The Maine Ulster Scots Project and the St. Andrews Society of Maine are proud to announce the publishing of a new book, Ulster Scots on the Coast of Maine, Volume 1, The Means Massacre background and location by our own John Mann. The book is available now. To order, click here.

Forward from
Ulster Scots on the Coast of Maine, Volume 1

Rarely does a story come along with the potential to change how history is viewed. This is just such a story. Throughout the world, people of Scotland and Scottish descent have been, and are, justifiably proud of their heritage. Unfortunately, history has long overlooked the Scots’ contribution to the settlement and growth of America. What little that is found tends to underplay the importance of the contribution. This is just one story of hundreds that remarks upon the contributions of the Scots and Scotch-Irish in New England, specifically Maine. It is known that as early as the 1400s, then later in the 17th and 18th centuries, many Scots emigrated to the Ulster region of Ireland. The earlier group went to seek a better way of life. The later left Scotland due to government intervention along with economic decline and religious persecution. In fact, the English and Irish governments worked together to rid the Scottish Lowlands and Borders of their residents. Even Cotton Mather, a powerful church leader in New England of the time, believed that the Ulster-Scots would make a viable human ‘shield’ against the French and Indians as well as a tool for expansion of the British Empire. Once again, due to political and religious pressure, the Scots were forced to make their way to the New World in search of a better life. The story of the Means Family provides a vivid snapshot of a moment in time. A nation’s attempt to eradicate an unwanted population (the Scots) and force that population to a foreign shore served to hasten the decline of a second indigenous people (the Native Americans). While these two peoples struggled to exist and co-exist, Britain enjoyed the benefit of protection from both French and Native Americans the pastoral achievement of a Scot-free Scotland. Times change, sensibilities change and history is rewritten or forgotten. For those descendants of families from Ulster, this is an attempt to rediscover and tell the important stories of those who were at the forefront of America’s settlement. This is a story of the Means Family – a family that fled their home in search of a better life, only to discover they weren’t wanted. Their search eventually led them to the area we know today as Freeport, Maine. What they found were hardships, loss of friends and family and the expediency of serving as living shields to buffer the British inhabitants from both the French and Native Americans. The Means Family’s story is representative of the struggles faced by these early settlers of the Kennebec Settlement. It also tells, in some detail, the much larger story of the Ulster-Scots struggle against religious and governmental persecution, their strong reliance on self and family, and the founding of a radically new and independent country. This story is a beginning. To learn more about the Ulster-Scots, you are encouraged to take advantage of the resources discussed at the end of this volume.

Lori Roming
Clan (Geddy) Rose
East Coast District Governor – Saint Andrews Society of Maine
April 2006

Saint Andrews Society of Maine