Ulster Scots, Scotch Irish,
planters, improvers, oppressors:
different folks have different
names for the people forged by their arrival along this coastline
but how did it really start?
That s a story of intrigue and
opportunism that s easily forgotten.
If you re interested in the people, places and events in Scottish
history then click the subscribe button on the bottom left of the screen.
In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
Here in the 17th century a people were fashioned
through tempest and fire, bible and sword.
Depending on whether you re a descendant one
of those people living here, or abroad,
a modern Irish republican, or
for that matter a modern Scot,
you might have very different views
of the people forged in that fire.
The well-rehearsed story is of James
VI becoming James I of England
and his strategy of confiscating
land and planting people
after the flight of the Ulster Earls in 1607,
but today I want to dig a little deeper into a story probably little
known outside this province.
A story of private ambition
a story of greed, intrigue prison break, opportunity and one man s ambition.
I found the details in a book The Scottish Migration to Ulster by Percival Maxwell.
I ll leave a link in the description
Two months after being crowned king of England
James I, as he was to them, granted lands in Ulster to the Scotsman, Sir Randall MacDonnell
but that was really only rubber stamping a reality on the ground created
during the reign of Elizabeth.
But this official grant said that
MacDonnell had to break the land into manours and put a strong house onto each
Given that England s nine-year war against indigenous Irish had only ended
six days after Elizabeth s death,
strong houses probably weren t a bad idea
depending who s side you were on
Don t make that mistake over here
Anyway our story really starts
here with another Scot.
He was an Ayrshire laird called Hugh Montgomery.
or Wee Shug tae his pals
He was an ex-military man, and a crafty lad.
His brother had emigrated to England in 1584 and he d been in Elizabeth s good
graces during her lifetime.
Wee Shug s southern brother would
send information back north to Shug,
who would send it on to James VI, and before long Shuggie Montgomery had earned
his brownie badge for spying.
What s more, when James made his way down to
London to try his buttocks on the big seat
who was one of the Scottish gentlemen that
went with, but Wee Shug fae Ayrshire.
He took the opportunity to catch
up with his ever-alert brother
and they decided between them that
now that the nine-year war was over, and a Scottish king was on the English throne
Ireland was the place of opportunity.
Now by a stroke of luck the Gaelic
chief of County Down, Big Conn O Neil
had been languishing here in Carrickfergus
Castle with little to look forward to but a head chopping.
England s Lord Deputy of Ireland had locked Big Con up for rebellion against Elizabeth,
although Conn himself described it as a fight in the pub
don t you just love the Irish.
Back over the water in Ayrshire,
we Shug Montgomery saw this as his opportunity to get
hold of some Irish land.
He would help Big Conn escape
in return for half his estate.
So, depending on who you believe, Wee Shug
engineered Big Conn O Neill s escape
by arranging to bribe the jailer
and seduce the jailer s daughter
Why you d need to seduce the daughter
when you ve already bribed the gaoler I haven t quite worked out,
so maybe it was Big Conn s wife who smuggled rope into his cell inside a piece of meat...
and then she seduced the gaoler s daughter
Either way Big Conn escaped and hid in the
steeple of Bangor s church for a few days
before Wee Shuggie had him ferried the
short distance to the Ayrshire coast and confirmed the deal.
Somehow when Shug was down at court in London trying to negotiate Conn O
Neil s pardon from James VI.. sorry first....
another Scotsman gets wind of it.
What can I say about James Hamilton?
St Andrews educated lecturer and
Fellow at Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin Agent for James in
Elizabeth s later reign?
The man who had awaited Elizabeth s
death in London, with fresh horses strategically placed at points north,
so that he could race to Edinburgh and be the first person to inform
James that his kingdom had come
Sleekit.
That s what I d say.
Sleekit
If you were in a high stakes poker game and you laid down your cards to show a fox of clubs, a
snake of spades and jack, Queen, King of Thistles
He d convince the king of thistles
that we might as well split the pot
Sleekit is my point.
In August 1604 he wangled his way into the card game.
He managed to convince the king that Big Conn O Neil s lands should
be divided in a three-way split
O Neil would get a third of
what was originally his,
Shug Montgomery gets a third
and Sleekit Foxy Hamilton gets a third
And the king duly agreed
Now if you were a sleekit ambitious fox on the make, what would you do next?
Well, on 6 December 1604 the king issued a letter in favour of a London merchant,
who in a quirk of coincidence was conveniently named Thomas Ireland.
In return for a payment of 1,678. 6s. 8d.,
Thomas Ireland was to be given enough
Irish land for an annual income of 100.
How much land is that?
The letter said: so muche of the landes in the twoe Ardes, in
the province of Ulster, he or his nominee shall thinke fitt, to be parcel .
That s like a blank cheque.
It was a blank cheque that two months later Thomas
Ireland signed over to James Foxy Hamilton.
Noooooooooooo The Fox is going
tae stich ye up like a kipper
So Foxy Hamilton became the first Scot to
get a legal title to land in County Down on Ireland s north east coastline
two months before the king s letter authorising the three-way deal with Big
Conn, Wee Shug and Foxy himself was signed
on 16 April 1605.
Even in that letter, all of O Neill s estate was to be given to The Fox first
and he would split it amongst the three later.
Now part of the deal was that they
had to promise to inhabit the said territory and lands with English or Scotchmen .
Foxy Hamilton and Shug Montgomery were knighted
and the previously rebellious
Conn O Neil was granted some of his own lands back from the crown.
The Reason this rebellious type was allowed lands confiscated by the crown,
was they weren t deemed confiscated as a result of Con O Neill s pub brawl rebellion , but
because of the attainder of one of his kinsman
based here at Eden duff Carrick, also known as
Shane s Castle on the banks of Lough Neagh
Now that I m on the subject of Big Conn,
remember that Lord Deputy of Ireland who d had him imprisoned in Carrickfergus
at the start of all this?
Well it seems that he and Foxy Hamilton
started co-operating to their mutual benefit
and remember that letter from King James the blank
cheque granting however much land was needed
It turns out that sleekit and sleekiter used it to get their hands on way
more property than intended.
Once a property had been acquired by the
crown, they just added it to the territory covered by the letter and Bingo!
The Fox was in the hen coop
Between July 1605 and May 1608 Hamilton
received more than five separate grants.
Once he had got hold of a title, he would
sell it, or pass it on to deserving people.
..a bit like if you clicked the link in
the description below and bought me a coffee as a wee tip for making these videos
Now I m only a visitor here, and this may be old hat to folk who live in Ulster,
but the reason this story interested me was that you tend to read that the
plantations of Scots and English
started when James confiscated
lands here following what s known as the flight of the Earls .
I ll make a video about that whilst I m here,
but the point is that these events tell us
that Scots were flooding over the Irish sea, on a three-hour boat ride before the
flight of the earls even took place.
This was an opportunistic private plantation
of Scots before the Crown even realised there was going to be the prospect for state
sponsored colonisation a few years later.
What had been O Neil lands were
now being settled by some English, but predominantly Scots taking the trip
over that narrow stretch of Irish sea.
County Down and Antrim were
occupied by the gentleman farmers, retinues and tradesmen who followed,
providing a bridgehead for further trade, transport and lets be honest a bit
of suppression of the local people.
Hamilton and Montgomery just wanted
to make money , but for the crown
suppression of the locals
was always part of the plan.
Grants were given with conditions
that the landholders build a castle or strong house within eight years.
The crown knew that trouble would come and of course it did
The English Civil War s bloody clash between King and parliament was conceived in Edinburgh
s St Giles Cathedral on 23rd July 1637,
but the head crowned here in
Ulster four years later
It was a long pregnancy
The Scots who endured evolved a unique identity and their own form of the
Scots language and Presbyterian faith,
but close enough to pop back and
watch The Rangers at the weekend.
Of course, you don t need me to tell you that
the division between the indigenous Irish and the newcomers has continued for hundreds of years.
Those watching in the USA don t need me to tell you that the first huge
influx of Scots to America
didn t come from the Highlands
during the clearances, but Lowland Ulster Scots making that
leap across a much larger ocean
from here a few generations after arriving.
Over the years they provided numerous presidents, generals and men of eminence
but now you know how it began.
If you want to understand more about James
VI and his relationship with the Gael there s another video coming up on screen now.
In the meantime Tha mi an d chas gum bi lath
math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda
