The Highland Scots of North Carolina

SETTLEMENT

Almost a century elapsed after the failure of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke Island colony in the 1750’s before effective settlement of the North Carolina area was begun. English promoters, neglecting North Carolina because it was not easily accessible, had turned their attention to the Chesapeake Bay region and the Charleston area.

Although North Carolina had an extensive system of rivers emptying into spacious sounds, most of her settlers came into the colony overland from South Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. This was true because the sounds (Albemarle, Pamlico, Currituck, Bogue, Core) were too shallow and treacherous for safe navigation. Moreover, the Outer Banks, a sand reef stretched for 300 miles along the coast to menace naval traffic. The inlets to the sounds were part of this shifting sand bank, and they, too, were unpredictable and threatening. This natural blockade prohibited the use of the Chowan, Roanoke, Tar-Pamlico, and Neuse rivers as avenues for settlement. In North Carolina, only the Cape Fear River proved navigable for seagoing ships, but it was not opened until about 1720.

Political conditions also hampered the development of the colony. Carolina was originally conferred upon Sir Robert Heath in 1629, but he made no efforts to colonize the area. Following the Restoration, Charles II in 1663 granted the region (31 to 36 degrees of north latitude) to eight proprietors. The region was later divided into two separate political units—South Carolina and North Carolina. During the period of proprietary control (1663-1729), confusion and disorder often engulfed the North Carolina government. The proprietary governors, some of whom were unusually inept and unscrupulous, were harassed, deposed, and even imprisoned by the indomitable, unhappy inhabitants of the colony. Because of its turbulent political life, the colony received a bad reputation that further retarded settlement. With the royalization of the colony, government became more effective and the political scene more peaceful.

The Cape Fear River provided a waterway into the colony, but it was rarely used until the 1720’s. Sand bars at the mouth of the river prohibited ships requiring a depth of more than eighteen feet from entering. Seagoing vessels as large as 300 tons were able to sail up the Cape Fear, however, and since most British seafaring vessels in the eighteenth century were smaller than 300 tons, the sand bars at the entrance to the Cape Fear were not a major obstacle to use of the river. The Tuscarora Indians residing in the area were not effectively subdued until 1715. Moreover, during the second decade of the eighteenth century, pirates held the mouth of the Cape Fear as their base of operations, menacing river traffic until the year 1718. Finally, in 1724, the land office for the Cape Fear region opened and settlement began along the river. It was in the upper reaches of the Northwest Cape Fear River that the Scottish Highlanders began to settle in the 1730’s.

The date of the first settlement of Highlanders on the Cape Fear was probably 1732. Before 1700, several Lowland Scots resided in the colony. The first governor, William Drummond, and one of the early members of the Council, Thomas Pollock, were both Lowlanders. It has been commonly believed that Highlanders were living in the upper Cape Fear area as early as 1729, but there are no documents to prove this claim. Land-grant records name James Innes (from Caithness), Hugh Campbell, and William Forbes as the first persons with Highland names to settle on the Cape Fear River. Innes is registered as having received a grant of 320 acres in Bladen County in January, 1732, and another of 640 acres sixteen months later. Campbell and Forbes secured their 640-acre grants in April and May of 1733. It was necessary for the grantee to be in the colony and personally to “prove” his land rights (i.e., convince the “governor in council” of his ability either personally or with family, servants, or slaves to cultivate the acreage of land requested). Until proof is presented of the presence of earlier Highlanders on the Cape Fear River, this group must be recognized as the first members of a colony that became populous in the next forty years.

Governor Gabriel Johnston, who arrived in the colony in November, 1734, traditionally has been given credit for encouraging the Highlanders to settle in the province and for bringing James Innes to it. It is evident that Innes worked closely with Johnston during the latter’s term of office, 1734-52, but it is doubtful that Innes came to America because of Johnston, since Innes had already been in North Carolina at least fourteen months when Johnston arrived. Although Governor Johnston probably was not involved in the migration of James Innes to North Carolina, he did promote immigration into the colony. In 1740, following the landing of a group of 350 Highlanders, the Governor supported a proposal granting newly arrived “foreign Protestants exemption from Publick or County” taxes during their first ten years in the colony. The sponsors of the bill stated that it was designed to encourage other Highlanders to come to North Carolina.

From the description of the land plots in the records of the Secretary of State of North Carolina, we can determine the location of the early settlement. Those who received the first grants traveled upstream over 100 miles beyond Wilmington. Hugh Campbell secured land on the Cape Fear River four miles above Rockfish Creek—this was only a short distance south of Cross Creek. William Forbes and James Innes received lands on the Cape Fear twenty-two miles above Rockfish Creek. Other grants were farther downstream, in an area 60 miles above Wilmington where Hammond Creek drains into the Cape Fear River.

Coming from the chilly climate of North Britain, the Highlanders had to adapt themselves to a new and different environment in North Carolina. Since the Cape Fear settlement was at thirty-five degrees north latitude, summers were warmer and winters milder and shorter than in the Highlands. In the winter months, snows were less frequent. The fear of hurricanes felt by some newcomers was lessened by the knowledge that the storms did not usually do “much mischief.”

North Carolina contains three distinct geographic regions—the Coastal Plain, the Appalachian Piedmont, and the Appalachian Mountains. The Coastal Plain stretches inland from the Atlantic Ocean more than 100 miles. On this plain the rise in elevation from east to west is hardly noticeable, averaging only two feet per mile. The sand hills in the region of the upper Cape Fear River are the most prominent relief features of the Coastal Plain. This is the section in which the Highlanders settled, an area of hills, short ridges, and undrained depressions bordering on the upper Cape Fear River and its tributaries. The light soil of the Coastal Plain—chiefly clay and sandy loam—was productive because of abundant rainfall. While the sand hills themselves were not fertile, the many bottom lands in the sand hills region produced excellent crops of Indian corn and European grains. The sand hills were covered with longleaf pine, a tree with a tap root long enough to reach the clay subsoil. It was from this tree that turpentine, rosin, pitch, and tar were extracted. During the eighteenth century, the naval stores that were the products of this industry constituted the chief exports from North Carolina. The fertile low regions between the sand hills were either canebrakes or thickets, heavily grown over with pea vines and other foliage. This was in contrast to the sand hills, which supported the pine trees, but little undergrowth.

Upon their arrival in North Carolina, the Scottish migrants disembarked either at Brunswick or Wilmington. Brunswick, the first town established on the Cape Fear River, was laid out in the mid-1720’s. Although it became a port of entry and the seat of a custom house, the community was slow to grow. One visitor in 1775 described it as “but a straggling village.” Since Brunswick was only twelve miles from the mouth of the river and since the major sand bars were seven miles above town, ships could easily reach the port. However, Wilmington, which developed in the latter part of the 1730’s at the point of juncture of the Northeast Cape Fear and the Northwest Cape Fear, grew faster than its neighbor town sixteen miles downstream. The two communities were, for a time, spirited rivals for the trade of southeastern North Carolina; by the Revolution, Wilmington (originally called Newton or New Town) had outstripped Brunswick and had become the chief port on the Cape Fear River. Immigrant groups who were going inland welcomed the transportation farther upstream. Thus the contract between James Hogg and James Inglis, Jr., stipulated that passengers and cargo were to be delivered at Wilmington. This saved Hogg extra transportation expense. Probably the Highlanders who arrived in North Carolina in the early 1730’s landed at Brunswick. Later, although the people on large ships continued to disembark there, most passengers went upstream to Wilmington to land.

After landing at Wilmington or Brunswick, the new settlers faced a laborious ninety-mile trip up the Cape Fear River to the Cross Creek area where present day Fayetteville is located. In order to continue up the river, the colonists at Wilmington were forced to transfer to “long boats, lighters, and large canoes.” This transportation was both slow and uncomfortable. A group of Moravians who rowed long boats up the Cape Fear considered that they made good time by averaging fourteen miles a day. At this rate, the voyage up to Cross Creek must have required at least a week.

The next town above Wilmington was the hub of the Scottish settlement. It was situated on the banks of Cross Creek, a stream that emptied into the Cape Fear River from the west, midway between Rockfish Creek and the Lower Little River. The two branches of Cross Creek merged only two miles above the mouth of the stream. It is the tradition of the area that the creek received its name because people believed the two streams crossed without mingling. At this junction a town developed in the early 1760’s, and it was known simply as Cross Creek.

In 1760 the colonial assembly appointed a committee to determine the location of a proposed trading town on the upper Cape Fear River. Eight years later a bill was passed to establish a town called Campbellton on Cross Creek a short distance from the Cape Fear. To encourage merchants and settlers to establish themselves there, Campbellton was named the seat of the court for Cumberland County. The assembly, however, had acted too slowly. Cross Creek, with its eight-year head start, grew to be a busy trading center; but eighteenth-century Campbellton, which had the endorsement of the Assembly, was never more than a small residential area with a courthouse.^*

The first large group of Highlanders to make its way up the Cape Fear and settle in the Cross Creek area was a party of 350 from Argyllshire who disembarked in September, 1739. As with many migrations after the Forty-five, this group was led by members of the Highland gentry. In February, 1740, two of the leaders appeared before the Colonial Council asking special consideration for “themselves and several other Scotch Gentlemen and several poor people brought into this province.” In response to the needy condition of many of the newly arrived Highlanders and in order to encourage other Highlanders to follow them, the upper house passed a bill, as we have seen, granting the immigrants release from tax payments for their first ten years in the colony. In addition to this, the bill requested that £1,000 of the public money be given to “Duncan Campbell, Dugald McNeal, Daniel McNeal, Coll. McAlister and Neal McNeal Esqrs to be by them distributed among the several families.” The lower house agreed to the tax relief, but deferred action on the £1,000 dole. When the council met again in June, 1740, parcels of land were granted to this group. The leaders appear to have claimed large plots of land on the basis of the headrights of those whom they had brought to America. Duncan Campbell alone received 2,643 acres. Although this immigrant party consisted of 350 persons (eight-five or ninety families), only twenty-two individuals received land grants. All land granted was along the Cape Fear River, and most of the plots were on a section of that stream between Cross Creek and the Lower Little River in Bladen County.

The Cross Creek region, which had been part of New Hanover County in 1733, was in Bladen County in 1739. The constant stream of new settlers entering North Carolina frequently made it necessary to subdivide large frontier counties and to add new counties. The formation of counties in the Cape Fear section is recorded in Map I. New Hanover County (originally known as a precinct) was established in 1729 and included all the land drained by the Cape Fear River. Five years later Bladen County was formed from New Hanover County. It extended from the junction of Livingston’s Creek and the Cape Fear as far northwest as the headwaters of the Cape Fear. In 1750 Anson County was laid out in the area just north of the South Carolina line, west of Drowning Creek, and south of the Granville line. Cumberland County, the county in which most of the Highlanders resided, was not established until 1754. Beginning a short distance south of Rockfish Creek, Cumberland County extended north to the Granville line, east to Drowning Creek, and west to South River. Ironically, the county probably was named after William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland, second son of George II, who was known to the Highlanders as “Butcher Cumberland.” Lacking evidence, one can only wonder whether the Highlander inhabitants of the area were consulted concerning the choice of the name.

The rate and size of this Scottish immigration into North Carolina are as difficult to determine from the colonial side as from the home side. Only fragments of the Port of Brunswick Record Book remain, and there is no complete record of the arrival of ships in the Cape Fear section. Other sources sometimes speak of the landing of Highlander immigrant parties, but fail to speak to the numbers involved. Governor Martin, when planning the uprisings of Loyalists in 1776, estimated that an army of “much greater numbers” than 3,000 could be raised among the Highlanders. The military potential of a population was considered at the ratio of one soldier for each group of four inhabitants. The colony of Highlanders, therefore, may well have numbered 12,000. This is obviously a rough estimate.

Since the influx of Scotsmen commenced shortly after the royalization of the colony in 1729, the disposal of unclaimed lands was the responsibility of crown officials. According to Board of Trade regulations, the governor, in consultation with the council (i.e., the “governor in council”), authorized grants of lands. Instructions to the first royal governors specified that persons desiring plots were to appear before meetings of the “governor in council” to prove their right to obtain land. But the infrequency of council meetings and the inconvenience of traveling long distances to attend them, obstructed the land-granting process and encouraged squatting. To make land more available to the people, Governor Gabriel Johnston and his council in 1741 delegated the power to prove land rights to the several county courts, where the inhabitants “could more conveniently attend and the number of the Familys could be more easily known.” The new settler, after finding a plot of unclaimed land, appeared with his family (servants and slaves included, if he had any) at the meeting of the county court. When the findings of the court were submitted to the governor’s secretary, a warrant for the appropriate number of acres in the given county was issued. The precinct surveyor, upon receiving the warrant, marked out the stated number of acres on the chosen plot and returned a description of the site to the auditor’s office. After the payment of fees and the routine approval by the “governor in council,” the settler received a land grant.

There were, of course, abuses in the granting of lands. It was a policy to grant a “right” to a person each time he entered the colony. One colonist, James Minge, crossed the border of the colony six times and his slave, Robin, crossed it four times. Minge then claimed ten head rights. Some grantees stretched their grants along the river, thus monopolizing the rich bottom lands. This practice ceased after royal surveyors were ordered “to take care that not above one fourth part of the land granted shall border upon the river, that is ... there shall be four chains in depth backwards for every chain in front.” In North Carolina there were few grants of large plots of land to English speculators. Those large grants that were made were granted by the Board of Trade, not by North Carolina officials. It is true that Henry McCulloh, a relative of Governor Johnston, held three grants totaling 190,000 acres. This was, however, contrary to the usual policy. The Board of Trade instructed the royal governors to disallow single grants larger than 640 acres. North Carolina was a colony of small landholders.

While the new settler could, if he had sufficient resources, buy an acreage from an earlier settler, he could not purchase land from the Crown. During the period of their control, 1663-1729, the lords proprietors had sold land for which they required an annual tax called a quitrent. These quitrents were smaller than those for land granted on a basis of headrights. Royal officials did not sell land, but granted it free, subject only to a small surveying and transfer fee, and collected the same quitrent from all—four shillings proclamation money per hundred acres. Land in North Carolina was never held in fee simple; quitrents were always demanded. For the newly arrived Scottish settler with few resources, the quitrent system was ideal. Those former Highland tenants who sold livestock and tools in order to pay the costs of migration often had little money left upon their arrival in America. In North Carolina the Highlander could secure a grant of land on the basis of headrights and his fees, at the most, amounted to only £1 sterling.

Not all Highlanders were able to receive land grants immediately. Some came to America as bound servants and served a term of years in return for their transportation. Others came penniless and could not afford to pay land grant fees or purchase the tools and animals necessary to build a shelter and begin farming. A few came as tradesmen seeking work, not land. For these reasons, a study of the land grants received by North Carolina Highlanders yields important, although not complete, information about the size and character of the upper Cape Fear settlement.

Fortunately, the land grant records in the office of the North Carolina Secretary of State in Raleigh are “nearly complete” for the colonial period and in a good state of preservation. These records show that 691 persons with Scottish Highland names received land grants from the Crown in the years 1732 to 1775. Included in the records is information on the size, date, and area of the grants. Some Highlanders, of course, purchased land outright from other settlers and did not receive land grants. The land transfer records for Cumberland County, where most Highlanders resided, list 312 sales to persons with Scottish Highland names between 1754, when the county was formed, and the Revolution.

Before 1753 the Highland migration was sporadic, with new groups receiving land in 1733, 1735, 1740, and 1753. The only one of these emigrations concerning which evidence (besides land grants) is available is the one that occurred in 1740, when the immigrants appealed to the General Assembly for tax relief. The few grants in 1736 and 1737 were made to some who received plots in 1735 and to others who probably were part of the 1735 groups, but who, for some reason, did not receive grants the first year. Likewise, in 1741 and 1742, additional grants were made to persons who were part of the large 1740 group. There was no sizable influx immediately after the defeat of the Highlanders in the Forty-five; instead, the year 1747 shows a decrease in grants. During the French and Indian War, the granting of land continued, and the land grant figures of 1760 probably mean that a large group entered the colony. There was a gradual increase in the number of grants in the late 1760’s and the early 1770’s until the peak was reached in 1774. It is significant that the rising tide of emigration described in the Scots Magazine from 1768 to 1774 is reflected in the rate of land grants.

The record of land sales in Cumberland County shows the same increase as does the record of land grants, with 1774 as the peak year.

A study of the land grants to Highlanders shows that over 60 per cent of the plots acquired were between 50 and 200 acres in size. Grants of 640 acres were more frequent among the early settlers in the 1730’s and 1740’s than among those who came just before the Revolution. This may indicate that the later settlers came over as individuals and secured smaller plots, while the earlier groups of Highlanders were under obligation to tacksmen, who were able to obtain larger plots on the basis of group headrights. Of the 691 land grants, only one was for more than 640 acres. This was a grant in the year 1749 for 1,000 acres. It was clearly contrary to the Board of Trade policy for the “governor in council” to make a grant of that size.

The settlement can be roughly traced by approximating the location of the 691 land grants and the 312 purchases on a map of the Cape Fear area. With few exceptions, all grants were located either upon or close to rivers, since waterways were the chief avenues of transportation. In the late 1760’s and the 1770’s, a few grants were located on the roads built into Cross Creek. The index books in the office of the Secretary of State establish locations with reference to rivers, creeks, trees, stumps, or rocks. The brief entries are sometimes picturesque, but rarely are precise enough to give an exact location. The following are typical examples: “North east of the N. W. River at the fork of Hugh McCranes Creek,” “on Upper Little River,” “about a mile South of Rockfish.” Map II is not intended to give an exact picture, but only to suggest an approximate pattern of the settlement before the Revolutionary War.

The map shows that the main regions of settlement were along the Cape Fear River, Upper Little River, and Rockfish Creek—in that area which today comprises Cumberland, Harnett, and Hoke counties but in the eighteenth century was all Cumberland County. Although a few Highlanders established themselves in the Hammond Creek area to the south during the early years of settlement, they did not become numerous in this region. By 1753 the pattern of settlement to the north along the Upper and Lower Little Rivers had been set. When the population became heavier in this section, some colonists moved north to till the lands on Deep River. Others went west to Drowning Creek and Joes Creek. Some moved beyond Drowning Creek into Anson County, but their area of settlement cannot be easily determined because of the numerous Scotch-Irish families in that region.

Thus, by 1775, a large body of Highlanders was situated along the rivers in the sand hills region of the upper Cape Fear. Because land was plentiful and they had come from an agricultural society, the majority of Highlanders became farmers in North Carolina.

For the Highlanders, landing in North Carolina marked the beginning of a new life. Of course, in the Cape Fear settlement Gaelic was spoken, some relatives and friends were near, and certain Highland customs persisted, but the changes were nevertheless many and great. The new climate and terrain required many adjustments. To exploit the soil, different agricultural methods had to be learned and new crops planted. Since the Scots were moving into a frontier area, homes had to be built and lands cleared before the normal pursuits of the planter could begin. In the midst of a struggle for physical existence, these immigrants re-established the church they had known in the Old World, took part in a new political system, and adapted themselves to the language and living habits of the non-Highlanders about them. For many who before 1745 had lived under the protective custody of the tribal system, the migration to America constituted the final step to personal independence, since in America the Highlanders wrestled with nature and shaped a new society with neither the help nor the protection of clan and chief.

The economic activity in which most North Carolina Highlanders engaged was agriculture. There were merchants, clergymen, tailors, and shoemakers, too, but the overwhelming majority of the Highlanders cultivated either their own land or the land of another. The Scots normally arrived in the fall or early winter and began working on their acreage as soon as the land was surveyed. The season in which they arrived was determined by several factors. By departing from Scotland in the fall, the tenants received the benefits of the year’s crop. By arriving in North Carolina in early winter, the immigrants came at a time of plenty, could secure an acreage to be tilled the following year, and had sufficient time to adapt themselves to the climate before the summer brought “fluxes, fevers and agues.”

Having secured a survey of his chosen plot, the new settler proceeded to fell enough longleaf pines to build a shelter for the family. In the area thus cleared, he usually constructed a log home chinked with clay, although clapboard houses appeared with greater frequency after the sawmills were built. The settlers cultivated the land lying along the streams and put stock to graze in the back areas. Preparing land for cultivation did not involve cutting down more trees. The colonists killed a tree by removing a ring of bark, which caused the trees to drop their foliage and allowed the sun to reach the crops.

Because of the obstruction of roots and trees in the fields, planters found it difficult to use plows. Although a few farmers had plows in the 1760’s, most planters employed hoes both to turn over the soil and to weed it later. The high cost of transportation made farm tools expensive and highly prized. The simplicity of the agriculture can be seen in the inventories of estates at that time. Typically, farmers used only such equipment as a knife, a hammer, a saw, several horseshoes, an ax, an ox chain, a spade, a saddle, a cart, shears, several iron wedges, several hoes, and a basket or tub.

In the fields prepared for cultivation, the settlers planted Indian corn, wheat, oats, peas, beans, flax, or sweet potatoes. The soil produced well at first but was exhausted shortly. The settlers did not attempt to restore the fertility of the soil through grasses or manures. Land was so plentiful that it was easier to abandon the old field and prepare a new one for cultivation.

Some settlers built mills on their land, both for their own use and to provide a source of income. In 1736, the governor and colonial council issued a proclamation that the construction of a sawmill in the Cape Fear section would be sufficient for maintaining title to a 640-acre grant without any cultivation of the land. Both gristmills and sawmills were needed by the new settlers. Governor Dobbs reported to the Board of Trade in 1764 that forty sawmills had already been erected on the branches of Cape Fear.

The simplest form of enterprise for those who were new in the colony was animal husbandry—raising horses, cattle, and hogs. Since there were no fences, not even around some cultivated fields, the stock roamed about freely in search of food. Planters attempted to keep the stock tame and near home by putting out salt for them once a week. The cows returned to the plantation yard each evening when the calves were penned up. In early summer, there was customarily a roundup, and it was at this time that the owners branded their calves and enclosed cattle to be sold. Brands were registered with the colonial authorities. The system of common grazing areas was not new to the Highlanders; it was the method of grazing used in North Britain before the coming of the enclosure movement. About the size of these herds, the author of American Husbandry reported to his English readers that herds of cattle up to 2,000 head were not uncommon in North Carolina. The few inventories of estates of Highlanders now available show herds of 36, 27, 15, 22, 30, and 10 head each. Loyalist claims, which were sometimes inflated, indicate that some Highlander farmers owned large numbers of livestock. Daniel Ray claimed ownership of 8 horses, 40 cattle, and 100 hogs in 1776. Soirle MacDonald testified that when he fled his plantation he left behind 7 horses, 53 cattle, and 264 hogs. Cattle and hogs to be sold usually were driven to Charleston. Some cattle and hogs were butchered in the Highlander settlement and the meat placed in barrels and salted. The casks were then moved down the river to Wilmington on flat boats and finally reached the West Indies for sale there. However, competition from Pennsylvania and scarcity of salt in the upper Cape Fear area curtailed this meat-exporting enterprise.

It is well known that during the eighteenth century North Carolina exported more naval stores than any other colony. Since the Highlanders lived in the region of the longleaf pine, it might be expected that they were among those who produced tar, pitch, turpentine, rosin, masts, and spars. But evidence that any of them did take part in that economic activity is by no means clear. The inventory of the estate of Thomas Rutherford, who lived just south of Cross Creek, seems to show that he produced ninety-three barrels of tar, which were sold to a Wilmington merchant. If Rutherford could produce tar, then his Highlander neighbors may have done so too.

To this point, all that has been said about the economic activity of the planters has referred to those who held their own land either through grant from the Crown, or direct purchase from an earlier settler. There is little information about the large number of Highlanders who did not possess their own land. One source states that large holders assigned portions of their lands to these poor Highlanders, who became tenants. The owner supplied the necessary tools and livestock. In return, the tenant paid the owner, yearly, one-third of the crops produced and one-third of the increase of the livestock.

Besides the Highlanders who secured their own plantations and those who became tenants, there was yet a third category of immigrants. These came as indentured servants.

In return for their transportation to the New World, they were bound to serve their employers for a set period of years. There is no evidence on which an estimate of the size of this group can be based. The term of indenture for Highlanders varied from three years to five years. After 1741, the freed servant received £3 proclamation money and a suit of clothes. Moreover, he could then qualify for a land grant on the basis of headrights.

Although slaves were not so numerous in the inland counties as on the sea-board, Cumberland County had a relatively large number of them. The first federal census in 1790 provided reliable statistics on slaveholding. There were in Cumberland County 717 slaves owned by people with Scottish Highlander names. The Highlander population of the county in 1790 was 2,834; the ratio of slaves to Highlanders was, therefore, one to four.

The number of slaves held by Cumberland Highlanders varied widely, though one-third of the Highlander slave-owners possessed only one slave. The census returns for 1790 provided names of the large slaveholders. Farquard Campbell had 50 slaves, William Gordon 17, “Coll” McAlister 15, Alexander McAlister 40, Archibald McDuffie 13, John McLean 41, Archibald McKay, Jr., 19, and Archibald McNeil, Sr., 30. The fact that numerous Highlanders held slaves, and held them as early as the 1760’s, supports the statements of the Scots Magazine that the migration was led by men of “wealth and merit” and that it was not merely an exodus of the exploited poor.

Fortunately for the newcomer, a benevolent nature made easier the task of feeding his family. A variety of fruits, berries, and grains were available to those who would harvest them. Mulberries, persimmons, plums, cherries, brambleberries, raspberries, Spanish figs, and a grain called “wild corn or rye,” all grew wild. Grapes, however, were the most plentiful fruit. Both blue and white grapes flourished on the bottom lands and the uplands. On some small streams grape vines grew up the trees on either bank and finally arched the creek. Wild meat was also plentiful. Rabbits, turkeys, partridges, pheasants, wild ducks, and geese abounded. Bear meat was considered “very wholesome” by the Highlanders’ Moravian neighbors, who thought bear fat “as good as olive oil” with salad. Deer were prized since they provided venison, and deerskin to clothe the settlers as well. In the rivers and streams the colonists found perch, pike, and rockfish. In these ways, the forests, streams, and uncleared fields gave valuable assistance to the colonists attempting to subsist in the New World.

Most of the Highlanders engaged in agriculture, as we have seen; a few of these Scottish planters also had other occupations. John Campbell was, in addition, a surveyor: John Clark, a tailor; Angus McDugal, a weaver; Neil McNeil, a shoemaker; Allen Cameron, a millwright; and Patrick McEachin, a blacksmith. In Scotland, many Highlanders had combined another craft or occupation with agriculture. For example, some Highland tenants were also fishermen, kelp burners, weavers, or tailors. When they came to America, they brought their skills and were ready to carry on activities other than farming.

A few of the Highlanders in North Carolina became merchants. Fortunately, the Gaelic colony had developed in an area that needed a trading town. The settlers of the upper Cape Fear and nearby Piedmont area required a closer center where they might dispose of their surplus and purchase needed articles. Cross Creek, which was located on a branch of the Cape Fear River and was served by two roads from the west, filled the need. Three gristmills there converted grain from the back country into flour and meal. Cattle and hogs were slaughtered. Merchants also purchased such varied items as hides, lard, lumber, barrel staves, and tar, and these products, along with the meat and grain, were floated down to Wilmington on long rafts. The merchants returned in boats with merchandise to be sold to the settlers. Among the products in demand among the colonists were needles, buttons, thread, buckles, silk, nutmeg, salt, pepper, molasses, rum, powder, and iron products such as hinges and hoes. As the instrument of this exchange, the merchant played a valuable role in the economic life of the section.

Highlanders were prominent among the merchants of Cross Creek. Those most active in the town were William Campbell; Robert Gillies; James Hogg, acting as an agent for his brother’s firm of Hogg and Campbell; Neil McArthur; Clark and McLeran; Robert Donaldson and Company; and Bachop and Patterson. For shrewd merchants, profits were high. Neil McArthur came to Cross Creek in 1764 with only a little property, but by 1775 he reported he was worth over £4,600. Although merchants ordinarily carried a wide variety of goods, one Highlander in Cross Creek was a specialist. Murdock McLeod, a surgeon and apothecary, sold only medicines.

The population of Cross Creek was not predominantly Gaelic. The records of sales of lots from 1760 to 1775 show that only twenty individuals with Highlander names bought lots in the town, while 144 non-Highlanders purchased lots in the same period. In nearby Campbellton, the Highlanders bought only one lot during the 1760-75 period. Thus, although the Highlanders were represented in Cross Creek and some were prominent men in the town, Cross Creek was a settlement largely of non-Highlanders. Most of the Highlanders preferred to live on plantations and to earn their livelihood through agriculture.

The Highlanders who came to North Carolina were Presbyterians, and they built churches of their denomination in the colony. There is no evidence of Highlanders in other churches in the upper Cape Fear area. Although there were regions of North Britain that remained Catholic or Episcopalian in the last half of the eighteenth century, most areas either were or became Presbyterian. The religion of the Lowlands spread through the north mainly as a result of the effective work of the Presbyterian Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Many, if not most, of the North Carolina Highlanders were from Argyllshire; and Argyllshire was overwhelmingly Presbyterian by 1750 (4,000 Catholics and 62,000 Presbyterians). When Duncan Campbell, one of the leaders of the group of 350 that migrated to North Carolina in 1739, returned to Argyllshire in 1741, he attempted to find a pastor for the flock of transported High-landers. Because the prospects of receiving an adequate “sallary” in North Carolina were “inconsiderable,” Campbell found it impossible to secure a Gaelic-speaking minister. He petitioned the Presbytery and the Society to provide the first year’s salary for the transportation of the clergyman to America. The Society granted £21 for the project, but for unknown reasons a minister was not sent. The colonists were without a permanent pastor until 1758.

The Highlanders were first visited by a Presbyterian minister in January of 1756. This clergyman was Hugh McAden, an itinerant preacher to the Scottish and Scotch-Irish settlements of North Carolina. In October, 1758, the Highlanders contracted for the services of their first minister, the Reverend James Campbell of Pennsylvania. According to tradition, Campbell, a native of Argyllshire, came to North Carolina after hearing of the religious needs of the Cape Fear Scots from Hugh McAden. Under Campbell’s leadership, the Highlanders founded at least three churches.

Since the Highlanders were dispersed over a wide area, they could not attend one church. The Reverend James Campbell served the several congregations on alternate Sundays. One congregation met in “Rogers Meeting House,” a simple structure near Roger McNeil’s plantation and only a short distance from Hector McNeil’s bluff on the Cape Fear. Alexander McAlister, Farquard Campbell, Hector McNeil, and Duncan McNeil served as elders of the church. A second church was built about 1765 on Barbecue Creek. This church ministered to the needs of the people residing on both the Upper and Lower Little Rivers and their immediate tributaries. While Flora McDonald lived at Cameron’s Hill, she attended the Barbecue Church. Members of a third congregation continued for several years to meet in the home of Alexander McKay, as they had when Hugh McAden came to preach to them. About the year 1766, this congregation also constructed a meetinghouse, called Longstreet Church. The church was so named because of its location on the Yadkin Road. Although most of the members of the churches were Highlanders, enough other settlers attended to make it necessary for Campbell to preach sermons in both English and Gaelic each Sunday.

Campbell labored alone until about the year 1770, when the Reverend John McLeod arrived in the colony with a group of immigrants. Campbell and McLeod jointly ministered to the Highlanders until the outbreak of the Revolution, when both were forced to flee. McLeod, a Tory, joined the men under General Donald McDonald and fought with the Loyalist army at Moore’s Creek Bridge. After being captured and imprisoned for a short time, the minister was released by the Patriots on condition that he leave the colony. He complied immediately. Campbell, on the other hand, was an ardent Revolutionary Patriot who left the Highlanders at the outset of the war to minister to the Scotch-Irish in Mecklenburg and Guilford counties. The fruitful seventeen-year pastorate of James Campbell came to an end because of political differences with his fellow Highlanders. It may be said that the religious organization of the Highlander settlement was due almost entirely to his efforts.

The society at the head of the Cape Fear River was not composed entirely of Scottish Gaels. Approximately half of the inhabitants were from other areas of Europe. Records of the time reveal the names of English, Irish, Welsh, German, Lowland Scottish, and even French settlers residing in Cumberland County. The Highlanders were among the first to settle the upper Cape Fear section, and they came to constitute the largest national group in the area. It is doubtful, however, that they ever numbered many more than 50 per cent of the population.

Within the colony of North Carolina, the Highlanders were surrounded by other national groups. To the south, along the mouth of the Cape Fear, were the large plantations owned mostly by English settlers. East of the Highlanders, groups of Welsh, Scotch-Irish, Swiss, and a small company of Irish migrants had established themselves. To the north, above the Haw River, another English settlement was located. Both north and west of the Highlanders were mixed settlements of Germans and Scotch-Irish. These surrounding peoples traded in Cross Creek, and in time a few did settle within the areas of Bladen, Cumberland, and Anson counties. Records of land transfers show that the Gaels continually bought land from and sold land to the non-Highlanders.

The language barrier did not prove to be a serious handicap for the Highlanders. Samuel Johnson noted when he made his tour of the Highlands that the tacksmen, lairds, and ministers could speak English. We know such leaders in the North Carolina settlement as Farquard Campbell and Alexander McAlister spoke and wrote English, and probably all the other prominent Highlanders in the colony did, too. In the Highlands in the eighteenth century, the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge established and operated the schools, and instruction in them was in English. As a consequence, all educated people knew English. Moreover, those who learned informally to read used English, for there was little printed in the Scottish dialect of Gaelic. Not until 1767 did the New Testament appear in that language. In North Carolina, contact with English-speaking neighbors and the use of English in some church services made the language more familiar to the Gaels. But in spite of schools and books and church, the common people, in North Carolina, as in North Britain, continued to use Gaelic far into the nineteenth century. The last Gaelic sermon in North Carolina was preached in 1860. The language today is virtually unknown to those who live along the upper Cape Fear.

Highlanders displayed much interest in education. James Innes set aside £100 in his will “For the Use of a Free School for the Benefite of the Youth of North Carolina.” After his death, the executors of his estate organized Innes Academy in Wilmington. Of the twenty-two wills made by Cumberland County Highlanders which are in the State Archives at Raleigh, half were made by people who could not sign their names. Malcolm Blue, one of those who used his mark to sign his will, in 1764 bequeathed “the sum of eight pound prok. [proclamation] money to my four youngest children to get them school.” Patrick Campbell, who could write, ordered in his will of 1775 that all his possessions not specifically given to anyone else “Be appropriated for the Schooling and Raering the Children.” It is not clear where Blue’s or Campbell’s children received schooling. It is highly possible that James Campbell, the minister, acted as schoolteacher during the week, since other Presbyterian ministers in North Carolina were serving in that dual capacity.

In spite of plentiful land and a bountiful nature, life in North Carolina was difficult for the new Gaelic settler, particularly if he arrived without financial resources. Governor Martin, 1772, welcomed the Scots as a fine addition to the colony. Three years later Martin wondered if they could subsist in America. In March, 1775, he wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth, “Surely, my Lord, the Scotch Landlords are much wanting in their own interest if not humanity in expelling so many wretched people from their country who were useful there and who will perish many of them here before they can learn to live.” Combined with the many difficulties of making a living on a frontier plantation was the further problem of illness. Particularly in the low and swampy regions, “fevers” were common. The eighteenth century applied the term “fevers” principally to typhoid fever, yellow fever, and malaria. The New World brought gifts, but it also brought new difficulties and dangers.

Most of the settlers appear to have been below the age of forty on their arrival in the colony. James Innes was in his early thirties and “Coll” McAlister and Farquard Campbell of the 1739 company were probably even younger, since they were still enumerated in the 1790 census. The records for a group of thirty families who left from Caithness indicate that the average age for heads of families in this group was thirty-eight. There were, however, a remarkable number of older immigrants. The company from Caithness included John Catanoch, 55; Aeneas McLeod, 60; William McDonald, 71; and Hector McDonald, 75. The average age of the settlers was lowered by the many children who came. On the Emigration Lists for 1774-75, a little more than half those numbered were children. For a total of 83 families, the average number of children per family was 2.1.

The Scottish colonists furnished their homes simply. Because of the great distance from manufacturers and the difficulty and expense of transportation, they possessed a minimum of furniture and personal effects. The women prepared and served food with several iron pots, an iron ladle, a flesh fork, a knife, a trammel (adjustable pot hook), fire tongs, a griddle, pewter dishes, knives, and forks. Larger pieces of furniture such as tables, chairs or stools, and chests were frequently homemade and crude. The settler family also had feather beds, blankets, several spinning wheels, and a pot rack. The fullest information on clothing is contained in the inventory of the estate of Neil Buie. The list included “2 jackets, 2 britches, 1 pr trowsers 1 pr stockings 1 bonnet a handkerchief ... 1 pair of garters ... a silver broach 2 shirts.” Those who came to America with wealth, of course, had greater possessions. John Brown held title to only 200 acres in Cumberland County, but his inventory of estate noted such luxuries as “2 smoothing irons and 1 looking glass.” Archibald Clark’s inventory listed “1 pair of silver buckles 1 stock buckle 1 pair sleve butons … 1 Bible—3 other books five Catechism ... 17 gallons of rum ... 1 drinking glass.” Other Highlanders kept large stores of liquor in their homes; Soirle MacDonald reported 200 gallons of brandy seized at his home by Patriots after the Battle of Moore’s Creek. Allan McDonald was among the wealthiest people in the colony. His Loyalist claim for compensation stated that furniture, books, and silver plate worth £500 fell into the hands of those who plundered his estate.

When living conditions of the Highlanders who remained in Scotland are compared with those of the settlers in North Carolina, several important differences are apparent. In both places, of course, there were wealthy and poor, with great contrasts in housing, from gloomy dens to well-furnished manors. The Highland tacksmen in Scotland lived stylishly, although Samuel Johnson did not think the tacksmen’s homes as luxurious as those of similar gentry in England. He found the homes and the furniture were “not always nicely suited.” After an excellent meal, he was escorted by his host to his bedroom were he discovered

Janet Schaw, who visited North Carolina in 1774, found a similarly incongruous situation there. She was entertained in the home of an unnamed Cape Fear planter whom she described only as a “Gentleman.” She found his home well-furnished, with an excellent library including fine globes, a telescope, and “Mathematical instruments.” The meal was served on china and silver, but Miss Schaw described the house itself as little better than one of his slave’s huts. On the other hand, Allan McDonald, who was “embarrassed in his affairs” in Scotland, brought to America over £ 1.000 and settled in Anson County. He purchased a plantation of 475 acres, of which seventy acres were already clear. On the plantation were a fine home, three orchards, barn, storehouse, kitchen, stable corn crib, and gristmill. McDonald brought five indentured male servants and three indentured female servants to perform the agricultural and domestic work of the plantation. He valued the furniture, books, and silver in the home to be worth £500. Again the lengthy inventory of the estate of Mrs. Jean Corbin (Mrs. James Innes) suggests that wealthy Highlanders in America had homes as well-furnished as those in Scotland. The many items in her inventory included: “14 Silver Knives, 20 do [ditto] forks, 2 Diamond Rings, 6 Punch Bowls, 8 Looking Glasses, 5 Mahogany dining Tables, 12 Leather bottom’d Chairs, 1 Backgammon Table, 12 Large Table Cloths.”

There appears to have been some improvement in the living conditions of the tenant-class Highlanders who came to North Carolina. In Scotland, such people lived in huts constructed either of sod or of stones, without windows or chimney. A hole in the roof at the center of the room provided some escape for the smoke and allowed a small amount of light to enter. In one end of the home, the livestock spent the winter, with only a few bars separating this area from the living space. The more fortunate had a bedchamber adjoining the main room; most simply slept on the ground around the fires. Within the cabin could be found a table, one or two stools, a chain suspended from the ceiling and hanging from the chain an iron pot, a shelf, a chest or dresser, and a blanket and mattress, both filthy. Homes for this class in North Carolina were constructed of better building material. Log homes with shingled roofs were cleaner, better able to withstand rain, and had chimneys. Most homes originally had earthen floors, but the ready supply of lumber made it possible later to lay wooden floors. Crude furniture could be more easily constructed in North Carolina, where wood was plentiful. Most settlers also had tables, stools, beds, and chests. Although the migrant of the tenant class did not have many new possessions or luxuries in America, it is clear that he resided in a home that was superior to the Highland huts. Further, the ready access to productive land and the bounty of nature provided a larger food supply for the tenant class that settled in America. In North Britain, however, tenants in the last half of the eighteenth century had little besides their staples of oatmeal and potatoes. The Highlander in North Carolina had prospects of further improving his lot, but the pressure of population and the inadequate food supply in Scotland gave the average tenant there less hope of bettering his living conditions. In summary, while migration did not greatly change the living conditions of the tacksmen, it did result in improved conditions for the tenants.

From the time of their arrival in North Carolina, the Highlanders took an active role in the political life of North Carolina. James Innes, one of the first to settle in the colony, had the most impressive record of public service. As early as 1734, he accepted the post of justice of the peace in New Hanover precinct. Following the outbreak in 1739 of the War of Jenkins’ Ear, North Carolina sent troops to join the British forces in the West Indies. In Admiral Vernon’s disastrous assault on Cartagena, Innes, then a captain, commanded the North Carolina troops. He was among the few Carolinians to survive the battle. After returning to North Carolina, he accepted a seat on the Council in 1750. Innes was also known in other colonies as a military leader, and his role of greatest responsibility came during the French and Indian War. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia appointed Innes, his close friend, as commander-in-chief of the expedition against the French and Indians in the Ohio Valley. Innes, who was then a colonel, promptly made his will and proceeded to Virginia with a body of North Carolina troops. Upon hearing of the appointment, George Washington wrote Governor Dinwiddie that he was happy to serve under Innes, an experienced officer and man of sense.” Because of orders from London, Innes was replaced as commander of all provincial troops four months later, but he continued as the commander of Fort Cumberland.

Many other Highlanders took public positions. Only five months after the arrival in 1739 of the group of 350 from Arygllshire, its leaders, Duncan Campbell, Dugald McNeil, “Coll” McAlister, and Neil McNeil, became justices of the peace. In 1758 Hector McNeil claimed £10 as his salary as Cumberland County sheriff. John Steward, another Highlander, succeeded McNeil. Cumberland County representatives to the House of Assembly were usually Highlanders. Hector McNeil served in 1761, and Alexander McCallister (McAlister) joined him in the next year. In 1764, Farquard Campbell became a member of the House of Assembly and served until the outbreak of the Revolution. Later Campbell was a delegate to several revolutionary conventions.

James Hogg, a tacksman from Caithness, served on the Hillsboro Committee of Safety during the Revolution. He was also one of the first trustees of the University of North Carolina, which opened its doors in 1795.

It is noteworthy that the Cape Fear Highlanders immediately accepted responsibilities in colonial government and produced several political leaders. They were sure to become involved—one way or another—in the revolutionary struggle that started in the 1770’s.

FOOTNOTES

* In 1783 the settlements of Campbellton and Cross Creek were united and were incorporated as Fayetteville in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette.