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Famous American Scots

The Early United States

First State Governors

When the United States were first formed and the thirteen states selected their first governors, nine were of Scottish ancestry:

• Archibald Bulloch (Georgia)
• George Clinton (New York)
• William Livingston (New Jersey)
• John MacKinlay (Delaware)
• Jonathan Trumbull (Connecticut)
• Richard Caswell (North Carolina)
• Patrick Henry (Virginia)
• Thomas McKean (Pennsylvania)
• John Rutledge (South Carolina)

First Cabinet Members

In addition, all the members of the first American cabinet had Scottish ancestry:

• Secretary of State - Thomas Jefferson
• Secretary of the Treasury - Alexander Hamilton
• Secretary of War - Henry Knox
• Attorney General - Edmund Randolph

Also:

• John Paul (alias John Paul Jones) was a Scotsman, and founder of the U.S. Navy.
• The breech-loading rifle used during the Revolutionary War was invented by Maj. Patrick Ferguson.
• Presidents: Polk, Monroe, Buchanan, Jackson, McKinlay, McArthur, and Wilson were of Scottish descent, as were probably others.

Sources:
 
From: RMBlack
Newsgroups: alt.scottish.clans
Subject: Scots Who Made America
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999
Organization: Glenallan
 
From: Steven Akins of that Ilk *
Newsgroups: alt.scottish.clans
Subject: Re: Scots Who Made America.
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999
    * A reader noted that there is a Web site that discusses Steven Akins of that Ilk

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Other Sources - 18th and 19th Centuries

Great American Scots.  Read about: Alexander Hamilton, John Blair, James Wilson, John Rutledge, John Marshall, Flora MacDonald (really!), Woodrow Wilson, General Henry Knox, General Winfield Scott, Andrew Carnegie, Generals - Joseph Johnston, John Brown Gordon, John C. Breckenridge, John B Magruder, Ambrose Burnside, and James B McPherson - General McPherson, John Witherspoon, Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, James Craik, James Blair, Alexander Wilson, Presidents - McKinley, Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Polk, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Ulysses Grant - John Macintosh, Henry Wallace, John McLaren, John Law, William Morton, Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, John Kay, Samuel Bard, Robert Gibson Eccles, Samuel Guthrie.

The Scottish influence on the United States:  Many locations in America were nostalgically named after the places the Scottish immigrants had left behind.  There are eight Aberdeens, eight Edinburghs, seven Glasgows and eight places, simply known as Scotland, in the United States today.  Before the Declaration of Arbroath, Scotland was organised under a clan system.  Many members of the great clans travelled to the New World and named the places in which they settled in honour of their clan names.  Today there are areas named Campbell, Cameron, Crawford and Douglas, throughout the US.

Lewis and Clark consulted with James Mackay on John Evan's map of the lower Missouri River, either at Camp DuBois or in St. Charles, Missouri, where Mackay lived.

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The Later United States

Bobby Thomson

Bobby Thomson left Glasgow for the U.S. where he played Major League baseball earning the nickname "the Staten Island Scot".  He played for 15 seasons on 5 different teams (Giants, Braves, Cubs, Red Sox, Orioles) and ended his Major League playing career in 1960.  His statistics may be found on the Baseball Almanac.  According to the Baseball Almanac's Yesterday's Heroes: "Almost fifty years ago, on October 3, 1951, in the third game of a three-game playoff against the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giant outfielder Robert Brown 'Bobby' Thomson blasted the dramatic "shot heard 'round the world" when he homered off right-hander Ralph Branca.  After all these years, Thomson's one-out, three-run clout remains among the most famous home runs in baseball history."

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More American Scots

More information may be found at:

• Scots In America - Great American Scots
• Electric Scotland - Scots Descendants: ... I wanted to show what the Scots-Americans had got up to when they emigrated to the USA Almost all entries in here are thus mini biographies and I have also tried to pick from a range of people so have highlighted - blacksmiths, carpenters, cashiers, farmers, mine operators, military, pioneers, judges, senators, etc.  While I feel this list serves its purpose I would certainly be happy to add in any more if anyone wants to send us one in for inclusion in this list.
• Scots in Canada provides an overview of Scots' activities in the New World.

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