This story was adapted from an article in the New England Historical Genealogical Society newsletter, Scots for Sale: The Fate of the Scottish Prisoner in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts, by Diane Rapaport; and from British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate 1638-60, 1651: The Worcester Campaign, by David Plant.
John Manrow was born about 1632 in Assynt, Sutherland, Sotland and died in Oct 1691 in Bristol, Rhode Island. He was the son of presumed George Munro and presumed Majorie Ross.
During the Second English Civil War, John Manrow and his brother Hugh were among the Scots who composed the bulk of the Royalist Army that Charles II led in his futile attempt to defeat the Parliamentary forces under Oliver Cromwell and regain the English throne that had been lost when his father Charles I was executed. During the spring and summer of 1651, a ragtag Royalist Army of about 18,000 had defended Scotland and Charles II, the newly-crowned Scottish King, against Cromwell's invading New Model Army of 28,000.
Charles II hoping to gain support of Royalists in Wales and England decided to push south across the border and headed toward London. Cromwell pursued. Finally outnumbered, exhausted and running out of supplies the Royalists stopped at the city of Worcester, England. The battle on 3 September 1651 was a crushing defeat for the Royalist cause and was the final battle of the civil war. Although, the Royalists had some initial success Cromwell's New Model Army was just too numerous and too experienced. The Royalist Army lost up to 4,000 killed and with another 10,000 were taken prisoner on the battlefield or soon afterwards. Charles II escaped from the battlefield and was able to elude capture for 45 days until he was able to escape to France. Few of the Scots who survived the battle ever saw Scotland again.
Thousands of Scottish prisoners were 'driven like cattle' to London. As one witness described it, "all of them (were) stript, many of them cutt, some without stockings or shoes and scarce so much left upon them as to cover their nakedness, eating peas and handfuls of straw in their hands which they had pulled from the fields as they passed." At temporary prison camps in London and other cities, many prisoners died of starvation, disease and infection. Around 8,000 Scottish prisoners of war were deported to New England, Virginia, Bermuda or Barbadores to work for landowners as indentured labourers.
On 11 November 1651, two hundred and seventy-two Scots were herded aboard the ship the John & Sara bound for New England. Among them were members of the Munro family; i.e., John, Hugh and Robert Monrow. Another Monrow whose first name is obilerated is believed to be William. The Scots were fated for sale as indentured servants and were consigned to merchant Thomas Kemble of Charlestown, Massachusetts. They were likely resold at a profit. The prisoners of war usually lived four to a house with enough land to sustain themselves. When their sales value, transportation and other costs were recovered by their labor they became free men.
As "Scotchmen" they occupied a distinctly inferior rung on the social ladder, ranked with "Negroes" and "Indians" in the various laws passed by the General Court. The Scots were not only defeated enemies, they were foreigners who spoke a strange language (Gaelic, or a heavily accented Scots English), and their religious leanings were suspect (Presbyterian, if not outright papist Catholic). They could not have felt entirely welcome in Puritan New England, despite the demand for indentured servants in a labor-short economy.
According to Estelle Wellwood Wait (TAG 40:199-203), he came on the "John and Sarah" of London May 13, 1652, along with his brother Hugh and his uncle Robert and other relatives. They were shipped as prisoners of war and were indentured to Thomas Kemble of Boston. They fought in the battle of Worcester during the second British Civil War (1648-51). They served some time in a London jail cell and then banished from England by Oliver Cromwell. After serving their time of indentures, they settled in Rhode Island.
He was a witness to the purchase of land in Sakonnet (now Little Compton) by Constant Southworth from the Indian Sachem Awashunks in 1673. She and her son Peter signed the deed. He was apparently an associate of Benjamin Church, who was a friend of Awashunks. It is believed he was an associate of Awashunks, as was Benjamin Church, later one of the first inhabitants of Bristol.
John Munro appears in the first census of Bristol in 1688/9, along with his wife and 10 children. On November 10, 1691, an inventory of his estate was taken.
He descended from Robert Munro, 14th Baron of Foulis through his third son, Hugh Munro I of Assynt. See "History of the Munros of Fowlis" by MacKenzie.
John Manrow (1632-1691)
This story was adapted from an article in the New England Historical Genealogical Society newsletter, Scots for Sale: The Fate of the Scottish Prisoner in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts, by Diane Rapaport; and from British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate 1638-60, 1651: The Worcester Campaign, by David Plant.
John Manrow was born about 1632 in Assynt, Sutherland, Sotland and died in Oct 1691 in Bristol, Rhode Island. He was the son of presumed George Munro and presumed Majorie Ross.
During the Second English Civil War, John Manrow and his brother Hugh were among the Scots who composed the bulk of the Royalist Army that Charles II led in his futile attempt to defeat the Parliamentary forces under Oliver Cromwell and regain the English throne that had been lost when his father Charles I was executed. During the spring and summer of 1651, a ragtag Royalist Army of about 18,000 had defended Scotland and Charles II, the newly-crowned Scottish King, against Cromwell's invading New Model Army of 28,000.
Charles II hoping to gain support of Royalists in Wales and England decided to push south across the border and headed toward London. Cromwell pursued. Finally outnumbered, exhausted and running out of supplies the Royalists stopped at the city of Worcester, England. The battle on 3 September 1651 was a crushing defeat for the Royalist cause and was the final battle of the civil war. Although, the Royalists had some initial success Cromwell's New Model Army was just too numerous and too experienced. The Royalist Army lost up to 4,000 killed and with another 10,000 were taken prisoner on the battlefield or soon afterwards. Charles II escaped from the battlefield and was able to elude capture for 45 days until he was able to escape to France. Few of the Scots who survived the battle ever saw Scotland again.
Thousands of Scottish prisoners were 'driven like cattle' to London. As one witness described it, "all of them (were) stript, many of them cutt, some without stockings or shoes and scarce so much left upon them as to cover their nakedness, eating peas and handfuls of straw in their hands which they had pulled from the fields as they passed." At temporary prison camps in London and other cities, many prisoners died of starvation, disease and infection. Around 8,000 Scottish prisoners of war were deported to New England, Virginia, Bermuda or Barbadores to work for landowners as indentured labourers.
On 11 November 1651, two hundred and seventy-two Scots were herded aboard the ship the John & Sara bound for New England. Among them were members of the Munro family; i.e., John, Hugh and Robert Monrow. Another Monrow whose first name is obilerated is believed to be William. The Scots were fated for sale as indentured servants and were consigned to merchant Thomas Kemble of Charlestown, Massachusetts. They were likely resold at a profit. The prisoners of war usually lived four to a house with enough land to sustain themselves. When their sales value, transportation and other costs were recovered by their labor they became free men.
As "Scotchmen" they occupied a distinctly inferior rung on the social ladder, ranked with "Negroes" and "Indians" in the various laws passed by the General Court. The Scots were not only defeated enemies, they were foreigners who spoke a strange language (Gaelic, or a heavily accented Scots English), and their religious leanings were suspect (Presbyterian, if not outright papist Catholic). They could not have felt entirely welcome in Puritan New England, despite the demand for indentured servants in a labor-short economy.
John married Sarah (last name unknown) in Plymouth, Massachusetts around 1663. They moved to Bristrol, Rhode Island. John and Sarah are the progenitors of the Monroes, Monrows, and Manrows of Bristol. They had 10 children. John Munro had person sources.
1 He was born after 1632 in Assynt, Sutherland County, Scotland.