RE-CAP:

In 2014, four unlikely individuals realized they were all independently pursuing a common goal. Each was exploring an important group of people who formed the foundations of everything presently recognized as the quintessential Maine character, and they decided to join efforts. While John Mann and Bill McKeen were busy collecting the family stories and genealogical history of Maine’s Scots Irish families, Barry H. Rodrigue and Rebecca Graham were embarking on documenting a Scots Irish archaeological record along the Eastern border of Merrymeeting Bay. For Mann and McKeen, this was a personal quest to document their own 300 years of connections to Maine. For Rodrigue and Graham, the quest was academic to change the historic narrative of a misidentified community through archaeology and find the “lost” or “transient” colony of “Cork” definitively.

As the work grew, it attracted interest and more passionate participants and was consistently supported by the St. Andrews Society of Maine. While efforts at the Cork Colony wound down, focus shifted towards the western side of Merrymeeting Bay, where Archaeologist Pam Crane joined the efforts, and work shifted to the less disturbed side of Merrymeeting Bay in search of Somersett. The McFaddens, Bradburys, Stinsons, and possibly also the Wilson families that settled Somersett came on the same ship with settlers at Cork; though chose to locate their homes across the water highway from their shipmates.

As potential sites were identified, the deed records showed that one site of interest was still owned by the descendant of the 1718 McFadden family. What was once an abstract and technical project to add greater detail to history quickly became personal and lifechanging for the site owner, Bradford McFadden.

Over the next five years, as the homestead was uncovered by the centimeter through heat, brown tail moth epidemics, and the onslaught of tick season, each digging team member grew more and more determined to mark the impending 300-year anniversary of the first large scale movement from present-day Northern Ireland to Maine. It was this determination to not let 2018 pass without an event that would provide a platform to launch a wide body of work from many enthusiasts that led to the 1718-2018 Diaspora Conference and Reunion. The goal was, not only to celebrate the anniversary of the initial settlements, but also to highlight a selection of the abundant Scots-Irish stories in Maine, and the significant role these individuals had in shaping Maine. Most importantly, we wanted to share these stories both locally and internationally.

~ Rebecca Graham, from Introduction to ‘1718-2018 Reflections on 300 years of the Scots-Irish in Maine’

August is one of the hottest months in Maine, USA, filled with festivals, last minute family vacations, abundant lobster and fresh produce. In August of this year (2018) Maine became the home of all things Ulster-Scots as film crews, scholars, family historians, musicians, archaeologists, diplomats, and enthusiasts descended upon the midcoast region to examine the significance of 300 years of continuous migration from Ulster and its effect on the construction of Maine’s past, present, and future. Maine’s first Ulster-Scots families left indelible marks on local government construction, land law, and culture now recognized as “quintessential Maine” from humour to humility.

On this 300th anniversary of (1718) the first organized migration from Counties Antrim and Londonderry to the New World, the Maine Ulster Scots Project (MUSP) held a conference at Bowdoin College exploring themes of causes, consequences, conditions, legacy, and opportunity created by the Scots-Irish who settled in Maine. Bowdoin College’s first president in 1757, Joseph McKeen, was a descendant of the 1718 settlers born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, and the campus provided a prestigious central location to exploring the mid-coast region of the State. The 1718-2018 Diaspora Reunion and Conference presented a programme illustrating a range of Ulster-Scots Stories in Maine and the continued importance of these connections to Northern Ireland for diaspora.

As well as lectures and presentations, tours to important Ulster-Scots sites of significance were on offer. One popular location was the site where Reverend MacGregor’s ship the Robert was frozen into Casco Bay the winter before they left Maine to settle Londonderry New Hampshire.

Visits to the McClellan Mansion, and Simonton Cove, the McFadden archaeological site, the location of Rev. Woodside’s first sermon in Maine, the 1740 Harpswell Meeting House, and the location of the former home of Declaration of Independence signatory, Matthew Thornton, were also visited.

The conference opened with a special welcoming dinner hosted by Norman Houston OBE, Director of the Northern Ireland Bureau, the Northern Ireland Assembly’s diplomatic representation to North America. Norman highlighted the strength of the Ulster-Scots connections to the foundations of the United States and the importance of diaspora networks to his current role. Additional speakers included MUSP president, Rebecca Graham and author of The Lobster Coast, and American Nations, and journalist, Colin Woodard.

Day one of the conference explored the themes of emigration, immigration, the impact on Maine’s tribes, and the legacy of 1718 on the foundations of Maine. Family history, and regional stories were also explored, with many delegates finding distant cousins among the 120 attendees connecting them to the first families of the migration. Many of the family names that settled Merrymeeting Bay in 1718 are still found in every town from York to Lubec. Towns like Newry and Belfast bear the legacy of their early settlers and the connections to the former homelands. In fact, the last time Scots-Irish identity was collected on the U.S. Census in 2000, Maine had the highest number of residents per capita listing their ethnicity as Scots- Irish and ranked 3rd nationally for self-identifying diaspora in the United States.

While the eastern frontier would have been a formidable wilderness, the Scots-Irish were not entirely without external support. In 1650, two dozen Scottish prisoners of war were brought to New England later establishing the oldest charitable organization in North America, The Scots Charitable Society, and the town of Berwick Maine. These descendants aided the Scots-Irish in Maine paying off court fines when the residents ran afoul of Puritan laws, supporting business ventures, and assisting with land purchases. Continuing on this mutually supportive theme, the St. Andrews Society of Maine, a long-time supporter of the Maine Ulster-Scots Project, blended their annual Highland Games events with the conference.

The Scottish Government also provided a special reception event hosted by Second Secretary for Scottish Affairs, Rory Hedderly, to round out the evening. In total, eleven of the 31 speakers and facilitators for the conference came from Northern Ireland or Scotland, with the remaining speakers presenting projects directly linked to Maine Scots-Irish research efforts.

Opening the final conference day, Woodside’s former Maine church, the First Parish Church of Brunswick and its current Reverend Mary Baard, hosted a special blessing and welcoming sermon offered by Reverend James McCaughan, minister of Woodside’s former parish in Northern Ireland in Dunboe. The remaining lectures focused on the continued migration theme, including a summary of clergy from Ulster that found their way to Maine, archaeological approaches to uncovering Maine Scots-Irish, evidence of shared musical heritage, an introduction to the Sam Henry Collection, and global learning efforts recently launched by the Ulster-Scots Agency.

The musical legacy of Maine’s Scots-Irish was explored through timber camp ballads and fiddle music. Artist Julia Lane used the work of Sam Henry and Helen Hartness Flanders Collection to reveal Maine’s musical connections to Scotland and Ulster. Causeway Coast and Glens Museum Service Collections officer Sarah Carson presented the work available in the Sam Henry collection which is of deep interest to the 250 families who left Rathlin Island to settle in Washington County, Maine. The evening ended with a concert headed by the leading authority on North American fiddle music, Frank Ferrel, joined by Castlebay and the Maine Highland Fiddlers.

The wider significance of 1718-2018 Conference became evident as the week provided a wide variety of topics on Ulster-Scots studies begging for greater attention. Each local story revealed how intimately these stories are connected to the bedrock experience that formed New England and the United States. At the end of the conference, a commitment to delving deeper into these local stories of regional and national significance was made by speakers, delegates and the organizations involved.

Leading the way with this effort, in conjunction with Tourism Ireland, The Ulster-Scots Agency sent Macmillan Media representatives, Jane Veitch and Matthew Gould to New Hampshire and Maine to capture Scots-Irish historic sites and interviews that will assist the Agency’s educational and promotional efforts laying the foundation for future projects and to visually illustrate the breadth of New England’s Scots-Irish to the construction of the United States.

During the week, MUSP received two very special gifts from visitors including a map drawn by Dr. John Mitchell, in 1755 used in Boundary Waters Treaty case of 1909 between Maine and Canada presented by his descendant David Mitchell, and full set of the out of print T.H. Mullin histories of Coleraine gifted by the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council and presented by Helen Perry to Rebecca Graham.

Post-conference, delegates commented that all presenters were engaging and informative, and remarked that the spirit of celebration and kinship was uplifting throughout week. The energy and attention ignited by conference will be carried forward into New Hampshire next year hopefully lead to greater links between Northern Ireland and New England.

MUSP believes that by broadening the scope of participants to include delegates from Northern Ireland and Scotland our research efforts might provide a welcomed unexplored platform for Ulster-Scots research on both sides of the Atlantic. What is clear is that the connections made in August could easily be the beginning of much stronger mutually beneficial transatlantic partnerships. For this, and all our friends in Northern Ireland and Scotland, we are very grateful.

‘After a harrowing journey at sea they landed in an unwelcoming Boston. Boston residents met the group with a volley of sticks and stones’

In 1718 a mass exodus of entire communities began from the Bann Valley region left Ulster bound for the New World. After a harrowing journey at sea they landed in an unwelcoming Boston. Boston residents met the group with a “volley of sticks and stones” preventing their departure from the ship. In late August / September, two ship captains with Reverend Woodside, and Reverend McGregor were encouraged to sail north to the Frontier in what is now present day Maine. The MacCallum‘s passengers disembarked near Brunswick and on Merrymeeting Bay. McGregor’s ship, the Robert was frozen into Casco Bay leading to his later decision to move with some of those families to Nutfield (now Londonderry), New Hampshire the following April (1719).

Two settlements were established by the MacCallum passengers directly on the Kennebec, which was the main colonial highway in the eastern frontier. The residents of Antrim and Londonderry traveling included the names such as Armstrong, McFadden, Montgomery, Caldwell and many more. These family names endure in the region to this day.

As part of the 1718-2018 Ulster-Scots Diaspora Reunion, we had the opportunity to take 30 attendees on a bus tour of Portland (originally Falmouth) and South Portland (originally Purpooduc). Among the stops was a visit to First Settlers Cemetery on the shore of Casco Bay still named “Simonton Cove”, named for the original 1718 Simonton family from the Strabane area of Ulster.

Several of the Scot-Irish settlers that came from Northern Ireland into Casco Bay in the late fall of 1718 are buried here including Ann Douglas Simonton. We held a little ceremony, planted heather, and placed several flags at her graveside during the tour in August 2018 to mark the 300th anniversary of this migration from Ulster to Maine.   

The Maine Ulster Scots Project began in 2006 under the work of John Mann and Bill McKeen to uncover and tell the stories of the Means and McKeen families in Maine. Joined in 2008 by Rebecca Graham, the organization blended archaeology and family history to uncover the significance of these early families to construction of Maine’s unique New England culture. With a mission of saving and sharing these stories, the organization incorporated as a non-profit in 2015 to pursue concentrated research into Scots-Irish studies and provide public and school-based educational programming.

2018 Filming in New England – new video productions will celebrate close links between Ulster and America

In association with Tourism Ireland, The Ulster-Scots Agency commissioned Belfast-based company Macmillan Media to send a crew to New England in 2018 to film places and interview experts on the early settlement of the region by Ulster-Scots families. The crew visited Derry and Londonderry New Hampshire, Belfast Maine and based themselves in Brunswick Maine to capture high quality media assets for use in four planned videos which will tell the story and raise awareness about links between Ulster and New England.

The Ulster-Scots Agency commissioned a touring exhibition of the 1718 migration to New England and this was unveiled at the conference. The exhibition was on display for the duration of the conference. It provided an introduction to the agency’s efforts to promote understanding of the history of the Ulster-Scots with the diaspora and was very popular with conference delegates. The exhibition will remain in the USA with the Maine Ulster-Scots project and it is  hoped that it will be available at a range of future events and be placed on display in public spaces. The Ulster-Scots Agency provided a range of practical branded merchandise for conference delegates, raising awareness of the Agency and stimulating conversations about its work.

Some of the copy and pictures used for the above website page have been adapted from the September 22, 2018 edition of “The Ulster-Scot”, the official publication of the Ulster-Scots Agency and from Rebecca Graham’s Introduction to ‘1718-2018 Reflections on 300 years of the Scots-Irish in Maine’. Additional pictures and copy was edited by Dave McCausland.

‘1718 – 2018’ Reflections on 300 years of the Scots-Irish in Maine'

This 256 page book was produced following the academic conference held at Bowdoin College, Maine in August 2018.

This important work is a compendium of presented papers by a range of American and Ulster based writers and historians and provides a unique record of historic links between Ulster and Maine. These papers from 19 different authors have been published together in “Reflections”. Some of the papers are academic, some poetic, and others personal with the aim to share the Scots Irish stories of those who played a significant role in shaping the state of Maine, New England, and the United States of America.