The ScotlandShop American Dream: Why the Northeast?

When we were trying to make the momentous decision of where we should plant our flag in America, we had to start somewhere and it made sense look at regions. The Northeast comprises Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont and right now you can enter our competition to guess which State we have chosen! So let's begin with a little bit of a story about each of these States as we learned a lot as we explored them one by one.

There is actually a town in Windham County in Connecticut called Scotland (on further investigation there are actually eight places in the US called Scotland today). Scotland in Connecticut was founded in around the year 1700 and fully incorporated in 1857. Samuel Huntington was born here, one of four Connecticut men to sign the Declaration of Independence and as a result the Samuel Huntington House in the town of Scotland became a National Historic Landmark in 1972. The other famous historical building in this rural community is the Waldo Homestead and for twenty years the Scottish Highland Festival Games have been held on its grounds. It should be noted, given we are in the textiles business, that at one time Waldo House was threatened by the Sprague Manufacturing Company, builder of the largest textile mill in the world, until they ran into money troubles and collapsed in the Depression of 1873. The home of The Scottish Historical Society is in Connecticut and is a great source of interesting information if you want to know more!

The Main Ulster Scots project confirms that "U.S. census data (2000) confirms that Maine has, per capita, the highest percentage of self-identified Scots descendants in the entire USA, and ranks third in the country for Scots-Irish descendants." You can join their mission to share the stories of these people and their influence on the State. We talk a lot about Scotch-Irish so perhaps we should clarify what this means for those who aren't familiar with the term: individuals of Scottish origin who had been living in Ireland for some time. When we are looking at the 1718 migration to America these were Scots that England had sent across the sea to Northern Ireland (known as Ulster at this time, hence the term Ulster-Scots also used) to promote their interests and Protestant-ize the area. Records tell us that the settlement of Stirling was named when in 1735, General Samuel Waldo gathered twenty-seven families, and in 1753 a company of sixty adults with their children from Stirling in Scotland, and brought them by ship to George's River, Maine. This was all part of a plan made by the Rev. Cotton Mather in 1706 to bring tough Scottish families to live on the borders of Maine and New Hampshire providing protection for the towns and most importantly the churches from the French and Indians.

In Boston, Massachusetts we find the Scots Charitable Society, founded in 1657, to provide relief for local people of Scottish heritage who have fallen on hard times and need a helping hand. Recognised as the oldest charitable organisation in the Western Hemisphere, today the Charity are also involved in promoting Scottish and Celtic heritage and you will find them involved in Highland Games, parades and other events in the Greater Boston area. We talked about the Scotch-Irish immigration earlier and in 1718 a group arrived on a ship into the port at Boston and established themselves in what is now the city of Worcester, doubling their population of 250 to 500 and giving them enough numbers to fend off attacks from local native Americans. A 300 year old document resides in the archives of the New Hampshire Historical Society and bears the mark of 319 people looking to establish a better life in Massachusetts and seeking "suitable incouragement" from the governor before they travelled.

According to one estimate, the Scots-Irish made up 10 percent of New Hampshire’s population in the 18^th century. One of my favourite pieces of history is about a man called McGregor and his tatties. I married into the MacGregor Clan and my Dad was a potato farmer for many years so I feel affinity for this pioneering gentleman. McGregor arrived on one of two ships, the Robert and the William, which brought Scots-Irish congregations to Boston Harbor on Aug. 4, 1718, and some of these people settled in Nutfield, New Hampshire, which later became Londonderry. McGregor brought with him on the boat seed potatoes from Ireland and planted them in Londonderry Common Ground and these tatties are acknowledged to be the first potatoes planted in the United States.

On 23 November 1683, Charles II granted a charter for the colony of New Jersey to 24 proprietors, 12 of whom were Scots. The colony was to be split between a Scottish settlement in East Jersey and an English settlement in West Jersey. The Scotsman Robert Barclay of Urie was at the forefront, himself a prominent Quaker and the first Governor of East Jersey. Arriving at Perth Amboy the Scots spread south to Monmouth County, and the city became the provincial capital in 1686. During the 1680s, around 700 Scots emigrated to East Jersey, mostly from Aberdeen and Montrose, and around 50% of those travelled as indentured servants. Historian Viola Cameron studied the Register of Emigrants and stated that of 106 passengers who travelled from Stornoway to Philadelphia in May 1774 all of whom emigrated “in order to procure a living abroad, as they were quite destitute of bread at home.” As we see in other States the Scots were prominent in politics and until 1697 every Governor of East Jersey was Scottish, and this remained even after East and West Jersey came together to become a Royal Colony.

Today there are 40,000 New Yorkers who describe themselves of Scottish descent, with a few famous faces among them, however we are of course here to discuss the state as a whole, not simply the city and home of the annual New York Tartan Day Parade. Arriving on the Mayflower In the 1790 census, Scots made up eight per cent of the population of New York, and there are towns called Albany, Perth and Dundee in the wider state. Charles McKim was born in Pennsylvania but of Scottish decent, and made his mark on the city's landscape when he travelled to New York after studying in Paris. His business was architecture and McKim, Mead & White helped to build some iconic landmarks including the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University (1893), the University Club of New York (1899), the Pierpont Morgan Library (1903), New York Penn Station (1904–10). The St Andrew's Society of the State of New York was founded in 1756, the Caledonian Club in 1856, the American-Scottish Foundation in 1956 and of course the city is home to the annual Tartan Day Parade which takes place in April each year after the US Senate in 1998 declared April 6 to be National Tartan Day to recognise the contributions made by Scottish-Americans to the United States.

Pennsylvania was the most popular destination for Scots-Irish settlers to America, however they also found their way to South Carolina, New Jersey and Maryland. In politics, the Scots Irish held many critical political leadership positions in the state, involved in a radical state constitution that democratized the new state’s republican political order until 1790. Scots Irish politician and Chester County–born attorney and state Supreme Court Justice Thomas McKean was elected as the state’s Democratic-Republican governor in 1799 serving until 1808. Away from politics one of our favourite famous Scots, Andrew Carnegie emigrated to USA in 1848 when the linen trade was not going so well at home in Dunfermline, to live with a relative already in Pennsylvania. Carnegie started out working as a bobbin boy in a textile firm before changing career to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, doing so well that he ended up as head of the firm. Carnegie showed a very generous spirit selling out in 1900 and sharing his riches to fund libraries and Universities both in Britain and North America and buying Pittencrieff House and Gardens for his home town of Dunfermline.

Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the New England region but it makes up for it by being the second most densely populated behind New Jersey. Don't be fooled by the name either, the bulk of the state is actually on the mainland. Rhode Island is famous for being the first of the thirteen Colonies to declare independence on May 4, 1776, several months before the United States Declaration of Independence began. Since 1998 the Rhode Island Scottish Highland Festival brought thousands of bagpipers, fiddlers and kilt-clad lads and lassies of every plaid to the Washington County Fairgrounds but sadly this fabulous event came to an end in 2019. The St Andrew's Society of Rhode Island continues however and dates back to October 18, 1923 when thirteen Scotsmen resident in the Blackstone Valley met to discuss "the advisability of forming a St. Andrews's Club or Society to promote fellowship and the preservation of Scottish culture among men of Scottish birth or descent in Pawtucket and vicinity." The highly successful club membership dipped during the second World War and to boost numbers in 1992 women were accepted and have since taken up important leadership roles to continue the work of the immigrants who founded the Society many years ago.

Looking back to the nineteenth century Scots were rare in Vermont, with the main groups found at Barnet, Ryegate and on the East Hill. Industrial recruiting brought the Welsh slate workers of Fair Haven and the Italian and Scots granite workers of Barre to Barnet and Ryegate, whereas emigration to East Hill was not financed in this way. The 1860 census shows almost 10% of the population of Greensboro, Craftsbury and West Glover being of Scots birth, and mainly from a group of sixty families from the same area in Scotland, however, go any further afield and you would struggle to find a single Scot in the neighbouring towns. Interestingly of the one Scot recorded in both Brownington and Stowe, both were tailors by trade, so we are in good company! The Trumball family from Cambuslang, east of Paisley, played a big part in the communities, providing capital for mortgages to help other Scots looking to buy farms. I am now becoming totally engrossed reading these stories and in danger of turning this blog into a very long history lesson so I will stop now but if you want to read more Vermont History is a font of information.