20 Things You Didn't Know About Ulster-Scots
Below
are a list of twenty things you probably didn't know about
Ulster-Scots. Click on any of the titles to read the full facts!
The Great Seal of America
Did you know that the first Great Seal
of America was designed by and Ulster-Scot? Charles Thomson, from
Maghera, Co. Londonderry, wsa Secretary of the American Continental
Congres between 1744 and 1789. He was also dispatched by the
Continental Congress to inform George Washington that he was to be the
first American president!
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The Eagle Wing
Did you know that the start of emigration from Ireland was in 1636 when the Eagle Wing
boat left Groomsport for America with a party of Ulster-Scot
Presbyterians...but after several weeks at sea bad weather forced it to
return!
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Signatories of the American Declaration of Independence
Did you know that eight of the 56 signatories of the American Declaration of Independence
on July 4, 1776 were of Ulster-Scots Presbyterian stock. They
were John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress who had family
ties in Co.Down; William Whipple, whose parents arrived in Maine from
the North of Ireland in 1730; Robert Paine, his grandfather came from
Dungannon; Thomas McKean (his father came from Ballymoney); Thomas
Nelson, his grandfather came from Strabane; Matthew Thornton from
Londonderry, he settled in New Hampshire in 1718; and George Taylor,
son of an Ulster Presbyterian minister and Edward Rutledge, also a son
of an Ulster Presbyterian family.
Special mention must be made of John Dunlap, who moved to America
from a printing firm in Strabane and had the honour of printing the
first copies of the Declaration. And Colonel John Nixon, whose
parents were Ulster-born, delivered the first public reading of the
document in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776.
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Belfast Speech
Did you know that in Belfast speech
today there are probably over 200 Ulster-Scots words in common use
which people think are in English? - words such as: thole, thrawn,
crib, scallion, farl, lug, oxter etc.
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American Presidents
Did you know that 16 of the 41 American Presidents
were Ulster-Scots or had Ulster-Scots ancestry? They are: Andrew
Jackson, James Knox Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnston, Ulysses
S.Grant, Chester Alan Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison,
William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman,
Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Bill Clinton! George
W Bush has become the 17th American President with Ulster-Scots
connections. William Jefferson Clinton is a relative of Lucas
Cassidy, of Ulster Presbyterian stock, who left Co. Fermanagh for
America around 1750.
And George W Bush can trace his ancestral roots back to the 18th
century Scots-Irish diaspora form Ulster. Mr Bush's ancestor on
his mother's side, William Gault, was a first citizen of Tennessee in
1796 and is believed to have been born somewhere in Co. Antrim.
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Whiskey Tax
Did you know that Ulstermen rebelled against the whiskey tax in Pennsylvania 1794 saying, "It was a man's right to either eat a drink his corn".
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Ancient Gothic
Did you know that many of our words such as "greet" and "thole", etc. can be found in the oldest surviving document written in ancient Gothic about 300ADa and housed in the Uppsala Museum, Sweden?
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Ulster-Scots stock
Did you know
that writer Mark Twain and Hollywood film actor James Stewart are just
some of the American luminaries who are descended from Ulster-Scots stock?
Also included are Vice-President John C. Calhoun; poet/playwright Edgar
Allen Poe; 19th century farm machine inventor Cyrus McCormick;
Pittsburgh banker Andrew Mellon; frontier mountain main Kit Carson;
songwriter Stephen Collins Foster, and distinguished American Civil War
generals: Ulsysses S Grant, "Stonewall" Jackson: J.E.B.Stuart. Thomas
Brinton McClellan, Ambrose Everett Burnside, Irvin McDowell, Daniel
Smith Donelson, James Shields, Charles James Halpine and Leonidas Polk.
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The Fiddle
Did you know that the fiddle was first introduced into Ireland from Scotland through its use by the Ulster-Scots?
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The Rev. Francis Makemie
Did you know that a Co. Donegal man founded the Presbyterian Church in America? The Rev. Francis Makemie emigrated from Co. Donegal in 1683 and later became Moderator of the first Amerian Presbytery established in 1706.
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Battle of the Alamo
Did you know that nine of the 189 men who died at the famous battle of the Alamo
in Texas, March 1836 were born in Ireland, mostly in
Ulster? Like the legendary Davy Crockett, many others in this
gallant number who fought for the freedom and liberty of Texas,
were first, second and third generations of 18th century Ulster-Scots
pioneering settlers.
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Anglo-Saxon
Did you know that the Ulster-Scots "sheugh" or "sheuch" is dervied from the Anglo-Saxon word "sogh" meaning marsh or soft ground.
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Beyond the Mississippi
Did you know that and Ulster-Scot descendent was on the first ever Amercian expedition beyond the Mississippi?
William Clark was the Virginian born explorere of an Ulster-Scots
family who joined Meriwether Lewis in 1804-06 on the expedition ordered
by President Thomas Jefferson. The expedition uncovered soil,
climate and plant and animal life that has largely been unknown before.
Americans with Ulster-Scots Roots
Did you know that an estimated 22 million people living in the USA can claim Ulster-Scots roots.
These are the descendents of Ulster-Scots families who moved to America
in the 18th century and make up the estimated 44 million Americans who
today claim Irish extraction.
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John Knox
Did you know that John Knox
helped to cause the decline in use of Scots and Ulster-Scots by
adopting an English translation of the Bible for use in the Kirk
(church)?
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"Billie Boys"
Did you kniw that the term "billie boys"
is not a reference to William of Orange. It comes from the Scots
word "billie" meaning a friend or brother, hence "billie boys" which
historically refers to a group of friends, a fraternity or a
brotherhood.
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The Amercican Revolution
Did you know that in the American revolutionary war
of 1776-83 that Washington's army was made up of Ulstermen? 18th
century Ulster-Scots settled mainly on the frontier. They were
the group mostly responsible for securing Washington's flank from
Indian attack while he fought the British: 40% of his army were
Ulstermen.
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James Adair and the "History of the American Indians"
Did
you know that the first authoritative book on the lifestyles and
cultures of native Indian tribes was written by an Ulster-Scot.
Co. Antrim born James Adair was the author of "History of the American Indians", which was published in London in 1775.
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Educating in Scots
Did you know
that in the early part of the 17th century in Ulster much education was
carried out in Scots. The Government in Dublin Castle employed
clerks with knowledge of Scots to handle the correspondence from Ulster.
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"Craic"
Did you know that the Irish word "craic"
is not in fact Irish, but Ulster-Scotch? It first appeared in an
Irish language directory in 1927 and is derived from the Ulster-Scots
word "crack" or "crak" and is also used in Scotland and the north of
England.
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