Scotland's Mark on America by George Fraser Black
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page 14 of 243 (05%)
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thousand acres of land at their disposal. Each of these "Undertakers,"
as they were called, was accompanied to his new home by kinsmen, friends, and tenants, as Lord Ochiltree, for instance, who is mentioned as having arrived "accompanied with thirty-three followers, a minister, some tenants, freeholders, [and] artificers." By the end of 1612 the emigration from Scotland is estimated to have reached 10,000. Indeed, before the end of this year so rapidly had the traffic increased between Scotland and Ireland that the passage between the southwest of Scotland and Ulster "is now become a commoun and are ordinarie ferrie," the boat-men of which were having a rare time of it by charging what they pleased for the passage or freight. In the selection of the settlers measures were carefully taken that they should be "from the inwards part of Scotland," and that they should be so located in Ulster that "they may not mix nor intermarry" with "the mere Irish." For the most part the settlers appear to have been selected from the shires of Dumbarton, Renfrew, Ayr, Galloway, and Dumfries. Emigration from Scotland to Ireland appears to have continued steadily and the English historian Carte estimated, after diligent documentary study, that by 1641 there were in Ulster 100,000 Scots and 20,000 English settlers. In 1656 it was proposed by the Irish government that persons "of the Scottish nation desiring to come into Ireland" should be prohibited from settling in Ulster or County Louth, but the scheme was not put into effect. Governmental opposition notwithstanding emigration from Scotland to Ireland appears to have continued steadily, and after the Revolution of 1688 there seems to have been a further increase. Archbishop Synge estimated that by 1715 not less than 50,000 Scottish families had settled in Ulster during these twenty-seven years. It should be also mentioned that "before the Ulster plantation began there was already a considerable Scottish occupation of the region nearest to Scotland. These Scottish |
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