Crossing an ocean in flimsy, sailing ships to an unknown continent seems a terrifying prospect. Why would a person do this? One answer is that you were a young, energetic adventurer seeking your fortune. An alternate answer is that miseries of staying home were worse than the anxieties of leaving. We believe John Allison (1670-1729) migrated as a middle-aged man with a family. He was not a swashbuckling voyager seeking adventure. The politics of his Ulster homeland support the flee theory.
In 1700 the Protestants and Catholics had been
at war for more than a century. The
tug of war between these factions resulted in the Dukes of Northern Ireland
fleeing to Europe when they failed to enlist Catholic Spain in their efforts
against Protestant England. England was quick to retaliate by seizing their Irish lands.
Into this void the Brits had the bright idea of
subduing the wild, Gaelic speaking, Catholic Irish with a population of lowland Scots. Vacated Irish lands were offered and
Scots were encouraged to migrate
to Northern Ireland's "Ulster Plantation", a brilliant English strategy that suppressed Irish Catholics
and at the same time diluted their troublesome Scottish neighbors. The Scots inhabited Ulster for 100 years, the Irish Catholic and Protestant Scots living uneasily side by side.
Ann became queen of England in 1702. Though she was Protestant, the Presbyterian Scots of Ulster were not her kind of Protestant. Laws were passed that restricted public office only to "conformists" or Church of England Anglicans. The "Non Conformists" or "Dissenters" were suddenly treated with the same disadvantages as Catholics. Life in Ulster became very hostile to the Scottish Presbyterians of Ulster. Difficulties were exacerbated by several years of crop failure, a drop in linen prices, and rising rents.
"Presbyterians denied positions of law
and influence but also minor governmental offices that afforded at least a
small continuous source income for their families. "Some
Presbyterians … were excommunicated by the Episcopal authority for the crime of
being married by ministers of their own church." They were also forced to
pay tithes to the Episcopal Church that they never attended and whose beliefs
they never adhered. [Hanna 618]
The Ulster Scots left Northern Ireland in droves. Whole
families and congregations of churches including the ministers migrated at
one time. In 1728, Archbishop Boulter stated that "above 4200 men,
women and children have shipped off from hence for the West Indies, within three
years," The "West Indies" was another word for the American
colonies.
John Allison was likely one of these Presbyterian dissenters to
leave with his family for new land in the Pennsylvania Plantation.
No comments:
Post a Comment