I've heard the claim before that somehow the Penns were forcing the Scotch-Irish on the frontier but the fact is that the Scotch Irish went to the frontier on their own, that was where the cheap land was located. In fact, if the Penns had one problem it was that the Scotch Irish were settling on land the Penns hadn't even bought from the Indians yet and so weren't paying anyone for the land. I've never heard of any complaint about the numbers of Scotch Irish coming to Pa., the Penns were in the land business and I'm sure they would sell land to anyone who could pay the freight. Benjamin Franklin had some complaints about the number of Germans coming to Pa. He saw Philadelphia as the intellectual capital of the New World and he was concerned that so many Germans were coming that the official language of Pa. would be German. As a matter of fact he tried to have English declared the official language but failed. Jim ----- Original Message ----- From: "Betty Silfies" <b.silfies2@worldnet.att.net> To: <AMERICAN-REVOLUTION-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 09, 2002 12:07 AM Subject: [A-REV] Scotch-Irish > Just some facts from the book The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania by > Wayland F. Dunaway. (If they came from Scotland they were Scots, if they > lived in Ireland for a few generations they were Scotch-Irish) The > resettlement of the Scots into Ireland was started mainly in the time of > James the First. It was to repopulate a part of Ireland that had been > decimated by war. The Scots who received land were not allowed to hire the > native Irish, most of whom were very poor and uneducated. The two groups > did not intermarry or have much to do with one another. Even then the > seeds for the present troubles in northern Ireland were being sown. > > As has been said the British Government began to tax them unfairly, and > caused the ruination of the weaving trade among others. During the British > Civil Wars Cromwell also caused devastation,thus setting the stage for the > immigrations of the 1700s. "It is computed that from 1728 to 1750 Ulster > lost one-fourth of her manufacturing population, and that the counties of > Down, Antrim, Armagh, and Londonderry "were almost emptied of their > protestant inhabitants" In the great exodus of beginning 1771, Ulster is > said to have lost one fourth of its population and one fourth of its > trading cash within five years." In another place in the book the estimate > is given at 250,000 immigrants, and the overwhelming majority were > protestants. Most of them came to Pennsylvania. After the French and > Indian War many of them went south along the Great Wagon Road to cheaper > lands in North and South Carolina. > > Another book on this subject, which I cannot at the moment find, talked > about how the Penn brothers and the other PA leaders were so appalled at > the amount of Scotch-Irish that were pouring into PA that they were afraid > they would be overwhelmed. The Penn brothers actively encouraged them to > settle along the frontier. Since the earlier PA settlers were Quakers and > peaceful German farmers they felt that the more "aggressive" > Scotch-Irish would provide a buffer zone against the Indians, and help to > secure western PA from the claims by Maryland and Virginia. The > Scotch-Irish were attracted to PA because this colony had the most > religious freedom during this time period. > > Betty > > > > ==== AMERICAN-REVOLUTION Mailing List ==== > > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >