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Hi Susan,
May I compliment you on your excellent post and the way in which you have assembled the information.
I don't know if it matters but I could add some information not readily found on both the Caledonia and the Henry and Francis.
At one point I found a notation in an old book that a Caledonia was launched in 1637. She made many voyages between Scotland and New Jersey including landings in 1682, 1684, 1685, and 1686. In 1697 the Caledonia was purchased by the Company of Scotland and either refit, or rebuilt, as a man-of-war or one heck of a heavily armed merchantman. She had 60 guns and had a capacity of over 600 tonnes burden. This Caledonia sailed in 1698 as part of the infamous Darien Expedition, and in 1699 arrived in New York in such sorry repair that the Lt. Gov. of New York commented as such in his journal. The Caledonia was made ready to sail and left for Scotland carrying the remnants of the Darien colonists. Her companion vessel, the Unicorn, another great ship, was in such poor condition that the Captain, John Anderson, stripped her of her furnishings and ran the remains aground on Sandy Hook.
The 1685 Caledonia sailed in late August, just a few days before the Henry and Francis from Leith. She carried Laird Neill Campbell, who I suspect was acting in concert with Laird George Scot. The story of George Scot and the reasons for his taking the measures he did to remove the covenanters from the Tolgates of Leith, Edinburgh, Cannongate, and Dunottar would take more time than I have tonight to explain. Perhaps if you are interested I can add you to the list of those that I owe a copy of Rev. Douglas Somerset's excellent account of those times. At any rate my ancestor sailed on the Henry and Francis, but is not among those listed on the 'manifest' that you find on line. His name is Walter Ker, whom you reference in your post here. Walter was released to Dr. John Johnstone, the Edinburgh druggist, brother to James Johnstone of Ochiltree and Spotswoode. His release is noted in the Privy Council Records of Scotland on the 3rd of September, as being made to John Johnstone. The Henry and Francis sailed the 5th of September, and as you noted much of historical note is already written. Walter Ker was granted his 50 Acres in 1689, although he was not on the manifest, he most assuredly sailed on the Henry and Francis because the Caledonia had already sailed and John Johnstone was on the Henry and Francis. One other note, the internet lists state that Eupham Scot, daughter of George Scot died on the voyage with her parents. Dr. John Johnstone however married her the spring of 1686, she filed suit for the lands promised her father, and they were granted her later that year. Kind of hard for a dead person to appear in court, get married, have kids etc... Walter Ker married Margaret Johnstone, not totally proven but circumstanial evidence indicates as such, the daughter of James Johnstone. In 1691 James Johnstone bequeaths to Walter Ker on behalf of Walter and Margaret's second son James, 50 Acres to be held for him. Sounds like something a grandfather would do for his namesake grandson. Walter holds, owns, and farms lands of James Johnstone and Walter's lands adjoin some of James Johnstone's.
It is at this point that I caution all, that not everything written as history is completely accurate. Many times the story is told from one to another and salient points left out in the generations, and embellishments added. Oft times the tale is told by someone who heard it from someone who claimed to hear it from the descendent, and then relates it as fact. Yet in each story or account there are kernels of truth, and those are what we must find.
Was the Caledonia of 1685, the same Caledonia of the Darien Fleet. That is neither proved nor disproved. Some of hose who write about the Darien Fleet state that all the ships were built new, yet the records of the Company of Scotland do not state that. Rather they state that some ships were purchased and refit, others were built specifically for the Company. The letters to William Tennent from the directors of the Company are not specific to the Caledonia yet they allude to the fact that he is to take command of her refit, and again that she is to be fitted out in a specified manner in Holland, made fit to sail, and then brought to Scotland for the detailed refit.
Another historian writes in The First Darien Expedition Fleet the "Patterson Expedition" sailed from Leith, Scotland, with five ships, three 500-ton ships and two others, the Caledonia, Dolphin, Endeavor, St. Andrew, and Unicorn. Aboard were 1,200 colonists. The fleet arrived at Caledonia Bay, New Caledonia, 2 Nov 1698.
The Caledonia, which had been launched at Hamburg, but was probably already an older ship, was under the command of Robert Drummond, who later commanded the Speedy Return.
This would lead me to believe that she was purchased and refit for the voyage. After her return to Glasgow in December of 1699, her Captain, Robert Drummond, was given the command of a different vessel to return to Darien in the spring of 1700. Records of the Company show that in 1706/7 the Caledonia was lying in the River Clyde (Glasgow/Greenock) and that she was to be stripped of the remnants of her burden, fixtures, and furnishings (sails etc.) which were to be sold at auction to help pay off the debts of the company. The ship itself was to be auction with a minimum bid of 800 pounds sterling. I am still working on the dispostion of the vessel, however now comes those stories I mentioned earlier.
Many accounts of both local and family history tell a story about the Caledonia. In the Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris County, New Jersey, as you quoted, it tells of the Caledonia barely making port in 1685. However other historical accounts state that the Caledonia made port in 1685, at Perth Amboy having had a pleasant voyage with no mishap. The Henry and Francis that sailed a week later was beset with pestilence, death, bad seas, and a Captains attempt to change course to sell the occupants for slaves in Jamaica, yet providence prevailed and the winds blew her into the harbor at Perth Amboy (pardon my transliteration, I don't have the exact account in front of me). In this instance I would lean toward the account that tells of the Caledonia bringing the Campbells to shore in one piece and no mishap, and I further believe that two accounts are combined in the Morris County history. In 1715 the Caledonia is wrecked in the harbor at Perth Amboy as recounted in Whitehead's History of Perth Amboy. Almost the entire Morris County account pertaining to the providential voyage of the Caledonia matches other accounts of 1715, which I will come to.
Symmes reference in the History of Old Tennent Church also seems to combine the two events, the arrival of the Scots on the Caledonia and the Henry and Francis in 1685, crediting only the Caledonia, and the wreck of the Caledonia in 1715. These two combination accounts would lead me to give some weight to those who hold that the Caledonia of 1685 was the same ship wrecked in 1715.
The History of Monmouth County also names the Caledonia as sailing with the Henry and Francis in Sept. of 1685. Well we know for a fact that the Henry and Francis sailed on the 5th of Sept. and other accounts tell that the Campbells sailed in the Caledonia the last week of August 1685. Both sailed in Sept.? Close enough to call it that.
The other stories about the Caledonia of 1715 are not relevant to the Davison Family History, but since they address parts of the accounts credited to the Caledonia arrival in 1685, I will include them here and let you be the judge.
I requote in full your previous reference which has some important details that match other accounts.
Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris County, New Jersey, 1899, page 48.
Henry W. Young descended from Scotch Ancestors. During a period of persecution occurring in the reign of King Charles the second, about a hundred men that had been spared the sword were put on the Caledonia, an unseaworthy old craft that leaked so badly that it was evident expectation that all on board would go down, ere they were out of sight of land. But a competent man was chosen Captain, and by dint of constatnt bailing a kind of Providence brought the ship safely to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in 1685.
{King Charles II was king in 1685 but not in 1715, could this also be a combination of accounts confused over the years as to what happened on which voyage?}
History of Union County, New Jersey
At a time when the Protestants were persecuted by the Baptists, a number in the west of England and Wales resolved, if they could, to escape to the wilds of America. The wreck of the ship “Caledonia” lay sunk at the shore. Some of the proprietors and others concerted a place and agreed to raise her and fit her for the voyage. With the help of two pumps and several hundred buckets, they freed her of water and stopped the leak, and fitted her out in the night time; and one hundred and thirteen went on board and set sail in the night time for fear of detection, and in the morning Providence so ordained it that a thick fog arose between her and the land so that they escaped. They had fair winds and weather all the passage till they arrived on the shoals of Amboy, when she leaked so that the pumps would not free her and she sank, but all escaped safe to land and dispersed among the Indians. Stephen Crane with his brothers settled at Elizabethtown.
History of Perth Amboy and Surrounding Area
Whitehead
Lying in shoal water, nearly in front of the brick-yard of Mr. Hall, are the remains of a vessel which used to be much resorted to, and may still be, in consequence of their harboring numbers of fine fish.
The vessel Caledonia, and her name has become very generally known, and it may be said - reverentially spoken of, from her having borne to New Jersey many Scotch families immigrating from Scotland during the troubles that agitated that country in 1715. She was commanded by Robert Drummond, and, for some cause not now known, the captain and crew deserted her while lying at the wharf at Amboy, and, a storm rising, she broke from her moorings and drifted to the spot mentioned. It is probably that she was an old vessel and unseaworthy, which will account for no measures being adopted for her preservation.
{My note: By 1715 Robert Drummond was dead, he was killed when pirates captured his ship "The Speedy Return" and another Company ship off Madagascar killed the crew and eventually burned the ship, in 1705? if my memory serves. There would be those that would have remembered the Caledonia of 1699 commanded by Drummond who could have identified her as the same vessel, still alive when she returned in 1715}
{In the uprising of 1715, an army of Scots mostly from Inverness or further north, marched south into England making it as far south as Preston before being surrendered by their craven commanders in the hopes of saving their own necks. Many of the Scots escaped during the night and fled north. I have no record of their fate however some facts come to light. 1st, a Captain in the Scot "army" became a Captain when he recruited 100 men. I have yet to re-find what I overlooked once, however there is written somewhere the story of Frederick Buccaleu, a Captain selected by his men, escaping the sword by taking a vessel to sea and fleeing with his men to the colonies in 1715.}
Finally there is the account from the History of Woodbridge. Woodbridge was the village to which the Scots onboard the Henry and Francis of 1685 found refuge for the winter.
Woodbridge and Vicinity pg. 38
There is a tradition, which may or may not be true, that they came over in the old ship Caledonia, the wreck of which, for many years, was seen on the shore at Perth Amboy, by some who are yet living. It is said that, driven by persecution, the Ilslys, with other dissenters, were compelled to flee from their homes, which were either in England or in the north of Scotland, and were allowed by their enemies to depart only because they embarked on the unseaworthy Caledonia, which was confidently expected to founder at sea and engulf the sturdy heretics. But lo! they came safely into harbor! {now here I believe the story of the Caledonia of 1715 blends with the story of the Henry and Francis of 1685} Before they landed, however, the Dutch captain {could that be Richard Huttone} proceeded to bind them over as servants to the planters in the vicinity, according to custom, until certain real or fancied debts in the old country had been discharged. A Mrs. Ilsly, filled with indignation, seized a bar of iron and flourishing it over the captain's head, declared with emphasis that she and the rest had fled from tyranny at home to find quiet in the new land; and that she would not submit to slavery right on the borders of freedom. The doughty captain was cowed by the determination of the brave woman and saved his head by landing his passengers without the indentures having been executed. {Huttone and perhaps one other sailor are said to have survived the plague that decimated the Henry and Francis in 1685. Surely on a vessel with a crew, the crew would not let a woman overpower their captain, especially with their wages at stake. Perhaps some reading between the lines on my part.}
Well I thank you for your excellent work and research. If you would like more on the plight leading up to the prisoners of 1685 that sailed with Scot and Campbell, please advise and I will email it to you since it is too lengthly to post here.
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