by Ralph Barnes
Citizens Voice & Times
August 29, 1996
Every school child learns the litany of noble causes that induced our pioneer
forefathers to leave their motherlands. The driving forces that brought them to
these shores, according to the history books, were their desires for democracy,
economic opportunity, religious freedom and social justice. A far baser desire
that involved infidelity on the throne of England probably had more to do with
some of us being here. Many families are in Kentucky today as a result of a
love triangle that occurred in 1527.
It all began when the Vikings came to Scotland in the Eighth Century seeking
plunder. Over time the Norse raiders settled along the coast of the Irish Sea
and married with the native Celts. The blending of the two cultures instilled a
mixture of character traits and skills readily identifiable in many modern
Kentuckians. As our Viking heritage burdened us with a quick temper, our
Scottish ancestry provided us with an economic advantage. It was in Scotland
that our ancestors learned to make the good whiskey that became the vocation of
choice of so many of their Appalachian descendants.
Except for an occasional intemperate outburst, brought on by their hot Viking
blood, most settled down, accepted Christianity and became English citizens.
Not too long after our Norse ancestors converted to Catholicism (there were no
Protestants at the time), an affair of the heart in the English Court altered
the history of England and played an important role in the settlement of
Kentucky.
Henry VIII lost his heart to Ann Boleyn (she later lost her head to Henry) and
asked the Pope to grant him a divorce from Queen Catherine so that he could
marry her. The Pope refused and that made Henry mad. In retaliation, the King
decreed that henceforth his loyal subjects would worship as Protestants rather
than Catholics. All of which must have been very confusing to the Viking
descendants who had been persuaded to give up their pagan gods and convert to
Catholicism as the only sure path to Heaven. Now they were told that they could
not be Catholics anymore because the King had taken a fancy to one of his court
maidens. One can imagine the befuddlement of the peasants as they tried to make
the connection between Henry’s aroused hormones and their need to embrace Protestantism.
Some of our ancestors must surely have wondered if giving up Paganism had been
such a good idea. In the end most of the English acquiesced and Anglicanism
became the official religion in Britain.
However the Irish were not overly concerned about the state of Henry’s hormones
and remained loyal to the Catholic Church. The English, of course, were
outraged at the Irish for not supporting old Henry. Tensions developed that
eventually resulted in open conflict. In time the English managed to conquer the
Irish but many of the clans continued to resist British rule. Parliament felt
that Ireland could be pacified by sending over settlers from Scotland to keep
the Celts in check. The Protestant controlled government also felt a divine
obligation to provide a Protestant presence in Catholic Ireland. Our
forefathers and their Scottish neighbors were encouraged to immigrate to
Ireland in the early part of the seventeenth century and consequently became
known as the Scotch-Irish.
Land was confiscated from the Irish landowners and given to the English
aristocracy, who in turn leased it to the Scottish settlers. To entice Scottish
laborers to immigrate to Ireland, one hundred year leases on farmland at very
nominal rates were offered as inducements.
As often happens with divinely inspired political decisions, the move proved to
be a disaster resulting in a bitter struggle between the Protestants and
Catholics that is yet to be resolved.
When the leases expired during the first half of the eighteenth century, the
land lords immediately raised the rents. The increased rates were much resented
by the descendants of the original settlers who had grown accustomed to the
cheap rents. Being true to their Scottish heritage they refused to pay.
Fortunately for the tenant farmers there was plenty of cheap land in the New
World. So the irate renters told the landlords what they could do with their
leases, got on a ship and headed to America.
The arrival of the disenchanted Scotch-Irish in America occurred during the
period when the English colonies were beginning their struggle for independence
from the motherland. That struggle eventually culminated with the surrender of
the British at Yorktown. The withdrawal of the English opened up vast new
territories for settlement west of the Alleghenies. Those who had served in the
Colonial army were awarded grants of land in the hinterlands. The land grant
policy allowed even the poorest of the Scotch-Irish immigrants to acquire land.
The grant land was mostly in the wilderness territory that bordered the
Appalachian Mountains. Thus the Scotch-Irish became the dominant immigrant
group in several Appalachian states. The area that became Kentucky was
strategically located along the Wilderness Road. Many of the weary pioneers
that poured through the Cumberland Gap settled in the Blue Grass region and
eventually spread throughout the state. That is how Kentucky came to have a
large Scotch-Irish population.
Among the family names with possible blood ties to the Scotch-Irish are:
Alexander, Allen, Arnold, Bailey, Barnett, Barnes, Brown, Campbell, Cole,
Crawford, Curry, Davis,Dennis, Dixon, French, Freeman, Green, Griffen, Hall,
Hamilton, Harris, Henry, Higgenbotham, Howell, Johnson, Johnston, King,
Kincaid, Everyone whose name begins with"Mc", Metcalf, Miller, Moore,
Neal, Ohr, Patton, Riddle, Roberts, Ross, Scott, Smith, Smyth, Stewart,
Stevenson, Taylor, Thompson, Walker, Wallace, Watson, Williams, Woods, Young
and many others.
For those who inclined to criticize Henry for his infidelity, it would be wise
to remember this old English ditty: " If Henry and Ann had done no sin;
the Eden called Estill would not have bin".