Our Scottish Cousins

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It is important to understand the political and religious situations of Scotland and England during the 17nth century to understand all the reasons that our William Meeks might have immigrated to Virginia.
The main religion in England at the time was Anglican (Church of England) and in Scotland it was Presbyterian. The Scottish Presbyterians called themselves Covenanters, after the covenant between the Israelis and God in the Old Testament. In both countries, Catholics were the minority and despised by the Anglicans and Covenanters.
In 1626 Charles I was crowned King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was the son of King James I (as in the King James Version of the Bible). King Charles made two mistakes, he married a Catholic, and he tried to consolidate power away from Parliament to himself. He believed that the King should have absolute power, and his agenda’s reflected that. His other agendas were also viewed as favorable to Catholicism. These actions eventually lead to the English Civil War which started in 1642 that eventually lead to the arrest and execution of King Charles I in 1649. This was the first civil war. During the civil war, Catholics were considered Loyalist. After Charles’ execution, Parliament operated the entire government, under the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. Two more civil wars would happen before the century finished. After Oliver’s death parliament reinstated the monarchy, with restrictions and crowned Charles’ son, Charles II, King of England, Ireland and Scotland. When Charles II died without heir in 1685 his brother, James was crowned King.
King James II was a Catholic, and failing to learn from the mistakes of his father, pushed pro- Catholic agendas and he was over thrown during the Glorious Revolution, also known as the 3rd civil war, in 1688 and the thrown went to King William and Mary.

During this century, you often had to pick which side you were going to support, if you chose the loosing side, then you would receive punishment that often involved being shipped as an indentured servant to the colonies. Click here for a great article that explains all this. From this article we see that there are countless of opportunities William Meeks could've come to our country as a political prisoner.

So where does our family fit into all of this? We start with a property called Fortissat. Fortissat is in Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland. The property had been in possession of the Hamilton family during the 16nth and 17nth centuries. The Hamilton's sided with Charles I during the first civil war. As a result of being on the losing side of the war, the family was left broke and they started selling off their land.

Our Scottish Cousins were tenant farmers in Burnhead, which is a property in Longridge, West Lothian Scotland. Burnhead was only eight miles away from Fortissat. In 1664, William Meike was able to acquire the Fortissat property which allowed him and his family to become minor Lairds.

By the time of the 3rd civil war our Fortissat cousins were Covenantors. There are three people who I am most interested in that are associated with Fortissat: James Meek, William Meek, and John Meek. James and William were both from Fortissat, and John was most likely a relative.

• 1679, after the Battle of Bothwell Brig, we find William Meek of Fortissat locked up in the Canongate Tolbooth at Edinburgh where he was held for suspicion of joining the Covenanters. 
• 1683, James and William Meek both of Fortissat  subscribed to the Bond and Test, which is where they are forced to swear allegiance to the King.
• 1686, John Meek was a portioner in Hinshellwood, Lanarkshire. His lands and houses were forfeit for treason and rebellion. His lands were returned to him in 1690 after the war. 

James Meek above was the son and heir of the William Meike who acquired the Fortissat property. As such, James descendants are well known since the property passed to his descendants. The person who interests me the most however is William, who found himself arrested in 1679. Surely he was either the father, or brother of James. If he was the father, then he would've been quite old to be participating in dangerous political activities. One might think it more likely that he was James' brother, running around with the Covenanters and being forced to swear allegiance to Charles II. If this William is the brother of James, then we have a real good candidate for our immigrant ancestor. There are no records of him after 1683, he is the right age, has the right name, and has the right dna. Was he shipped off to Virginia as a political prisoner?? Its a fun idea to think about.

After the war the Fortissat Meek family became very wealthy as they got involved in the cotton trade at Glasgow, coal was discovered on their land in the industrial revolution, and some descendants got into banking. Since, not all members of the family can live off the land, only the eldest son inherited the property while the other sons would go into law, or the Kirk (church). One of James Meek's great grandson, James Meek (1742-1810) became the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1795. He borrowed his crest from the Perthshire Meik family that has a duck with a bores head and two crescents. 

The modern day commercial coat of arms companies use a rendition of this crest for all Meek surnames associated with Scotland. Notably the duck, bores head, two crescents, and the motto.

It has been estimated that before the American Revolution, 150,000 Scots immigrated to the New World through either political prisoners, selling themselves as indentured servants or just going on their own. It is almost certain that our immigrant ancestor was among them.

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