This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: McMurry, McMurray Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/0E0.2ACEB/68.1.1.1 Message Board Post: I wonder if John McMurray's parents came from the Bann Valley in Ulster? Evidentally lots of McMurrays lived there. I also wonder if Governor Shute mentioned below had any connection. This is an interesting link - http://www.4qd.org/bann/books/Kilrea02.html Here is an excerpt: We have mentioned these disabilities merely to account for the readiness with which the people embarked for the freer atmosphere of the New World. It is with a kind of relief that one concludes the perusal of the Aghadowey Book for the period, 1700-1718. The latter year forms a landmark in Ulster history. Then began that stream of emigration which extended through almost the whole century, and the valley of the Bann has the distinction of being the pioneer district in this fateful work. High rents, exaction of tithes, and religious persecution did their work; and masters of vessels returning from America gave great accounts of the advantages gained and progress made by those who had already ventured into New England. One Captain Robert Holmes, son of an Irish Presbyterian minister, had special advantages on account of his intimacy with the northern counties then to place the prospects of emigration in the best light, and by seeming to open up brighter visions in the far-off ! land he was at the same time opening up a new and 23 profitable trade or ships sailing the Atlantic. The result was the inhabitants of the Bann valley and the neighbouring ministers sent over the Rev. Wm. Boyd, of Macosquin, as their agent to petition Governor Shute for facilities for the settlement of colonies of Ulster Scots. The petition itself is still preserved, with the signatures - names such as are still found in the counties Derry and Antrim. In the summer and autumn of 1718 five ships landed at Boston, the first organised transportation of Scotch-Irish. They were mostly from the ports of Coleraine and Londonderry, and bore such names as the "William and Mary," the "Three Anns and Mary." These vessels have as much significance for the Scotch-Irish as the earlier "Mayflower" and "Speedwell" for the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers. Some of these were not rich in worldly substance, while others were people of some estate who had paid their passage-money in coin of the realm. Others sold their services for some years to masters, who advanced the price of the passage! . Cotton Mather, the New England divine who gave these people encouragement, said - "The people who are upon this transportation are of such principles, and so laudable for their sobriety, their honesty, their industry, that we cannot but embrace you with a most fervent charity, and cherish hopes of noble settlements to be quickly made."