Ships arriving in New England from Ireland between 1714 and 1720

Many have read the story of the five ships in Boston Harbor in August of 1718. That event was reported in the Boston newspapers of the time and became the first page of the story about the great immigration of Ulster-Scots to the New World. Our goal is to add many more pages to that story – specifically our Maine story.

The true account is that there were many more than five ships.  Ships from Ireland trickled into Boston loaded with goods and passengers for many years.  Five arrived in 1714, one in 1715, and over 50 ships from 1716 through 1720.  This was the beginning of a wave of Scots-Irish settlers to New England.

Many of these early immigrant families settled in Maine (arguably more than to any other State) and many descendants of these families can still be found in the towns along the Maine coast. According to the US Ancestry Census in 2020, Maine is RANKED #1 as a percentage of the state’s population self-reporting as being of Scottish and/or Scots-Irish decent.

Read more about the ship ‘Robert’ and the winter of 1718 in Maine.

We are not aware of any ship passenger lists for those arriving in Maine in the early 18th century.

Rare passenger lists to New England were recorded as far back as the 1600s, but very few have survived for the period before 1800. The information on these list varies greatly depending on the time period, official guidelines, and the level of enforcement at the ports of departure and arrival.

The Maine Ulster-Scots Project is currently in the process of compiling 100’s of early family names and histories with the goal of developing a list of ships and passengers arriving in Maine in the early to mid 1700’s. This is an on-going project and we invite you to share any information you might have with us at: info@MaineUlsterScots.com

Email Dave: Dave@maineulsterscots.com with your stories.