Between 1735 and 1748 hundreds of young men and their families emigrated from the Scottish Highlands to the Georgia coast to settle and protect the new British colony. These men were recruited by the trustees of the colony and military governor James Oglethorpe, who wanted settlers who were accustomed to hardship, militant in nature, and willing to become frontier farmer-soldiers. In this respect, the Highlanders fit the bill perfectly through training and tradition. Recruiting and settling the Scottish Highlanders as the first line of defense on the southern frontier in Georgia was an important decision on the part of the trustees and crucial for the survival of the colony, but this portion of Georgia's history has been sadly neglected until now. By focusing on the Scots themselves, Anthony W. Parker explains what factors motivated the Highlanders to leave their native glens of Scotland for the pine barrens of Georgia and attempts to account for the reasons their cultural distinctiveness and "old world" experience aptly prepared them to play a vital role in the survival of Georgia in this early and precarious moment in its history.

Given in memory of Dorothy Clark by the Texas Research Ramblers.

Since it first appeared in 1956, Mrs. Vanstory's rich narrative of the barrier islands from Ossabaw to Cumberland--and the mainland towns along the way--has become the standard popular history of Georgia's golden coast. Thoroughly revised and with over forty new illustrations, this edition traces the crucial and colorful role these islands have played from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. Home, at one time or another, to the American Indians, the French, the Spanish, and the English; to buccaneers, friars, and priests; to Puritans and Scottish Highlanders; to slave traders, planters, soldiers, statesmen, and millionaires, these islands are as rich in history as they are in natural beauty. Georgia's Land of the Golden Isles now takes the reader through the years from General James Oglethorpe to President Jimmy Carter, unfolding the stories of the lives that have touched, or been touched by, the golden isles of Georgia.

Information pertaining to each settler consists, generally, of name, age, occupation, place of origin, names of spouse, children and other family members, dates of embarkation and arrival, place of settlement, and date of death. In addition, some of the more notorious aspects of the settlers' lives are recounted in brief, telltale sketches.

Meyer addresses himself principally to two questions. Why did many thousands of Scottish Highlanders emigrate to America in the eighteenth century, and why did the majority of them rally to the defense of the Crown. . . . Offers the most complete and intelligent analysis of them that has so far appeared.--William and Mary Quarterly Using a variety of original sources -- official papers, travel documents, diaries, and newspapers -- Duane Meyer presents an impressively complete reconstruction of the settlement of the Highlanders in North Carolina. He examines their motives for migration, their life in America, and their curious political allegiance to George III.

The book under consideration here marks the second in a series on Scottish colonial soldiers compiled by emigration authority David Dobson. (The first volume was published as two parts in one.) Working from manuscripts in the Acts of the Privy Council and the Calendar of British State Papers and published sources such as the Aberdeen Journal, the Edinburgh Advertiser, and the Georgia Gazette, the author has uncovered information on an additional 750 Scottish colonial solders not found in his earlier book. One such soldier was "John Wright, born in High Calton, Edinburgh, during 1728, an army sergeant who fought in the French and Indian War and in the American War of Independence, witnessed to death of Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham, died in Joppa, Edinburgh, in 1838, father of a Roman Catholic priest in Montreal."

This study examined Scottish Highlanders who defended the southern border of British territory in the North American theater of the War of the Austrian Succession (1739-1748). A framework was established to show how Highlanders were deployed by the English between 1745 and 1815 as a way of eradicating radical Jacobite elements from the Scottish Highlands and utilizing their supposed natural superiority in combat. The case study of these Highlanders who fought in Georgia and Florida demonstrated that the English were already employing Highlanders in a similar fashion in North America during the 1730s and 1740s. British government sources and correspondence of colonial officials and military officers were used to find the common Highlander's reactions to fighting on this particular frontier of the Empire. It was discovered that by reading against what these officials wrote and said was the voice of the Highlander found, in addition to confirming a period of misrepresentation of Highland manpower in the colony of Georgia during the War of Jenkins' Ear that adhered to the analytical framework established.

An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America is a fascinating historical work by J.P. MacLean, a prominent Scottish-American historian. MacLean delves into the immigration and settlement of Scotch Highlanders in America, shedding light on their unique cultural traditions and the challenges they faced in adapting to a new land. This meticulously researched account offers valuable insights into an often-overlooked aspect of American history.