inessential by Brent Simmons

Scottish Darlings

My Dad’s been working on family genealogy. One of my ancestors — George Darling, born 1615 in Midlothian — was sent to America by Cromwell. Dad writes:

The 3rd Civil War (1649-1651) pitted Scottish backers of Charles II against the English led by Oliver Cromwell. On September 3, 1650, Cromwell seized on an unexpected battlefield opportunity at Dunbar and destroyed the opposing Scottish Army taking an estimated 5,000 prisoners…

After being pronounced guilty at his “trial” in London, George was indentured to John Bex (Beax) and Company and sent to serve at the Lynn Ironworks in Lynn Massachusetts for an 8-year term of bondage…

One wonders, given his age in 1650, whether George didn’t leave an entire family back in Scotland? Did he have a wife and children in Midlothian? We’ll probably never know for sure, but we do know the families of the captured Scots never knew exactly what happened to them. They were not informed if their sons and husbands had been captured or died on the march back to London. They were never told whether their loved ones had been shipped an entire world away.

Anyway — if you’re a Scottish Darling, I can tell you what happened to George.