Images used in this website:

WA.Suth.C.3.293.1 The Victory at Dunbar, published by Peter Stent, about 1650
Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

Photographs by Jeff Veitch

Maps and diagrams drawn by Alejandra Gutierrez

Using the numbered chapter buttons on the left, Explore the story of the Scottish Soldiers from the Battle of Dunbar, to their imprisonment in Durham and their journey as indentured servants to the New World.

For more information, navigate using the map and click on the points shown to reveal more about their journey.

For more information, navigate using the map and click on the points shown to reveal more about their journey.

For more information, navigate using the map and click on the points shown to reveal more about their imprisonment.

For more information, navigate using the map and click on the points shown to reveal more about their imprisonment.

By the 17th Century, England had established itself as a global power with colonies in North America and the Caribbean. On the execution of the King, Parliament laid claim to these overseas dominions and, although some resisted, they became part of the Commonwealth. Manpower to suppress Royalist rebellions or work in industries within the colonies, such as sugar plantations, ironworks and sawmills, was in high demand. Soon after the Battle of Dunbar the idea of transporting the Scottish prisoners to fight or work in the New World was advanced. In the end we know little for definite about most of the schemes to transport the prisoners. It is doubtful whether any were ever sent to Virginia (the destination of one initiative). Some Scottish prisoners definitely fought on Barbados but it is unknown whether these were from the Battle of Dunbar. The exception is the 150 men who were transported to New England aboard the Unity.

For more information, navigate using the map and click on the points shown to reveal more about their journey.

On 3rd September 1650, Oliver Cromwell's English Parliamentarian Army was vastly outnumbered by a Scottish Army loyal to the son of the recently executed King Charles I. Despite the unfavourable odds, Cromwell's experienced troops and superior tactics won the day and the surviving Scottish Soldiers who had not managed to flee became prisoners of war.

From the battlefield at Dunbar the Scottish Soldiers were marched overnight to Berwick but were deprived of food. Some men were able to slip away and escape along the way. On reaching Berwick, those who remained were so tired and hungry that they refused to continue. 30 were executed at Berwick and the rest were forcibly marched south.

Belford is the next likely stopping point for the march, though we have no direct evidence of this.

When they reached Alnwick the Scottish Soldiers spent a night inside the castle walls, between the middle and upper gates.

On the march south the Scottish Soldiers were kept in a walled garden at Morpeth where they found and devoured raw cabbage.

A garden next to the castle marked on a map from 1604 is probably the place the Scottish Soldiers were kept during their stay at Morpeth. On this map North is to the bottom.

At Newcastle the Scottish Soldiers spent a night in the church of St Nicholas, although the Scottish officers may have been housed at nearby Tynemouth Castle. Three died overnight and a further 190 were so sick they were unable to continue. The rest were marched on to Durham.

When the Scottish Soldiers reached Newcastle the officers may have been separated from the men and sent to Tynemouth Castle.

When the surviving Scottish Soldiers reached Durham they numbered at least 3000. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, English Cathedrals ceased to function as places of worship and instead served secular roles. The empty and easily secured large stone structure therefore became the Scottish Soldier's long-term prison.

Today this complex of buildings is the University’s Palace Green Library and exhibition space. In 1650 it was where the soldiers who died were buried in mass graves. Although it was suspected due to the historical accounts, until 2013 the location of these graves was unknown. Archaeological excavations in advance of the construction of a new café located a mass grave containing up to 29 individuals. More lie unexcavated underneath the existing buildings.

When the Scottish Soldiers arrived in Durham they would have walked up to the Cathedral through the North Gate on Saddler street. The gate was demolished in the 1820s.

...their Bodies being infected, the Flux increasing among them, I sent many Officers to look to them, and ordered those who were sick to be removed out of the Cathedral Church into the Bishop’s Castle.

Within 50 days of the Battle of Dunbar 1,600 of the Scottish Soldiers had died. Unable or unwilling to prevent their deaths, Sir Arthur Haselrigge wrote to the Council of State:

The first initiative for which the Scottish Soldiers were used was working in local industries in the north east of England. As early as the 10th of September 1650, Haselrigge was directed by the Council of State to send some of the prisoners to work in coal mines, probably in County Durham. By October, 40 additional prisoners had been sent to work at saltpans at South Shields near Newcastle. A further 12 of the prisoners, who were probably already weavers by trade, were released from Durham to work as weavers. In addition another small group were released to work locally as general labourers although the exact nature of their work is unknown. At least 100 prisoners worked in local industries. For the rest, other plans were brewing among different quarters for their fate...

On 26th October 1650 Haselrigge received a request from the Council of State for 2,300 prisoners from Durham and elsewhere to be sent to Liverpool and Chester for shipment to Ireland. The men needed to be fit, but Haselrigge was specifically instructed not to send any Highlanders. This was presumably because Scottish and Irish Gaelic are mutually comprehensible but would be unintelligible to the English, raising fears about conspiracy and escape plans. Haselrigge was unable to comply with these orders given the circumstances in Durham Cathedral and he wrote back to explain the extent of sickness among his prisoners. The response from London was that if there were 500 fit men, but still not Highlanders, they should be sent. No further mention is made of this plan, and presumably no action was taken.

One idea to make use of the Scottish Soldiers was to send them to fight in France where the civil war known as 'the Fronde' was ongoing and Parliament was keen to advance English interests. To this end, a Major Rokeby was given permission to take up to 500 Scots from Durham. There is little evidence for them after crossing to France. We do not know exactly how many travelled to France, where they landed or in which battles they fought.

In January 1652, 500 of the Scottish Soldiers were sent to King’s Lynn to work on ongoing drainage projects to 'improve' the farmland of the Fens.

A number of plans were put forward to transport the Scottish prisoners from Dunbar to work as indentured servants, effectively slaves for a fixed period of time, in the English colonies in the New World. To this end, 350 men from Dunbar (300 from Durham Cathedral and 50 more from the prisoners who had been left in Newcastle on the march south), were transported to London in preparation for shipment to the New World. In London the prisoners were confined to a moored ship, probably at Blackwall on the Thames. The poor conditions in which they were kept resulted in an outbreak of dysentery which delayed their voyage to the New World. After an investigation into the conditions in which the prisoners had been kept, ordered by the Council of State, only 150 prisoners were transported aboard the Unity to New England. The 200 who remained behind were judged too ill to travel and were provided with care in the 'Pest Houses' administered by the Justices of Blackwall. We do not know what became of these 200 men after this.

In September and October 1650, Haselrigge, who was in charge of the Scottish prisoners from Dunbar, was ordered by Parliament to supply 1100 prisoners for transportation to work on the plantations in Virginia. In the end, only 350 prisoners from Dunbar were sent, under the command of Major Samuel Clarke. They were transported from Newcastle to London by boat but because of the poor conditions both in Durham and on board the ships, dysentery spread among the men and only 150 were judged fit enough to make the crossing to America. These men were sent to New England and there is no evidence for what became of the other 200. It seems unlikely that any of the Scottish Soldiers from Dunbar were sent to Virginia, as was the original intention, as Virginia was loyal to the Royalist cause until 1652.

Of the prisoners who had been transported to London, with the original intention of transportation to Virginia, 150 set sail for New England in 1650 aboard the Unity. The Unity was probably built in Boston by the shipwright Benjamin Gillan. The ship was captained by Augustine Walker, an experienced mariner who originally came from Berwick-upon-Tweed. The Atlantic crossing took about six weeks and must have been difficult for the Scottish prisoners who had already been through the trials of the Battle of Dunbar, the march south to Durham, imprisonment in the Cathedral and the disease-ridden ship moored on the Thames awaiting their departure for the New World.

The Unity reached Charlestown, Boston, in late December 1650. The voyage would have been difficult for the Scottish prisoners who now faced 7 years as indentured servants. Many worked for John Becx who had bought them in England and had a number of business ventures which required manpower throughout New England. The remainder of the men were sold profitably to other industrialists in New England.

The mill on the Oyster River was owned by Valentine Hill, a merchant from London. He required manpower to cut down timber and transport it to the sawmill. At least seven, and probably more, of the Scottish prisoners from the Battles of Dunbar and Worcester served their indentures working on the Oyster River. The included Henry Brown, James Orr, Thomas Doughty, Robert Junkins, James Morrey (Murray), Patrick Denmark, and James Middleton. The work was hard and dangerous as is demonstrated by the fact that in 1661 another Scot, Alexander M'Dougall, drowned, probably while driving logs downstream.

Richard Leader, who had previously managed the Hammersmith Ironworks, managed the Great Works Mill on the Little Newichwannock River, now the Great Works River. We know the names of some of the Scottish prisoners who worked for him. They were Niven Agnew, James Barry, Alexander (Sander) Cooper, William Firbish (Furbush), Daniel Ferguson, Peter Grant, George Grey, William Gowen, David Hamilton, Thomas Holmes, John Key, Alexander Maxwell, John Neal, John Ross, John Taylor, James Warren and William Thompson.

Several of the Scottish prisoners, including Thomas Holmes, worked for Henry Sayward at his sawmills on the Maine coast.

Several of the Scottish Soldiers were bought by mill owner Nicolas Lissen in order to work his mill located somewhere on either the Lamprey or Squamscott rivers.

At least two of the Scottish Soldiers, Daniel Furbush and John Maccoon, served private indentures working as domestic servants in Cambridge.

Four of the Scottish Soldiers, George Bruce, John Burbean, Daniel McDonnell and Henry Merrow, served private indentures in Woburn Further details about their time as servants here are not known, but all settled in the town afterwards.

Two of the Scottish Soldiers, Alexander Maxcy and Robert M'Lachlan, served private indentures in Wenham. Further details about their time as servants here are not known, but both settled in the town afterwards.

One of the Scottish Soldiers, James Stewart, became the blacksmith in Springfield in 1658. He seems to have led a successful life there. His skills as a blacksmith probably allowed him to have a relatively privileged life by comparison with the majority of the other Scots.

The largest group of Dunbar Scots were brought by boat from Boston to work at Hammersmith at Lynn on the west bank of the Saugus River.

By the mid-17th century the English colony in New England was heavily dependent on iron imports from England. To remedy this, John Winthrop Jr. with backing from the The Company of Undertakers for the Iron Works in New England set up an ironworks at Braintree, Massachusetts in 1644. However, the site proved problematic and the venture did not prosper as Winthrop had envisaged. By the time the Scottish Soldiers arrived in New England in 1650 the Braintree ironworks had been superseded by the operation at Hammersmith and only nine were sent to work there.