Between 1650 and 1775 many thousands of Scots were banished to the American colonies for political, religious, or criminal offenses. In the aftermath of the English Civil War, for example, Oliver Cromwell transported thousands of Scots soldiers to Virginia, New England, and the West Indies. The Covenanter Risings of the later 17th century led to around 1,700 Scots being expelled as enemies of the state, and the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 resulted in an additional 1,600 men, women, and children being banished to the colonies. These three groups of exiles, together with a stream of petty criminals, formed a sizable proportion of the Scottish population of colonial America.
Mr. Dobson here furnishes a list of these banished Scots, the ancestors of thousands of Americans living today. From the records of the Privy Council of Scotland, the High Court of Justiciary, Treasury and State Pagers, prison records, and miscellaneous sources, he has brought together in concise form the overwhelming bulk of information available on the Scots who were banished to the colonies prior to 1775. For each person cited in this directory, some or all of the following information is provided: name, occupation, place of residence in Scotland, place of capture and captivity, parent's name, date and cause of banishment, name of the ship sailing to the colonies, and date and place of arrival in the colonies.
