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Jacobite Rebellion Ships

Contributed by Hugh Tornabene

Between 1650 and 1775, many thousands of Scots were banished to the American colonies for political, religious, or criminal offenses.

Following the English Civil War, Cromwell transported thousands of Scots soldiers to Virginia, New England and the West Indies.

An additional 1700 Scots were expelled as enemies of the state after the Covenanter Risings and 1600 men, women and children were banished as a result of the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745.

A directory of Scots banished to the American plantations is available at Genealogical Publishing Company. Mr. Dobson, author, provides a list of these banished Scots who are the ancestors of thousands of Americans living today. He has brought together a bulk of information available. For each person cited in this directory, some of the following information is given: name, occupation, place of residence in Scotland, place of capture and captivity, parent's names, date and cause of banishment, name of the ship and the date and place of arrival in the colonies. This is an excellent addition to the information we have included here and if you prefer, Dobson's information is also available on CD. Just click on Genealogical Publishing Company's link below and search Scots to find the CD of Scottish Immigrants to North America, 1600s-1800s - The Collected Works of David Dobson.

100x100 (animated)

Many of us are searching on the "other side of the pond" as well and thousands of records, which have collected dust for years, are now available. Please check out what Ancestry.co.uk has to offer.

In the distant past, the names of common people were seldom recorded, except on special occasion by churches that proclaimed the value of each and every individual, or at other times when powerful and often recorded persons used commoners for fighting wars or itemized them on tax lists and other financial records.

Around 1715 during events associated with the Jacobite uprising at Preston, five years before the birth of the well known Jacobite Bonnie Prince Charlie whose image we have, we see recorded the individual names of many common people; in prison costing the authorities two pence per diem to feed; on ships costing two pounds per person to transport into exile; and in land records, people recorded as real property and sold for cash.

Finding all ten ships, listed together in one document, has been an illusive task until Hugh was fortunate enough to stumble upon a warrant, filed away for safekeeping in the wrong box in the British Archives. We can assume that it is accurate as it is a bill requesting payment from the King for transporting the prisoners on the ten ships. You may read a transcription of this warrant and view scans of the original by clicking on this line.

[Note from the ISTG Captain: April 2012: This Collection is still under construction and all links may not be working at this time]

Frigate Scipio 30 March 1716

Ship Wakefield 21 April 1716

Briggantine Two Brothers 26 April 1716

Ship Susannah 26 April 1716

Friendship of Belfast 24 May 1716

Ship Hockenhill 25 June 1716

Ship Elizabeth and Anne 29 June 1716

Ship Good Speed 14 July 1716

Ship Africa Gally 15 July 1716

Ship Ann 31 July 1716

Notes from Hugh:

I caught my first glimpse of ships a few years ago among the Maryland land records when I discovered that my wife's direct ancestor, William McPherson, arrived in Maryland in 1716 aboard the Goodspeed. Carrying the label Jacobite Rebel he was sold into seven years indenture-ship and so became a piece of real property.

Recently I discovered that the record of his trial as a Rebel was available in the British Archives in London. So I made a project of it and in London collected the complete information set on all the Rebels at the trial, all 1,301 of them, expecting that there were plenty of other Rebel descendants here in America who would be excited to hear about these men. In all, 639 of the those 1,301 were transported here.

That led naturally to the ten ships they came in, especially since the embarkation passenger lists were there in the archives also. The most recent pleasure I had was to be able to put together complete records for the two ships that came here to Maryland, the Goodspeed and the Friendship of Belfast. Names in prison, names on the embarkation list, names at debarkation and names from the Land records auction. Four separate lists straight from original documents recorded around the time of the voyages. What a scoop.

Of course that leaves me with an appetite for more. There are eight other ships, however with destinations like Barbados and the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean, finding the debarkation lists seems a formidable challenge.

Hugh Tornabene

Contributed to the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild by
Hugh Tornabene.

Formatted by Patty MacFarlane,
Founder of Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
1 August 2007




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