Painted by Captⁿ. W M^cKenzie BATTLE OF CULLODEN.

An Historical Account

OF THE

Settlements of Scotch Highlanders

IN

America

Prior to the Peace of 1783

TOGETHER WITH NOTICES OF

Highland Regiments

AND

Biographical Sketches

BY

J.P. Maclean, Ph.D.

Life Member Gaelic Society of Glasgow, and Clan MacLean Association of Glasgow; Corresponding Member Davenport Academy of Sciences, and Western Reserve Historical Society; Author of History of Clan MacLean, Antiquity of Man, The Mound Builders, Mastodon, Mammoth and Man, Norse Discovery of America, Fingal's Cave, Introduction Study St. John's Gospel, Jewish Nature Worship, etc.

ILLUSTRATED.

THE HELMAN-TAYLOR COMPANY, Cleveland.
JOHN MACKaY, Glasgow.
1900.

Highland Arms.

To

Colonel Sir Fitzroy Donald MacLean, Bart., C.B.,

President of The Highland Society of London,

An hereditary Chief, honored by his Clansmen at home and abroad, on account of the kindly interest he takes in their welfare, as well as everything that relates to the Highlands, and though deprived of an ancient patrimony, his virtues and patriotism have done honor to the Gael, this Volume is

Respectfully dedicated by the
Author.

"There's sighing and sobbing in yon Highland forest;
There's weeping and wailing in yon Highland vale,
And fitfully flashes a gleam from the ashes
Of the tenantless hearth in the home of the Gael.
There's a ship on the sea, and her white sails she's spreadin',
A' ready to speed to a far distant shore;
She may come hame again wi' the yellow gowd laden,
But the sons of Glendarra shall come back no more.

The gowan may spring by the clear-rinnin' burnie,
The cushat may coo in the green woods again.
The deer o' the mountain may drink at the fountain,
Unfettered and free as the wave on the main;
But the pibroch they played o'er the sweet blooming heather
Is hushed in the sound of the ocean's wild roar;
The song and the dance they hae vanish'd thegither,
For the maids o' Glendarra shall come back no more."

PREFACE.

An attempt is here made to present a field that has not been preoccupied. The student of American history has noticed allusions to certain Scotch Highland settlements prior to the Revolution, without any attempt at either an account or origin of the same. In a measure the publication of certain state papers and colonial records, as well as an occasional memoir by an historical society have revived what had been overlooked. These settlements form a very important and interesting place in the early history of our country. While they may not have occupied a very prominent or pronounced position, yet their exertions in subduing the wilderness, their activity in the Revolution, and the wide influence exercised by the descendants of these hardy pioneers, should, long since, have brought their history and achievements into notice.

The settlement in North Carolina, embracing a wide extent of territory, and the people numbered by the thousands, should, ere this, have found a competent exponent. But it exists more as a tradition than an actual colony. The Highlanders in Georgia more than acted their part against Spanish encroachments, yet survived all the vicissitudes of their exposed position. The stay of the Highlanders on the Mohawk was very brief, yet their flight into Canada and final settlement at Glengarry forms a very strange episode in the history of New York. The heartless treatment of the colony of Lachlan Campbell by the governor of the province of New York, and their long delayed recompense stands without a parallel, and is so strange and fanciful, that long since it should have excited the poet or novelist. The settlements in Nova Scotia and Prince Edwards Island, although scarcely commenced at the breaking out of the Revolution, are more important in later events than those chronicled in this volume.

The chapters on the Highlands, the Scotch-Irish, and the Darien scheme, have sufficient connection to warrant their insertion.

It is a noticeable fact that notwithstanding the valuable services rendered by the Highland regiments in the French and Indian war, but little account has been taken by writers, except in Scotland, although General David Stewart of Garth, as early as 1822, clearly paved the way. Unfortunately, his works, as well as those who have followed him, are comparatively unknown on this side the Atlantic.

I was led to the searching out of this phase of our history, not only by the occasional allusions, but specially from reading works devoted to other nationalities engaged in the Revolution. Their achievements were fully set forth and their praises sung. Why should not the oppressed Gael, who sought the forests of the New World, struggled in the wilderness, and battled against foes, also be placed in his true light? If properly known, the artist would have a subject for his pencil, the poet a picture for his praises, and the novelist a strong background for his romance.

Cleveland, O., October, 1898.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The Highlanders of Scotland.

Division of Scotland—People of the Highlands—Language—Clanship—Chiefs Customs—Special Characteristics—Fiery-Cross—Slogan—Mode of Battle Forays—Feasts—Position of Woman—Marriage—Religious Toleration Superstitions—Poets—Pipers—Cave of Coire-nan-Uriskin—The Harp—Gaelic Music—Costume—Scotland's Wars—War with Romans—Battle of Largs—Bannockburn—Flodden—Pinkie—Wars of Montrose—Bonnie Dundee—Earl of Mar—Prince Charles Stuart—Atrocities in the Wake of Culloden—Uncertainty of Travellers' Observations—Kidnapping Emigration

CHAPTER II.

The Scotch-Irish in America.

Origin of the name of Scotland—Scoto-Irish—Ulster—Clandonald—Protestant Colonies in Ireland—Corruption of Names—Percentage of in Revolution—Characteristics—Persecuted—Emigration from Ulster—First Scotch-Irish Clergyman in America—Struggle for Religious