Liberty and St Patrick, 17 March 1764 - "the Christian white savages of Peckstang and Donegall"

Benjamin Franklin wasn't overly fussed about the Ulster-Scots who were filling Pennsylvania. Some have said that he feared the strength of their numbers, and the decline of Quaker control (much of which had been built up by Ulster-born James Logan). A group of them, known locally as the Paxton Boys, had killed 20 Conestoga Indians around 1763. Outraged, Franklin put pen to paper and wrote a famous response entitled A Narrative of the Late Massacres, in Lancaster County, of a Number of Indians, Friends of this Province, by Persons Unknown With Some Observations on the Same (link here). Persons unknown? Hardly, he probably knew them by name. He described the Scotch-Irish as 'the Christian white savages of Peckstang and Donegall'.

Incensed by what he regarded as Franklin's one-sided account of the context and events, a Carrickmacross (County Monaghan) born Anglican itinerant missionary, Thomas Barton (1730-1780), responded with his own publication The Conduct of the Paxton-men, Impartially Represented (link here). He quoted a Quaker member of the assembly for Chester County, Nathaniel Grubb, who in 1755 in an 'unChristian and ungenerous speech' had described the Ulster settlers as 'a pack of insignificant Scotch-Irish, who, if they were all killed, could well enough be spared' (source here). Grubb later denied he had ever said such thing. Barton believed the Pennsylvania authorities had left the Scotch-Irish communities unprotected for many years, and therefore they had a right to self-defence.

Here's the main point for today. He signed it off as follows:

Dated from my Farm-House, March 17th, 1764
A Day dedicated to Liberty and St Patrick.

So in Scotch-Irish frontier Pennsylvania of 1764, St Patrick's Day was being observed.

The Latimers: A Tale of the Western Insurrection of 1794 by Rev. Dr. Henry McCook (Philadelphia, 1898)

This post is for Jenny in Alaska. Here are more examples of that Scotch-Irish symbol from the late 1800s. Here's a biography of Henry McCook, and here's a free online edition of the book.

Lowland Scots, Ulster Scots, Scotch-Irish

'...The Lowland Scots, the Ulster Scots, and the Scotch-Irish of America are, as has been noted, one and the same race, but the two latter branches of the race have had experiences in Ulster and America which have strengthened their character and toughened their native fibre by the very difficulties they have been compelled to overcome... the Ulster Scot in his new environment ceased to be a Lowlander, though the seedbed of his race was the Lowlands of Scotland... he will make one more migration - this time to the New World, where freedom abounds and opportunity beckons. Here, amid new surroundings, he will undergo a further change, and here he will go his farthest lengths and attain his greatest heights. No longer a Lowland Scot or and Ulster Scot, he becomes the Scotch-Irishman of America - still of the same race as the Lowlander and the Ulster Scot, to be sure, but different from either by reason of his adjustment to a changed environment...'

from The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania by Wayland F Dunaway (University of North Carolina Press, 1944) p 26-27

Visit Ulster, Pennsylvania here.

"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes..."

So said Andrew Jackson. The irony is that today Jackson's portrait is on the $20 bill - yet during his Presidency he abolished the 2nd Central Bank of America and was the last President to pay off the national debt. Just what you'd expect from a man with Ulster-Scots parents, who grew up in an Ulster-Scots emigrant society on the other side of the Atlantic.

"the invisible ink on the pages of American history"

Good article here on James Webb's recent documentary 'Born Fighting' which I blogged about following the UK broadcasts back in February.

"...We practice selective annihilation, of mayors and government officials for example, to create a vacuum. Then we fill that vacuum..."

The title above is a line from the Guns N Roses song Civil War, which was released in 1990 on a Romanian orphan charity fundraising album called "Nobody's Child". They were the biggest rock group in the world at the time; the line was borrowed from a speech made by a South American dictator. Up until this point, the majority of Guns N Roses' songs had been about their hedonistic lifestyle, so to suddenly hear them tap into current affairs and politics was a bit of a shock. I was just 18, but having grown up during 'The Troubles' I had a fair idea that the neatly-packaged evening news broadcasts didn't always tell the full story - whether about events here in Northern Ireland or on the other side of the world.

As ripples of revolution rock the Middle East, firstly in Egypt, now in Libya and Bahrain, there has been some scepticism about the risings, and whether they were spontaneous at all - or whether they might have been carefully co-ordinated with Western assistance. Or maybe that the West has spent years propping up the very régimes which, in the face of sudden, high profile public protests, they now so quickly disapprove of.

In May 1842, the 75-year-old former President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845; pictured left in a photo taken in 1844) whose parents had emigrated from Carrickfergus in 1765, was being lobbied by an Irish-American organisation called the Irish Repeal Association of New York. They were seeking his support for their political objectives back in the "old country".

In a letter of reply to the organisation, Jackson, whilst acknowledging 'the Irish blood which flows in my veins' *, skilfully avoided becoming drawn into overseas issues. He wrote of '... that maxim which teaches us not to interfere offensively with the internal affairs of other nations. The preservation of the principle on which this maxim rests is far more important to the good of mankind than any benefit which can possibly be obtained by a departure from it ...' Jackson went on to say that representative government in Ireland should be achieved 'without violence or civil commotion', based squarely upon 'the will of her people'.

Jackson died before the United States descended into its own civil war; April 2011 sees the 150th anniversary of the Civil War (aka the War Between the States or the War of Northern Aggression). The anniversary has been turned into a major tourism opportunity over the next few years.

We can speculate of what Jackson would have made of the American Civil War, or of present-day American and British foreign policy.

.....

* I would suggest that Jackson was speaking geographically rather than culturally.

The Livingstones who made it to America

The portrait shown here is of Edward Livingstone. His great-grandfather was Rev John Livingstone, who had been one of the four Presbyterian ministers to commission the ill-fated emigrant ship Eagle Wing, which famously failed in its attempt to carry 140 Ulster-Scots emigrants to a new life in the New World in September 1636.

Even though John didn't make it, his son Robert Livingstone did, and subsequent generations of the Livingstone family made a massive impact in America. Two examples are:

• John's grandson, Philip Livingstone (1716-1778) signed the American Declaration of Independence. He was Presbyterian and you can bet that the Covenants coursed through his veins - his grandfather had carried a copy of Scotland's National Covenant (1638), non-stop on horseback, from Greyfriars in Edinburgh to London for like-minded Scots to sign it.

• John's great-grandson, Edward Livingstone (1764-1836), shown here, was Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State. Jackson's parents had left Boneybefore, Carrickfergus in 1765. Edward Livingstone was a close friend and ally of Jackson's for over 30 years.

I wonder, through those 30 years of friendship, if Jackson ever gave Livingstone any stick for his great-grandfather failing in the voyage, from Belfast Lough to America, that Jackson's parents later succeeded in?

And then there's the story that Jackson might actually have been born in Carrickfergus just before his parents set sail...

"The Cross and the Jukebox" - a new podcast

Thanks to Robert Campbell for letting me know about this, a new podcast from Russell D Moore. Hank Williams' I Saw the Light is the subject of this first episode, which he describes as "The National Anthem of the Christ-haunted South". "We need to pay attention to the theologies of John Calvin and John Wesley, yes. But sometimes we also ought to pay a little bit of attention to the theologies of Johnny Cash." Click here. It's an excellent, thoughtful, piece - and I hope future episodes are as good, if not better.

Scotland's "Eagle Wing", 1622

(Photo above of the 1956 replica 'Mayflower' at Brixham in Devon - more photos here).

The attempted sailing of "Eagle Wing" from Groomsport to America in autumn 1636 is one of the most celebrated events of the formative Ulster-Scots community. A number of primary sources exist, including the accounts by two of the ministers who commissioned the ship, Robert Blair and John Livingstone. Blair's Autobiography includes an eight page description of the voyage.

Sometimes"Eagle Wing" has been made light of, and even in its own time it was mocked as a madcap plan which could never have succeeded. However a few years ago some documents surfaced which revealed that a similar voyage had been undertaken just 50 miles away, from Kirkcudbright in Scotland in 1622.

The Mayflower had been built along the River Thames in England before her famous voyage to America in 1620. A ship called The Planter had also been built in the same boatyard; the captain of The Planter was Thomas Hopkins, probably a relative of the Hopkins family who had been passengers on the Mayflower. The contract for the voyage of The Planter was for her to sail from Kirkcudbright to America and was signed by Sir William Alexander, whose daughter - "Presbyterian Jean" Alexander - was engaged to marry Hugh Montgomery jr. the next year. They settled at Mount Alexander near Comber - and when Jean died she was buried inside Newtownards Priory. The contract was also signed by John Mason the governor of Newfoundland, and Sir Robert McClelland, who was another hugely significant figure in the early Scots settlements of Ulster, and who married Elizabeth Montgomery, one of Hugh Montgomery's daughters. A relative of Sir Robert was John McClelland - the principal of Montgomery's "great school" in Newtownards, part-time Presbyterian minister and also one of those who commissioned "Eagle Wing". He went back to Kirkcudbright when the ship returned.

So the events of 1636 at Groomsport may well have had their genesis 50 miles away in the events of 1622 at Kirkcudbright. This is yet another example of the global vision and ambition of our ancestors, who were closely linked to the major events of the world they lived in.

• a recreation of the Mayflower is currently underway in England - full story here | project website here
• a replica of the Mayflower was built in the 1950s and sailed across the Atlantic from Brixham in Devon to Plymouth in Massachussetts; there's an exhibition about the project in Brixham Heritage Museum: see BBC Devon video archive clip here
• full article about The Planter is available here at ReportBoston.com
• another article is available here

NB - with thanks to Gail Onesi from Atlanta, Georgia for sending the story of The Planter to me some time ago.

Dust to Digital and my own "Atlantic Bridges"

Over the past couple of days, in addition to the local connections I've made and blogged about below, I've also made some brilliant links with people in the USA. Thanks to some old blog posts I'm now in direct contact with the grandchildren of Duncan McNeill, and once again with a nephew of the McCravy Brothers. I was able to send Paul McCravy six MP3s which I'd digitised from some McCravy Brothers 78s which had surfaced in a collection belonging to a man from Bangor - some of them Paul and the family never heard before. Likewise with the McNeills, I had digitised some old 78s and sent the MP3s to Stuart Eydmann who posted them on his website Raretunes.org - so the family were able to listen to their grandfather singing.

Here are two videos about a couple in the USA who have been nominated for Grammys for their work in digitising old 78s and making them available for the present generation - and in some of the most beautiful packaging design I've ever seen. Welcome to Dust to Digital. I was showing off my copy of the 6 CD box set "Goodbye Babylon" to a few fellow music enthusiasts last night!

Ulster's musical history - The Anglo American Gramophone Co, Belfast

This is a detail from an old 78 record sleeve loaned to me recently by a friend from Bangor called Jim Mayne. Maybe someone out there can guesstimate the date from the four digit phone number? Belfast was one of the first 13 local authorities in the UK to be permitted to install its own local telephone system in 1899. I expect that this might well have been one of the shops who sold old hillbilly and American gospel 78s to my granda and his generation. Nowadays the address is occupied by the consultancy firm ASM Horwath, who I've done some work with in the past.

If you're going to emigrate, why not take your all of your friends, family and neighbours with you?

(NB: If you're reading this on Facebook, you can read this post in full on my blog). That's exactly what happened around Millisle in the mid-1800s, when an entire community just upped and left, and settled at Rock Island in Illinois, USA:


“…Mr M’Auley was beloved as few ministers have been beloved… when he came as minister to the congregation and district, he found the sad state of poverty and need that followed the potato famine of the years 1846 and 1847… during these years of hardship and distress many members of the congregation from Millisle emigrated to America. Most of these settled in and around Rock Island, a city of western Illinois, USA, on the Mississippi River. A strong colony of settlers from Ballymacruise, Drumfad, Ballyhaskin, Ballywhiskin and adjoining townlands was established here, and that colony still exists. The descendants of those early emigrants differ in speech from the surrounding farmers and tradespeople, and they still like to have news about Millisle and the old folks whose names are so familiar to them…”

from Millisle and Ballycopeland Presbyterian Church – a Short History by Rev T Kilpatrick MA (Newtownards 1934)

Johnny Cash - descendant of Scottish Covenanters?

(NB: If you're reading this on Facebook, you can read this post in full on my blog). There's a 30 minute radio programme on BBC iPlayer which I listened to today called "Johnny Cash Of Easter Cash". (click here to listen)



It traces Cash's roots to Easter Cash, near Falkland in Fife, to an ancestor called William Cash (1653 - 1708) who emigrated to Virginia in the 1670s and settled in Westmoreland County, where many Ulster emigrants later settled. Falkland was the birthplace of the famous Covenanter minister Richard Cameron (1648 - 1680). Maybe they were even boyhood friends; lots of Covenanters ended up being sent as slaves to Virginia during the 1670s and 1680s. Johnny Cash visited Falkland a few times, and some of the people he met are interviewed in the programme. Well worth a listen.

RELATED ARTICLES:
> Article "From Nashville to Govan" (with a Covenanter reference)
> Article "Johnny Cash's Scottish Roots Explored in New Documentary"
> Article "Scottish Roots of Johnny Cash - the man in black tartan"

(Pic above of Easter Cash from this article)

“Scotch-Irish Foodways in America”

(NB: If you're reading this on Facebook, the original post is from my blog). Ulster-Scots food? The usual knee-jerk response to this is some sneering comment about battered Mars Bars, the obvious haggis - or perhaps the glorious egg & onion sandwich! As ever with Ulster-Scots subject matter, in between the scorn - and the trivialisation - there's a deep and important story to be told.

Mary Drymon is an American writer, historian, museum educator and curator who has recently published an important book called “Scotch-Irish Foodways in America”. (I am glad she stuck with the historic term "Scotch-Irish" and didn't adopt the recent "Scots-Irish") She has based the book on the recipes known to have been used by Ulster-Scots emigrants who arrived in Maine in the early 1700s. Mary's research indicates that it was Ulster emigrants who brought rhubarb to America - as was the case with potatoes.

> Here's a brief article about the book
> Here's Mary Drymon's blog
> Buy the book on Amazon

There's a great quote on Mary's blog:

"Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food"

A message from North Carolina

(NB: If you're reading this on Facebook, the original post is from my blog). A few days ago I was astounded to receive the following note on Facebook. The irony is that for a good few months now I've been thinking about deleting my Facebook page because people keep inviting me to play games or join causes that I don't really have the time or interest to get involved in, and so rather than risk offence I figured that shutting it down would be a good move.

Then, out of the blue, a complete stranger called Sharon Stewart Wilkerson emailed me from Asheville in North Carolina. For those of you familiar with the content of this blog and the kinds of projects I invest my spare time in, you'll have some idea of how blown away I was by this (reproduced below, unedited, with Sharon's permission):

.........

Mark,

I ran across your personal blog yesterday while searching for more information about the Ulster Scots language, and found a treasure trove. I ended up looking at your other sites and got such a blessing!

My Granny was born and reared on a farm outside Bushmills, County Antrim, and was converted at the age of fifteen in an evangelistic meeting. Her parents were saved through an evangelist at an earlier period. My grandfather, John Stewart, was born in Lurgan and was an orphan by the age of seven. My grandparents emigrated separately to Scotland. My grandfather was saved there and met my Granny. They married in 1904. My dad, James Alexander Stewart, was born in Glasgow and was "fitball daft". The Lord saved him when he was a teen and he became a boy preacher. He preached all over the British Isles as a boy. He met my American mom in Budapest, Hungary where she was ministering under the Southern Baptist. My parents travelled so I did not get to spend a lot of time with them. Dad also founded mission organizations and wrote many books.

I say all that to explain that I when I was with them, Dad read me stories about the Covenanters, and told me all about Revival. (He saw Revival under his ministry as a young preacher in Europe.) He taught me Scottish history and all about the great Scottish preachers etc etc. I also got to spend time with my parents during their meetings. Dad especially loved open air meetings.

I saw that you had "Fu an skailin" listed on your Sacred Scots Songs page. My husband and I still teach it to children along with "Come Awa the Noo". My family knew Seth and Bessie Sykes, as well as "Uncle Charlie' Main. Uncle Charlie was a mentor to Dad and I remember him even participating with Dad in the open air on the beach at Bangor as part of the Bangor Missionary Convention in 1965. Willie Mullan, Ian Paisley, WP Nicholson, Stanley Mawhinney, Herbert Mateer, and many more were part of the dear ones in Ireland.

Well, you see I got carried away! Thanks for posting all the articles, songs, poems etc. I enjoyed them so much! My husband and I live and minister in the mountains outside Asheville, NC, where the people have a lot of Scots Irish in their heritage. (The music!)

Well, "I'll Fly Away" now!

In Christ,

Sharon

.........

A lot of stuff has been written over the past 15 years or so about Ulster and America, much of it about centuries-old Presidents (whose Ulster links, in some cases, are pretty thin), much of it repetitive and very far removed from the common cultures of ordinary people. Sharon's email shows that there is still, alive and well today, a common evangelical faith and culture which spans Scotland, Ulster and America, and that some of the wee songs that I grew up with here in the Ards Peninsula, which had been taught to my parents and grandparents by the "oul Scotch preachers" like Seth Sykes, Charlie Main and Jock Troup, are still being sung today in the mountains of North Carolina.

In a Land Where We'll Never Grow Old (1914) - the first ever "country gospel" recording

If this doesn't tug your heart strings I don't know what will.



It had been written by James Moore (1888 - 1962), a young Baptist pastor, in 1914, when he was just 26. He had gone home to the church his ageing father was the pastor of, and when his father - Charles Robert Moore - tried to sing, his voice was frail and weak. James wrote this hymn shortly after, and dedicated it to his parents. It was recorded by Smith's Sacred Singers from northern Georgia, said to be the first ever "country gospel" record. To understand what that category meant back then, empty your mind of any ridiculous Garth Brooks and Shania Twain nonsense, and picture yourself sitting in a primitive wee wooden mission hall in the Ulster-Scots-influenced rural South of America, among country folk who lived off the land and had a heart for the gospel. The Smith's Sacred Singers record was a phenomenon - it sold a staggering 277,000 copies in an age when sales of 5000 were considered good.

(In a Land Where We'll) Never Grow Old

I have heard of a land on the far away strand,
’Tis a beautiful home of the soul;
Built by Jesus on high, where we never shall die,
’Tis a land where we never grow old.

Refrain
Never grow old, never grow old,
In a land where we’ll never grow old;
Never grow old, never grow old,
In a land where we’ll never grow old.

In that beautiful home where we’ll never more roam,
We shall be in the sweet by and by;
Happy praise to the King through eternity sing,
’Tis a land where we never shall die.

Refrain

When our work here is done and the life crown is won,
And our troubles and trials are o’er;
All our sorrow will end, and our voices will blend,
With the loved ones who’ve gone on before.