The Scottish Historical Review, Volume LXXXVIII, 2: No.

226: October 2009, 313–331

DOI: 10.3366/E0036924109000882

AMANDA EPPERSON

‘It would be my earnest desire that

you all would come’: Networks, the
Migration Process and Highland
Emigration

ABSTRACT

This article seeks to enlarge the picture of Highland emigration, not

only by examining a little-studied region, but also by incorporating
the sociological concepts of migration networks and the ‘value-added
migration process’. To illustrate the migration process and the importance
of networks, this paper analyses the origins of one Highland community
in the United States, Scotch Settlement, established in eastern Ohio in
1802. Many of the émigrés in Scotch Settlement came from Strathnairn
and Strathdearn, both located south of Inverness. This article explores
the migration process that led individuals from this area to eastern
Ohio, focusing on the particular economic conditions of Strathnairn
and Strathdearn and the role of networks. The southern and eastern
Highlands have been seen as being more stable and more technically
advanced. This may very well be true for much of this region, especially
that which was geographically Lowland. However, parishes like Moy and
Dalarossie may not have been so blessed. The significant out-migration
from these parishes probably was not caused by accessible employment
opportunities, but because of the lack of opportunity in their home
parishes. However, the long history of migration from this area coupled
with the many opportunities nearby, especially in Inverness, may have
meant that the residents of this region were better able to cope. There
seem to have been fewer social pressures keeping them in their parishes
while well-established migration networks meant that they had many
more opportunities to depart. The Scotch Settlement emigrants, faced
with disheartening circumstances not of their own making, decided that
to best provide for themselves and their families it would be necessary to
emigrate to the United States where they could obtain ‘a better way of
living’ than they could in Scotland.

Portions of this article have appeared in the author’s doctoral thesis (‘ “I wish they were
all here’’: Scottish highlanders in Ohio, 1802–1840’, unpublished PhD thesis, University
of Glasgow, 2002) and as part of a working paper at the International Seminar on the
History of the Atlantic World at Harvard University in 2003. The author thanks Dr Karin
Bowie of the University of Glasgow for reading several drafts of this paper in its current
form.
314 amanda epperson

. . . you may depend on a better way of living here, if providence permits,

than any tenant at will in the estate of Culloden and wholly more
independent. Therefore it would be my earnest desire that you all would
come, find freedom in your own mind, and I hope you will never rue it.
Charles Rose, 18221

In 1804 Charles Rose, his wife Catherine McBean, and their children
left Croy and Dalcross parish to seek a new life in Scotch Settle-
ment, a small but growing community of Highlanders in eastern
Ohio. Among the many questions asked by historians, whether
family historians investigating their own ancestors or professionals
investigating worldwide movements and trends, is ‘Why did they leave’?
Although return was not impossible, nor unheard of, during the age of
sail, most emigrants faced the very real possibility of never again seeing
their homeland or loved ones who remained. Consequently, these
decisions were not entered into lightly and were invariably complicated.
Why did the Rose family and their compatriots journey across the
Atlantic and then inland to Ohio? The majority left from the parishes
south and east of Inverness between 1802 and 1835. There is little
evidence of extensive eviction in these parishes, although sheep were
endemic by the 1790s. The southern and eastern Highlands were
thought to have more opportunities due to better soil and their
proximity to the markets of Inverness and the Lowlands. There are
few reports from these parishes of wide-scale emigration.2 While the
situation in these parishes did not seemed to have caused alarm among
their contemporaries or interest among scholars today, it does not
change the fact that they had stagnant or declining populations in the
late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
This article seeks to enlarge the picture of Highland emigration, not
only by examining a little-studied region, but also by incorporating
the sociological concepts of migration networks and the ‘value-added
migration process’. A migration network is, essentially, a conduit
through which information about migration is communicated by both
migrants and non-migrants to facilitate the movement of people from
one location to another.3 These social networks and activities include
family and friends (generally the most important factors in migration),
the church, shipping agents, and other recruiters.4 The functions of a
migration network are varied but fall into two main categories: adaptive
and selective. The former lowers the cost of migration financially and

1 Cleveland Ohio, Western Reserve Historical Society [WRHS], Columbiana County

Description, Mss V.F. C, No. 1247. Charles Rose to John Rose, 1822.
2 The only known large-scale out-migration from this region is that to the Colony of
Georgia in 1735. See Anthony W. Parker, Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: The
Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735–1748 (Athens, 1997).
3 Douglas S. Massey et al., ‘An Evaluation of International Migration Theory: The North
American Case’, Population and Development Review 20 (1994) 728.
4 Monica Boyd, ‘Family and Personal Networks in International Migration: Recent
Developments and New Agendas’, International Migration Review 23 (1989) 639.
migration process and highland emigration 315

socially and the latter determines who migrates and their destinations.
As migration networks expand, the cost of emigration is lowered even
further, frequently causing additional migration.5
As increasing numbers of people participated in the outward
movement, more information and options became available to those
who stayed behind. ‘Weak ties’ increase the flow of information and
opportunities as individuals form bridges between tightly knit groups
and resources. A weak connection between two individuals who belong
to two separate social groups will provide indirect links between
everyone that they both know, thus providing a means of disseminating
information between the distinct networks. Information and options
provided by weak ties are key elements in sustained migration
movements. Isolated peoples, whether in an immigrant community or
island parish, will have reduced access to new ideas and opportunities,
simply because they are rarely, if ever, exposed to new information. In
order to be successful, at least some members of isolated groups must
be able to make contact with outsiders on a regular basis.6 Furthermore,
migration networks should not be viewed as linear, leading immigrants
from one European village directly to a farmstead on the American
frontier. Instead, they were web-like, reaching hither and yon. They had
the potential to connect people, through intermediaries in the network,
who may never have actually met. These networks may also have led
migrants from one location to another where they had kin, until they
finally settled down. Consequently, what may appear as a planned step-
migration to an ultimate destination, may, in actuality, have been much
less organised.7
The value-added migration process, as defined by J. E. Ellmers,
comprises five steps or building blocks with a trigger.8 First, in the home
area there must be structural stress, which makes life difficult. Second,
the stress must be perceived. Third, there must be an opportunity
presented to leave, which in many cases is a communication from
a friend or relative in the receiving country. Fourth, the potential
emigrant must have a personality type that is willing to take risks and

5 Douglas T. Gurak and Fe Caces, ‘Migration Networks and the Shaping of Migration
Systems’, in Mary M. Kritz, Lin Lean Lim and Hania Zlotnik (eds), International
Migration Systems: A Global Approach (Oxford, 1992), 152–4.
6 Mark S. Granovetter, ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’, American Journal of Sociology, 78
(1973) 1360. The importance of weak ties is a key component of Andrew Mackillop’s
article, ‘Europeans, Britons and Scots: Scottish Sojourning Networks and Identities in
Asia, c. 1700–1815’, in Angela McCarthy (ed.), A Global Clan. Scottish Migrant Networks
and Identities Since the Eighteenth Century (London, 2006), although he does not use the
term ‘weak ties’.
7 Caroline Brettell, ‘Theorizing Migration in Anthropology: The Social Construction of
Networks, Identities, Communities and Globalscapes’, in Caroline Brettell and James
Frank Hollifield (eds), Migration Theory: Talking across Disciplines (New York, 2000),
107.
8 Sune Åkerman, Per Gunnar Cassel, and Eric Johansson, ‘Background Variables
of Population Mobility: An Attempt at Automatic Interaction Detector Analysis. A
Preliminary Research Report’, Scandinavian Economic History Review 22 (1974) 34.
316 amanda epperson

start life anew elsewhere. Fifth, social controls must not be so strong as to
prevent the emigrant from leaving. But before the emigrant will actually
leave there must be a trigger, in essence ‘the straw that breaks the
camel’s back’. In this process, migration networks are crucial to stages
three and five. It is members of the network who provide migration
offers and information about potential destinations. In regions where
there is a long history and acceptance of migration due to extensive
networks the social controls blocking it will be ineffective.9
To illustrate the migration process and the importance of networks,
this paper analyses the origins of one Highland community in the
United States: Scotch Settlement, established in eastern Ohio in 1802.
Many of the émigrés in Scotch Settlement came from Strathnairn and
Strathdearn, both located south of Inverness.10 This article explores
the migration process that led individuals from this area to eastern
Ohio, focusing on the particular economic conditions of Strathnairn
and Strathdearn and the role of networks.
Those who emigrated to Scotch Settlement in the early nineteenth
century left their homes during a turbulent time in British history.
From 1792, the country participated in almost twenty years of warfare
on the European continent. While these wars brought hardship and
heartache, they also brought economic benefits. At the same time,
the social upheaval begun in the Highlands in the early eighteenth
century continued, although its timing varied from region to region
and estate to estate. Much of this period, c.1790–1815, was generally
seen as one of optimism and economic growth in the Highlands. This
mood was largely based on the development of the kelping industry,
fisheries, weaving and large scale public works projects such as the
Caledonian Canal. Additionally, arable land in many parts of the east
coast was greatly improved during this period. Cattle prices were also
rising, which benefited all. Throughout the eighteenth-century, many
Highland men found employment in the Highland regiments of the
British Army. Military income, whether through wages or pensions,
augmented the meagre resources of many families.
The processing of kelp and introduction of fisheries had an enor-
mous impact on a significant region of the Highlands, predominantly
the northwest coastal parishes and the Hebrides. Profits from turning
kelp into alkaline ash greatly enriched many landlords during the years
of European wars, as continental sources of the ash were unavailable.
The wage economy brought about by the kelp boom allowed tenants
in coastal areas to pay their rents, cultivate less land, marry early and
support large families. While rents rose during this period, in most

9 James Frank Hollifield, ‘The Politics of International Migration: How Can We “Bring
the State Back in?’’ ’, in Bretell and Hollifield, Migration Theory, 147.
10 The parishes included in these straths are: Moy and Dalarossie, Daviot and Dunlichity,
Croy and Dalcross, Ardclach, Cawdor, and Nairn.
migration process and highland emigration 317

cases they were met by cash earned through cattle sales and kelping.11
Though arduous work, kelping did provide additional employment for
many and enabled them to stay on their farms. However, throughout
the Highlands, almost the entire income earned from cattle was paid
over in rent and farms on many estates, especially in the southern
Highlands, were consolidated. This latter process left some individuals
as tenants of larger holdings, but rendered others landless. Sheep had
been introduced in Perthshire in the 1760s and their adoption as a
commercial crop only increased as time passed. Furthermore, many
Highlanders began to baulk at military service.
Given these varying trends, structural stress in northern and western
coastal areas was limited, while gains in the arable east and south did not
reach everyone. In some localities, structural stress was considerable.
An acute example is Strathdearn and parts of Strathnairn, which
languished in a constant state of structural stress. These circumstances
may have meant that people in this region always had difficulty
meeting basic needs, a situation that was not necessarily the fault of
the landlords. Highland industries like kelping and fisheries could
not be developed in the landlocked parishes of this region. Improved
agriculture would only have made a limited impact due to poor soil,
minimal arable land, and small farms.12 Adverse climate conditions in
Moy and Dalarossie and Daviot and Dunlichity parishes meant that
their growing seasons were shorter than in the surrounding areas and
the harvest was subject to early frosts. This region was hard hit during
the famine of 1782–3 and many tenants in Moy and Dalarossie had not
recovered by 1790.13 These precarious growing conditions were likely
to have been exacerbated during the extremely cold years of 1805–20,
which were made worse by significant volcanic eruptions in 1812, 1814
and 1815.14 Additionally, the linen weaving so common in parts of
Nairnshire and Perthshire, did not take hold here.15
Revenue enhancement was difficult for many landlords in this region
because they held extremely small properties. The several parishes
that provided immigrants to Scotch Settlement had large numbers
of heritors. Moy and Dalarossie parish had the most with thirteen
heritors and Croy and Dalcross and Daviot and Dunlichity had ten
each. Some heritors held land in more than one parish, but there
were those like Ludovick MacBean of Tomatin, John Mackintosh of
Kyllachy, John Mackintosh of Corrybrough-mor and Donald McQueen
of Corrybrough who only held small estates in Moy and Dalarossie
parish.16 The largest landholder in this parish was Mackintosh of
11 Malcolm Gray, The Highland Economy, 1750–1850 (Edinburgh, 1957), 83, 131, 138,
142.
12 Sir John Sinclair (ed.), Statistical Account of Scotland [OSA], (Edinburgh 1791–1799),
xiv, 75.
13 OSA, viii, 502.
14 Brian Fagen, The Little Ice Age. How Climate Made History, 1300–1850 (New York, 2000),
169, 170.
15 OSA, viii, 506.
16 OSA, viii, 507.
318 amanda epperson

Mackintosh, but even his property was small when compared to other
large land holding families such as Forbes of Culloden and Campbell
of Cawdor. The large number of heritors implies disparate holdings,
even though total holdings for some landlords could be quite large.
This would then indicate that the policy of one estate would not affect
an entire parish or strath as had occurred in the Western Highlands and
Hebrides where some proprietors held entire parishes or islands.
Since the landlords could not increase their income through industry,
other methods had to be devised. These supplementary sources of
income were diverse and included the introduction of sheep and forests
as well as enlistment in the army, out-migration and increases in rent.
Ludovick McBean of Tomatin appears to have enhanced his income
by acting as factor for John Mackintosh of Corrybrough.17 At least two
of McBean’s sons left Tomatin to earn their living, Angus to the West
Indies and Duncan to London. The earliest example of the Mackintosh
selling timber, which could be a very profitable enterprise, was in 1732
from his land in Glen Feshie.18 By 1776, he had moved his timber
enterprise to his home parish. By 1771, the Mackintosh was already
renting out land from his estate for grazing, very likely for sheep given
that they numbered around twelve thousand in the parish by 1791.19
A key factor of estate economies in many parts of the Highlands was
military enlistment, the advantages of which were seized by proprietors.
Many Highland lairds earned more from their military wages than they
did from the rentals of their estates.20 Three future lairds of Mackintosh
had served in the military as had many others from the region
including: John Mackintosh of Corrybrough-mor, John Mackintosh of
Kyllachy, Duncan McQueen of Corrybrough and Lachlan Mackintosh
of Raigmore, all of whom served in the 1770s and 1780s. While the
ultimate motivations for Mackintosh of Corrybrough and of Raigmore
are unknown, Mackintosh of Kyllachy definitely enlisted to increase his
income.21
Of the strategies pursued by landlords, the introduction of sheep had
the most direct effect on tenants. This process had begun before 1790
and would only intensify after 1800. In the late eighteenth century
tenants in Moy and Dalarossie parish, and in nearby parishes, were
facing increasing rents and competition from sheep while at the same
time trying to recover from the disastrous harvest of 1782–3. Estate
evidence for this period is scarce, but by 1791 the parish had already
experienced depopulation due to the introduction of sheep.22 Sheep

17 Edinburgh, National Archives of Scotland [NAS], McBean of Tomatin Papers,

GD128/22/2, Letters by from Ludovick McBean of Tomatin to Campbell McIntosh.
18 Parker, Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia, 31.
19 OSA, viii, 502.
20 Andrew Mackillop, More Fruitful Than the Soil: Army, Empire and the Scottish Highlands,
1715–1815 (East Linton, 2000), 130–67.
21 Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, Letters of Two Centuries: Chiefly Connected with Inverness and
the Highlands, from 1616 to 1815 (Inverness, 1890), 192; Alexander M. Mackintosh, The
Mackintoshes and Clan Chattan (Edinburgh, 1903), 322, 331, 354.
22 OSA, viii, 502, 506.
migration process and highland emigration 319

had also been introduced into Daviot and Dunlichity by the early
1790s.23 Recovery from the failed harvest of 1783 was long in coming as
only £28 of the rental for the Kyllachy estate was collected in 1784, or
about 5 per cent of the total. Two years later this estate was reorganised
and the tenantry reduced by about half. Several tenants had been
contemplating emigration in 1784, although this may have simply been
a manoeuvre to have their rent abated.24 In 1786, the two largest rents
were for consolidated farms and were many times more than that paid
by the rest of the tenants. While it cannot be known for certain, it
is very likely that these new tenants introduced sheep and displaced
the previous tenants. The estate of Pollochaig, held in wadset by the
MacQueens of Corrybrough until 1804 when it was redeemed by the
Mackintosh, was probably in sheep before 1800.25
The situation became even more critical after 1800. Rents on the
Mackintosh estate skyrocketed and those on the McBean of Tomatin
estate increased by more than 50 per cent between 1796 and 1813.
Until 1815 prices for cattle, wool, and produce were high and allowed
many tenants to meet the increased rents. However, this may have not
been enough to offset potential subsistence crises and the overall poor
circumstances in the parish. The harvests of 1800 and 1801 were poor
and they failed entirely in 1812. The situation was so bad after this latter
harvest that the kirk session thrice distributed money to those on the
poor-roll in 1813. Moy and Dalarossie had always had an extensive poor
roll numbering on average thirty-two people from 1792 to 1799. This
roll, consisting of cottars, widows, and the infirm, numbered fifty-three
in 1802 and fell to forty-two in 1810. Due to another severe season in
1816–17, two disbursements were made, the first to sixty-three people
and the next to fifty-two people.26 Yet again in 1821 the frost practically
destroyed the entire crop, but the appeal to the heritors was almost

23 OSA, xiv, 73.

24 There are only two complete rentals available for this estate. In 1778 there were forty-
four tenants and a rental of just over £145. In 1786, there were twenty-one tenants
and the rental had increased to slightly more than £230. At this time several farms
had been consolidated. However, at this time it is not possible to know whether the
estate reorganization was made possible because several tenants made good on their
threat to leave, or if those tenants who were in arrears were evicted in order that their
farms could be consolidated. NAS, Fraser-Mackintosh Collection, Corribrough and
Kyllachy Papers, GD128/48/14, John McIntosh to Mrs McIntosh of Kyllachy, 1 Apr.
1784; GD128/48/16, Rental of the Kyllachy Estate, 1786.
25 This advertisement for the setting of Pollochaig states that the estate had been
‘occupied as a sheep farm for some time.’ The Mackintosh made his intention of
redeeming the wadset known to McQueen by 1801 and it is unlikely that he would
have invested in sheep if knew he would soon be losing the property. However,
even if under sheep, it was not a large-scale operation, in 1811 the tenant, Duncan
MacKay, only paid £44 2s 1/2 d in rent. NAS, Fraser-Mackintosh Collection, Forbes of
Culloden Papers, GD128/48/2; NAS, Mackintosh Muniments, GD176/1527; Campbell
Mackintosh, ‘Lands, Grazings, and Shooting Quarters to Be Set. Whitsunday Next
Upon Mcintosh’s Estate’, Inverness Journal and Northern Advertiser, 18 Sep. 1807.
26 Highland Council Archives, McBean of Tomatin Papers, AG/INV/16/1b, Farm Book
1783–1816; NAS, Kirk Session Minutes of Moy and Dalarossie Parish, CH2/684/1
pp. 227–57 and CH2/684/2 pp. 1, 42–4.
320 amanda epperson

completely ignored.27 And if ten years of subsistence crises coupled

with nationwide recession after 1815 was not bad enough, the River
Findhorn, which flowed though Strathdearn and Strathnairn, flooded
in August 1829, not only destroying crops, but also some of the best
arable land in the region.28
Thus it is clear that the economic outlook of the Highlands was
not bright for everyone after 1790. However, personal experience of
structural stress is more important than structural existence of the stress.
Despite the obvious problems in Moy and Dalarossie parish and the
surrounding area, the difficulties would not have been experienced by
each tenant or each member of a family in the same way. The several
Kyllachy tenants who were evicted by 1786 obviously experienced the
estate reorganization differently from those who were able to keep their
farms. A long tack, or lease, could provide great security for its duration
and the tack holder could be relatively immune from the economic
changes in the community.
Although everyone in the parish would feel the effect of a bad
harvest, the cottars, often the least likely to emigrate, probably felt the
effects more as they had fewer resources than the tenants.29 However,
their distress was eased by the kirk session. Tenants, on the other hand,
would have had no such safety net and would have seen their cash
reserves dwindle through the purchase of imported meal. Consequently,
tenants, due to their social standing, may have perceived that their
needs were no longer being met, while the cottars did not.30

27 Until 1822, the heritors and gentry of the parish had diligently responded to the
distress of the poor and many had left money in their wills to be distributed among
the needy in the parish. Why the response to the kirk session’s call for alms in 1822 was
ignored is uncertain, but perhaps the heritors were beginning to feel that distributing
money and food to the poor was no longer an appropriate solution to the poverty of
the parish.
28 At its peak the Findhorn, which wreaked devastation all along its course to the Moray
Firth, was seventeen feet above normal. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Account of the Great
Floods of August 1829, in the Province of Moray and Adjoining Districts (Edinburgh, 1830),
35–6; The New Statistical Account of Scotland, xiv, Inverness & Ross and Cromarty
(Edinburgh, 1845), 101.
29 It is clear from the session records that these cottars did not leave the parish as they
appear on the poor rolls for many years in succession. NAS, Kirk Session Minutes of
Moy and Dalarossie Parish, CH2/684/1, CH2/684/2.
30 All migration occurs when human needs are not being met. In addition to the basic
necessities of survival these needs include ‘group inclusion, trust, security, symbolic
and material gratification, self-conception . . . power and the ability to achieve goals
through negotiation and feedback’. Migrations which take place in order to satisfy
these needs have been found to be a constant theme in history. In fact, migration
should be considered a normal component of human societies – it is neither good nor
bad, but simply is. See Sune Åkerman, ‘Towards an Understanding of the Emigration
Processes’, in William H. McNeill and Ruth S. Adams (eds), Human Migration:
Patterns and Policies (Bloomington, 1978), 288; Jan Lucassen and Leo Lucassen (eds)
Migration, Migration History, History: Old Paradigms and New Perspectives (Bern, 1997), 9;
Anthony H. Richmond, ‘Sociological Theories of International Migration: The Case
of Refugees’, Current Sociology 36 (1988) 16.
migration process and highland emigration 321

The difference in experience of stress within the same family is

exemplified by the McIntosh family in Moy and Dalarossie and the
Dallas family in Cawdor parish. John McIntosh of Midmorile and his
brother-in-law John McIntosh of Brecriemore both appear to have been
eldest sons and to have inherited the tenancies of their fathers on
the Kyllachy estate. John McIntosh of Midmorile never left the parish
and John McIntosh of Brecriemore was still there in 1834. However,
Brecriemore’s mother, his four sisters and three brothers emigrated in
1818. His siblings probably felt that they had little future in Scotland
in a time of economic recession caused by the end of the Napoleonic
Wars and repeated crop failures. A similar situation is seen with the
Dallas family. This family had held the farm of Inchyettle since 1749.31
Duncan Dallas inherited the tack upon his father’s death, but with little
chance of obtaining land of their own, between 1811 and 1833 four of
Duncan’s brothers emigrated to Scotch Settlement where they became
farmers.32
Even if structural stress is personally experienced, that, in and of
itself, will not cause a person to migrate. The third building block was a
migration offer and it is here where networks were crucial, as migration
offers could not be received if a potential emigrant did not know anyone
who would make one. These offers could take many forms, for example
an offer to join a party of neighbours or a report from friends already
settled in the potential destination.
It is probable that by the end of the eighteenth-century future
residents of Scotch Settlement were already entangled in a far-
reaching web of migration networks. Emigrants had been moving from
Strathnairn and Strathdearn to the American colonies for almost a
century. In 1716, approximately two hundred men from Clan Chattan
were transported to Virginia and South Carolina after the Siege of
Preston. In 1735, agents of James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia,
recruited immigrants to help settle and defend the new colony. They
specifically wanted Highlanders because of their quasi-military society
and the belief that their use of Gaelic would keep them isolated from
other settlers. While many of those who left had family ties to the
Mackintosh, chief of Clan Chattan, they went with his blessing. His
clansmen had suffered for their involvement in the Rising of 1715 and

31 Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, Antiquarian Notes Regarding Families and Places in the

Highlands (Stirling, 1913), 436. Fraser-Mackintosh stated, in 1897, that the Dallas
family had been at Inchyettle for 250 years suggesting that they came to the property
in 1647. However, evidence for this particular Dallas family is only available from
1749/50. Church of Scotland, Parish Registers (Salt Lake City, 1977), Microfilm.
32 Columbiana County Recorder, Deed Records and Mortgages 1803–1881 (Salt
Lake City, 1973), Microfilm; United States Census Office, Fourth Census of the
United States, 1820: Population Schedules, Columbiana County, Ohio (Washington,
D.C.), Microfilm; United States Census Office, Fifth Census of the United States,
1830: Population Schedules, Columbiana County, Ohio (Washington, D.C., 1949),
Microfilm. Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland [NLS], Dallas Family Letters, Acc.
10623.
322 amanda epperson

he felt that the economic opportunity available in the New World might
benefit them. Two members of Mackintosh’s own family, his younger
brothers, also went to Georgia and served in Oglethorpe’s army.33
Specific knowledge of movement out of this region after 1735 is
unknown, but is expected to have occurred. Many of the economic
difficulties, especially poor agricultural conditions, affected these
parishes as much at this time as they did fifty years later. The
population statistics for 1755 and 1801 are suggestive of a continued
outward movement from Strathnairn and Strathdearn. The population
of Moy and Dalarossie decreased from 1,693 to 1,355 during this
time period; that of Daviot and Dunlichity from 2,196 to 1,818; and
that of Croy and Dalcross from 1,901 to 1,601. Since this half-century
witnessed decreased mortality rates coupled with increased longevity,
out migration is a plausible explanation for the population decline.34
Through much of the eighteenth century there were compelling
reasons to leave Moy and Dalarossie parish and before the 1790s many
families had departed. Where these emigrants settled is unknown, but
they are likely to have provided the links and offers which led the
Scotch Settlement Highlanders to Ohio in the early nineteenth century.
As Highland emigration to the United States after 1775 is virtually
unstudied, emigrant chains or movement beyond the hearth areas of
New York, Georgia and the Carolinas remain unidentified, but in the
twenty-six years between the outbreak of war and the arrival of those in
Scotch Settlement, many of Scots descent participated in the westward
movement across Pennsylvania. Men with names later associated with
the Settlement, including McLean, Shaw, Watson, and McDonald, were
living in Pitt Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in 1790.35 Scots
were also found in Washington County, Pennsylvania, which borders
West Virginia. Among these settlers were Rev. Colin McFarquhar from
Inverness and Andrew Frazier from Sutherland. A McIntosh family, who
had settled in West Finlay Township, Washington County, was massacred
by Native Americans around 1790.36
The Settlement Highlanders themselves record that one Angus
McBean arrived in what would become Scotch Settlement in 1801 and
then wrote home to his friends and encouraged them to join him. From
this point, migration networks are much more easily discerned. They
suggest strong personal networks dominated by family, friends, and kin,
along with a weaker network centred on the Church of Scotland. The
33 Parker, Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia, 21, 22, 49.
34 NSA, xiv, 106, 453, 518; NSA, xiii, 11, 32.
35 Pitt Township was formed in 1789 and encompassed all of Pennsylvania north of
the Ohio River and west of the Allegheny River. Che Zuro Whiting, Transcription
of Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790,
Pitt Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania [Website] ([cited May 2006]); available
from ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/allegheny/census/1790/1790pitt.txt;.
36 Boyd Crumrine, Franklin Ellis and Austin N. Hungerford, History of Washington
County, Pennsylvania: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men
(Philadelphia, 1882), 481, 759, 982.
migration process and highland emigration 323

first pioneers had left Scotland aboard the Curlew, which embarked from
Isle Martin for Baltimore, Maryland in August 1801.37 It is probable that
they spent the winter in either Baltimore or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The bulk of immigration to the Settlement was complete by 1835,
although this area of Ohio continued to draw settlers from Scotland
until at least the 1860s, attracting immigrants from Invernesshire,
Nairnshire, Moray, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, and Ayrshire.
Two clusters of origins can be seen among those who went to Scotch
Settlement from Strathnairn and Strathdearn. The first, and smaller
one, was centered on Culloden Muir and included the farms of Clava,
Cantraybruich, Culdoich, Easter Daltulich and Balvraid of Culloden.
This area straddles the border of Cawdor and Croy and Dalcross
parishes. Most of the emigrants known to be associated with these
farms went to the United States before 1810. The second, and larger
cluster, was in Moy and Dalarossie Parish. The section of the parish
which supplied the most emigrants to Scotch Settlement stretched
roughly from Tomatin to Glen Mazeran and included the farms of
Press, Tombeg, Del of Morile, Midmorile, Brecriemore, Knockandoo,
Drumbain, Heights of Tomatin, Banchoruan, Corrievorrie, and
Balvlair.38 A few families did come from outside this area, for example
Invereen and Coignafearn, but they had ties with families within this
small district of the parish. Most of the emigrants from this parish left
for Scotch Settlement after 1810. Other farms in the region, which are
known to have provided emigrants to Scotch Settlement, are Urchany
in Nairn Parish, Inchyettle in Cawdor Parish, and Achagour in Ardclach
Parish.
Networks linking emigrants from Croy and Dalcross parish are
difficult to determine because fewer Settlement residents have been
traced to this parish. The Calder-Forsythe and McIntosh families were
both at Cantraybruich until the mid-1770s.39 After this time the Calder-
Forsythes migrated to Boath in Ardclach parish and the McIntoshes to
the farm of Culdoich in Croy and Dalcross. Both of these families were
among the first to reach the Settlement in the early 1800s. At present
no other families are known to have come from these farms. However,
Culdoich is adjacent to Daltulich, which at the turn of the nineteenth
century comprised two farms, Easter and Wester, part of the land of

37 Horace Mack, History of Columbiana County, Ohio: With Illustrations and Biographical
Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers (Philadelphia, 1879), 189–90; NLS,
Emigration from the Scottish Highlands and Isles, Ms. 9646. Bernard Bailyn and
David Dobson, who both consulted ‘Emigration from the Scottish Highlands and
Isles’, interpreted the Curlew as the Andrew.
38 Several of these farms were part of the Kyllachy estate, which was beset with financial
difficulties during the late eighteenth century and finally sold in 1801.
39 Isobel McLean Calder Forsythe’s last child was born at Cantraybruich in 1775. Ann
Noble McIntosh had a child born at Cantraybruich in 1773 and her next child at
Culdoich in 1776. The fact that both these families left at about the same time suggests
eviction. Church of Scotland, Parish Registers; NAS, Fraser-Mackintosh Collection,
Forbes of Culloden Papers, GD128/26/4/1.
324 amanda epperson

tacksman Alexander Fraser of Jamaica. At least one family, that of John

McPherson, is known to have left Daltulich after 1801 and reached
Scotch Settlement by 1808.40
The importance of the family in migration is clearly exemplified by
the Dallas family of Inchyettle in Cawdor Parish. As seen above, Duncan
Dallas had secure tenure of the farm of Inchyettle, but the options for
his brothers were less auspicious. His brother Alexander Dallas and
his wife Janet Rose emigrated with her brother David Rose and his
wife Henrietta Rose in 1814 shortly after their respective marriages.
Alexander Dallas and wife settled in New York City and David Rose
and his wife in Delaware County, New York. By 1820, two more
brothers, James and Peter Dallas, had settled in Scotch Settlement and
were joined by both Alexander Dallas and David Rose. By 1833, they
were joined by a fourth brother, Lachlan, and their mother, Margaret
Mackintosh Dallas. These Dallas brothers were later joined by their
nephews, Lachlan and John, in 1840 and 1856 respectively.41
The migration networks are much more visible among the emigrants
from Moy and Dalarossie as slightly under half of the immigrants
with identified origins in Scotland, seventy individuals, were from this
parish. The first two families from this parish to reach the Settlement
were Andrew McPherson, his wife Elizabeth Smith and their four
children in 1802 and Alexander Noble, his wife and children in 1806.
Noble would be joined by four of his siblings, Angus, Lachlan, Janet
and Andrew, and their families by 1817 (another sister and her husband
settled in Nova Scotia). Two other Noble families, presumably relatives
of Andrew, also went to the Settlement. Andrew McPherson was joined
by his siblings, Malcolm and Margaret, and possibly his brother-in-law.42
Further examples relate to the web of networks in Dalarossie. Lachlan
Noble was witness to the baptism of the son of Duncan Forbes and
Elizabeth Cattanach of Invereen who emigrated with Elizabeth’s brother
John in 1811 or 1812. Farquhar Shaw, possibly the son of John Shaw of
Dell of Morile, emigrated by 1811. His wife Janet was probably sister to
40 Columbiana County Recorder, Deed Records and Mortgages 1803–1881; NAS,
Fraser Papers, Fraser-Mackintosh Collection, GD128/32/12, Precept on Decreet of
Removing: Alexander Fraser of Williamsfield v. the tenants of Easter and Wester
Daltulich, March 1801; Private Collection, Scotch Settlement Papers, Hugh Fraser,
Easter Daltulich to John McPherson, Scotch Settlement, June 1811.
41 Columbiana County Probate Court, Estate Records, 1803–1900 (Salt Lake City, 1996),
Microfilm; Columbiana County Recorder, Deed Records and Mortgages 1803–1881;
Mack, Columbiana County; NLS, Acc. 10623; United States Census Office, Sixth
Census of the United States, 1840 : Population Schedules, Columbiana County, Ohio
(Washington, DC), Microfilm; United States Census Office, Columbiana County, 1820
Census.
42 Columbiana County Probate Court, Estate Records, 1803–1900; Columbiana County
Recorder, Deed Records and Mortgages 1803–1881; Gibson Lamb Cranmer, History
of the Upper Ohio Valley. With Historical Account of Columbiana County, Ohio. A Statement of
the Resources, Industrial Growth and Commercial Advantages. Family History and Biography
(Madison, 1891), 175; Mack, Columbiana County, 187; United States Census Office,
Columbiana County, 1840 Census; United States Census Office, Columbiana County,
1820 Census.
migration process and highland emigration 325

John McIntosh, tenant at Midmorile. This John McIntosh was married

first to Marjory McIntosh daughter of Alexander McIntosh and Janet
Davidson, tenants at Brecriemore. In 1818, Janet Davidson and seven
of her nine children emigrated to the Settlement. After his first wife’s
death, John McIntosh, Midmorile married Isabella McKenzie and in
1832 her father, mother and siblings emigrated. Donald McDougal, a
Kirk elder, was a witness for the baptism of at least two of Alexander
McIntosh and Janet Davidson’s children. McDougal’s son Andrew,
as well as his daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Lachlan McBean
emigrated around 1815 and in 1817 respectively.43
Personal networks also connected with weaker ones. The McDougal
family, which is well documented by a nineteenth-century family history,
had extensive connections with the Evangelical movement of the
Highlands in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century. This
created weak ties between themselves and evangelicals in other regions
of the Highlands. The McDougal family was friendly with William
Fraser of Tomnahurich, a man of wide renown and deep faith. Fraser’s
son James emigrated to America but returned soon afterwards. Many
people in the region came to William Fraser so that he could divine
information about relatives in America. Later, when word was finally
heard, Fraser’s ‘prophecies’ were found to have been correct. Because of
this service, and his participation in the church, he himself would have
been a fount of information regarding opportunities and circumstances
in America.44
The links provided via the church reached throughout the
Highlands. Angus Mackintosh, a cousin to the McDougal family, was
the minister at Tain in Ross and Cromarty from 1797 to 1831.
He married Anne Calder, daughter of Charles Calder, minister of
Urquhart Parish and grandniece of Hugh Calder, minister of Croy
and Dalcross Parish. James McDougal, schoolmaster at Golspie in
Sutherland and later Raigbeg in Moy and Dalarossie, was at King’s
College, Aberdeen with Norman Macleod, the Assynt separatist. These
two men corresponded for several decades and Macleod suggested that
McDougal join him in Nova Scotia.45 The brother of Peter Ross, who
emigrated around 1823, was Alexander Ross who was missionary, later
minister, at Ullapool from 1818.46 Some members of the Settlement
43 Church of Scotland, Parish Registers (Salt Lake City, 1977), Microfilm; Columbiana
County Probate Court, Estate Records, 1803–1900; Columbiana County Recorder,
Deed Records and Mortgages 1803–1881; Richard L. McBane (ed.), A History of the
McBane-McKenzie Clans (no place, 1955), 49; Private Collection, McIntosh Family
Letters, Alexander McIntosh, aboard the Jane, Glasgow to John McIntosh, Midmorile,
1 Jul. 1818; Private Collection, McIntosh Family Letters, James McKenzie, Scotch
Settlement to John McIntosh, Midmore, June 1832; United States Census Office,
Columbiana County, 1840 Census; United States Census Office, Columbiana County,
1820 Census.
44 McBane, McBane-McKenzie Clans, 21–2.
45 McBane, McBane-McKenzie Clans, 21–2.
46 Private Collection, Scotch Settlement Papers, Alexander Ross, Ullapool to Peter Ross,
Scotch Settlement, 23 Jul. 1838; Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ: The Succession of
326 amanda epperson

knew Reverend Alexander Denoon of Caledonia, New York. Denoon,

who had been the schoolmaster of Dores parish, was relieved of his
position in 1804 because his conscience would not permit him to take
the oath of Government.47
Ministers and catechists facilitated other connections. The Reverend
Hugh Mackay, minister of Moy and Dalarossie from 1793 to 1804, was
from Sutherland.48 He recommended his friend, William Mackay of
Strathnaver, also in Sutherland, as the catechist in Croy and Dalcross
parish. Mackay also acted as catechist in Moy until his death in
1798. Mackay of Strathnaver recommended Peter Stuart of Strathmore
in Caithness as his successor as catechist in both parishes.49 It was
the presence of these men that drew many people from Sutherland
to communions in Moy and Dalarossie. The important aspect of
these church-related connections, including holy fairs, is that they put
individuals from disparate regions of the Highlands in touch with each
other. For example, at least one family in Scotch Settlement had its
origins in Sutherland and although they may never have known anyone
in Strathdearn and Strathnairn they may have heard of this community
through a church-based network.
It is widespread networks such as these that may account for the
diverse origins of Highlanders in the American communities. Letters
were critical in relaying information and migration offers, both implicit
and explicit, between individuals in these networks.

Donald McIntosh who will give you an account of the country better than
I can do and he will not tell you a lie he is going home for his familie and
he is coming back again if God spares and it is a good opportunity to any
that wishes to come with him

I have 3 pounds 161/2 shillings per months of your currency . . . Jannie

send her compliments to Isobel Gow and tells her if she here she would
get 4(?) dollars per month which will come to 10 pounds 16 shillings in
the year of your currency.
Farquhar Shaw, before 181250

McDonald has made a fortun already.

Alexander Dallas, 181551

46
(Continued) Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation, vol. 6, Synods of Ross,
Sutherland and Caithness (Edinburgh,1928), 165.
47 NAS, Minutes of the Presbytery of Inverness, CH2/553/7.
48 Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ: The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland
from the Reformation, vol. 7, Synods of Aberdeen and Moray (Edinburgh, 1926), 476.
49 John MacLeod, By-Paths of Highland Church History, ed. G.N.M. Collins (Edinburgh,
1965), 86–96, 129–33.
50 Private Collection, McIntosh Family Letters, Farquhar Shaw, Pittsburgh to Alexander
McIntosh, Dalarossie, c. 1811.
51 NLS, Dallas Family Letters, Acc. 10623, Alexander Dallas to Duncan Dallas, 14 Mar.
1815.
migration process and highland emigration 327

The opportunity to travel with someone like Donald McIntosh, who

had already made the journey and knew the lay of the land, may
have proved irresistible. As economics was one of the most compelling
reasons to migrate it is not surprising that wages and the cost of land
and goods featured prominently in the letters. Availability of land was
another common theme in the letters. Almost all contain a reference to
it, indicating its importance to the senders as well as the receivers.

This country is something similar to the remarks you have made

respecting that country, except in one particular, that is the price of land.
It is reduced here like other property, this is the best time that ever was
for any person who has money to come here . . . and once you pay that no
man can dispossess you again like those tyrants in that country.
Charles Rose, 182252

About the farmers in this place, I am given to understand, that a man

with a strong family . . . can do well. Perhaps he’ll not clear much money,
because he has to lay out a good deal on improvements, for the first while,
but he may have for himself & his family, plenty of the necessities of life,
if they be industrious.
Hugh Rose, 183053

Janet Davidson, upon hearing of proposed removals on the Kyllachy

estate around 1822, encouraged her son to come to Ohio and related
the favourable terms for land purchase.54 To those facing dispossession,
whether real or imagined, land that could be owned outright would be
a strong inducement to migration. Furthermore, concrete knowledge
of conditions in the destination from a trusted source would ease
the uncertainty over emigration. It seems apparent that enough
information about the United States was circulating in this region that
it became a cause for debate. Charles Rose wrote to his nephew, John
Rose, in 1822:

You have mentioned that you heard good account of this country, and
likewise indifferent accounts. – You must undoubtly, both from your own
experience and the history of other times, know that all men do not see
alike even the same object and some excuse their own faults will blame the
country or charge the defect to some other cause rather than acknowledge
it to be in themselves. . . . This is a good country, let who will say to the
contrary, but every good has its own evil in this world when there is no
perfection.55

52 WRHS, Columbiana County Description, Mss V.F. C, No. 1247. Charles Rose to John
Rose, 1822.
53 WRHS, Columbiana County Description, Mss V.F. C, No. 1247. Hugh Rose to John
Rose, 1830.
54 Private Collection, McIntosh Family Letters, Janet Davidson, Scotch Settlement to
John McIntosh, Midmorile, 30 Jan. 1822.
55 WRHS, Columbiana County Description, Mss V.F. C, No. 1247. Charles Rose to John
Rose, 1822.
328 amanda epperson

These examples reveal the numerous migration networks that could

be drawn upon in this region in the Highlands. Given a personality
type able to contemplate major change, the potential migrant still
had to overcome social controls limiting emigration. Since families
exerted control over their members, death or marriage often preceded
emigration.56 Moreover, landlords and the government were both,
generally speaking, opposed to emigration before 1815. The existence
of networks was also crucial here. It has been shown that networks
can develop a momentum of their own and survive even when the
original cause for the migration, such as an economic crisis, is over or
when government tries to stop the movement of people. The British
government and elites were opposed to emigration in all forms, but
especially when it was directed towards the United States. Propaganda
and shipping regulations were enacted in order to direct any migrant
flows towards the British possessions in North America.
In the region south and east of Inverness, however, proprietors may
not have had the same desire to keep their tenants on their estates.
Two additional factors may have lowered social controls in this region.
First, many of the landed gentry or their sons had either emigrated
or spent significant time outside the Highlands. If migration was an
economic technique adopted by this class, they may have been less likely
to resist the out-migration of their tenants and subtenants. Second, as
mentioned earlier the first large-scale departures from this region were
in 1716 and the mid-1730s. These migrations were significantly earlier
than the Highland exodus of the 1770s. Studies of other countries
have shown that when emigration starts early in a particular area it
will provide more emigrants for a longer period of time than others,
even in high migration districts.57 In these ‘early start areas’ emigration
likely became an accepted part of the culture and increased migration
offers and networks facilitated further movement. Once communities
had been established in North America or even in other regions of
Scotland, people may not have seen themselves as migrating, but simply
moving to another Highland community.58
At this stage in the migration process a person was fully ‘ripe’ for
migration: his experience of structural stress was so great that his
needs were no longer being met. He had an opportunity to migrate,
was possessed of an adventurous personality, and finally, there was
nothing compelling him to remain in Scotland. All this, would still not,
according to the model, cause a person to migrate. What was necessary

56 Dirk Hoerder, ‘Segmented Macrosystems and Networking Individuals: The Balancing

Functions of Migration Processes’, in Jan Lucassen and Leo Lucassen (eds), Migration,
Migration History, History: Old Paradigms and New Perspectives (Bern, 1997), 76–7; Kevin
Schurer, ‘The Role of the Family in the Process of Migration’, in C. G. Pooley and
Ian D. Whyte (eds), Migrants, Emigrants and Immigrants: A Social History of Migration,
(London, 1991), 233.
57 Åkerman, ‘Emigration Processes’, 292.
58 Hoerder, ‘Segmented Macrosystems’, 83.
migration process and highland emigration 329

was a trigger. Rent increases were very likely a trigger for emigration
and not a cause, as many tenants throughout the Highlands often
met successive rent increases before finally emigrating. Other common
triggers, perhaps more important than rent increase, were probably
marriage, death of dependant relatives, turnover in estate ownership,
conscription and serendipitous opportunity. Only after the experience
of a trigger event, according to Ellmers’ migration model, would a
person finally decide to activate the network and migrate.
The sequence of events which caused Scotch Settlement immigrants
to depart Scotland suggests that they were voluntary emigrants. While
this region, especially Moy and Dalarossie parish, was under structural
stress caused both by proprietors and by nature, there is little evidence
of callous disregard for the tenants.59 Although the Mackintosh
consolidated several farms, he left others, like Ruthven and Invereen,
divided among joint tenants. Based on the limited evidence available it
seems as if one family member was generally able to secure land, but
that his siblings had to migrate in order to provide for themselves or
had to emigrate to obtain land. If they remained in their home parishes,
they probably faced a future as a landless labourer. Migration of this
sort was probably much less noticeable than evictions like those on the
Sutherland estates, which affected every household in a particular strath
in a short span of time. On the face of it, then, emigrants to Scotch
Settlement seem to have taken part in the ‘people’s clearance’ and left
Scotland in an era of rising expectations.60 The fact that they chose to
leave Scotland is underscored in some family histories which recorded
the difficulties they faced in departing: in the rush to escape the military
they left behind belongings and then dodged press-gangs in port and
the open sea.61 Surely under such trying circumstances they would not
have left unless they were determined.
However, the concept of a people’s clearance has been questioned
and found wanting by scholars.62 They argue that landlord action,
including the raising of rents which preceded the incoming of sheep,
59 While landlords in this parish did find reason to issue Summons of Removals against
tenants for nonpayment of rent or bad behaviour they also issued abatements for rent.
Some, like Ludovick McBean of Tomatin spoke out on behalf of tenants facing eviction
if he thought they had any hope of making the rent. NAS, GD128/22/2, McBean
of Tomatin Papers, Fraser-Mackintosh Collection, Letters sent by Ludovick McBean
of Tomatin to Campbell McIntosh; NAS, GD176/1298, Mackintosh Muniments,
Abatements to Tenants 1818.
60 J.M. Bumsted, The People’s Clearance: Highland Emigration to British North America,
1770–1815 (Edinburgh, 1982), 62.
61 Mack, Columbiana County, 189–90; Private Collection, Scotch Settlement Papers, A
Communication from Scotch Settlement, by Isabelle Fraser Leitch, p. 1; James
Hadden Smith, History of Livingston County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical
Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, ed. Hume H Cale (Syracuse, 1881),
468.
62 T.M. Devine, ‘Landlordism and Highland Emigration’, in T.M. Devine (ed.), Scottish
Emigration and Scottish Society (Edinburgh, 1992), 84, 100; Andrew Mackillop,
‘Highland Estate Change and Tenant Emigration’, in T.M. Devine and John R.
Young (ed.), Eighteenth Century Scotland: New Perspectives (East Lothian, 1999) 238,
330 amanda epperson

severely limited the ability of small tenants to provide for themselves.

Indeed, the above discussion has also suggested that Moy and
Dalarossie parish, and perhaps by extension the surrounding parishes,
were under extreme structural stress, had limited economic opportunity
both for tenants and proprietors, and that tenants were being edged out
to make way for sheep. While some proprietors may have maintained
the status quo for as long as possible, eventually their control and
manipulation of the land meant limited opportunities for tenants.
These factors would suggest that those who went to Scotch Settlement
were involuntary emigrants.
Bumsted’s notion of a people’s clearance and voluntary migration
was probably an understandable reaction to the long-standing
perception that Highlanders were forced out by unscrupulous
proprietors who cared more for their pocketbooks than for their
tenants.63 Since The People’s Clearance was published in 1982, scholars
have looked for flaws in Bumsted’s argument. While they have not
gone so far as to declare that Highland emigrants left involuntarily,
they do suggest that they did not leave voluntarily. Bumsted clearly
underestimated the impact of sheep in some regions of the Highlands
and perhaps misinterpreted the motives for departure. However, his
primary argument may have more substance than has been realised.
Many Highlanders did indeed choose to leave, in effect ‘clearing’
themselves, and it was only his use of the phrase ‘voluntary migration’
which was flawed.
The main divisions between migrants are those between ‘free’ and
‘forced’ migrants, and between ‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’ migrants.
‘Free’ and ‘voluntary’ are used to describe ‘normal’ emigrants, who are
often economically motivated. ‘Forced’ and ‘involuntary’ traditionally
have been used with reference to slaves and refugees. However, the
division between ‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’ has been challenged by
Anthony Richmond.64 His work suggests that even within a refugee
situation there are frequently economic considerations on the part of
those who become refugees. Other scholars have shown that when one
examines the characteristics and motivations of refugees they differ
little from those who would be considered ‘normal’ migrants.65 A new
paradigm which Richmond puts forward is that of a continuum of
emigration with proactive and reactive at polar ends. As all human
action is constrained and choices are never limitless, decisions must be
made within current circumstances. Even those emigrants who leave
‘voluntarily’ are often reacting to a situation over which they have no
62
(Continued) 245; Marianne McLean, The People of Glengarry: Highlanders in Transition,
1745–1820 (Montreal, 1991), 5, 126.
63 An early example of this view can be found in: J Cameron Lees, A History of the County
of Inverness (Edinburgh, 1897), 261.
64 Richmond, ‘Theories of International Migration’, 17. This article was written to
provide better understanding of refugee situations, but is well suited to all migration,
especially from the Highlands.
65 Lucassen and Lucassen, Migration History, 16.
migration process and highland emigration 331

control. In Richmond’s view proactive migrants evaluate their choices

and get out quickly, while reactive migrants wait until their choices are
limited to starvation, death, or flight. In between the two extremes are
all other types of migrants, including economic ones.
The application to the Scottish Highlands of the concepts of
proactive and reactive migration is very appropriate; in part, because
it restores power and action to many Highland emigrants and suggests
that they were aware of what was happening around them and so
took action. Unfortunately, many of the external circumstances were
outwith their control and they were not in a position to alter the
situation. Consequently, they voted with their feet and abandoned
the situation altogether. In regions of the Highlands, like Moy and
Dalarossie parish, where there had been continuous out-migration,
choosing to emigrate may have been an acceptable option, both to them
and their landlords.66
The southern and eastern Highlands have been seen as being more
stable and more technically advanced. This may very well be true for
much of this region, especially that which was geographically Lowland.
However, parishes like Moy and Dalarossie may not have been so
blessed. The significant out-migration from these parishes probably
was not caused by accessible employment opportunities, but because
of the lack of opportunity in their home parishes.67 However, the long
history of migration from this area coupled with the many opportunities
nearby, especially in Inverness, may have meant that the residents of
this region were better able to cope. There seem to have been fewer
social pressures keeping them in their parishes while well-established
migration networks meant that they had many more opportunities to
depart. The Scotch Settlement emigrants, faced with disheartening
circumstances not of their own making, decided that to best provide
for themselves and their families it would be necessary to emigrate to
the United States where they could obtain ‘a better way of living’ than
they could in Scotland.

66 What remains to be seen is how this proactive-reactive theory of migration might apply
to the situation of people in the west highlands and islands. Due to the fact that they
experienced many more blockages in the value-added process, it may have been much
harder for them to leave, even if they had wanted to.
67 Eric Richards, The Highland Clearances: People, Landlords and Rural Turmoil (Edinburgh,
2000), 46.