Note 18 — THE IRISH SETTLERS OF SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

They were from an ancient race of pure Celtic (Irish) origin, whose ancestors had emigrated from Ireland to southern Scotland, and, in 1612–20, returned to their ancestors’ former home; remaining in Ireland over a century before the emigration to America in 1718–36. In other words, from Ireland to Argyle (Scotland) these Irish went, to Ireland from Scotland they returned in the seventeenth century and to America their descendants came over a century later. Strange indeed it is that the history of the Irish origin of these so called Scots is suppressed by these modern “Scotch-Irish” writers. (See Vol. 2, pages 333 and 712, and Vol. 7, page 555, of Chambers Encyclopædia.)

These hardy and opinionated Celts, while in Scotland, left their indelible and unmistakable imprint on the language and character of the people, in the design of their humble dwellings and churches and more pretentious round towers. In reference to the Round Towers of Ireland, Hamilton wrote in 1790: “There have been but two buildings of this species hitherto discovered out of Ireland; they are both in Scotland, and the fashion of them has probably been borrowed from this country (Ireland), where they are still extremely numerous. One of these usually called a Pictish tower, stands at Abernethy in Perthshire, and seems to be of very ancient date; the other is at Brechin in Angusshire, probably much more modern than the former.” Letters concerning the Northern Coast of the County Antrim, Ireland, by William Hamilton, Dublin, 1790, page 62.