Scottish Emigration to Colonial America, 1607-1785 - by David Dobson (Paperback)

About the Book

Dobson's work, based on original research on both sides of the Atlantic, comprehensively identifies the Scottish contribution to the settlement of North America prior to 1785, with particular emphasis on the seventeenth century.

Book Synopsis

Before 1650, only a few hundred Scots had trickled into the American colonies, but by the early 1770s the number had risen to 10,000 per year. A conservative estimate of the total number of Scots who settled in North America prior to 1785 is around 150,000.

Who were these Scots? What did they do? Where did they settle? What factors motivated their emigration? Dobson's work, based on original research on both sides of the Atlantic, comprehensively identifies the Scottish contribution to the settlement of North America prior to 1785, with particular emphasis on the seventeenth century.

Review Quotes

A brief but impressive piece of scholarship that is particularly valuable for its incorporation of Canada and the West Indies into the discussion of the Scottish presence in America.

--Georgia Historical Quarterly

A good reference for and point of entry to the processes and nature of Scottish emigration to North America; for the genealogist, it provides clues to the origins of immigrant ancestors.

--New England Historical and Genealogical Register

A useful source of background information that will aid genealogists in interpreting their documents and placing the information they use in proper historical perspective. It is recommended for all who are interested in colonial-American immigration patterns.

--National Genealogical Society Quarterly

A useful survey that undoubtedly will be the standard work on the subject for a good while to come.

--North Carolina Historical Review

Can be commended for complementing the few historical studies on the interrelation of Scotland and colonial America that are available, and for enhancing academic interest in a field of research that, indeed, has not received the attention it deserves.

--Scottish Studies Newsletter

Dobson . . . seems to have visited most of the major local and national archives on both sides of the Atlantic and to have compiled a vaster array of published materials about Scottish migrants to the Americas than any previous writer.

--William and Mary Quarterly

Dobson gathers widely scattered sources and from them weaves a highly informative narrative that addresses the motives of the emigrants, their patterns of settlement, and the contributions they made to colonial society.

--Journal of the Early Republic

Solidly researched and well-written . . . Will undoubtedly pave the way for future research, and should be an invaluable source for historians and genealogists alike.

--Eighteenth-Century Scotland

About the Author

David Dobson is an honorary research fellow at the University of St. Andrews and an honorary post doctoral fellow of the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests are mainly Scottish emigration and maritime Scotland between 1600 and 1800. He is the author of "Scottish Emigration to Colonial America, 1607-1785" (Georgia), "Scottish Trade with Colonial Charleston, 1683 -1783," and many additional volumes on Scottish emigration overseas in the early modern period.

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