More on our Ulster Scots Heritage

Presbyterian Church
Aghadowey, Londonderry
Northern Ireland

The Ulster Scots who make up a large part of our family background, moved to Northern Ireland in the early to mid 1600s seeking religious freedom.  They were staunch men and women!  Staunch in their Scottish Heritage and staunch in their Presbyterian faith.  They maintained their Scottish language and took great umbrage at anyone who referred to them as "Irish".  When the opportunity leave Ireland behind and begin life anew in America, they jumped at the chance.  The first group of immigrants arrived in Londonderry, New Hampshire in 1720 and went about making a new life for themselves.  Times were hard but the canny Scots were resourceful and were soon successfully farming and providing for their daily needs.  


One shortage, however was adequate footwear. Hard as they tried, they failed to come up with shoes of the sort they were accustomed to back home.  This being the case, John Fisher wrote back to Ireland requesting a shipment of brogues.  Unfortunately (or fortunately for us) the letter sustained some water damage on its voyage and when the family in Ireland finally read it, it seems the B was missing from the name of the shoes.  Thinking the new colony was in need of rogues and having two young men they wanted rid of - they quickly bundled them up and shipped them out on the next passenger ship.

Grave of William James Fisher

So in 1743, William James Fisher, a young man of 33 left Aghadowey Parish, County Londonderry for the new world.  Along with a number of others from the area, William wanted nothing more than to put the Irish soil and his meddlesome family behind him.  With him travelled his brother, Samuel.  The brothers did not have an easy voyage, however.  They traveled to America on "Starved Ship". The vessel was so scantily provisioned and the voyage so unusually long, that before it was nearly completed, the rations had to be divided among the passengers and crew, each person receiving one pint of oatmeal and a small quantity of fresh water. Samuel Fisher later recalled going to the mate with a tablespoon to obtain some water, which was refused him, there being but two-thirds of a bottleful on board on which to survive. Samuel Fisher's custom was to take a spoonful of meal, moisten with seawater, and eat it raw. The passengers and crew, having subsisted in this manner for 14 days, were at length reduced to the necessity of eating the bodies of those who had died. Even this resource failed them, and, at length, Samuel Fisher was selected to give up his life to preserve the lives of the rest.


But Providence provided a solution for his rescue and the salvation of the others. A sail appeared in the distance, their signals of distress were kindly heeded, and all aboard were saved. 


So deep an impression did the horrors of this passage make upon the mind of young Samuel that, in later life, he could never see, without pain, the least morsel of food wasted, or a pail of water thrown carelessly on the ground. He always afterward had more than ample supplies of food stored in his root cellar. 


The brothers landed at Roxbury, N.H. and were bound over to a Captain for payment of their passage. They eventually came to Londonderry, New Hampshire and joined the family of Matthew Taylor. Samuel  married Matthew Taylor's daughter Sarah. He later became a  ruling elder in the church in this place during the ministry of the Rev. David McGregor, and remained in this office until he was no longer able to perform its duties on account of his age.  

Mr.Fisher married three times, and had twelve children, eleven of whom arrived at adult age, and ten of whom survived him. Ten of his children were married, and most of them lived to an advanced age. The average age of four of them was ninety-one years. His descendants, in the year 1850, were nine hundred and fifteen, and are scattered through nearly all the States of the Union, through out Nova Scotia and Canada. Some of them are ministers and some elders in the church. It is estimated that three-fourths of those over twenty years of age are professors of religion."

William Fisher was among
the group known as the
Cobequid Planters

William Fisher left Londonderry in 1762 and moved to Truro, Nova Scotia where he met and married Eleanor Archibald.  The couple had twelve children.  William died in 1777 and is buried in the Robie Street Cemetery in Truro.

William and Eleanor were the parents of Ruth Fisher, wife of my 3rd great great uncle, Matthew Johnson.