Old Virginia and her neighbours

394 OLD VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS.at Philadelphia. In the two years 1773 and 1774Themigramorethan 30,000 came. In 1770 onestamen tothird of the population of PennsylvaniaAmerica.^^^ Scotch-Irish. Altogether, between1730 and 1770, I think it probable that at leasthalf a million souls were transferred from Ulsterto the American colonies, making not less than onesixth part of our population at the time of theRevolution. Of these, very few came to New England; among their descendants were the soldiersJohn Stark and Henry Knox, and more lately thegreat naturalist Asa Gray. Those who went toPennsylvania received grants of land in the westernmountain region. The policy of the governmentwas to interpose them as a buffer between theexpanding colony and the Indian frontier. Onceplanted in the Alleghany region, they spread rapidlyand in large numbers toward the southwestalong the mountain country through the ShenandoahValley and into the Carolinas. At a latertime they formed almost the entire population ofWest Virginia, and they were the men who chieflybuilt up the commonwealths of Kentucky and Tennessee.Among; these Scotch-Irish wereScotch-Irishin the south- the• • t-, i * i t•Breckmridg-es, Alexanders, Lewises,west./-. •oPrestons, Campbells, Pickenses, Stuarts,McDowells, Johnstons, and Rutledges ; RichardMontgomery, Anthony Wayne, Daniel Boone,James Robertson, George Rogers Clark, AndrewJackson, Thomas Benton, Samuel Houston, JohnCaldwell Calhoun, Stonewall Jackson. It waschiefly Scotch-Irish troops that won the pivotalbattle at King's Mountain, that crushed the In-