Aghadowey's Story of the 1718 Exodus from the Lower Bann Valley to New England

In June 2018 there was a commemoration remembering the Scots Irish migrants to the New World in Aghadowey, Northern Ireland at the local Presbyterian church .  This event was called "Sailing Off to New Beginnings: The story of the 1718 exodus from the Lower Bann Valley to New England".   This Anniversary service was attended by the local congregation and members of the Clan Montgomery who had traveled from the USA.  Over the next several nights there were three additional talks by historians about the Scots Irish migration.

In 1718 Reverend James McGreggor and members of his congregation at Aghadowey, plus other families from the Bann Valley, left Northern Ireland in five ships and landed in Boston, Massachusetts.  They spent the first winter in Maine, and then members of this group dispersed.  Some stayed in the Casco Bay region, some went to Massachusetts and became the Nutfield settlers, and others went on to Boston or Worcester.

A quote from Jennifer Cunningham of the Aghadowey Presbyterian Church:

"At the beginning of January I volunteered to help with preparing an event in June as I was aware that we were going to have American visitors and that it would be good to inform local people about the 1718 exodus and the events surrounding it and the reasons for it. I met with our then minister Dr. Kane and our clerk of Session William  I said that I would mount an exhibition in the Sunday School. We started with a special service on the Sunday with a guest preacher The Very Rev. Godfrey Brown and as well as local people and guests we were joined by a party of 18 Americans from the Clan Montgomery Society of America.  After the service everyone present went to the Sports Hall for a lunch provided by the ladies of the congregation.  Then during the week we had 3 evening talks. We held these in the church so that we had PowerPoint facilities and so that the service and talks could be recorded. We manned the exhibition during the month of June and then opened it after that on request right up to the end of August." 

Jennifer asked me if I would put these audio files of the four presentations up on my blog, and I'm honored to present them here.  Just click on the links and wait for the file to download.  When you see the audio player, just click on the arrow to play the audio file.   The Irish accented voices are just lovely and the information about the migration is priceless.

Enjoy these four audio file presentations via YouTube!


         1.) The Very Reverend Godfrey Brown's service: 

         2.)  Professor Linde Lunney:

         3.)  George Dallas: 

         4.) Allison McCaughan: 

Many thanks to Jennifer Cunningham for the photos and audio files included above.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Aghadowey's Story of the 1718 Exodus from the Lower Bann Valley to New England", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 1, 2018,  ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/10/aghadoweys-story-of-1718-exodus-from.html: accessed [access date]).