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)
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.
