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The Border Reivers
The Scottish and English Borders were divided into Marches or administrative districts, each controlled by a March Warden, responsible for defending his area. By 1249 in an attempt to keep peace on the frontier between the two nations, an agreed version of the Laws and Customs of the Marches had been agreed by a commission of twelve Scottish and twelve English knights. By the fifteenth century each March in Scotland had a separate warden, each charged with administering peace and the Laws and Customs of the Marches – these were normally a Maxwell in the west March, a Kerr in middle March and a Home in east March.
For hundreds of years, from the thirteenth century on, the Borders of Scotland and England were the scene of armed incursions on both sides, as lawless gangs of 'Reivers' laid waste to the homes and possessions of both Englishman and Scot from across the frontier between the two countries. This feuding came to a peak in the 16th century, as Borderers conducted raids across the border, together with kidnapping, extortion and murder – and even feuds amongs themselves. Homes were burned, cattle stolen and people deprived of their livelihood. These were the outlaws and guerilla fighters of the day, and lawlessness was the inevitable consequence of their actions, making the Borders into a lawless zone between the two nations.
Henry VIII
The history of Scotland during the main periods of emigration is necessarily dominated by both religion and politics. And in both cases it involved military conflict with the old enemy of the Scots – the English.
When Henry VIII of England launched his invasion of lowland Scotland in 1544, he did so to seek the submission of the Scots in order to secure the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to his son, Edward VI. It had become clear that Mary intended to seek marriage in France, and the Earl of Arran, the Scottish governor had decided to lend his support to the pro-French party in Scotland.
Henry's 'Rough Wooing', as it was called, "putting man, woman and child to fire and the sword where resistance is made" succeeded only in further alienating the border folk whose homes and lands were thus systematically destroyed and devastated by the Earl of Hertford and his army. This only persuaded the Scots of uniting against the common enemy, to the extent of putting aside long-lasting feuds between families such as the Kerrs and the Scotts.
Cromwell and the Battle of Dunbar
When Cromwell swept into Scotland in 1650 with an army of 16,000 men, it was to punish the Scots for recognising Charles II as the rightful king of Great Britain, France and Ireland. After the execution of Charles I in January 1649, Cromwell had sought to establish the authority of Parliament as the only recognised ruling body in the country, and such dissent could not be allowed to flourish, especially on England's northern border.
In the face of an opposing Scottish force of 20,000 and frustrated by sickness and shortness of supplies, Cromwell withdrew to Dunbar on the eastern coast of Scotland in August 1650. However, despite their overwhelming numbers and strong position on high ground, the Scots were routed by the superior firepower and professional soldiers of the Parliamentarians.
The English killed around 3,000 and captured up to 10,000 Scots, some of whom were sent to Durham, from where several hundred were transported to Virginia to serve their exile as indentured servants.
The Restoration and Charles II
In another attempt to regain power in England, Charles II led his army against Cromwell's forces and was defeated at the Battle of Worcester, where many thousands of his Scottish supporters fell – these were mainly Highlanders, whose lands were then seized by Cromwell, while King Charles escaped into exile in France.
When the restoration of the English Crown came in 1660 and King Charles II finally ascended to the thrown of both nations, it was widely celebrated in Scotland. The Scots hoped to see a return to their own Presbyterian religion, which had been recognised by King Charles at the time of his coronation in Scotland nine years previously.
When he was crowned at Scone in 1651, Charles had sworn to uphold the Solemn League and Covenant and to help establish a Presbyterian government in Scotland. However, on his accession the 'Merry Monarch', as he was to become known in England, had other ideas. He swiftly made efforts to restore the episcopacy in Scotland.
The Covenanters
It is impossible to understand the changes that occurred in Scotland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries without reference to the Covenanters. These were men and women of religious principle who originally signed the National Covenant to uphold the Presbyterian religion in 1638. At a time when the Catholic faith was dominant, especially in Scotland, those who stood for religious freedom and tolerance suffered much persecution from the authorities, leading to extreme hardship and even armed conflict, which in turn led to political turmoil.
Nowhere were the effects felt more than in southwest Scotland, which was the heartland of Covenanter resistance, particularly in Dumfriesshire and Ayrshire, where many open-air meetings called conventicles could be held in relative safety. This part of Scotland also saw the bloodiest conflicts and the most extreme reprisals against those protesters who were killed or imprisoned.
The Solemn League and Covenant
The Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 was the agreement by Presbyterians and the English Parliamentarians for extension of the Presbyterian faith into England, Ireland and Wales. It was taken to Ireland by the Rev James Hamilton in 1644, widely disseminated and sworn to with enthusiasm resulting in growth to over 30 ministers by 1647.
In 1662, the Act of Uniformity in England was designed to persecute Protestants who would not agree to the 39 Articles of the Church of England. This was followed by the Conventicle Act of 1664 and the Five Mile Act of 1665 and, in Scotland, the Act of Proclamation of 1662 sought to banish unlicensed minsters from their parishes – a licence only being granted to those who would adhere to the practice of the episcopal church. As a result, over four hundred clergy were ejected from their churches and manses.
In 1663 the Act of Fines was brought in to punish ministers who were in revolt against the new law, the enforcement of which was delegated to the British army, thus bringing the Covenanters – as they became known – into direct conflict with England's military might.
The first revolt against the collection of fines was in November 1666 at St John's Town of Dalry in Galloway. A small group of Covenanters succeeded in rescuing a defaulter from an armed troop of soldiers who had been torturing him.
The ensuing march of protest from Kirkcudbrightshire to Dumfries and Ayr, and then on to Lanark, in the Scottish lowlands, only served to bring the full weight of the English army down upon the Covenanters, whose ranks had swelled to over 2,000 by the time they reached Rullion Green, near Edinburgh. They were heavily outnumbered by the English under General Dalziel, half their number turning back, and over fifty lying dead in the Pentland Hills, with a hundred prisoners being taken. Some of these were summarily tortured and executed as an example to others, and a number were later transported to the West Indies and American colonies to serve as indentured labour.
Persecution of Presbyterians and clergy continued, with heavy fines being imposed on those who continued to rebel. In 1677, the English parliament decreed that landowners were held responsible for all those residing on their land and, when the landowners protested against the injustice of this impossible law, the full force of English retribution was exacted.
The Highland Host, a force comprising 6,000 Highlanders and 3,000 lowland militia was enlisted to ensure that the Scots of Ayrshire and the southwest of Scotland were in no doubt about the punishment for disobedience.
The Covenanters fought back, holding a series of meetings, or conventicles, throughout Lanarkshire. During one of these, in 1679 at Drumclog, General John Graham attempted an attack on the Covenanters. They were ready for him, however, and the Covenanters scored one of their few military victories.
However, only three weeks later, the Covenanter army numbering 5,000 was heavily defeated by the Duke of Monmouth at Bothwell Brig. Five hundred Covenanters were killed, the remainder being taken prisoner and sent to Edinburgh, where some were executed and many others sentenced to be transported to Barbados as slaves. Of these, two hundred were killed when their ship foundered off the Orkney Islands, with the prisoners battened below the hatches.
The First Colonists
In Scotland, the continued persecution of Presbyterians and other Non-Conformists resulted in a desire by many to move to a land where religious freedom was to be found, and a few decided to make the hazardous – but increasingly frequent – journey across the Atlantic to the newly-founded colonies on the eastern seaboard of the Americas. In the 1660s the Quaker settlement at East New Jersey had been founded, and this was followed in 1684 by a Presbyterian colony at Stuart's Town in South Carolina.
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The Killing Times
The Covenanters continued to resist the English laws against the Presbyterian religion, although their numbers had been drastically reduced. In June 1680 the Cameronians published a Declaration for the deposing of King Charles II. It was to be many years before they were sucessful in their aim of establishing a Protestant crown in England and Scotland, finally achieving this after the Battle fo the Boyne in Ireland in 1690, which saw the victory of William III over James II of England.
The accession to the throne of England and Scotland in 1685 of the devout Catholic King James II, brother of Charles II, heralded a time of even worse persecution, torture and killing for many Covenanters and their leaders, such as Rev James Renwick, Captain John Paton and Sir Hew Campbell. from 1684 became known as "The Killing Times" and took place throughout that part of Scotland where many of the protesters came from – Dumfries and Galloway, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. It only came to an end with the eventual overthrow and exile of the Stuarts in 1688.
The refusal of the Covenanters to yield in the face of overwhelming odds eventually led to the union of the thrones of Scotland and England, the deposing of James II in 1689 and the invitation to Prince William of Orange to take the throne in 1690, as well as to widespread migration to Ireland and later to the American colonies.
The Jacobite Rebellions
The eighteenth century saw at least two major attempts to restore the Jacobites to the throne of Scotland. The House of Stuart had ruled Scotland for three hundred years and were not going to let it go without a struggle. With the accession of George I to the throne in 1715, the opportunity to raise the standard again presented itself.
In an attempt to rally the Scots, many of whom were disillusioned with the Union, the Earl of Mar raised a force of 12,000 men, largely led by Scottish nobles from the lowlands in an attempt to restore Prince James Edward Stuart, 'the Old Pretender', to the throne. Having occupied Inverness and Perth, the Earl of Mar sought additional support from south-west Scotland and the north of England – the Jacobite heartland. It was an abortive and short-lived attempt, and after an indecisive battle at Sherriffmuir, near Stirling, ended when Stuart abandoned his supporters to return to exile in France.
In 1745 Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, was persuaded to return from France to raise an army of clansmen in another attempt to restore the Jacobite dynasty. Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard at Glenfinnan and raised a force of eight thousand highlanders. Having marched on Edinburgh and defeated the English at Prestonpans, Prince Charles moved south into England, towards Carlisle and Newcastle. Meeting no resistance, they continued southwards to Manchester and Derby but, failing to find the promised French supporting force they lost their nerve and retreated to Scotland, pursued by the English under the Earl of Cumberland.
Finally, in 1746, at Culloden, the last battle between a hungry and weakened Jacobite army of about four thousand clansmen and the superior force of nine thousand well-trained English troops finally took place. The massacre which followed has gone down in history as the blooodiest defeat ever inflicted upon the Scots.
The Jacobite army was massacred. Those who were left took to the hills and the Duke of Cumberland left no stone unturned in his relentless pursuit for the prince. Prince Charles escaped to the Western Isles, helped by his faithful supporters, and thence to France, where he ended his days as an exile.
Many Highlanders were captured, and those that survived the prison ships were deported to the American colonies to end their lives in slavery.
The Highland Clearances
After the failure of the 1745 rebellion and the Battle of Culloden the deliberate policy of repression of the Scots continued. The 1747 Act for the Pacification of the Highlands was an attempt to curb the power of the clans by destroying the life and culture of the Highlands, including a ban on the the carrying of arms and even the proscription of wearing the traditional tartan or plaid and the kilt. A repeat offence resulted in transportation to the American colonies.
This, coupled with the gradual development of hill sheep farming in place of the traditional occupations such as crofting and forestry, resulted in a major economic and cultural change for the Highland Scots.
The Clearances had actually begun in the Lowlands of Scotland in the mid-eighteenth century. The so-called 'agricultural improvements' had found that the replacement of families with the Great Cheviot and Blackface sheep was more profitable for landowners, these being richer in mutton than other contemporary breeds.
This resulted in those who had been forcibly ejected from their lands having to relocate to the coast, where they were told to fish or to farm kelp in order to pay for their new quarters. The economic success for landowners of the clearances in the Lowlands resulted in the wholesale adoption of the same policy in the Highlands.
The consequences were the same. Highland families were forced to move south to work the harvest, to breed their black cattle which were then driven south for sale, or to emigrate. There was also a considerable drift southwards of many Highland farmers, some of whom settled in the Scottish lowlands, others eventually ending up in the slums of the industrial centres of Glasgow, Newcastle and Liverpool.
The appalling personal suffering on such a huge scale caused by the Highland Clearances resulted in the migration of vast numbers of Highland and Island Scots across the Atlantic to the new colonies such as Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, later settling in Prince Edward Island, Manitoba and the remote north-west regions of what we now know as Canada.
It is thought that, during the century of the Highland Clearances, which lasted from 1762 to 1853, over 750,000 people were dispossessed. It is impossible to know exactly how many of these were reduced to starvation and eventual death. Approximately 900,000 Scots emigrated during this period, of which 500,000 went to Canada and the US, and about 40,000 to Australia and New Zealand.
The Famines
It was both Scotland and Ireland that suffered from the famines caused by potato blight in the middle years of the nineteenth century. The Scottish potato famine which swept the Highlands and Islands in 1836 and 1837 was a precursor of what was to befall the people of Scotland and Ireland a decade later. Potato blight again struck in 1846–47, bringing even further hardship upon the crofters and their families who had suffered so much at the hands of greedy landowners.
The massive poverty and suffering caused by the Irish suffering however, eclipsed that of the Scots. As the potato crop failed in successive years between 1846 and 1851 millions died. As Ireland began to starve, in desperation, whole families sought a new life out of economic necessity, and a major exodus to America began.
As Edward Laxton describes it:
"On tiny two- and three-masted ships they sailed from Dublin and Donegal, from Sligo, Galway and Limerick, from Waterford and Wexford, New Ross, Belfast, Londonderry and Cork, from Tralee, Drogheda, Newry, Kilrush, Westport and Youghal, directly to America.
"More often, however, they were ferried across the Irish Sea to Liverpool on the hated British mainland to seek bigger ships for the Atlantic crossing. Liverpool was the ill-famed slavers' port, where human cargo always had a value, and the Irish would travel in no greater comfort than the slaves before them.
"Five thousand ships sailed across the Atlantic with Irish emigrants in the six years of the Famine emigration."
From The Famine Ships – The Irish Exodus to America 1846–51 by Edward Laxton (Bloomsbury, 1996)
Those who travelled the 3,000 mile journey to the American ports were a cheap workforce, and many were employed to build railroads, dig canals and as servants and seamstresses of the New England élite.
But for the six years of the Irish Famine they left their homeland on sailing ships on every day, summer and winter, desperately seeking survival and escape from the starvation which was ravaging Ireland.
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