Ulster and the Scots Irish

Scots emigrated to Ireland in the 17th century for religious, political and economic reasons. They settled in Ulster and maintained strong ethic ties both within the Scots-Irish community and with Scotland. They were Presbyterians and at times were considerably at odds with either the Irish Catholics or the Anglicans (the Established Church) in Ireland. By 1700, the majority of the residents of Ulster were probably of Scots Irish descent.

Ireland in 1600

In 1600 inhabitants of Ireland were equally primitive to the Scottish Highlanders, living in rudimentary turf houses and practicing the most primitive farming methods. Social structure was based on the clan or tribe with the chief taking a similar role to the Lords and landowners in Scotland or England. There was no national government or law.

The Irish were predominantly catholic, having avoided the reformation that occurred in other countries and resisted the imposition of the Anglican Church by their English conquerors. This Catholicism was was supported and amplified by the Jesuits missions sent to Ireland in the 16th and 17th century.

The Flight of the Earls

James VI of Scotland became james I, King of England succeeding Elizabeth in 1603, uniting Scotland and England. This occurred just at the time that a rebellion in Ireland, aided by the Spanish, had been put down. The Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, had been a leader in the rebellion. The situation in Ireland was an urgent problem to James in that the Counter-Reformation was being successfully led by Jesuit missionaries in Ireland and they had plans to make Ireland an independent Kingdom, which were viewed favorably by Pope Gregory XIII. This was also supported by England's traditional enemy, King Philip II of Spain. Unexpectedly, the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill and the Earl of Tyrconnel, Rory O'Donnell fled the county along with Cuconnaught Maquire (a cousin of O'Donnell) in 1607, in what is called the "Flight of the Earls". O'Neill was at the time was embroiled in a land dispute with his principal vassal and had been summoned to London to present his case. It was never really clear why they fled, some speculated that it was their plan to obtain support from Spain for reestablishing Irish independence as a Catholic State. Whatever the reason James I took advantage and large areas of Ulster were escheated to the crown. The escheated lands included most of the counties of Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh and Cavan.

The Ulster Plantation

Prior to the Plantation of Ulster by the English Crown, the counties of Antrim, Down and Monaghan were privately settled. In particular, Hugh Montgomery and James Hamilton, lairds of Ayrshire had purchased land from Con O'Neill and settled the land with Scottish lowlanders. This settlement began in 1606 and by 1610, when the Ulster Plantation took place, there were already 8,000 to 10,000 Scots in Antrim and Down.

The English spent considerable effort trying to subdue Ireland in the late 1500's. Plans had been underway prior to the flight of the Earls for a Plantation of loyal British subjects in Ireland in hopes of pacifying the region. The additional lands obtained from the Flight of the Earls greatly expanded the scope of the Plantation and enhanced its prospects for success.

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Irish Plantations of 1600

The land confiscated from Irish Catholic landowners was to be granted to three categories of Undertakers:

The lands were surveyed and divided into 3 different sized lots: great (2000 acres), middle (1500 acres) and small (1000 acres). Specific requirements imposed on the undertakers varied based on the size of the lots. Undertakers for the great and middle lots were required to:

The settlers were required to be Protestant. The reference to the inward parts of Scotland was intended to exclude Highlanders. The land was rented to the Undertakers at different rates for each class of Undertaker. English and Scottish Undertakers paid 5£ 6s 8d per 1000 acres, Servitors paid 8£ and natives of Ireland paid 10£ 13s 4d. The lands were made available for occupation in August 1610.

Initially, 77 Scottish Undertakers applied for the grants and 59 were eventually approved for a total of 81,000 acres. These Undertakers were the sons and brothers of lairds, sons of ministers and burgesses or sons of burgesses. Sir Thomas Boyd, the son of Lord Kilmarnock, received a grant in County Tyrone. (A complete list of the Scottish Undertakers is included in Henry Jones Ford, The Scotch-Irish in America, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1915, Appendix B).

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The Plantation of Ulster was generally successful, and the Scottish settlers were by far the most successful. Many of the English settlers returned to England, but by 1640 it was reported that there were 40,000 able bodied Scots in Ireland. These Scots settlers came primarily from Ayr, Dumfres, Renfrew, Dumbarton & Lanark with few settlers from Lothians and Berwick and the fewest settlers from Aberdeen and Inverness.

Although it was a time of significant religious conflict in England, Scotland and Ireland, the Church of England, which was the Established Church of Ireland, accommodated the Presbyterians. Presbyterian ministers were ordained by the Bishops of the Church of England, but generally continued to practice their religion according to the Presbyterian beliefs, forms of worship and governance. There were lengthy sermons, often several a day and the people came great distances to listen and participate. There were revivals where people would be "stricken and swoon with the word".

In 1633 Thomas Wentworth became the Lord Deputy of Ireland. He was very anti-Puritan and in 1639 required all the Ulster Scots over the age of 16 to take the "Black Oath", to swear to obey the Kings royal commands, disavow the Scottish rebellion against the Episcopal ordinances. He required that the Presbyterian ministers conform to the practices of the Church of England. The result was that many of the Presbyterian ministers returned to Ireland. Those that didn't only made token efforts to conform to the Anglican rules. Many Ulster Scots would make the short journey across the North Channel to take communion and to have their children baptized. Wentworth was recalled to London in 1640 and religious tolerance was restored. Not only did the exiles return, but a new wave of immigration began.

Wentworth may have been harsh with regard to religion, but economically Ulster flourished under his administration. Although he prohibited the manufacture of woolen cloth in order to protect the English manufacturers of wool, in compensation, he did a great deal to create the Irish linen industry by importing flax seed and skilled workers from Holland and building mills. The linen industry he created was very successful and became an important part of the Irish economy.

During the last half of the 17th century Ulster prospered. It attracted many religious dissidents including Quakers and Puritans. Emigrants included not only Scots lowlanders, but also English, especially from the northern counties. In 1685, France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had provided religious liberties to the Huguenots and many emigrated to Scotland (as well as other countries). The Huguenots were Calvinists, so easily integrated into the Presbyterian community in Ulster. Parliament relaxed the restriction on manufacture of woolen cloth and the woolen industry grew significantly. in 1688, William of Orange became King of England, deposing James II. William, a protestant, granted complete religious freedom to the Presbyterians. A final wave of immigration from Scotland occurred between 1790 and 1800 encouraged by the availability of land in Ulster and the famine in Scotland.

Emigration to American

In 1704, Parliament passed the Test Act, which provided that the Presbyterian Church in Ireland was not legally recognized. This meant that Presbyterian ministers could not conduct marriages or baptisms. Members of the Presbyterian Church could not hold a position in the Army or Navy, customs, excise or Post Office departments, any court of law or magistracy, without first becoming a member of the Anglican Church. The English historian James Froude described the situation in the following words:

“And now recommenced the Protestant emigration, which robbed Ireland of the bravest defenders of the English interests, and peopled the American seaboard with fresh flights of Puritans. Twenty thousand left Ulster on the destruction of the woolen trade. Many more were driven away by the first passage of the Test Act. The stream had slackened, in the hope that the law would be altered. When the prospect was finally closed, men of spirit and energy refused to remain in a country where they were held unfit to receive the rights of citizens; and thenceforward, until the spell of tyranny was broken in 1782, annual shiploads of families poured themselves out from Belfast and Londonderry. The resentment which they carried with them continued to burn in their new homes; and, in the War of Independence, England had no fiercer enemies than the grandsons and great grandsons of the Presbyterians who had held Ulster against Tyrconnell.

And so the emigration continued. The young, the courageous, the earnest, those alone among her colonists who, if Ireland was ever to be a Protestant country, could be effective missionaries, were torn up by the roots, flung out, and bid find a home elsewhere; and they found a home to which England fifty years later had to regret that she had allowed them to be driven.”

Contributing to the problems of the Ulster-Scots, were the laws of Lay Patronage. These laws provided that the choice of the pastor for a local church, instead of being made by the members of the congregation, was made by a lay patron or his designated successors. These laws, which created great conflicts in the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, lead to the schism of the Church of Scotland, creating the Associate and the Reformed Presbyteries (see the next chapter). Compounding these problems were the discriminating tariffs against Ireland’s farm products and industries enacted to provide protection for their English competitors. The last straw was widespread crop failures in 1741, which resulted in a famine. It is estimated that one-third of the Protestant population of Ireland immigrated to American between 1731 and 1768. In the years 1771 – 1773 alone, as many as 30,000 Scots-Irish left Ireland for American, most of them the most enterprising and qualified members of the population. By the 1770s, more than 200,000 had left Ireland for American. Compare this to the total population of the American Colonies in 1770 of about 2.1 million and one can get a sense of the impact on America of the Scots Irish immigration.

To be continued

Scotland | Ireland | Presbyterian Church