INTRODUCTION

A notable element of the 1678 census is the extent to which the putatively English settlements in the Leeward Islands were populated by people of Irish and, to a lesser degree, Scots birth or descent, and whereas the latter were aggregated within the section of the population described as “English,” the former were counted separately in the returns for all four islands. In the century that followed, people of Irish birth or heritage continued to constitute a large segment of each island's white population, while the number of Scots increased dramatically after the Act of Union in 1707 and continued to rise throughout the eighteenth century.

Of course, the Leewards were not unique among the settlements that constituted late-seventeenth- and eighteenth-century colonial British America in including a substantial number of people of other than English nationality in their white populations. We might think, for example, of the many Dutch-descended settlers in New York, the numerous Germans in Pennsylvania, and the sizable Huguenot contingent in coastal South Carolina. However, the ethnic diversity of the Leewards merits extended analysis for several reasons. First, as this chapter demonstrates, it was a source of frequent comment, and at various times significant public concern, in the period under study.