The Scottish Colonising Voyages to Carolina and East New Jersey in the 1680S Joseph Wagner
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The Scottish Colonising Voyages to Carolina and East New Jersey in the 1680s Joseph Wagner Cette note de recherche donne un aperçu des seize voyages en Caroline et dans l’est du New Jersey qui ont fait partie des efforts de colonisation écossais dans ces colonies de 1682 à 1688. L’accent est mis sur les navires, les lieux et les dates de leurs départs, leurs cargaisons et le nombre de passagers qu’ils transportaient. Ces renseignements comblent les lacunes dans nos connaissances des entreprises coloniales écossaises et illustre la participation des Anglais et des Irlandais à ces entreprises. Introduction Scots undertook two focussed ventures to establish themselves in English colonies in the 1680s – one in Carolina and one in East New Jersey. The Carolina venture was the result of Scottish Presbyterians seeking a retreat from religious persecution in Scotland. They were joined by Scottish merchants hoping to establish a transatlantic trade not subject to the English Navigation Acts, which restricted Scottish trade with English colonies. The attempt to establish a Scottish settlement in Carolina began in 1682, but was largely ended by the destruction of the Scottish settlement of Stewartstoun (established in 1684) by the Spanish in 1686.1 The 1 In addition to the sources mentioned in notes 7-9, see Linda G. Fryer, “The Covenanters’ Lost Colony in South Carolina,” Scottish Archives, 2 (1996), 98-106; Kurt Gingrich, “‘That will make Carolina powerful and flourishing’: Scots and Huguenots in Carolina in the 1680s,” South Carolina Historical Magazine, 110 (January-April 2009), 6-34. The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord, XXX, No. 2 (Summer 2020), 155-166 156 The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord East Jersey venture was overseen by the Scottish Quaker Robert Barclay of Ury and saw additional Scots join the project for commercial, religious, social, and national reasons. Interest in the project in Scotland was at its height from 1683 to 1688. Though interest in Scotland waned in the subsequent years, Scots in the colony continued to be influential in its development.2 Historians have identified and discussed several ways in which these colonial ventures are important to Scottish history. For example, it has been argued that they were expressions of Scottish independence and sovereignty, that they were precursors to the boom in Scotland’s transatlantic trade in the eighteenth century, and that they saw an important movement of people and ideas from Scotland to America.3 One area that historians have run into difficulty is providing an account of the vessels and settlers that made the transatlantic journey to the colonies. For example, George Pratt Insh’s seminal account mentions several Scottish voyages to East Jersey, but only provides the name and details of one of the vessels used.4 John Pomfret’s excellent study of East Jersey adds a detailed account of a second vessel, but not of the others to which he refers vaguely and speculatively.5 Ned Landsman does not provide many additional details relating to the voyages, but, unlike Insh and Pomfret, he provides an estimate of the number of settlers transported by the Scots. He suggests that 700 people were transported, but does not explain how exactly that figure was reached.6 Regarding the Scottish efforts to establish a settlement in Carolina, Insh only mentioned two voyages to the colony and only named one vessel.7 Recent studies have filled many gaps in our knowledge of the Carolina voyages, but a clear and comprehensive account has remained elusive.8 Peter Moore has recently suggested that “historians on both sides of the Atlantic 2 In addition to the sources mentioned in notes 4-6, see Ned Landsman, “William Penn’s Scottish Counterparts: The Quakers of ‘North Britain’ and the Colonization of East New Jersey,” in Richard S. Dunn and Mary Maples Dunn, eds., The World of William Penn (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986), 241-257; Linda G. Fryer, “Robert Barclay of Ury and East New Jersey,” Northern Scotland, 15 (May 1995), 1-17. 3 T. M. Devine, Scotland’s Empire and the Shaping of the Americas, 1600-1815 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2003), 4, 36-40; Allan I. Macinnes, Union and Empire: The Making of the United Kingdom in 1707 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 164-171; Kurt Gingrich, “‘To Erect a Collonie of Scottish Subjects in Aney Pairt of America’: The Quest for a Scottish Colony in North America in the 1680s,” Journal of Early American History, 2 (2012), 68-98. 4 George Pratt Insh, Scottish Colonial Schemes, 1620-1686 (Glasgow: MacLehose, Jackson & Co., 1922), 163-179. 5 John E. Pomfret, The Province of East New Jersey, 1609- 1702: The Rebellious Proprietary (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962), 186-198. 6 Ned C. Landsman, Scotland and its First American Colony, 1683-1765 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), 113-114, 269. 7 Insh, Scottish Colonial Schemes, chap. 6. 8 See, for example, L. H. Roper, Conceiving Carolina: Proprietors, Planters, and Plots, 1662- 1729 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 78-89; Tom Barclay and Eric J. Graham, The Early Transatlantic Trade of Ayr, 1640-1730 (Ayr: Ayshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 2005), 32-37; David Dobson, Scottish Trade with Colonial Charleston, 1683 to 1783 (Glasgow: Humming Earth, 2009), 16, 115-118, 165-166. Scottish Colonising Voyages 157 have failed to appreciate the significance of Stuarts Town, Scotland’s short-lived colony in Port Royal, South Carolina.”9 As in the case of histories of the East Jersey venture, his article on the topic would have done more to demonstrate the significance of Scottish colonisation if more information on the number of voyages and settlers was provided. The aim of this research note is to offer a more complete account of the Scottish colonising voyages to Carolina and East Jersey in the 1680s than hitherto provided. This account makes use of previously overlooked sources and corrects some misapprehensions found in previous accounts. With a clear and well evidenced account of the vessels and approximate numbers of passengers that sailed to Carolina and East Jersey under Scottish auspices, the foundation is laid for an updated analysis of the ventures in their broader contexts. For example, the use of English vessels in the expeditions to East Jersey suggest “British” cooperation in the venture while the English Navigation Acts prohibited Scottish vessels and crews from trade with English colonies; Scottish commercial and confessional networks in Ireland are implied by the fact four vessels with Scottish links sailed to Carolina via Ireland; and we learn that the scale of the Carolina venture was larger than previously thought, indicating greater interest in the project than historians have suggested. Carolina The first vessel sent from Scotland to Carolina as part of the colonising venture was the 50-ton James of Irvine, which set sail from Glasgow around 16 October 1682 loaded with “goods to the valow of two hundreth pound ster[ling] in name of S[i]r Jo[h]n Cochrane and S[i]r George Campble and the rest of the partiners of the Carolina Company.”10 As seen here, the goods were sent on the account of the Scottish Carolina Company, which had chartered the vessel with the aim of testing the trading waters and reconnoitring the colony for the best place to settle. The James was owned by the prominent Glasgow merchant Walter Gibson and commanded by his infamous brother James Gibson.11 After a stop in Bermuda, the vessel arrived at Charles Town around 3 March 1683. The company’s agents sold their cargo and gathered information about the colony, concluding Port Royal was the best region to settle. The James arrived back in Scotland around July 1683.12 There is no evidence of Scots settling in Carolina as part of this expedition. The plans of the Carolina Company were disrupted by the discovery of 9 Peter N. Moore, “Scotland’s Lost Colony Found: Rediscovering Stuarts Town, 1682-1688,” Scottish Historical Review, 99 (April 2020), 26. 10 Port Glasgow entry book: exports, 16 October 1682, fol. 24, National Records of Scotland (NRS), E72/19/6. 11 Linda G. Fryer, “Documents Relating to the Formation of the Carolina Company in Scotland, 1682,” South Carolina Historical Magazine, 99 (April 1998), 110-134. 12 John Crawford, A New and Most Exact Account Of the Fertiles[t] and Famous Colony of Carolina (Dublin, 1683), 3-7. 158 The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord the Rye House Plot in 1683 as several members, including the leading figures Sir George Campbell of Cessnock and Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree were implicated.13 Nonetheless, the Carolina venture was continued under the leadership of William Dunlop (who would later become principal of Glasgow University) and the persecuted nobleman Henry Erskine, 3rd Lord Cardross. They oversaw the expedition of the 170-ton Carolina Merchant (formerly the Pelican) of Glasgow to Carolina in 1684. The Carolina Merchant, like the James of Irvine, was owned by Walter Gibson and again James Gibson was the master. Walter Gibson and William Dunlop acquired thirty-six prisoners, mostly Presbyterian rebels, from the Scottish privy council to be sent to the colony and a total of 148 emigrants went to the colony on the vessel.14 It appears that fourteen servants were transported on Walter Gibson’s account, seventeen were transported on Cardross’ account, and twenty- two were transported on Dunlop’s account.15 Cardross and Dunlop were the most prominent individuals who made the journey, but they were accompanied by at least one other landed gentleman: the persecuted Ayrshire laird John Montgomerie of Crevock.16 The Carolina Merchant departed Gourock on 21 July 1684 with a cargo that included textiles, clothing, and buttons.17 It arrived at Charles Town on 2 October with all passengers surviving the journey, but the prisoners had been ill-treated and many became ill (or were already ill) and died after their arrival.18 Others deserted and some servants intended for the Scottish settlement of Stewartstoun were instead sold at Charles Town.