The Scots-Irish

A Map of Ireland. Ulster county in green

The terms Scots-Irish, Scotch-Irish, and Ulster-Scots refer to people who left Scotland and settled in Ulster in various waves of Plantation, who stayed for sometimes only one or two generations and who then moved on to North America. The Scottish settlers during the Plantation were primary Presbyterians and from the lowlands of Scotland.

Scots-Irish is first known to have been used in a letter written by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1573 when she referred to Sorley Boy MacDonnell as of the Scots-Irish race. Sorley Boy however, was a Roman Catholic Norse-Gaelic descendant of Somerled, Lord of the Isles whose family had been settled in Ulster long before the 17th century Plantation.

The first known use of the term Scots-Irish in America was in an affidavit recorded in Maryland on 15 March 1689/90 by William Patent who brought charges against Matthew Scarborough. Edmund Burke (1729-1797), an Anglo-Irish member of Parliament, economist and philosopher referred to settlers on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina in 1757 as ‘chiefly Presbyterians from the Northern part of Ireland, who in America are generally called Scots-Irish.’ Although it was used in the past, in modern times, the Scottish people do not refer to themselves as Scotch but as Scots or Scottish.

Even though the term Scots-Irish is commonly used in America, it is not used in Ulster or more widely in Ireland. In Ulster and Northern Ireland, the term used is “Ulster-Scots.” The label Scots-Irish was originally a term used for the mainly Presbyterian Lowland Scots who settled in Ulster during the Plantation of Ulster. In America however, it came to be more broadly used for settlers in Ulster that included those with English and Welsh heritage.

Amazing
DNA Sale

Research your ancestors on MyHeritage

Search

Scots coming to Ulster: Pre-plantation

Ulster and the Hebrides

There had been regular movement between Scotland and Ireland for centuries.

The name Scotland comes from an Irish tribe called the Scoti who left Ireland and settled in Scotland. The Kingdom of Dalriada that spanned parts of County Antrim and western Scotland was founded in the 5th century.

The gallowglasses were Norse-Gaelic highland mercenaries who fought for the great Irish lords and who settled in various parts of Ireland since 1259, when the King of Connacht was provided with one hundred and sixty of these soldiers. At its closest point there are only 11 miles between the two countries; on a clear day, the coastline of Scotland and its Western Isles are clearly visible across the Irish Channel from County Antrim.

Search historical records on MyHeritage

The Plantation of Ulster

Flight of the earls 1607-2007 Imeacht na nIarlai (Sean O Brogain. www.askaboutireland.ie)

Ulster was the last province in Ireland to come under the control of the English Crown. Between the years 1593–1603, a rebellion by the great Gaelic lords of Ulster took place against Queen Elizabeth I’s forces, known as the Nine Years’ War. King Phillip II of Spain, the great foe of Elizabeth and England, sent ships and men to assist the rebellion. Initially, the Irish had great success, but the appointment of Lord Deputy Mountjoy saw a reversal in their fortunes. The land was laid waste and thousands of soldiers died while the civilian population suffered from the destruction of their crops and livestock and famine.

Elizabeth died in 1603, and Mountjoy offered a pardon to the Irish lords who went to London, where they were received by the new King James I of England and VI of Scotland. Unhappy at the confiscation of lands, the removal of rents, fear of assassination and other insults, Hugh O’Neill, the Earl of Tyrone entered into a plot against the Crown with Spain that was eventually uncovered.

Consequently, on 14 September 1607, a small ship departed from Rathmullan in County Donegal. It carried the chieftains of some of the leading Irish-Gaelic families in Ulster including the O’Neills and the O’Donnells. They sought refuge in Spain and further help in their fight with James. This event, known as the Flight of the Earls, led to the confiscation of their lands, which were parceled out to new landowners of Scottish and English origin – they were called Undertakers.

The Plantation of Ulster commences

This map shows where the Scottish Undertakers had their estates in Ulster.  The shaded areas in Scotland indicate where the main areas of migration came from in the Scottish lowlands.

51 English Undertakers were granted 81,500 acres in total, and 59 Scottish Undertakers were granted 81,000 acres in total. The counties of Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine (which was renamed Londonderry), Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone were parceled out to these Undertakers who were expected to colonize their lands with ten families or 24 men, build fortified houses and be capable of mustering men and weapons for every 1,000 acres they were granted.

About half a million acres of the new County Londonderry were colonised by the London Livery Companies – guilds such as the Mercers, the Fishmongers, the Drapers, the Salters, the Merchant Taylors and the Skinners elected representatives to ‘The Honourable The Irish Society’ to supervise the settlement.

Counties Antrim, Down and Monaghan were not included in the official Plantation. Antrim and Down were privately planted by James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery, two Scots who had acquired large tracts of land formerly owned by Con O’Neill. Large swaths of County Antrim were owned by Randal McDonnell, a descendant of Sorley Boy, a Roman Catholic who invited Lowland Scots to settle his land. He contributed to the building and repair of churches to encourage Protestant Scots to come. Many of those who settled in this early wave were tenants of the Undertakers from their home estates in Scotland, England and Wales.

English and Welsh settlers during the Plantation

The Ulster Muster Rolls of the 1630s indicate the areas inhabited by different nationalities. North Antrim, North-east Down, East Donegal and north-west Tyrone were heavily populated by Scottish settlers. County Londonderry and south Antrim had a majority of English settlers. Parts of Ulster remained mostly unsettled including large areas of Donegal, south Armagh, mid Tyrone and mid-Londonderry. The more mountainous areas were almost exclusively Irish.

Sir Arthur Chichester who was Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1605-15 was born in Devonshire, England. He received a grant of the entire barony of Inishowen in Donegal and also land at Dungannon, County Tyrone. When Sir William Brereton visited the estate of Moses Hill in County Antrim in 1635, he remarked on the number of settlers from the English counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. Nicholas Bagenal was an English soldier who was granted the lordships of Newry, Mourne, Carlingford and Cooley. He married into an aristocratic Welsh family and under his influence, the area around Newry developed a distinctly Welsh character. Sir John Vaughan and his brother Henry were Welshmen who were granted land in County Donegal. Sir Hugh Clotworthy was from a Devonshire family who had come to Ireland as a soldier in the 1590s. He held land in Antrim and his descendants became the Viscounts and Earls of Masserene. Edward Blayney was a Welsh-born gentleman who was granted land in County Monaghan and whose estate acquired the name of Castleblayney.

The border reivers

A 19th-century print depicting the Reivers' raid on Gilnockie Tower in Scotland

Border reivers, Scottish and English raiders, thrived from the late 13th to early 17th century, indiscriminately attacking the the Anglo-Scottish borderlands. The riding clans known as the Steel Bonnets feuded with each other and inflicted slaughter, destruction and misery on their more peaceful neighbors.

They were such a nuisance that in October 1525, Gavin Dunbar the Archbishop of Glasgow issued a curse on them that included every part of their body as well as their horses, clothing, crops and anyone who gave them help in any way. When James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne, he was determined to pacify this lawless region. Many of the Reivers were outlawed or sent to the gallows and had their land confiscated. Others were given the option to face the noose or go to Ireland. A large number of Graham’s were transported to County Roscommon but they did not settle there and many drifted to Ulster. Other Borderers fled the King’s justice and settled in counties Fermanagh and Donegal where many became farmers – prevalent Reiver names are Johnston, Armstrong, Elliot, and Beattie.

Subsequent waves of settlement

Although the Plantation of Ulster commenced in the early years of the 17th century, there were also waves of settlement in the 1650s encouraged by low rents in Ireland following the Cromwellian wars and in the 1670s following Covenanter disturbances in Scotland. In the 1690s following the Williamite War, there was a fresh influx of Scots due to a harvest crisis there. This continued into the early 18th century; in 1714, Hugh McMahon the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Clogher noted that Scottish Calvinists were arriving daily in large groups of families, seizing farms in the richer parts of the country and expelling the natives.

Factors contributing to migration from Ulster

Many left Ulster in the 18th century due to varying conditions in Ireland and external factors, with Presbyterian ministers exerting significant influence during this period:

Religious factors

Since the Reformation, the Protestant Anglican Church of Ireland was the established or official church of the country, even though the majority of inhabitants did not worship in it and the bulk of the Irish population was Roman Catholic. In Ulster, many of the settlers were Dissenters, i.e. Protestants such as Presbyterians who did not conform to the Established Episcopalian Church.

In 1638, many Presbyterians in Ulster and Scotland signed the National Covenant in defiance of King Charles I who was trying to impose Anglican (Church of England) reforms on the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. In 1639 Thomas Wentworth, the Lord Deputy of Ireland attempted to impose the signing of The Black Oath which renounced the National Covenant on all Ulster Presbyterians above the age of 16. The Test Act of 1703 required all office-holders in Ireland to take the sacrament according to the Established Anglican Church. As a result, many Presbyterians who held posts as magistrates in cities and towns such as Belfast, Londonderry, Lisburn and Carrickfergus and who exercised civil duties, were automatically disqualified unless they renounced the dissenting Calvinistic faith of their forefathers in Scotland.

Presbyterian ministers were turned out of their pulpits and were unable to sanctify marriage. In some parts of Ulster the people were not permitted to bury their dead unless an Episcopalian officiated at the funeral and read the burial service of his church.

Dissenters were barred from teaching in school. It was announced that children of Protestants that had not married by the rites of the Established Church should be regarded as illegitimate. Dissenters were not allowed to serve in the army, the militia, the civil service, be a Commissioner of the Peace or sit in municipal corporations. The Church of Ireland demanded the payment of tithes, regardless of a person’s religious denomination.

These injustices left the Presbyterian population of Ulster feeling deeply resentful, particularly in light of their support of William of Orange (later William III) and his wife Queen Mary II when they deposed her father, the Roman Catholic King James II during the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Demand for land in Ireland

Far more Scots arrived in Ulster in the 1690s than in the early years of the Plantation. 1695 – 1698 coincided with the worst famine in Scotland’s history. These later settlers had taken up either 21-year or 31-year leases, offered at attractive rates by the landlords who were in urgent need of tenants to farm their land. Once the leases expired, the landlords could raise the rents.

The population of Ireland rose from around 2 million in 1700 to about two and a quarter million by 1740 and reached over five million by 1800. The increased population meant that there was a greater demand for land and this allowed landlords to increase their rents.  

Rent racking and evictions

Rent racking reached its peak in the 1760s and 1770s with people complaining of the extravagant rents. As an example, the price of land per acre on the Stewart estate in County Down rose by more than 400% between 1720s to 1770s. Large landowners often preferred to lease out large tracts of land to middlemen who were often poorer members of the gentry and they in turn sub-leased.  Each lessor had to get their profit with the tenant at the bottom bearing the brunt.  There could be 4 or 5 lessors between the landowner and the tenant and the worst rent-racking happened on estates that had been leased to middlemen.

In addition to rent, tenants often also had to supply labor and goods from their farms, such as two days’ labor, a portion of farm produce, to have corn ground at the landlord’s mill, to build a specified size of house, and to plant a required number of trees and hedges. These requirements were built into the leases.

The Ulster Tenant Right custom entitled a leaseholder to compensation for improvements introduced, should he sell his lease.  This custom, however, was not universal nor enshrined in law and there was a chance a leaseholder could lose the money they had invested in improvements.  

When a lease expired, the landlord could decide to let to someone else or use tactics such as the ‘hanging gale’.  Tenants were allowed to fall behind in payment of their rent for six months or more – they could then be legally evicted and replaced with others who were prepared to pay higher rents. In some cases, tenants were simply evicted so that the landowner could build luxurious new mansions or a deerpark, such as the one built by Lord O’Neill at his Shane’s Castle estate in 1759. For those who remained in Ulster, the mood of Protestant Ulstermen was gloomy with a lurking fear that they would lose their lands when their leases expired.

Power of the landlord class

Arthur Young who toured Ireland and worked as a land agent in the 1770s formed a poor opinion of the Irish landlords, and described them as ‘despotic… lazy, trifling, inattentive, negligent, slobbering, profligate.’ He was appalled by their brutality towards their tenants. Landlords such as the Earl of Donegall were seen as wielding supreme power on their estates - he picked all thirteen members of Belfast Corporation and chose the Sovereign or Mayor of the town.  

Counties were governed by unelected Grand Juries composed of landlords, their relatives and their agents and the Church of Ireland clergy.  Landlords acted as the magistrates that presided over local courts. Landlords were often absent from their estates, leaving the day to day running to agents, while they enjoyed the high life in Dublin, London and the Continent.

Increasing violence

As leases began to fall due for renewal, the landlords were seen as making exorbitant demands and laying unbearable burdens on the shoulders of their tenants.

On 23 December 1770, the resentments caused by the rent racking and evictions reached boiling point when at least 1,200 angry farmers gathered at Templepatrick, County Antrim and set off for Belfast armed with firelocks, pistols and pitchforks. Calling themselves Hearts of Steel, they reached the army barracks in North Street intent on forcing the release of a prisoner held on a charge of maiming cattle. The soldiers opened fire, killing five and wounding nine.

The Hearts of Steel later merged with another group called the Hearts of Oak that had been formed for the resistance against paying the cess, which was a tax imposed by the Grand Juries to pay for roads and bridges. The Grand Juries had recently increased this tax. In March 1772, the Hearts of Steel issued a proclamation blaming the heavy rents that had become so heavy a burden that they were unable to bear it. The government response was to crush the risings by deploying soldiers, sending those caught for trial and hanging many.  Some drowned while trying to escape to Scotland in open boats.

Economic downturn

Ireland suffered from a severe economic downturn in the early 1770s, during which the linen trade suffered and as a result, many lost work. Numerous small farmers supplemented their income by growing flax, spinning yarn and weaving in the home, while the growing number of linen mills provided employment. Arthur Young noted that when the linen trade was low, the emigrant passenger trade was always high. Although costs were rising in the form of rents, tithes and taxes in the period 1710 - 1770, the average price of linen cloth rose only by 20%.

Encouragement from America and availability of land there

U.S. counties by percentage of population self-identifying Scotch-Irish and American ancestry according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Counties where Scotch-Irish and American ancestry is statistically overrepresented in full orange.

Between 1761 – 1769, the South Carolina Assembly offered to pay the £4 passage for each adult and £2 for each child.  Their reasons for doing so were nervousness about a slave insurrection in a colony where enslaved Africans heavily outnumbered the white population, and the desire for a physical barrier between themselves and the troublesome Creek and Cherokee native American tribes. In order to avoid undesirables, they demanded that emigrants provide certificates of good character. The land in America was to cost five pounds with the acreage granted determined by family size. If the immigrant had no money the land was free. Ship owners were keen to get passengers to fill their ships and sent scouts and emigration agents through the towns and villages to paint a glowing picture of life in America.

Indentured servitude was available for the poorer people who could not afford their own passage.  It’s thought that 100,000 of the Ulster-Scots began life in the New World as indentured servants.  A person agreed to have their services sold for a period of time to a master and in return, they were conveyed across the Atlantic at no cost.  When the ship arrived at the American port, a sale was announced at which the colonists who wanted a servant looked them over and bid for them.  The term was generally four years, although sometimes it went to seven.  

In addition to food, clothing and lodging whilst indentured, at the end of the term, the servant was to be supplied with a specified set of tools, a sum of money and possibly even cattle and weapons.  He or she was then entirely free to make their own way in the world. It certainly seemed that there were many good reasons to leave and not many reasons to stay, which explains the large number of emigrants from Ulster in the 18th century.

Emigration commences in 1636

The Jeanie Johnston replica ship (Source: The Tall Ships Gallery)

In the early days of the Plantation of Ulster, there was not a separate Presbyterian church but instead, Presbyterian ministers worked in the Anglican Church of Ireland parishes. These Presbyterian ministers came under increasing government pressure to conform to the Anglican church ethos, and eventually in 1636, five of these ministers were deposed from their parishes.

In 1636, the Eagle Wing was the first known ship to set sail from Groomsport in County Down, bound for Boston with 140 Presbyterians on board including four Presbyterian ministers.  They left because of persecution of their faith and a desire for religious freedom. Two months later, the ship returned badly damaged to Carrickfergus harbour with the Presbyterian ministers and the ship’s captain agreeing that it was God’s will that they return. In 1683, Rev Francis Makemie emigrated to America from Ramelton, County Donegal; he organised the first American Presbytery and founded the Presbyterian church in North America.

In the 18th century there were considered to be five great waves of emigration from Ulster to America.

1714 – 1719 saw a drought in Ireland that ruined crops, curtailed the supply of flax and meant that the cost of food soared for townspeople.  In 1716 sheep were struck with a disease called rot.  Severe frosts over northern Europe during the same decade crippled the supply of food and in 1718, a smallpox epidemic raged over Ulster, while the following three years brought fevers in the winter months. In May 1717, the first known emigrant ship set sail from Larne, County Antrim to Boston – The Friends Goodwill set sail on a difficult, storm-tossed journey that took 3 and a half months. It’s thought that 5,000 departed Ulster for the American colonies in 1717. In 1718, eleven Ulster Presbyterian ministers had petitioned the governor of New England for a grant of land and that summer, five ships left Derry quay for Boston. They were led by Rev James McGregor of Aghadowey who brought 900 people from Londonderry, Macosquin and Coleraine. They settled at New Londonderry in New Hampshire -  their story and their names well documented.  

An estimated 400,000 people perished in the Irish Famine of 1740-41 and this led to the third great wave of emigration. 1754-55 saw a drought in Ireland that led to an increase in emigration. Those who already emigrated encouraged friends and family to join them in settling the new lands of Virginia and the Carolinas. 1771 marked a culmination of high rents, unemployment, evictions and rising violence.  As the economy became more and more difficult for the Presbyterian tenant farmers, ministers such as the Rev William Martin began to speak out. Tradition maintains that Martin preached a sermon denouncing ‘the plight of the tenants who faced high rents and agents of absentee landlords’ and from his pulpit in Ballymoney, County Antrim when he declared that ‘enough was enough’.  Martin proposed that his entire congregation combine resources, commission ships and emigrate to America.  

In 1772, he commissioned five ships that took around 1,000 people from ports in Ulster to Charleston. It’s thought that around 120,000 – 180,000 people emigrated from Ulster to America in the 1700s and during this time period. Presbyterians were by far the most numerous in terms of religious denomination. These people left family and friends behind.  The immigrants sent news back home telling their loved ones about the new life that could be made, with plentiful, fertile land and freedom of worship.  Each wave of those who left made it easier for others to follow.

It’s thought that Ulster-Scots descendants in the United States now number up to 20 million people.

The challenges that the immigrants encountered

Many immigrants experienced a great deal of hardship, having lived in a quiet rural location in Ireland, perhaps never having ventured further than the nearest market town, only to be met with the dangers of the journey and then to arrive in a strange land, filled with different nationalities, food, climate, customs, laws and wildlife and then to try to build a new life. This letter dated 29 April 1774 was written by a son to his father Samuel McCullough in Carrickfergus, County Antrim and is part of the collection at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) at Belfast. It describes the dangers encountered by the emigrants, detailing the fever on board the ship and the deaths of his children who were buried at sea:

This comes with our duty to you and our stepmother and our love to our brothers and sisters and to let you know that it has pleased God to spare all the principals of our two families but it was sore on our children for on the 19th June Tommy Jackson died and the day after the two girls to our great grief died in one hour. This was the greatest trouble I ever felt, to see our two fine girls thrown into the ocean, after they had been seven weeks on board and were on the coast. Our mate died and several more men  and women and about twelve children. We had  great fever on  board, men lay raving through all the births. I never lay down at night but I was afraid that some of us would have it before morning. Our children died of a short illness but not of the fever. When we came to York, Billy and me went on shore and at about three o’clock we set out for our brothers but we could not come to his house and we lay down and slept in a wood…

The conditions on the journey were fraught with danger. In 1717, Friends Goodwill  encountered a storm which left the passengers weak and ill, while food ran low due to the  delays caused by bad weather. Provisions had been obtained from another vessel encountered en route, but nevertheless, food was rationed and running low, as was fresh water. It was reported that the crew caught sharks and dolphins for food and collected rainwater on the deck. The food shortage was so perilous that lots were drawn as to who would be eaten first, but thankfully, they arrived in Boston harbor three and a half months after leaving Larne Harbour.  

In the 18th century, the most commonly used type of ship was the three masted barque in which the full paying passengers were housed on the poop deck and those paying a part of the fare or no fare at all, travelled in an area under the main deck normally used for cargo.  Often it was not even high enough for someone to stand up. The passengers lived, slept and ate in these cramped conditions.  Hygiene was barely existent and often food was scarce and of poor quality.  Sanitary conditions were poor, and disease was common. There were often smallpox outbreaks.

Arrival in American ports

On arrival in the American ports such as in Charlestown, passengers were quarantined if smallpox was found on board.  Sullivan’s Port at the mouth of Charleston harbour was sandy, hot and barren with mosquitoes and sand flies that bit the legs below the knee. When they were finally allowed into Charleston, the emigrants from rural Ulster found a pretty town with regular streets and good buildings made of brick and wood and with a strong fort to protect the town. There were churches for the French and meeting houses for Presbyterians, the Dutch and Baptists. The town was busy and the people were described as polite. There were about four black people to every white person, and most of them were enslaved. Some of the churches owned slaves and hired them out for money.

Living on the land

For those that were granted land, it had to be cleared at the rate of three acres in every hundred each year – this was hard physical work and even the youngest children had to do their bit. The families lived in tents until they were able to build a cabin, usually starting off with one room, a dirt floor and shutters, but no glass in the windows.

The crops they grew were very different to those grown at home – Indian corn, indigo, rice and cotton. Game was plentiful – black bear, racoon, turkey, pheasant, deer, wild geese and pigeons as well as the fish from the river. But there were alligators in the rivers too that were known to have eaten whole men.

There was also danger from native American tribes such as the Cherokee, and the French were suspected of instigating trouble between them and the settlers.

Scots-Irish records on MyHeritage

Scotland records collection at MyHeritage

Ireland records collection at MyHeritage

North Ireland records collection at MyHeritage

Immigration and Travel records collection for individuals born in Ulster, Ireland at MyHeritage

Family trees collection highlights Ulster, Ireland as birthplace at MyHeritage

Sources focused on Ulster

Plantation-era land surveys

A number of surveys of land were completed at the behest of the government of King James. Within these sources the terms Undertakers, Servitors and Tenants are used. Undertakers were those who were allocated the largest tracts of land from between 1,000-3,000 acres. They were expected to plant the land with 24 men or at least 10 families of British stock and were not supposed to have Irish tenants. Servitors were men who had served the Crown in Ireland as soldiers or government officials. Most of them were given estates of 1,000-2,000 acres, but some of them received as little as 200 acres. The servitors were allowed to have both Irish and British tenants. Tenants: in each 1000 acres, the Undertaker was to reserve for himself a demesne of 300 acres. The remaining 700 acres were to be divided up between freeholders, leaseholders and at least four families of husbandmen, artificers or cottagers.

The Surveys were undertaken at various stages of the Plantation to determine its success or otherwise and to gauge the progress that had been made.

• Sir George Carew’s Survey of 1611 was done so quickly that not every portion was visited and indeed the whole of County Cavan was missed out. The detail varies and information provided is chiefly about the Undertakers and the Servitors. In some cases however, there is information about tenants and the leases that they held, such as in Pynnar’s Survey that includes a list of tenants in the town of Strabane, County Tyrone.

• 1613 – Sir Josias Bodley’s Survey - Sir Josias Bodley conducted a cadastral survey, often referred to as the Ulster Survey of 1609, aimed at exploring the largely uncharted territories of Ulster within the Kingdom of Ireland.

• 1618-19 – Captain Nicholas Pynnar’s Survey - Captain Nicholas Pynnar's 1618-19 survey detailed the progress of Ireland's Plantation, including buildings, agricultural practices, and tenant categories​.

• • The Irish Commission of 1622 - A comprehensive inquiry sent to Ireland in the spring of 1622 by James VI and I. The commission examined the political, religious, and administrative state of the country.

• The Great Parchment Book 1639 - During the Plantation, King James had forced a number of the London Livery Companies to take on portions of County Coleraine or Londonderry as it later became known. The Honourable The Irish Society surveyed their lands and compiled The Great Parchment Book in 1639. The book which had been stored in London was damaged by fire, but conservation work has enabled the information to be viewed. Browse by Livery Company, by name or by place and it is freely available at.

Other 17th-century land surveys

In August 1649, the New Model Army, led by Oliver Cromwell, went to Ireland to re-occupy the country following the Irish Rebellion of 1641.  The Cromwellian Conquest was complete by 1652.  The money for the Army was raised on the security of 2.5 million acres of land to be confiscated from those who had opposed Cromwell and supported the Royalists.  

Cromwell’s soldiers were to be allotted confiscated land in lieu of wages while those who were dispossessed were transported to Connaught or other counties.

• The Civil Survey 1654-56 - This was a survey of landholdings in Ireland carried out by barony, that included  depositions from the landholders and written descriptions of their land boundaries. It covered 27 of the 32 counties in Ireland, excluding 5 counties in Connacht that had been covered by an earlier Strafford Survey in the 1630’s. Its purpose was to survey land that had been determined forfeited and that could be made available for allocation to the Cromwellian Adventurers. The original records were destroyed by fire in 1711 but copies of 10 counties were discovered in the 19th century.  The surviving Ulster counties are Londonderry, Tyrone, Donegal.

• Simington, Robert C (1937) The Civil Survey 1654-1656 Counties Donegal, Londonderry and Tyrone. Vol III. Dublin: The Irish Manuscripts Commission. This book is available to purchase from the Irish Manuscripts Commission and may be available in some libraries.

• The Down Survey, 1655-56 - The Down Survey was completed by Sir William Petty. He incorporated information from the Civil Survey and produced maps of Ireland on a Barony and Parish basis with the purpose of facilitating the transfer of land to the Cromwellian Adventurers. In some of the parishes, the names of householders are shown.
• Another very useful tool on this website is the Historical GIS (Geographical Information System) which allows you to search: Landowner by Name (1641 and 1670), Ownership by Religion (Maps for 1641 and 1670), and Murders in the 1641 rebellion (Distribution).

17th-century records

• Denization records - Until 1707, Scotland was a separate Kingdom from England that was governed by its own laws and customs. Scotsmen were considered aliens in England. Denization was the process by which Scots swore an oath of allegiance to the English crown and it granted them right of residence in Ireland.  Denization was an intermediate position between alien and a native-born citizen and although they could buy lands, they had limited rights. Naturalization put an alien in the same position as a native-born subject. Rev David Stewart compiled these lists that are most likely to be Undertakers, Servitors and freeholders rather than the ordinary workers and leaseholders that populated the estates. His book "The Scots in Ulster" may be available to purchase from some outlets. The information is also freely available on The Scots in Ulster website.

• 1641 Depositions - The 1641 Rebellion was a Catholic uprising against the Protestant settlers in Ulster. Although it is believed that the numbers massacred were inflated by contemporary sources, modern research calculates the number of deaths to be 12,000 out of a total Protestant population in Ulster at the time of 40,000.  The 1641 rebellion actually lasted for almost ten years, spreading to other areas of Ireland when the native Irish of Ulster were joined in revolt by their Old English co-religionists. Quelling the rebellion and avenging the massacres was the reason that Oliver Cromwell came to Ireland in 1649. The 1641 Depositions are witness testimonies mainly by Protestants, but also by some Catholics, from all social backgrounds, concerning their experiences of the 1641 Irish rebellion. These records can be freely viewed on the 1641 Depositions website that is hosted by Trinity College Dublin.

• 1659 Pender’s Census - This survey was compiled by Sir William Petty and possibly at the same time as the Down Survey of 1655. It may have been a complementary work to assist with land confiscations, or it may have been in preparation for a poll tax. Seven of the nine Ulster counties are covered with Cavan and Tyrone missing. It records the names of those with title to land who were termed Tituladoes, the number of English, Scotch and Irish people living in each Barony along with the principal Irish names. The work was edited by Seamus Pender and published in 1939 which is why it is called Pender’s Census, but it is not a true census. This book is freely available on the Irish Manuscripts Commission website.

• 1664-9 Hearth Money Rolls - In the 1660s the government introduced a tax of 2 shillings on each hearth as a means of raising revenue. The rolls list the head of household with the number of hearths they had although there was widespread evasion, so you may not find your ancestor listed. Records survive for half the counties in Ireland with coverage most complete in Ulster (in full or in part for all counties except Down). Surviving hearth money rolls for Ulster may be found in-person at PRONI and they are  also freely available on the Scots in Ulster website.

• 1662-7 Subsidy Rolls - These list the nobility, clergy and laity who were taxed to pay a grant in aid to the Crown.  The rolls supply the name, parish and sometimes, the amount paid and occupation. Because they include only the wealthier members of society, they are less useful than Hearth Money Rolls. Surviving records for Ulster may be found in-person at PRONI and also on the Scots in Ulster website.

Military records

• The Ulster Muster Rolls, c.1630 - The conditions of the Plantation required English and Scottish Undertakers to ‘have ready in their houses at all times a convenient store of arms, wherewith they may furnish a competent number of men for their defence, which may be viewed and mustered every half year, according to the manner of England.’ During the musters, the men were subject to inspection by the Government appointed Muster Master General who recorded the names, ages and type of arms borne by the tenants. The book contains 13,147 names of adult males from the nine counties of Ulster gathered during musters called between 1628-1634. It records the weapons they owned and names are listed under their landlords. The native Irish were not mustered and indeed, the reason these men were mustered was to protect themselves against the native Irish. The book is available to purchase from various outlets and it is also available on the Scots in Ulster website.

• Fighters of Derry, 1688-1691 - When King James II of England was deposed by his daughter Queen Mary II and her husband King William III, it was termed the Glorious Revolution because of the lack of bloodshed on English soil. However, the monarchs fought their battles on Irish soil. William and Mary’s adherents were for the Williamite cause while adherents of King James were the Jacobites. King James besieged the City of Derry – the Apprentice boys of the city famously closed the gates in defiance of him and he commenced a 105-day siege of the city on 20 April 1689. The city was finally relieved and the following year, King James was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne and fled into exile. This book concentrates on biographical sketches of the Williamite side although it also includes some information on the Jacobite soldiers. It is also available on the Scots in Ulster website.

• King James’s Irish Army List, 1689 - a historical record listing the personnel, units, and organization of the army of James II during the Williamite War in Ireland.

18th century substitutes

• 1740 Protestant Householders - In 1740, the House of Commons ordered a religious census of Protestant householders to be carried out although in some areas the returns included Catholics too. Transcripts survive for parts of Counties Antrim, Armagh, Donegal, Down, Derry and Tyrone, are freely available on PRONI’s Name Search.

• 1766 Religious Census - In 1766, the Irish House of Lords instructed Church of Ireland rectors to compile returns of all householders in their parishes showing their religion and giving an account of any Catholic clergy active in their area. The detail varies depending on who compiled the return – some were more thorough than others. There are surviving transcripts for parts of Counties Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Down, Donegal, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Tyrone and Monaghan with approximately 11,000 names. The transcripts are freely available on PRONI’s Name Search.

• 1775 Dissenters Petitions - Roman Catholics and Dissenting Protestants were subject to the Penal Laws that restricted their religious, economic and political freedoms. In 1774, the Irish Parliament passed an act excluding Dissenters from voting at vestry meetings of the Church of Ireland. This greatly angered Ulster Protestants who in protest petitioned Parliament in October and November 1775 and as a result the act was repealed in 1776. There are surviving transcripts for parts of Counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Londonderry, Tyrone and Belfast. They are freely available on PRONI’s Name Search.

• 1796 Spinning Wheel Premium Entitlement Lists - As part of a government scheme to encourage the linen trade, free spinning wheels and looms were granted to individuals who planted a prescribed area of land with flax. It is also known as the Spinning Wheel list or the Flax Growers Bounty. The returns record the names of 60,000 individuals and the civil parish where they lived although it does not list the townland. These returns cover all of Ireland and are freely available on the Fáilte Romhat website.

Books naming migrants

• Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America, Bolton, Charles Knowles (1910). Boston: Bacon and Brown.

• Chronicles of the Scots-Irish Settlement in Virginia Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County, 1745 – 1800, Chalkley, Lyman (1912). Rosslyn, Virginia: The Commonwealth Printing Company.

• Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants 1623 – 1800. Nugent, Nell Marion (1934). 5 volumes. Virginia: Press of the Dietz Printing Co.

• A Compilation of the Original Lists of Protestant Immigrants to South Carolina 1763 – 1773. Revill, Janie (1939). The State Company, Columbia: South Carolina.

• Scots-Irish Migration to South Carolina, 1772. Stephenson, Jean (1971). New York: Ishi Press International.

Further reading

• The Plantation of Ulster. Bardon, Jonathan (2012). Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
• Colonial Ulster. The Settlement of East Ulster 1600-1641. Gillespie, Raymond (2021). Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation.
• The Ulster Plantation in the Counties of Armagh and Cavan, 1608-1641. Hunter, RJ (2016). Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation.
• The Scots-Irish. A Social History. Leyburn, James G (1962). North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press.
• The Londonderry Plantation 1609-41: The City of London and the Plantation in Ulster. Moody, TW (2019). Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation.
• The Scottish Migration to Ulster in the Reign of James I. Perceval-Maxwell, M (1999). Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation.

Maps

• 17th century Barony Maps of the Escheated Counties of Ulster are freely available.

DIPPAM – Documenting Ireland: People, Parliament and Migration.

• Records created by private individuals - Dippam.com offers over 33,000 documents including migrant letters, diaries, journals, emigration-related documents, and newspaper materials like emigrant shipping advertisements and birth, marriage, death notices of emigrants.

• Discover Ulster Scots - A website that offers a wealth of information about the history, culture and language of Ulster-Scots as well as a resource library where you can download information and booklets.

Explore more on Irish and Scottish genealogy research

• Irish historical records on MyHeritage
• British historical records on MyHeritage
• Distribution of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ethnicity from MyHeritage DNA
• How to Trace Your Irish Genealogy, article by Daniella Levy on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base
• Ask the Expert — Researching Scottish Records, webinar by Daniel Horowitz on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base
• Who Were the Scots-Irish? webinar by Natalie Bodle on Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• All webinars about Irish research on Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• All webinars about Scottish research on Legacy Family Tree Webinars

References

This article was adapted from Who were the Scots-Irish?, a webinar presented by Natalie Bodle on April 8, 2022. Watch the full webinar on Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

Authors template (click twice to edit)