Found this article, hopefully it helps someone in their quest to locate their family. Rose C I search the surnames Lang {k} ford; Mince; Merck and CRANSTON The Atlanta Journal, Saturday, August 8, 1908. Cuttings Book 36 THE COMING OF THE SCOTCH-IRISH FROM IRELAND TO ST. GEORGE'S PARISH REV. GEORGE G.SMITH,VINEVILLE,MACON GA. The only large colony of Scotch-Irish people who came to Georgia from the North of Ireland came through the influence of John Rae, George Galphin and Lacklin McGilveray between 1769 and 1771. John Rae, one of the leaders in this movement was a Scotch-Irishman, an Indian trader who was here in 1741 and perhaps several years before it. He lived in Augusta but had property near Savannah: in now Burke and Jefferson and in St.Pauls now Richmond and Colombia counties. He was a member of the assembly from St. Pauls and was a man of great public spirit and influence. George Galphin did not live in Georgia. He too was a Scotch-Irishman. He was an Indian trader, and though his home was at Silver Bluff,[South Carolina], he lived much of his time among the Indians on the Ogeechee. There was a Galphins old town some ten miles south of Louisville for a long time and afterward Galphin new town, two miles from that place. He did an immense business and acquired much wealth. His influence over the Indians was unbounded, and they owed him much money, which they tried to pay by making a large concession of lands which included the best part of Middle Georgia to the provincial government, it agreeing to pay him what the Indians owed him. Lachland McGilveray was a Highlander and a large Indian trader. He had come to America a pennyless boy, and had made an immense fortune. While not a Scotch-Irishman he had close affiliation with that people, united with Rae and Galphin in promoting their coming to Georgia. It may not be amiss before writing of this middle Georgia colony to say something of a general nature about the Scotch-Irish in Ireland. They were Scotch almost entirely, but they lived in Ireland. During the days of Elizabeth, the Irish chieftains rebelled against her, partly because they were always rebelling and partly because she tried to make them forsake the Roman Catholic faith. They fought fiercely but as was always the case with them, they were defeated and lands were taken from the most obnoxious. When James succeeded Elizabeth he had a large amount of vacant land on his hands, from which the owners had been driven, and he gave it to his favourites. They were to settle it with Scotchman and so they did.They did not love the Irish, and the Irish hated them heartily. Then, forty years later the Irish followed James II., and went down again, and the Scotch followed William of Orange and then there was more land and more Scotchmen. So the old Celt disappeared from upper Ireland, and the Scotch ruled it; but the land was narrow and the people many, and early in the 18th century they began to find homes in the "new world" America. They went to New England and Maryland and Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the two Carolinas. Some few of them came to Georgia, first as Indian traders and then as farmers; but still Ireland was crowded with needy people, and Georgia needed settlers. So these canny men Rae, Galphin and M'Gilveray set to work to bring them over. Forty thousand of as good acres as the sun shone on were set apart for them by the council. They were aided by the council in every way. Their passage was paid out and two shiploads came to Savannah and were sent by the council to make a new settlement on the Opeechee. The descendents of these worthy ante-Burghers are many and some of them still live on their ancestral homesteads in Jefferson county, and somewhat proudly bring out their grants from "George III., by the Grace of God King," etc. which have been carefully preserved by them for near 150 years. Although I have in the alphabetical list I have published alluded to most of them, yet it will be more satisfactory to give the lists as they appear on the record. There were two shiploads. The ship Hopewell, Captain Ash of Londonderry, came in December 1769. The ship Britannia, came in 1772. The list of the first immigrants cannot be found, but the grants of lots in Queensboro enables us to make a pretty good conjecture of who at least some of them were. They were Thomas Beatty, Alexander Bags (now Hogg), John Bartholomew, John Brown, James Blair, John Martin (blacksmith), Adam Mori- Greer, Robert Gervin, William Harding, James Huden, John Kennedy, Mathew Lyle (ancestor of Mrs. John W. Grant), John Martin (blacksmith), Adam Morison, John Morison, Adam McTurvey, William McConkey, Jas. McCalsey, Matthew Moore, David Russell, Jos. Sanders, Walker Stevens, William Skelly, James Thompson, Robert Warnock. There are not a few Atlanta people who can find their ancestory in this list. The Britannia's manifest is similar. There were James Black, with a wife, two children and five servants: John McGee: Jas. Harris, wife and three children, Henry Hurd, wife, and (as it is written,) one children: Margaret Sloan: Isabella Irwin and eight daughters: Frances Mountain, wife and three children: Henry Lewis and wife: Thomas Wolfington, wife and three children: William Murray and one servant, Samuel McAllisten: Samuel Little, wife and four children, Edward Thompson, wife and three children: Samuel Barren, wife and one child, John McCalvey and wife: James Hogg, wife and four children, now Hogue: William Tomkins: John Gamball and five children, ancestor of Judge Rodger L. Gamble: Richard Peel, a wife and child: John Chambers, a wife and six children; John Scott, a wife and four children: Moses McMichan (McMakin): John Dickson, a wife and child: William Hannah, a wife and one child: Edward Rodgers, a wife and one child: Michael Beatty, a wife and two children, John Boggs, Joseph [_ _ _ _ ?] John Wilson, a wife and four children: John Todd: John Crozier, a wife, a child, and a servant: Thomas Little, a wife and five children: John Breckenrey, a wife and one child: Robert Hanna and his wife: Rich Fleeting, a wife and one child: John Shaw: David Irwin and wife: John Murlock, wife and two children: John Peel: John Campbell, wife and five children, David Morrow, wife and two children: Robert Rodgers: James McMichan, wife and three children: John Fenlay, wife and three children, now Fenley: A[Arthur?] O'Neal: George Cook, wife and two children: John Gilmore and wife, ancestor of Judge Gilmore of Washington: Felix (Phelex) McGee: Matthew Burr: John Busby, wife, child and one servant: William McReery: John Martin, George Thompson, William Brown, Seb Witherup, Esther Tweedy, four children and one servant: John Fulton, wife, two children and one servant: James McCroan, Thomas McCroan, his wife and child: John Manealy, wife and five children, Isaac Laremore went to Ohio. There were 217 in all. Some of them were able to bring servants with them, most of them were married and nearly all were poor. They landed at Savannah and had to make their way over a hundred miles to the banks of the upper Ogeechee. They had lands granted in what is now the heart of Jefferson. As one leaves Savannah on the Central railway and comes the 100 miles to Wadley, he passes through much the same country through which these wanderers made their way. There where no public conveyances, and only trails for roads. The country in which they settled had only a little while before been claimed by the Indians and used as a hunting ground. The council ordered a road cut to Queensboro, the projected town, and it is possible that few belongings were conveyed up the Ogeechee in flat bottomed pole boats. Perhaps Rae, McGalpin and McGilveray furnished pack horses, of which they had large numbers and drivers to aid the immigrants on their way. If these good anti-Burghers had any chronicle I have never seen it. They had the usual hardships of pioneers, but none of the distressing experiences of the earliest comers to America. The woods were full of game. The creeks and rivers teeming with fish: the Indians friendly and doubtless Messers. Rae McGalphin and McGilveray gave them all the help they needed. They had been used to to thatched cabins in Ireland and to hardships in a severe climate, and they were soon as well off in the new world with comfortable houses built of logs and boards,as of the stone and thatch of Ireland. They were accustomed to toil and they soon made the wilderness to blossom. They brought with them a pastor, staunch anti-Burgher, and brought their catechisms and psalm books, and had religious services in their cabins as soon as they were built. ----------------------------------------------------------