Scots-Irish Links, 1575-1725, Part Three

Description

In this much longer sequel to his earlier collection of Scots-Irish Links, Parts One & Two, David Dobson sheds more light on a segment of the 100,000 Scotsmen who were re-settled by the British government in the Irish Plantation of Ulster during the 17th century. Drawing upon primary source material in the British Museum in London, the Public Record Office and Trinity College in Dublin, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast, as well as Scottish sources not consulted for the earlier volume, Mr. Dobson has come up with an additional 2,500 mostly Lowland Scots who re-settled in Ulster–in most instances prior to 1700. Of the many important sources consulted for “Scots-Irish Links, Part Three” are the Irish Patent Rolls, which contain “proof” of a Scot’s denization in Ireland, a requirement for buying and eventually bequeathing land in Ireland. Most of the Scots who came to Ulster before 1640, it should be pointed out, were Episcopalians, while those that followed were overwhelmingly Presbyterian. After the turn of the next century, the descendants of many of these Ulster Scots, better known as the Scotch-Irish, would play a major role in diversifying the population of the British colonies and, in particular, in opening up the American frontier to European settlement.