Settlement not Plantation

Not plantation, not conquest, not invasion. Settlement.

Over the years, writers have referred to the Hamilton & Montgomery project with a range of different terms – “Unofficial Plantation”, “migration”, “enterprise”, “colonization” and “private settlement”.

By far the term most used is “Settlement”. For example:

Rev George Hill (ed.),
The Montgomery Manuscripts
(Belfast, 1869)
 - “Settlement” appears over 100 times in the text

T K Lowry (ed.),
The Hamilton Manuscripts
(Belfast, 1867)
- subtitled “The Settlement of the Territories of…”
- the term “settlement” appears 38 times in the text

Cyril Falls,
The Birth of Ulster
(London, 1936)
- chapter entitled “The Settlement of Antrim and Down”

John Harrison,
The Scot in Ulster
(Edinburgh & London, 1888 - reprinted by Books Ulster and the Ulster-Scots Academy, Bangor, 2004)
- chapter entitled “The Scot Settles North Down and County Antrim”

James Barkley Woodburn,
The Ulster Scot, his History and Religion
(London, 1914)
- chapter entitled “The Settlement of Antrim and Down”

Rory Fitzpatrick,
God’s Frontiersmen – the Scots-Irish Epic
(London, 1989)
  - “settlers” and “settlement” are used in the text of the relevant section

The term “settlement” also helps to distinguish the Hamilton & Montgomery project from the later Plantation of Ulster.

Footnote:
The Ulster-Scots Agency is interested in further research into this element of the story. If you have any new information which could improve this page on the web site, please contact us.