WHO ARE THE SCOTCH-IRISH

We have established in this book that the original Crutcher family is either of English or Welsh ancestry. But whom our ancestors married and where they came from is also an important factor in our genetic equation. With over 10,000 hours of study into this question, it is apparent that the Crutcher family intermarried slightly with German surnames, considerably with English surnames, but probably more so with the Scotch-Irish people. We wish to address the issue of who these people were.

Often there seems to be some confusion on the term "Scotch‑Irish". It does not refer to people of mixed Scottish and Irish ancestry, as the name might seem to imply, but to the descendants of the Presbyterians from lowland Scotland who settled in Ulster, the northernmost province of Ireland, in the 1600's. They subsequently emigrated from there to America starting in the early 1700's. In all, some 300,000 Scots migrated to Northern Ireland and at least 2 million of their descendants made a second move across the Atlantic during the next two centuries. Most Southern Americans can claim Scotch‑Irish forbears.

The word Scotch‑Irish is definitely an Americanism and is hardly known in the British Isles. In Ireland one's Protestant religion was and is, usually enough to designate Scottish ancestry. When a descriptive term is needed, "Ulster Scot" is preferred there. The Scotch‑Irish term gradually came into use in the American Colonies and was not always used in a complimentary‑sense. When the flood of Scotch‑Irish immigrants began flowing into English dominated America, there was much criticism against these aggressive and tough land‑grabbers.

Life in Scotland had always been tough and rugged, whether in the Highlands or Lowlands. Hunger was a fact of life coupled with hard work, bitter weather much of the time, constant fighting among the clans or against enemies from the north or the English to the south. This was how it was through the centuries. Then in 1603 England finally was successful in subjecting the Irish, and King James I seized the lands in northern Ireland, sent the owners into exile, and opened the land to settlement from Scotland or England. Scotland was less than twenty miles away across the channel and times were hard there so most of the settlers were Scottish. But they did not own the land. It had been given to favored persons, called "undertakers", who were to bring in the settlers. Surrounded by a hosti1e people whom they despised, yet themselves regarded as inferior by the ruling English, the Ulster Scots became more assertive, more energetic, and less provincial than the indigenous lowland Scots. In time, their industry and enterprise transformed a backward province into the most prosperous part of Ireland. The Scots kept sternly aloof from the native population of Ireland and clung to their Presbyterianism. There was little mingling between the Irish and Scots, and less inter-marriage. One reference called the Irish more Catholic than the Pope, and indicated the Ulster Scots were more Protestant than John Knox and John Calvin put together.

But things were not really great in Ireland for the Scots. As Presbyterians, they were dissenters from the established church and were subject to certain restrictions. They were required to pay tithes to support the Anglican Church and were not allowed to hold office, among other things. Rents on the land were constantly raised, tithes were increased proportionately, and the settlers were already reeling under a series of crop failures, followed by a slump in the linen industry. Dissatisfaction with conditions in Ulster was sharpened by awareness of opportunity in America.

Those who had emigrated from Ulster earlier spread the word. In 1729 two clergymen reported that people in the north of Ireland had received "many letters from their friends who have already settled themselves in the American Plantations, inviting them to transport themselves thither, and promising them liberty and ease as the reward of their honest industry, with a prospect of transmitting their acquisitions and privileges safely to their posterity, without the imposition of growing rents and other burdens". The thought of owning land and being their own bosses spurred the Ulster Scots to leave Ireland for a new life in a new land - America.

These Irish immigrants with their Scottish background were well suited to life on the America frontier. Upon arrival they quickly passed through the land already settled, mainly in Pennsylvania, and situated themselves on the unoccupied lands of their choice, which usually belonged to the Indians. But the Scotch‑Irish were always ready to fight, thus causing the authorities to become more than a little unhappy with the turn of events. Usually the nearest neighbors to the Scotch‑Irish were the Germans, and they loved having those good fighters between them and the Indians! This same pattern proved true as the land filled up to the mountains, forcing the immigrants to move southward into the great valley of Virginia and on into the Carolinas and Kentucky.

The Scotch‑Irish were proud of their Scottish heritage, but they did not think of themselves simply as Scots. Thus they generally showed little interest in St. Andrew's societies or Burns suppers. There can be little doubt that Ireland rather than Scotland was the old country to them. After all, several generations had passed since the first Scots had moved to Ireland.

It was the mid 1800's before the Scotch‑Irish themselves adopted the name. They began using it to disassociate themselves from the Irish Catholic immigrants who were swarming into the U.S. because of the great potato famine in their native land. These new Irish soon acquired a bad reputation in America. They were considered a lower type and they worked cheaper, thus taking jobs from others. Having no money they became a burden to the cities where they arrived, and they became known as drinkers and brawlers.

As long as the Scotch‑Irish made up the great majority of immigrants from Ireland, they were content to be known simply as Irishmen but as the numbers of Irish Catholics grew, with 4 1/2 million coming between 1820 & 1920, the old Scotch‑Irish fears was rekindled in a new setting. They gave enthusiastic support to the various anti-Catholic societies that sprang up in the 1840's and 1850's. Following the Civil War this prejudice peaked but not before several anti‑Catholic riots took lives and destroyed property in Philadelphia, New York City, Newark, N.J. and elsewhere. One author said, "Few Americans hated the Catholic Irish more than did the Protestant Irish."

Now, a hundred or so years later, that hatred has finally disappeared for the most part. Up until World War II began, Scotch‑Irish organizations retained a measure of vitality, supporting Protestants in the ongoing conflicts in Ireland, and likewise Irish Americans, the Catholics, supported the Catholic cause over the sea. The war goes on and on in Ireland, as it has now for centuries, but since 1945 both U.S. groups have grown increasingly indifferent to the old country.

In part - by Beth Netherton and in lessor part by Kent Crutcher, Brownfield, Texas

Amarillo, Texas