PATRIOTS’ DAY PROGRAM
“…a Scotch-Irish rebellion”
A 250th Anniversary reflection on local “Scotch-Irish” participation in the American Revolutionary War
April 26, 2025 one event – two venues
Lecture: 11:30am – 12:30pm – Wescustogo Hall Community Center, North Yarmouth
Reception/Social Hour: 1:30pm – 3:00pm – Old Town House, North Yarmouth
The Maine Ulster-Scots Project, in partnership with the North Yarmouth Historical Society and the Pejepscot History Center, will begin celebrations of the 250th anniversary of American independence with a program recognizing those Ulster-Scots (“Scotch-Irish”) emigrants to the Maine frontier and to the North Yarmouth area in particular who participated in the struggle for independence.
The 45-minute lecture portion of event will feature surveyor, author, and Maine Ulster-Scots Project director, John Mann, who will give a talk on the engagement of his ancestor, Thomas Means (the 2nd) and other Means’ family neighbors who participated in the conflict. A 15-minute Q&A session will follow the lecture. (see below for more on lecture)
The doors of the Old Town House open for the reception and social hour at 1:30PM and will include exhibits of period-specific archived town letters, petitions, and Resolves, as well as other relevant artifacts from the period, and a roster of Ulster-Scots patriots of the North Yarmouth area who likely served in the conflict following the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
Attendance is free but space is limited and we ask for pre-registrations.
PATRIOTS’ DAY PROGRAM LECTURE:
“A Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Rebellion”
A 250th Anniversary reflection on local “Scotch-Irish” participation in the American Revolutionary War being held on April 26, 2025
John Mann will give a talk on the life and times of three generations of the Means family and their kin. From the contested borderlands between England and Scotland to the disputed Eastern Frontier of America, they journeyed in search of a home where family, faith, and freedom could ensure economic rewards and religious tolerance, a home unhindered by the meddling of distant political power centers, a home secured by land ownership and extended family ties. A journey that would ultimately lead them to participate on the battlefields of the American Revolutionary War...a revolution which one Hessian soldier described as nothing more than “…a ‘Scotch Irish’ Presbyterian rebellion.”
Pre-registration for the Patriots’ Day Program — one event, two venues — begins on March 1, 2025. To register, contact Julie Potter-Dunlop at: julie@maineulsterscots.com
Before the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, what were the feelings of the people of Ancient North Yarmouth about independence from Great Britain?
Their grievances and sentiments are expressed in the original documents that will be on display at the North Yarmouth Old Town House on April 26, 2025 from 1:30-3:00 P.M.
These documents are responses to two pamphlets sent by the Boston Committee of Correspondence to 260 towns throughout the colony of Massachusetts in 1772 and 1773 that railed against the “intolerable acts,” actions by the British government that infringed on the rights and liberties of Americans.
In town meetings and a Cumberland County Convention the patriot Ulster-Scots emigrants and their neighbors resolved to resist the taxes and other intolerable acts. “…we fear it is their Aim to introduce despotic Monarchy (that) seems now with hasty strides to threaten all the Colonies with Ruin and Destruction…. We therefore recommend a manly opposition to these cruel Acts, and every measure which Despotism can invent to “abridge” our English Liberties….” Cumberland County Convention, September 22, 1774.
To register for the Patriots’ Day Program, contact Julie Potter-Dunlop at julie@maineulsterscots.com