Page:Annals of Augusta County.djvu/17



At different periods subsequent to the Reformation, many lowland Scotch people emigrated to the province of Ulster, north Ireland. There they prospered greatly, and maintained unimpaired the manners and customs and the religious faith of the country from which they came. They and their posterity regarded themselves—and were regarded by the Irish of Celtic blood—as Scotch in all essential particulars. Some of these settlers, before leaving their native land, goaded by persecution under the Stuart Kings, had borne arms against the British government, and were among the prisoners captured at Bothwell Bridge, in 1679. When the Revolution of 1688 occurred, the Scotch-Irish sided with William of Orange. The siege of Londonderry, in 1689, is one of the most remarkable events in history. Upon the march northward of the army of James II, says Macaulay, "All Lisburn fled to Antrim, and, as the foes drew nearer, all Lisburn and Antrim together came pouring into Londonderry. Thirty thousand Protestants, of both sexes and of every age, were crowded behind the bulwarks of the City of Refuge." The ordinary population of the town and