To understand the fierce independence of the county’s Scottish forebears, it helps to understand the “Forty-Five” and Charles Edward Stuart. Although Scots lived in our countryside as early as 1729, the great influx came around the time of the Revolution.

Charles, or “Bonnie Prince Charlie” was also known as the “Young Pretender” and was the focus of an attempt, in 1745, to return the crown of Scotland to the Stuart family. Charles’ own grandfather,

James II, had been run out of England in 1688. The result of “the Forty-Five” was several decades-long British repression of those clans – including both Campbells and Stewarts — who had sided with the rebels. 

Many Highlanders chose to emigrate with many settling in what later became Scotland County.