Spanish Ironworkers - from Spain to Lugar

 by Roberta McGee

'In 1856 the Eglinton Iron Company - the Ayrshire subsidiary of William Baird - bought out John Wilson and took over Muirkirk and Lugar Ironworks. Ten years later their new Lugar Works were opened and production vastly expanded.'

The New History of Cumnock - John Strawhorn p114

William Baird and Co Ltd, Glasgow | Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry (scottishbrickhistory.co.uk)

In the early 1890s Scottish coal and ironmasters William Baird & Company purchased mines firstly in Santander, Northern Spain then, in 1893, the Monte de Hierro mine (Mountain of Iron) which was located in the Sierra Morena mountains in Southern Spain. It was a significant site for the rich deposits of iron ore which were crucial for the steel industry. Baird brought in advanced mining techniques and equipment from Scotland which greatly improved the efficiency and output of the mine. The mountainous terrain meant the miners worked in dangerous conditions which led to frequent accidents and health problems. 

In the early 1900s there was a labour shortage in Baird's various ironworks in Lugar, Muirkirk and the surrounding area. They began to actively recruit workers from the Spanish mines to fill the labour gap and so the exodus began. The 1901 census for Lugar shows twenty four Spanish males of various ages and two Spanish married men, their wives and children living in Peesweep Rows which had originally been built for Baird's ironworkers and miners. Read more about the Lugar Rows here.

The arrival of the Spaniards initially caused a lot of tension with the local men who saw them as a threat to their jobs.

North British Daily Mail 11/10/1900

Irvine Herald 27/9/1901

The Spanish iron workers would have sailed from Spain to Ardrossan in a coal boat then travelled to Lugar by train. Lugar, in Spanish, means 'The Place'. Being devout Catholics the Spaniards considered this a sign of good fortune. 

Cumnock Chronicle 1986

Their contact in Lugar was Emilio Gomez Palacio, a Spanish contractor for Baird. Gomez, a father of four,  was a widower whose wife had died in Spain. His four children at times lived with him in Lugar. His brother Ysidro was also a contractor for the Ironworks and based in Muirkirk at the blast furnaces there. The 1901 and 1911 censuses show Emilio Gomez living at Peesweep Rows. According to Bernard Giraldas in an article written by Agnes Stevenson in the Cumnock Chronicle in 1986 Gomez was described as - 'Calculating and shrewd, he was unemotional in his dealings with his fellow Spaniards as an officer for the Dalmellington Iron & Coal Company. It was he who arranged who had to go where and few Spaniards came to Ayrshire except through him.'

Some of the Spanish workers who came to Lugar only intended to stay short term. Others, especially families, settled in the surrounding villages, integrated with the locals and remained in the area for the rest of their lives. 

One of the earliest Spanish workers to arrive in Lugar was Juan M. Rodriguez.  On the 1901 census he is a general labourer living at Peesweep Row. The head of the household is William Robertson, born 1843 in Calder, Lanarkshire and who, according to other records, actually lived in Struan Cottage, Lugar and had been working in Lugar since at least 1881. He was the cashier/accountant for Bairds. Juan married 18 years old Nellie Stakim, who lived at Commondyke, in 1902 at St Patrick's RC Church in Lugar. He was 34 years old and lived at No. 96 Lugar. They set up home at No. 310 Cronberry where their first child was born and sadly died 4 days later in December 1903. By April 1912 they had moved to Bothwell, Lanarkshire. Juan died there in 1936 and his death certificate records that he had changed his name to John Rodgers.  

Jose Manuel Giraldas arrived in Lugar in 1908. He had sailed into Ardrossan by coal boat and his passage was partly paid for by the Dalmellington Iron & Coal Company. After his arrival he was sent to work at the furnaces at Waterside, Dalmellington. He married a local girl, Kate Scally, in 1914 and moved to Benquhat . The Giraldas family then moved to Glasgow where Manuel worked in pits outside the city until 1930 when they moved to Fife. Ill health forced him to leave the pits in 1931. Known as 'Papa Nicolina'  he mended clocks as a hobby and died in Fife in 1950.

  (Source: Cumnock Chronicle 1986)

Manuel Giraldas & his wife Kate - Cumnock Chronicle 1986

Santiago Barrera also arrived in Lugar in 1908. He was sent to the Bank Pit in New Cumnock to work and was given lodgings in Connell Park, New Cumnock. He settled with his wife Fernanda and family in New Cumnock before moving, on his retiral from the pits, to Holmburn Road, Netherthird, Cumnock where he died in 1958 aged 85 years old. 

Pedro Cano was born in 1872 in Almeria, Spain and died in 1934 at the Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries. He was an ironwork's labourer. He married Maria Antonio Rinz (perhaps Ruiz) in 1896 at Feron, Sober, Spain. He was part of the main exodus from Spain to arrive in Lugar about 1908 and lived at 96 Lugar Rows. The 1911 census shows Pedro and his family living at Old Linkieburn, Muirkirk. By 1921 the family had moved to Kirkconnel, where he worked as a colliery labourer at Sanquhar and Kirkconnel collieries. Both Pedro and Antonia are buried in Kirkconnel Cemetery. Their son Jose(ph) Cano, who was born in Savinia, Spain, married Maria Consuelo Donis, daughter of Geronimo Fernandez Donis, in 1934 at St John's RC Church in Cumnock. Maria was born in 1912 at Santander, Cantabria, Spain. At the time of her marriage she lived with her parents at Logan Lodge in Cumnock.

Mariano Carballo left his native village of Guilfrey in north west Spain and came by coal boat to Ardrossan with his wife Amalia and little daughter Antonia. They arrived in Lugar between 1911 and 1914. Mariano particularly liked Lugar and Gomez allowed him to work and settle there. In 1921 they were living at 194 Peesweep Row, Lugar and Mariano was a boiler fireman. They later moved to Logan Toll, Cumnock. A quiet, kind man he loved gardening and won many prizes for his dahlias. Mariano and Amalia had a large family. He worked as a miner until his retirement and died at Logan Toll in 1977 aged 88 years. 

Mariano Carballo & his wife Amalia - Cumnock Chronicle 1986

Miguel Cardo Esquierdo was born in 1883 in Sevilla, Spain. The 1921 census shows Miguel, his wife Juona and son Antonio living at 51 Linkieburn, Muirkirk. He is described as a resident Spaniard working as an ore labourer at the furnaces of Baird Co., Pig Iron Manufacturers. The houses at Linkieburn were owned by Baird & Co. and were tenanted mostly by Spaniards. Miguel arrived after 1911 and his son Antonio was born in 1916 at Muirkirk. Antonio married Concha Donis, another daughter of Geronimo Fernandez Donis, in 1939 at Old Cumnock and Antonio and Concha lived in Cumnock for the rest of their lives. Miguel died in Dennistoun, Glasgow in 1939.

Geronimo Fernandez Donis, his wife Basilia and their four children arrived in Lugar in 1914 having travelled from Santander in Spain to Ardrossan in a coal boat and were placed in a large communal house before eventually being given a house in Brick Row, Lugar. When they arrived in Lugar they had practically no possessions but their neighbours, although they didn't have much either, stepped in to help. As the years went by their family increased to eleven children. In an interview with the Cumnock Chronicle in 1977, Basilia recalled that it was a struggle to make ends meet when there was a family of eleven to feed on a wage of only ten shillings a week. Coal and rent were deducted at source from the wages of the men and Emilio Gomez made the arrangements for doing the shopping at the local 'Company Store' for the entire Spanish colony who lived there. Basilia was an excellent dressmaker and made all her children's clothes out of old garments given to her by neighbours. Times were hard, not helped by the fact that they couldn't speak English, and in the article she admits that after a week or so if there had been a road leading back to Spain she would have loaded the children onto her shoulders and walked all the way back home. 

Cumnock Chronicle 1977

The 1921 census shows Geronimo, Basilia and family living at 415 Brick Row, Lugar. In 1929 they are still in Brick Row but by 1934 they are living in Logan Lodge, Cumnock. In June of that year Geronimo and Basilia visited Santander returning to Cumnock in August. They went on to rent Watston Cottage on the Cumnock to Ochiltree road but they had to vacate the cottage when the farmer employed a farm worker. The only place they could go to was a Nissan hut in Pennylands, the transit camp in Auchinleck, where they lived for about four months before being rehoused in Dalsalloch, Auchinleck. They moved from there to 5 Glenlamont, Cumnock. Geronimo died in 1948 and Basilia died in 1978 at the grand old age of 90 years. Basilia said in her interview with the Cumnock Chronicle that she wouldn't leave Scotland under any circumstances so they didn't regret leaving the land of their birth. 

World War One was declared on 4th August 1914. This meant that there was a vital demand for coal and iron and therefore more workers were needed when the men went off to war. Spain was a neutral country and many Spaniards and their families came to Lugar to work in the blast furnaces to help fill the gap in the workforce. 

1918 brought a serious flu epidemic which killed many. It was also the end of the war. The men returned and many of the Spaniards went back home. However, there was a General Strike in 1926 which lasted for eight months and Bairds were forced to again bring more workers from Spain rather than give in to the miners' demands. When the strike was over most of the Spanish workers returned home. The ones who remained began working in the coal mines. The Strike signalled the end of the blast furnaces at Lugar and they closed down in 1928. 

And what became of Gomez? According to Basilia Donis - 'One morning his cleaner found the door unlocked. She entered and found 13/4d on the mantlepiece and a note which said "adios mujer" - goodbye woman. No-one knew if he returned to Spain. He simply vanished. One thing that they did discover was that he apparently enjoyed a dram. The story is that a hoard of Scotch whisky was found behind a secret panel in one of the walls'.

Image - Europosters.eu

Alexander Gemmell Prospers in England

Alexander Gemmell, Benefactor who never forgot his Cumnock roots.

Link to him on Cumnock Connections tree

By Joanne Ferguson, Kay McMeekin and the late Bobby Grierson

Alexander Gemmell

Alexander Gemmell was born in 1850 when his parents were living at The Green in Cumnock. This is now the area of the staff car park behind the Tanyard Medical Practice and directly behind the Box Church at the Dub.

His father, John, was a Stonecutter Quarryman who married Elizabeth Andrew in Cumnock in 1834. They had 8 children – 3 girls and 5 boys with Alexander being the youngest son. His mother, father and some siblings are buried in Cumnock old cemetery on Barrhill Road.

Alexander married Margaret Murdoch in 1873 at Crossriggs Cottage in Cumnock which is now Crossriggs Veterinary practice. They had six children – 3 boys and 3 girls.

Alexander started his working life as a bank accountant with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Glaisnock Street in Cumnock. Around 1877 he moved to Keighley, Yorkshire, where he was appointed branch manager of Bradford Old Bank. After a succession of mergers and further appointments the bank became United Counties which was then acquired by Barclay and Co Ltd in 1916 when Alexander was appointed branch manager of the Bradford group.

In 1916 Cumnock celebrated the 50th anniversary of Cumnock becoming a Police Burgh in 1886. To mark this Alexander came back to Cumnock and presented the gold chain and badge of office to the Provost James Richmond in his term of office. The chain is 42 inches long and made of enamel and 15 ct gold.

 

The provost’s badge and chain are on display in the Baird Institute Museum in Cumnock.

Post WW1 he provided the Cumnock Parish Medal made of silver and enamel. They were individually inscribed with the soldier’s name and with “In grateful remembrance or for services” and presented to the soldiers or their families at the welcome Home Dance in Cumnock .

Alexander Gemmell died on 13 January 1923 in Bradford, Yorkshire, at the age of 73 and his will reveals he had effects of £20,552.

In 1925 Cumnock Town Council completed a scheme of houses to the south of the town hall and one of the streets, Gemmell Avenue was named in Alexander’s honour.

From Cumnock to Melbourne - The Howats from Glaisnock Street

 

 by Roberta McGee

'Melbourne was founded on wealth from wealthy graziers, successful gold miners and those known as Squatters who, although not owning the lands they occupied, drew incredible wealth from those lands via Agriculture and grazing, mainly of sheep'

(Source: Melbourne's Lost Heritage - Mansions and Estates)

DAVID WILSON HOWAT was born in 1814 in Old Cumnock. He was a joiner and in 1840 married Sarah Robertson, also born in Old  Cumnock. In 1851 David and Sarah, with their children Mary, George and William, lived in Glaisnock Street, Cumnock. In October 1855 the family sailed into Melbourne on the 'Octavia' to begin a new life a world apart from the one they left behind. 

With the influx of immigrants into Melbourne more houses were required. David Howat capitalised on this. He set himself up as a builder and was a very successful one. When he died in 1885 at William Street, Melbourne, he left real/personal estate worth nearly £10,000. His son David commissioned a series of four single lancet stained glass windows in the Union Memorial Church, Elm Street Hall, North Melbourne, as a memorial to him. 

Image - Cumnock Connections

David and Sarah had four children, Mary, George and William, who were born in Cumnock and David who was born in 1858 in Melbourne but who sadly died in 1865 when he was just seven years old.

MARY MAXWELL HOWAT  was born about 1841 in Old Cumnock and died in 1916 at 'Glaisnock', 458 William Street, Melbourne. Mary was a dressmaker and also housekeeper for her family. She gave her earnings from her dressmaker's business to her father to bank for her. Her father and brothers also paid her for domestic work and this was also banked for her by her father. This amounted to £809 which was repaid to her on her father's death. According to her Will, Mary kept a safety deposit box at the Melbourne Safe Deposit Box (Stock Exchange of Melbourne Co. Ltd). Her father had taught his family the value of money and she invested wisely. On her death she left real estate and stocks & bonds worth nearly £15,000. Mary never married and her Will describes her as a 'gentlewoman'.

458 William Street (turned into a restaurant) - image Melbourne Streets

William Street - Image Old Time Photos of Yesteryear Fb page

GEORGE HOWAT was born in 1844 in Old Cumnock. His first employment was with a company of Stock & Station Agents in Melbourne and he became a Stock Agent. He married Lucy Goodson in 1875 in Ballarat. He was the only child of David and Sarah's to marry. Soon after his marriage he opened his own business and specialised in pure stock, chiefly Shorthorns and Ayrshires. His business went from strength to strength and his success was reflected in the magnificent mansion he built in Royal Park, Melbourne. It was a two storey brick and cemented residence containing thirteen rooms, tower, glass conservatory and conveniences with brick stable, men's room and workshop. He named it 'Cumnock' after the town of his birth. He also owned Gulpha Street Station, Mt. Ridley, Bunker Hill Estate and The Quamby Station, Loch. George died at Gulpha Creek Station in 1919 and left an estate worth in excess of £80,000. 

‘CUMNOCK’

George Howat - Image Cumnock Connections

Image - Agricultural Society of Victoria Oct 1885 

George and Lucy had four children, sons David and George Jnr., and daughters, Elizabeth-Ethel and Sarah. David and George jnr. were both graziers and took over the running of the estates on George's death. Their partnership was terminated in 1943 and the properties sold. 

 

The Argus 27/3/1943

George and Lucy's daughters married well.

Elizabeth-Ethel married Franc Brereton Sadleir Falkiner whose father was pioneer pastoralist Franc Sadleir Falkiner, born in Tipperary, Ireland. The Falkiners were considered to own more freehold land than any other family in Australia. Her husband Franc Jnr was born on the Arafat, Victoria goldfields. He became an Australian politician and grazier and was a world famous stud breeder of merino sheep. He was extremely wealthy and Elizabeth became a very rich widow when he died in 1929. Elizabeth died in 1946 at their mansion on Bellevue Hill, Wentworth, NSW when she accidentally smothered herself. 

In 1921 younger daughter Sarah Howat married , at the age of 37 years, widower Dr Henry Alexander Hagen. Dr Hagen's father was the General Inspector of Aborigines. Sarah and Henry built and funded the Cumnock Private Hospital in Moore Street, Tralalgon in 1926. Tralalgon is in the Gippsland region of Victoria and they operated the hospital for about two years before it was leased out. 

The Cumnock Private Hospital - Image Traralgon History Fb page

It is interesting to note that David Hamilton Weir and his family also lived in Gippsland. David's father was born in Blackfaulds, Old Cumnock. David Jnr. was born at Waterhead, New Cumnock and emigrated to Sydney in 1838.

Youngest son of David and Sarah Howat was WILLIAM HOWAT who was born in 1850 in Old Cumnock, Ayrshire. He never married and died at 'Glaisnock', 458 William Street, Melbourne. William was a significant figure in Melbourne during the late 19th century.

He was an accountant and for four generations served as manager of the extensive Clarke estates owned by the Hon. Sir William Clarke, Bart., one of Australia's wealthiest men. Sir William was a stud breeder, philanthropist and agriculturalist. William was so trusted and respected by the Clarke family that he was appointed an executor in the Will of Lady Jane Clarke. The Clarkes were leading socialites and entertained lavishly in their magnificent homes of Cliveden and Rupertswood. In 1882/83 Rupertswood became famous due to hosting the first ever 'Ashes' series between Australia and England when the touring English cricket team went there to play a friendly game of cricket which they won. Lady Clarke took the balls, burnt them, placed them in an urn and presented them to the English captain as a trophy - the birth of the 'Ashes'.

Image - Cumnock Connections

The Howats showed that they never forgot their roots in Old Cumnock by naming their homes 'Glaisnock' and 'Cumnock'. This seems to have been a common thread with our emigrants. There is a small town called 'Cumnock' in the Central West of New South Wales. It was originally known as Burrawong Crossroads and renamed Cumnock in 1879. Some sources say the name was suggested by William Ross of Dilga Station who was born in Cumnock. However, William Ross was born in Muirkirk.  He emigrated to Australia in 1845. Another source says that it was named after John Strahorn who arrived in NSW in 1838. It also claims he was born in Old Cumnock but records show that he was born in Mauchline. See links to the Cumnock Connection Tree.

Cumnock NSW also has a Royal Hotel

Born in Chile

By Robert Watson

Hugh Blackwood who spent most of his life in Cumnock was born in Chile in 1856. Descendant Robert Watson explains how this came about.

Thomas Blackwood, his wife Elizabeth Crawford and their two year old daughter joined 30 other families to travel from Kilmarnock, in August 1853, to London. They boarded the ship The Colinda bound for Canada but left the ship early in Chile where Thomas was recruited to work in the coal mines in Lota. 

Their son Hugh Blackwood was born in Lota in 1856 and was sent back to Ayrshire to be educated. Initially returning to Dalmellington, Ayrshire to stay with his grandmother Catherine Blackwood nee Campbell, he eventually settled in Cumnock, married Martha Armstrong and raised a large family. He died in 1929 and is buried in the Glaisnock Street cemetery in Cumnock.

Hugh Blackwood’s family about 1890

They came to leave the shop earlyCaptain Mills challenged his surgeon to a duel with pistols across the table, terrorised the passengers and laid charges of Mutiny and Piratical acts against the passengers and crew.

Following the deaths of children and the harsh conditions rounding Cape Horn the passengers and crew prevailed upon Captain Mills to put ashore in Chile where the disputes could be settled by the British and Norwegian consuls there.

According to the later report made by James Douglas, Governor of Victoria, British Columbia, the Colinda arrived initially in Chile at the port of Valdivia where Captain Mills applied to the Admiral on station for an inquiry into the behaviour of the passengers. The Colinda was taken to Valparaiso, and the passengers were there tried, before a naval court, for “mutinous and piratical conduct” at the suit of Captain Mills, and acquitted.

The ship’s surgeon Dr Henry Coleman gave evidence in support of the passengers and against Captain Mills.

The passengers almost to a man, refused to proceed on the voyage under the command of Captain Mills, and left the Colinda at Valparaiso, with the exception of seventeen; who continued to Canada but who mostly deserted the ship on arrival in Canada and fled to the United States.

While Hugh was back in Scotland, other Blackwoods stayed on in Chile and married locals. You can read more about the Blackwoods on Robert’s blog HERE.

The photo below is Hugh’s brother William aka Guillermo (seated) and his family c. 1905.

Cumnock to Demerara

By Kay McMeekin

Demerara is now part of Guyana on the north coast of South America. It was under the Dutch until 1815 when the British took over. There were many sugar plantations, worked by slaves until the abolition of slavery in 1833. *

Our story starts in 1847 when Cumnock born Marion McCowan Crawford married sugar planter Alexander Stewart in Felicity House, Demerary. He was 12 years her senior. Marion was the youngest daughter of James Crawford 1773 -1860 a banker in Cumnock and his wife Mary Wylie. I have found out little about him other than this;

 "Jas. Crawford, Esq., Banker, Cumnock, a Director of the Ayr and Dumfries Junction Railway." Glasgow Courier - Thursday 13 November 1845 accessed via British Newspaper Archive.

How Marion came to meet her husband Alexander Stewart who was born in Comrie, Perthshire is unknown. His father was Peter Stewart an innkeeper.

Their first known  daughter Marie Antoinette was born at the Lusignan plantation in 1850. Their next daughter Annie Marion was born in Cumnock in 1853 and their third daughter Elizabeth Stewart was born in Lusignan. n 1858, son Alexander Robertson Stewart was  born at 10 Scotland Street, Edinburgh Newington. His father, Alexander, was a sugar planter in Demerara and the birth was registered by a nurse. This suggests that Marion crossed the Atlantic at least 4 times. 

By the 1861 census Alexander was a retired sugar planter aged 60 and they are all living Northumberland House, 5 Gallowgate Street in Largs, Ayrshire

In 1871 Mary Antoinette is staying in Cumnock with Crawford aunts and uncle. The rest of the family is at Galvelmore Street, Crieff in Perthshire.

By the 1881 census the family is settled at 6 Dryden Place in Edinburgh.

Alexander died in Dryden Place in Edinburgh in 1879 of gout. Marion died at the same address in 1892 aged 68.

* From http://www.jahajeesisters.org/our-history.html

1838:  Approximately 17,439 slaves gain freedom in Trinidad.  Approximately 69, 579 slaves gain freedom in British Guyana. – An exodus of the ex-slaves off the plantations. – A critical shortage of labor - Without cheap labor the plantations would collapse.

1834:  Immigration schemes are introduced to Trinidad and Guyana to try to solve the post-emancipation labor shortages in the British West Indies (BWI).  Laborers were brought from other parts of the West Indies, Portugal, Europe (Ireland, Scottland, Germany, Sweden, France), Americans from Pennsylvania and Baltimore, China, Manderia, Azores, Malta, West Africa and India.

1838 (May 5):  The first ship of Indians aboard the Whitby and Hesperus land in Guyana with 396 Indians, 22 of which are women.

1845:  In Trinidad, imported labor from British West Indies, Madeira, and Europe is halted and Indians are brought there for the first time.

1850’s-1900’s:   Indians are coerced by Estate Owners into staying in Guyana through the exchange of their return passage to India after their 5 year contracts have expired, for a plot of land and a cow.  Most oblige, although some do return back.

Migration between Scotland and Ireland

by Ailsa M McInnes

There are few of us, especially in the west of Scotland, without Irish forbears. We know of the influx of people from before, particularly during, and beyond the great famine of 1845-52. Those seeking work in local farms, coal mining and the other heavy industries of the Cumnock area. However, what of the movement of people in earlier times?

There has always been close ties between Scotland and Ireland - of language, culture and history – not surprising as they are separated at the narrowest point by about twelve miles of sea.

In mythology, the Giant’s Causeway on the Antrim coast with a similar rock formation at Fingal’s Cave on Staffa, tells of Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill challenged to a fight by Scottish giant Benandonner, and the causeway being built so they could meet. (‘The Giant’s Causeway.’ The Dublin Penny Journal, issue 5 p33) Another version has Fionn disguised as his baby son. On seeing the ‘baby’ Benandonner fearful of what size Fionn might be flees back to Scotland, destroying the causeway behind him. (Jones, Richard ‘Myths and legends of Britain and Ireland’ p131)

You only need to stand on the Antrim coast and see Arran from the ‘wrong side,’ (for Ayrshire folk) Kintyre and the islands of Islay and Jura with Mull in the distance. For centuries travel by sea was much easier than by land and this western seaboard was a busy highway.

 

 John Speed ‘The kingdome of Scotland 1610’. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

 

Undoubtedly, there has been interaction and movement between all of these islands from time immemorial. In the early period of the Roman occupation of Britain Gaelic settlers from Ireland had established colonies in what is now western Scotland and Wales, with only place name evidence surviving in the Rhinns of Galloway and the Lleyn peninsula. (Haggart, Craig ‘The Western Seaboard of Scotland in the ninth century’ Glasgow University p2)

Legend has it that in the fifth century the Scoti from Ireland settled in Argyll and the islands to form the kingdom of Dal Riada, although it would now appear that this migration was much earlier. Documentary evidence shows that Dal Riada was a distinct Irish kingdom. Adamnan described the people of Dal Riada as the Irish in Britain, their language, laws and customs were Gaelic and they had frequent contact with their kinsmen in Ireland. (Haggart p3) Ultimately the name Scoti prevailed once the various kingdoms united.

In 563, Columba an Irish missionary of aristocratic family settled on the Isle of Iona and had a crucial role in converting Scotland to Christianity, sending missionaries throughout the kingdoms and establishing the Celtic Church. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Of course, into this mix of Irish/Gael came the Norse/Vikings, the Gall Gaels (the foreign Gaels) giving their name to Galloway and Galway. (Clancy, Thomas Owen ‘The Gall-Ghaidheil and Galloway’ Journal of Scottish Name Studies 2 2008 p19-50) And let’s not forget the infamous ‘Gallowglass’ elite mercenary soldiers from the Isles, fighting in both Ireland and Scotland between the mid thirteenth and late sixteenth century. (Perceval-Maxwell, M ‘The Scottish Migration to Ulster in the Reign of James I’ p2)

 

Grave Slabs at Saddell Abbey. Photo Credit Andrew McInnes

 

There were strong family ties amongst aristocratic families in both countries. For example, the MacDonnells of Antrim were descended from John Mor MacDonald of Dunnyveg, second son of John of Islay, Lord of the Isles. Edward Bruce, younger brother of Robert, was proclaimed High King of Ireland in 1316 although killed at the battle of Faughart two years later. Sean Duffy suggests that he was probably fostered in Ireland as a child, likely by the O’Neill’s of Ulster. Archie Duncan suggests some time was spent with the Bissets in the Glens of Antrim. The fostering of noble children was a common Scottish/Irish cultural practice. (Duncan AAM ‘The Scots’ Invasion of Ireland, 1315’, in Davies, RR ‘The British Isles, 1000-1500 ‘p105)

The Plantation of Ulster, beginning in 1610, was to change Ireland dramatically, with profound repercussions down the centuries to the present day. Many Ayrshire folk were part of this plantation and a Cumnock laird, George Crawford of Leifnorris, was one of the original fifty nine undertakers. (https://ulster-settlers.clericus.ie)

Earlier in the century Hugh Montgomery, Laird of Braidstone in Ayrshire, James Hamilton, the son of the minister of Dunlop, Ayrshire and Con O’Neill, the principal Irish landowner of North Down had been the precursor to this ‘official plantation,’ carving up the counties of Antrim and Down for themselves. Montgomery had engineered O’Neill’s escape from imprisonment in Carrickfergus Castle (he had rebelled against the English during the reign of Elizabeth I) with the proviso that they divide O’Neill’s lands between them. Somehow James Hamilton intervened and it became a three way split. (Perceval-Maxwell p50-51)

It took over two years of planning for the colony of the six escheated (confiscated) counties, and those arriving in 1610 were ‘fitted into a systematically devised structure.’ There were three categories of settler – undertakers (civilian groups so called because of the conditions they undertook to fulfil, and they were not allowed Irish tenants), servitors (military officers and government officials, Irish tenants were allowed.) and Irish grantees. (Hunter, RJ (Editor) ‘Plantations in Ulster, 1600-1641 A Collection of Documents’ p9) There were strict regulations as to what was to happen. Each undertaker was to settle his land within a set time and have ten settler families, a minimum of twenty four adult males per 1,000 acres. He was to build a stronghold with an enclosed bawn (wall). The colonists were to live ‘for their mutual defence and strength’ in village settlements close to the undertaker’s stronghold and he was to provide arms for defence. Native Irish residents were to be cleared from the land. (Hunter p18) Many undertakers breached the rules and let their lands to Irish tenants as they could charge them a higher rent. The government tried to force them to comply but with little success. In practice there was not the wholesale transplantation of Irish from the lands as had been initially planned. (Hunter p38)

 In 1610 George Crawford of Leifnorris was granted 1,000 acres in Tullelegan connected to Mountjoy Precinct, Tyrone. (Perceval-Maxwell p336) Each county was divided into two precincts, save Armagh. Tullelegan was south of Cookstown and possibly survives today as a rather lovely country house hotel called Tullylagan. Three hundred acres of this grant was demesne land. (A piece of land attached to a manor and retained by the owner for their own use. (Oxford Languages Dictionary) The manor of Tullelegan was to be erected, Crawford was allowed to hold a baron court and his rent was £5 6s 8d. His letters patent of denizen are dated August 1610. Basically this was naturalisation making him ‘a free denizen and liege subject of Ireland by patent, empowered to enjoy the privileges of a native true born subject thereof.’ (https://ulster-settlers.clericus.ie) This permitted an individual to purchase property in Ireland and allowed their legitimate heir to inherit otherwise property would revert to the crown after the individual's death.

Unfortunately George Crawford of Leifnorris failed to prosper in Ulster. Of the fifty nine undertakers Perceval-Maxwell states that he was the ‘most backward’ in developing his estate. (Perceval-Maxwell p130) He was in debt, and in July 1610 just before the plantation began, had been imprisoned in the tollbooth in Edinburgh. His son, another George Crawford, fared little better. He too was in debt and had been briefly imprisoned in Blackness castle for feuding and on his release had a sum of 10,000 merks to pay. (Perceval-Maxwelll p336) As well as financial woes, Carew’s Survey of 1611 noted that George senior was ‘diseased,’ with what we do not know. Robert O’ Rorke, his Irish agent, and presumably in Tullelegan had timber felled and was preparing materials for building work to commence the following spring. (https://ulster-settlers.clericus.ie) This would imply that Crawford was not residing in Ulster, nor would it appear were any of his Cumnock tenants. In 1612 he had complained about the high cost of transport between Scotland and Ulster and there appears to have been little progress from the previous year. In 1615, the Crawford family, not in a position to invest either time or money in their Irish estate, sold Tullelegan to a Captain Alexander Sanderson. (Perceval-Maxwell p336)

Sanderson, originally from the east of Scotland, was a mercenary soldier and had served in the Swedish army under Karl IX in Russia. During these Russian hostilities with Poland -Lithuania he was captured. He then entered Sigismund III’s service with the Polish army at the siege of Smolensk. (https://ulster-settlers.clericus.ie) He and his descendants were to do well in Ulster. Pynnar’s Survey of 1618-19 states 'Captain Sanderson, Esq., hath 1,000 acres, called Tullylegan. Upon this there is a good bawne of clay and stone, rough cast with lime, having two flankers, and a very good house of lime and stone; himself, with his wife and family, now dwelling there.’ Around him were houses with sixteen British families, giving thirty six men at arms. (https://ulster-settlers.clericus.ie) Incredibly his gravestone has survived in Desertcreat Church of Ireland. It states that he is the owner of the manor of Tullylegan near Cookstown. He was born in Scotland, a foot soldier in Belgium, a master of horse and infantry in Poland, Justice of the Peace in Ireland and three times a High Sheriff. (Plantation-of-Ulster-Story-of-Scots.pdf)

 

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Possibly George Crawford had been chosen as an undertaker for Tullelegan as his father-in-law was Andrew Stewart, the third Lord Ochiltree. Ochiltree had served the crown loyally, was a member of the Scottish council and had become a Justice of the Peace when that office had been created by James VI/I. (Perceval-Maxwell p98) He was one of the nine chief undertakers and gained 3,000 acres in Mountjoy Precinct, Tyrone. Ochiltree too was greatly in debt, primarily due to a previous foray into the Isles to crush resistance to royal authority. (Perceval-Maxwell p99) In 1615 he sold his Scottish lands and title to his cousin Sir James Stewart of Killeith. (Perceval-Maxwell p107) However, he was to prosper in Ulster, eventually becoming Lord Castlestewart. Of interest, Carew’s Report of 1611 stated that he had brought ‘thirty three followers including gentry ‘of a sorte,’ freeholders and other tenants, artificers and a minister.’ Work on his castle had begun, three houses of oak had been built and there were numerous livestock there or en route. (Perceval-Maxwell p329) It would seem likely that many of those thirty three would have been from the Ochiltree area.  Bodley’s survey of 1613 noted that there were numerous Irish on his land and no additional families had settled. (Perceval-Maxwell p144) By Pynnar’s report of 1618-19 the castle was completed although without a bawm, and there were British freeholders and leaseholders along with their tenants and eighty men could be raised. By 1622 there were fifty British families present, indicating about one hundred men, as well as eighty four Irish. (Perceval-Maxwell p329)

The movement of Scots to Ulster continued throughout the seventeenth century. Modest at first, it accelerated after 1650 and peaked during the final decade of the century. (Scott B & Dooher J (editor) ‘Plantation; Aspects of seventeenth century Ulster society’ p2)

More records for Scottish/Irish migration are available for later centuries. However, the earlier period is fascinating with much still to be explored. Watch this space.