In the following year Colonel Henry Bouquet led a strong force against the Indians west of the Ohio, and compelled them to desist from their predatory warfare, and deliver up the captives they had taken. One of his companies was made up of men from the Central Valley of Virginia, largely composed of Scots or men of Ulster Scot descent, and commanded by Alexander McClanahan, a good Galloway surname. Ten years later occurred the battle of Point Pleasant when men of the same race under the command of Andrew Lewis defeated the Shawnee Indians.
In January 1775, the freeholders of Fincastle presented an address to the Continental Congress, declaring their purpose to resist the oppressive measures of the home government. Among the signers were William Christian, Rev. Charles Cummings, Arthur Campbell, William Campbell, William Edmundson, William Preston and others. Several other counties in the same state, inhabited mainly by Scots or people of Scottish descent, adopted like resolutions. During the Revolutionary war, in addition to large numbers of men of Scottish origin serving in the Continental army from this state, the militia were also constantly in service under the leadership of such men as Colonels Samuel McDowell, George Moffett, William Preston, John and William Bowyer, Samson Mathews, etc.
The following Scots were members of His Majesty's Council in South Carolina under the royal government, from 1720 to 1776: Alexander Skene, James Kinloch (1729), John Cleland, James Graeme, George Saxby, James Michie, John Rattray (1761), Thomas Knox Gordon, and John Stuart. Andrew Rutledge was Speaker of the Commons' House of Assembly from 1749 to 1752. David Graeme, attorney at law in 1754, was Attorney-General of the State from 1757 to 1764. James Graeme, most probably a relation of the preceding, was elected to the Assembly from Port Royal in 1732, became Judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty from 1742 to 1752, and Chief Justice from 1749 to 1752. James Michie was Speaker of the Assembly from 1752 to 1754, Judge of the Court of Admiralty from 1752 to 1754, and Chief Justice from 1759 to 1761. William Simpson served as Chief Justice 1761-1762. Thomas Knox Gordon was appointed Chief Justice in 1771 and served till 1776, and in 1773 he also appears as Member of Council. John Murray was appointed Associate Justice in 1771 and died in 1774. William Gregory was appointed by His Majesty's mandamus to succeed him in 1774. Robert Hume was Speaker of the Assembly in 1732-1733. Robert Brisbane was Associate Justice in 1764, and Robert Pringle appears in the same office in 1760 and 1766. John Rattray was Judge of the Court of Vice-Admiralty in 1760-61, and James Abercrombie appears as Attorney-General in 1731-32. James Simpson was Clerk of the Council in 1773, Surveyor-General of Land in 1772, Attorney-General in 1774-75, and Judge of Vice-Admiralty in the absence of Sir Augustus Johnson in 1769. John Carwood was Assistant Justice in 1725. Thomas Nairne was employed in 1707 "as resident agent among the Indians, with power to settle all disputes among traders ... to arrest traders who were guilty of misdemeanors and send them to Charleston for trial, to take charge of the goods of persons who were committed to prison, and to exercise the power of a justice of the peace." This Thomas Nairne is probably the same individual who published, anonymously, "A letter from South Carolina; giving an account of the soil ... product ... trade ... government [etc.] of that province. Written by a Swiss Gentleman to his friend at Bern," the first edition of which was published in London in 1710 (second ed. in 1732).
Among the names of the seventeen corporate members of the Charleston Library Society established in 1743 occur those of the following Scots: Robert Brisbane, Alexander M'Cauley, Patrick M'Kie, William Logan, John Sinclair, James Grindlay, Alexander Baron, and Charles Stevenson.
Of the members of the Provincial Congress held at Charleston in January, 1775, the following were Scotsmen or men of Scottish ancestry: Major John Caldwell, Patrick Calhoun (ancestor of Vice-President Calhoun), George Haig of the family of Bemersyde, Charles Elliott, Thomas Ferguson, Adam Macdonald, Alexander M'Intosh, John M'Ness, Isaac MacPherson, Col. William Moultrie, David Oliphant, George Ross, Thomas Rutledge, James Sinkler, James Skirving, senior, James Skirving, junior, William Skirving, and Rev. William Tennent.
In Maryland there seems to have been a colony of Scots about 1670 under Colonel Ninian Beall, settled between the Potomac and the Patuxent, and gradually increased by successive additions. Through his influence a church was established at Patuxent in 1704, the members of which included several prominent Fifeshire families. Many other small Scottish colonies were settled on the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia, particularly in Accomac, Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester counties. To minister to them the Rev. Francis Makemie and the Rev. William Traill were sent out by the Presbytery of Laggan in Ulster. Upper Marlborough, Maryland, was founded by a company of Scottish immigrants and were ministered to by the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, also from Scotland.
Two shiploads of Scottish Jacobites taken at Preston in 1716 were sent over in the ships Friendship and Good Speed to Maryland to be sold as servants. The names of some of these sufficiently attest their Scottish origin, as, Dugall Macqueen, Alexander Garden, Henry Wilson, John Sinclair, William Grant, Alexander Spalding, John Robertson, William MacBean, William McGilvary, James Hindry, Allen Maclien, William Cummins, David Steward, John Maclntire, David Kennedy, John Cameron, Alexander Orrach [Orrock?], Finloe Maclntire, Daniel Grant, etc. Another batch taken in the Rising of the '45 and also shipped to Maryland include such names as John Grant, Alexander Buchanan, Patrick Ferguson, Thomas Ross, John Cameron, William Cowan, John Bowe, John Burnett, Duncan Cameron, James Chapman, Thomas Claperton, Sanders Campbell, Charles Davidson, John Duff, James Erwyn, Peter Gardiner, John Gray, James King, Patrick Murray, William Melvil, William Murdock, etc.
A strong infusion of Scottish blood in New York State came through settlements made there in response to a proclamation issued in 1735 by the Governor, inviting "loyal protestant Highlanders" to settle the lands between the Hudson River and the northern lakes. Attracted by this offer Captain Lauchlin Campbell of Islay, in 1738-40, brought over eighty-three families of Highlanders to settle on a grant of thirty thousand acres in what is now Washington County. "By this immigration," says E.H. Roberts, "the province secured a much needed addition to its population, and these Highlanders must have sent messages home not altogether unfavorable, for they were the pioneers of a multitude whose coming in successive years were to add strength and thrift and intelligence beyond the ratio of their numbers to the communities in which they set up their homes." Many Scottish immigrants settled in the vicinity of Goshen, Orange County, in 1720, and by 1729 had organized and built two churches. A second colony arrived from the north of Ireland in 1731. At the same time as the grant was made to Lauchlin Campbell, Lieutenant-Governor Clarke granted to John Lindsay, a Scottish gentleman, and three associates, a tract of eighty thousand acres in Cherry Valley, in Otsego County. Lindsay afterwards purchased the rights of his associates and sent out families from Scotland and Ulster to the valley of the Susquehanna. These were augmented by pioneers from Londonderry, New Hampshire, under the Rev. Samuel Dunlop, who, in 1743 established in his own house the first classical school west of the Hudson. Ballston in Saratoga County was settled in 1770 by a colony of Presbyterians who removed from Bedford, New York, with their pastor, and were afterwards joined by many Scottish immigrants from Scotland, Ulster, New Jersey, and New England. The first Presbyterian Church was organized in Albany in 1760 by Scottish immigrants who had settled in that vicinity.
Sir William Johnson for his services in the French War (1755-58) received from the Crown a grant of one hundred thousand acres in the Mohawk Valley, near Johnstown, which he colonized with Highlanders in 1773-74.
In New York City about the end of the eighteenth century there was a colony of several hundred Scottish weavers, mainly from Paisley. They formed a community apart in what was then the village of Greenwich. In memory of their old home they named the locality "Paisley Place." A view of some of their old dwellings in Seventeenth Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, as they existed in 1863, is given in Valentine's Manual for that year.
Although many Scots came to New England and New York they never settled there in such numbers as to leave their impress on the community so deeply as they did in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the south. There were Presbyterian churches in Lewes, Newcastle (Delaware), and Philadelphia previous to 1698, and from that time forward the province of Pennsylvania was the chief centre of Scottish settlement both from Scotland direct and by way of Ulster. By 1720 these settlers had reached the mouth of the Susquehanna, and three years later the present site of Harrisburg. Between 1730 and 1745 they settled the Cumberland Valley and still pushing westward, in 1768-69 the present Fayette, Westmoreland, Allegheny, and Washington counties. In 1773 they penetrated to and settled in Kentucky, and were followed by a stream of Todds, Flemings, Morrisons, Barbours, Breckinridges, McDowells, and others. By 1790 seventy-five thousand people were in the region and Kentucky was admitted to the Federal Union in 1792. By 1779 they had crossed the Ohio River into the present state of Ohio. Between the years 1730 and 1775 the Scottish immigration into Pennsylvania often reached ten thousand a year.
Lord Bacon expressed his regret that the lives of eminent men were not more frequently written, and added that, "though kings, princes, and great personages be few, yet there are many excellent men who deserve better fate than vague reports and barren elegies." Of no country is this more true than the United States. An examination of the innumerable early biographical dictionaries with which the shelves of our public libraries are cumbered, will show that the bulk of the life sketches of the individuals therein commemorated are vague and unsatisfactory. In nearly every case little or no information is given of the parentage or origin of the subject, and indeed one work goes so far as to say that such information is unnecessary, the mere fact of American birth being sufficient. However pleasing such statements may be from an ultra patriotic viewpoint it is very unsatisfactory from the biological or historical side of the question, which is undoubtedly the most important to be considered. The neglect of these items of origin, etc., makes the task of positively identifying certain individuals as of Scottish origin or descent a very difficult one. One may feel morally certain that a particular individual from his name or features (if there be a portrait) is of Scottish origin, but without a definite statement to that effect the matter must in most cases be left an open question. One other cause of uncertainty, and it is a very annoying one, is the careless method of many biographers in putting down a man's origin as "Irish," "from Ireland," "from the north of Ireland," etc., where they clearly mean to state that the individual concerned is descended from one of the many thousands of Scots who settled in Ulster in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Notwithstanding this uncertainty the proportion of men of undoubted Scottish origin who have reached high distinction, and whose influence has had such far reaching scope in the United States, is phenomenal. "Let anyone," says Dinsmore, "scrutinize the list of names of distinguished men in our annals; names of men eminent in public life from President down; men distinguished in the Church, in the Army, in the Navy, at the Bar, on the Bench, in Medicine and Surgery, in Education, trade, commerce, invention, discovery—in any and all of the arts which add to the freedom, enlightenment, and wealth of the world, and the convenience and comfort of mankind; names which have won luster in every honorable calling—let him scrutinize the list" and he will be astonished to find how large a proportion of these names represent men of Scottish birth or Scottish descent. In these pages it is obviously impossible to mention every Scot who has achieved distinction—to do so would require a large biographical dictionary. We can here only select a few names in each class from early colonial times to the present day.
The most famous family of Colonial times was that of the Livingstons of Livingston Manor, famed alike for their ability and their patriotism. The first of the family in America was Robert Livingston (1654-1725), born at Ancrum, Roxburghshire, who came to America about 1672. He married Alida (Schuyler) Van Rensselaer. His eldest son, Philip (1686-1749), second Lord of the Manor, succeeded him and added greatly to the family wealth and lands by his business enterprise. Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710-92), second son of Philip, was President of the first Provincial Congress. Another son, Philip (1716-78), was Member of the General Assembly for the City of New York, Member of Congress in 1774 and 1776, and one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. A third son was William (1723-90), Governor of New Jersey. Other prominent members of this family were Robert R. Livingston (1746-1813), and Edward (1764-1836). The former was Member of the Continental Congress, Chancellor of the State of New York (1777-1801), Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1781-83), Minister to France (1801-05), and Negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase (1803). He administered the oath of office to George Washington on his assuming the office of President. Edward was Member of Congress from New York (1795-1801), Mayor of New York City (1801-03), Member of Congress from Louisiana (1823-29), United States Senator (1829-31), Secretary of State (1831-33), and Minister to France (1833-35). Robert Fulton, the inventor, married a daughter of the Livingstons and thus got the necessary financial backing to make the Clermont a success. A sister of Edward was married to General Montgomery of Quebec fame, another to Secretary of War Armstrong, and a third to General Morgan Lewis.
The Bells of New Hampshire descended from John Bell, the Londonderry settler of 1718, gave three governors to New Hampshire and one to Vermont. Luther V. Bell, formerly Superintendent of the McLean Asylum, Somerville, Massachusetts, was another of his descendants. The McNutts of Londonderry, New Hampshire, are descended from William McNaught, who settled there in 1718. The McNaughts came originally from Kilquhanite in Galloway. The Bean family, descended from John Bean who came to America in 1660, were pioneers in new settlements in New Hampshire and Maine, and bore the burden of such a life and profited by it. About one hundred of them were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. The Macdonough family of Delaware is also of Scottish descent. Thomas Macdonough, the famous naval officer, was of the third generation in this country. The Corbit family of Delaware are descended from Daniel Corbit, a Quaker born in Scotland in 1682. The Forsyths of Georgia are descended from Robert Forsyth, born in Scotland about 1754, who entered the Congressional Army and became a Captain of Lee's Light Horse in 1776. The Forsyths of New York State trace their descent to two brothers from Aberdeenshire (John and Alexander). The bulk of the Virginia Gordons appear to have been from Galloway.
Alexander Breckenridge, a Scot, came to America about 1728, settling in Pennsylvania and later in Virginia. One of his sons, Robert, was an energetic Captain of Rangers during the Indian wars, and died before the close of the Revolutionary War. By his second wife, also of Scottish descent, he had several sons who achieved fame and success. One of these sons, John Breckenridge (1760-1808), became Attorney-General of Kentucky in 1795; served in the state legislature 1797-1800; drafted the famous Kentucky resolutions in 1798; was United States Senator from Kentucky (1801-05) and Attorney-General in Jefferson's Cabinet from 1805 till his death. Among the sons of John Breckenridge were Robert Jefferson Breckenridge (1800-71), clergyman and author, and Joseph Cabell Breckenridge. John Cabell Breckenridge, son of Joseph C. Breckenridge, was Vice-President of the United States (1857-61), candidate of the Southern Democrats for President in 1860, General in the Confederate Armies (1862-64), Confederate Secretary of War till 1865. Joseph Cabell Breckenridge (b. 1840), son of Robert J. Breckenridge, also served with distinction in the Civil War, and took an active part in the Santiago campaign during the Spanish-American War. Henry Breckenridge (b. 1886), son of Joseph C. Breckenridge, was Assistant Secretary of War, and served with the American Expeditionary Forces in the Argonne. William Campbell Preston Breckenridge (1837-1904), son of Robert J. Breckenridge, was Member of the Forty-ninth Congress.
The descendants of James McClellan, kin of the McClellans of Galloway, Scotland, who was appointed Constable at the town meeting held in Worcester in March, 1724, have written their name large in the medical and military annals of this country. Some of his descendants are noticed under Physicians. The most famous of the family was General George Brinton MacClellan (1826-85), Major-General in the United States Army during the Civil War, unsuccessful candidate of the Democratic Party for President in 1864, and Governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881. The General's son, George B. McClellan (b. 1865), was Mayor of New York (1903 and 1905) and is now a Professor in Princeton. James Bulloch, born in Scotland c. 1701, emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, c. 1728. In the following year he married Jean Stobo, daughter of the Rev. Archibald Stobo, and was the first ancestor of the late President Roosevelt's mother. His son, Archibald Bulloch (d. 1777), was Colonial Governor of Georgia and Commander of the State's forces in 1776-77, and signed the first Constitution of Georgia as President. He would have been one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence had not official duties called him, home. A descendant of his, James Dunwoody Bulloch, uncle of the late President Roosevelt, was Lieutenant in the Confederate Navy and Confederate States Naval Agent abroad. Irvine S. Bulloch, another uncle of Roosevelt's, was Sailing Master of the Alabama when in battle with the U.S.S. Kearsarge. Another of this family was William B. Bulloch (1776-1852), lawyer and State Senator of Georgia. The Chambers family of Trenton, New Jersey, are descended from two brothers, John and Robert Chambers, who came over in the ship Henry and Francis in 1685.
In the eighteenth century many natives of Dumfriesshire emigrated to the American colonies, and of these perhaps the most prominent were those descended from John Johnston of Stapleton, Dumfriesshire, an officer in a Scottish regiment in the French service. His second son, Gabriel, became Governor of North Carolina. In the house of the Governor's brother, Gilbert, it is stated that General Marion signed the commission for the celebrated band known as "Marion's Men." Among the more prominent descendants of Gilbert Johnston are: (1) James, who became a Colonel on the staff of General Rutherford during the Revolution and served in several engagements; (2) William, M.D., who married a daughter of General Peter Forney, and died in 1855. This William had five sons: (1) James, a Captain in the Confederate Army; (2) Robert, a Brigadier-General; (3) William, a Colonel; (4) Joseph Forney, born in 1843, Captain in the Confederate Army, Governor of Alabama from 1896 to 1900, and United States Senator for Alabama in 1907; (5) Bartlett, an officer in the Confederate Navy. Samuel Johnston, a nephew of Gilbert's, was the Naval Officer of North Carolina in 1775, Treasurer during the Revolution, and Governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789, President of the Convention that finally adopted the State Constitution, and first Senator elected by his state in the United States Congress in 1789. His son, James, was the largest planter in the United States on his death in 1865. Gilbert's brother Robert, was an attorney and civil engineer. His son, Peter, served as Lieutenant in the legion which Colonel Henry Lee recruited in Virginia, and after the war became Judge of the South-Western Circuit in Virginia, and Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. He married Mary Wood, a niece of Patrick Henry. Their eighth son, Joseph Eccleston Johnston, born in 1807, graduated from West Point in 1829, served in the Federal Army in all its campaigns, up to the time of the Civil War. Although holding the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and Quarter-Master-General, he resigned and joined the Confederate Army, and rendered brilliant service in its ranks. Another eminent individual of this name was General Albert Sydney Johnston, the son of a physician, John Johnston, the descendant of a Scottish family long settled in Connecticut. Christopher Johnston (1822-1891), a descendant of the Poldean branch of the Annandale Johnstons, was professor of surgery in the University of Maryland. His son, also named Christopher (d. 1914), graduated M.D., practised for eight years, studied ancient and modern languages, and eventually became Professor of Oriental History and Archaeology in Johns Hopkins University. He was one of the most distinguished Oriental scholars this country has produced.
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), one of the founders of the Republic, served with distinction in the Revolutionary War, but it was as a Statesman of the highest ability that he acquired his great fame. He was one of the most prominent Members of the Continental Congress (1782-83), of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and Secretary of the Treasury (1789-95). He was born in the West Indies, the son of a Scots father and a French mother.
Thomas Leiper (1745-1825), born in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, emigrated to Maryland in 1763, was one of the first to favor separation from the mother country, and raised a fund for open resistance to the Crown.
Robert Stuart (1785-1848), pioneer and fur-trader, born at Callander, Perthshire, a grandson of Rob Roy's bitterest enemy. In 1810, in company with his uncle, John Jacob Astor, and several others, he founded the fur-trading colony of Astoria. His share in this undertaking is fully described in Washington Irving's Astoria. In 1817 Stuart settled at Mackinac as agent of the American Fur Company, and also served as Commissioner for the Indian tribes. General George Bartram, of Scottish parentage, was one of the "Committee of Correspondence" appointed to take action on the "Chesapeake Affair" in 1807, when war with Britain seemed imminent, and was active in military affairs during the war of 1812. Allan Pinkerton (1819-84), born in the Gorbals, Glasgow, organized the United States Secret Service Division of the United States Army in 1861, discovered the plot to assassinate President Lincoln on his way to his inauguration in 1861, and also broke up the "Molly Maguires," etc. William Walker (1824-60), the filibuster, was born in Tennessee of Scots parentage.
Rev. George Keith, a native of Aberdeen, became Surveyor-General of New Jersey in 1684. He founded the town of Freehold and marked out the dividing line between East and West Jersey. In 1693 he issued the first printed protest against human slavery, "An Exhortation & Caution to Friends concerning Buying and Keeping of Negroes," New York, 1693. James Alexander (1690-1756), a Scot, was disbarred for attempting the defense of John Peter Zenger, the printer, in 1735. Along with Benjamin Franklin he was one of the founders of the American Philosophical Society. Andrew Hamilton (1676-1741), the most eminent lawyer of his time, Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, and chief Commissioner for building Independence Hall in Philadelphia, was born in Scotland. For his championship of the freedom of the press and his successful defense of Zenger he was hailed by Governor Morris as "the day-star of the Revolution." His son James Hamilton, was the first native-born Governor of Pennsylvania and Mayor of Philadelphia. James Breghin or Brechin, Missionary, born in Scotland, took a prominent part in the affairs of Virginia (1705-19) and was an active supporter of Commissary Blair. Charles Anderson, another Missionary, probably a graduate of Aberdeen, served in Virginia from 1700 to 1719, was also a supporter of Blair. James Graham, first Recorder of the city of New York (1683-1700) and Speaker of Assembly (1691-99) was born in Scotland. Thomas Gordon (d. Perth Amboy, 1722), born in Pitlochrie, was Attorney-General of the Eastern District (1698), Chief Secretary and Registrar in 1702, later Speaker of Assembly, and in 1709 Chief Justice and Receiver-General and Treasurer of the province. Alexander Skene, who previously held office in Barbadoes, settled in North Carolina about 1696. In 1717 he was Member of Council and Assistant to the Judge of Admiralty to try a number of pirates. In 1719 he was elected Member of the New House of Assembly and became leader of the movement for the Proprietary Government. He was "looked upon as a man that understood public affairs very well." Major Richard Stobo (1727-c. 1770), a native of Glasgow, served in the Canadian campaign against the French. It was he who guided the Fraser Highlanders up the Heights of Abraham. Archibald Kennedy (c. 1687-1763), a relative of the Earl of Cassilis, was Collector of Customs of the Port of New York and Member of the Provincial Council. In his letters to headquarters and in his reports he urged the importance of the American Colonies to the mother country and advocated measures which, if carried out, would undoubtedly have strengthened their loyalty and added to their wealth and prosperity. Alexander Barclay, grandson of the Apologist of the Quakers, was Comptroller of the Customs under the Crown in Philadelphia from 1762 till his death in 1771. William Ronald, a native of Scotland, was a delegate in the Virginia Convention of 1788. His brother, General Andrew Ronald, was one of the Counsel representing the British merchants in the so-called British Debts Case. William Houston, son of Sir Patrick Houston, was a Delegate to the Continental Congress (1784-87) and a Depute from Georgia to the Convention for revising the Federal Constitution. His portrait, as well as that of his brother's, was destroyed by fire during the Civil War. Sir William Dunbar (c. 1740-1810), a pioneer of Louisiana, held important trusts under the Federal government and was a correspondent of Thomas Jefferson. Rev. Henry Patillo (1736-1801), born in Scotland, advocated separation from the mother country on every possible occasion, and was a Member of the Provincial Council in 1775. John Dickinson (1732-1808), Member of the Continental Congress of 1765, of the Federal Convention of 1787, and President of Pennsylvania (1782-85), was also the founder of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Dickinsons came from Dundee in early colonial times. John Ross, purchasing agent for the Continental Army, was born in Tain, Ross-shire. He lost about one hundred thousand dollars by his services to his adopted country, but managed to avoid financial shipwreck. John Harvie, born at Gargunnock, died 1807, was Member of the Continental Congress (1777), signer of the Articles of Confederation the following year, and in 1788 was appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth. John McDonnell (1779-1846), born in Scotland, was in business in Detroit in 1812, and "thoroughly Americanized." He opposed the British commander's orders after the surrender of Hull, and redeemed many captives from the Indians. Became Member of State Constitutional Convention (1835), State Senator (1835-37), and Collector of the Port of Detroit (1839-41). John Johnstone Adair (b. 1807), graduate of Glasgow University, settled in Michigan, filled several important positions and became State Treasurer, State Senator, and Auditor General. Colonel James Burd (1726-93), born at Ormiston, Midlothian, took part with General Forbes in the expedition to redeem the failure of Braddock. General John Forbes (1710-59), born in Pittencrieff, Fifeshire, was founder of Pittsburgh. He was noted for his obstinacy and strength of character, and may have been the prototype of the Scotsman of the prayer: "Grant, O Lord, that the Scotchman may be right; for, if wrong, he is eternally wrong." Captain William Bean was the first white man to bring his family to Tennessee. His son, Russell Bean, was the first white child born in the state. His descendant, Dr. James Bean, died in a snowstorm on Mont Blanc while collecting specimens for the Smithsonian Institution.
George Rogers Clark (1752-1818), to whose prowess is due the possession of the territory Northwest of the Ohio, secured by the peace of 1783, was of Scottish descent. David Crockett (1786-1836), was most probably of the same origin, though vaguely said to be "son of an Irishman." The name is distinctly Scottish (Dumfriesshire). Samuel McDowell (1735-1817), took an active part in the movement leading to the War of Independence and was President of the first State Constitutional Convention of Kentucky (1792). Colonel James Innes, born in Canisbay, Caithness, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of all the forces in the expedition to the Ohio in 1754 by Governor Dinwiddie.
Isaac Magoon, a Scot, was the first settler of the town of Scotland (c. 1700), and gave it the name of his native country. Dr. John Stevenson, a Scot, pioneer merchant and developer of Baltimore, if not indeed its actual founder, was known as the "American Romulus." George Walker, a native of Clackmannanshire, pointed out the advantages of the present site of the Capital of the United States, and George Buchanan, another Scot, laid out Baltimore town in 1730. John Kinzie (1763-1828), the founder of Chicago, was born in Canada of Scottish parentage, the son of John MacKenzie. It is not known why he dropped the "Mac." Samuel Wilkeson (1781-1848), the man who developed Buffalo from a village to a city, was of Scottish descent. Alexander White (1814-72), born in Elgin, Scotland, was one of the earliest settlers of Chicago and did much to develop the city. Major Hugh McAlister, who served in the Revolutionary War, later founded the town of McAlisterville, Pennsylvania, was of Scots parentage. James Robertson (1742-1814), founder of Nashville, Tennessee, was of Scottish origin. His services are ranked next to Sevier's in the history of his adopted state. Walter Scott Gordon (1848-86), founder of Sheffield, Alabama, was the great-grandson of a Scot. The town of Paterson, in Putnam county, New York, was settled by Matthew Paterson, a Scottish stone-mason, in the middle of the eighteenth century, and was named after him. Lairdsville, in New York state, was named from Samuel Laird, son of a Scottish immigrant, in beginning of the eighteenth century. Paris Gibson (b. 1830), grandson of a Scot, founded and developed the town of Great Falls.
Of the colonial Governors sent from Britain to the American Colonies before the Revolution and of Provincial Governors from that time to 1789, a large number were of Scottish birth or descent. Among them may be mentioned the following:
NEW YORK. Robert Hunter, Governor (1710-19), previously Governor of Virginia, was a descendant of the Hunters of Hunterston, Ayrshire. He died Governor of Jamaica (1734). He was described as one of the ablest of the men sent over from Britain to fill public positions. William Burnet (1688-1729), Governor in 1720, was also Governor of Massachusetts (1720-1729). He was the eldest son of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Sarum. Smith, the historian of New York, calls him "a man of sense and polite breeding, a well bred scholar." John Montgomerie, Governor of New York and New Jersey (1728-31), was born in Scotland. John Hamilton, Governor (1736). Cadwallader Golden (1688-1776), Lieutenant-Governor (1761-1776), born in Duns, Berwickshire, was distinguished as physician, botanist, mathematician, and did much to develop the resources of the state. O'Callaghan in his "Documentary History of the State of New York," says: "Posterity will not fail to accord justice to the character and memory of a man to whom this country is most deeply indebted for much of its science and for many of its most important institutions, and of whom the State of New York may well be proud." John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, Governor (1770-71), afterwards Governor of Virginia. James Robertson (1710-1788), born in Fifeshire, was Governor in 1780. Andrew Elliot, born in Scotland in 1728, was Lieutenant-Governor and administered the royalist government from 1781 to November, 1783.
NEW JERSEY. Robert Barclay of the Quaker family of Barclay of Ury was appointed Governor of East New Jersey in 1682, but never visited his territory. Lord Neil Campbell, son of the ninth Earl of Argyll, was appointed Governor in 1687, but meddled little in the affairs of the colony. Andrew Hamilton (c. 1627-1703), his deputy, born in Edinburgh, on Lord Neil Campbell's departure, became Acting Governor. He was an active, energetic officer, who rendered good service to the state, and organized the first postal service in the colonies. John Hamilton, son of Andrew, was Acting Governor for a time and died at Perth Amboy in 1746. William Livingston (1723-90), the "Don Quixote of New Jersey," grandson of Robert Livingston of Ancrum, Scotland, founder of the Livingston family in America, so famous in the history of New York State, was Governor from 1776 to 1790. William Paterson (1745-1806), of Ulster Scot birth, studied at Princeton, admitted to the New Jersey bar in November, 1767, Attorney-General in 1776, first Senator from New Jersey to first Congress (1789), succeeded Livingston as Governor (1790-92), and in 1793 became Justice of the Supreme Court. The city of Paterson is named after him.
PENNSYLVANIA. Andrew Hamilton, Governor (1701-03), was previously Governor of East and West Jersey. Sir William Keith (1680-1751), born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Deputy Governor from 1717 to 1726. Patrick Gordon (1644-1736), Governor (1726-28). James Logan (1674-1751), born in County Armagh, son of Patrick Logan, of Scottish parentage, was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1731 to 1739, and President of the Council (1736-38). He bequeathed his library of over two thousand volumes to Philadelphia, and they now form the "Loganian Library" in the Philadelphia Public Library. James Hamilton (c. 1710-1783), son of Andrew Hamilton, champion of the liberty of the press, was elected Member of the Provincial Assembly when but twenty years of age, and was re-elected five times. He was Deputy Governor 1748-54 and 1759-63. Robert Hunter Morris, of the famous New Jersey family of that name, Deputy Governor (1745-56). Joseph Reed, of Ulster Scot descent, Governor (1778-81). John Dickinson was President from 1782 to 1785.
DELAWARE. Dr. John McKinly (1721-96), first Governor of the state (1777), was of Ulster Scot birth. (All the above Governors of Pennsylvania except Reed also held the governorship of Delaware along with that of Pennsylvania.)
VIRGINIA. Robert Hunter (1707). (See above under New York.) Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor (1710-22), a scion of the Spotswood of that Ilk. He was one of the ablest and most popular representatives of the crown authority in the Colonies and was the principal encourager of the growth of tobacco which laid the foundation of Virginia's wealth. Hugh Drysdale, Lieutenant-Governor (1722-26), was strongly opposed to the introduction of slavery into the colony. Commissary James Blair (1655-1743), President of Council (1740-41), was born in Scotland. Robert Dinwiddie, born in Glasgow in 1693, was Governor from 1751 to 1758. He recommended the annexation of the Ohio Valley and so secured that great territory to the United States. To him is also due the credit of calling George Washington to the service of his country. Dinwiddie county is named after him. John Campbell, Earl of Loudon (1705-82), Governor (1756-58), does not appear to have come to this colony. John Blair, Governor (1768), son of Dr. Archibald Blair and nephew of Rev. James Blair, the Commissary. Many of his descendants have distinguished themselves in the annals of Virginia. John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, Governor (1771-75), was previously Governor of New York. Patrick Henry (1736-99), Governor (1776-79, 1784-86), was born in Hanover County, Virginia, of Scottish parentage, his father being a native of Aberdeen, his grandmother a cousin of William Robertson the historian. He became a lawyer in 1760 and in 1763 found his opportunity, when having been employed to plead against an unpopular tax, his great eloquence seemed suddenly to develop itself. This defence placed him at once in the front rank of American orators, and in 1765 he entered the Virginia House of Burgesses, immediately thereafter becoming leader in Virginia of the political agitation which preceded the Declaration of Independence. On the passage of the Stamp Act his voice was the first that rose in a clear, bold call to resistance, and in May, 1773, he assisted in procuring the passage of the resolution establishing a Committee of Correspondence for intercourse with the other colonies. In the Continental Congress which met in Philadelphia in 1774 he delivered a fiery and eloquent speech worthy of so momentous a meeting. In 1776 he carried the vote of the Virginia Convention for independence. He was an able administrator, a wise and far-seeing legislator, but it is as an orator that he will forever live in American history. William Fleming (1729-95), surgeon, soldier, and statesman, Councillor and Acting-Governor (1781), was born in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire.
NORTH CAROLINA. William Drummond, Governor of "Albemarle County Colony" (i.e., North Carolina), was a native of Perthshire, a strenuous upholder of the rights of the people, and ranks as one of the earliest of American patriots. He took a prominent part in "Bacon's Rebellion" in 1676, "an insurrection that was brought about by the insolence and pig-headedness of Sir William Berkeley, then Governor of Virginia," and was executed the same year. Gabriel Johnston (1699-1752), Governor (1734-52), was born in Scotland, and held the Professorship of Oriental Languages in St. Andrews University before coming to the colonies. Johnston County is named after him. Matthew Rowan was President of Council and Acting Governor in 1753. Alexander Martin (1740-1807), was fourth and Acting Governor, 1782-84, and from 1789 to 1792. Samuel Johnston (1733-1816), sixth Governor (1788-89), four years Senator, and Justice of the Supreme Court from 1800-1803. Bancroft says the movement for freedom was assisted by "the calm wisdom of Samuel Johnston, a native of Dundee, in Scotland, a man revered for his integrity, thoroughly opposed to disorder and revolution, if revolution could be avoided without yielding to oppression."
SOUTH CAROLINA. Richard Kirk, Governor (1684). James Glen, born in Linlithgow in 1701, Governor (1743-56). Lord William Campbell, third brother of the fifth Duke of Argyll, Governor (1775). John Rutledge (1739-1800), brother of Edward Rutledge the Signer, was President of South Carolina (1776-78) and first Governor (1779-82). He was later a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1789-91), Chief Justice of South Carolina (1791-95), and in 1795 appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
GEORGIA. William Erwin or Ewen, born in England in 1775. John Houston, son of Sir Patrick Houston, one of the prime instigators and organizers of the Sons of Liberty (1774), was Governor in 1774-76, 1778. His portrait was destroyed by fire during the Civil War. Houston County was named in his honor. Edward Telfair, born in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in 1735 and died at Savannah in 1807. When the revolutionary troubles commenced he earnestly espoused the side of the colonies, and became known locally as an ardent advocate of liberty. He was regarded as the foremost citizen of his adopted state, and his death was deeply mourned throughout the state.
FLORIDA. George Johnstone, a member of the family of Johnstone of Westerhall, was nominal Governor of Florida when that colony was ceded by Spain to Great Britain in 1763. He was one of the Commissioners appointed by the British government to try and restore peace in America in 1778.
Presbyterians in the Colonies, being dissenters, were untrammeled and free to speak their mind in defence of their country's right, and history shows that they did not fail their opportunity: the doctrine of passive obedience never finding favor with them. In the Colonies the Presbyterian ministers claimed equal rights, religious freedom, and civil liberty. Their teaching had great influence, particularly in the South, and Patrick Henry of Virginia, David Caldwell, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, Rev. Alexander Craighead (d. 1766), and James Hall of North Carolina, the two Rutledges and Tennant of South Carolina, William Murdoch of Maryland, James Wilson and Thomas Craighead of Pennsylvania, Witherspoon of New Jersey, Read and McKean of Delaware, Livingston of New York, and Thornton of New Hampshire, with their associates had prepared the people for the coming conflict. In Maryland the lower house of the General Assembly was a fortress of popular rights and of civil liberty. Its resolutions and messages, beginning in 1733, and in an uninterrupted chain until 1755 continually declared "that it is the peculiar right of his Majesty's subjects not to be liable to any tax or other imposition but what is laid on them by laws to which they themselves are a party." These principles were reiterated and recorded upon the journals of every Assembly until 1771. The resolutions, addresses, and messages of the lower house during this period discuss with remarkable fullness and accuracy the fundamental principles of free government, and most of them emanated from William Murdoch, born in Scotland (c. 1720), who was one of the leading spirits and the directing force of the discussion. He led in the resistance to the Stamp Act and in other ways he united his colony in solid resistance to the attempt to levy taxes and imposts without their consent. In May, 1775, the General Synod of the Presbyterian Church met in Philadelphia and issued its famous "Pastoral Letter," which was sent broadcast throughout the Colonies, urging the people to adhere to the resolutions of Congress, and to make earnest prayer to God for guidance in all measures looking to the defense of the country. This powerful letter was also sent to the legislature in every colony. Adolphus in his "History of England from the Accession of George III. to the Conclusion of Peace in 1783," published in London in 1802, declared that the Synod and their circular was the chief cause which led the Colonies to determine on resistance. There is no question that from the Scots Presbyterians and their descendants came many of the leaders in the struggle for independence, as Bancroft has well pointed out in the following words: "The first voice publicly raised in America to dissolve all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, nor the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians." Joseph Galloway (1730-1803), the Loyalist, than whom, says Ford, "there could be no better informed witness," "held that the underlying cause of the American Revolution was the activity and influence of the Presbyterian interest," and further, that "it was the Presbyterians who supplied the Colonial resistance a lining without which it would have collapsed." And Joseph Reed of Philadelphia, himself an Episcopalian, said: "The part taken by the Presbyterians in the contest with the mother country was indeed, at the time, often made a ground of reproach, and the connection between their efforts for the security of religious liberty and opposition to the oppressive measures of Parliament, was then distinctly seen. A Presbyterian loyalist was a thing unheard of." Parker, the historian, quotes a writer who says: "When the sages of America came to settle the forms of our government, they did but copy into every constitution the simple elements of representative republicanism, as found in the Presbyterian system. It is a matter of history that cannot be denied, that Presbyterianism as found in the Bible and the standards of the several Presbyterian churches, gave character to our free institutions." Ranke, the German historian, declared that "Calvin was the founder of the American Government;" and Gulian C. Verplanck of New York, in a public address, traced the origin of our Declaration of Independence to the National Covenant of Scotland. Chief Justice Tilghman (1756-1827) stated that the framers of the Constitution of the United States were through the agency of Dr. Witherspoon much indebted to the standards of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in molding that instrument.
Of the fifty-six Signers of the Declaration of Independence, no less than nine can be claimed as directly or indirectly of Scottish origin. Edward Rutledge (1749-1800), the youngest Signer, was a son of Dr. John Rutledge who emigrated from Ulster to South Carolina in 1735. The Rutledges were a small Border clan in Roxburghshire. William Hooper (1742-1790), was the son of a Scottish minister, who was born near Kelso and died in Boston in 1767. Hooper early displayed marked literary ability and entered Harvard University when fifteen years of age. At twenty-six he was one of the leading lawyers of the colony of North Carolina. George Ross (1730-79), was also of Scottish parentage. His nephew's wife, Elizabeth (Griscom) Ross (1752-1832), better known as "Betsy Ross," was maker of the first national flag. Matthew Thornton (1714-1803), the distinguished New Hampshire statesman and physician, was brought to this country from the north of Ireland by his father when about three years of age. He accompanied the expedition against Louisburg in 1745, was President of the Provincial Convention in 1775 and Speaker in January, 1776. In September, 1776, he was elected to Congress, and in November following signed the Declaration of Independence, although he had not been one of the framers. Thomas McKean (1734-1817), was a great-grandson of William McKean of Argyllshire who moved to Ulster about the middle of the seventeenth century. He was a member of Congress from Delaware (1774-83), Chief Justice of Pennsylvania (1777-99), and Governor of the state from 1799 to 1808. George Taylor (1716-81), described as the son of a clergyman and "born in Ireland," was most probably an Ulster Scot. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania from 1764 to 1770 and again in 1775. James Wilson (1742-1798), whose fame was to become as wide and lasting as the nation, was born in St. Andrews, the old university city of Fifeshire. He was a Delegate to Congress from Pennsylvania in 1776, Member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 till his death. He strongly advocated independence as the only possible means of escape from the evils which had brought the various commonwealths into such a state of turmoil and dissatisfaction. Philip Livingston (1716-1778), grandson of Robert Livingston, the first of the American family of the name, was Member of Congress from New York in 1776. "His life was distinguished for inflexible rectitude and devotion to the interests of his country."
Last but greatest of all to be mentioned is the Rev. John Witherspoon (1722-94). Born in Yester, Scotland, educated in Edinburgh, minister in Paisley, he was called in 1768 to be President of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. He said he had "become an American the moment he landed." He took an active part in the public affairs of the colony of New Jersey, and in the convention which met to frame a constitution he displayed great knowledge of legal questions and urged the abolition of religious tests. In June, 1776, he was elected to the Continental Congress, and in the course of the debates he displayed little patience with those who urged half measures. When John Dickinson of Pennsylvania said the country was not ripe for independence, Witherspoon broke in upon the speaker exclaiming, "Not ripe, Sir! In my judgment we are not only ripe, but rotting. Almost every colony has dropped from its parent stem and your own province needs no more sunshine to mature it." He further declared that he would rather be hanged than desert his country's cause. One of his sons was killed at the battle of Germantown.
Of the twenty-nine Presidents of the United States five (Monroe, Grant, Hayes, Roosevelt, and Wilson) are of Scottish descent, and four (omitting Jackson who has been also claimed as Scottish by some writers) are of Ulster Scot descent, namely, Polk, Buchanan, Arthur, and McKinley. Jackson may possibly have been of Ulster Scot descent as his father belonged to Carrickfergus while his, mother's maiden name, Elizabeth Hutchins, or Hutchinson, is Scottish. She came of a family of linen weavers. Benjamin Harrison might also have been included as he had some Scottish (Gordon) blood. His wife, Caroline Scott Harrison, was of Scottish descent.
James Monroe, fifth President, was descended from Andrew Monroe, who emigrated from Scotland in the middle of the seventeenth century. President Grant was a descendant of Matthew Grant, who came from Scotland to Dorchester, Mass., in 1630. George Hayes, ancestor of Rutherford B. Hayes, nineteenth President, was a Scot who settled in Windsor prior to 1680. Theodore Roosevelt was Dutch on his father's side and Scottish on his mother's. His mother was descended from James Bulloch, born in Scotland about 1701, who emigrated to Charleston, c. 1728, and founded a family which became prominent in the annals of Georgia. Woodrow Wilson's paternal grandfather, James Wilson, came from county Down in 1807. His mother, Janet (or Jessie) Woodrow, was a daughter of Rev. Thomas Woodrow, a native of Paisley, Scotland. James Knox Polk, eleventh President, was a great-great-grandson of Robert Polk or Pollok, who came from Ayrshire through Ulster. Many kinsmen of President Polk have distinguished themselves in the annals of this country. James Buchanan, fifteenth President, was of Ulster Scot parentage. Chester Alan Arthur, twenty-first President, was the son of a Belfast minister of Scottish descent. William McKinley, twenty-fifth President, was descended from David McKinley, an Ulster Scot, born about 1730, and his wife, Rachel Stewart. The surname McKinley in Ireland occurs only in Ulster Scot territory.
Of the Vice-Presidents of the United States six at least were of Scottish or Ulster Scot descent.
John Caldwell Calhoun (1782-1850), of Scottish descent on both sides. Previous to becoming Vice-President he was Secretary of War in Monroe's cabinet, and later was Secretary of State in the cabinet of President Tyler. He was one of the chief instruments in securing the annexation of Texas. George Mifflin Dallas (1792-1864), son of Alexander James Dallas, Secretary of the Treasury, was Minister to Russia in 1837-39, and subsequent to his Vice-Presidency was Minister to Great Britain (1856-61). John Cabell Breckenridge (1821-75), of direct Scottish descent, was Vice-President from 1857-61, candidate for President in 1860, Major-General in the Confederate Army (1862-64), and Confederate Secretary of War (1864-65). Henry Wilson (1812-75), of Ulster Scot descent, had a distinguished career as United States Senator before his election to the Vice-Presidency (1873-75). His original name was Jeremiah Jones Colbraith (i.e., Galbraith). He was also a distinguished author, his most important work being the "History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America" (1872-75). Thomas Andrews Hendricks (1819-85), who held the Vice-Presidency only for a few months (March to November, 1885), was of Scottish descent on his mother's side. Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1835-1914) was Member of Congress from Illinois (1875-77), and First Assistant Postmaster-General (1885-89), previous to becoming Vice-President (1893-97).
WAR. William Harris Crawford (1772-1834), descended from David Crawford, who came from Scotland to Virginia, c. 1654. Secretary of War (1615-16), Secretary of the Treasury (1816-25), and save for an unfortunate attack of paralysis, would have been President in 1824. He was also United States Senator from Georgia (1807-13) and Minister to France (1813-15). John Bell (1797-1869), Secretary (1841), Senator (1847-59), and candidate of the Constitutional Union Party for President in 1860, was probably of Scottish descent. George Washington Crawford, Secretary of War, was also Governor of Georgia. Simon Cameron (1799-1889), of Scottish parentage or descent, Senator (1845-49), Secretary of War in cabinet of Lincoln (1861-62), United States Minister to Russia (1862-63), and again Senator (1866-77). James Donald Cameron (1833-1918), son of the preceding, was Secretary under Grant for a year and United States Senator from 1877 to 1897. Daniel Scott Lamont (1851-1905), journalist and Secretary under Cleveland, was of Ulster Scot origin.
TREASURY. George Washington Campbell (1768-1848), Secretary (1814), was also Minister to Russia (1810-20). Alexander James Dallas (1759-1817), Secretary (1814-16), was the son of a Scottish physician, Dr. Robert C. Dallas. During 1815-16 he also discharged the functions of Secretary of War. Had a distinguished career as a statesman. Louis McLane (1776-1857), son of Allen McLane, a Revolutionary soldier and Speaker of the Legislature of Delaware, had a distinguished career as Senator from Delaware (1827-29), Minister to Great Britain (1829-31), Secretary of the Treasury (1831-33), and Secretary of State (1833-34). His son, Robert Milligan McLane (1815-98), had a distinguished career as a diplomat. James Guthrie (1792-1869), Secretary in the cabinet of President Pierce (1853-57). Thomas Ewing (1789-1871), was United States Senator from Ohio (1831-37), Secretary of the Treasury (1841), Secretary of the Interior (1849-50). He traced his descent from Findlay Ewing, a native of Loch Lomond, who distinguished himself in the Revolution of 1688 under William of Orange. Hugh McCulloch (1808-95), descended from Hugh McCulloch, Bailie of Dornoch, Sutherlandshire, was Comptroller of the Currency (1863-65), Secretary of the Treasury (1865-69, 1884-85). He funded the National Debt during his first term as Secretary. Charles Foster (1825-1904), Governor of Ohio (1880-84), was Secretary of the Treasury from 1891 to 1893. Franklin MacVeagh (b. 1837), of Scottish ancestry, also held the office under President Taft.
INTERIOR. Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart (b. 1807), Secretary in President Fillmore's cabinet, was son of Archibald Stuart, a Scot who fought in Revolutionary War. Thomas Ewing is already referred to (under Treasury). Samuel Jordan Kirkwood, Secretary of the Interior under Garfield, was also three times Governor of Iowa.
NAVY. Benjamin Stoddert (1751-1813), Secretary (1798-1801), was grandson of a Scot. William Alexander Graham (1804-75), Secretary (1850), was also Governor of North Carolina. He projected the expedition to Japan under Commodore Perry. James Cochrane Dobbin (1814-57). Paul Morton (1857-1911), Secretary (1904-05), was said to be descended from Richard Morton, a blacksmith and ironmaster of Scottish birth, who came to America about the middle of the eighteenth century.
STATE. James Gillespie Blaine (1830-93), Secretary (1881, 1889-92) and unsuccessful candidate for President in 1884. John Hay (1838-1905), one of the ablest Secretaries of State (1898-1905) this country ever had, was also of Scottish descent. He also held several diplomatic posts in Europe (1865-70), culminating in Ambassador to Great Britain (1897-98).
AGRICULTURE. James Wilson (1835-1920), Secretary (1897-1913) under McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. He was Regent of Iowa State University, and in 1891 was elected to the chair of Practical Agriculture in the College of Agriculture and Director of the State Experiment Stations. He was wonderfully successful in the expansion and administration of the "most useful public department in the world."
LABOR. William Bauchop Wilson, born in Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland, in 1862, Secretary-Treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America (1900-09); Member of Congress (1907-13), and Chairman of the Committee on Labor in the sixty-second Congress, Secretary of Labor (1913).
POSTMASTER-GENERAL. The first postal service in the Colonies was organized by Andrew Hamilton, a native of Edinburgh, who obtained a patent for a postal scheme from the British Crown in 1694. A memorial stone on the southwest corner of the New York Post Office at Thirty-third Street commemorates the fact. John Maclean (1785-1861), Postmaster-General from 1823 to 1829, was later Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court of Ohio, and unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 1856 and again in 1860. He took part in the famous Dred Scott case, in which he dissented from Taney, maintaining that slavery had its origin merely in power and was against right. James Campbell (1812-93), of Ulster Scot parentage, Postmaster-General in the cabinet of President Pierce, made a record by reducing the rate of postage and introducing the registry system. Montgomery Blair (1813-83) was Postmaster-General in the cabinet of President Lincoln. Adlai Ewing Stevenson, Assistant Postmaster-General, later became Vice-President.
John Ewing Colhoun (1749-1802), Member of State Legislature of South Carolina and Senator from the same state (1801), was of the same family as John C. Calhoun. George Logan (1753-1821), a man of high scientific attainments, grandson of James Logan, Quaker Governor of Pennsylvania, went to France in 1798 with the design of averting war with that country, Senator from Pennsylvania (1801-07). John Rutherfurd (1760-1840) was grandson of Sir John Rutherfurd of Edgerston, Scotland. James Brown (1766-1835), Senator and Minister-Plenipotentiary to France, was of Scottish descent. Jacob Burnet (1770-1853), Jurist and Senator, was the grandson of a Scot. His father, William Burnet (1730-91), was a skilful physician and Member of Congress. John Leeds Kerr (1780-1844), lawyer and Senator, was the son of James Kerr of Monreith. Alexander Campbell (1779-1857), Senator, was of Argyllshire descent. Walter Lowrie (1784-1868), Senator (1819-35) and thereafter Secretary of the Senate for twelve years, was born in Edinburgh. His four sons all became prominent in law and theology. Simon Cameron (1799-1889), grandson of a Cameron who fought at Culloden. His ancestor emigrated to America soon after the '45 and fought tinder Wolfe against the French at Quebec. Simon Cameron was also for a time Secretary of War in Lincoln's Cabinet and Minister to Russia. He named his residence at Harrisburg "Lochiel." His brother James was Colonel of the New York Volunteers, the 79th Highlanders, in the Civil War. James Donald Cameron (b. 1833), son of Simon Cameron, was President of the Northern Central Railroad of Pennsylvania (1863-74), Secretary of War Under General Grant, and Senator from Pennsylvania. Charles E. Stuart (1810-87), Lawyer and Senator, was a descendant of Daniel Stuart who came to America before 1680. Stephen Arnold Douglas (1813-61), Senator and unsuccessful candidate of the Democratic party for the Presidency in 1860, was of Scottish origin. Joseph Ewing MacDonald (1819-91), who held a foremost place among constitutional lawyers and was Democratic candidate for Governor of Indiana in 1864, was of Scottish ancestry. Francis Montgomery Blair (1821-75), a descendant of Commissary Blair of Virginia, was Senator from Missouri (1871-73), and Democratic candidate for Vice-President in 1868. James Burnie Beck (1822-90), born in Dumfriesshire, was Member of Congress (1867-75) and Senator from 1876 to 1890. He served on many important committees. Joseph McIlvaine (1765-1826), United States Senator from 1823 to 1826, was grandson of a Scot. His father fought on the Colonial side in the Revolution. Randall Lee Gibson (1822-92), of Scottish ancestry, Major-General in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, was United States Senator from Louisiana from 1883 till his death. His grandfather, Randall Gibson, was one of the founders of Jefferson College, Mississippi. John Brown Gordon (1832-1904), Lieutenant-General in the Confederate Army, thirty-fifth Governor of Georgia and United States Senator, was grandson of a Scot. Marcus Alonzo Hanna (1837-1904) was also partly Scottish descent. Calvin Stewart Brice (1845-1898), Chairman of the Democratic Campaign Committee (1888) and Senator from Ohio (1891-97), claimed descent from Bruce of Kinnaird. Daniel Hugh McMillan (b. 1846), was much identified with the welfare of Buffalo. His grandfather was "John the Upright," arbiter of the Hollanders of the Mohawk Valley during the latter part of the eighteenth century. Alexander McDonald (d. 1903), Senator from Arkansas (1868-71), was the son of John McDonald who came to the United States in 1827, and was one of the first to discover and develop bituminous coal mines on the west branch of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. John Lendrum Mitchell (1842-1904), grandson of John Mitchell, farmer of Aberdeenshire, was State Senator of Wisconsin, Member of Congress from Wisconsin (1891-93), and Senator from the same state (1893-99), was also noted as a capitalist. Samuel James Renwick MacMillan (d. 1897), Chairman of the Committee of Commerce, was of Covenanting descent.
Only a very few names of Members of Congress of Scottish birth of descent can be dealt with here. Some additional names will be found in other sections of this work. William Houston (b. about 1755), son of Sir Patrick Houston, was a Member of the Continental Congress. John Morin Scott (1730-84), grandson of the second son of Sir John Scott of Ancrum was Brigadier-General of New York State troops at the Battle of Long Island and Member of Congress from 1779 to 1783. William Burnet (1730-91), of Scottish parentage, physician and Member of Congress. Among his sons the following are worthy of notice: Dr. William Burnet of New Jersey, Major Ichabod Burnet of Georgia, Jacob Burnet, pioneer of Ohio, and David G. Burnet, Provisional President of the Republic of Texas. William Crawford (1760-1823), Member of Congress from 1809 to 1817, was born in Paisley. William Fitzhugh Gordon (1787-1858), Member from Virginia (1829-35), of Scottish descent, is said to have been the originator of the Sub-Treasury system. The town of Gordonsville, Virginia, was named after him or after his family. Leonidas Felix Livingston (b. 1832), grandson of Adam Livingston from Scotland, who served in the Revolutionary War, was a Member of the Georgia Legislature and Member of Congress. John Louis Macdonald (b. 1838), newspaper editor, State Senator, etc., was born in Glasgow. James Buchanan (b. 1839) of Scottish descent, was Member from New Jersey to 49th, 50th, 51st and 52nd Congress. David Bremner Henderson (1840-1906), born at Old Deer, Aberdeenshire, served in the Civil War and lost a leg at Corinth, was Member from Iowa (1880-99), and Speaker of the House of Representatives (1899-1906). William Grant Laidlaw, born near Jedburgh, Scotland, in 1840, served in the Civil War and was Member of Congress from 1887 to 1891. John Edgar Reyburn (b. 1845), Member State Senate of Pennsylvania, Member of Congress 1890-1907; and James Fleming Stewart (1851-1904), were both of Scottish descent.
As with the medical and theological professions the legal has shared the dominating influence of Scotland, and indeed it is perhaps not too much to say that much of the distinctive character of American jurisprudence is due to the influence of men of Scottish blood at the bench and bar. The second Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (John Rutledge) and two of the four original Associate Justices, Blair and Wilson, were of Scottish origin. The mother of John Marshall, the great Chief Justice, was of Scottish origin (Keith). Of fifty judges of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 to 1882, at least fifteen were of Scottish birth or descent. We have space here to deal with only a selection of the most prominent names.
Andrew Kirkpatrick (1756-1831), Chief Justice of New Jersey for twenty-one years, whose "decisions especially those on realty matters, show a depth of research, a power of discrimination, and a justness of reasoning which entitle him to rank among the first American jurists," was of Scottish parentage, descended from the Kirkpatricks of Dumfriesshire. His son, also named Andrew, was President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Essex County (1885-96) and United States District Judge (1896-1904). George Robertson (1790-1874), Chief Justice of Kentucky (1829-43), "whose name stands first in the list of great men who have occupied and adorned the Appellate bench of Kentucky," and who declined the offer of the governorship of Arkansas, was of Scottish ancestry. Robert Cooper Grier (1794-1870), Associate Justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut (1846-70) was of same origin. Eugenius Aristides Nisbet (1803-71), descended from Murdoch Nisbet, a Lollard of Kyle, after a brilliant career in the state legislature became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Thomas Todd (1765-1826), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1807-26). The first Chief Justice of Delaware, William Killen (1722-1805), was born in the north of Ireland of Scottish parentage. John J. Milligan (1795-1875), grandson of a Scottish emigrant from Ayrshire, was Associate Justice of Delaware, and refused, on account of ill health, the portfolio of Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of President Fillimore. Ellis Lewis (1798-1871), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (1855-57) was of Scottish descent. Alexander Addison (1759-1807), born in Scotland, became President Judge of the fifth judicial district of Pennsylvania under the constitution of 1770. Robert Hunter Morris, Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania, was Chief Justice of New Jersey for twenty-one years. John McLean (1785-1861), Associate Justice, is noticed under Scots in the Presidential Cabinet; and William Paterson, Associate Justice (1793-1806), is mentioned under Colonial Governors. Samuel Nelson (1792-1873), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, was of Ulster Scot descent. "His decisions have stood the test of time and the searching analysis of the most able lawyers." Thomas Douglas (1790-1853), first Chief Justice of Florida, was of Scots ancestry. William Wallace Campbell (1806-81), great-grandson of an Ulster Scot, was distinguished as a jurist and as a historian of New York State. He was author of Annals of Tryon County (1831), Border Warfare of New York (1849), Life and Writings of De Witt Clinton (1849), etc. During a visit to Scotland in 1848 he was elected an honorary member of the Clan Campbell at a great gathering at Inveraray. Thomas Drummond (1809-90), grandson of a Scot from Falkirk, was Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court. John Archibald Campbell (1811-89), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1853-61), was Assistant Secretary of War in the Confederate Cabinet, and in 1865 took part in the "Hampton Roads Conference." John Wallace Houston (1841-95), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware, was of Scots descent. His ancestors first settled in New York city, and Houston Street is named after one of them. Other Associate Justices of Delaware of Scottish descent are Charles Mason Cullen (1829-1903), and George Gray (b. 1840), Attorney-General (1879-85), United States Senator, Member of the Russo-Japanese Peace Commission of 1898, and Member of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission of 1902. James Gilfillan (1829-94), born at Bannockburn, Stirlingshire, "a profound scholar, and as a jurist was distinguished for his ability, firmness, and absolute impartiality." William Joseph Robertson (1817-98), born in Virginia of Scottish parents, was Judge of the Supreme Court of Virginia and Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals (1859). Thomas Sloan Bell (1800-61), of Scottish parentage, became President Judge of the Judicial District of the counties of Wayne, Pike, Carbon, and Monroe, in Pennsylvania, in 1855, and held many other important positions. Samuel Dana Bell, son of Samuel Bell, Governor of New Hampshire, was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire (1859-64). Matthew Hall McAllister (1800-65), for several years Mayor of Savannah, Georgia, afterwards United States Circuit Judge of California, LL.D. of Columbia University, was of Scottish ancestry. Thomas Ewing (1829-96), son of Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury, at the age of twenty-nine was elected first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio. During the Civil War he took a conspicuous part and rose to the rank of General. William Harper (1790-1847), born in Antigua, Leeward Islands, of Scottish parents, was Chancellor of the University of South Carolina (1828-30, 1835-47) and Judge of the Court of Appeals of South Carolina (1830-35). John Bannister Gibson (1780-1853), Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, was of Ulster Scot descent. Harry Innes (1752-1816), of Scottish parentage, was one of the Commissioners appointed to draft a constitution for Kentucky, being chosen by Washington because of his integrity. He was also appointed first Chief Justice of Kentucky but declined the office. John Buchanan (1772-1844), of Scottish ancestry, was Chief Justice of Maryland, and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals for thirty-seven years. His brother, Thomas, was associated with him on the bench. David Torrance (1840-1906), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, was born in Edinburgh.