History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 58

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Pennsylvania > York County > History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended > Part 58

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Henry Clark on 2-18-1758, acknow- ledged his great wrong in being overtook with strong drink, and got his gun to defend himself against the Indians, "whereof I am sorry and ask to be forgiven."

Abraham Noblet acknowledged his error in being married "by a priest to a woman not a member of the Society of Friends." He appeared at Warrington monthly meet- ing and made an apology, which by order of meeting was to be read publicly at the New- berry preparative meeting by Joseph Ben- nett, and Noblett reinstated in meeting, which was done.

Francis Fincher and William Bennett had to submit to a public censure in meeting " for drinking too freely and using bad words. Samuel Underwood and William Griffith were appointed to treat with them.

James McGrew in 1757 acknowledged his error "for taking too much drink while with others and singing improper songs."

John Powell asked permission of Warring- ton meeting to go to New Garden, Chester County, "to take a young woman for a wife" in 1749. Granted.

John Greist produced a certificate from Concord, Chester County, 1749, and located in Warrington.

John Willis became a member of Newberry meeting in 1756.

John Rankin 10-7-1771, bought a slave, which was contrary to the rules of Friends. Timothy Kirk, William Lewis, William Penrose and John Hancock, were appointed to treat with him, but their report was unfavorable, and he would not concede his error. John Rankin afterward became a colonel in the Third Battalion of York County Associators, during the Revolution, but in 1778 became a Tory. An attempt was made to capture him, but by aid of his slave Ralph, be escaped and went to Long Island. He afterward sent an order manu- mitting his slave. Col. Rankin and his brother. Col. William Rankin, were quite influential during the early part of the Revo- lutionary period.

Jedadiah Hussey who lived in Warrington about 1800, could lift a barrel full of cider to his mouth and drink out of it.

290

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

THE SCOTCH IRISH.

BY R. C. BAIR.

L ITTLE is generally known of the Scotch- Irish. They have left to history no in- scribed records. It is possible to know who they were, and measure the breadth and depth of their influence upon mankind. In- jected as they were by force among the sects and races, their short career of distinct- ive provincialism was full of momentous possibilities. The Scotch-Irish are longer an individual people; they are a lost and scattered clan. The world has ab- sorbed them; they are part of the leaven of its mighty development; of them it can truly be said: "The good men do lives after them, the eril is oft interred with their bones."

The investigation of unwritten history to the devout mind affords a solemn realization of its vast depth and grandeur, as well as its obscurity. The history of all ages and peo- ples is replete with mystery and sacred truth. Time has piled his monuments of wreck and ruin in every kingdom of the earth. Through these shall future genera- tions solve the past. Men delight to un- cover the secrets of vanished years. History re- views the Pantheon, repeoples the Coliseum, and digs again the catacombs. She towers above a fallen empire, and, trumpet-tongued, resounds the fame of Rome. England, Scot- land, Ireland, too, are rich in fame of legend and historic lore. It has been said: "Egypt, from whence came all the knowledge of the world." But truly, England, from whence came greatest influences-influences that shall endure to shape the future, the destiny of mankind, till latest posterity forget its Anglo-Saxon blood and tongue. The dev- otee, who begins the search after a buried past, has, it is true, bright hope to lead and glad success to urge him on, but he cannot feel else than inexpressibly sad that there are so few vestiges left behind, and that all of them are blood-stained. If it were possible for me to take you to the source, the fountain head of my subject, in the rugged mountains of Scotia, and come down the ribboned rivu- let to the wider stream of thought, then into the deep channel of events, and point out the clear cut verges of its devious course, finally bringing you to the open bay, where we now stand looking upon a bound-

less eternity of future action-it would be a sweet realization.

Come with me to Scotland, then a little while to Ireland, and we will come back to our own America indeed, to the very hills and fields that stretch round about us. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was the mother of James Darnley, who, when he was thirteen months old, became King James VI, of Scotland. He reigned thirty-four years. In 1603, upon the death of Queen Elizabeth, when he was thirty-six years of age, he be- came king of Great Britain and Ireland, with title James I., of England. While he was yet boy king of Scotland, that good old country was fearfully rent with disputes and war between the Catholics and Protestants. His mother, Mary, had been a violent Cath- olic, when she was driven from the throne, (abdicating in favor of her son). Protestant. ism, which had long been oppressed and ground down, rebounded with astounding vigor. These church wars left an indelible influence upon the times, out of which grew the events we propose to relate. James Darnley was the only surviving blood of the once famous Tudors -James, the great grandchild of Henry VIII. The years of his young manhood in Scotland were circum- spect and becoming a king. He was High Church Episcopal. He gave us the trans- lation of our Bible. In the frugal land of his birth, he was kind, earnest, thoughtful. But when he was called to the highest throne in Christendom, his head was turned. He became frivolous, self-indulgent, unblushing in shamelessness, and disgraced himself by the excesses of his passions. Being outwardly such a man, he was at once surrounded by sycophants and miserable "toadies," who applaud kings and strive to ingratiate royal confidence. But James was shrewd, and to all who sought to secure from him patronage or exclusive privilege, he became a startling surprise. He was called "the wisest fool that wears a crown in Europe." Taking the throne upon the death of that remarkable queen, Elizabeth, he found himself sur- rounded with the beginnings of mighty events, and borne upon by the responsibili- ties of growing Christianity and accumulating independence. It was written in his time:

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THE SCOTCH-IRISH.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." The kingdom which had been ruled 120 years from Henry VII. by a most illustri- ous family, had a high measure for excel- lence. So that when out of hardy Scotland came a young prince to govern "Great Eng- land," the smile of satisfaction or demonstra- tive joy cannot be said to have been uproar- ious. The kingdom was nervous and uneasy; religious discussion was fiery; strife inces- sant; conscience and thought stirred to unbounded activity and fervor. It is to be questioned if a country was ever thrown into greater disorder and religious uncertainty than England upon the accession of James. Great hopes had been raised; much was expected of him by all sects. Many were sure to be disappointed. He had called the Protestants the "sincerest kirk in the world;" he had censured the Catholicity of England as an "evil-said mass;" he had promised the abased Puritans "rest and favor;" he had said: "Scotchmen shall be of my table," and declared that "Ireland should render an ac- count." The hungry hounds of office bayed at his heels; Episcopacy looked up to him and held her hands for succor; all eyes were upon him, and all hearts beat with expectan- cy. Chagrin stifled the hopes of all. He was a great schemer. A thinker, he evolved many strange conceits and administrative policies. One of these whimsical hobbies we must observe, as it is the starting point in the succession of events we are about to follow. It was about the only one he had tenacity of purpose enough ever to carry out. That it had been long with him, even before he was able to practice it, his books give evidence. Between 1607 and 1608 James executed a pet idea of his life that changed the lives and fortunes of many thonsands, and destined a new branch of the human family to hold the plow instead, as had unnumbered generations of its forefathers, the sword; a branch whose sturdy worth and stout sectarianism has ever produced men loyal and brave for their country, devout and heroic in their church. Let me group four events. In 1607, when Capt. Champlain entered the gulf of St. Lawrence; when Henry Hudson pressed into the Polar Sea; when John Smith and Sir Christopher New- port sailed into Chesapeake Bay, James I, of England, resolved on an action that gave to civilization and God the Scotch-Irish.

You will remember that between Scotland and England lies a wild and extensive tract of land, one-half heath, one-half upland, in old times called the "Borders." The clans who had ever dwelt there were composed of

splendid specimens of hardihood and valor, - men whose determined purpose and strength were as astonishing as their feats of daring. Accustomed, as they were, to wage almost in- cessant warfare upon each other (those on the north against those on the south), they were all great muscular men and of towering height. It is not to be supposed these Scotch and English bordermen were different in their characteristics, or that one was less brutal than the other. It is impossible for two nationalities to dwell side by side, whether at peace or war, without growing like each other in instincts and habits. So that while the rugged Englishman might find some royal veins beneath his garter and the brawny Scotchman trace far back his High- land ancestral blood, yet in their dress, their gait, their accent and manners, it would have been difficult to tell the giant with the broadsword from the every-inch-a-chief who swung the claymore. When the glens of Scotland would rush down like a torrent upon the English lowlands, or like a mad whirl- wind the lowlands sweep into the Scottish hills, then would the "debatable border land " resound with clash and crash of terri- ble foes. To this day the headless skeleton of many a Johnstone, mingled with the skulls and bones of Graham and Armstrong, is exhumed from the sandy plain 'twixt the rivers Esk and Sark. On the very night Elizabeth died, the Clan Graham, thinking now a Scotchman would] be king --- imagining the rich plunder they could seize-made a fierce incursion into England toward Perth, ravaging and destroying in avarice as well as hate. In this they were anticipated by their old enemies who, strengthened by a strong force of soldiers, met and horribly repulsed them. Cut to pieces they staggered and fell. The old clan of Graham, which had fought many a cruel combat and carried many a trunkless trophy on their spears, had rained their last blows of death upon the kith and kin of the Briton. James (now four years king), long aware of the tumultuous war- ring of these unconquerable clans, discern- ing that they would yet keep the north of his kingdom in even greater uproar than in times past, at last saw his opportunity to silence them forever. He knew the Grahams were helpless. He also knew the remarkable re- cuperative power of such men. Broken and defeated as the Grahams were, he caused them to confess to this singular indictment: "that they were unfit persons to dwell in the country which they inhabited," and asked them to pray him to remove them "else- where where his paternal goodness should

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

assign them subsistence." The whole clan, consisting of many families (a few individu- als excepted), were thus deprived of their homes and lands and at once transported out of the country. Walter Scott says: "There is a list somewhere in existence, which shows the names of every one of these people, and the rate at which the county of Cumberland was taxed for their exportation." He further remarks: "The poor Borderers were driven away in herds like so many bullocks." Scotch-Irishmen, behold your ancestors!

In the early spring of 1608 (the same year of the Graham's removal), the native chieftains of Ireland at the north broke into rebellion against the power of the king. They arose in a most cruel and bloody out- burst. Their subsequent conquest, and ban- ishment restored a vast territory of hill country to the crown. Five hundred thou- sand acres were thus subjected and seized as property of England. The wild Irish were driven into the waste places among the bogs and fens, and their old province of Ulster was left empty and deserted. This was the condition in Ireland at the time the downcast Grahams prayed to be "taken away else- where." In the fulfillment of his majestic laws. God always supplies materials, when He is ready to accomplish great designs. Numerous Scotchmen to be provided homes and a land to dwell in-Ulster, Ireland, 500,000 acres vacaut! That think ye? Here was the opportunity of he king. If he was frivolous, if he was imorous, if he was shameless in the imme iesty he indulged, he performed his part in the labor set aside ex- clusively for kings. f he was impractical and ideal. God gave h n wherewith to perfect the experiment of h , dream. Born, as he was, to live in an age when the culminating changes of a benight d world began to make history fast and hurry on the times, big with astounding possibilities; born to be the liok in events welding the old past and joining the new future; born to be the link, the life, that would come between the license of the Tudors and merge the lax morality of the Stuarts-he was in the hand of Deity. Few kings have lived; amid such remarkable changes-ascending the throne when the cycles of time were closing an epoch; ruling when men, like an ocean, were restless, swelling with the impulses of mighty convic- tions; ruling when old forms of thought and feeling were breaking up and being dissolved; ruling when the boundless realm of truth was a wild chaos of detached doctrines, theories and beliefs; swaying the sceptre and attempt- ing to shape policies, when the immutable

forces of Omnipotent law were crystallizing marvelous achievements.

Doubtless he little knew that his life stood in the shadow edge of the dark ages. or that through the years was dawning the light of a new era. He did not see the activity of time, as it began to lead out of the future strange events. How could he? This James, pronounced "incomparable for learn- ing among kings," but whose insincerity hid from him plain truths. How could he see wonderful results growing out of his shrewd schemes and calculations, when he put the Grahams into Ireland ? He did not. The Puritan had gone to Germany. What of it? He declared " We are glad to be rid of them on any terms." No, he could not see what his action would evolve. In filling Ulster Province with Scotch, one thing he did intend to accomplish. England had always been entered in time of war by way of Ireland; Ireland herself has never failed to aid a foreign foe in his attempts to despoil the British Isles. James knew and every other man knew the Celt of Erin ever ready to stab old England in the back. To over- come this constant menace, he put the loyal Scotchmen there to watch treason. The Irish were lazy; the Scotch would stimulate industry and thrift. . In order that the few loyal Irish might be appeased and now more heartily support the king, he gave them the level parts of Ulster most easily tilled, they being indolent. To the Scotch he gave the hilly northern part. It was rugged and wild. They made them homes, however, and were comfortable. Peculiar privileges were granted. Free schools were erected. A university was endowed. Linen was their chief industry. Flax culture their reliance. In distinction to other Scots they were called "Irish Scots." After a long residence in Ireland they came to be called Scotch- Irish. The wild Irish, whom they dislodged and upon whose tracts they dwelt, frequently assailed them. Their old skill in such affrays would quickly nerve their arms, and the Irish always got the worst of it. The prosperity of these old clan warriors was marked. Their fields were amply tended and their towns hummed with busy spindles.

March 27, 1625-King James is dead. A new chain of circumstances begins. From 1641 to 1649 Ireland is rent from one end to the other. The heavy tread of Oliver Crom- well's mailed soldiers is heard by the Scotch- Irish. They had stood loyal to the crown of Charles. After the king was beheaded, Cromwell went among them to subdue them and confiscate their lands. He drove them out

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THE SCOTCH-IRISH.

on the rocky west coast of Connaught, where they lived eleven years, enduring most abject wretchedness. When Charles II. came to the throne upon the "Restoration," he called the Scotch-Irish back to the estates his uncle James had given them. A formid- able difficulty confronted them. Many false claimants had come over from Scotland dur- ing their absence, and now presented them- selves as entitled to the lands upon which they had settled. A compromise was made and the property redistributed. After the "divide," those who formerly owned one hundred acres owned less than twelve. The population had largely increased. Poverty began to spread among them. Three seasons had failed to bring them crops; the famine of 1725 stared thousands in the face. The Scotch exiles had lived 119 years in their Irish country happily, and now there was no work. Mills were closed. The distress among the laboring class was terrible; grow- ing poorer and poorer; food grew dearer and dearer, and gaunt starvation came upon them.

The Duke of Ulster saw a new disaster spring up. In haste he wrote thus to London: "American agents are seducing the people with prospects of better homes across the Atlantic. They have been able to excite them the more by reason of their dire extremities. The preceding summer 3,100 left for America and now seven ships are lying at Belfast, which will carry 1,000 more to Boston and Philadel- phia. The worst of it all is, it only affects the Scotch- Irish Protestants " Thus he wrote, and he wrote the truth. The God-fearing people who had dwelt (if not always at peace) for four generations contented and happy, were now miserable and almost broken- hearted. The old grandfathers of the home- stead long ago were laid under the sod; their sons and their sons' sons were aged and infirm, and now in their homes was unutterable distress. Mothers and fathers besought alike the young men and women, praying "Haste away to the new continent; we have but a little while here to stay ; go then, dear ones, that we may see you go." Thus parental solicitude urged them. Stern necessity drove them with remorseless lash. Hope had gone ont of them, and, flying to the free land of America, it beckoned them there and held out its arms in welcome. The will of a wise Creator in the great plan of glorifying Him- self through the spread of manhood and liberty in the world was working in strange ways toward accomplishment.

Thus he was employing poverty and wretch- edness to go into a far country and plant a vigorous church. The wants of their lives, the claims of the future and posterity, oper- ating upon them, forced them to the last resort of the helpless : to leave country and kindred and seek abode among strangers. As the Grahams 119 years before had prayed of James, so they prayed now : "Lord, take us away where thy paternal goodness shall assign us subsistence." They, poor, halting souls, were encouraged on every hand. He who has to go away leaving feeble parents in tears behind, knows why they halted. But the old people (though it was like tearing the heart from its net of nerves) said, "Go." These were the words of advice in the homes and pulpits. " Well, children, you are gang- in' awa'. Your fathers left bonnie Scot- land and the auld kirk and kin and came here to fight the wild Irish and plant religion and have homelands of their own, and they got them. Go : with your strong arms and stout hearts you will yet secure even greater blessings than they. Had it not been for their loyalty to their king (which is no sin to be repented of), their children, you, would have possessed them still. In your ways you seem to be gangin' the auld gait they trav- eled before ye : it is a joy in our cup of sor- row. Make up your mind for hardships and fear God. Sure it is, the savages we hear so much about can be no worse than the wild Irish by whom so many of us were murdered. In your grief be of good cheer. Take with ye the Good Book and always look to Him out of whom comes every perfect love and hope, and without whose blessing nothing prospers. Good bye, God be with ye ; the seed of the righteous will never be forsaken." Sad parting. Once again the children of the Grahams and Armstrongs, the McCraes, the Maxwells and McDonalds (as their fathers from Scotland a century before), were com- pelled to leave the island of their birth and set out upon a new career toward a strange land. Bidding the old and feeble, whom they could not take with them, farewell for- ever, they turned their backs upon the past, and with gloomy hearts leaving the green gardens and flowers behind, they went down from their native hills to the sea to return no more save in tender memories.

Almighty Providence is sending them away to be materials in the wise economy of the world for building -commonwealth and great nationality. We will not make the slow and tedious journey with them on the perilous oceancrowded as they were to suffo- cation in leaky ships and beating about from

"God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform."

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

September to November. We will go to America, while they make the lonely voyage hither, that we may see the country they are sailing toward and be there when they come.

The country to which they were going had waited long for such as they- poor and lowly of men. It raised its bold ontlines from what was then the farthest verge of ocean. Rugged and forbidding, the high coast ranges of the continent loomed against the horizon and from seaward descried distant approach. The tips of these Appalachian ridges in that remote and indistinguishable period, when the waters shrunk lower and lower into the hollow of the sea, were first to expose themselves above the surf to the power of light and moisture. Down, down, age by age, to the base the waters fell, and next came forth the foot hills : lands like our York County hills. Ten thousand times unnum- bered years sent down their beating rains on these. And in that age none can contemplate, when the last departing wave was taken to the dark Atlantic's restless bosom, there stood forth, tier upon tier, a chain of mountains ; a bench of broad plateaus; and nestled beneath, lovely valleys, leading toward the rivers and the sea. The rigors of time had scoured the bald old mountains, the remorseless elements had washed virtue and fertility from the bench lands and the young valleys had gathered to themselves the riches and soil of the depleted hills. Geologically this was the condition of America and Pennsylvania at the time of its settlement. Whoever came first should select its charms and secure infinite advantage. In 1680, the Quakers and Swedes made exclusive colonies along our rivers, erecting towns.

In 1710, the Germans appropriated the rich alluvial vales in the limestone country. The Scotch-Irish, coming last, would find the available valuable land already pre-empted and dwelt upon, and nothing but the bench lands-the older and poorer-unoccupied. They did not know this, nor did it matter to them. They were too poor to find fault or grumble at fate. Be this as it may be, is it not remarkable when we observe the facts that the very kind of country the early set- tlers rejected was the heart's desire and would have been the first choice of our wanderers? Pennsylvania through Penn's agents had sent them greeting and kind invitation to the province. Indeed, Penn himself had been among them in 1677, and a few had come over about 1711. Brotherly love and friends are what they sought. West from the Dela- ware and Susquehanna was a land in which they would find the object of their search.

But three counties, Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks, comprised this vast region in 1727. The settlers who had already made them homes here were a gentle folk, Germans and Quakers, with Irish and Scotch. The poor, down-trodden Scotch-Irish could come among such and find hospitality and friends. In November, 1727, toward the capes of Henlo- pen and May, that bring the tides of ocean lapping the shores of Pennsylvania, were pointing the bows of our emigrant ships. Those who entered the Delaware landed at New Castle and Philadelphia. Those who would have gone into Boston were refused; "No Irish emigrants or ships," were the words hurled at the homeless strangers by the authorities. Turning out of the harbor in their ship, the "Eagle," they went northward to Maine. The country along the York and Penobscot, Rivers became their abiding place. Where the towns of Saco and Gor- ham stand they began their settlements in dense pine forests. From these sprung that vigorous New England manhood not already claimed by the Puritans. It is desired more particularly to notice those who came to Pennsylvania. They were kindly received by the Swedes and Quakers. They were eager for acquiring location ou lands. They went at once into the woods and settled on what are now described as Londonderry, Oxford, Highland and Wallace Townships in Chester County. The more enthusiastic and energetic pressed close up toward the foot hills of the mountains and occupied territory which Irish before them had called Donegal. Where- ever they settled in fertile valleys, they dwelt but a little while. In no single instance were they not pressed npon and superseded by the Germans. Later another part, mi- grating from the older settlements in Chester Conuty, came to the southern section of what is now Lancaster County. Colerain and Drumore will ever maintain their names as a testimony to their Scotch-Irish ancestry. What are now Northampton, Lehigh, Leba- non and Northumberland Counties were first settled by the Scotch-Irish. In brief, these were the first Scotch-Irish settlements in America. It cannot be said no Scotch-Irish were here before, -a scattered few had come (1711 to 1714), but there was no distinctive immigration prior to 1727. After this time they began to pour into Pennsylvania and locate from what is now Snyder County to Maryland, along the west bank of the Sns- quehanna River.

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History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 58

Author: Gibson, John, Editor Publication date: 1886 Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104