Daniel McLean, Irish Immigrant, 1768

           ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

The 100 acres that Daniel McLean gave to his daughter Mary Hutson in Laurens County, South Carolina in 1786, contained this important tidbit of information - "100 acres of Land which I now dwell on which I had surveyed by a bounty warrant & has a patent for the same by William Bull, Esq. then Lieut. Governor, 29 July 1768, containing 300 acres."

First, it indicates that Daniel McLean was in South Carolina by 1768, and second, it points to the existence of other earlier records.

This 29 July 1768 deed record for 300 acres on Reedy Creek in Craven County can be found in South Carolina Memorial Book 8, page 219:

In trying to determine who was migrating to South Carolina during this period, I found Jean Revill's A Compilation of the Original Lists of Protestant Immigrants to South Carolina 1763 - 1773. Her book provides passenger lists for many ships arriving during that time. Daniel McLean and his family came to South Carolina on the Brig Lord Dunagannon with Master Robert Montgomery under the Bounty Act of 1761. There is the notation that their bounties were four pounds or two pounds sterling depending on their ages. This money was to be paid to the ship owners Torans and Pouag. The remaining twenty shillings in change was to be given to the immigrant. Additionally, at that time, the Secretary of Craven County was ordered to prepare a Warrant of Survey.

Daniel McLean's family group was given as follows:

Daniel McLean age 42

Ann McLean age 40

James McLean age 20

Lettice McLean age 16

Elizabeth McLean age 14

Ann McLean age 11

Mary McLean age 8

For this particular bounty, the head of household was to receive 100 acres, plus 50 acres for each additional person. Individuals age 16 and older were to receive 100 acres each. This evidently included both males and females. For his bounty, Daniel McLean received the 300 acres recorded in Memorial Book 8. Of that, 100 acres was for himself, and 50 acres each for his wife Ann and his daughters Elizabeth, Ann, and Mary. James McLean and Lettice McLean each received 100 acres. This establishes James and Lettice as siblings rather than a young married couple. Had they been married James would have received 150 acres, and Lettice would have received nothing.

The South Carolina Assembly created the Act of 1761 with the purpose of populating the backcountry of South Carolina with poor Irish protestants. Their settlements would act as a buffer zone between the Indian country and the more established settlements. Put simply, they were cannon fodder, the first to be sacrificed in the event of an uprising. Additionally, the immigrants had to provide certification that they were, indeed, protestants, presumably to keep out Catholics. 

Next, I searched for information about the Brig Lord Dunagannon, mastered by Robert Montgomery. It was part of the fleet of a Charleston shipping firm owned by John Torrans, John Greg, and John Pouag, who had lobbied the South Carolina Assembly to pass the Act of 1761 because they stood to profit greatly from transporting poor Irish protestants from Ulster to Charleston. Between the bounty years of 1763 and 1768, all of the ships that ran from Ulster to Charleston were owned by Torrans, Greg & Pouag. They routinely ran advertisements in the Belfast newspapers and sent agents out to recruit immigrants.

In August 1767, the following advertisement was running in the Belfast paper to recruit immigrants to leave on the Brig Lord Dunagannon that October:

While they had originally planned to set sail on 10 October 1767, it looks like they did not set sail from Belfast, Antrim County, Ireland, until 12 October 1767: 

They arrived in Charles Town, Charleston District, Berkley County, South Carolina in February 1768 with 141 immigrants from Belfast and Larne. 

Once I knew that Daniel McLean and his family had come from County Antrim, Ireland, I turned to the records of Northern Ireland. This was my first time to ever have a reason to search Irish records, so I've got a lot to learn. I've heard that not many of their records survive, so I was not expecting much. I did not find the McLeans in any marriage or birth records. However, I did find a Religious Census for 1766. On that census, there was only one protestant named Daniel McLeane in County Antrim. He was living in the village of Glenstaghy in Ballintoy Parish, County Antrim, Ireland. This seems to be the last record that Daniel McLean generated before departing for the New World, where he would go from being a poor Irish immigrant who could not pay his own passage to a man with 300 acres in just a matter of months.