An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America   By: J. P. (John Patterson) MacLean (1848-1939)

An Historical Account

OF THE

Settlements of Scotch Highlanders

IN

America

PRIOR TO THE PEACE OF 1783

TOGETHER WITH NOTICES OF

Highland Regiments

AND

Biographical Sketches

BY

J.P. MACLEAN, PH.D.

Life Member Gaelic Society of Glasgow, and Clan MacLean Association of Glasgow; Corresponding Member Davenport Academy of Sciences, and Western Reserve Historical Society; Author of History of Clan MacLean, Antiquity of Man, The Mound Builders, Mastodon, Mammoth and Man, Norse Discovery of America, Fingal's Cave, Introduction Study St. John's Gospel, Jewish Nature Worship, etc.

ILLUSTRATED .

THE HELMAN TAYLOR COMPANY, CLEVELAND.

JOHN MACKAY, GLASGOW.

1900.

[Illustration: HIGHLAND ARMS.]

TO

COLONEL SIR FITZROY DONALD MACLEAN, Bart., C.B.,

President of The Highland Society of London,

An hereditary Chief, honored by his Clansmen at home and abroad, on account of the kindly interest he takes in their welfare, as well as everything that relates to the Highlands, and though deprived of an ancient patrimony, his virtues and patriotism have done honor to the Gael, this Volume is

Respectfully dedicated by the

AUTHOR.

"There's sighing and sobbing in yon Highland forest; There's weeping and wailing in yon Highland vale, And fitfully flashes a gleam from the ashes Of the tenantless hearth in the home of the Gael. There's a ship on the sea, and her white sails she's spreadin', A' ready to speed to a far distant shore; She may come hame again wi' the yellow gowd laden, But the sons of Glendarra shall come back no more.

The gowan may spring by the clear rinnin' burnie, The cushat may coo in the green woods again. The deer o' the mountain may drink at the fountain, Unfettered and free as the wave on the main; But the pibroch they played o'er the sweet blooming heather Is hushed in the sound of the ocean's wild roar; The song and the dance they hae vanish'd thegither, For the maids o' Glendarra shall come back no more."

PREFACE.

An attempt is here made to present a field that has not been preoccupied. The student of American history has noticed allusions to certain Scotch Highland settlements prior to the Revolution, without any attempt at either an account or origin of the same. In a measure the publication of certain state papers and colonial records, as well as an occasional memoir by an historical society have revived what had been overlooked. These settlements form a very important and interesting place in the early history of our country. While they may not have occupied a very prominent or pronounced position, yet their exertions in subduing the wilderness, their activity in the Revolution, and the wide influence exercised by the descendants of these hardy pioneers, should, long since, have brought their history and achievements into notice.