In 1684 Gawen
Lawrie, who had been for several years previously residing in the
colony, was appointed Deputy Governor of the province, and fixed his
residence at Elizabeth. In the same year Perth (so named in honor of
the Earl of Perth, one of the principal proprietors, now Perth Amboy)
was made the capital of the new Scottish settlement. During the
following century a constant stream of emigrants both from Scotland
and from Ulster came to the colony. One of the principal encouragers
of the Scottish colony in New Jersey was George Scot or Scott (d.
1685) of Pitlochrie, who had been repeatedly fined and imprisoned by
the Privy Council of Scotland for attending "Conventicles," as
clandestine religious gatherings were then called in Scotland, and in
the hope of obtaining freedom of worship in the new world he proposed
to emigrate "to the plantations." To encourage others to do the like
he printed at Edinburgh (1685) a work, now very rare, called "The
Model of the Government of the Province of East New Jersey, in
America; and Encouragement for Such as Design to be concerned there."
Scot received a grant of five hundred acres in recognition of his
having written the work, and sailed in the _Henry and Francis_ for
America. A malignant fever broke out among the passengers and nearly
half on board perished including Scot and his wife. A son and daughter
survived and the proprietors a year after issued a confirmation of the
grant to Scot's daughter and her husband (John Johnstone), many of
whose descendants are still living in New Jersey.
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