Clearances

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"Clearances" of the Scottish Highlands

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SCOTS-IRISH - THE MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE BETWEEN
SCOTLAND AND IRELAND -
AND ONWARD EMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA,
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Notes covering the origins of the Scots and Irish peoples, some aspects
of the history of England, Ireland and Scotland; the clearances in
Scotland; associated religious disputes and the Covenant: all being
influences on the movement of Scots people to Ireland and onward to the
former British colonies or directly to those colonies.  Includes a list
of potentially useful references.

Compiled by Iain Kerr 100425,1036@compuserve.com


I have been asked by a number of conventional correspondents and more 
recently contacts on the CompuServe Genealogy Forum to answer queries on
the background to the emigration of Scots and Irish people to the
Americas and beyond. These notes cover the main historical background to
those movements.  They attempt an approximately chronological outline of
the major incidents which caused population movements in Scotland, from
Scotland to Ireland and either directly, or through an intervening
refuge, from Scotland and Ireland to the Americas and later Australasia.
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Introduction

The racial mixture of the populations of the British Isles is highly 
complex; largely due to the continued movement of significant portions of 
the population throughout recorded history.  The population of Scotland
in the 16th and early 17th centuries was made up from the remnants of the
early Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles, of Roman invaders and
settlers, the Angles, Jutes, Saxon and Viking invaders of the Dark Ages
from continental Europe, later Flemings from the Low Countries and the
Normans (themselves of Viking origin) who came north after the conquest
of Englandin 1066. The Irish population at the same time was a mix of the
early Celts, Picts and other Hibernian invaders plus Viking and other
incomers.

The movement of people between Scotland, England and Ireland over the 
centuries has been driven by a variety of pressures; political, economic, 
family ties, religious issues and the problems suffered during times of
all types of armed conflict and war.  There is also a very long history
of such movements from the days of the Viking invaders in the Dark Ages
of the 5th to 7th centuries up to the times of the potato blight in
Ireland of the mid 19th century.

Some movements have sometimes been loosely referred to as clearances;
there were several actual clearance campaigns in Scotland and in Ireland, 
conducted either directly by the English/British Crown or by substantial 
land-owners on with the tacit support of a benign government.  Although 
history and romantic fiction tend to focus on the Highland Clearances in 
Scotland, they were effected across the whole of Scotland; evicting, if
not wiping out, the resident Highlander, Lowlander or Borderer
populations. Similarly, the massive movement of people from Ireland
before, during and after the potato blight and consequent famine (the
Great Hunger) of the 1840s has attracted much interest; sometimes
obscuring substantial but otherwise routine movements at other times.  

The "dark romance" of such Celtic evictions obscures the scale of
movements of people from other parts of Britain and Europe. There are
clearly documented forced migrations of people, especially religious
minorities or economically disadvantaged classes, from the south west of
England to the Americas and from Kent to Australia.  A remarkably similar
campaign, the forced emigration of orphans from all parts of Great
Britain to Australia only ceased in the 1950s. 

Geographical Factors

It should be recalled that the West Coast of Scotland has a mass of sea-
lochs and two belts of islands; the Inner and Outer Hebrides.
Furthermore, the County Antrim and County Down coasts of Ireland are very
close to Scotland, north-west England and the Isle of Man.  The local
fishing industry, small-scale trading and the historic movements of
populations ensured ready movement by sea between what are now seen as
separate countries.  In times of crisis, famine or war it was sometimes
safer to move family and flocks to another and more economically
attractive residence.  Such escapes were often followed within a
generation by a return to the original homeland once conditions had
returned to normal. It is understandable that the family histories of
many of the names represented in Scotland, Ulster and even Northern
England are quite confused.

In an extreme example of routine movements, it should be recalled that in 
the 18th and 19th centuries, the people of St Kilda (some 40 miles into
the Atlantic west of the Outer Hebrides) were prepared to row to Uist or
Harris, aginst prevailing winds and seas, in order to trade their sole
produce, the down of the island's many sea-birds. 

The Beginnings

The troubles in Scotland began in the reign of King Henry VIII, who was 
attempting to wage war on France - Scotland's "auld allie".  Henry
defeated King James IV at Flodden Field on 9 September 1513.  The
Scottish Crown fell to a series of young, often infant monarchs, who were
under the influence of their Mothers or Regents.  The uneasy peace
between the two kingdoms broke down during the Reformation.  King James V
attempted to assert Scots power, but after defeat in battle, Henry's
armies invaded Scotland and beat the Scots at Hadden Rig near Berwick in
August 1542.  The Scottish Army then mounted a counter-attack at Solway
Moss which turned into a rout with the Scottish Army suffering many
casualties.  

The families of the defeated Scots soldiers were immediately at risk. No 
sooner than the battle of Solway Moss was over than the retreating
Scottish Army found itself beset by Borderers or border reivers - those
families who lived in the Border Marches, where neither English or
Scottish Crown held sway. The reivers were eager as always to snap up
plunder and prisoners, whichever side they belonged to.  Some of the
Scottish soldiers who escaped were reputedly so reduced by panic and
confusion, that they were prepared to surrender to women. The news of
Solway Moss was literally a fatal blow to the sick and dejected King
James V who died in despair at Falkirk.  No sooner was his body cold than
the Scotts and Kerrs, down on the English Border, were raiding the royal
flocks and farms.

Henry's Rough Wooing

The Scottish crown passed to James' infant daughter Mary, Queen of Scots.  
Henry VIII sought to gain control over Scotland (and to advance his cause 
against France) by proposing marriage between his infant son Edward
Prince of Wales under the Treaties of Greenwich of August 1543. The
treaties were rejected by the new Scottish Parliament.  Henry's response
was to loose his English troops upon Scotland with instructions to kill,
burn and spoil. The invasions of Scotland in 1544 and 1545, known as
Henry's "rough wooing", brought slaughter, burning and indiscriminate
extermination wasting southern Scotland and inflicting irreparable damage
on the Scottish abbeys and driving the populations away. 

The work was entrusted to Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford.  By threat
and bribe he revived the old English Warden's policy of securing the
toughest of the Scottish clans to work in England's interest; the time
would come when he could claim that he had turned Dumfries into virtually
an English province.  In the meantime he managed to control the Scottish
reivers' activities to an extent that the old Lord Dacre had not
achieved.  He played skilfully on the feuds which, as always, were in
progress along the line, turning the Armstrongs on to the Kerrs and
Scotts who were themselves engaged in their perpetual vendetta. 

Henry maintained suzerainty over Scotland until, losing campaigns in
France, the English armies were withdrawn from Scotland in 1550.

Religious Ferment - the Reformation

The next 20 years of Reformation in Scotland saw the firm establishment
of the Calvinist Church of Scotland, although there were still Roman
Catholic communities, especially in the West Highlands, and a significant
minority who tended to an Episcopalian Church. This event is focused on
the Confession of Faith (later to be revived as the Covenant) and by the
Act of Settlement of 1560.  Two decades of confusion followed during the
attempted Counter-Reformation by Roman Catholic supporters of Mary.  Mary
abdicated in 1567 and Scotland was governed by four regents during the
childhood of King James VI. Mary was executed at Fotheringay on 8
February 1587 by order of Queen Elizabeth I. James VI succeeded to the 
English throne on Elizabeth's death on 26 March 1603.  James VI and I, as
he became after being crowned in London, continued a campaign to bring
order to the Borders, begun in the 1590s, and sought to do so by sending
some of the Border reivers to serve in the Continental wars.  

James VI and I - Highland Clearances

James VI and I, although absent from Scotland for most of his reign,
pursued a campaign to bring into order the 'peccant' parts of the realm -
the Borders, the Highlands and the Islands. For example, the 7th Earl of
Argyll led the pursuit of and violent measures against the MacGregors 
under a commission of "fire and sword" of 1610.  In 1617, Parliament
confirmed a Privy Council ordinance of 1603 which abolished the very name
of Macgregor. These pressures contributed to the significant number of
Scottish (and Irish) emigrants in the first colonial ventures in the
North Americas. Some of the Scots settlers established Nova Scotia under
the leadership of Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling.

The later years of James VI and I reign saw gradual revelation of his
personal adherence to the Roman Catholic church and to more overt support
for the reintroduction of the Episcopal Church in Scotland. His
persecution of the English Puritans and the Scottish Presbyterians were
to bear fruit in the reign of his son Charles I.

Presbyterian Revolution - The National Covenant

Charles I, who claimed to be King of Great Britain, continued his support
of the Episcopal Churches in Scotland and England and maintained closer
relations with Catholic allies in Europe. Charles was uncompromising in
his dealings with the Scottish, as well as the English, Parliaments and
with Archbishop Laud, proposed that the Episcopacy be re-introduced in 
Scotland. The Scottish opposition to this was both general and intense. 
The Scottish Parliament and Kirk produced the National Covenant on
Wednesday 28 February 1635. In an astonishing "avalanche" the Covenant
was distributed throughout Scotland. By years-end, 95% of the Scottish
people had bound themselves to the Covenant. The Covenant bound its 
adherents to "uphold and to defend the true religion" and to oppose all
"innovations on the purity and liberty of the gospel".
 
The Scottish Parliament siezed the royal fortresses and stores, made an
alliance with France and sent an army under Alexander Leslie across the
Border early in 1640. The Scots were well prepared; the country was
filled with old soldiers who had served Germany in the Thirty Years 
war who served as the nucleus for untrained levies.  Leslie siezed
Newcastle the so-called Bishop's Wars. King Charles responded by calling
his fourth, the Short, English Parliament which was dismissed after 3
weeks.  

King Charles having failed to regain power in Scotland, then made a truce
with the Scots and called the fifth, or Long, English Parliament which
met on 30 November 1640. In 1641, the English Parliament, which was
packed with anti-monarchists and libertarians (who became the Puritan
Party), presented the King with the Grand Remonstrance which recited all
of the acts of tyranny and misgovernment of the previous sixteen years. 
King Charles attempted to arrest five of the members of Parliament but
failed and on 10 January 1642 he left London, never to return, save as a
prisoner.

The English Civil War 1642 - 1649

In 1643, a General Assembly held in Edinburgh accepted the overtures of
the English Parliament - the "Solemn League and Covenant".  Both parties
agreed to preserve the reformed religion in England and Ireland and to
suppress all opponents of the League and to preserve peace between
England and Scotland.  The Presbyterian cause was joined. In 1643, the
Scottish Covenanting Army, under Leslie, swept the royal forces before
him and advanced to besiege York before playing an important part in the
battle of Marston Moor.

Montrose's Venture 1644 - 1645

Montrose, who had refused to have any part in the Solemn League, accepted
the King's commission as Lieutenant General, commanding the Royalist Army
in Scotland. After defeat at Marston Moor, he returned to Scotland in
disguise and raised a small force including some 1,000 wild Irishmen and
Islemen commanded by Alistair MacDonald. Montrose led his small force to 
victory in six battles against the odds and carried fire and sword into
the lands of the Campbells.  Just when the Lowlands lay before him,
Montrose was defeated by Leslie at Philliphaugh. But the Covenanting
victory was stained by a horrible massacre of Royalist prisoners, echoing
that which has occurred after the Battle of Naseby. Similarly,
Highlanders following the royalist cause, fell in significant numbers at
the Battle of Worcester and their homelands became forfeit to the
victorious Roundhead supporters.

The Usurpation (Commonwealth and Protectorate) 1649 - 1660

Immediately after the execution of King Charles I in Whitehall, the
Scottish Parliament proclaimed King Charles II as monarch.  The King
accepted this odd offer which was conditional upon his recognition of
Presbyterianism and, off Garmouth on Spey, he signed both Covenants on 23
June 1649. Cromwell could not accept this and in July he crossed the
Border with 16,000 men, mainly veterans, and a fleet sailed up the east
coast. Cromwell siezed a tactical advantage at the Battle of Dunbar.  In
victory he showed no mercy and the few able Scottish survivors were
sentenced to exile in the 'Plantations' of Ulster and the Americas.  

The battles in Scotland and England continued until 1652, when Charles
escaped after the Battle of Worcester. The English Parliament first
attempted to treat Scotland as a mere province and attempted to create a
Union between the nations during the Barebones Parliament (which
contained only 5 Scots members out of 140) with Cromwell as Lord
Protector. The restoration of the Crown in 1662 came as relief to most
Scotts because they were Royalists at heart and preferred to practice
their own form of Presbyterianism which emphasised the direct 
responsibility of every individual to his Maker.

Restoration and the Covenanters 1660 - 1689

King Charles II has sworn at his coronation in Scotland in 1st January
1651 to uphold the Solemn League and Covenant and to establish a
Presbyterian Government. The crown was placed on his head by the marquis
of Argyll.  Yet, little more than a year after his restoration to 
the throne, Charles had Argyll executed at the Cross of Edinburgh because
Argyll adhered to Presbyterianism. 

King Charles II, known to his English subjects as "the Merry Monarch" 
but was wont to say that Presbyterianism was no religion for a gentleman. 
He quickly developed had a vindictive attitude both to his former enemies
and to the Presbtyterians in Scotland who had been his allies. In
England, the Act of Uniformity 1662, the Conventicle Act of 1664 and the
Five Mile Act of 1665 were concerted efforts to persecute those
Protestants who failed to accede to the 49 Articles and the Book of
Common Prayer.  In Scotland, the Act of Proclamation 1662
banished from their manses and parishes all ministers who lacked an
episcopal licence. The result was that on 1 November 1662, over 400
ministers came out of their churches and manses. This was followed by the
Act of Fines of 1663, designed to punish those revolting clergy.  The 
enforcement of those fines was placed under military control using the
newly formed standing Army.  

The collection of those fines led to the first military rising of the
Covenanters, at St John's Town of Dalry in Galloway on 12 November 1666. 
A small party of armed Covenanters overpowered some troopers under the
command of Sir James Turner who were torturing a Covenanter who would not
pay his fine. The Covenanters then marched from Dumfries to Lanark,
increasing to some 2,00 in number. At Rullion Green they encountered the
superior forces of the Crown under General Dalziel. 1,000 Covenanters
determined to go forward at all costs and were disastrously defeated. 
Over 100 prisoners were taken to be afterwards executed after various
degrees of torture at appointed spots all over the country. 

The persecution of the outed clergy and Covenanters, and anyone providing
them shelter or support, continued along with heavy fines.  By 1677,
landowners and masters were required to sign bonds for all persons
residing on their land. Their landowners refused to accept this
impossible undertaking. The Government loosed upon the south-west, and
Ayrshire in particular, the Highland Host, a body of 6,000 Highlanders
and 3,000 Lowland militia to live in free quarters while they extracted
the bonds and to loot the country. The simmering uprising led to the
assassination of Archbishop Sharp, the symbol of the episcopacy and the
persecutor of many Covenanters, at Magus Moor near St Andrews on 3rd May
1679.  

Following the assassination, a company of Covenanting extremists held a
Conventicle in Avondale on 25th May.  They prepared a public manifesto,
ratified at public meetings and published at Rutherglen on 29th May - a
date deliberately chosen as the unpopular public holiday for the King's
birthday.  General John Graham of Claverhouse ("Bloody Clavers" later  
Viscount Dundee and "Bonnie Dundee") attempted an attack on the
Covenanters at a great Conventicle at Drumclog on Sunday 1st June but was
repulsed. This was one of the Covenanter's few military victories.  

Three weeks later at Bothwell Brig, the 5,000 strong Covenanter Army was
disastrously defeated by a Royal force under Monmouth; 400 being left
dead on the field; and 1,500 carried away as prisoners to Edinburgh. 
There they were confined in the open for five months in Greyfriars
Churchyard.  Two ministers were hanged, some other prisoners were
executed at Magus Moor. 400 prisoners who took a bond not to rise in arms
again were released. The remainder were sentenced to be transported to
Barbados, but their ship sank off the Orkneys with 200 of the captives
battened below hatches.

Monmouth, who was considered by the King as too kindly and lenient, was
replaced by James, Duke of York (later King James VII and II). The strict
Covenanters, reduced in numbers but not in  spirit, continued to resist
with increased fervour. Led by the minister Andrew Cargill and by Richard
Cameron, a St Andrews graduate, they were known as the Society men" or
the Cameronians. [The British Army regiment which bore that name for
nearly 300 years, were known as the Covenanters; they took their rifles
to the Kirk and posted sentries outside. They went into suspended
animation in the 1970s resolved to return should Scotland or the Covenant 
have need of them.]

On 22nd June 1680, the first anniversary of the dark day of Bothwell
Brig, the Cameronians assembled at the market Cross at Sanquhar and
published a Declaration for the deposing of the Stuart King Charles II. 
Cameron was killed at Airsmoss a few weeks later. But the Society 
People continued to harry the authorities.

The period of the Restored Monarchy in Scotland was a period of marked
economic and political development. Yet the continued persecution of
dissidents drove men to lands abroad where thought was more free.  A
small Quaker-Scottish colony was established in East New Jersey in the
1660s and in 1684; a Presbyterian settlement in Stuart's Town in South
Carolina. 

The Glorious Revolution 1688

James VII and II was proclaimed King of Scots on 10 February 1685.  He
omitted to take the Coronation oath to defend the Protestant religion. 
The Indemnity which he published to celebrate his accession omitted all
his Covenanting enemies. By 1688, the King's open support of the mass and
promotion of Roman Catholics to power and office confirmed the fears of
the English and Scots Protestants.  The birth of a Prince of Wales in
June 1680 (Prince James Frances Edward Stuart - the 'Old Pretender')
convinced the English magnates that James's policy would survive his
death.  They therefore invited William of Orange, the husband of 
Queen Mary, to take the English and Scots Crowns.  The battles of the
"Glorious Revolution" included the Battle of Killiecrankie where "Bonny
Dundee" was killed commanding the western clans against the Williamite
army.  The Revolution ended in King James VII and II final defeat at the
Battle of the Boyne achieved what the Covenanters and other dissidents
had striven to achieve - the firm establishment of a Protestant Crown.   

The Revolution Settlement including the Treaty of Limerick, by which
William of Orange became King de jure as well as de facto, was not
universally welcome in Scotland. Opposition came from various quarters. 
The Jacobites, seeking the return of James, were still active; the 
Episcopalians resented the establishment of the Presbytery; the
Cameronians were outraged by the disregard of the Covenant; and
disappointed politicians united themselves in the 'Country 
Party'.  

The Massacre of Glencoe

The newly established government promised indemnity to all Scots who
would eschew any Stewart loyalties and take the oath of allegiance before
1 January 1692. They clearly hoped that the recalcitrance of the Highland
chiefs who sympathised with the deposed Stewarts, would provide a pretext
for a crusade against them.  MacDonald of Glencoe (the leader of a 
small branch clan of the Clan Donald), partly through truculence and
partly due to bad weather, was a few days late in giving his pledge of
allegiance. 'Letters of Fire and Sword' were issued against his small
clan also known as MacIans, which had a reputation for thievery, and was 
hated by the Campbells, who were serving the Crown. On the night of 13
February 1692, thirty-eight MacDonalds, including two women and two
children, were treacherously murdered by a party of Campbells which had
been quartered in their midst. The few surviving MacDonalds fled over the
snow-clad mountains. This was the source of a long-lived feud between the
MacDonalds and the Campbells...

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