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.
SOME PROMINENT SCOTS AND SCOTS FAMILIES
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.