OFthe Presidents of the United
States, Monroe, Hayes, Grant, Roosevelt and Wilson are of Scots descent;
and Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Johnson, Arthur, Harrison and McKinley
Ulster-Scots. Thomas Jefferson was of Welsh descent on his father's side,
but on his mother's side is said to be descended from Thomas Randolph,
Earl of Moray, whose mother was Isabel, sister of King Robert the Bruce.
President Cleveland’s father was of English descent, but his mother’s
father (Abner Neal) was born in Ireland and was possibly Ulster-Scot.
General Andrew Jackson, born
probably in North Carolina in 1767, was the son of a poor Ulster emigrant,
the grandson of Hugh Jackson of Carrick fergus, County Down, Ireland. His
mother, Elizabeth Hutchins, was of a family of linen weavers. He himself
said, "I was born somewhere between Carrickfergus and the United States."
He fought as a lad in the Revolutionary War, studied law, and was United
States Senator, Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee and major-general
before he was thirty-five years old. He was comnilander-in-chief in the
South in the War of 1812-1815 and the victor of the battle of New Orleans.
He was elected President in 1828 and re-elected in 1832. He died in 1845.
James Monroe (1758-1831), the fifth
President, was the great-grandson of Andrew and Elizabeth Spens Monroe,
and second great-grandson of Andrew, who emigrated from Scotland to
Maryland and died in Virginia in 1668. While minister to France, in 1803,
he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and during his administration
(1817-1825) acquired Florida from Spain, adding vast territories to the
United States. He also promulgated the Monroe Doctrine, which has since
shaped the international policy of the independent states of North and
South America.
George Hayes, the ancestor of
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893), emi-. grated from Scotland to Windsor,
Connecticut, about 1680. Hayes was elected the nineteenth President. in
1876, after a close election, over Samuel J. Tilden, which caused much
bitter feeling, much of which was offset by his moderation, tact and high
principle in the administration of his office.
William McKinley (1843-1901), born
in Niles, Ohio, was the son of William and Nancy Campbell Allison
McKinley. He was descended in the McKinley line from David McKinley, born
in Ulster about 1730, and Rachel Stewart (daughter of Robert Stewart), who
first emigrated to Chanceford, York County, Pennsylvania. President
McKinley fought in the Civil War, was member of Congress from his State
from 1877-1891, and Governor of Ohio, 1892-1896.
Theodore Roosevelt’s father was of
Dutch descent, but his grandmother on his father’s side was a
Pennsylvanian, an Ulster Scot. His mother was Martha Bulloch, whose
ancestor, James Bulloch, was born in Scotland (probably Stirlingshire)
about 1701. He came to Charleston about 1728 and in 1729 married Jean
Stobo, daughter of Rev. Archibald Stobo, who reached South Carolina by way
of Darien. Their son, Archibald Bulloch, was Colonial Governor of Georgia
and Commander in Chief of the State forces, 1776-1777; delegate to the
Continental Congress of 1775, and elected to the one of 1776; signed the
first constitution of the State of Georgia as president. Died 1777. His
son, James, married Ann, daughter of Dr. John and Ann Elizabeth Baillie
Irvine; and their son, James Stephens Bulloch, the father of President
Roosevelt’s mother, married Martha, daughter of Daniel Stewart and Susan
Oswald. President Roosevelt's uncle, James Dunwoodie Bulloch, admiral in
the Confederate army, was the builder of the Alabama, and another
uncle, Irving Bulloch, fired the last shot from her guns in her famous
battle with the Kearsarge.
President Wilson’s paternal
grandfather, James Wilson, came to Philadelphia in 1807, at the age of
twenty, from County Down, Ireland. He was editor of the Aurora in
that city and later founder and editor of the Pennsylvania Advocate,
Pittsburgh, Pa., and the Western Herald, Steubenville, Ohio. He
served as a justice of the peace and a member of the Ohio legislature and
through his newspapers was a recognized influence in that State following
the War of 1812 till his death in 1837: He married Anne Adams, a native of
Ulster. The President's father, Rev. Joseph Buggles Wilson, was the
youngest of seven sons. The President’s mother, Janet (or Jessie) Woodrow;
was the daughter of Rev. Thomas Woodrow, a native of Paisley and a
graduate of Glasgow University, who after preaching for sixteen years in
Scotland and England, came with his family to America in 1836. |