lori lester wrote: > Roberta, > My S-I ancestors came over very early (1713) and pushed to the > frontier, which at that time was basically central Massachusetts. The town > they settled in (Rutland, MA) had so many S-I immigrants that a section of > the town was informally called "Dublin" and eventually broke away to form > the town of Oakham. I would love to know how so many immigrants decided to > form a community in this one small town ... > -- Marty Lester > lorilester@sprintmail.com Dear Marty, Usually Scotch-Irish who came over in the early 1700s, as your family did, came with other members of their religious communities. For example, potential colonists from the Bann Valley in Northern Ireland appointed the Rev. William Boyd, from Macosquin, to act as their agent in negotiating acquiring land from Governor Samuel Shute of Mass. Over 300 men from Northern Ireland signed a Petition that the Rev. Boyd presented to the Governor in 1718. Included among the signatures is a Fulton. (In the book, Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America by Charles Bolton p 329, it is listed as ?Peatter Fulltone or Jeatter Fueltone. I have also seen it listed as Yeatter, so some of the letters must be unclear). In Charles A. Hanna's book, The Scotch Irish Vol II, on page 17 he describes how the group of 600-800 who arrived in Boston 4 Aug 1718 were not welcome by the Puritan communities unless they joined the state church. Few were willing to join and as a result were encouraged to move elsewhere. "Govenor Shute assured them of his willingness to permit them to settle on the frontier, and establish new communities of their own....The governor granted them a township right, covering an area twelve miles square, which they were privileged to occupy at such suitable place in the wilderness as they may select." Hanna continues to describe how some of these went to Casco Bay, Maine, and later some to Nutfield (later called Londonderry) New Hampshire. On page 18, he states that others passed the winter on the frontier at Dracut and Andover, waiting for a suitable tract of land for permanent settlement should be found...Another portion of the emigrants who came to Boston in 1718, located at Worcester, Massachusetts, which was then also a post on the New England frontier. Hanna further explains (p 21) that some of the Puritans who had already settled in Worcester demanded the S-I pay their Puritan minister. Over this disagreement in 1738 new groups of S-I families branched out to purchase and settle a new township of Pelham, thirty miles west of Worcester, another group established themselves in Coleraine, fifty miles northwest of Worcester, and a third group settled in Otsego Co, NY. About thirty S-I families continued to live in Worcester and tried to build a meeting house, which was destroyed by the Puritans. On page 22, "Following the destruction of their church many of the families who had remained in Worcester now removed, and it is significant that the third and fourth purely Scotch-Irish towns in Massachusetts, namely Western (now Warren) in Worcester County, and Blandford in Hampden county, both incorporated the next year, 1741. The later movement of individual families from Worcester and Pelham and Coleraine and Western and Blandford carried Scotch-Irish blood into every township of western Massachutsetts, and ultimately into most of the townships in Vermont and New York"... "The prejudice against the Scotch_irish Presbyterians extended to every part of New England" On page 20, "Although staunch Protestants, the Puritans who made up the earlier settlers, were not ready to tolerate the Presbyterianism of the newcomers" And this is why I feel that the focus of subsequent S-I migration quickly shifted from New England to Pennsylvania where William Penn's land agents initially welcomed them to settle. On page 16, Hanna discusses how Thomas Craighead and Samuel Gelston were among the first ministers from Northern Ireland to arrive in New England in 1715. It is interesting that Rev. Craighead initially settled in Assonet (Freetown), Bristol County, Mass, but eight years later he moved to Pennsylvania. Rev. Gelston arrived in New England but moved to Delaware and then to Southampton, LI. I am amazed how these folks moved around in such early times. By the way, the towns you mention, Rutland and Oakham, Mass, are very close to Worcester, Mass, and perhaps their creation may be explained by the antagonism that existed between the Puritans and Presbyterians. Roberta R. (Fulton) Hirth Harriman, New York 10926 listowner fulton-l discussion group FULTON web page at: http://www.frontiernet.net/~elisa96/hirth/fulton.htm