Early History
Scottish Forebears in Argentina and Southern Patagonia
Reproduced with kind permission of Arnold Morrison from his
website 'The Scots in Argentina'
In the hundred years prior to the First World War the great
majority of emigrant Scots found new homes in the U.S.A. and
Britain's vast overseas empire. Others, however, were attracted
elsewhere, notably to the emerging nations of South America such as
Argentina. Scots formed a small minority among the many
nationalities that contributed to the development of Argentina from
former provinces of the Spanish colonial empire into a modern
national state. Yet despite their small numbers - perhaps no more
than four or five thousand by the end of the 19th century plus
others who came and went - some played a highly significant role in
international commerce, the agricultural development of the vast
plains of the pampas and the sheep industry in distant Patagonia,
while others merged into the body of clerks, artisans and labourers
in cities and towns throughout the land.
Whilst many Scots, knowingly or speculatively, have forebears
who went to Argentina or Southern Patagonia and may have
descendants there today, past difficulties of access to records and
the language barrier have deterred them from research into the
lives of their forebears in these fascinating lands. However,
opportunities for research have improved significantly in recent
years, due in large measure to communication through internet
websites and e-mail and to individual researchers in Argentina,
Chile and elsewhere who are communicating information previously
restricted to archival searches.
Scots first made their presence felt in Argentina between 1800
and 1825, when enterprising merchants founded business houses in
Buenos Aires and elsewhere. Despite the political uncertainties of
the years before and after the creation of an independent state in
1816 and the problems of coming to terms with the Spanish language
and culture they prospered. According to an English observer in
1825, "The majority of British merchants are natives of Scotland,
proverbial for their talent and activity in trade". From this core
of men, such as John and William Parish Robertson, Thomas Fair,
John Gibson and John McNeile, there developed a business community
of Scots which by the end of the century saw key involvement in
commerce, banking and insurance; some, like the Drysdales, becoming
"Merchant Princes of the Plate" famous for their wealth,
philanthropy and support for the Scots Church.
Wealthy members of the early business community were soon
investing in land, buying estates - estancias - in previously
settled areas, and this encouraged other Scots to follow them to
work on estates and start their own farms. Chascomus, south of
Buenos Aires, became one such centre for Scots, described by one
writer as " (Chascomus) has been for thirty years a favourite
settlement for Scotchmen, some of whom are the richest farmers in
South America". And, wherever substantial communities of Scots
developed, as in Buenos Aires and Chascomus, they signalled their
Scottish identity through establishing Scots Churches and
celebrating events such as St. Andrew's Day and Burns Suppers.
Apart from one deliberate attempt to found a whole Scottish
community, when over two hundred Scottish men, women and children
sailed in 1825 in the "Symmetry" from Leith to Buenos Aires and
settled at Monte Grande, others came as small groups, families and
individuals to work on the land or in urban professions and
occupations. Many of these emigrants knew little or nothing about
their new country, its Spanish language and culture, but had been
drawn to it by stories of opportunities to own land or find
profitable occupations. It was a culture shock, eased somewhat by
keeping alive their Scottish identity.
Beyond the settled, former colonial provinces of Argentina lay
the vast plains - the pampas - stretching to the south and west,
inhabited only by semi-nomadic Indians, many of whom were hostile
to settlers. The Argentine government carried out savage campaigns
against them, and by the 1880's the whole country as far south as
the Rio Negro was being laid out for settlement for farming and
stock-raising. Scots such as the Bell brothers from Dunbar settled
on the western pampas, at what is now named Bellville, and the
Kincaid brothers had a large estancia, named Balcleuther, in the
fertile valley of the Rio Negro.
South of the Rio Negro lay the Patagonian territories of
Argentina and Chile, a thousand miles of plains, river valleys and
mountains stretching down to Tierra del Fuego. In the 1875 edition
of the Mulhalls's "Directory of the River Plate Republics", the
writers commented that "Patagonia will probably be uninhabited for
centuries". But they were wrong! Scots played a pioneer role in
settling the territories of southern Patagonia. Some of the first
settlers were Scots from the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), tempted
by land grants in the province of Santa Cruz. Among them was
William Halliday, originally from Dumfriesshire, who settled with
his family on the bank of the Rio Gallegos and founded one of the
best known sheep stations in the province. Others followed from
Scotland, notably the shepherds from Lewis and Harris who came to
work on estancias in the Argentine and Chilean territories.
Arriving (with their dogs) to work on contract, some stayed and
became owners of estancias. So, by the beginning of the 20th
century Patagonia had become one of the major world exporters of
mutton and sheep products.
The settlement of Scots in Argentina and Patagonia is a
remarkable story of enterprise and endeavour in a land initially
alien in language, religion and culture. It has been a largely
neglected aspect of Scottish emigration in the 19th and early 20th
centuries, but one well worth exploring by the descendants of those
who went to that fascinating land.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/scotsinargpat/brief.htm