The voyage of the Henry and Francis from Leith, September 1685
In early September 1685, a ship weighed anchor in the Forth and headed out into the North Sea on a long and tragic voyage. The Henry and Francis of Newcastle, chartered by Fife laird George Scot of Pitlochie, was bound for East New Jersey, to the south west of New York. Its departure from Leith marked the culmination of three turbulent years surrounding Scottish attempts at American colonisation and suppression of Covenanters. The story of the voyage intertwines with Edinburgh politics and society, the religious struggles during the Restoration, and the wider ambitions of Scots merchants and landowners to establish a foothold across the Atlantic.
A new online resource, East Jersey Bound, provides a portal to this little-known episode in Scottish history and to details of the people involved.
The wider background
By the early 1680s, Scotland’s commercial classes were seeking new opportunities. Trade had been disrupted by the strife of the Covenanting years, and Scottish merchants were disadvantaged compared to their English counterparts when it came to overseas ventures, not least by the Navigation Acts intended to prevent trade with England’s colonies. In 1682 a group of Scots landowners and merchants purchased a substantial share in East Jersey, formerly part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. They were led by Robert Barclay of Ury, the prominent Quaker thinker, and the first colonising voyage of the Exchange of Stockton in 1683 generated much interest from the Quaker community in Scotland, especially from the North East.
Printed tracts circulated in Edinburgh in the early 1680s, describing East Jersey in glowing terms. They invited settlers of all kinds to take part, promising fertile land, religious freedom and commercial prospects. The Scots proprietors hoped to populate their new colony quickly with reliable settlers who would secure their investment and strengthen Scottish influence abroad. Two further ocean-going ships followed the Exchange in 1684.
In 1685, however, the political climate in Scotland meant that one particular group was especially targeted for emigration: Covenanter prisoners. The government of the newly crowned James VII and II was keen to rid itself of dissidents and encouraged their removal overseas.
George Scot of Pitlochie and the Edinburgh connection
The leading figure behind the Henry and Francis voyage was the zealous Covenanter George Scot of Pitlochie. Following repeated fines for conventicle-keeping and a spell in the Bass Rock prison, Scot developed a strong conviction that emigration to East Jersey could provide refuge for persecuted Presbyterians. He set out these views in his lengthy promotional treatise, The Model of the Government of the Province of East-New-Jersey (Edinburgh, 1685), a work dedicated to the Chancellor of Scotland, James, 4th Earl of Perth.
Scot’s efforts drew in a network of associates from Edinburgh and beyond. Among them was John Johnstone, a ‘drogist’ (apothecary) ‘at the sign of the Unicorn’, who acted as an agent. He emigrated aboard the Henry and Francis, shortly after negotiating a supply of gunpowder from the King’s Master of Ordnance for the ship. His elder brother James, a lawyer from the Borders, had left for East Jersey the year before.
Another key Edinburgh figure was Andrew Hamilton, son of a merchant burgess, who advertised East Jersey ‘at the sign of the Ship’ in 1683. Trusted by the Scottish landowners, he would later leave for East Jersey with a commission to investigate colonial finances. He eventually became the de facto governor in the colonies of East and West Jersey and Pennsylvania. He also set up the first chain of post offices in colonial America as head of the postal service.
Six Edinburgh merchants and three advocates made early purchases of stakes in East Jersey. They included the prominent burgess Robert Blackwood who partnered with Lord Neill Campbell of Ardmaddie in a separate voyage in 1685 though remaining in Edinburgh. Several landed and burgess families encouraged servants or kinsfolk to join the emigrant stream. Deeds, burgess records and lists of witnesses at baptisms show how deeply the Edinburgh residents were linked to the venture.
The prisoners of Dunnottar
The political crisis of 1685 gave Scot a windfall in the supply of passengers. That spring, the Earl of Argyll (elder brother of Lord Neill Campbell) launched his ill-fated rising against James VII. Forewarned, the government rounded up suspected rebels and Covenanters. Nearly 170 prisoners were confined in grim conditions in the ‘Whigs Vault’ in Dunnottar Castle before being taken back to Leith in August.
The Privy Council was eager that they leave the country, whether formally banished or exhorted to leave. Scot had previously petitioned to take prisoners on his voyage, and over 120 from Dunnottar and other prisons were placed aboard the Henry and Francis. Their departure was not without protest. While the ship lay off Leith in late August, 22 men and six women penned a defiant testimony condemning their persecution and entrusting themselves to God’s providence.
The voyage
The Henry and Francis was originally scheduled to sail in July, its hold filled with Scottish textiles, stockings, wine and supplies needed for the new settlement. But repeated delays over the prisoners meant that by the time she finally departed on 5 September 1685, the provisions had deteriorated. Many prisoners were already weakened from their captivity and forced return to Leith.
The Atlantic crossing was stormy and protracted. Disease, possibly typhus, swept through the crowded ship. Over sixty passengers and crew died, around a third of those on board.
George Scot himself perished, along with his wife Margaret Rigg. Their daughter Eupham survived to reach East Jersey, later marrying John Johnstone of Edinburgh. She subsequently inherited lands due to her father which helped her husband amass a considerable estate in both New Jersey and New York.
The survivors staggered ashore at Perth Amboy on 7th December 1685, many weeks later than planned. Their ordeal has been remembered bitterly in histories of Covenanters.
What became of the survivors?
The fate of the Henry and Francis emigrants was mixed. Some Covenanter prisoners, once released from their bonds, sought friendlier communities in New England. Some returned to East Jersey once conventicle preacher Archibald Riddell, a close relative of George Scot’s wife, had settled there. The Privy Council had granted Riddell a tract of land as an incentive to leave for East Jersey.
The East Jersey courts gave the prisoners an unexpected reprieve. When the ship’s master, Richard Hutton, tried to claim £5 fares for their passage, the local magistrates dismissed his suit. The Covenanters, they ruled, had not emigrated voluntarily and so could not be bound to service. This meant that the transportees gained their freedom on arrival, unlike a small number who had preceded them in 1684. Some went on to become yeoman farmers and a few, merchants.
A good number of the other passengers from Edinburgh and elsewhere fared well in their new world. The Johnstone brothers became substantial landowners, while Andrew Hamilton rose to high office. But many names from the passenger list simply vanish from the records.
Edinburgh's imprint
The sailing of the Henry and Francis was the most dramatic and ill-fated of several Scottish emigrant voyages to East Jersey between 1683 and 1685. Laden with Covenanter prisoners and hopeful settlers, it left Leith under the shadow of political repression and religious strife.
Edinburgh’s role in the Henry and Francis story is notable. The city was home to key promoters and agents, from Johnstone the apothecary to Hamilton the future governor. Merchants like Blackwood invested money and organised shipping. The Privy Council, meeting in the capital, directed the fate of scores of prisoners whose banishment filled the ship’s berths.
The voyage itself, however tragic, shows the reach of Edinburgh’s ambition and networks in the late 17th century stretching from the Tolbooth and the Bass Rock to the forests and rivers of New Jersey.
Find out more
The story of the Henry and Francis features in Derrick’s M.Phil. dissertation, along with relevant sources: Scots Emigrants to East Jersey, 1682–1702: Motivations and Outcomes (University of Glasgow, 2025)
Background to the Scottish colonial venture to East Jersey – a relative success compared to Darien 10 years later – and a summary of findings can be found on the accompanying website, East Jersey Bound. This also contains a genealogical database with 560 emigrants and over 2,000 of their kin and associates. Derrick continues to add to the website and database, including pen portraits of the emigrants and further research findings.
Please get in touch if you have any connections with the emigrants or something you can add to the East Jersey story: info@eastjerseybound.scot.
Derrick is a Research Affiliate with the Department of History, University of Glasgow.
