Mythology, traditions and history - The Clan Macfie Society

- 16 -
1759-65 - When the French had lost Quebec it was assumed that the French-Indian-war
might stop. In fact a "Pontiac War" with the Indians continued.
1760 - Scots moved to Pennsylvania.
1769 - It is reported that some disbanded Fraser Highlanders moved from Canada to
Pennsylvania.
1171-75 - This was the heaviest influx of Scotch-Irish settlers prior to the Revolutionary
war. Possible 30,000 to 50,000 left Ulster depriving its manufacturies of skilled labor.
Westmoreland County had been developed. Dickson, in the Appendixes to his volume lists the
boats involved in this transfer. 1
1770-75 - Leyburn provides an answer to a problem I have met at various times, that
43,720 passengers had moved to America. I wondered why this total had been obtained. The
answer is that between 1769 and 1774 I have noticed in these five years, sailing ships with total
emigrants of 43,720. 2 The assumption was made that the number of emigrants, would equal the
number of tons of shipping. This ratio was apparently accepted by the owners of the vessel.
There were exceptions to this rule of thumb. Guillet refers to ships in which 450 passengers
were loaded on to a vessel of 300 tons, where twenty five persons had no accommodation, on a
voyage to North Carolina, until other people, who had had accommodation, died. 3 The
Passenger Act of 1803 limited the number of passengers to one for every two tons; it was
amended in 1817 to one passenger for every 1-1/2 tons; in 1823 the ratio was a passenger for
five tons; in 1826 Ireland was exempted and the Act was repealed in 1827. Agents went back
to excessive over crowding. Regulations continued to be proclaimed and forgotten and only
the passing of the sailing ship drove these marauders out of the transport of honest citizens.
1740-1800 - Pennsylvania became a clearing house for persons from Ulster - to Kentucky,
Tennessee, Carolinas, Ohio, Indiana, and later still to Iowa, Mississippi and Missouri.
1790 - Hanna reports that the Scotch-Irish immigrants amounted to 80,000. 4 Dunaway
reports that 200,000 had emigrated from 1750-1800, according to Newenham. Leyburn
considers that more than 250,000 in the 1790 census had Scotch-Irish ancestry. 2
1790 - Census of 1790. The publication "Heads of Families" for Pennsylvania provides the
names of persons of the clan. 5
1 Dickson, R.J.; Op. cit. Appendices
2 Leyburn, Jas, G.; op. cit. p. 181-183.
3 Guillet, E.C.; The Great Migration, Toronto, 1937 and 1963. Chap. II.
4 Hanna, C.A.; The Scotch Irish. Vol. I. p. 83
5 Heads of Families - Pennsylvania, Reprint Co.