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Destiny |
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COUNTY DOWN, NORTHERN IRELAND What is the connection between King James I, the Ulster-Scots, the Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot of November 5th 1605, a little known 1606 migration of 10,000 people, the Authorised Version of the Bible, and the Douglas Family who put down their roots at Killaughey Road, Ballyhay, between Newtownards and Donaghadee on the east coast of County Down? It all started when James VI of Scotland, on the heirless death of England’s Elizabeth I, became King James I of the three realms—England, Scotland and Ireland—in 1603. What happened soon after was sparked through his association with two of his fellow countrymen and close advisors, Sir James Douglas, and Sir Hugh Montgomery.
Through a set of circumstances that included the imprisonment of the Irish Chief Con O’Neill, a huge tract of war-torn land was made available, and with the approval of King James, was split three ways between a released Con O’Neill, a calculating Hugh Montgomery and an opportunist James Douglas together with a plan to resettle this wasted, scorched-earth countryside of Northern Ireland. The plan almost did not get off the ground with the plotting ambitions of Guy Fawkes to “…blow the Scotsmen back to Scotland…” on November 5th 1605. Fortunately, his plot was discovered or history may have taken a very different course. Communications were sent out across Scotland to find willing tenants to farm this land and in 1606 about 10,000 settlers—farmers, stonemasons, builders, carpenter, textile workers, merchants and chaplains—sailed in waves across the narrow (13miles/21kms) stretch of the North Channel between Scotland and Ireland to become in a short time the backbone of the Ulster-Scots. The Scottish chaplains and ministers who followed this migration were mostly Presbyterian users of the Geneva Bible. This was particularly obnoxious and considered dangerous by James I, because the footnotes which were a part of this Bible, challenged the “divine right of kings”. As a result, James I commissioned a new Bible—the Authorised Version or King James Bible (KJV) first published in 1611. One of the surnames that appears on the list of families who were part of this migration is “Douglas”. In fact, there may have been more than one family, but at least one, almost certainly a part of this migration in 1606 from the lowlands of Scotland to County Down, was the Douglas Family who settled in Killaughey Road, Ballyhay, and from whom 258 years later John & James Douglas made the momentous decision to leave their home and migrate to Melbourne, Australia aboard the “Great Britain” in 1864.
Click on the logo below to open the PDF file that documents this history of the Ulster-Scots in great and interesting detail. This is a series collection of articles that appeared in the bi-monthly ‘Ulster-Scot’ publication from December 2005 to December 2006, commemorating 400 years since the North Channel migration in 1606.
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| The Journey of the "London" and her passengers
from England to New Zealand in 1842. Thomas & Susannah Chamberlain, together with their four
children sailed aboard the London on this voyage to Port Nicholson. The author is Jenny Robin Jones
a descendant of one of the passengers. The book was published in 2011 by Random House ISBN 978 1
86979 510 8 |
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The Pioneer Story of Robert Wilton and Elizabeth Denman from Montacute,
Somerset, England and continued through their children and grand-children in New Zealand.
Mary Wilton married Arthur Joseph Chamberlain, and this is the story & record of her
family. |
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Stories of New Zealand's North Island women of the colonial pioneering
era compiled and recorded for us by author Miriam Macgregor. Two of the women featured in
this book are Susannah Catherine (Bull) Chamberlain and her daughter -in-law (Catherine
McKenzie) Kitty Chamberlain. |
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The true story of an Airedale dog who captured the heart of the city of
Wellington during the dark days of depression. Also captured here is Paddy's association with
Blue Taxicab manager, Merlin Chamberlain. The author is Dianne Haworth, a dog-lover and
editor of Animal's Voice, who lives and works in Auckland. |
On the Trail
of
Parker & Walker
Families
This 2015 self-published family history has been put together by Marjorie Prictor on the trail of Parker and the Walker families who came to New Zealand in the 1860s. Marjorie is a descendant still living in the Northland district of Port Albert where each of these families settled.
Douglas Family
Reunion
1843-1981
A family history of the Douglas Family in Australia, compiled in 1981 for a family
reunion by sisters Grace Douglas & Rosalie Vanstan of Bendigo, Victoria.
Downloadable as file-093 from the Supplements Page.
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