University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 1984 THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF PROVINCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE RALPH STUART WALLACE University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation WALLACE, RALPH STUART, "THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF PROVINCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE" (1984). Doctoral Dissertations. 1432. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1432 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. 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University Micrdrilms International 300 N.Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8419560 Wallace, Ralph Stuart THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF PROVINCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE University oi New Hampshire Ph.D. 1984 University Microfilms Internationa! 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Copyright 1984 by Wallace, Ralph Stuart All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF PROVINCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE BY Ralph Stuart Wallace 3.A., Lehigh University, 1968 M. A. , University of New Hampshire, 1973 DISSERTATION CO u b mi ted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of he Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy i n H isto-y May, 1984 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 1984 Ralph Stuart Wallace Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation has been examined and approved. A x c p j Dissertation director, Charles____ E. Clark, Professor of History . B. Khleif, Professor of Sociology Robert Ml Men ne1, Professor of Hi story utjfian, Professor of History __ —*?( __________________ Marc L. Schwarz, AssociaVe Professor of H i s tory Professor Hi s tory 19 April 1984 Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT v CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 I. The UlsterPlantation 5 II. The Development of the Scotch-Irish Myth in New Hampshire 41 III. The Great Migration in Massachusetts 77 IV. The "Eastern Parts": Purpooduck, Merrymeeting Bay, and Georgia 134 V. Nutfield and Londonderry: Boundary Problems in New Hampshire 176 VI. Nutfield and Londonderry: The Formative Years - 220 VII. Londonderry: The Proprietary Town 254 VIII. Scotch-Irish Expansion 284 IX. Potatoes and Pumpkins: Ethnic Foods in Provincial New Hampshire 311 X. The Fabric of Change: Scotch-Irish Linen Trade in 18th Century New Hampshire 327 XI.Conclusion 356 Bibliography 364 - i v - Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF PROVINCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE by RALPH STUART WALLACE University of New Hampshire, May, 1984 This dissertation examines the Scotch-Irish as a distinct ethnic group in eighteenth-century New Hampshire. The Scotch-Irish are seen in light of their ethnicity as well as the role they played in the growth and development of provincial New Hampshire. When the first ,:wave" of Presbyterians from Ulster came to New England in 1718, they were misunderstood and mistreated. Town and provincial leaders in Massachusetts, not to mention occasional Boston mobs, frequently confused the immigrants with native, Catholic Irish. Since their arrival coincided with food shortages and outbreaks of smallpox in Boston, the Scotch-Irish were hardly welcome. Instead, they were sent to frontier areas in Maine and central Massachusetts, where they suffered at the hands of land speculators, unsympathetic neighbors, and hostile Indians. In New Hampshire, a substantial number of New England's Scotch-Irish immigrants found a haven in the - v - Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. vicinity of Nutfield, or Londonderry. Yet it was a haven threatened by conflicting interpretations of town and provincial boundaries. The Scotch-Irish story in Londonderry had both ethnic and political dimensions. The Scotch-Irish proprietors of Londonderry sought to control town affairs in order to preserve their community's ethnic identity. Toward that end, they encouraged emigrants from Ulster to join them. Yet out of political necessity, town proprietors had to align themselves with New Hampshire's political leaders. Officials in Londonderry and Portsmouth worked together in order to prevent New Hampshire from being absorbed by its much larger southern neighbor. In the end, they succeeded. New Hampshire not only survived, but the boundary decision of 1740 expanded New Hampshire at the expense of Massachusetts. Ironically, while Scotch-Irish participation in the New Hamps h i re-M a s sachusetts boundary controversy resulted in political victory, it also contributed to a weakening of ethnic barriers. As the boundary controversy came to a conclusion, Scotch-Irish settlers left Londonderry to settle new townships in western New Hampshire, where they lived among "the people of New Eng 1 and"--sett!ers from Massachusetts and even Connecticut. Assimilation resulted. By the end of the century, contemporary accounts indicate that the Scotch-Irish had disappeared as a distinct ethnic group, only to be revived a generation later in the histories and commemorative literature of their ancestors. - v i - Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Much has been written about the Scotch-Irish. The literature varies in quality, temper, and scope. It ranges from folksy to scientific, genealogical to anthropological, local to international. Some of the literature bursts with ethnic pride; other accounts doubt the existence of the Scotch-Irish as a distinct ethnic group.^ The Scotch-Irish have been defined generally as Pres by teri a n s of Scottish descent who migrated throughout the eighteenth century from Ulster to the British colonies along the A tla n tic seaboard.2 By the time of the American Revolution, they were the second largest European ethnic group in North America. Yet even the name of this group of immigrants is controversial. "Scotch-Irish" is an American term; it has virtually no European antecedents, and it did not come into popular usage until after the Scotch-Irish had assimilated with their English neighbors. The term and the literature surrounding it were perpetuated as much by ethnic hatred as ethnic pride. By the turn of the twentieth century, Scotch-Irish history had fallen victim to the rhetoric of Irish and Irish-American politics. Very little has been written about the Scotch-Irish settlers who came to New Hampshire, or even New England. - 1 - Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This is p a rtly a matter of numbers. Most of the Scotch-Irish immigrated to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Those who emigrated from Ulster to