The McIntire Garrison and Cider Houseby Jonathan Tucker – Building Ages and Family Context In November 2023, selected timbers in the McIntire Garrison and its barn (the “cider house”) were cored and analyzed by historic consultant William A. Flynt.  From these cores, using dendrochronological analysis, the age of the timbers used to build the two structures was established.  The science of dendrochronology uses observed historical patterns of tree growth rings in different regions to closelyLearn More

by Jonathan Tucker This chapter summarizes much of what is known about the lives of the women who married the Scottish prisoners of war (SPOW) who settled primarily in Scotland District in York, Maine, as well as one who settled in Cape Neddick village in York on the coast, and one who settled close to York Village center on the York River. Who Married Whom So far as we can tell, all of the womenLearn More

by Jonathan Tucker Instances of close ties between members of the extended community of former Scottish prisoners of war of which Micum McIntire was a member keep coming up.  This chapter will examine some specific examples and discuss the source(s) of these ties. To Whom Do We Belong? It is worth noting that Scottish culture and specifically the culture of Highland clans from which several Dunbar prisoners came had prepared our ancestral prisoners of war toLearn More

By Jonathan Tucker The Landscape & the Watershed The landscape of the part of York, Maine where Micum McIntire and his fellow SPOWs settled was defined by the York River.  Before European settlers arrived, this southernmost tidal river in what is now southern coastal Maine had been called Agamenticus by the Algonkian-speaking Newichawannock (Pennacook) and Saco tribal Native Americans who lived near the river, travelled on it, and seasonally fished and gathered shellfish there. The areaLearn More

by Jonathan Tucker Coming Home As the 1660s progressed, the former Scottish prisoners in this region of northern New England had completed their indentures, accumulated some income (and possibly land), and they were looking for places to obtain land grants and settle.  A number of them, including Robert Junkins, Alexander Maxwell (who had been at Great Works), John Carmichael (a Worcester prisoner), Andrew Rankin, Alexander Machanere (MacNair)—a distant cousin of Micum’s—and others obtained land grants inLearn More

by Jonathan Tucker Some of the former Scottish prisoners were able to buy themselves out of their indentures early.  There is no evidence that Micum McIntire did so.  He most likely worked out his full 6-8 year indenture—1651 to 1658-1659, and then continued to work for Valentine Hill after his indenture ended.  Micum was taxed in November 1659 in Dover (the larger township of which Oyster River was a part).  This indicated that his indenture had ended, and asLearn More

by Jonathan Tucker Charlestown Under Augustine Walker’s experienced captaincy, the Unity of Boston made its early winter crossing of the North Atlantic from London to Boston in 5 weeks and 5 days—a relatively fast crossing for the time.  The trip ordinarily took 6-8 weeks.  On December 21, 1650, the Unity docked at Charlestown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, just upriver from Boston.  The Scots prisoners chained in its hold must have been aware of the changes as the ship slowed approaching theLearn More

The March of the Dunbar Scots British historians have likened the 1650 Dunbar March—the march of the Dunbar prisoners south into England—to the Bataan Death March in WWII, with the caveat that the Dunbar march was worse. September is autumn on the east coast of Scotland, which, thanks to the proximity of the North Sea, is cool and wet even in summer.  Early in the march southward, the prisoners were bedded down each night in theLearn More

by Jonathan Tucker The Setting Clan MacIntyre was a relatively small but widely distributed West Highland clan, whose political and social focus was the chief’s glen of Glenoe (“North Glen”) on the north slope of Ben Cruachan.  Glenoe was also the name of the small settlement on a rise near the bottom of the glen where the chief lived.  Within the glen, the small River Noe (“North River”) gathers and flows east to west, emptying into LochLearn More

Micum Mcintire worked off his indenture between 1651 and 1659, and then settled and lived in a region of southern and coastal New Hampshire and Maine that included what is now Durham and Dover, NH, and Berwick and York, Maine.  The original inhabitants of this region were Eastern Algonkian-speaking peoples that, by the time the Scottish prisoners of war arrived in 1650 and 1651, these indigenous peoples belonged to two larger confederations of tribes whose territoriesLearn More