William Findley was born in Co Antrim, and was one of the strongest voices to challenge the potential overreach of the proposed new United States Constitution of 1787. He and the other 'Anti-Federalists' eventually secured a new Bill of Rights in 1789 to help safeguard the rights of the individual.
In an autobiographical letter written in 1812, Findley said –
"I arrived in Pennsylvania in August 1763 in company with a great number of protestant emigrants from the North of Ireland who are chiefly the descendants of those who fled from the persecution of the Presbyterians, carried on in Scotland during the reigns of the two last of the Stuarts, therefore frequently called Scotch Irish.
They are the majority of five or six Counties of the Province of Ulster, in the north of Ireland. My grandfathers both came from Scotland in early life, and him of my name assisted in the memorable defence of London derry, the only place that was successfully defended against King James army.
I being a younger son of a younger son, is the reason why I am only the second in descent during more than 120 years. The descendant of those Scottish emigrants to Ireland have contributed exceedingly to people this Country and composed a great proportion of the Pennsylvania line including several Generals during the revolutionary war".
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