ho were not Quakers, declared, "It looks as
if Ireland were to send all her inhabitants hither; if they continue to
come they will make themselves proprietors of the province;" and he
further condemned the bad taste of the people who were forcing
themselves where they were not wanted. The rate of this invasion may be
estimated from the rise in population from twenty thousand, in 1701, to
two hundred and fifty thousand in 1745, which embraced the entire
population of that colony. Between the years 1729 and 1750, there was an
annual arrival of twelve thousand, mostly from Ulster. Among the vessels
that helped to inaugurate this great tide was the good ship "George and
Ann," which set sail from Ireland on May 9th, 1729, and brought over the
McDowells, the Irvines, the Campbells, the O'Neills, the McElroys, the
Mitchells, and their compatriots.

Soon after the emigrants landed at New Castle they found their way along
the branches of various rivers to the several settlements on the western
frontier. The only ones known to have come through New York was the
"Irish settlement" in Allen township, Northampton county, composed
principally of families from Londonderry, New Hampshire, where, owing to
the rigid climate, they could not be induced to remain. It grew but
slowly, and after 1750 most of the descendants passed on towards the
Susquehanna and down the Cumberland.

As early as 1720 a colony was formed on the Neshaminy, in Bucks County,
which finally became one of the greatest landmarks of that race. The
settlements that commenced as early as 1710, at Fagg Manor, at Octorara,
at New London, and at Brandywine Manor, in Chester County, formed the
nucleus for subsequent emigration for a period of forty years, when they
also declined by removals to other sections of the State, and to the
colonies of the South. Prior to 1730 there were large settlements in
the townships of Colerain, Pequea, and Leacock, in Lancaster County.
Just when the pioneers arrived in that region has not been accurately
ascertained, but some of them earlier than 1720. Within a radius of
thirty-five miles of Harrisburgh are the settlements of Donegal,
Paxtang, Derry, and Hanover, founded between 1715 and 1724; from whence
poured another stream on through the Cumberland Valley, across the
Potomac, down through Virginia and into the Carolinas and Georgia. The
valley of the Juniata was occupied in 1749. The settlements in the lower
part of York County date from