at that time; and the hopes of all Protestants for deliverance from their
Catholic persecutor by William, Prince of Orange, lind expression in the
latter part of the poem. Their hopes were destined to fullllment.
"O, Uic ewc-l)iighliiig's boiinic, baith e'eniii)^ ami morn,
When our blytlie shepherds play on their bo)i-rec<l anil horn;
While we are milking, they're lilting' baith i)1i'asant and clear —
But my heart 'a like to break when I think of my ilear!
O, the shepherds take pleasure to blow on the horn,
To raise uj) tlu'ir Hocks of sheep soon i' the morn ;
On the bonnie green banks they feed pleasant and free —
But, alas! my dear heart, all my aigliuig's for thee!
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 17
How blvthc \vi' my Siindy, out oVt the brown Cells,
I ha'c followed tho flocks tliroiiKl' the tVesli heather-bells!
Btit now I sit ureetinfr anianjr the lanpr broom,
In the (lowie green clench where the burniu glides doon.
O, wae to the traitors! an' black be their fa',
Wha banished my kind-henrted shepherd awa!
Wha banished my laddie ayont the wide sea,
That aye was so leal to his" country and me.
IJut the cruel opiiressors shall tremble for fear.
When the Iruc-bliif and orange in triumph appear;
.\nd the star of the east leacfs them o'er the dark sea,
.Wi' freedom to ScoiUiiul, and Sandy to me!"
H.iviujr thus jriven a brief .sketch of Scothiiul, of the character of our
Scotch ancestors, of tlioir fortitude untler suffering, of their fixedness of
purpose, of tlieir struifgles and sacrifices for reliji;ious liberty, of their
fliiCht to Ireland, where they still were >S>o(c/i, I will briefly relate their
history till their eniiiiration to America. I have already alluded in the
first part of this chapter to the prime cause for the Scotch and Enf^lish
settlements in Ireland. But the first residents there met with great trials
and great cahimities. Between them and the native Irish exi.sted a feud,
bitter ami unrelenting, which has been bequeathed to their successors of
both races. "And to this day a more than Spartan haughtiness alloys the
many noble (|ualities which characterize the children of the victors, while
a Helot feeling, compounded of awe and hatred, is but too often discern-
ible in the children of the vamiuished.''
On Irish soil dwelt two distinct populations. They were locally in-
termixed, yet sundered by race and religion. They were of difl'erent races,
spoke different languages, and were kept asunder by national character-
istics as sharp and distinct as those of any two European nations. One
was civilized, the other in barbarism; and the Scotch and English resi-
dents exercised over the natives the power which wealth always exercises
over poverty, knowledge over ignorance, and enlightened over barbaric
races. The sequestered estates of the Catholic Irish were occupied by the
Protestant settlers. But the wrath of the Irish did not die out ; it only
slumbered. It was while King Charles the First was striving to force
Episcopacy upon the Scottish people, which the Covenanters and Puri-
tans so fiercely resisted, while he was making those alarming contentions
in Scotland and England, that in 1641 the native Irish, who had long been
brooding over their wrongs, took advantage of the trouble on the
other side of the channel, rose in rebellion, and with untold barbarities
massacred more than 40,000 Protestants. This occurred October 23, 1641.
After this event settlers lived in alarm for several years. But soon a change
occurred in the Government, the King was justly beheaded, and the Pro-
tectorate was establisheil. A man was at the helm of State who was both
able and willing to protect the Protestants from their bigoted enemies.
In 104^) the strong arm of Cromwell bore an avenging sword. He re-
solved, once for all, to put an end to the conflict of races and religions in
Ireland. With his army he waged relentless war against the Catholics,
punisliing them more severely than they had ever been before during five
Imndred years of conflict. Large cities were left without their people,
lands w^ere laid waste, and the iidiabitants either died by the sword, or
sought refuge in other parts of Europe, or were shipped bj' thousands to
the West India Islands. The void which he had thus created he also filled
by large bodies of Scotch and English colonists of the Calvinistic faith,
who soon redeemed the fertile, but desolated, war-smitten provinces of
Ireland, making them once more prosperous, and a land of plenty ; and by
their industry and thrift to fill with their products the markets of England,
so that Englishmen clamored for laws of i)rotection against them.
David Gregg, grandfather of David Gregg, the early settler of Windham,
was a captain in Cromwell's army, and was one of those thrifty Scotch
colonists who went from Argyleshire in 1655, and settled near Londonderry,
Ireland ; some of his descendants, not in the Gregg name, are in
18 HISTORY OF WINDHAM IX NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Windham to-day. About 1680, Daniel Campbell, father of Henry Camp-
belli, ance.stor- of the Windham Campbells, settled at Londonderry,
Ireland. Thus the influence of those far-ott" troublous times affected
this distant settlement, and is still seen and felt. Those influences
were like a stone cast into the sea, producing ripples, ever enlarging, and
which will never cease. After the subjugation of Ireland by Cromwell,
comparative peace and prosperity prevailed for several years. The Cath-
olics were wisely disarmed, while the Protestants were provided with weap-
ons, and were thus prepared to defentl themselves. And the custom of
discharging flre-arms at Scotch weddings in Ireland and in this settlement
arose from the event last related, and was the token of the joy of the
Scotch, no less than their triumph.
But a day black with darkuess was coming with unwonted swiftness.
Its long deepening shadows reached the Scotch colonists at the death of
Cromwell, Sept. 3, 1658, and the commencement of the end of the Protec-
torate, which had been established nearly nine years before, and which end
was reached Ave months later, when the government fell from the weak
grasp of Richard Cromwell. In 1660 the Stuarts returned, and Charles
II became king. In 1661, persecutions of the Scotch Presbyterians com-
menced afresh in Ireland, and every expedient short of extermination was
used to break the attachment of the people to their church polity. Many
ministers were deposed and fled to Scotland. But the greater the perse-
cution, the greater was the tenacity with which the Scotch clung to the
tenets of their church. From this time forvpard, for nearly thirty years,
continued a series of persecutions, either in Ireland or Scotland, in which
multitudes became martyrs to their faith. "From 1670, till the accession
of William and Mary, the Presbyterians of Scotland worshipped in hidden
places and at the peril of their lives." Thus the persecutions went on,
nor did they cease until James II was driven from his throne, — not till
after the " Siege of Londonderry," that event which shall always live in
human history, and which shall inspire and thrill human hearts wherever
heroism is honored, and devotion to immortal principles is loved and
commended.
King James II, who came to the throne in 1685, was a papist, and his
ofticers in Ireland were mostly of the Catholic faith, and determined to
advance that cause. Under Catholic rule in Ireland the Protestants were
disarmed, placed in a defenceless condition, and being surrounded by
papists, were not safe in life or property. In 16«7 they were subjected
to many outrages. Their houses were burned, their cattle were stolen,
and the Catholic soldiers roamed the country, pillaging, maiming, and
committing all kinds of outrages. Fifteen hundred families left the
country in a few days, it was said. The tyranny of the king had awakened
the fleVcest alarm in the three kingdoms. Some of the leading men of
England invited William, Prince of Orange, who had married tlie eldest
daughter of James II, to come over from Holland and assume the gov-
ernment. He "did consent"; and late in the autumn, with 500 vessels
and 14,000 men, he arrived in England, landing at Torbay, Nov. 5, 1688.
The army, the nobility, the clergy, and the people went over to William,
and James II fled to France. He still retained a few fri(nuls in England,
some of the strong Scottish-Catholic clans were still loyal, but his
greatest strength was in his Irish-Catholic adherents in Ireland, who com-
prised the larger part of the population. He resolved not to give up his
kingdom without a struggle; so with the aid he could secure from Louis
XIV of France, he determined to make a descent upon Ireland, and with
a great army of Irish cross over to Scotland, and gathering in his loyal
Highlanders, enter England, drive his enemies before him, and recover
his crown. He landed March 12, 168'.), at Kinsale, in Ihe southern part of
Ireland, and proceeded to Cork, and thence to Dublin.
The Protestant communities of the north of Ireland stood in the way
of the accomplishment of the king's plans, and those Protestant towns
with their forces must be overcome. The strongest of those towns was the
PRKFJMINAKV rHAPTEH. 19
original town of Dim/. In the reif,'!! ofJami-s I, tlie uaiiio was clianjj^ed to
Loiidoiulerry. It is in thf province of Ulster, is the capital of tlie connty
of Londonderry, lies on the river Foyle, and is one hundred and fifty
miles northwest of Dublin. At this place the Protestants made a heroic
defence, t/trre was the arena upon which was decided the fate of re-
ligious liberty for the British nation, and there some of the llrst resi-
dents of Londonderry, N. IL, and the ancestors of many of the tlrst set-
tlers of Windham and Londonderry, and of many of the present inhabi-
tants of both towns, heroically contended, winning imperishable renown
for themselves ami their descendants.
As the Catholics advanced northward, they laid the country waste-
flocks and herds were swept away ; freebooters who roamed the country,
accustomed to live on potatoes and sour whey, now had the luxury of
meat. Everything was abandoned to the papists, who comprised four
llfths of the population, though four lifths of the property belonged to the
intelligent Protestants. Every native was armed, the Scotch and English
were disarmed, and it was reported and believed thai the papists were to
rise on Sunday, Dec. 9, KJS.S, and massacre the Protestants without re-
gard to age or sex, thus repeating the horrors of 104L During these
troublous times, and subse(|uently, many murders were committed by the
Catholics. History records the fact, and manuscript records handed down
to the present time in the Gregg, the Davidson, the Mcllvaine, and other
Windham families, some of whose members were slain, confirms it.
The Scotch and English residents, men, women, and children, retreated
before the C^atholic army. Whole towns of Protestants were left without
an inhabitant. Thirty thousand Protestants, of both sexes and all ages,
were crowded within the walls of Londonderry. Says Macaulay, "There
at length, on the verge of the ocean, hunted to the last asylum, and baited
into a mood in which men may be destroyed but will not easily be sub-
jugated, the imperial race turued desperately at bay."
It was at that time, while the minds of the people of Londonderry were
alarmed with the rumors before mentioned, that Alexander Macdouald, Earl
of Antrim, with 1,200 Catholics, was rapidly approaching Londonderry to
occupy it. The troops at length appeared in view, and a squad of oflJcers
appeared before the city's gate, and demanded admittance for the troops.
It was at this supreme moment, upon which hung great destinies, that
thirteen young apprentice boys, namely, —
Alexamipr Irwin, Alexander Coningham, Robert Sherard,
James Stewart, Henrv Campsie, Daniel Sherard,
Robert Morison, William Crookshanks, William Cairnes,
Samuel Harvey,
by one heroic act placed their names high on the scroll of fame. They
armed themselves, seized the keys of the city, closed the Ferry Gate,
and refused admission to King James's soldiers. The other gates were
secured. James Morison, a citizen, advised the soldiers to depart; but
not leaving, he cried from his place on the top of the wall of the city,
"Bring a great gun this way!" when they, desiring to be out of the
way of flying bullets, retreated to the other side of the river Foyle. This
event was of the highest importance, as it frustrated the design of the
papists. The city received reinforcements, and additions to their pro-
visions and military stores. In the following April afi'airs were approach-
ing a crisis.
The opposing and now powerful array of King James was bent upon
the capture of the city, which refused to surrender. The French and
Irish army of James appeared before the city April 15, 1089, and entered
into negotiations with the traitorous Lundy for the delivery of the city
against the will of the people. On the 17th, King James appeared with
15,000 additional soldiers, and was anxious that the city should surrender
without delay. But the people knew that to give up Londonderry was to
give up Ireland, the cause of William, and religious liberty, and to this they
would never consent. The authority of Lundy was at an end, and two
20 HISTORY OF WINDHAM IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
valorous soldiers, Major Henry Baker and Adam Murray, called the people
to arms. Men of all ranks rnshed to the walls and manned the guns.
James, who expected the city to surrender, had approached within a hun-
dred yards of the Southern Gate, and with a cry of " No surrender! " and
a discharge of guns, an oflicer at his side was killed, while the king and
his attendants tied. That day, April .17, 1689, the historic siruggle com-
menced in earnest. The city was now without civil or military govern-
ment. Two governors were soon elected by the people, namely, Major
Henry Baker and Rev. George Walker. The military was under the com-
mand of Baker. Walker was to look after the internal att'airs of the city.
The military force of the city was rising 7,000 men.
The bitter animosities between members of the Established Church and
the Dissenters, between Conformists and Non-conformists were in the
main forgotten, in the presence of a common peril. The att'airs of the city
were managed with great prudence and forethought. With a small army
with which to cope with the great masses of the enemy, the city was very
weakly fortified, "the wall being less than nine feet thick along the face
of the ramparts, with a ditch and eight bastions." It was scantily sup-
plied with provisions. Operations against it were vigorously commenced.
The city was bombarded, shells continually bursting within it, destroy-
ing dwellings, ahd setting them on fire, causing the death of the inmates.
Chimneys wex'e demolished, and the city often on fire; danger, horror,
and death were everywhere. But as dangers thickened, the grit and pluck
of the besieged became fearfully developed. Brave sorties were made
from the city, assaults upon the walls with superior force were brilliantly
repulsed, and by ceaseless vigilance and heroic means parties who sought
to undermine the walls were driven away and destroyed. The besiegers
sought to gain by artifice and threats what their valor could not win, but
in vain. The siege was turned into a blockade, and the enemy waited for
starvation to compel a surrender. The place was surrounded; every ave-
nue by which provisions could reach the city was closely guarded. The
river Foyle, by which succor could come, was strongly lined with troops,
and batteries and forts which no vessel could safely pass, bristled its
banks at all points. To make things doubly secure, the enemy sunk great
stones in the river, piles were driven, and a boom made of wood was
stretched from shore to shore. Provisions now began to fail, and the de-
fenders suffered for want of water. On the 8th of June, horse-flesh was
almost the only meat which could be bought. On June 15th, the hopes of
the besieged were raised by the near approach of a fleet of vessels for
their relief, with troops, ammunition, and provisions ; but Kirke, the cow-
ardly commander, was dismayed at the obstacles in his way, and retired
without striking a blow. Famine pressed heavily on the besieged.
On June It), General Conrad de Uosen determined to compel the surren-
der of the city by a scheme so infamous that it excited the anger of his
own troops. He gathered together from tin; surrounding country some
4,000 Protestants, men, women, and children, and drove them beneath the
walls of Londonderry, where they should starve within sight of their
friends in the city, and also be exposed to the missiles of both armies,
imagining that the sufterings of their friends would induce tlie defenders
to yield. An order was immediately issued that whoever spoke of sur-
render should dip. ; and the word was not spoken. Among those driven
beneath the walls were John Morison, who died in Londonderry, N. II.,
in 173(!, ae. 108 years (?), and his family, who were subsequently admitted
within the city. He was the ancestor of the Morrisons of Windham, and
many of those of Londonderry and Peterl)orough. Starvation was sadly
and rapidly doing its work in July, yet no thought of surrender. The
thought was, first, eat the horses, then the hides, tlien the prisoners, then
each other — then — die — l)Ut lu-ver surrender. Dogs, laltened on the
blood of the slain, and rats, feasting upon decaying l)odies, were luxuries,
and eagerly euteu. A quarter of a dog brought five shillings and sixpence ;
u dog's head, two shillings and sixpence ; a quart of horse's blood, one shil-
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 21
liiip:; a rat, one shilliiiij: a mouse, sixpence ; a pound of hides, one shillinj?,
and a cat, four shiilini;;s and sixpence.
On tlie oOth of July, only one half i)int of meal remained for each man,
and only two days more of life were reckoned upon. On the eveninj; of
that day, three vessels came up the Foyle. This was the day of deliver-
ance. It was the one hundred and fourth ilay of the siejje. The Enj^lish
commander had received positive orders to relieve the besief^ed. Within
the town, the stirvini^and heart-broken congregation had Just left the cathe-
dral, after the eveninu: sermon. It was the twiliijlit hour, and their hearts
were full of darkness; Ijiit just then the sentinels saw the approach of the
succoring ships. It was (piickly noised through the city that relief was
at hand, and the people tlirongctl the walls. The river was low and nar-
row, anil the besiegers were active; their guns and bristling cannon on its
banks covered every point. But the vessels bravely approached the place
of peril. The ship Montjoy, from Londonderry, with Micajah Browning of
that place in command, drove straight at the boom, broke the great ob-
struction, but was itself by the rebound hurled out of the way, and stuck
in the mud. The Irish raised a yell of triumph, and attempted to board
the ship, but by fierce shots from the Dartmouth, were repelled. The
Phenix, a vessel of Coleraine, dashed through the aperture made by the
Montjoy. The rising tide enabled the latter ship to join her. When that
vessel grounded in the mud, the yell of fiendish triumph which burst from
the Catholic hosts filled the hearts of the starved besieged with unutter-
able anguish. It was a moment never to be forgotten by those who expe-
rienced it. Another half-hour of agony and suspense followed before the
ships reached the quay, at ten at night. Then the city was relieved ; its
starving inhabitants had turned out en masse, and welcomed their deliv-
erers. The joy and gratitude of the people were unutterable. The "watch-
fires of a hundred circling camps" made bright the night. The booming
of the enemy's artillery, flying shot, and screaming bombs, combined with
the answering peals of joyous defiance sent forth b}^ the ringing bells of
the city, made tiiat night one of awful grandeur, of fear, and of supremest
joy. Through the 31st the guns of the enemy were active, but after night-
fall the defeated and baffled foe silently withdrew. So closed the most
memorable siege in the history of the Britisli Isles.
This defence of Londonderry saved Protestantism in the United King-
dom. It was a great check to King James, and for one hundred and five
days had kept back his proud armj^ of 40,000 men, which William of
Orange soon met and defeated — June 30, 1(590 — on the banks of the
Boyue, which compelled James, after a few months, to retreat to
France. So important did the government of Great Britain consider this
defence, and the unparelleled heroism of the defenders, that Parliament
passed an act exempting from taxation, throughout its territory, all who
had borne arms in the city during the siege. There were, under this Act,
exempted farms in Londonderry, N. H., which so continued till the Rev-
olution. The besiegers lost over 8,000 men and one hundred offlcei's, and
the defenders were reduced from 7,500 to 3,000 efl'ective men. Since the
memorable siege, six generations have passed away, and still the wall of
Londonderry is sacred, and the places wliere the important acts trans-
pired are considered holy ground, and many memorials of the struggle
are carefully preserved. The old battle flags and ancient guns are kept as
valued relics. Each year bright flowers are placed on the graves of the
valiant dead. A lofty monument was erected about 1825, surmounted by
a statue of Walker, and inscribed with the names of many brave men.
The foregoing sketch shows the strong character of the Scotch exiles in
Ireland. Thirty years later, these same Scotch people of Londonderry.
Ireland, made a " new departure " for religious liberty, and planted in the
American wilderness the new settlements of Londonderry and Windham,
N. H. In 1719, some of the heroic defenders settled in Londonderry, N. H.
From that sturdy race were descended the flrst settlers of Windham,
Among them may be mentioned the McKeens, the Cochrans, the Morisons,
22 HISTORY OF WINDHAM IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
and probably many others, the early records of whose families are not pre-
served. After the close of hostilities and the triumph of the Protestant
cause, the colonists in the north of Ireland for many years were at peace.
They made the region in which they lived a comparatively rich and flour-
ishiug countrj', by their industry, si^ill, and frugality. Agriculture was
improved, manufactures introduced, and they attracted trade to their
markets by the excellence of their productions. Their numbers were in-
creased by accessions from Scotland, among whom were the Nesmiths
and others. Though the Scotch had many privileges, though they had
triumphed over the Catholics, still there was neither true religious nor
civil liberty, and the Presbyterians were not satisfied. They were com-
pelled to pay one tenth of all their incomes for the support of the estab-
lished church, which they did not attend, as they attended and supported
their own church. The government made embarrassing regulations upon
their trade and industries. Their lauds were not their own, but were held
by leases from the crown or individuals. As the leases expired, and as
the lands had been greatly improved by them, the prices of rent were
greatly advanced, thus discouraging and crushing every principle of prog-
ress or enterprise in the occupants, and reducing many to poverty. The
landlords were the same arbitrary class, and made the same trouble, and
oppressed the occupants of the Irish soil, the same as they do in 1883,
which causes such an unrest of the population. But our ancestoi's, in-
stead of refusing to pay their rents, paid them, like honest men as they
were, and then came to America. As an example of this, there is in ex-
istence the last receipt for rent paid in Ireland by Alexander Park, who
was the first settler on the Robert Armstrong farm in the " Range," and
was ancestor of the Parks of Windham.
In Ireland they were surrounded by the ignorant native Catholics, with
whom they had no affinity, and from whom they had suffered so much.
The government was a monarchy ; there was an aristocracy, and many
people with titles, none of whom were agreeable to the independent Scotch.
They looked into the future, and had an irrepressible longing to be free,
to found a community by themselves, where there would be no established
church, no ecclesiastical oppression, and no Catholics ; where there would
be a freer field for their industry and skill, and where they could worship