The Scotch-Irish in America.

Henry Jones Ford

1915

The Scotch Migration to Ulster.

From The Scotch-Irish in America by Henry Jones Ford.

Chapter III.

The racial elements that have gone into the making of Scotland are matters upon which there are sharp differences among specialists in this field. The first chapter of Andrew Lang's History of Scotland gives a statement of the conflicting views that are expressed upon ethnic questions. The great question is: Who were the Picts? An eminent Celtic scholar, Professor Rhys, mainly upon philological grounds holds that they were members not of the Celtic but of some non-Aryan race, enmeshed by Celtic migration like the Basques of France. Mr. Lang himself concludes that they were simply a Celtic tribe, the ancestors in some degree of the present Highlanders. In Scotland as in England the historical data point to Teutonic and Scandinavian invasion pushing back the Celtic tribes. Mr. Lang points out that there is no marked difference in the racial composition of the people between the Scottish Lowlands and the adjacent parts of England. In both countries the people spoke a language now designated as Early English. The two regions were one geographically. Mr. Lang remarks: "Nothing in the topography of the country contains a prophecy of this separation of the Teutonic or English conquerors of Southern Scotland into a separate Scottish nation. The severance of the English north and south of the Tweed was the result of historical events."

Substantially the same view is taken in T. F. Henderson's history of Scottish Vernacular Literature. He holds that: "The Scottish vernacular is mainly a development of the Teutonic dialect of that Northumbria which embraces the more eastern portion of Britain from the Humber to the Firth of Forth. Here the Saxons obtained a firm footing early in the sixth century, the Cymri being, after a series of desperate struggles, either conquered or forced gradually westward until they concentrated in Cumbria or Strathclyde, between the Mersey and the Clyde, where for some centuries they maintained a fragile independence. . . . The triumph of the Saxon element was finally assured by the great influx of Saxons during the period of the Norman conquest. . . . The Teutonic speech and civilization gradually penetrated into every district of the Scottish Lowlands."

Mr. Henderson points out that "when it first emerges from obscurity toward the close of the fourteenth century, the literary language of the Scottish Lowlands is found to be practically identical with that of England north of the Humber." Early English exhibited three dialects, Northern, Midland and Southern. The Midland dialect became the sole literary language of England, the Northern and the Southern dialects "vanishing almost entirely from English literature." In the Scottish Lowlands the Northern dialect survived and from it the literary language of Scotland was fashioned. In support of these views Mr. Henderson points out that early Scottish, the Scottish of Barbour and Wyntoun (fourteenth century), "differs but slightly, if at all, from Northern English." At a later period the difference became marked.

The matter of ethnic origins has been touched upon, because some writers upon the Scotch-Irish have placed the Picts, the Caledonians and other early inhabitants of Scotland among the forebears of the Scottish settlers in Ulster. But as a matter of fact the settlers were almost as English in racial derivation as if they had come from the North of England. Occasional allusions in the State Papers show that the Government had in mind the English-speaking districts of Scotland and not the Gaelic regions as the source from which settlers should be drawn. Indeed, the conditions were such that the Ulster plantation appeared as part of the general campaign carried on to break down Celtic tribal polity and to extend civilized polity in both Ireland and Scotland. During the O'Dogherty insurrection Chichester wrote to the Scottish Privy Council advising that the sea-passage between Western Scotland and Northern Ireland be guarded to prevent the recruiting of the Ulster rebels by sympathizing fellow-Celts from Kintyre, Islay, Arran, and the neighboring islands. The Scottish Privy Council on the receipt of the news of O'Dogherty's rising had been quick to perceive the danger of sympathetic disturbance in Gaelic Scotland, and before they heard from Chichester they had issued a proclamation forbidding any aid from the southwestern shires to the Ulster rebels on pain of death. In later correspondence, after O'Dogherty's rising had been suppressed, Chichester referred to his own work in Ulster and the work which the Scottish Council had in hand against the Celts of the western Scottish islands as but two branches of one and the same service.

Irish history during this period has been kept under the spot-light so much as to create an impression that English policy in Ireland was somewhat singular in character and was actuated by special animosity. No support to this notion is found in the State Papers. In them the Ulster plantation appears as part of a general forward movement against barbarism. So far as treatment of the native inhabitants goes the measures taken in Ireland seem less severe than those taken in Scotland itself. The reign of James was marked by a determined effort to crush the marauding spirit of Gaelic Scotland and to suppress the feuds that were carried on in defiance of law. An armed expedition to the western islands was fitted out in 1608, and many castles were seized and dangerous chiefs were arrested both in the islands and the neighboring parts of the mainland. Andrew Stewart, Lord Ochiltree, who was in command of this expedition, became one of the Ulster Undertakers. His name did not appear in the original list, but on returning to Edinburgh, triumphant from his expedition, he was sent to London to make his report to the King. When the revision was made by the King and the English Privy Council of the list of applicants submitted by the Scottish Privy Council, the name of Lord Ochiltree appears as Undertaker for 3,000 acres in County Tyrone.

The steady pursuit of the Clan MacGregor in the main Highlands is an evidence of the determination to crush outlawry at any cost. They are described in proclamations as that unhappy race which has so long continued "in bluid, thift, reif and oppression." The members of the clan were proscribed and the use of the very name was prohibited. The war on these wild clansmen went on for many years. In 1604 Alexander MacGregor of Glenstrae, chief of the clan, and eleven of his principal kinsmen and retainers, were hanged and quartered at the Market Cross in Edinburgh. In August, 1610, a commission of fire and sword against the MacGregors was issued to twenty-eight nobles and lairds in territories surrounding the MacGregor country. By proclamation the King's lieges were warned not to assist any of the clan, their wives, children or servants nor have any intercourse with them. In 1611, after a preamble declaring that the clansmen still persist in their "barbarous and wicked lyff," the Earl of Argyle is commissioned to root out and extirpate all of that race, until, says the King, "they be ather reducit to our obedience or ruitit out of our kingdome." Notwithstanding these energetic measures a report of 1613 says that remnants of the clan have again begun to go about the country "sorning, oppressing, quarreling, where they may be masters and commanders." "Sorning" is the Highland equivalent of the Irish "coshering," the privilege claimed by the warrior class of living on forced hospitality. The harrying of the MacGregors went on by fits and starts for many years.

Besides these campaigns to introduce the King's law into Celtic Scotland, the Government had to deal with the habits of rapine which had been implanted by centuries of border warfare, and which possessed something of a patriotic character when Scotland and England were traditional enemies. Now that a Scottish King had mounted the English throne the further continuance of border lawlessness became intolerable. It was put down with ruthless energy. The English and Scottish shires which had formerly been "The Borders" were rechristened by James in 1603 as "The Middle Shires of Great Britain" and the administration was put into the hands of ten commissioners, five for each side, each set of commissioners executing their orders through an appointed chief of mounted police. The Scottish State Papers from April, 1605, to April, 1607, contain abundant evidences of the activity of the Scottish commissioners. Their chief of police was Sir William Cranstoun, and with his force of twenty-five horsemen he scoured the Borders, arresting murderers and robbers and bringing them before justice courts held by commissioners from time to time at stated places. At the end of the first year the commissioners give the names of thirty-two persons hanged for their crimes, fifteen persons banished, and above seven score in the condition of fugitive outlaws, who should be pursued with hue and cry wherever they might be found. In October, 1606, fifteen more of these Border outlaws were hanged and by the end of the year the list of fugitives had increased to thirteen score, whose names were to be advertised on the market crosses of all towns and the doors of all parish kirks in all the "in-countrey." The Scottish Privy Council sustained this work with hard resolution. The commissioners reported periodically to the Council, asking instructions upon difficult points, sometimes referring a case in which they think there might be mercy, but in every such case the Council sent back word to "execute justice," which meant that the culprit should be put to death.

Besides hanging and banishing, the commissioners were active in breaking up the nests of outlawry. The houses of thieving families were searched for stolen goods, the iron gates that barred entrance were removed and dragged away to be turned into plough irons. The official record of those who were hanged doubtless fell short of the actual number put to death, for Sir William Cranstoun thought it necessary to obtain an act of indemnity, which was granted by the King, December 15, 1606. It sets forth as its occasion that he had been moved "often tymes summarlie to mak a quick dispatche of a grite mony notable and notorious thevis and villanes by putting thame to present death without preceiding tryall of jurye or assyse or pronunciatioun of ony conviction or dome."

Among the names of malefactors officially returned as having been hanged by order of the justice courts are such good patronyms as Armstrong, Gilchrist, Johnstone, Milburn, Patterson, Scott, and Wallis. This Scott may well have been a kinsman of the great author, for in times when Border lawlessness had been so long extinct as to be susceptible of romantic treatment Sir Walter was pleased to claim Border outlaws as among his forbears. The Lay of the Last Minstrel describes the stronghold of Auld Wat of whom the poet says:

"But what the niggard ground of wealth denied,
From fields more blessed his fearless arm supplied."

Of Auld Wat's bride, Mary Scott, "the Flower of Yarrow," Lockhart relates that "when the last bullock which Auld Wat had provided from the English pastures was consumed the Flower of Yarrow placed on her table a dish containing a pair of clean spurs; a hint to the company that they must bestir themselves for their next dinner." As the Flower of Yarrow married Auld Wat in 1567, the halcyon days of her predatory housekeeping were separated by little more than one generation from the stern suppression of such methods. The effect of the thorough work of King James' commissioners was very marked. The Borders were so tamed and disciplined that in 1610 Chancellor Dunferline was able to assure the King that they had been purged "of all the chiefest malefactors, robbers and brigands" as completely as Hercules had cleansed the Augean stables and that they were now "as lawful, as peaceable and quiet as any part of any civil kingdom in Christianity."

There is evidence that the chronic turbulence of the Borders was not so completely suppressed as would seem from the Chancellor's account, but the opening of safe land-passage for steady trade between the two kingdoms appears to date from that period. The memorials of the period of turbulence were eventually converted by the relieved people into materials for legend and song, but this poetry of the situation did not appear until the prosaic aspect had been established to which Dr. Johnson adverted when he remarked that the noblest prospect a Scotchman could see was the high road that led to England. The enlargement of commercial intercourse and the growth of business opportunity were essential features of the pacification of the Borders, as of all regions brought under the rule of law. Severe and terrifying punishment of crime is an indispensable agency in disciplining a people addicted to rapine, but in compelling them to live by honest industry the law must afford them opportunity.

To complete this account of the conditions in Scotland from which the Ulster settlers derived their habits of thought it should be added that the Ulster settlement was essentially a migration from the Lowlands. The elements of the population to whom the opportunity appealed are displayed by the first list of Undertakers. It was mainly composed of sons and brothers of lairds, sons of ministers, and burgesses or sons of burgesses in the shires south of the Firth of Forth, and nearly all were from the upper tier of those shires from Edinburgh to Glasgow. A few names appear from Border shires, among them Robert Stewart of Robertoun, a parish of Roxburghshire in which was situated Harden Castle, the seat of Auld Wat's power. This Robert Stewart received a grant of 1,000 acres in County Tyrone. A grant of 1,500 acres in the same county was made to Sir Robert Hepburn, a lieutenant of the King's Guard. This was a force employed in the general justiciary work of the Scottish Privy Council, outside of the special jurisdiction of the Border commissioners.

The Scots that flocked into Ulster carried with them prepossessions and antipathies implanted by centuries of conflict with predatory clansmen.

The monkish writer Gildas, A.D. 560, describes the Picts as "a set of bloody free-booters with more hair on their thieves' faces than clothes to cover their nakedness." This might serve as well for a concise expression of Lowland opinion of the Celtic clansmen at the time of the Ulster settlement. The Lowlanders were accustomed to regarding the clansmen as raiders, pillagers, cattle-thieves, and murderers. The abduction and ravishing of women were crimes so frequent as to engage the particular attention of the Government. Hardened by perpetual contact with barbarism, the Lowlanders had no scruples about making merciless reprisals. The people were hard; the law was hard. It was an iron age. One of the acts of the Scottish Parliament at this period declared that every man and woman of the Gypsy race found in Scotland after a certain date should be liable to death and persons giving them accommodations should be liable to fine and imprisonment. Mention of arrests for sorcery and witchcraft is found in the records. The proceedings of the Privy Council for 1608 contain a report by the Earl of Mar of the burning of some witches at Breichin. "Sum of thame deit in dispair, renunceand and blasphemeand, and utheris half brunt, brak out of the fyre, and wes cast in quick in it agane quhill thay wer brunt to the deid." This horrible scene of human misery was evidently viewed with grim composure. There is not a word to indicate that the event was even deplored.

The greater avidity with which the Ulster opportunity was seized in the Scottish Lowlands than in England, which had the prior claim, is to be attributed to the chronic need of Scotland for outlets to the energies of her people. The migrating Scot was a familiar figure in continental Europe. In Quentin Durward Scott gives a romantic picture of the Scottish military adventurer, a type renowned throughout Europe for a shrewd head, a strong arm and a sharp sword. The Scottish trader was quite as well known. There were settlements of Scottish people living under their own laws and perpetuating their national customs in various countries of Europe. William Lithgow, a Scottish traveler who visited Poland in the seventeenth century, reported that there were thirty thousand Scots families in that country. When Sir William Alexander, afterward Earl of Sterling, was urging the colonization of Nova Scotia, an enterprise that came into competition with the Ulster plantation, he remarked that Scotland, "being constrained to disburden herself (like the painful bees) did every year send forth swarms." Many through stress of necessity had been compelled to "betake themselves to the wars against the Russians, Turks or Swedens." Alexander urged that this scattering of Scottish ability should be discontinued, saying:

"When I do consider with myself what things are necessary for a plantation, I cannot but be confident that my own countrymen are as fit for such a purpose as any men in the world, having daring minds that upon any probable appearance do despise danger, and bodies able to endure as much as the height of their minds can undertake."

Together with a long implanted migratory tendency operating to promote Scottish colonization of the territory opened to settlement in Ulster, another cause of Scottish forwardness was facility of access. The North of Ireland could be reached by ferries from the southwestern extremities of Scotland which had been purged of their dangerous elements by Lord Ochiltree's expedition. The Scotch settlers had quick transit for themselves and their chattels while the English settlers had to take the risks of a much longer sea-passage beset with pirates.

At this period piracy was a thriving trade, its range including both Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Among the outrages charged upon the pirates was that they associated with the Turks, to whom they sold captives, Tunis being a port at which this traffic was carried on.

In a report made to the English Privy Council, August 22, 1609, it is mentioned with satisfaction that John Ward, a pirate chief, had been captured by "the galliasses of the Venetians" with his ship and pinnace and their crews, "whereof thirty-six the next day were hanged in view of the town of Zante, the rest in other places, amongst which number were divers Englishmen." The Irish State Papers contain frequent references to the depredations of pirates on the southern and western coasts of Ireland. Chichester says in his despatches that it was their habit to move from the Spanish coasts to the Irish coasts during the fishing season, to revictual themselves at the expense of the fishing fleet. He mentions that in 1606 the pirates "hath robbed more than 100 sail and sent them empty home."

The traffic that sprang up as a consequence of the Ulster plantation attracted the pirates into the waters between Ireland and England. In a dispatch from Dublin Castle, June 27, 1610, Chichester says:

"The pirates upon this coast are so many and are become so bold that now they are come into this channel, and have lately robbed divers barks, both English and Scotch, and have killed some that have made resistance; they lay for the Londoners' money sent for the work at Coleraine, but missed it; they have bred a great terror to all passengers, and he thinks will not spare the King's treasure if they may light upon it."

Chichester had not the means of taking effective action against piracy, his frequent appeals for sufficient naval force failing of proper response from the home Government. This Scottish authorities acted with prompt decision and energy. An entry of June 27, 1610, on the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland notes that an English pirate had appeared on the coast of Ireland opposite Scotland, waylaying boats bound for the Irish plantation. Commission was given to the provost and baillies of Ayr to fit out an armed vessel to pursue the pirates. About the same time pirate ships were seen even in the Firth of Forth. Upon funds advanced by the City of Edinburgh three armed vessels were fitted out at Leith. The pirates had a depot in the Orkneys from which northern position their vessels could make excursions either to the eastern or western coasts of the mainland. An action was fought off the Orkneys in which one of the two pirate vessels was captured but the other escaped by fast sailing. Of the thirty pirates taken alive twenty-seven were put to death. They are constantly referred to in the State Papers as "English pirates" and their names are such as to justify the description. A feature of the official record that casts a curious light on the morals of the times is that the pirates had "one whome thay did call thair parsone, for saying of prayeris to thame twyse a day." This pirate chaplain furnished the Government with much useful information and he was not brought to trial. Piracy of such a serious-minded type must have been a relic of the time when marauding whether by land or by sea ranked as an honorable industry. This pious band perhaps regarded Scotland as a foreign country whose waters were as fair a field for spoils as the Spanish main in Elizabeth's time.

After this affair no notice appears in the Scottish records of any molesting of the sea-passage to Ulster, although mention is made of the presence of pirates in the Hebrides and the Orkneys. The probability is that the pirates found the narrow channel between Scotland and Ireland too tight a place in which to venture and they kept to safer and more profitable cruising grounds in the wide seas. Numerous references continue to appear in the Irish State Papers to their activity and audacity. They established a depot at Leamcon, a land-locked harbor, on the southern coast of Ireland, and at one time in the summer of 1611 they had there a fleet of nine sail together with four captured vessels. They were engaged in fitting up one of the captured vessels as an addition to their fleet, after which they were going to the Barbary coast where they had a market for their goods. They preyed upon the commerce of Holland, France and England impartially and defied the authority of all those Powers with remarkable success. The Dutch, who were particularly energetic in their efforts to crush the pirates, obtained permission from the English Government to pursue them into Irish waters. Three armed vessels were dispatched from Holland to the Irish seas in 1611, but the pirate fleet scattered at their coming to return when the coast was clear. Piratical depredations on the southern coast continued for many years thereafter, and the participation of the Barbary States in the business eventually led to a horrible affair. On June 20, 1631, a squadron of Algerine pirates sacked the town of Baltimore in County Cork, carrying off with their booty more than a hundred citizens of the place, mostly English colonists. Ulster, however, remained untroubled by the pirates after they had been driven out of the North Channel in the early days of the settlement. The South of Ireland was not delivered from the depredations of the pirates until about 1636 when Wentworth's energetic measures made the region too dangerous for them to visit.

In Appendix B will be found a complete list of the Undertakers as provisionally accepted by the Scottish Privy Council, and also the list as finally prepared by the English Privy Council. Although the two lists differ greatly, probably the class of immigrants was not to any corresponding extent affected by the change. It has already been remarked that the first list made up in September, 1609, was chiefly composed of sons or brothers of lairds and burgesses in the Lowlands. There is no name of a Scottish noble in the list of Undertakers. Lord Ochiltree appears as surety for four of the principals, but was not a principal himself at that time. The list as revised in England in 1611 contains the names of five Scottish noblemen, each receiving an allotment of 3,000 acres whereas in the first list the largest allotment was 2,000 acres. Only eighteen of the seventy-seven applicants enrolled in the first list appear in the final list. In view of the usual tenor of the King's proceedings in such matters favor doubtless played a part in those changes, but they cannot all be ascribed to favor.

According to the ideas of those times it was important to interest wealthy and influential noblemen in the success of the plantation. It is a point on which Chichester laid stress in his communications. Since it appears that Lord Ochiltree refrained from applying in his own behalf when the matter was in the hands of the Scottish Privy Council but is included in the list as made up in England it seems fair to presume that influence was brought to bear upon him. And it would also seem likely that the kinsmen and friends in the Lowlands for whom he had been willing to be surety when the first roll was made up might retain their connection with the enterprise under cover of his name. In a dispatch of July 29, 1611, Chichester mentions that Lord Ochiltree had arrived "accompanied with thirty-three followers, gent. of sort, a minister, some tenants, freeholders, artificers, unto whom he hath passed estates." Chichester notes that building and fortifying were going briskly forward, that horses and cows had been brought in and that ploughing had begun.

Other Scotch noblemen had thrown themselves with a will into the work of colonization. The Earl of Abercorn had brought in tenants with ploughs and live stock, and the Earl and his family were already in residence on their Irish estate. Sir Robert Hepburn was also resident, and was building and farming energetically. Mills and houses were going up and tools and live stock were being brought into the country. That there was a great bustle of intercommunication between Scotland and Ulster is evidenced by a petition to the Scottish Privy Council, October 27, 1612. The petitions set forth that in settling on their lands in Ulster they are "constrained and compellit to transporte frome this countrey thereunto, verie frequentlie, nomberis of men for labouring of the ground, and mony bestiall and cattell for plenisching of the same," so that passage between Scotland and Ulster "is now become a commoun and ane ordinarie ferrie," where seamen and boatmen are making rates at their own pleasure "without ony controlment." The public authority of Scotland was neither impotent nor irresolute in such matters. The Privy Council commissioned the justices of the peace along the west sea-coast to "reforme the said abuse in sic forme and maner as they sail hold fittest, and for this effect that they appoint and set down reasounable and moderat frauchtis [rates] to be tane for the transporte of men, bestiall, and goodis to and fra Yreland."

No further mention of this matter appears in the records but the severity with which unlawful exactions were repressed is evidenced by the entry in 1616 of an order that one Patrick Adair should be imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh at his own expense during the pleasure of the Council for insolence in demanding custom on certain horses sent to Ireland by the Earl of Abercorn. There is however evidence that as communications became regular and ample criminals made use of the facilities. Entries of October, 1612, and November, 1614, refer to traffickers in stolen goods between Ireland and Scotland and orders are given to keep a strict watch of ports and ferries, "for apprehending of suche personis as in thifteous maner travellis to and fra Yreland, transporting the goodis stollin be thame furthe of the ane cuntrie to the uther."

The energetic scouring of the Scottish Border shires contributed some elements to Ulster plantation that did not make for peace and order. Men proscribed in the Borders would take refuge in Ireland. A proclamation issued in 1618 orders the wives and children of all such persons as have been banished or have become voluntary fugitives into Ireland to join their husbands with all convenient diligence, nor presume to return under pain of imprisonment. To facilitate better control over travel between Ireland and Scotland it was restricted to certain ports, and passports were required.

The situation in the Borders which were the southern tier of Lowland shires throws light upon a saying that is often quoted in histories as indicative of a low state of morality among the Ulster settlers. The authority for it is the Rev. Andrew Stewart, an Ulster minister. He remarked: "Going to Ireland was looked upon as a miserable mark of a deplorable person; yea, it was turned into a proverb, and one of the worst expressions of disdain that could be invented was to tell a man that 'Ireland would be his hinder end.'" As one follows through the state papers accounts of the measures taken by James to rid the Borders of "maisterles men and vagabondis wanting a lawfull trade, calling and industrie" and notes the terrible punishments inflicted, branding, drowning and hanging, it is easy to understand how the popular imagination would be impressed. The severe attitude of the authorities is strikingly displayed by the measures taken in August, 1612, when some Scottish companies that had been in Swedish service returned home. It was ordered that "the said soldiers shall, within two hours after landing, dissolve themselves and repair peaceably to their homes, and that no more than two of them shall remain together, under pain of death." To escape from such rigor emigration to Ireland would be a natural impulse among the restless and wayward, and an association of ideas was established that became a text of warning in the mouths of sober-minded people. But there is abundant evidence that both in Scotland and Ireland the authorities were active in precautions against crime and disorder. A frontier has a natural attraction for the misfits of old communities but the evidence when analyzed does not warrant the opinion that the Scottish migration into Ulster was so low in moral tone as has been averred by historians on the testimony of early Ulster divines.

The authorities upon whose word rests the charge of prevailing immorality are the Rev. Robert Blair, the Rev. Andrew Stewart, and the Rev. Patrick Adair. Blair, who arrived in Ireland in 1623, left an autobiographical fragment which was begun in 1663 when he was seventy. In it he gave this account of the early settlers:

"The parts of Scotland nearest to Ireland sent over abundance of people and cattle that filled the counties of Ulster that lay next to the sea; and albeit amongst these, Divine Providence sent over some worthy persons for birth, education and parts, yet the most part were such as either poverty, scandalous lives, or, at the best, adventurous seeking of better accommodation, set forward that way. . . . Little care was had by any to plant religion. As were the people, so, for the most part, were the preachers."

Stewart's account of early conditions is contained in a church history which was begun in 1670 and was left unfinished at his death in 1671. He was minister at Donaghdee from 1645 to 1671, so his account cannot be regarded as contemporary testimony as to original conditions although it has been cited as such. His account has been supposed to derive support from the fact that his father before him was a North of Ireland minister, but the elder Stewart himself did not arrive in Ireland until 1627, and the son was only ten years old when the father died. Even if the younger Stewart is to be credited with information derived from his father, his knowledge does not approach so close as Blair's to the first settlement but nevertheless he paints the situation in much darker colors. Stewart says:

"From Scotland came many, and from England not a few; yet all of them generally the scum of both nations, who, from debt, or breaking and fleeing from justice, or seeking shelter, came hither, hoping to be without fear of man's justice in a land where there was nothing, or but little as yet, of the fear of God. Yet God followed them when they fled from Him. Albeit at first it must be remembered, that as they cared little for any church, so God seemed to care little for them. For these strangers were no better entertained than with the relics of popery, served up in a ceremonial service of God under a sort of anti-Christian hierarchy. . . . Thus on all hands atheism increased, and disregard of God, iniquity abounded with contention, fighting, murder, adultery, etc., as among people who, as they had nothing within them to overawe them, so their ministers' example was worse than nothing; for 'from the prophets of Israel profaneness went forth to the whole land.'"

Adair settled in Ireland, in charge of the parish of Cairn Castle, Antrim, May, 1646. He died in 1694 leaving unfinished A True Narrative of the Rise and Progress of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. His account of the first settlers is simply a reproduction of Blair's, in almost the same language.

An examination of these several accounts shows that the purpose of the writers was hortatory rather than historical. The motive that set them all writing in their old age was to put on record edifying experiences. Literary composition of this sort instinctively avoids all colors except black and white. It needs strong contrasts to accomplish the desired effect. Hence Dr. Reid, in his History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, a work written in the genuine historical spirit, while he reproduces Stewart's account, gives the caution that it is "probably a little over-charged."

Doubtless to clergymen of strict opinions there was deplorable laxity of morals among the early settlers of the Ulster plantation, but if one's views are formed upon examination of the official records, it will not be thought that the people settling in Ulster were any worse than people of their class in Scotland or in England. If anything, the comparison is to the advantage of the Ulster settlers. As a matter of fact they showed far more regard for religious establishment than is usual among emigrants. It has already been noted that a minister accompanied the party of settlers brought over by Lord Ochiltree in 1611. By the close of 1625 seven ministers are known to have settled in the country. Neal's History of the Puritans, published in 1731-2, mentions the Ulster plantation as a field in which Puritanism prospered. Referring to the work of colonization carried on by the London companies, Neal said:

"They sent over considerable numbers of planters, but were at a loss for ministers; for the beneficed clergy of the Church of England, being at ease in the enjoyment of their preferments, would not engage in such a hazardous undertaking, it fell therefore to the lot of the Scots and English Puritans; the Scots, by reason of their vicinity to the northern parts of Ireland, transported numerous colonies; they improved the country and brought preaching into the churches where they settled; but being of the Presbyterian persuasion, they formed their churches after their own model. The London adventurers prevailed with several of the English Puritans to remove, who, being persecuted at home, were willing to go anywhere within the King's dominions for the liberty of their consciences."

This reference to the Puritan complexion of the ecclesiastical arrangements made along with the Ulster plantation accounts for the acrimony with which pioneer ministers, writing in their old age, described the situation in which they began their fruitful labors. That situation did not exist however because the Ulster settlers as a class were worse than the other people, but because exceptionally high standards had been set up, measured by which morals that elsewhere might have passed without much reprobation were regarded as abominable. Such an epithet as "atheism" when employed by religious zealots must be taken with allowance. It may mean really no more than an indifference which however culpable from the ministerial view-point was far from implying actual atheism. It may be noted that Stewart couples the charge of atheism with "disregard of God." That is to say the people were atheists because they neglected the ordinances of the church as construed by Puritan clergymen. Blair in his autobiography mentions incidents that show that atheism could hardly have been prevalent. He remarks that on the day after he landed in Ireland he met some Scots with whom by way of conference he discoursed the most part of the last sermon he had preached. He speaks of finding several ministers in the field, and of hours spent "in godly conference and calling on the name of the Lord." Alongside of such fervor the behavior of the common people doubtless seemed cold and indifferent, and Blair describes them as "drowned in ignorance, security and sensuality." Yet he says the people were much affected by two sermons he preached on the same day, "one sermon on heaven's glory and another on hell's torments." It was suggested to him that as some of the people that dwelt far from the kirk returned home after the first sermon, he should thereafter preach of hell in the morning and of heaven in the afternoon. In fine, his autobiography gives such an account of successful ministry as to indicate that the people were not a bad sort when judged by ordinary standards, and that upon a fair scale of comparison with new settlements in any country they really stood high in their concern for religion and their attachment to ecclesiastical order.

They certainly were tractable, for the relations that have come down from this period show that the ministers were able to establish a strict discipline. Blair tells how he made evil-doers make public confession of their sins. The Rev. John Livingston who was called to Ireland in 1630 thus describes the process of church discipline in his time:

"We [i.e. the session] met every week, and such as fell into notorious public scandals we desired to come before us. Such as came were dealt with, both in public and private, to confess their scandal in the presence of the congregation, at the Saturday's sermon before the communion, which was celebrated twice in the year. Such as after dealing would not come before us, or coming, would not be convinced to acknowledge their fault before the congregation, upon the Saturday preceding the communion, their names, scandals and impenitency were read out before the congregation, and they debarred from the communion; which proved such a terror that we found very few of that sort."

This was not an isolated case, for Livingston mentions that "there were nine or ten parishes within the bounds of twenty miles or little more, wherein there were godly and able ministers." Both Blair and Livingston speak of the extraordinary appetite of the people for religious exercise. Livingston says:

"I have known them come several miles from their own houses to communions, to the Saturday sermon, and spending the whole Saturday's night in several companies, sometimes a minister being with them, and sometimes themselves alone in conference and prayer. They have then waited on the public ordinances the whole Sabbath, and spent the Sabbath night in the same way, and yet at the Monday's sermon were not troubled with sleepiness; and so they have not slept till they went home. In those days it was no great difficulty for a minister to preach or pray in public or private, such was the hunger of hearers."

All this, in less than twenty years after the colonization of Ulster began, certainly does not exhibit a community prone to atheism and immorality. It is evident that ecclesiastical control over the people was promptly applied and was speedily effectual, and it was a control of a strict Puritan type. The development of this characteristic was promoted not only by the fact that the North of Ireland served as a refuge for Puritan ministers harassed by episcopal interference in Scotland and England, but also by the fact that at this time the established church in Ireland had a strong Puritan tincture and the bishops there were friendly and sympathetic in their attitude toward the Presbyterians. The low state of the Established Church at the time of the accession of James had been somewhat retrieved by the appointment of good bishops and diligent pastors, trained under Puritan influence. During Elizabeth's reign Cambridge University had been a center of Calvinistic theology and Puritan doctrine. The famous Richard Cart-wright, sometimes called the father of English Puritanism, was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Dublin University, founded in 1593, drew upon Cambridge University for its staff of professors and their influence upon the Irish Church was very marked. The articles of religion adopted by the Church of Ireland in 1615 are printed in full in Neal's History of the Puritans as a Puritan document. Blair, Livingston and other Presbyterian ministers accepted Episcopal ordination after a form made to meet their approval. Neal says:

"All the Scots who were ordained in Ireland to the year 1642, were ordained after the same manner; all of them enjoyed the churches and tithes, though they remained Presbyterian and used not the liturgy; nay, the bishops consulted them about affairs of common concernment to the church, and some of them were members of the convocation in 1634."

Looking back upon the situation in the plantation period from the standpoint of our own times, the remarkable thing now appears to be that the people were so spiritually minded. In the time when Blair used to preach his sermons on heaven's glory and hell's torments, both on the same day, it may have seemed deplorable indifference that some of the people were satisfied to hear only one; but what surprises one now is that there should have been so many willing to make long journeys to give whole days to hearing sermons. Such devotion is hardly intelligible until the general circumstances of the times are considered. Previous to the spread of popular education, the rise of journalism, and the diffusion of literature, the pulpit was in most places the only source of intellectual stimulus and mental culture. It was like the well in the desert to which all tracks converge, whereas now some sort of supply is laid to every man's house.

The nervous disorders that are apt to result from immoderate states of religious introspection and emotional fervor were early manifested in Ulster under the excitements of Puritan exhortation. In describing a revival under Blair's preaching Stewart says: "I have seen them myself stricken and swoon with the word--yea, a dozen in a day carried out of doors as dead, so marvellous was the power of God smiting their hearts for sin." Such scenes before long produced religious vagaries that gave trouble. Blair in his autobiography gives a long account of his dealings with Glendinning, described as "lecturer at Carrickfergus." Glendinning settled himself at Oldstone, near the town of Antrim, where "he began to preach diligently, and having a great voice and vehement delivery, he roused up the people and waked them with terrors." But Blair notes that he "was neither studied in learning, nor had good solid judgment." Indeed, it would appear that the man became deranged, judging from the strangeness of the doctrines he began to preach. "He watched much and fasted wonderfully, and began publicly to affirm that he or she after they had slept a little in bed, if they return themselves from one side to another, could not be an honest Christian." Blair gives a long account of a struggle he had with Glendinning to keep him from putting his foot in the fire to show that it would have no power to burn him. Glendinning professed to know when the Judgment Day was to come and he taught people to save themselves by "a ridiculous way of roaring out some prayer, laying their faces on the earth." Glendinning finally left the country, giving out that he had a call to visit the Seven Churches of Asia.

The educated clergy who directed the interests of early Presbyterianism of Ulster set themselves firmly against religious ecstasies that tended to folly and disorder. Blair described some manifestations at Lochlearn in 1630 as "a mere delusion and cheat of Satan." It seems that there were persons who "in the midst of the public worship fell as mourning, and some of them were afflicted with pangs like convulsions." Their case excited sympathy at first but as conference with them disclosed no spiritual value in such experiences they were before long sharply rebuked. Blair tells how a woman of his own congregation "in the midst of the public worship, being a dull and ignorant person, made a noise and stretching of her body." He forthwith denounced the exhibition as the work of the lying spirit and charged it not to disturb the congregation. Blair notes that after this rebuke nothing more of the kind occurred, "the person above mentioned remaining still a dull and stupid sot." One can hardly be mistaken in thinking that these early experiences had much to do with developing in Ulster Presbyterianism its characteristic insistence upon the importance of having an educated clergy. We may therefore descry here the initial impulse of important educational activities in the United States ensuing from Ulster emigration.

These accounts of early conditions by the pioneer clergy are tantalizingly curt in their references to the industrial situation. Blair remarks that when the plantation began "the whole country did lie waste; the English possessing some few towns and castles, making use of small parcels of near adjacent lands; the Irishes staying in woods, bogs and such fast places." After mentioning the influx from Scotland he observes: "The wolf and widcairn were great enemies to these first planters; but the long rested land yielded to the laborers such plentiful increase that many followed the first essayers." These brief references are all that Blair has to say about the conditions that the planters had to endure, but they cast a flashlight on the situation. A relief map of Ireland shows that elevations above 500 feet are more thickly clustered in Ulster than in any other part of Ireland except the southwestern extremity. Three highland masses whose general direction follows rather closely the sixth, seventh and eighth meridians of longitude stretch across Ulster from the north to the great central plain of Ireland. Between and about these highlands are lake basins and river valleys terminating in short coastal plains. At the time of the settlement forests and swamps occupied much of the country.

Ancient Ireland was a densely wooded country. State papers of 1529 represent the districts in which English law prevailed as being everywhere surrounded by thick forests. From time to time the Government had to cut passes and take measures for their maintenance. During the wars of Elizabeth it was a proverb that "the Irish will never be tamed while the leaves are on the trees," meaning that the winter was the only season in which the Irish could be descried and pursued in the woods. "Plashing" is mentioned as a great obstacle to the movement of the troops, by which was meant the interlacing of the tree trunks with underwood so as to render the forest paths impassable. The Government sought to reduce these woodland areas, with such success that by the time James succeeded to the throne the central plain of Ireland was nearly destitute of woods; but extensive forests still remained in Ulster, in the counties of Tyrone, Londonderry, Antrim and Down, particularly on the east and west shores of Lough Neagh, and the territories adjacent.

Almost everywhere the lands occupied by the planters were in reach of the "fast places" in which Blair speaks of the "Irishes staying." The planters had to pasture their cattle near coverts in which wolves prowled or marauding natives lurked. Blair speaks of the wolf as a great enemy. Its ravages were so great that so late as 1652 under Cromwell's Government a bounty of six pounds was offered for the head of every she wolf. Grand jury records mention payments for killing wolves as late as 1710, and they were not wholly extinct until about 1770. The "widcairn" mentioned by Blair is a corruption of wood kern. From the reference to this enemy it appears that although Chichester had shipped out of the country many of the fighting men many still remained behind, still trying to live their old lives as a privileged class to whom tribute was due. The planters thus lived in a state of siege. Thomas Blenerhassett, whose Direction for the Plantation in Ulster describes conditions at this period says: "Sir Toby Caulfield's people are driven every night to lay up all his cattle, as it were, in warde; and do he and his what they can, the woolfe and the wood kerne (within caliver shot of his fort), have oftentimes a share." Gainsford, another writer of this period, mentions that it was an Ulster practice in 1619 "to house their cattle in the bawnes of their castles where all the winter nights they stood up to their bellies in dirt."

Such hazards powerfully impelled the settlers to build securely. In the official survey made by Nicholas Pynnar in 1619 such entries appear as the following:

"On the allotment of Lord Aubigny, held by Sir James Hamilton, is built a strong castle of lime and stone, called Castle Aubigny, with the King's arms cut in free stone over the gate. This is five storeys high, with four round towers for flankers; the hall is 50 feet long and 28 broad; the roof is set up and ready to be slated. Adjoining one end of the castle is a bawn of lime and stone, 80 feet square, with two flankers 15 feet high, very strongly built."

"John Hamilton has built a bawn of lime and stone, 80 feet square and 13 feet high, with round towers for flankers; he has also a stone house, now one storey high, and intended to be four, being 48 feet long and 24 broad; besides two towers, which are vaulted, flank the house. Also a village of eight houses adjoining the bawn, inhabited by British tenants, a watermill and five houses adjoining it."

Pynnar says that at that time there were in Ulster "in British families 6,215 men, and upon occasion, 8,000 men, of British birth and descent for defence, though the fourth part of the lands is not fully inhabited." Of buildings there were "107 castles with bawns, 19 castles without bawns, 42 bawns without castles or houses, 1,897 dwelling houses of stone and timber, after the English manner, in townredes, besides very many such houses in several which I saw not."

This estimate of the number of men able to bear arms of course implies a much larger population when the women and children are taken into the reckoning. The number of houses also points the same way. Inasmuch as the settlers took their families, and families were apt to be large in those days, the statistics given by Pynnar indicate that from 30,000 to 40,000 colonists were then settled in the country. Pynnar classes together English and Scotch as "British" but he gives details which show that the Scotch were much the more important element. He remarks that "many English do not yet plough nor use husbandry, being fearful to stock themselves with cattle or servants for such labors," and he goes on to say that "were it not for the Scottish, who plough in many places, the rest of the country might starve."

From the very first the Scotch took the lead in the settlement. In a report written in November, 1610, Chichester describes the English Undertakers as:

"For the most part, plain country gentlemen, who may promise much, but give small assurance or hope of performing what appertains to a work of such moment. If they have money, they keep it close; for hitherto they have disbursed but little, and if he may judge by the outward appearance, the least trouble or alteration of the times here will scare most of them away. . . . The Scottish come with greater port and better accompanied and attended, but it may be with less money in their purse; for some of the principal of them, upon their first entrance into their precincts were forthwith in hand with the natives to supply their wants, or at least their expenses, and in recompense thereof promise to get license from His Majesty that they may remain on their lands as tenants unto them; which is so pleasing to that people that they will strain themselves to the uttermost to gratify them, for they are content to become tenants to any man rather than be removed from the place of their birth and education, hoping, as he conceives, at one time or other to find an opportunity to cut their landlord's throats; for sure he is they hate the Scottish deadly, and out of their malice toward them they begin to affect the English better than they have accustomed."