Scots Prisoners Deported to New England

On September 3, 1650, the English Parliamentary army under Oliver Cromwell defeated the forces of Charles II and the Scottish Parliament at Dunbar on the east coast of Scotland, just south of the Firth of Forth. Robert Dunbar was part of the Scotch army and was taken prisoner. This account is largely taken from Banks (1927) and Carlson (1976). The Scottish parliament had declared, Prince Charles, a fugitive at the Hague, as their king provided he agreed to abide by their direction. He agreed. In response Cromwell gathered an army of 16,000 and marched to Edinburgh. He went on to Dunbar, further up the east coast of Scotland where the Scots, with a larger force, cut him off from his supplies and ability to retreat. David Leslie, the commander of the Scottish forces, recognized that most of his men were undisciplined Highlanders and no match from Cromwell’s troops in an open battle so he laid seige. Charles then joined the Scots army. Finally, the Scots pressured their commander to attack Cromwell’s troops but they were badly defeated with great losses. There were nine thousand prisoners but only five thousand were able bodied. The badly wounded were released and the five thousand were marched first to Newcastle and then to Durham where the cathedral was converted into a prison. Many died on the way.

The English needed to decide what to do with all the remaining prisoners quickly before more died. There was standing practice of sending prisoners to the colonies, so 900 were ordered to be shipped to Virginia and another 150 were sent to New England. Soon another 2300 prisoners were sent to southern Ireland. Those sent to New England were placed under the charge of Joshua Foote and John Becx of London who were to be mangers of the new ironworks at Lynn. They were sent by water to London and then shipped to New England on the Unity. When they arrived, sixty were sent to the ironworks and the rest were sold as servants and scattered around New England.

A year later, there was another major battle, at Worchester, between Charles, with his Scots army, and Cromwell with a similar outcome. Charles fled in disguise as a cook and Cromwell had another large group of prisoners to deal with. Again, many were sent to the American colonies, with 300 sent to Boston on the John and Sarah. They were sold as servants and the ship owners made over 4000 pds. profit on the deal. Many more of the prisoners from the Battle of Worchester were sent to the southern colonies and the West Indies and sold as servants. To help the Scots servants in New England, the Scots Charitable Society was organized in January 6, 1657 which is about the time many of the prisoners were finishing their terms of servitude. Those who had not established connections with their communities generally came to Boston, where they were unemployed and treated as outcasts, like many of the immigrants from Europe two hundred years later. These Scots became the first under-class in New England with many more to follow. Fortunately our ancestor, Robert Dunbar, went to Hingham, MA, after being released from his service to Joshua Foote in Braintree and Boston. He apparently became a wealthy and respected member of the community

Comments

[Brian Tompkins]

Before you visit Scotland you should be aware that Scotch is a drink and the people are Scots or Scottish.

[Bill Ives]

Brian - Great point and I am making the change. I got this title from another source but that is no excuse. I should have known better as I have been to Scotland several times and enjoyed the country and the people very much. Bill