Public Seminar Series. East Jersey Bound. Scots Emigrants to America in the 1680s by Derrick Johnstone
In the early 1680s, several hundred Scots emigrated from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Montrose to establish colonial settlements in New Jersey.
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This was backed at the highest level and sought to ensure that Scotland had a stake in the development of the American colonies. It brought together Quakers, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, a tense mix of religious affiliations. Many of the Presbyterians were transported Covenanters and the Quakers too had had their share of persecution.
This talk by Derrick Johnstone will set out the background to the venture and consider the questions: Who were the emigrants, why did they leave and what became of them?
He will also touch on the wider cast of investors, kin and associates who all feature in his genealogy-based database available on his project website, East Jersey Bound.
The research has involved extensive use of the National Records of Scotland and the New Jersey State Archives, supplemented by a great number of other sources required in identifying the people involved, their backgrounds and life stories.
Bio
Derrick Johnstone is a Research Affiliate in the Department of History at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He completed his dissertation on the Scots emigrants in 2025 and has published research on the Sweet Singers, an extreme Covenanter sect. He is continuing his research into the emigrants, their kin and associates and adding to his database which contains details of 600 emigrants and over 2,200 kin and associates. He is also Secretary of the Old Edinburgh Club, the city’s history society.
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