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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 1999-02 > 0920166669


From: linda Merle <>
Subject: Re: Significance of Lancaster, PA?
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 17:51:09 -0800


Hi Ron ,

>The question: Why did they go to Lancaster, PA?

Yes, Lancaster Co was a major destination for Ulster Scots. One of
the original proprieters was a Benjamin Chambers (1684) and I
think an Irish Quaker. From there they spread out, especially
as Germans entered the area. They did not like the German
settlers (though most us now have some German <grin>).

Here is a typical example -- the fellow that possibly enlisted my
ANDERSONs (also from Lancaster CO), from
Sharon Bryant" <>
"One of the earliest settlements in the Cumberland Valley was that made by
Benjamin Chambers, who in 1730 located at Falling Spring in the vicinity of
the present town of Chamberburg, which was named after him. With three
brothers he emigrated at the age of seventeen from County antrim, Ireland,
and settled on Fishing Creek in Lancaster County. Four years later,
Benjamin, the youngest of the four brothers, crossed the Susquehanna and
settled at Falling spring, having secured four hundred acres under a
Blunston license. Here he erected a sawmill and a grist mill and farmed a
large plantation, becoming a very substantial citizen. In 1764 he laid out
the town of Chambersburg, which was to become the county seat of Franklin
County. Other Scotch-Irishmen located in the same vicinity, becoming
numerous enough to organize Falling Spring Presbyterian Church in 1738."

Source for paragraph: Gerrard, "Chambersburg in the Colony and the
Revolution."

>For that matter was Newcastle an Irish center for debarkation?

Nope not particularly -- PHily and Charleston seemed popular!

They tended, say the books. to take ship where they could and work
their way over land to the destination. There were not enough ships
to be choosy. My German ancestors, heading for Saxonburg,
Butler Co, western PA in 1834, landed in Baltimore and traveled
overland by wagon to western PA. An appalling journey, the accounts
say. I am lucky to have found the account since Baltimore was not
at the top of my list of ship lists to search.

Linda Merle

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