Mary Houge or Hogg
1782-1857
Born: Cat Island, Bahamas
Died: Walthourville, Liberty, Georgia, United States
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1782-1857
Born: Cat Island, Bahamas
Died: Walthourville, Liberty, Georgia, United States
<font size="1"><p>During the American Revolution (1776-1783), many North Carolinians supported Great Britain. They were called Loyalists or Tories. Some historians have argued that the loyalty to Britain stemmed from the Piedmont hatred of the Eastern merchant and planter class that had earlier quashed the Regulator Rebellion and later became ardent Patriots. The Royal Governor, Josiah Martin, hoped that the former Regulators might side with the British. But the governor’s wish never came true. Only approximately ten-percent of North Carolina Tories, however, had been Regulators, and historian Duane Meyer contends that only 200 Regulators joined royal forces Most North Carolina loyalists were Highland Scots, who had settled in and near Wilmington and in and near Cross Creek (later named Fayetteville). Highland Scots also settled in the Piedmont. As a result, a significant Tory presence existed in Anson, Guilford, Rowan, and Surry counties. In these counties, many signed loyalty pledges. North Carolina Tories planned to gather at Cross Creek in February 1775 and form a loyalist army. Most of the 1,500 that assembled were Scottish Highlanders (1,300). (The number was much lower than Loyalist leaders had expected.) These loyalists marched southward to meet the Patriots. They met them at Moore’s Creek Bridge, where the Tory force suffered serious defeat and shattered Governor Martin’s hopes to maintain royal rule in North Carolina. During the war, Tories suffered for their loyalty. Prisoners of war were imprisoned, and throughout the war Tory farms were raided and property seized. In 1777, many Tories left the state, for its legislature passed a law that authorized the seizure of Tory property-more specifically the property seizure of those who refused to take a loyalty oath to the Patriot cause. After the war, property seizures and reimbursement issues were settled in post-war North Carolina courts. The most famous case was Bayard v. Singleton (1785), a case that established the concept of judicial review long before Marbury v. Madison (1803).Sources: Duane Meyer, The Highland Scots of North Carolina, 1732-1776 (Chapel Hill, 1961); Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty Vol. III (Auburn, Alabama, reprint, 1999); William S. Powell, North Carolina Through Four Centuries (Chapel Hill, 1989). http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/247/entry </p><font size="1"><p>Highland Scots When the Highland Scots migrated to America, North Carolina was a more popular place to settle than any of the other colonies. In 1739, Gabriel Johnston, royal governor of North Carolina and native Scotsman, encouraged 360 Highland Scots to settle in North Carolina and later provided them a ten-year tax exemption for doing so. Subsequent offers by Johnston attracted Highland Scots to North Carolina primarily for economic and political reasons, for in Scotland, they had difficulties paying the increasing land rents and had experienced defeat against the English at the Battle of Culloden in 1745. Also, the Highland evictions, beginning in the 1700s and continuing to the 1800s, forced many Scots to give up their land so that sheep could be raised. Many chose therefore to settle mainly in North Carolina, yet many sailed to New York, New Jersey, Georgia, and Canada. In the late nineteenth century, officials promoted working with North Carolina timber among the Highland Scots; but few enjoyed the work, so only a small number came to do so. Although their exact numbers are unknown, records reveal that countless Highland Scots migrated to North Carolina during the colonial period. Arriving in Wilmington, most who came had obtained a land grant from the government to settle in the Upper Cape Fear region, because they knew many parts of the Lower Cape Fear had been settled. In 1754, enterprising merchants from Wilmington had settled Cross Creek, an interior town on the Cape Fear River, so many Highlanders dwelled near the small creeks flowing into the river. Highland settlements were numerous in this region during the eighteenth century, and evidence of them can be seen today in Anson, Bladen, Moore, Cumberland, Richland, Scotland, and Robeson counties. The early Scots raised livestock, including sheep and swine, and grew wheat and corn while some worked in the naval stores industry. Although many preferred to live outside of Cross Creek, they actively traded in the river town. The Lowland Scots who migrated from Scotland to North Carolina in the eighteenth century primarily settled in the Lower Cape Fear region, around Wilmington. The 1790 US census lists 150 inhabitants of the Upper Cape Fear Valley who named Scotland as their birthplace. Unlike Highlanders in other colonies, those in North Carolina intermarried with Lowland Scots. Also, during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Highland families in North Carolina did exchange letters with family’s members in Scotland. Estate records probated in the eighteenth century also reveal that there were a few Highland Scots who owned land in North Carolina as well as Scotland. Some important eighteenth-century Highland Scots in North Carolina were Flora McDonald, John McRae, and James Campbell. While in Scotland in 1745, Flora McDonald helped save the life of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and from 1774 to 1778, she later resided with her husband, Alan, in the Barbecue community of Harnett County. In 1754, James Campbell arrived in Cumberland County and established three Presbyterian churches: Longstreet, located on the present-day Fort Bragg Army base; Old Bluff, near modern-day Wade; and Barbecue in western Harnett County. Hugh McRae, a Gaelic poet resided near Carthage until the American Revolution. At the outbreak of the war, more than a few Highland Scots in the Upper Cape Fear were Loyalists, including Hugh McRae and Flora McDonald. Yet after their defeat at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge in February 1776, Loyalist support waned-as evidenced by the nearly four hundred who took an oath of allegiance issued by Cumberland County in 1778. As mentioned, not all Highland Scots remained in North Carolina. After the Revolution, some left for Barbados, Nova Scotia, or Great Britain, because they had lost their property by either being confiscated or emerced by the local government. In the eighteenth century, Highland Scots spoke Gaelic in church and at home. Presbyterian ministers conducted services in Gaelic and English, and young children recited hymns and religious songs in Gaelic. In the early nineteenth-century Fayetteville, a Gaelic press published books that a nearby bookstore sold. Gaelic speaking in North Carolina declined after the Civil War and virtually disappeared as a spoken language by the mid-twentieth century. Scottish surnames, however, remained prevalent; some are Bain, Black, Campbell, Clark, Darrach, Gilchrist, McDonald, McDougald, McKay, McLean, McLeod, McNeill, McPhearson, McAllister, Morrison, Patterson, Ross, and Stewart. In North Carolina, Scottish heritage is still practiced and celebrated. In the 1950s, a resurgence of the state’s Scottish culture began when Donald MacDonald and Hugh Morton started the Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain. Today, over thirty-five thousand people attend the Highland Games every July. Other Scottish celebrations include the Loch Norman games near Charlotte and the Highland Games at Red Springs.Sources: Douglas F. Kelly and Caroline Switzer Kelly, Carolina Scots: An Historical and Genealogical Study of Over 100 Years of Emigration (Dillon, S.C., 1998); Duane Meyer, The Highland Scots of North Carolina, 1732-1776 (Chapel Hill, 1961); William S. Powell, North Carolina Through Four Centuries (Chapel Hill, 1989); Celeste Ray, Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the America South (Chapel Hill, 2001). By Lloyd Johnson, Campbell University http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/110/entry/</p></font></font>