Brown, K, Kennedy, A and Talbott, SM (2019) ‘Scots and Scabs from North-by-Tweed’: Undesirable Scottish Migrants in Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century England. Scottish Historical Review, 98 (2). pp. 241-265. ISSN 1750-0222

[thumbnail of ScotsAndScabs(SHRFinalRedraft).docx] Text
ScotsAndScabs(SHRFinalRedraft).docx - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.

Download (83kB)

Abstract

While very prominent in the contemporary world, anxiety about the potentially negative impact that immigrants might have on their host communities has deep historical roots. In a British context, such fears were particularly heightened following the regal union of 1603 when large numbers of Scots began settling in England. This article offers a fresh perspective on these issues by exploring the experiences and reception of poor, deviant or otherwise ‘undesirable’ Scottish migrants to England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Focusing in particular on chapmen, vagrants and criminals, it suggests that, while in general Scots were able to integrate relatively easily into English society, there existed an unwelcome subset surviving by dubious means. Though not usually attracting unduly severe treatment on account of their nationality, these unwelcome migrants had a disproportionate effect on English perceptions of and attitudes towards the broader cohort of Scottish migrants in their midst.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © Edinburgh University Press. This is the accepted author manuscript (AAM). The final published version (version of record) is available online via Edinburgh University Press at 10.3366/shr.2019.0402 - please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.
Subjects: D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Humanities
Depositing User: Symplectic
Date Deposited: 27 Nov 2018 16:38
Last Modified: 01 Sep 2020 01:30
URI: https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/5531

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item