Scottish Families on the Chesapeake
Resource for Genealogists with Maryland & Virginia Scots Ancestors
Aug 31, 2009
The Chesapeake Bay region has had Scottish settlers since the founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, but the pace of migration picked up considerably after 1650.
The Chesapeake Region
Chesapeake Bay, surrounded by parts of Maryland and Virginia, is the largest estuary in the United States. Significant to early settlers, who found it easiest to travel by water, is the fact that more than 150 rivers and streams emptying a huge watershed drain into it.
The Banished Scots
Two historic events increased the number of Scottish families coming to the United States. Around 1650, Scotland began banishing or exiling to the American colonies people they branded as undesirable because of their political or religious beliefs. A large number of these disenfranchised Scots came to Maryland and Virginia.
In 1707, the Act of Union between England and Scotland ended the Navigation Acts of the 1660s, which restricted trade between Scotland and the English colonies. That resulted in a significant increase in the influx of Scots.
The Maryland and Virginia Tobacco Trade
The union of Scotland and England and the easing of restrictions on Scottish imports amd merchant traders soon led to rapid growth of the tobacco trade. Scottish merchants quickly assembled a network of traders and agents and before long these merchants had monopolized tobacco trading across most of the Chesapeake region. From then until the American Revolution, there was an increased flow of Scottish emigrants to fill roles needed by this expansion of the tobacco trade.
Locating Genealogical Data for Chesapeake Scots
David Dobson is regarded by many genealogy professionals as the expert on Scottish emigration to North America and has amassed an amazing collection of records pertaining to these settlers, including the seven-volume Directory of Scottish Settlers in North America, 1625-1825. It is Dobson who combed records on both sides of the Atlantic to pinpoint the Scots in the Chesapeake region and gather data on them.
The resulting list of several thousand Scots known to have been in the Chesapeake region between 1607 and 1830 includes, where known, not only birth, marriage and death data, but also occupation, date of emigration, place of settlement and family relationships.
Dobson’s 169-page 1992 book titled Scots on the Chesapeake was initially sold at $20 per copy, but used copies can be located online at reduced prices. The best bargain, however, is the more recent CD which contains this, plus many of Dobson’s other works on Scottish settlers throughout North America.
 |
