Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-07-03
= For there song requested they,
Who did us captive take;
Our spoilers called for mirth and said:
song of Zion sing


quet advanced with a large force into
the country west of the Ohio and COM
PEELED the Indians to desist from war
and deliver up their captives. Two
companies of Bouquets army were
from the central Valley, one com
manded by Charles Lewis, and the
other by Alexander McClanahan. To
these were assigned the posts of honor
on the march, one going in advance
and the other bringing up the rear.
Then followed ten years of peace,
and this brings us to the battle of
Point Pleasant, on Oct 10, 1774. This
decisive battle which stemmed the tide
of Indian warfare for two years, was
fought almost exclusively by Valley
men; but we cannot speak of it further.
In the meanwhile, as early as 1749.
sixteen years after the first settlement,
a classical school had been opened by
Robert Alexander, native of Ulster,
educated in Edinburg, some twelve
miles from Augusta courthouse. This
school was subsequently removed,
under different teachers, from place to
place, and finally located in the vi
entity of Lexington. Here it assumed
the name of Liberty Hall Academy,
and, presided over by the Rev. Will
learning, furnished education to many
youths who became distinguished in
church and State. Next it was char
tered as Washington College, and now
it appears as Washington and Lee
University, under whose auspices we
have assembled. Long may it con-
tinue to diffuse it's blessings through
the country and the world, a monu-
ment to the early settlers of the Val
ley
But it is time to inquire who were
these people of whom we have been
! speaking-of what race? Where did
they come from? and why did they
| come to this back woods country? To
answer these questions we must go
back to Scotland, more than two hun
bred years ago.
The battle of Boutwell, Bridge was
fought on the 22nd of June, 1879. 1t is
called battle, but was rather rout
of undisciplined peasants who had
been goaded to take arms by the OPP
4, pressions of government. A few were
killed in the fight, four hundred were
slaughtered while flying from the
field by the merciless Claverhouse and
his dragons, and 1900 were captured.
The prisoners were herded like cattle
for five months in Grayfriars Church
yard, Edinburgh, half-naked, half
starved, and without shelter. Those
who submitted were discharged; the
| others who stood out for the rights
| which God had given them were
sentenced to transportation to Barba-
| does, there to be sold into slavery
A merchant of Leith contracted with
| the Laird of Barnton, 1.-The man. says
| the old chronicler that first burnt
the covenant" to transport the con-
victs. Two hundred and fifty of them
| were crowded on a ship which pro-
ceeded on its voyage around the north
of Scotland. A storm arose, the ship
was wrecked near the Orkney Island
and 200 of the prisoners were drowned
fifty escaped, made their way to Ire
land, and were not pursued by the
government.
Many years before, during the reign
of James the first, large number of
Scotch people had settled in the
province of Ulster, Ireland. "They
went over" says Froude, ITO earn a
living by labor" in land which had
produced hitherto little but banditti.
They built towns and villages; they
esta blished trades and manufactures;
they inclosed fields, raised farm houses
and homesteads where till then there
had been but robbers castles, wattled
huts, or holes in the earth like rabbit
burrows; while, without artificial dis
tinctiOns, they were saved from de
generating into the native type by
their religion, then growing in its first
enthusiasm into a living power which
pervaded their entire being" The
| Ra4i q
shipwreck were no doubt a valuable
acquisition to the Scotch colony in
Ulster Let us see who these people
were, as far as we can judge from
their names. Some of the names are
as follows James and John Clark,
John, Thomas and Andrew Thomson,
William, James, Alexander and Walter
Waddell, William and Thomas Miller,
John Cochran, Watson, Gardner,
Brownlee, Wilson, Craig, Currie, Tod,
Wallace, Cameron, Reid, Campbell,
Paterson, Young, Finley, Brown,
Anderson, Caldwell, Eccles, Lamb,
Hutcheson, Ramsey, White, Buchan-
an, Morrison, Montgomery, Ingles,
Hamilton, Bell, Henderson, Steel,
Houston, Beck, Martin, Scott, GLASGOW
These will suffice. How familiar the
names are to the people of the Valley
They are our own names, and we do
not have to inquire further from what
land our forefathers came.
Many Scotch of other names settled
in Ulster. There are the innumerable
Macs--the McDowells, Meetings., Nc
Clanahans, McLaughlins, McKees, Nc
Pheeters, McCormicks, McCorkles, Nc
Neils and others, whose prefix smacks
of the Highlands; but of whatever
origin they assimilated with the Low
land stock, and altogether constituted
the Scotch-Irish race.
The settlers in Ireland cherished the
traditions and preserved unchanged
the manners and customs of the land
from which they came. and in a few
generations the people of Ulster were
more Scotch than the Scotch them
selves. They were a thrifty people
and soon became prosperous as farm
ers, mechanics and merchants. When
the Revolution of 1868 occurred they
zealously espoused the Protestant
cause. They held Londonderry for
King William But they were dis
senters from the established church
and were prescribed because of their
religion, They were not allowed to
teach school, they were excluded from
all offices, civil and military; marriages
by their ministers were declared illegal
and void; their ministers were prose-
cuted for preaching outside of certain
bounds, while their hearers were
threatened with the stocks. They, |
however, maintained their loyalty to
the Protestant succession. In 1715, |
when the rebellion occurred in Scot
land in behalf of the Pretender, and
an insurrection in Ireland was appre-
hended. they raised several regiments
to support the government. Yet even
for this service they were threatened
with prosecution after the danger was
over.
At the same tine the industry and
commerce of the people were sys-
tematically repressed-men of spirit
and enterprise could not endure the
expressions heaped upon them
Twenty thousand people left Ulster on
the destruction of the wooden trade in
1889. Many more were driven away by
the passage of the Test Act. For more
than fifty years annual shiploads of
families departed from Belfast and