Scots in America: Migration from Scotland and Ireland in the 17th and 18th Centuries

The movement of Scots to North America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was one of the most significant population shifts in the early modern North Atlantic world. It unfolded gradually, shaped by political upheaval, economic change, religious conviction, and the quiet ambitions of families seeking steadier prospects across the ocean. From the Lowland burghs and Highland glens of Scotland, and from the Scots-Irish communities of Ulster, thousands crossed the Atlantic in a migration that would leave a lasting imprint on the emerging societies of colonial America and the early Canadian settlements.

The earliest Scottish presence in North America grew from the political turbulence of the seventeenth century. Royalist prisoners transported after the Bishop' Wars and the Cromwellian campaigns formed some of the first identifiable Scottish communities in New England and the Caribbean. Merchants from Glasgow, Leith, and Dumfries established trading links with Virginia and the Carolinas, creating a commercial bridge that encouraged further movement. By the later seventeenth century, younger sons of landed families - men with education, connections, but limited prospects at home - began appearing in colonial records as factors, clerks, surveyors, and military officers.

A larger and more sustained migration developed in the eighteenth century. Economic pressures in Scotland, including agricultural reorganisation, rising rents, and the decline of traditional rural industries, encouraged many to look outward. The ports of Greenock, Glasgow, and Leith became busy departure points for craftsmen, labourers, widows with children, and small tenant families. Their destinations varied: the tobacco colonies of Virginia and Maryland, the mercantile towns of the eastern seaboard, and, increasingly, the northern settlements of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

From Ireland came an even greater flow of Scots - the Ulster Presbyterians often known as the Scots-Irish. Descendants of seventeenth-century Scottish settlers in Ulster, they faced rising rents, religious restrictions, and periodic economic hardship. Beginning around 1717 and continuing for decades, they migrated in large numbers to Pennsylvania, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Appalachian frontier, where their farming skills and communal traditions shaped the character of early American backcountry society. Their movement was family-based, steady, and remarkably influential, forming one of the largest ethnic streams into colonial America.

Across these varied paths, certain themes recur. Scottish migrants tended to travel in family groups, often following kin networks already established overseas. Many were skilled - coopers, blacksmiths, merchants, schoolmasters, surveyors- and quickly found roles in the expanding colonial economy. Others arrived with little more than determination, receiving land grants in Nova Scotia or carving out new farms on the American frontier. A few, such as the botanist David Douglas, carried scientific and intellectual ambitions that took them far beyond the settlements themselves.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Scots and Scots-Irish communities were firmly woven into the fabric of North American life. They contributed to commerce, education, exploration, and the shaping of frontier society, while maintaining a strong sense of identity rooted in parish, clan, and kinship. Their migration was not a single event but a long, steady movement - a tide of people whose stories now survive in shipping lists, land petitions, kirk session records, and the scattered notes of colonial administrators.

This introductory page provides the historical setting for the detailed migrant lists that follow. Each name represents a personal journey across the Atlantic, part of the wider story of Scottish movement into the New World - a story of resilience, adaptation, and the enduring ties between Scotland, Ireland, and the lands that lay beyond the western ocean.

 

Timeline of Scottish Migration to North America (17th-18th Centuries)

1600 - 1650:  Early Footsteps Across the Atlantic

• 1607 - 1630s: Individual Scots appear in Virginia and New England, often as merchants, soldiers, or indentured servants.
• 1630s - 1650s: Political prisoners from the Bishops’ Wars and Cromwellian campaigns transported to New England and the Caribbean.
• 1640s: Scottish merchants establish regular trade with the tobacco colonies, laying foundations for future settlement.

1650 - 1700:  Quiet Expansion and Commercial Links

• 1650s - 1680s: Younger sons of Lowland families seek opportunity abroad as clerks, factors, and military officers.
• 1660s-  1690s: Glasgow and Dumfries merchants strengthen ties with Virginia and Maryland; Scots begin appearing in colonial records as planters and traders.

• 1690s: Small numbers of Highlanders migrate following famine and economic strain.

1700 - 1720:  The First Large Wave from Ulster

• 1700 - 1715: Scots continue to migrate individually, often skilled craftsmen or widows with children.
• 1717: The first major Scots-Irish (Ulster Presbyterian) migration begins, driven by rising rents and religious restrictions.
• 1717-1720: Thousands settle in Pennsylvania, forming the nucleus of the backcountry frontier population.

1720-1760:  Steady Movement and Frontier Expansion

• 1720s-1740s: Scots-Irish families move southward into the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, and the Carolina Piedmont.
• 1730s-1750s: Lowland Scots arrive in smaller numbers, often as merchants, schoolmasters, and artisans.
• 1740s: Highland migration increases after the 1745 Rising; many settle in North Carolina and Nova Scotia.
• 1750s: Scottish officers and surveyors appear in colonial military and administrative roles.

1760-1780:  War, Opportunity, and Northern Settlement

• 1760s: Scottish craftsmen and merchants settle in Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas; shipping lists show regular departures from Greenock and Glasgow.
• 1763-1775: Post-Seven Years War expansion opens new lands; Scots and Scots-Irish move into western Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
• 1770s: Loyalist Scots migrate to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick during and after the American Revolution.

1780-1800:  The Northern Tide: Nova Scotia & Prince Edward Island

• 1780s-1790s: Large numbers of Scots settle in Nova Scotia, PEI, and Cape Breton, encouraged by land grants and military resettlement schemes.
• 1790s: Skilled migrants - blacksmiths, coopers, merchants - appear in Canadian records; widows and tenant families follow established kin networks.

1800-1820:  The Last Great Wave of the Period

• 1800-1815: Continued movement from rural Scotland to Canada, especially from Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, and the Western Isles.
• 1815-1820: Ships such as the Commerce carry Scottish families to Upper Canada and Nova Scotia; many receive Crown land grants.
• By 1820: Scots and Scots-Irish communities are firmly established across the eastern seaboard, Appalachia, and Atlantic Canada.

Summary

Across two centuries, Scottish migration to North America unfolded in distinct waves - political exile, commercial opportunity, Ulster Presbyterian movement, Highland resettlement, Loyalist relocation, and early Canadian colonisation. Each wave carried its own character, yet all contributed to the enduring Scottish imprint on the societies of early America and Canada.