Quote Originally Posted by cajunscot View Post
Indeed; that is one of the reasons why for the great migration of the Ulster-Scots to North America beginning in the early 1700s, and why they were so zealous in their support for the Rebels in 1776. One MP remarked at the beginning of the war, "Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson, and there is nothing we can do about it." Besides religious discrimination, the "Black Frost" and crop failures only added to their sufferings.

Of course, many of those Ulster-Scots Presbyterians would convert to the Methodist, Baptist and Campbellite denominations after arriving on the American frontier, as those three "new light" groups during the Great Awakening tended to be more frontier-oriented that the more "established" Presbyterian Church. Leyburn discusses this in some detail, as well as Fischer's Albion's Seed.

Finally, it should be note that a small number of German and French Protestants also intermarried with the Ulster-Scots; the most famous American example being David Crockett, who was descended from a Hueguenot refugee family that Anglicized their name after arriving in Ireland.

T.
Todd, Excellent points throughout.

A good source for one Anglican clergyman's view towards the Scots-Irish Presbyterians in the colonies is Charles Woodmason's "Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution". As Todd points out, though, most of the descendents of these Scots-Irish settlers would end up as Southern Baptists or Methodists after the Second Great Awakening, instead of in the pews of the local First Presbyterian Church.

David