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The name used in America to designate immigrants from the north of Ireland, mostly Presbyterians of Scotch descent. Scots had been settled in the north of Ireland during the r Plantation of Ulster" in the reign of James I. Thence some came to America early. But the large emigrations were just after the famous siege of Londonderry in 1689, and again in 1718 and the years immediately succeeding. The largest settlements of them were made in the hilly parts of Pennsylvania, in the valley of the Shenandoah, and in the Carolinas. In all these, they occupied the highland regions, back from the coast, and formed a sturdy, independent, Presbyterian population. Jackson, Calhoun, and many other eminent men were of this stock. In New England their chief settlements were at Londonderry, Antrim, etc., in New Hampshire, founded about 1719.