So Who Were These "Scot-Irish"?

The term Scot-Irish (often mispronounced Scotch-Irish, any Scot will quickly correct you as Scotch is something you drink, while the Scots are a peope from Scotland) was never used by the Scot-Irish themselves. Often born and raised in Ireland and a generation or two from Scotland, the Scot-Irish merely referred to themselves as Irish. The term Scot-Irish was not used by those arrivals in the late 1600's and early 1700's from Ulster until the unpopularity arose from the arrivals of those from Ireland during the potato famine in the 1800's.

The Scot-Irish were those Scots who moved to Northern Ireland and settled Ulster at the invitation of James I of Scotland in the late 1600's. High rents and a desire to better their lives and the lives of their families led the Scots to move to Ulster. Strong Calvinistic Presbyterians, the Scots brought their Protestant religion with them to the lands which had virutally been cleared of the native Irish peoples. The English were happy to allow the Scots to fight the remaining Catholic Irish in the region for them. This practice of using the Scots to fight England's frontier battles would continue as the Scots would later pour into the American colonies, living on lands given to them which marked the border between Indian lands and the civility of the English colonies on the coast.

Many of our ancestors made their way to America from Scotland, some stopping in Ireland for a generation or two.

Our Scot ancestors include:

Robert Irvine and Margaret Wiley; William Irvine; McAdams; McCorkle; Andrew Monroe; Elizabeth Alexander; James Kerr; McCorkle; Robert A. Abernathy and Sarah Cubisha; John Cubisha and Jane Bell; Matthew Stewart; Thomas McGeehee (Macgregor)

Our Scot-Irish Ancestors include:

Ann Craig; John Thompson and Esther Hale; James Thompson and Ruth Alexander; John Alexander; James and Sarah Holmes; John McNitt and Elizabeth Wallace; Matthew Wallace and Elizabeth Alexander; Mary Maxwell; John McNitt and Jane Alexander; James McCall and Janet Harris; James Harris (Herries)