I received the following information, forwarded to me by Rootsweb because it contained my key words, Edgefield and SC. June Bork's name will be recognized by researchers of the Burnett family, as she is the author of two volumes of "The Burnetts and Their Connections." Vol 2, published in 1993, discusses the Edgefield Co. Burnetts and their ancestors in VA. [I have a few selected pages, but not the whole book] The following info. was very interesting to me, as I had read some information on the Ninety-Six area and was surprised that so many inland South Carolinians were Tories. This is a good explanation as to why that occurred, at least among those of Scottish ancestry. Most of the folks on the coast were loyal to the Revolution, but inland folks were really divided. I had never realized that the Revolution pitted families against families and friends against neighbors before reading a book in from our public library on the Ninety Six area and the Star Fort. Billie Jones Camden, SC tjones@camden.net Match: Edgefield AND SC Source: CUMBERLAND-RIVER-L@rootsweb.com From: "June Bork" <jbbork@hotmail.com> Subject: [CRR] Oath of Allegiance Remember Bonnie Prince Charley? He probably was the legitimate King of England, and he was, of course, a Scot. He raised an army who marched south into England with bagpipes playing, and all the troops in kilts. They met the English army at a place called Culloden. I may not spell that correctly, but it is a name often heard around American fireplaces. At the Battle of Culloden, the English artillery (Scots had none) almost wiped out the Scots. Prince Charlie fled along with his troops and they were pursued by English soldiers who massacred so many of the Scots that the English King called a halt to the slaughter of the Scots. Prisoners were taken of those who survived the massacre. The English king appeared before the mass of prisoners and announced that their life would be spared and each of them, with their families, would be transported to the American colonies, and be pardoned of the charge of treason. There was one condition to this parole. Each of the Scots survivors who wished to live must take an oath to never again take arms against the king of England. A generation later the American revolution began, and the households of those who had survived Culloden remembered the oath by which they were free and in the American colonies. An oath is sacred to a Scot, and their sons and gr-sons honored the pledge of the man whose word was given that day at the prison camps of Culloden. Where did these few thousand men go when the kings ships brought them to the colonies. Almost without exception these survivors of Culloden were delivered to the southern colonies. Many came to North Carolina and to Virginia, but I think the greatest number came to Georgia and to South Carolina. The early Virginia Tax Recprds around 1776-7 usually gives a list of those Persons Refusing to take the Oath. Those who refused to take the oath of allegiance may not have been Tories, but if not, then his grandfather was one, and he did not wish to take an oath of allegiance which voided the salvation granted at Culloden. I am not sure about other states in Virginia, but Henry County, Virginia also levied double taxes on those who failed to take the oath of allegiance. Acquilla Greer who lived on Smith River at a place north of Rockcastle. His land fell into Franklin County when Franklin's boundaries were extended down to the banks of the Smith. He could not forget that he was American because an English king granted them a pardon upon taking a greater fealty oath after Culloden. Like so many Tories, Greers sons changed sides as the Revolution wore on. It pays to be on the winning side. A Scot and a Tory are almost the same one, especially during the early days. But after a while the Whigs won over most Scots. How many were there? Georgia was the first of the 13 colonies to fall to the British and they held it all during the Revolution. From Georgia they sent many regiments into SC and took it too. The headquarters of Cornwallis was Charleston, a port city, where the king's ships unloaded many of the survivors of that terrible day when English cannon almost wiped out the forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Since Prince Charlie is somewhat of an American hero, it speaks of the long-lingering tale of the aftermath of Culloden. Historians of the Revolution have always held that in North Carolina, one third of the population supported the Crown, and they hold that in South Carolina it was fifty-fifty, and in Georgia there was only one voice and it was the same voice which took the oath at Culloden. I visited a library that had microfilm copies of the Charleston newspapers of those days and had to get into those old records seeking a report of the death in Edgefield, South Carolina of my ancestor in 1781. He was hacked to death by Major William Cunningham (a Scot) from Georgia who commanded a squadron of Dragoons in His Majesty's Loyal Militia. Those old Charleston newspapers were full of stories of facy balls and other celebrations of Loyalist Militia from the Carolinas and Georgia. I never doubted that when my ancestors were on their way to the Battle of Guilford, they needed no map to find the place where Cornwallis stood. They could hear the sound of the pipes in the clear morning air, and those who played the pipes were sons of Culloden and dwellers in Georgia and the Carolinas. The most precious possession of someone migrating a great distance is that which he keeps in his head. Perhaps they were told of the voyage in the King's vessels to freedom and forgiveness because they took an oath to never again take arms against an English king. That is all the king ask. All he wished of a Scot was his word and his pledge. It was that pledge which caused some to turn away from those who went off to sign the Oath of Allegiance.