The Savage Family in Ulster

Thanks to Fiona McDonald for this - she referred to George Savage Armstrong in a recent post over on her own blog "Newton Lass" - I had forgotten about his writings, so here's a taster excerpt for you all, on my favourite subject - the mighty Hamilton & Montgomery Settlement which began in May 1606:

"...new colonies of Scots were brought into the Great Ards and Clandeboy by Hugh Montgomery and James Hamilton respectively; the two families of Montgomery and Hamilton had now established themselves in the County of Down ; and it is interesting to note that James Hamilton (who afterwards seems to have become a trusted friend of both Henry Savage and his uncle Roland), had been a Fellow of the new College of the Holy Trinity to which Henry Savage was in due time to be sent.

Among the colonists were the founders of many other Scottish families whose names frequently figure in connection with the Savages, and with the history of the County of Down in succeeding years, — Nevins, Bailys, Shaws, Boyds, Rosses, M'Gills, and others; and the Scottish settlers brought with them the Lowland Scottish dialect, chiefly that of Ayrshire, which was for a long time the dominant language of the Ards and is still spoken by many of the older inhabitants north of the Blackstaffe River..."

from "The Savage Family in Ulster", p 196, by George Francis Savage-Armstrong (1906)

He also gathered up a lot of poems which were published as "Ballads of Down" in 1901. I might post a few here over the next while