Walter Ker of Dalserf, Lanarkshire, banished in 1685, settled in
Freehold, and was active in organizing the Presbyterian Church there,
one of the oldest in New Jersey. The Scots settlers who came over at
this period occupied most of the northern counties of the state but
many went south and southwest, mainly around Princeton, and, says
Samuel Smith, the first historian of the province, "There were very
soon four towns in the Province, viz., Elizabeth, Newark, Middletown
and Shrewsbury; and these with the country round were in a few years
plentifully inhabited by the accession of the Scotch, of whom there
came a great many." These Scots, says Duncan Campbell, largely gave
"character to this sturdy little state not the least of their
achievements being the building up if not the nominal founding of
Princeton College, which has contributed so largely to the scholarship
of America."
In 1682 another company of nobles and gentlemen in Scotland arranged
for a settlement at Port Royal, South Carolina. These colonists
consisted mainly of Presbyterians banished for attending
"Conventicles." The names of some of these immigrants, whose
descendants exist in great numbers at the present day, included James
McClintock, John Buchanan, William Inglis, Gavin Black, Adam Allan,
John Gait, Thomas Marshall, William Smith, Robert Urie, Thomas Bryce,
John Syme, John Alexander, John Marshall, Matthew Machen, John Paton,
John Gibson, John Young, Arthur Cunningham, George Smith, and George
Dowart.
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