New York

Until the abortive Jacobite uprisings in 1715 and 1745 there had been little Scottish immigration to the New York colony. After those uprisings Jacobites from the Highlands were forcibly transported to New York. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians began coming from Ulster after 1717 and many Highlanders who had served in North

America during the French and Indian War (1754-1763)
chose to remain in New York as residents.  The royal
proclamation of October 1763 offered generous terms.
In addition, between 1765 and 1774 there were a number
of large group migrations from Scotland organized by
Hugh Fraser, James MacDonald, Donald Campbell and
others.  Their influx was so rapid that Charlotte County
had to be carved out of Albany County in 1772.
(Charlotte County's name was changed to Washington
County in 1784.)

By 1720 Highland Scots and Scotch-Irish had penetrated
into the two lower counties of Orange and Ulster along
the west bank of the Hudson River.  This was particularly
the case after 1734 and into the 1740s when the New York
colonial governors mounted campaigns to attract more

settlers from Scotland and Ireland

In 1744 Sir William Johnson who managed a large estate near the present site of Amsterdam on the northern bank
of the Mohawk River. There he settled Irish, Scotch-Irish, and Palatine (German) on his land giving them
long-term rents, and helping to relocate pioneer families.

New Jersey

New Jersey became one of the strongholds of Presbyterianism in colonial America, but it was Scots, not Scotch-Irish,
who made it so.  In 1682, upon the death of Sir George Carteret, who had been given a large grant of land in the
American colonies by King Charles II, several prominent Scots joined in the purchase of his interest in the
proprietorship of East Jersey.  Their extensive advertisement of the colony at home attracted many Lowland Scots,
especially those who at the very moment were involved in Covenanter difficulties.  Settling near Perth-Amboy, they
soon spread throughout the colony.  Still other Scots, chiefly Presbyterian Highlanders, came there after 1746 because
of their involvement in the Jacobite rebellion.  The success of these first Scots in New Jersey led to a substantial
migration of others of their fellow-countrymen between 1760 and the outbreak of the American Revolution.

                                                                    Continued . . .

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