I copied this from the internet a while ago:
The Reasons for the Scottish Migration to Ireland
During the 17th century, between 1605 and 1690, large numbers of Scottish lowlanders emigrated to Ulster in Northern Ireland. King James I of England sought to pacify the Irish by "planting" protestant English and Scottish settlers in Ireland beginning in the early part of the 17th century (see Ulster Plantation). The most successful efforts were carried out with settlers from the Scottish lowlands, who had both economic and religious reasons for emigrating to Ulster in large numbers. The economic reasons were dominant for the first 50 years and religion was the dominant reason for the next 30 years.
As described above, life was difficult enough in Scotland, but beginning with the introduction of the feu in the mid 16th century there were additional economic hardships. The feu is a feudal arrangement for leasing land. Unlike the traditional feudal arrangement in which the tenant gets the right to farm the land in return for service (both labor and military) and a share of the crop to the laird or landowner, the feu was a simple lease for money in which the tenant paid a fixed amount of rent. There was no obligation of service and the lease would last as long as the tenant continued to pay the rent. This was good for the landowner, because if provided a steady income, and the rents were usually higher. However, the result was that generally the lands were leased to the wealthier lairds who could afford the higher leases and the traditional tenants lost the lands that they had been farming for generations. These dispossessed tenants became either subtenants or laborers with a resultant loss of income and status. The Ulster Plantation, beginning in 1606, was an attractive opportunity for these dispossessed farmers. Ulster offered:
• Better land, more fertile and productive than any available in Scotland.
• Safety. The planters were to be protected by the English army-an attractive alternative to the decades of war with the English.
• The promise of peace and law
It was also close. Ireland is only about 15 miles away at its closest point, making the journey easy. (Note the plantation of Ireland occurred contemporaneously with the Jamestown settle in Virginia. Clearly, the journey from Scotland to Ireland was much easier than the trip across the Atlantic to Virginia.)
However a famine in Scotland, caused by crop failure in 1696-98, had a major impact in Ireland, causing Scottish Presbyterians to become an absolute majority in Ulster– where about 50,000 settled to escape hunger in their own country, joining the existing 100,000 strong Scottish community there.[26]”
This last bit is interesting!
I don´t think I have anything earlier than the headstone info and we don´t even know for sure that this is the right family. Its a while since I looked at this time period so I will go back through everything I have and double-check.
Did you see the piece I wrote in an earlier reply about Inch? It is near Killyleagh and there is also a Lundy presence there around 1800 with similar christian names. I´m fairly convinced that we should be looking in one of these two areas - Loughgilly or Killyleagh.
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