Scottish Transatlantic Merchants 1611 1785

"Scottish merchants were in the vanguard of Scottish emigration to colonial America. In the 17th century, ships would leave Scotland bound for the Americas on trading voyages. The success of voyages led to the settlement of factors and their servants in a given colony. Once the factors had established these outposts, the merchant ships would carry passengers as well as goods. These passengers were, in part, indentured servants who had contracted for work in the colonies and who were shipped and sold there by the shipmasters, who represented the merchants."--Publisher website (December 2008).

From Roucan to Riches" traces the story of the Glassell family from their obscure beginnings as humble Scots tenant farmers, through two brothers who made a fortune from tobacco in Virginia, and on to their descendants who made their mark in varied and interesting ways. As the American Revolution loomed, one brother returned to Scotland and the other remained. John settled as a rural Scottish landowner in Longniddry, East Lothian, and demolished the village in the name of agricultural improvement. His daughter was educated in Edinburgh during its "Golden Age", and knew many of its greatest luminaries. She kept a lively diary of her Italian travels, fell for and married the divorced middle-aged heir to the Dukedom of Argyll, and died tragically young. The descendants of Andrew, the "American" brother, became slave-owning Virginian "aristocracy", Civil War heroes and victims, and fabulously wealthy entrepreneurs, one of whom helped to drive forward the development of California. The notorious Second World War figure General George Patton was a descendant of the Californian Glassells.

Lord Rodger of Earlsferry was a distinguished judge and scholar. He was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the author of many high quality law journal articles and two books. Written in memory of Lord Rodger, this collection contains 47 essays by Lord Rodger's friends and colleagues from the UK and Europe. The essays reflect Lord Rodger's role as a leading judge and also his wide-ranging academic interests including Roman law, Scots law and legal history, and a miscellany of other topics. The authors in this volume are leading academics or judges, and a particularly notable feature is the nine essays written by Supreme Court justices. As the highest judges in the UK they provide a unique insight into the work of the Supreme Court, as well as Lord Rodger's work in the Court. The book also includes the memorial tributes to Lord Rodger which explain his remarkable legal career, including his roles as Lord Advocate (Senior Law Officer of Scotland) Lord President of the Court of Session, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and, finally, Justice of the UK Supreme Court. The essays include personal reminiscences of Lord Rodger, helping the reader to understand why he was so highly regarded and why his untimely death has dealt such a devastating blow to law in the UK.

White Cargo is the forgotten story of the thousands of Britons who lived and died in bondage in Britain's American colonies. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more than 300,000 white people were shipped to America as slaves. Urchins were swept up from London's streets to labor in the tobacco fields, where life expectancy was no more than two years. Brothels were raided to provide "breeders" for Virginia. Hopeful migrants were duped into signing as indentured servants, unaware they would become personal property who could be bought, sold, and even gambled away. Transported convicts were paraded for sale like livestock. Drawing on letters crying for help, diaries, and court and government archives, Don Jordan and Michael Walsh demonstrate that the brutalities usually associated with black slavery alone were perpetrated on whites throughout British rule. The trade ended with American independence, but the British still tried to sell convicts in their former colonies, which prompted one of the most audacious plots in Anglo-American history. This is a saga of exploration and cruelty spanning 170 years that has been submerged under the overwhelming memory of black slavery. White Cargo brings the brutal, uncomfortable story to the surface.

Col. and Mrs. Smith labored over a decade, to construct this vast index of heretofore widely scattered Nova Scotia immigrants from numerous archives in North America and abroad(Part 1); and from 450 articles in Nova Scotia periodicals (Part 2). Easily the most comprehensive sourcebook on Nova Scotia immigrants ever published, and a great tool for New England ancestral research, whether the ancestor's origins are Scottish, Irish, English, German, or Loyalist.

"[A historical study that] breaks down the history of marine navigation in Canada into three broad categories of technology: shipboard navigation, charting, and shore-based navigational aids"--Page v.