Covenanter Summary
This summary was compiled,
from the sources indicated, by Roger Kemps and is relevant to the background
and history of the McClurken Family. ©
Covenanters in America were members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.
They were very proactive about education. Many of their ancestors had migrated from
Scotland to Ireland. They were persecuted in Scotland and Ireland for their religious beliefs and later for their
economic success. Consequently, over 500,000 migrated to the Colonies. By the
time of the Revolutionary War, they were about 900,000 colonists with
Covenanter roots. They were the most vocal in agitating for dissolving all
connections with Great Britain, primarily due to the pending interference with their
religious freedom. These people also provided a great number of patriots that
fought the British in the Revolutionary War. The Covenanters were opposed to
slavery and in 1800, the church caused all members
holding slaves to free them. Slavery continued to grow in areas like South Carolina and competitive farming became more difficult without
slaves. Illinois entered the Union in 1818 as a free state. The Land Act of 1820 allowed the Covenanters to sell
their land in slave states and purchase 80 acres in free states, such as Illinois, for $100. Although Illinois was a free state, slavery that existed prior to statehood was still
legal. Considerable strife continued between the proslavery and antislavery
advocates. The Covenanters continued to oppose slavery and they assisted with
the Underground Railroad, as slaves from other states sought freedom. The
covenanters fought in the US Civil war on the side of the Union
against slavery.
More Detail
Background
of their Religion
The Covenanters
and Education
Migration from Scotland and Ireland to the
American Colonies
William
Martin and Five Ships to South Carolina in 1772
Contribution
to the American Revolution
Migration from South Carolina to Southern
Illinois
Slavery until
the US Civil War
Background of their Religion
From: http://www.covenanter.org.uk/WhoWere/
The background of their
religion evolved from around 1560, when John Knox brought the Protestant teachings
of John Calvin back to Scotland from Switzerland. Simply stated, the Covenanters were those people in Scotland who signed the National Covenant in 1638. They signed
this Covenant to confirm their opposition to the interference by the Stuart
kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Stuart kings
harbored the belief of the Divine Right of the Monarch. Not only did they
believe that God wished them to be the infallible rulers of their kingdom -
they also believed that they were the spiritual heads of the Church of
Scotland. This latter belief could not be accepted by the Scots. No man, not
even a king, could be spiritual head of their church. Only Jesus Christ could
be spiritual head of a Christian church.
This was the nub of the entire Covenanting struggle. The Scots were, and would
have been, loyal to the Stuart dynasty but for that one sticking point. King
Charles I had introduced the Book of Common Prayer to Scotland in 1637 to the fury and resentment of the populace.
He declared that opposition to the new liturgy would be treason, and thus came about
the Covenant.
There followed a period of very severe repression. Ministers with
Covenanting sympathies were "ousted" from their churches by the
authorities, and had to leave their parishes. Many continued to preach at
"conventicles" in the open air or in barns
and houses. This became an offence punishable by death. Citizens who did not
attend their local churches (which were now in the charge of Episcopalian
"curates") could be heavily fined, and such offenders were regarded
as rebels, who could be questioned, even under torture. They could be asked to
take various oaths, which not only declared loyalty to the king, but also to
accept his as head of the church. Failure to take such an oath could result in
summary execution by the muskets of the dragoons, who were scouring the
districts looking for rebels.
From History of the
Covenanters at http://scottishcovenanters.org/history.htm
When James II, a Roman
Catholic, succeeded Charles II in 1685, Covenanting was declared to be treason
and punishable by death. Persecution increased. These were the so-called
'killing times' when some have said as many as 18,000 died. The persecution
ended with the accession to the throne of William III (Prince William of Orange in 1688), and since 1790 the Free Church of Scotland
has been the official church in that country.
The covenanters emerged as
the Reformed Presbyterian Church. In 1876, most of the Reformed Presbyterians
in Scotland joined the Free Church of Scotland, leaving a few
congregations to carry the idea of the Covenants down to the present day.
However, the Reformed Presbyterian Church is still a thriving church in Ireland and North
America.
The Covenanters and Education
From: “Notes and Queries”
The Covenanters were firm believers in education. John Knox believed it
to be the highest safeguard of the Protestant religion. Reading of the Bible was
a priority. Through his influence, schools were generally established
throughout the kingdom of Scotland in the mid
1500s. When the Scots migrated to Ireland, they took with
them their belief in education. They built schools as well as churches. The
sons of the well-to-do were sent to Glasgow or Edinburg for their higher
education and common schools were provided for those unable to attend a
university. This education allowed the Ulster Province to become
economically successful, in contrast to the poorer native Irish and the English
settlers. When the Covenanters migrated to the American Colonies, a priority
was to provide for the education of their children. And they were not content
with just primary and intermediate education. At least twenty eight colleges
and high-grade academies were started by Covenanter ministers during the
eighteenth century, including Princeton University.
Migration from Scotland and Ireland to the American Colonies
From Scottish Migration to Northern
Ireland at: http://philnorf.tripod.com/scottish.htm
The principal movement of
people from Scotland to the Northern Ireland Province of Ulster took place
in the seventeenth century. This movement was planned and encouraged by James I
of England (James VI of Scotland). He sought to create a buffer between Scotland and the Irish Roman Catholic population that was
hostile to the English rule. In 1607, the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, in fear of King James, fled the country and
took refuge in Catholic France. In doing so, they forfeited their lands in six
of the nine counties of Ulster. Well over 100,000 Scottish Protestants migrated from
1607-1697. Attempts to bring over large
numbers of English Protestants were not as successful as few English could be persuaded
to migrate. Due to the poor economic conditions in Scotland at the time, many Lowland Scots were eager to make
the relatively short distance move and lease this land.
The Plantation of Ulster
proved to be a real economic success. Prior to the Protestant migration, Ireland had been a very poor, primitive country. However,
after a century of Protestant ascendancy, much of Ireland, particularly Ulster, had become economically prosperous. So much so, that
the English became concerned about the competition of Irish goods with English. Accordingly laws were passed to protect English trade at Irish
expense. In addition to economic pressures, the High Church Tories came to
power with the succession of Queen Ann (1703) to the Throne. The so-called
"Test Act" was passed which, although stated to be directed at Roman
Catholics, also adversely affected the adherents of the Presbyterian Faith as
well. As most of the Scotch-Irish were Presbyterians
(Covenanters), they felt that they were being severely persecuted by the
English from both economic and religious standpoints. By about the year 1717,
conditions had reached such a point that many Ulster Protestants began a new
migration; this time to the American Colonies. It is estimated that more than a
quarter of a million Scotch-Irish Covenanters immigrated to America between the years 1717 and 1775.
William Martin and Five Ships to South Carolina in 1772
From: http://www.scotchirish.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2505
William Martin belonged to
the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ulster and it was after a period of excessive rent demands
and evictions of tenants from their homesteads that he declared from his pulpit
in Ballymoney, County Antrim that "enough was enough". He said:
"Anyone who knows anything about the Ulster countryside realizes that the rents are so high that
the land does not bring in enough to pay them. Many of us are beggared and in
time all would be."
As a minister, William Martin
said he could not stand idly by and await the violence and ruin that would
come. "Steps should be taken now to see that such situations did not
develop," was his advice. He proposed they all pool their limited
resources and send to Belfast to charter ships for emigration to South Carolina where they "would obtain free land and live free
men".
In all 467 families (more
than 1,000 people) huddled together on the arduous nine-week journey across the
Atlantic in the autumn of 1772 in five wooden vessels: James and Mary (220
tons), Lord Dunluce (400 tons), Pennsylvania Farmer
(350 tons), Hopewell (250 tons) and Free Mason (250 tons). The James and Mary
arrived at Charleston on October 18 with 200 people on board. The other
vessels with a greater number of passengers on board were soon to follow. In South Carolina, each immigrant received 100 acres of land for
himself, 50 acres for his spouse and 50 acres for each child. James McClurken and his four sons were part of this group.
Contribution to the American Revolution
From: “Notes and
Queries”
The number of colonists in
1775 with Covenanter roots had grown to 900,000. This compared to 600,000
Puritans and 400,000 Cavaliers in Virginia. Hence, on the eve of the Revolution, the Covenanters
were one of the three great subdivisions of the people in this country. The
Covenanters demanded in the colonies, total freedom of religion from the
control of the state. They denied the authority of the magistrate in any manner
that interfered. The first voice publicly raised in America, to dissolve all connections with Great Britain, came from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The
Covenanters were regarded by the Tory and Episcopalian writers as the chief
authors of the insurrectionary movement. An advocate of the Crown,
ascribed the Revolution mainly to the agitation of the Presbyterian clergy and
laity, which had begun as early as 1764. What united the Covenanters with the
Congregationalists of New England, in determined opposition to the British
government, was the declared intention of establishing Episcopacy in the
colonies. The proposal to introduce Bishops into America did more than anything else to bring the religious
sects together in opposition to the English Government. In 1774, in various
parts of Pennsylvania, the Covenanters spoke out about the “Stamp Act” and
pledged their lives and their fortunes in favor of the determination of the
colonies to resist the oppression of the English Ministry. In New York, the “Sons of Liberty” was called the “Presbyterian Junta.”
In May of 1775, when the British Parliament had declared the colonies in a
state of revolt, the Covenanters of Mecklenburg County of North Carolina issued
their own Declaration of Independence. In Virginia, it was the Covenanters who sustained Patrick Henry
and the revolutionary movement. When the critical hour came for the signing of
the Declaration of Independence, many of the members of the Continental
Congress held back. It was a distinguished Covenanter, the Rev. John
Witherspoon, who persuaded them to sign. Fourteen of the signors were of
Covenanter blood; men whose ancestors had signed the “solemn league and
covenant” 138 years earlier.
In sustaining the cause of
independence, once declared, and in fighting the battles of the Revolution, no
section of the American people were more earnest and courageous than the
Covenanters. In both Virginia and Pennsylvania, the majority of the troops were provided by the
Covenanters. The same was true of the whole country south of the Delaware. The majority of the force, that won the significant
battle at King’s Mountain, were Covenanters. This
battle turned the tide of the war. In addition to their contributions in North
and South Carolina, it was the Covenanters who defended the western
frontier from Georgia to Canada and in particularly in Tennessee and Kentucky, against the Indian allies of the British Crown. At
the close of the Revolution, not an inch of territory west of the Alleghenies
had been lost. In addition to the Atlantic States, the Covenanters were the
majority of the forces that defended the area that now includes Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois and parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Therefore, when the treaties were signed to end the
war, we were able to claim title to all the land between the Alleghenies and
the Mississippi.
Thomas McClurken
and his three brothers fought in the Revolutionary War. Thomas was a Private in
Turner's Company in Winn’s South Carolina Regiment coming from Chester County, South
Carolina. His
brother, Archibald, was home while sick. He was found there by General Tarleton and they hung him in his own yard. Tarleton was defeated at the Battle of Cowlens,
South Carolina two days later.
Migration from South Carolina to Southern Illinois
From: History
of Oakdale Township, with corrections, and other
In the year 1800, the
Reformed Presbyterian Church (Covenanters) decreed that all members were to
free their slaves, if they owned any. However, after the war, slavery increased
in South Carolina and the farming migrated from small family farms to
large plantations with slave labor. This made it increasingly difficult to
compete.
In 1817, a Covenanter minister
from Philadelphia, the Rev. Samuel Wylie, went west to investigate the
possibility of finding a desirable place for members of his faith to settle in
slave free territory. All summer long, he toured southern Illinois, and in the fall, he traveled through Kentucky and Tennessee where there were Covenanter settlements. He then went
to South Carolina and apparently presented a favorable report for
southern Illinois. In 1818, Illinois became a state, a free state.
The Land Act of 1820 allowed
those in South
Carolina to
sell their land and purchase land, in new free states, for $100 for 80 acres. The migration to southern Illinois increased and Wylie was sent there to minister to his
people. Thomas McClurken and some of his family
arrived in Elkton (Oakdale) Township in May of 1830, at the end of a six week
journey. Some of his children: James, John and David, arrived with their
families in 1833 or 1834.
Slavery until the US Civil War
Primarily from: History
of Oakdale Township
The Covenanters hated slavery
and their ministers preached against the evils of slavery. By the beginning of
the Civil War, all of the old congregations in South Carolina and Tennessee were gone. The only congregations remaining in
slave-holding territory were in Baltimore, Maryland and in Roney's Point, Virginia, near Wheeling.
Most of the members had moved to southern Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois. Although Illinois was a free state, slavery before statehood was not abolished and there
was considerable pro-slavery sentiment and support until the end of the US
Civil War. See “Historic Illinois” for a
perspective of the conflict in Illinois. The nearby states of Missouri and Kentucky were both slave states. Runaway slaves were
frequently hunted down and returned to their masters. In addition, free persons
were kidnapped and taken to slave states and sold into slavery. The Covenanters
joined others in becoming conductors on the Underground Railroad to move
runaway slaves to Canada. The Covenanter minister, the Rev. A.C. Todd, frequently used his home
as a station. In support of the US Civil War, a company of the members, of the
Oakdale Reformed Presbyterian Church, volunteered for service in the Civil War
with Rev. A. C. Tood as captain. This company became Co.
F. 10th Missouri Volunteers, as the quota for Illinois had been filled prior to this time. As many as fifty
members of the congregation saw service in different companies and at different
times during the Civil War period. Six McClurkin’s
were included in the fifty.
References:
Scottish Covenanter Memorials
Association at: http://www.covenanter.org.uk/WhoWere/
History of the Covenanters at:
http://scottishcovenanters.org/history.htm
“Notes
and Queries” is available free from Google, see pages 133 through 141: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=Cd4BAAAAMAAJ&dq=Notes+and+queries+William+Henry+Egle&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=Mch7e1p-AL&sig=vSZdIzB4Mw9lWlVSz_EaxuMGxbs&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
Scottish Migration to Northern Ireland at: http://philnorf.tripod.com/scottish.htm
Martin's Covenanting
zeal at: http://www.scotchirish.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2505
History
of Oakdale Township
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Reformed_Presbyterian_Church_of_North_America
Illinois as a free state from: http://www.state.il.us/HPA/lovejoy/illinois.htm
“Historic
Illinois” is available free from Google, see pages 318 through
332 (Slavery) at: http://books.google.com/books?id=0P40AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA318&lpg=PA318&dq=Battle+Against+Slavery+Historic+Illinois&source=bl&ots=cZ1hhuk-8V&sig=2OrPK6UN3cMOfiaTvBvaMYnIqlk&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow_covenanters.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19100
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformed_Presbyterian_Church_of_North_America
Last updated 11/4/2008