SCOTS AS STATE GOVERNORS

MAINE.  Robert Pinckney Dunlap (1794-1859), eighth governor, and Hugh Johnston Anderson (1801-81), fourteenth Governor (1844-47), were of Ulster Scot descent.  Abner Coburn (1803-85), twenty-fourth Governor, was also most probably of Scottish or Ulster Scot descent.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.  Jeremiah Smith, fourth Governor (1809-10), was of Ulster Scot parentage.  His son, of the same name, was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the state.  Samuel Bell (1770-1850), a descendant of one of the Ulster Scot settlers of 1718, was three times elected Governor (1819-23) with little or no opposition.  John Bell (1765-1836), his brother, was thirteenth Governor (1828-29).  Joseph Merrill Harper (1789-1865), who served as acting Governor in 1831, was of Ulster Scot descent.  Samuel Dinsmoor (1766-1835), sixteenth Governor (1831-33), a distinguished factor in the history of his state, was of Ulster Scot descent on both sides.  His eldest son (1799-1869), also named Samuel, served as twenty-fourth Governor (1849-52).  Noah Martin (1801-63), of Ulster Scot descent on both sides, was the twenty-fifth Governor.  Charles Henry Bell (1823-93), son of Governor John Bell, was forty-first Governor of the state.  John Butler Smith, forty-seventh Governor (1893-95), was a descendant of one of the settlers of 1718.  John McLane (1852-1911) fifty-seventh Governor (1905-06), was born in Lennoxtown, Scotland.  He was host at the Russian-Japanese Conference at Portsmouth.

VERMONT.  Charles James Bell, fiftieth Governor (1905), was descended from one of the Londonderry, N.H., settlers of 1718.  John Wolcott Stewart, thirty-third Governor (1870-72), was descended from Robert Stewart who went from Edinburgh to Londonderry, Ireland, and whose son was one of those who emigrated from there to Londonderry, N.H., in 1718.  His grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War.

MASSACHUSETTS.  William Claflin (1818-1905), twenty-third Governor, was a descendant of one of the Scots prisoners taken at the battle of Dunbar in 1650.

RHODE ISLAND.  General Ambrose E. Burnside (1824-81), Governor (1867-69).  William Gregory (1849-1901), forty-second Governor (1900-01), was of direct Scottish descent.

CONNECTICUT.  George Payne McLean, forty-first Governor (1901-03), was of Scottish descent.

DELAWARE.  Charles Polk (1788-1857), thirteenth Governor (1827-30), and President of the Constitutional Convention of his state in 1831, was of Ulster Scot descent.  John P. Cochran (1809-98), twenty-sixth Governor (1875-79), was of the same origin.

PENNSYLVANIA.  Thomas McKean, Governor (1799-1808), is already noticed under Signers of the Declaration of Independence.  William Findlay (1768-1846), fourth Governor (1817-20), of Ulster Scot descent, was also United States Senator and Treasurer of the Mint at Philadelphia.  William Freame Johnston (1802-72), Governor from 1848 to 1852, was of Scottish parentage.  He did much to develop the oil region of Pennsylvania, and was also President of the Allegheny Valley Railroad.  James Pollock (1810-90), Governor (1855-58).  It was through his efforts that “In God we trust” was placed on the coinage.  John White Geary (1819-73), Governor from 1867 to 1873, was of Ulster Scot descent.