Scotland and America, C.1600-c.1800

91 Pages·2009·3.928 MB·English

by  Alexander Murdoch

Scotland and America,
C.1600-C.1800
Alexander Murdoch
The University of Edinburgh
aigrave
lacmiltan
Preface ix
Preface
an undergraduate degree programme in the subject. Although that
degree has now been withdrawn by the university, American Studies
still flourishes at Edinburgh as part of the teaching of degrees in History
and English Literature as well as through flourishing postgraduate
programmes in American History, Canadian Studies and Transatlantic
This book has many different origins, but chiefly it grew out of my
(literary) Studies.
attendance as a postgraduate student at the 'Scotland, Europe and the
Some of the students who took the Scotland and America course at
American Revolution' - Scottish Universities' American Bicentennial
Edinburgh have gone on to postgraduate study, including Sonia Baker,
Conference at the University of Edinburgh in June 1976 and, secondly,
John Beech and Matthew Dziennik, who graduated with degrees in
my offering two decades later an honours course at the University of
Scottish Historical Studies, Scottish Ethnology and Scottish Historical
Edinburgh following my appointment as a Lecturer in Scottish History
Studies, and History respectively. Other students I remember as making
under the title 'Scotland and America'. This in its initial incarnation
particularly constructive contributions to the course include Kirsteen
focused on the eighteenth century, but I later expanded its remit to
Foster, Kevin O'Donnell, Chris Peck and Chris Rae. Martin Casey
the extremely long eighteenth century of 1603-1917. I adopted the
distinguished himself by returning books when the next intake of the
latter date at the suggestion of Professor Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones in
course needed them most! During the academic year 2001/2002 I was
acknowledgement of the USA's late entry into the First World War, with
fortunate to be allowed to teach a more specialist version of part of
all that this subsequently entailed for the twentieth century. He would
the course under the title Scottish Settlement in the American South
no doubt be gratified to read the analysis of Kathleen Burk in her book
and gained much from the work of David Ellis, Caroline Parkes and
Old World, New World: The Story of Britain and America (2007) 'that there
Mark Mulhern, who explored the different perspectives they brought
was no decided change in the relationship until 1917, and that the
from American Studies and Scottish Historical Studies in a construct
usual date of 1914, in the context of Anglo-American relations, is not
ive manner that taught me much. Tom Devine, Professor of Scottish
a significant signpost' (411). Although this book has been written in
History, made a substantial contribution to the teaching of the course
a belief that the relationship of Scotland to America was significantly
during the academic year 2006/2007, and I hope in the future that it
different from that of Britain as a whole, there is no doubt that the First
will develop into more of a team-taught seminar drawing more widely
World War altered Scottish relations with America, and vice versa, in
on the expertise available at Edinburgh relevant to its subject.
1917 rather than 1914.
Someyears ago ProfessorSusanManningoftheUniversityof Edinburgh
I am responsible for all the shortcomings of this addition to an
invited Jenni Calder, then of the National Museums of Scotland, and I to
extremely varied literature on the subject, but I have many acknowl
join her in developing a proposal for the publication of a multi-authored,
edgements to make in relation to anything positive a reader might take
richly illustrated reference book on the interrelationship of Scotland and
from what is offered here. I owe a great debt to Dr Robert J Cain as
the Americas. Sadly, the publisher who initially encouraged this project
former Director of the Colonial Records of North Carolina project of the
had to withdraw from it, but I would like to acknowledge how valuable I
North Carolina Office of Archives and History, who employed me as the
found working with Susan Manning and Jenni Calder on this approach.
researcher for its Scottish Records Program (in the American spelling)
Of course Jenni Calder has since gone on to publish valuable books with
from 1986 to 1990. J am also grateful to all my former colleagues in
the Luath Press in Edinburgh under the titles Scots in Canada (2003)
the American Studies programme at what was then Nene College and
and Scots in the USA (2006), and Professor Manning has introduced the
is now the University of Northampton from 1991 to 1995 for sharing
Transatlantic Studies postgraduate programme at the university. Finally,
their robust views on just how we would define that enterprise, and to
1 must record further debts and appreciation to the following colleagues.
the support I received from colleagues with whom 1 taught British and
When I first thought of introducing a course under the title 'Scotland
European History there. On taking up my appointment at Edinburgh it
and America', Dr Ewen Cameron, as ever, made many valuable sugges
Was my pleasure to join the committees that at that time existed at the
tions. I've also received valuable assistance on many related matters
university to promote American Studies and who had just introduced
from Dr Bill Bell, Professor Colin Coates, Dr Alan F Day, Professor Harry
x Preface
Dickinson, Owen Dudley Edwards, Dr Marjory Harper, Professor Ged Introduction
Martin and Dr Nicholas Phillipson. It has been a pleasure in completing
this survey to draw on a series of remarkable research monographs that
have made an outstanding contribution to the subject recently. This is
a better book than it would have been previously because it has been
able to draw on the findings of Dr Douglas Hamilton (2005), the Rev.
Dr Iain Whyte (2006) and Dr Douglas Watt (2007). I owe a special debt
to Dr Eric Graham and Dr Whyte as honorary postdoctoral fellows in
Scottish History in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at
Edinburgh for their enthusiasm and assistance in helping to organize
the Scotland, Slavery and Abolition Conference held at New College
at the University of Edinburgh on 10 November 2007. Lastly, I must
record my thanks to the School of History, Classics and Archaeology for
granting me research leave for the academic year 2008/2009 to try to
Much of what has been written about Scotland's relations with America
bring this project to a conclusion, to Christina Hussell of Computing
has been concerned with uncritical ethnic chauvinism. Like many
Services at the university for support in meeting the publisher's require
other ethnic groups in America, Scottish-Americans claim a significant
ments for submission and to Sonya Barker of Palgrave Macmillan for her
importance for themselves in helping to make America, and Scots
patience as commissioning editor for the book.
naturally focus on this when thinking about their country's exchanges
with America, neglecting the very considerable impact of America in
making modern Scotland. This book is a survey of what we know about
this complex subject to date, excluding the entirely unexplored history
of cultural exchange between Scotland and America in the twentieth
century. Most work has been carried out on the eighteenth century,
when Scotland redefined itself as part of the European Enlightenment
and made an important contribution to the creation of modern Britain
and its empire. My own research has been focused on that period, and
the content of this book reflects that. By the end of that century the
United States had emerged as a modern republic, in European eyes the
first American nation, but this is not a book about Scotland and
the United States. It seeks to consider both countries in the broader
context of the Atlantic world that transformed modern history in the
eighteenth century and began the process of globalization that is such
an important part of modern world history.
Woodrow Wilson's statement, in an after-dinner speech to the New
England Society of the City of New York in 1900, that 'every line of
strength in the history of the world is a line colored by Scotch-Irish
blood' (often misquoted as 'Scottish blood'), sometimes has been cited
in support of the idea that Scotland made an exceptional contribution
to the creation of the United States.1 Although Wilson was a significant
American president who made a major impact on world history in
leading the United States into the First World War and the elaborate
2 Scotland and America, c. 1600-c. 1800
Introduction 3
peace negotiations that followed its conclusion, his claim about the growing US influence on Scottish and British public life as issues of
importance of 'Scotch-Irish blood' was meant as much of a joke as democratic reform, republicanism and federalism became increasingly
Voltaire's observation in the eighteenth century that 'today it is from Important; the balance in the cultural exchange between Scotland and
Scotland that we get rules of taste in all the arts, from epic poetry to America began to shift to the expanding and dynamic North American
gardening/2 Clearly Wilson's Presbyterian background was an important continent, including Canada. As the Scottish population stagnated,
part of his upbringing and personality as his education at Princeton that of North America continued to grow exponentially, and given
and later experience as president of that university. In his 'Scotch-Irish' Scotland's long links with America it should be no surprise that the
speech, he identified his Scottish predecessor as president of Princeton, effect on the country was as great as that in Ireland. This book repre
James McCosh, as well as the great Scottish Presbyterian leader of the sents an attempt to focus on the issue of the importance of adopting a
nineteenth century, Thomas Chalmers, as major figures in the tradition comparative approach to examination of Scottish exchange with
he claimed to represent. Later he would write to Andrew Carnegie (in America that does not privilege claims of national or ethnic superiority,
seeking funding for Princeton) that 'the Scots blood that is in me makes but instead employs them to explore complex issues of national devel
me wish to renew the traditions of John Witherspoon's day in the old opment and ethnic diversity in a transatlantic context. Unlike the Irish
place.'3 It is important to remember, however, that Wilson was not a or other European (or Asian, Caribbean or South American) immigrants
Scot like McCosh or Chalmers or Carnegie, let alone John Wither- to the United States in the nineteenth century, those who were 'British'
spoon. (including Wilson's 'Scotch-Irish') believed that they had a kind of prior
Ironically, Wilson when at Princeton reformed and modernized it by claim on America through ethnic connections with its traditional elite
leading it away from the Presbyterian seminarianism that had made it and the first European settlers there. It is now obvious how simplistic
'Scottish'. Wilson appealed to the legacy of Witherspoon and McCosh their views were, but it distinguished their experience of America, just
for Carnegie's cash, but he looked to the German universities, of the as it disguised the growing impact of America on Britain, Scotland and
nineteenth century as a model for the academic excellence to which Europe as a whole.6
he aspired for Princeton. It was they, and not Scottish universities,
Most of this book is about Scottish contact with America in the
whose specialist curricula had provided the model for his own post
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although it seeks to look forward
graduate education as a historian at Johns Hopkins University.4 In con
to significant cultural exchange between Scotland and America in the
trast, there clearly was a very material American influence on Scottish
nineteenth century that was built as much on the great moral issues of
education by the end of the nineteenth century in the form of Andrew
slavery, Protestant evangelicalism and education as it was on trade and
Carnegie's decision to establish the Carnegie Trust for the Universities
the export of Scottish population to the western hemisphere. By exam
of Scotland in 1901. Although his own formative education took place
ining emigration and trade separately from cultural exchange, the aim
in the United States rather than in Scotland, by establishing a Scottish
is to try to place the Scottish experience of transatlantic exchange in a
trust, Carnegie supported the idea of the national importance of the
broader European context. The conclusion is that if Scots, like many
Scottish educational system, although he was criticized at the time for
other European ethnic groups, made an important contribution to the
forcing change on the Scottish universities. By 1904 the Carnegie Trust
formation of modern American (meaning Caribbean as well as North
funded the studies of half of all students at Scottish universities, and
American) society, by the nineteenth century it was becoming increas
had become 'practically a ministry for Scottish universities', and in the
ingly obvious that American experience and examples were making a
process doubled their income.5
significant impact on Scotland, perhaps more so than in most of Europe
Carnegie's intervention in the Scottish education system illustrates other than Ireland. If this American influence did not consist only of
how relations between Scotland and America began to alter signifi 'American' influence from the United States, the US was not 'British' in
cantly after the end of the American Civil War. Although expansion of the sense that Canada and the Caribbean were, and this made it excep
the British Empire would have a significant impact on Scotland in the tional, certainly in its influence on Scotland. It abolished slavery later
second half of the nineteenth century, much of that empire was Amer than Britain, but unlike Britain fought a devastating Civil War that
ican, particularly Canada and the British Caribbean. Combined with became defined by the issue. It was a republic that created a national
tUHK.lBoo Introduction 5
lit Ion to constitutional as well as absolute colonial trade and its impact on Scottish modernization that was viewed
I OB egalitarian democracy (for men) in public as Scottish, and for a number of historians of Scotland, colonial trade
1th century in a manner that would provide an was responsible for only an insignificant part of the wealth generated
I model for political reform in Britain. All of these by the economic advances the country experienced in the eighteenth
States as worthy of the particular attention it and nineteenth centuries.8 That view has come under considerable
f Lift chapter of this book, and are worthy of exploration revision recently.9 This has not been the result of significant additional
1 depth In future research. research on Scotland's trade with America in the eighteenth century
book has been organized in two unequal parts. In Part I, but reflects new perspectives arising from the changing nature of
W Is provided with a survey of our current knowledge of Scot- Scottish society in the early twenty-first century as it has become more
i trade and settlement in America in the seventeenth and eighteenth diverse ethnically, more confident and less insular.
centuries, as both became focused on the western hemisphere rather There has been important new academic research that has increased
than Europe in a manner that laid the basis for the great expansion of awareness that however small Scotland's direct involvement in the slave
both in the nineteenth century. The two defining episodes in increas trade and the use of slavery in the British Empire had been, it is impor
ing Scottish contact with America were the contrasting failure of the tant to acknowledge that there were links between Scotland and this
Company of Scotland expeditions to Darien in Panama at the turn of painful legacy of imperialism. This is particularly important because
the eighteenth century and success of the Scottish merchants trading over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as Scotland
out of Glasgow in achieving dominance in the tobacco trade with became more integrated into Britain and the British Empire, Scottish
America in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. It is clear, national identity became mediated increasingly through culture rather
however, that the failure to establish an independent colony at Darien than politics or, indeed, economics. This was the legacy of the successful
was far from the end of Scottish trade in the Caribbean, which remained adoption of European Enlightenment culture in Scotland by the end of
a significant destination for Scottish merchants and emigrants into the the eighteenth century and formed the basis of the now largely forgotten
early nineteenth century. Equally the tobacco trade with the mainland self-styled 'democratic' public culture of nineteenth-century Scotland.10
American colonies of Virginia and Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay That is why in this study Chapter 3 on trade at the end of Part 1 con
was far from the only point of contact for Scottish merchants and cludes with discussion of Scottish involvement in the transatlantic slave
emigrants on the North American mainland in the seventeenth trade and with the system of employing enslaved labour to work the
and eighteenth centuries. This much broader contact between Scotland colonial plantations that produced the commodities that became such
and America in the eighteenth century in particular provided the basis a source of wealth for the Scottish mercantile community. Yet this
for the more complex issues of cultural exchange between Scotland and aspect of Scottish involvement with the great tragedy of transatlantic
America that are considered in Part II. slavery is only part of its history, as the Rev. Dr. lain Whyte has dem
onstrated.11 Thus in this book the initial chapter in Part II on cultural
The key subject that links emigration and trade with cultural exchange
exchange is focused on the impact of the fundamental issue of slavery
is slavery. It is only recently that this has become apparent to most
and freedom that dominated transatlantic history in the late eighteenth
scholars working on research that relates to Scottish contact with
and early nineteenth centuries. If Scotland became enmeshed in the
America. Of course, it has long been known that the major American
development of transatlantic chattel slavery in the seventeenth and
commodity trades in sugar and tobacco (and, later, cotton) all involved
eighteenth centuries, it also contributed to the movements to abolish
plantation production that depended on slave labour imported from
first the transatlantic slave trade, and then slavery itself in the British
Africa and later on their descendants born into hereditary bondage in
Empire. Although many of those involved in these campaigns may have
the Caribbean and the American South. Even at Darien in 1700, the
been disappointed in the manner in which slavery was 'abolished' in
colony's leaders requested shipments of African slaves to carry out
.heavy manual labour.7 Yet from a Scottish perspective, until recently the British Caribbean, the focus on slavery in the Americas inevitably
led to substantial Scottish interest in the subsequent campaign to
these were issues that were viewed as part of American and Caribbean
abolish slavery in the United States which caused the US Civil War.12
history rather than Scottish history. It was the wealth generated by
6 Scotland and A merka, c. 1600-c. 1800 Introduction 7
Recognition of the injustice of human slavery illustrated a relatively world missionary work that increased in importance in Scottish public
neglected aspect of the influence of Enlightenment culture on Scotland. culture over the course of the nineteenth century.14
It was also present in the history of Scottish awareness and concern If British North America and the British Caribbean were important
with the native peoples of America. The changing nature of this contact parts of Scottish cultural exchange with America in the eighteenth and
(remotely as well as directly) was founded on a different kind of trade nineteenth centuries after 1783, the influence of the United States grew
and a different moral issue than those involved in slavery, although of ever more important as its population and economy expanded to the
course in the seventeenth century, in particular, many 'Indians' were point that it attracted a substantial majority of Scottish emigrants. This
also enslaved. The trade was first in animal furs and skins in return for book concludes with a chapter that considers the argument that
gunpowder and alcohol, and later was in the land occupied by native Scotland exerted a disproportionately large influence on the formative
peoples who could no longer resist a growing settler population. years of the United States that made an enduring mark on its character.
European ideas about savagery and civilization changed over the course Similar suggestions have been made in regard to Canada. Both have
of the eighteenth century in a manner that increased willingness to some merit, but the conclusion of this study is that in both cases
acknowledge the virtues of 'savage' tribal societies previously dismissed emphasizing the contribution of one particular national, ethnic or
as such in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Did the changing tribal group in the development of a country does not tell us as much
nature of cultural relations between Gaelic-speaking Highlanders and as a more challenging but ultimately more rewarding comparative
Lowland Scotland during the early modern period give Scots distinctive approach. The creation of the Atlantic world and the expansion of its
insights into the cultural encounters they experienced with native networks played a crucial role in the creation of modern Scotland.
peoples in the Americas? It is clear that this was an aspect of Scottish Equally, to consider Scottish contact with America as too small in scale
contact with America that had an impact on the Highland Scottish to be of significance is to underestimate its impact. Scotland benefited
experience of modernization and change that occurred over the.course from a geographical position that was peripheral in European terms,
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.13 but placed it at the centre of the Atlantic networks that created the
modern world. This was something that would come to define the
In both the case of the issue of slavery in the British Empire and the
Scottish nation in modern times.
place of native peoples within it, one of the distinctive aspects of Scot
tish experience of contact with America was its national religious
culture and its identification with Presbyterianism. As Presbyterian
congregations grew and multiplied in North America, so they came to
exert an important influence in Scotland. The transatlantic Protestant
evangelical movement of the eighteenth century had a profound impact
on cultural and social change in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
Scotland. Not all Scots were Presbyterians, but equally Presbyterians in
Scotland had to acknowledge that many Presbyterians were not Scots.
They also had to recognize that they had more in common with many
fellow Protestants in America, even if they were not Presbyterians, than
they did with the established Church of Scotland that developed as the
British state church in Scotland during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. When Presbyterianism fragmented in the nineteenth century
under the impact of economic and social change in Scotland, American
influences on Scottish religious culture increased, drawing more and
more Scots into international and transatlantic networks of Protestant
evangelicals whose concerns came to have a significant impact on the
great moral issues of the abolition of slavery and the promotion of
Scotland and America in the
Seventeenth Century
Introduction
In 1622 Sir William Alexander received a charter from James VI of
Scotland to found a Scottish colony in the North American lands
lying between New England, where English settlement was in its
infancy, and the long established English fishing stations on the
island of Newfoundland.15 Later, in 1628, James's son Charles I granted
Alexander a second charter giving him (in theory) a claim to all the
lands between English and French territories in North America.16
Alexander was one of the many Scottish courtiers who followed James
to London when he became king of England in 1603. In the pamph
let promoting his projected colony, Alexander wrote that Scots would
never participate in overseas plantations unless, just as there was a
New England, a New France and a New Spain, 'they might likewise
have a New Scotland'.17 John Reid has remarked wisely upon 'the funda
mental emptiness of European pretensions to ownership of lands that
were already occupied by native people', but it is clear that Alexander
conceived of his colonial ambitions as offering a possible solution to
some of James VTs fundamental concerns about his oldest kingdom.
Scotland exported many of its young men as soldiers for the wars of
Europe, a growth industry during the wars of religion that prostrated
early modern Europe. Unlike England (but like Ireland), Scotland
had a surplus population that could be channelled into American
colonization. Unlike Ireland (but like England), most of that popula
tion was Protestant. Alexander's An Encouragement to Colonies addressed
this. Why should Scots 'betake themselves to the warres against the
Russians, Turks, or Swedens, as the Polonians were pleased to employ
them'? He also pointed out that 'the Lowe Countries have spent many
11
12 Scotland and A merica, c. 1600-c. 1800 Scotland and America in the Seventeenth Century 13
of our men, but have enriched few,' while 'the necessities of Ireland are Charles I did not share that vision, and the result was catastrophe
neere supplied, and that great current which did transport so many of across Britain and Ireland. By the time of Sir William Alexander's death
our people is worne drie'.18 Alexander was not correct about the future in 1640, civil war and anarchy had rolled across all three of the Stuart
of Scottish emigration patterns in the seventeenth century. Many more kingdoms. After the execution of Charles I, the legacy he left ensured
Scots were about to die in the Thirty Years War in Europe and many military conquest of both Scotland and Ireland by the English repub
more Scots would emigrate into Ireland than ever would travel further lican regime led by Oliver Cromwell. Scotland was defeated and occupied
westward before 1700. every bit as comprehensively as Ireland had been, but for Cromwell the
Alexander did, however, understand James VI's concern about the Presbyterian Scots of the covenants, although misguided, were still part
'civilitie' of Scotland. In his Basilikon Down, intended as a manual of the Godly Revolution to which he had devoted his life.22 The Irish, by
of kingship for his eldest son, James had argued that if the Scottish contrast were a threat and, along with Wales and the Scottish Highland
Crown could establish plantations in the Highlands and Islands of the clans, provided the basis for a possible Stuart counter-revolution that
country they would 'within a short time ... reform and civilise the had to be guarded against at all times. Catholic Gaelic-speaking pris
best inclined among them, rooting out or transporting the barbarous oners from Ireland sent to the West Indies became a threat to stability
and stubborn sort, and planting civility in their rooms'.19 If planta there, whereas the planters valued the Presbyterian Lowland Scots sent
tion in the Highlands failed to achieve this, then exportation of its to them after Cromwell's victories at Dunbar and Worcester.23
savage population to America in the seventeenth century would both We do not know much about it, but Scottish assimilation into the
promote British empire there and remove them from Scotland. As Cromwellian Protectorate after the comprehensive defeat of Scottish
Charles I put it in a letter to Alexander regarding his renewed efforts to armies at Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651) had repercussions that
establish New Scotland in 1629, colonists from the Scottish Highlands made it possible for Scotland to participate in the Atlantic economy
would assist in 'debordening that our kingdome of that race of people of the seventeenth century in a manner that had been closed to it
which in former times hade bred soe many trubles ther'.20 None of this during the reigns of the early Stuart monarchs of Britain. Although
came to pass. Alexander's scheme to sell baronetcies of Nova Scotia the Covenanting Presbyterian regime in Scotland had been defeated,
to aspiring gentry who wanted a title failed as a means of raising the the victorious English military regime recognized their previous role
finance for further colonization, and by the time of his death in 1640 in challenging and ultimately defeating the ambitions of the Stuart
Scotland had descended into the maelstrom of the British wars of the kings. In contrast to the situation in Ireland, Scotland was not forcibly
three kingdoms. Only the name of New Scotland survived, in its Latin integrated into the English Commonwealth, although the Scots involved
form, and was revived in the eighteenth century when what was by in the negotiations for union with the Commonwealth were hardly
then the French colony of Acadia became 'British'.21 In the eighteenth negotiating from a position of strength. The Cromwellian regime in
and nineteenth centuries large numbers of Scottish immigrants would Scotland was sympathetic to Scottish landowners who continued to
add a significant Scottish element to the population of Nova Scotia. seek means of economically developing the resources of the Highlands
Ironically, many of these immigrants came from the Scottish Highlands and Islands in Scotland, and sought to co-opt them to the regime.24
that Sir William Alexander had convinced Charles I (briefly) would be
An important aspect of this was that those few Scottish merchants
the ideal source of population for an American New Scotland. However,
able to trade at all after the devastation Scotland suffered were able
by 1632 plans to establish a new Scotland in the seventeenth century
to enjoy access to English markets in the Caribbean and North
had been abandoned in the interests of peace with the French, who
America. This was partly because some Scottish merchants were able
re-established their presence in the land they called Acadia. Nova
to continue to take advantage of existing connections with merchants
Scotia would not be established until the eighteenth century, but it did
in the Netherlands, sometimes trading under Dutch colours for pro
eventually become the kind of British colony James VI and William
tection. Indeed, the increase of registration of Glasgow-owned ships in
Alexander would have wanted. Scotland's empire would be created out
the 1650s documented in the Dumbarton shipping register may have
of the edifice of British unionism James VI did so much to create and
been because of the willingness of Glasgow merchants to register Dutch
promote as part of his reign in both England and Scotland.
vessels they had chartered as their own to evade disruptions to trade
14 Scotland and America, c,1600-c.l800 Scotland and America in the Seventeenth Century 15
during the Anglo-Dutch war of 1652-54.2S Although at other points Glasgow's ascendancy in Scottish trade, commenting that increasing
in the seventeenth century the English Navigation Acts were applied access to a British market allowed the town's merchants to consolidate
against Scottish merchants as well as the Dutch, the Act of the 1650s their existing trade and gain access to markets that previously had
did not affect the Scots, as they were now subjects of the expanded been 'completely outwith the horizons of normal Scottish trade'.
Cromwellian Commonwealth, Through this they entered 'the wider Atlantic, sending their ships to
There is little evidence that Scottish merchants were able to take the Spanish Atlantic Islands (the Canaries, the Azores and Madeira), to
much advantage of this opportunity. Thomas Tucker reported to the the English Caribbean (especially Nevis, Montserrat and Barbados) and
Commonwealth government in England in 1655 that trading voyages to the mainland plantations of North America (Carolina, Virginia and
from Scotland to the Caribbean had been discontinued because the Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts)'.31 Did they begin
returns had been poor.26 The only entry in the Dumbarton Register to do this because integration into the Cromwellian Commonwealth/
of Ship Entries that relates to tobacco refers to it as imported in a ship Protectorate had made possible what had been impossible under the
from Rotterdam. Another entry from the earlier year of 1648 records the early Stuarts?32 Did the Cromwellian period open up regional economic
importation of 20,000 pounds of tobacco in a Glasgow-owned vessel avenues for trade from Glasgow to Ireland and the west of England as
arriving from Martinique in the Caribbean.27 Scots sent as convict well as the north Atlantic through the west of Scotland to the rest of
labour to the West Indies after the defeats at Dunbar and Worcester the nation?
were sent in English ships. Although some prisoners had been sent to However it happened, it was a gradual process in which established
America after the Scottish defeat at the battle of Preston in 1648, The merchants were encouraged to try to enter the Atlantic trade, and
Proceedings of the Council of State rela ting to Scotland during the period of the received returns that were substantial enough for them to persist with
Commonwealth of 19 September 1650 'authorized the transportation of the experiment. After 1660 this brought them into conflict with the
900 Scots prisoners to Virginia and 150 to New England.'28 Some of these English Navigation Acts, but the lack of clarity in this legislation (and
men moved to other colonies when they completed their indentures. perhaps enough shared interest with fellow Protestant dissenters in
One later Scots immigrant to East Jersey in 1685 wrote back to Scotland England, Ireland and New England) enabled them to find niches where
that he had met a fellow 'countryman, who was sent away by Cromwell trade was possible. Smout wrote that 'at least after 1673 the traders that
to New England; a slave from Dunbar, living now in Woodbridge [East were principally a nuisance to the English in breaking the monopolies
Jersey] like a Scots laird, wishes his countrymen and his native soil well, conferred by the acts were the Scots - the Dutch hardly bothered to
though he never intends to see it.'29 David Dobson has argued that it try any longer'.33 Scottish merchants wealthy enough to trade over
was 'no coincidence that the Scots Charitable Society was established seas included Gavin Hamilton and William Walkinshaw in 1683, The
in Boston on 6 January 1657 "for the relief of Scotchmen" as this was former traded cloth from the south-west of Scotland via Bo'ness on the
around the time that many of the Dunbar and Worcester veterans Forth estuary to Rotterdam while the next year he was involved in ship
would have been ending their years of servitude'.30 Although other ping Virginia tobacco from New England to Port Glasgow. Walkinshaw,
Scottish prisoners taken at Dunbar and Worcester were offered to the meanwhile, had imported wine and salt from France and iron from
French and the Venetians for service in their armies against the Turks, it Sweden. The next year he imported tobacco from Boston and Liverpool
was those sent to the western hemisphere who would contribute to the (although there was no evidence of direct trade from Glasgow to the
process whereby more Scottish merchants after the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay) but also wine from Spain, wood from Norway and
Stuart monarchy (and a separate kingdom of Scotland) in 1660 looked more salt from France. In the following year he did much the same,
westward beyond Ireland for profitable trading under the impact of con except that there was much more iron brought from Sweden and the
tinued disruption of the longstanding Scottish trading links to France, tobacco came to the Clyde straight from Virginia.
the Netherlands and the ports of the Baltic Sea by chronic political
It may be that the Cromwellian occupation of Scotland had less to do
instability in Europe.
with more Scottish merchants entering the Atlantic trade than it did
TC Smout, in commenting on the expansion of Glasgow's trade in the with the determination of the restored Stuart regime from 1660 to erase
seventeenth century, identified the years after 1649 as the beginning of that experience, forget the Covenanting revolution that preceded it and
16 Scotland and America, c.l600~c.l800 Scotland and America in the Seventeenth Century 17
re-establish the Scottish kingdom of 1603-38, complete with absentee his return to England. Indeed, his younger daughter Anne's determin
monarch. No wonder that the Scottish poet and former courtier ation to achieve a successful parliamentary union between England and
Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty died of laughter on hearing the news of Scotland may well have been rooted in her experience of living with
the Restoration.34 'Disaggregation', to use an ugly modern term, allowed her father in Scotland at this time. James undermined his own position
the restored Stuart monarchy to govern Scotland (and Ireland) without by his assault on the political elite in Scotland after 1686 in pursuit of
reference to an English Parliament. This meant that the Scottish Privy an agenda that historians are still trying to define. It certainly included
Council under the Stuarts had no interest in enforcing the English toleration for Roman Catholicism, but did not directly involve the issue
Navigation Acts in Scotland. The Glaswegian merchant Walter Gibson, of overseas colonization.39
'who sailed his vessels disguised as English ships and imported Nevis One of James's initiatives while he was in Scotland, however, was to
sugar straight home to the refineries on the Clyde,' flourished despite explore the possibility of introducing mercantilist economic policies. To
the Navigation Acts.35 Scottish proposals that the Restoration English that end he convened a committee of trade to advise the Privy Council
Parliament grant trading privileges to Scotland 'ran up against English of Scotland 'anent the causes of the decay of trade and what they
fears about the competitive edge enjoyed by the Scottish carrying trade, should propose for the remied thereof'.40 Leading Scottish merchants
the close Scottish trading links with the Dutch and, above all, the were summoned to make recommendations to the Privy Council that
perceived Scottish threat to vested coal and salt interests in the north were recorded in a 'Memorial concerning the Scottish plantation to be
east of England'.36 When this idea was revived by London merchants erected in some place of America' submitted to the Privy Council in
seeking access to cheap Scottish coal and salt in 1674, the project failed 1681. This is a document which demonstrates considerable knowledge
again because 'the Scots opted for colonial expansion rather than closer about the western hemisphere, and acknowledged the influence of
ties to English domestic markets.37 'William Colquhoun, now resident in Glasgow, who hath been a planter
The arrival of James, Duke of York and Albany, in Scotland as King's amongst the Carribe Islands these 20 years and thereby hath acquired
Commissioner in 1679 encouraged those Scottish merchants and mem a considerable fortune that hee hath now settled here in this country'.
bers of the aristocracy and gentry who saw colonial trade as the panacea Colquhoun, it was claimed, was 'the onelie persone fitt for giving infor
for Scotland's economic difficulties to embark on serious planning to mation for further encouragement to the settleing of a colony'.41 All
encourage it. James had been posted to Scotland by his brother because of the possible sites for colonization identified in the memorial were
of opposition in the English Parliament to his status as heir to the in the Caribbean, although the fact that the 'Spanzieards' 'pretend to
throne in the so-called 'Exclusion' crisis, at a time when mercantilist the empire of the West Indies' was recognized in addition to their 'con
economics were rapidly reducing the options open to smaller European siderable garrisons there.' It was noted 'what inconveniences may be
kingdoms and trading centres seeking access to colonial trade. York, expected from so dangerous a neighbourhood/ which meant Spanish
or rather Albany, to give him his Scottish title, sought to use his pos opposition to Scottish incursions.42
ition in Scotland to demonstrate his ability to govern. His Scottish title The Scots' analysis of the English colony of Jamaica is quite strik
was used to name the frontier settlement established on the New York ing. It was the 'one Island possest be the Englishes but not on[e] six
frontier once he had assumed authority over that colony and what pairt peopled or inhabited: so its thought the English for their own
became East and West New Jersey following their conquest from the safetie would be content to allow a considerable pairt of that isleand
Dutch.38 The Scottish Duke of Albany's time in Scotland was a rela for a Scotts plantation which (its thought) might serve our design.' The
tively short period in what one might charitably term a varied car only other English plantation mentioned is 'Carolina', 'but the incon
eer. His role in Scottish public life was not always to be so positive, venience' of 'the native Indians' was highlighted as they were 'there
as he was the instigator of the ill-starred Scottish Jacobite movement very numerous'.43 Carolina and Florida were recommended particularly
that so blighted the history of early modern Scotland. Albany arrived because 'in effect, [it] is upon the mater presentlie possessed by savages
in Scotland as the natural leader of the Royalist interest and between and so primi occupantis, being juris nullius'.44 The establishment of 'a
1679 and 1682 he experienced some success in developing this position, collonie of Scottish subjects in any part of America', was declared to
and he continued to acknowledge his connection with Scotland after be an objective that, 'if efficient, would be a great ease to the countrey