Well, like any good Scot I have the badger's butt in my teeth and cannot let go! off down the rabbit hole we go. This is basically for Wallace Fullerton but many of you seem interested in this line of research, so here goes. 1: Jan. 28th 1929 The Scottish Historical review Vol XXV, Glasgow published an article by George Pratt Inish called `The Arrival of the Cardross Settlers'. (I have a copy of it). It describes the arrival in South Carolina `in the year of grace 1684' of the ship Carolina Merchant, captained by Capt James Gibson, and his brother Walter Gibson, owner of the vessel. The article describes the voyage `the group of Covenanters who under the leadership of Lord Cardross and William Dunlop, crossed the Atlantic to establish their settlement of Stuart's Town' ****the reference given in 1928 states: The section of this study that records the experiences of these settlers are to be found in the English colonial documents in the Public Record Office. Question: Those English colonial documents referring to Scots emigrating to America, are they in England now or in Scotland? and does the Scottish Records Office/National Archives of Scotland have them do you think? ****another primary source reference is to `Erskine of Carnock's Diary (Sco. Historical Society' - Question where is the Scottish Historical Scoiety if it still exists.? and who was Erskine of Carnock? In the opening sentence regarding early Scottish colonisation, the author refers to `the vessels that under the direction of Robert Barclay of Urie cleared from Montrose and Aberdeen for East New Jersey'. ****until this event was mentioned first by Grant Buttars and then by Wallace Fullerton, I had not been aware of it as I was primarily researching emigration to the southern territories of the Carolinas and Georgia. However, I am extremely interested in the region that the Barclay's of Urie owned land. . Question: does anyone know the exact DATE this expedition set forth from Scotland? and if there are any primary source materials to research? Two histories on South Carolina written in the early 1900's have brief accounts of the Cardross Setlers. The first was not footnoted: `Its leaders, landed in 1683, and formed a settlement called Stuarts Town, probably in honour of Lady Cardross, who was a daughter of Sir James Stuart' this account states that Lord Cardross, `overcome by the heat of summer and prosrate with sickness' returned to Scotland. The rest of the ill fated bunch were later atacked by the Spaniards and the Indians, no indication whether any survived? if they did, were any of them part of subsequent expeditions?. Question: where was Henry, Lord Cardross's estate? there is some indication it might have been Perthshire? The second early history of South Carolina has footnotes, but none that are too helpful. It states: `In 1682 negotiations were begun between the Proprieters and a group of prominent Scotchmen for bringing 10,000 Scots to Carolina. Henry Erskine, third Baron Cardross, a notable sufferer in the persecutions infliced on Scotch Covenanters, and later highly honored as supporter of William 111, was commissioned Governor of his colony at Port Royal' *****what assumptions do you draw from this?, does this not infer that he was Protestant? therefore not necesarily loyal to the Stuart cause? I may have made an erroneous assumption tha the name ERSKINE (his half brother John Erskine was also a member of the expedition) could mean that they hailed from the area around Dun, as my booklet on the House of Dun states that the Dun estate was purchased in 1375 by Sir Robert Erskine of Renfrewshire and that the family occupied it during the 16th and 17th centuries. I have a personal interest in that estate because the graveyard attached to the property contains many tombstone with Guthrie's and Low's inscribed. Maybe I was reaching too hard. Two very recent new histories (all politically correct and using Scots/Irish except when directly quoting from older histories when they use Scotch Irish) one on South Carolina (Walter Edgar) and the other of Beaufort County (Lawrence Rowland) both have fairly extensive sections on the settlement of Stuart Town. (different histories have different spellings!) 1: Rowland's book goes into detail about the `settlement of Scottish Covenanters, Presbyterians who had signed the Solemn league and Covenant in 1638 and 1643'. and goes on to state they supported the Engish Parliament and Oliver Cromwell.- - so obviously were not Stuart supporters? Henry Erskine, Lord Cardross attracted the attention of Anthony Ashey Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and the prime mover of the Carolina settlements of Charleston and Port Royal (Stuart's Town) in the 1680's, (along with John Locke, who basically wrote the Carolina Constitution used extensively in the designing of the Declaration of Independence) and who I thought was a supporter of the Stuart dynasty - so by now I am thoroughly and totally confused - this is worse than Afghanistan!!!!!!! who was on whose side and when? that was rhetorical question, please don't respond!!! I am going to have to seriously study Scottish history for that period before making any assumptions whatsoever. Anyway, for those who are interested, `Robert Woodrow, the Covenaters hagiographer collected the names of the Covenanter prisoners assigned for transport, indentured to Walter Gibson, owner of the Carolina Merchant and that information can be found in the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland - anyone know where that is? one of the names was a URIE. The other primary source this author uses for this section is the previously mentioned `Journal of the Hon. John Erskine of Carnock, 1683-1687' where is it? He cites the Inish article as the `standard history of StuartsTown', the original article that cited the Journal as the primary source. So to re-cap this - as I am planning my research trip to Scotland, where am I likely to find the best selection/collection of PRIMARY source material on the Colonization of the Americas by the Scots - with a focus on Stuartstown, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. Where do I need to go. I am definitely going to Edinburgh to research an uncopiable document in the Service to Heirs. Where else is the best library of original material and archival manuscripts? as I mentioned once before I find it necessary to research both the Scottish and American perspectives to reach a point of view that reflects the players in the dramas unfolding. By now I expect you are all as thoroughly fedup with me as I am of myself, so I shall let go of this subject now. Hope this is relatively clear. Jennifer Guthrie Ryan