[This is part of a series of articles on the year 1685. You might want to read the Overview first.]
August 13, 1685
On this date Lord Neil Campbell purchased "one quarter of one twenty-forth share in East New Jersey" with intentions of relocating.
His family was so unpopular with the ruling class in Scotland that many were self-exiled in Holland. Lord Neil himself had been arrested in 1684 and ordered to remain within six miles of Edinburgh.
In May 1685, Lord Neil Campbell was arrested again for no other reason than he was the brother of Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, who was reportedly enroute from the Netherlands with an army of rebels. Lord Neil was shortly thereafter released when he promised to swear allegiance to the King and convince his other clansmen to do the same.
As discussed in other blog entries, the rebellion fizzled, the leader was executed, Campbell lands were forfeited, and many of the co-conspirators were to be banished.
Neil was very certainly in competition with other entrepreneurial noblemen for the rights to "help" with this "banishment." The "banished" were a plentiful source of indentured-servant-candidates for his visionary plantations in New Jersey. Just as Scot of Pitlochie had negotiated with a few prisoners with desirable skills, Lord Neil likely did the same. And very likely Scot and Lord Neil negotiated with each other.
The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland names several of the gentlemen in the business of transporting the banished. It often names their assigned prisoners. However, no mention is made of Lord Neil. It is supposed that he sailed about the same time as Scot and arrived in New Jersey at about the same time. In fact their voyages so overlap that there is confusion about who came with whom.
For example, "A list of persons imported by Lord Neil Campbell..." from Berthold Fernow, Calendar of records in the office of the secretary of state. 1614-1703 contains many names that overlap with the passengers of Scot of Pitlochie.
"He himself, Archibald Campbell, David Symson, Janet Thomson, Dougald and Adam Symson, John, James, Archibald and Orsella Graige, Bessie Pollocke, John and Grissell Hog, Bessie Richardson, James and Sicelhx Senzeour, Sicella and Agnes Lawson, William and Margery Thomson, William Thompson, Margaret Edger, Robt Gurrey, Agnes Marshall, George Korrie, John and Gyles Duncan, Margareti Robertson, John, Robert and Marion Chalmers, Janett Cuningham, William, John and Agnes Dunlop, Alexr Wilson, Magdalen Hattmaker, Andrew Grantt, Alexr Lermont, David Allexander, John Campbell, Win Sharpe, David Heriott, Patrick Tait, John Wilkey, Patrick Symson, Thomas Sheerer, John Boyd, John Scouler, Alexr Thomson, Wm Toish, Robert Campbell, John Pollocke, Michael Marshall."
Remember that Robert Campbell and Michael Marshall are mentioned together several times in the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland and were specifically assigned to George Scot, not Lord Neil.
In any case, there is not much doubt that Robert Campbell, the grandfather of Joel (the subject of this blog), knew Lord Neil Campbell. Perhaps Lord Neil did some favors for Robert and got him into the community at Newark in such a way that he could own land. Was he the first in our Campbell line to own land? All indications are that his fathers and brothers were tenant farmers in Scotland and never owned land.
Lord Neil did not stay in New Jersey very long. He was in Scotland when Campbell lands were restored in 1689. He died in Scotland in 1692.
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