable Jurisdiction Act of 1747, which reduced the powers of barons and the nobility in general.

For this work, Mr. Dobson has traced the origin and line of descent of nearly 1,000 Scottish baronies and baronetcies, including some whose progeny eventually moved to the Americas. In assembling this unprecedented collection, Mr. Dobson consulted numerous primary and secondary sources. His principal source was the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland from about the year 1320. This required him to examine over 20,000 documents written in Latin. Typical of these descriptions is the following one for Hector McLean, Baron of Duart:

MCLEAN OF DUART IN ARGYLL. On 9 January 1540, King James V granted several properties in Inverness-shire incorporated into the Barony of Duart to Hector McLean, son and heir apparent of Hector McLean of Duart; on 12 November 1542 King James V granted Hector McLean, son and heir apparent of Hector McLean of Duart, the lands and Barony of Duart; on 4 February 1549, Queen Mary granted Hector McLean of Duart the lands and Barony of Ardgour in Inverness-shire; John McLean, alias Makaleer, a merchant in Gothenborg, Sweden, was enobled there in 1649, and later was created a Baronet by King Charles II during his exile, McLean died in Gothenborg when his son Sir John McLean succeeded to the title. Sir Hector McLean, son of Sir John McLean, a Jacobite who fought at the Battles of Killiecrankie and at Sheriffmuir. [An Anglicisation of the Gaelic Mac Gille Eoin meaning ‘son of the servant of John’, examples date from the thirteenth century.] [John McLean, a rebel, was transported to Jamaica in 1685, while Donald McLean, a merchant, died in St Augustine in 1778.] [The Jacobite Peerage, Edinburgh, 1904].

The work includes a list of principal sources and an appendix consisting of Scots-Irish baronetcies established in Ireland and in the New World.

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Although Scottish soldiers could be found in the Americas during the seventeenth century—oftentimes originally transported as prisoners of war and subsequently recruited into the British army–It was not
until the mid-eighteenth century that the British government began to raise Highland regiments, such as Fraser’s Highlanders, to fight in North America. The French and Indian War led to significant
recruitment in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands, for service in America. The allocation of land to former military personnel in the aftermath of the war was a major incentive to settle by former soldiers.

On the outbreak of the American Revolution, former soldiers, who had received land grants in America, were recalled for duty by the British government. For example, many former Scottish soldiers, who had been settled in the Mohawk Valley of upper New York, were recruited into the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. After the war, large numbers of soldiers from former Loyalist units and from the regular British Army regiments were settled in what would become Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. The practice of settling former soldiers in the colonies continued into the nineteenth century. For example, when the War of 1812 revealed the insecurity of the American-Canadian borders, Britain alleviated the problems by establishing settlements for former military personnel along the American-Canadian border.

This consolidation edition in two volumes identifies over 10,000 Scottish soldiers who served in the Americas. The new comprehensive index of names at the back of each volume enables genealogists and historians to easily identify every person named in the soldier descriptions—spouses, children, parents, ship captains, and so on–and not just the soldiers themselves. Included in Volume II is a detailed list of Scottish regiments that were stationed in colonial America that originally appeared in Part Eight. The Appendix in Volume II contains all the “American” entries from the author’s 2021 book, Scottish Soldiers in Europe and America, 1600-1700, which was published separately from the colonial America series.

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Although Scottish soldiers could be found in the Americas during the seventeenth century—oftentimes originally transported as prisoners of war and subsequently recruited into the British army–It was not
until the mid-eighteenth century that the British government began to raise Highland regiments, such as Fraser’s Highlanders, to fight in North America. The French and Indian War led to significant
recruitment in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands, for service in America. The allocation of land to former military personnel in the aftermath of the war was a major incentive to settle by former soldiers.

On the outbreak of the American Revolution, former soldiers, who had received land grants in America, were recalled for duty by the British government. For example, many former Scottish soldiers, who had been settled in the Mohawk Valley of upper New York, were recruited into the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. After the war, large numbers of soldiers from former Loyalist units and from the regular British Army regiments were settled in what would become Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. The practice of settling former soldiers in the colonies continued into the nineteenth century. For example, when the War of 1812 revealed the insecurity of the American-Canadian borders, Britain alleviated the problems by establishing settlements for former military personnel along the American-Canadian border.

This consolidation edition in two volumes identifies over 10,000 Scottish soldiers who served in the Americas. The new comprehensive index of names at the back of each volume enables genealogists and historians to easily identify every person named in the soldier descriptions—spouses, children, parents, ship captains, and so on–and not just the soldiers themselves. Included in Volume II is a detailed list of Scottish regiments that were stationed in colonial America that originally appeared in Part Eight. The Appendix in Volume II contains all the “American” entries from the author’s 2021 book, Scottish Soldiers in Europe and America, 1600-1700, which was published separately from the colonial America series.

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Although Scottish soldiers could be found in the Americas during the seventeenth century—oftentimes originally transported as prisoners of war and subsequently recruited into the British army–It was not
until the mid-eighteenth century that the British government began to raise Highland regiments, such as Fraser’s Highlanders, to fight in North America. The French and Indian War led to significant
recruitment in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands, for service in America. The allocation of land to former military personnel in the aftermath of the war was a major incentive to settle by former soldiers.

On the outbreak of the American Revolution, former soldiers, who had received land grants in America, were recalled for duty by the British government. For example, many former Scottish soldiers, who had been settled in the Mohawk Valley of upper New York, were recruited into the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. After the war, large numbers of soldiers from former Loyalist units and from the regular British Army regiments were settled in what would become Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. The practice of settling former soldiers in the colonies continued into the nineteenth century. For example, when the War of 1812 revealed the insecurity of the American-Canadian borders, Britain alleviated the problems by establishing settlements for former military personnel along the American-Canadian border.

This consolidation edition in two volumes identifies over 10,000 Scottish soldiers who served in the Americas. The new comprehensive index of names at the back of each volume enables genealogists and historians to easily identify every person named in the soldier descriptions—spouses, children, parents, ship captains, and so on–and not just the soldiers themselves. Included in Volume II is a detailed list of Scottish regiments that were stationed in colonial America that originally appeared in Part Eight. The Appendix in Volume II contains all the “American” entries from the author’s 2021 book, Scottish Soldiers in Europe and America, 1600-1700, which was published separately from the colonial America series.

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In the aftermath of the War of the Three Kingdoms, 1638 to 1651, significant numbers of Scottish prisoners of war were transported to the colonies by Oliver Cromwell. Consequently, many of them were recruited into the colonial militias there, notably in New England. Similarly, in Barbados the militia rolls in 1679/1680 identify many Scots enrolled there, most of whom arrived in chains, having been banished there. In 1698-1699 the Scots attempted to establish a trading settlement at Darien in Panama. To defend the colony, Scottish soldiers who had been fighting in Flanders were recruited; some of them died there, while others took refuge in the English colonies in the Caribbean and along the eastern seaboard of North America.

However, it was not until the mid-eighteenth century that the British government began to raise Highland regiments, such as Fraser’s Highlanders, Montgomery’s Highlanders, and the Black Watch, which were sent to fight in North America.  The Seven Years War, 1756 to 1763, known in America as the French and Indian War, led to significant recruitment in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands, for service in America. The allocation of land to former military personnel in the aftermath of the war was a major incentive to settle by the now-former soldiers. The massive increase in emigration from the Highlands that occurred in the decade after the Seven Years War resulted to some extent from the influence of returning soldiers. Scottish settlers among the residents of the colonies were also recruited into the military, and especially the militia.

At the outbreak of the American Revolution, former soldiers, who had received land grants in America, were recalled for duty by the British government. For example, many former Scottish soldiers, who had settled in the Mohawk Valley of upper New York, were recruited into the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. At the same time many new or recent immigrants from Scotland formed the Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment. After the war, large numbers of soldiers from former Loyalist units and from regular British Army regiments were settled in what have become Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. Scottish soldiers, thus, not only played an important role in defending the American colonies but also an important part in settling them.

The practice of settling former soldiers in the Atlantic colonies continued into the nineteenth century. In 1815 the British government was faced with a number of problems in the post-Napoleonic War period. The War of 1812 revealed the insecurity of the American-Canadian borders, while thousands of British soldiers and sailors had been demobilized and many were unemployed. The government alleviated these problems by establishing settlements for former military personnel along the American-Canadian border.

The attached list of Scottish regiments that were stationed in colonial America should be of interest to family historians. Regimental museums in Scotland, such as the Black Watch Museum at Balhousie Castle, Perth, are worth visiting. Before 1751 army regiments bore the surname of their colonel; however, this changed in mid-century when regiments began to be numbered. Sometimes the number was changed, for example the Black Watch, which was briefly known as the 43^rd Regiment of Foot, changed to the 42^nd Regiment. Also, when some regiments were disbanded, their regimental numbers were reissued to new regiments.

Scottish Regiments in North America

The majority of Scottish soldiers served in regiments, raised and based in Scotland; however, there were some Scottish officers and men who enlisted or were transferred into English regiments. The Scottish regiments that were sent to the American colonies were:

 1^st [Royal Scots] Regiment, founded in 1633, is the oldest regiment in the British Army. It was sent to America in 1757 and fought the French and Indians on the frontier; at Montreal in 1760; at Louisbourg, Guadeloupe, and Havanna. In 1781 it served in the West Indies at St. Eustatius and St. Kitts, then it returned to the West Indies in 1801 to fight in St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Demerara, Essequibo, and Guadeloupe. During the War of 1812, the regiment was in action at Sackett’s Harbour, Fort Niagara, Chippewa, Lundy’s Lane, Fort Erie, and at St. John’s, Newfoundland.

 3^rd [Scots Guards] Regiment was in New York by 1776; it fought at Long Island, Fort Washington, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Brandywine, and Monmouth in 1778 and later in Charleston, South Carolina, and was captured at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1782.

 21^st [Royal North British Fusiliers] Regiment. Its origins date from 1678 in South West Scotland. James O. Forbes, 1765-1843, prominent Colonel, was at Quebec in 1776, captured at Saratoga, New York, in 1777, and interned until 1783. During the Napoleonic Wars the regiment fought at Martinique and at Guadeloupe, and also during the War of 1812.

 26^th [Cameronians] Regiment had its origins in the Covenanter Risings of the 1680s. It was sent to Nova Scotia in 1767, to Canada in 1775, was at Ticonderoga and Crown Point and possibly Quebec and St. John’s. Served at Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1776; it was based in New York before returning home in 1779. Returned to North America in 1787 to garrison Quebec, Montreal, Niagara, and St. John.

 42^nd [Black Watch alias the Royal Highland Regiment] was formed in 1739 in Perthshire. It fought in the French and Indian War and also the Revolutionary War. It was in action at Louisbourg in 1757, at Ticonderoga in 1758, at Montreal in 1760, in the Caribbean in 1762, in New York in 1762, then on the frontier, returned to New York in 1776, fought at Long Island, Fort Washington, New Jersey. The unit also served at Philadelphia in 1778, Monmouth, Newport, and East Florida in 1778, at Charleston in 1779, returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1783.

 77^th [Montgomery’s Highlanders] Regiment was raised in 1757. It was sent to New York in 1758, fought at Fort Du Quesne, Ohio, in 1758, from there to fight in Martinique and at Havanna, Cuba, in 1762, returned to New York and the Battle of Bushy Run in 1763. It was disbanded with land grants being made to the soldiers in 1763.

 71^st [Fraser’s Highlanders] Regiment was originally raised 1775 in Inverness, Stirling, and Glasgow, by Lieutenant General Simon Fraser of Lovat. Was sent to New York in 1776, in action that year on Long Island, also at Fort Washington, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Brandywine, Little Egg Harbour, and Savannah in 1778. In 1779, at Stone Point, also at Charleston in 1780, and Guildford Courthouse in 1781. Captured at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, the regiment was disbanded in 1786.

 74^th [Argyll Highlanders] Regiment was raised in 1777 by John Campbell of Barbrock, a veteran of the French and Indian War. Was sent to New York in 1779, then to Halifax, Nova Scotia, garrisoned at Montreal, disbanded in 1783, then raised and sent to Halifax in 1818, quartered in Newfoundland and Labrador; by 1828 was based in Bermuda.

 76^th [MacDonald’s Highlanders] Regiment was raised in 1777, and sent to New York in 1779, fought in the Southern campaign. Was captured at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1782, and disbanded in Scotland in 1784.

 78^th [Fraser’s Highlanders] Regiment was raised by Lieutenant Colonel Simon Fraser of Lovat, and was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1757. From there to Connecticut 1757-1758; fought at Louisbourg in 1757, at Ticonderoga in 1758, at Quebec in 1759, and Montreal in 1760. Disbanded in 1763, the officers and men were offered land grants in Canada.

 80^th [Royal Edinburgh] Regimen was raised in 1778, and sent to New York in 1779, fought in the South, was captured at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1782.

 82^nd [Hamilton’s] Regiment was raised in Lanarkshire during 1778, and was sent to New York in 1779, fought at the Battle of Penobscot, New Ireland, Maine, in 1779, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, then to Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1781. Was captured at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, and was disbanded in 1784.

 83rd [Royal Glasgow] Regiment was raised in 1778, and sent to New York in 1781 on garrison duty until 1783, then returned to Scotland in 1784.

 84^th [Royal Highland Emigrants] Regiment was raised in America in 1775, mostly from former soldiers settled there. The regiment fought throughout the thirteen colonies but mostly in Quebec and Canada, at Bunker’s Hill, at Fort St. Jean, Moore’s Bridge Creek, and Eutaw Springs. Disbanded in Canada in 1784, and many of its soldiers settled there.

 93^rd [Sutherland Highlanders] Regiment was raised by General William Wemyss in the county of Sutherland in 1799. During the War of 1812 it fought at New Orleans, Louisiana, later, from 1823 until 1834, it was stationed in the West Indies in Barbados, Antigua, and St. Kitts.

 100^th [Campbell’s] Regiment was raised in 1760 from independent companies in Stirling by Colonel Colin Campbell. In 1761, during the French and Indian War, it was sent to the Caribbean to fight the French in Martinique. In the aftermath of the War the regiment returned to Stirling, where it was disbanded in 1763.

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The runaway ads abstracted for this new volume are more diverse than have appeared in previous ones. For instance, multiple ads for slave and Native American runaways appear, and they are identified by race and surname (when available). The Pennsylvania Slave Act, passed on March 19, 1780, which was the first extensive abolition legislation in the western hemisphere, likely encouraged some African Americans to seek their freedom in Pennsylvania. The act stopped the importation of slaves into the state, required all slaves to be registered, and established that all children born in the state were free, regardless of race or parentage. Many of the newspaper ads provide distinctive physical features of the escapees, such as “a slow hobbling gait” or “his feet remarkably deformed,” or “both his arms are marked with the letters W. H.” As he has with previous books, Mr. Boyle has included ads placed by men whose spouses “eloped” from them for one reason or another.

Mr. Boyle’s transcriptions of the runaway ads, taken from twenty-eight different newspapers (including papers from Rhode Island to Virginia, as well as Pennsylvania), provide valuable demographic information, giving name, age, sex, height, place of origin, clothing, occupation, speech, physical imperfections, and sometimes personal vignettes. Individuals whose very existence would have been hidden from us in late 18^th-century newspapers.

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The population was relatively sparse with only a few small burghs mostly lying along the east coast, all of which had medieval origins. The burghs were Dingwall, Tain, Fortrose, Cromarty, Dornoch, Wick, and Inverness, with Scrabster and Thurso by the Pentland Firth, and Kingussie lying within the highlands. The only sizable burgh was Inverness. The people at the time were overwhelmingly Gaelic speakers, with Lowland Scots — who spoke a dialect of English — settled in the burghs. Similarly, placenames were predominantly in Gaelic though a few were based on Norse originals, such as Ullapool, based on Ulapul — Norse for ‘Wolf farm’– or Wick, from Vik the Norse for ‘bay’. Several local surnames superficially in Gaelic include a Norse element, such as McLeod or MacLeoid from the Norse ‘son of Ljotr’, or MacCorquodale based on the Norwegian personal name ‘Thorketill’.  There are also a few placenames indicating a Pictish origin, dating before 1000 AD, such as Petty, or Pitcalnie, or Pitkerrie. The Picts inhabited much of Scotland before the early Middle Ages, while the Norse Vikings settled in the Northern Isles, the Hebrides, and what is now Caithness and Sutherland [Suderland in Norse]. In the Medieval period the inhabitants spoke Norn, a Norse dialect, in such localities. However, by the seventeenth century Gaelic and Scots English were predominant.  The Reformation of the sixteenth century resulted in Scotland becoming officially a Protestant nation; however, in parts of the Highlands there were Roman Catholic enclaves, notably in Inverness-shire and on Barra.

Migration outwards from the Northern Highlands was initially small scale, apart from mercenaries who were recruited to fight for Scandinavia and the Netherlands, many of whom settled there. The Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1638-1651, led to enforced emigration or the transportation of prisoners of war, most of whom were captured at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 or the Siege of Worcester in 1651. These men were banished to the English colonies in the Caribbean, notably Barbados, or to Virginia and New England; they can be identified by their distinctive local surnames. Large-scale emigration from the Northern Highlands began in the eighteenth century and especially after the Highland Clearances of the mid-nineteenth century. The main clans or families during the seventeenth century were Sinclairs, Mackays, Sutherlands, McLeods, Rosses, Stewarts, McKenzies, Munros, Urquharts, Frasers, McDonnells, Chisholms, MacPhersons, McGillivrays, Davidsons, Gunns, McKinnons, MacDonalds, McLeans, Camerons, and Roses.

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Most family names found in this book were of Gaelic origin. Clans traditionally located in this region were the Campbells, Lamont, McIntyres, McGregors, McEwan, McCorquadale, McMillan, Malcolms or MacCallums, McLachlan, and Macleans.

During the seventeenth century, Scotland was subjected to several wars and rebellions. The Campbells of Argyll were prominent Presbyterians, and their clansmen opposed the forces of King Charles I of England; however, the king’s execution and the establishment of the English Republic by Oliver Cromwell was rejected north of the border. In response, Cromwell brought an army to Scotland and defeated the Scots at Dunbar in 1650. Charles II of Scotland sought to replace Anglicanism with Presbyterianism in England, and on that basis leaders such as the Earl of Argyll, with his men, joined the king’s invasion of England and were defeated at the Siege of Worcester in 1651.

In 1685 the Earl of Argyll raised an army from among his tenantry and kin in rebellion against King James II of England (James VII of Scotland), which was defeated on 27 May 1685. After this failure, the Earl was executed, many of his followers were captured, and some were transported in chains for sale in the Americas and the West Indies.

This book is largely based on documents located in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, including those of the Argyll Sheriff Court, church records, the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, sasines (property records), deeds, and military rolls. This work provides evidence of seventeenth-century links from Argyll with Ireland, Nova Scotia, New England, New Jersey, Jamaica, and Barbados. These early links led to significant emigration to Jamaica and North Carolina in the eighteenth century.

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Did you know that Washington had a great sense of humor? What is the real story behind his teeth? What was in the love letter he wrote to his best friend’s wife, while he was engaged to Martha? How did he help start a war in the 1750s? How was he going to be brought back to life after his death? As President, why didn’t Washington like to shake hands? What gift did he accept from Spain that changed American farming forever?

Did you know that, at one time, Washington was the leading moonshiner in the country? How did he treat his slaves? Was he always for independence? How did he feel about religion? Why did he sentence an innocent man to death? Why did he curse and threaten his soldiers at times? Why was Washington considered a great general when he lost the majority of his battles? Why did he not free his slaves, and why did Martha finally free them? When Washington became president, what title did he really want used? What form of harsh punishment did he use on his soldiers?

George Washington traveled out of the North American continent only once—do you know where? Why is it believed that the Washingtons had no children of their own? What other eligible women did Washington pursue prior to his marriage? How did Washington win election to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1757?

These are just a few of the things you will learn about George Washington. There are dozens more of these little-known anecdotes that were told by the people who knew him personally, and these tales will give you a better understanding of what this great man was really like.

About the Author: Jack Darrell Crowder is a retired teacher and administrator with forty plus years in the classroom. He holds B.A. and master’s degrees from Texas Christian University and has written twelve books on the American Revolution. He gives talks on the Revolutionary War to school classes, historical societies, and Daughters of the American Revolution chapters.

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Emigration from Ireland to the Americas in the early modern period grew from a trickle to a torrent between the 17th century and the 19th century. Some emigrants left Ireland bound directly for the colonies as indentured servants. However, most Irishmen who settled in the Americas in the 17th century arrived as prisoners of war banished to the Plantations.

Oliver Cromwell transported hundreds of Irish to islands in the West Indies, notably Barbados and especially Montserrat. Most 17th-century Irish found in the Americas were highly likely to be Roman Catholics who had opposed the English occupation of much of Ireland and who arrived as prisoners sold as indentured servants. By the end of the 17th century attempts at settlement by the Irish had occurred at locations stretching from Newfoundland to the Amazon River.

This picture changed in the early 18th century when most Irish emigrants to America were Anglican, Quakers, or Presbyterians. There was substantial emigration from the north of Ireland by Presbyterians whose ancestors had settled there from Scotland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. These “Scotch Irish” found that they were treated as second-class citizens by the Anglican Ascendancy of Ireland, and, consequently, from 1718, they began to settle in the North American mainland’s thirteen colonies. An estimated 200,000, mainly Scotch Irish, had vacated the Emerald Isle by 1799, becoming one of the largest ethnic groups to settle in the British colonies in the that century.

The 19th century brought the potato famine of 1846-1851 in Ireland, which forced hundreds of thousands of mostly Irish Catholics to abandon their homes for refuge in North America, as well as in Britain and Australasia.

The expansion of transatlantic trade between Ireland and the Americas during the 18th and 19th centuries facilitated emigration. Also, from the late 18th century onwards, the British Army increasingly recruited Irishmen into its ranks. Consequently, many of these Irish veterans could be found settled throughout the British Empire. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British government settled thousands of former soldiers and their families in Canada.

In originally compiling the ten parts of this consolidated edition, author David Dobson consulted reference material located in archives and libraries in the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies. In all, he identifies more than 10,000 Irish emigrants to North America by name, date, occupation, specific place of origin, and, in many cases, by kinspeople, vessel traveled upon, and other circumstances.

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