ABSTRACT
Statistical study of the Scots settlement of North America has developed in the last century, demonstrating that there were few areas in the north eastern part of the continent that escaped the influence of Caledonian immigration. Explorers, traders, soldiers, landholders, farmers and religious communities seeking asylum have been located, counted and, in many cases, identified in detail. 1 The use of historical documents such as transatlantic correspondence, diaries, society minutes and indentures has even enabled attempts at assessment of the ‘character’ of these individuals and communities, 2 but little attention has been paid to their particular material culture. It has been estimated that, between 1763 and 1776, over 50,000 Scots settled in the 13 colonies, 3 multiplying a base population that had established itself on the Eastern Seaboard from the late seventeenth century onwards: whether merchant communities in tidewater Virginia, Highland cattle farmers in North Carolina or improving farmers in New England, the Scots were a varied and socially-dynamic presence in colonial America.
