Robinson Family History

This branch of American Scots-Irish Robinsons is mainly from Tennessee, Kentucky and the Carolinas, with a bit of American Indian thrown in for good measure. Though the Robinson name can prove a merry chase, the history of these American Robinsons is no doubt very similar to other Scots-Irish, sometimes called Ulster-Scots, who migrated to the New World, first to America, and in later decades to Australia and New Zealand.

For anyone interested in the history and migration of the Scots-Irish, there is abundant information available. Briefly, the Scots-Irish were originally from Scotland. They were pushed out and beaten down by the English, and eventually encouraged to resettle their families in Ireland with promises of a better life. Oppression, lack of land and economic opportunities, as well as opposition to Stuart religious policies and the evangelical movements in England and Ireland, had many families looking again for a new homeland. Many set sail for the Americas in the 1600, 1700, and 1800's. In fact, there is evidence of a Scots-Irish presence on this side of the globe as early as the 1500's.

The largest numbers of Scots-Irish immigrating to the Americas happened in the 1700's. Many who came after the English and Germans were forced into settlements further west, acting as a buffer between the already established English settlements and the Indians. Essentially, these people became fodder for the Native peoples. (Unlike the Germans and Quakers of Pennsylvania, many Scots-Irish did not get along with the Native groups. I have read reports which estimate numbers upwards to fifty Scots-Irish killed or kidnapped by Indians per every one Indian killed.)

However, the Scots-Irish were a hardy lot. By the time of the Revolutionary War, the Scots-Irish had taken over a large portion of the government and lands of Pennsylvania and further south, outnumbering many other groups, including the English settlers. By the time of the Revolutionary War, the Scots-Irish populated much of the deeper South and Western frontiers. In fact, the peoples of the Blue Ridge Mountains, or Appalachia, declared Independence from the English a year before Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, adopting the first American "Resolutions of Separation', in 1775. Still others were to become actively involved in the formation of a new nation already in progress in Pennsylvania. Not only would the Scots-Irish feature heavily in Washington's army and in the militias to come, but their cousins in the Blue Ridge Mountains and those west of the mountains, were also known to go a bit berserk. Many historians believe these backwater, backwoods, frontier mountain men helped turn the tide of the American Revolutionary War. Case in point: The Battle of King's Mountain, on October 7, 1780. Numbered among those who fought at King's Mountain were many Robinson men, most of whom walked away with their lives.