Our family can definitely trace back to James Lowry (28 November 1771 - 04 October 1849) who is buried at the Old Mt. Harmony Baptist Cemetery near Athens, McMinn County, in southeastern Tennessee.  At this point, we do not have any documentation of who his father was nor exactly how James came to settle in southeastern Tennessee.  It has been written that he came to the Mt. Harmony Community in McMinn County from Jefferson County about 1823.  It has also been written that James and his sons were farmers, that their farms covered hundreds of acres and that those farms are now considered showplaces of the Mt. Harmony community.  Travel to this region from the north and the east was usually accomplished most easily by following the Great Valley Road or Great Wagon Road through the Shenandoah River Valley.  There have been some assertions made that a Robert Lowry (maybe his brother) was made legal guardian over James.  There is also some information that James’ brother was from Rockbridge County, Virginia.  This is too makes sense as it is further north up the Shenandoah River Valley too.  Some of our next steps will be research in Athens, greater McMinn County and Knoxville, Tennessee, as well as Roanoke, and Winchester, Virginia.

The first farming communities in the interior of North Carolina (today’s eastern Tennessee was at one time known as western North Carolina) were established by a group of people who came from the tidewater area of Maryland and Virginia.  They brought with them a good understanding of how to raise tobacco, the chief crop of the tidewater region of the Chesapeake, which became a primary crop of North Carolina.  Many of these people were second and third generation Chesapeake residents, but a sizeable number of them were newcomers to America — a group of people who are often called the Scotch-Irish.

Before 1746, travelers from the Chesapeake into western Virginia were compelled to first go north to Philadelphia, then west to Lancaster, then southwest on the old Philadelphia Road through York and on to the Potomac River, then connecting with the Shenandoah River Valley.  A key historical event which influenced the migration of people from the Chesapeake to points west and southwest was the opening of a wagon road across the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1746.  It became known as the Pioneer's Road, and allowed for wagon traffic from Alexandria to Winchester, the westernmost town in Virginia at that time.  Winchester was located on the Great Valley Road, and by traveling from Alexandria overland to Winchester, the route to access the Great Valley Road had been shortened dramatically.  The trace today of the Pioneer's Road is very close to that of the modern U.S. Hwy 50, which crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains via Ashley's Gap.

As a result of the opening of the Pioneer’s Road, thousands of Scotch-Irish immigrants to America changed their travel plans after hearing from relatives in America.  Before 1746 the primary port of entry to the American colonies was Philadelphia.  After 1746, Alexandria, Virginia on the Potomac River became an important port of entry for the newcomers from the Irish Sea.  Following the migration routes backwards helps us decide where to search for further information.  Speculation is that the Lowrys probably were among the 275,000 Scotch-Irish who arrived in the American colonies and then traveled into the wilderness of colonial America and the Appalachian region, stretching from western Pennsylvania to Georgia.  These regions were settled almost exclusively by Scotch-Irish.

Even though we have not been able to connect further than this, there are some things we know generally about the origins of all Lowrys.  The story is closely aligned with the histories of Ireland, Scotland and England.  The story is one of continual interaction and conflict between these countries.

The Lowrys came from Northern Ireland and certainly from Scotland before then.  Lowry in Irish is "O Labhradha".  The original Irish surname was Mac Labhradha (also written Mac Labhraidh, denoting literally ‘son of Labhradha’, a personal name derived from the Irish meaning ‘spokesman, advocate).  O Labhradha is also on record in early times, indicating ‘grandson of Labhradha’.  They are found in almost equal numbers in northeast Ulster, where the sept (branch of the family) originated in the neighborhood of Moira (situated between what is today the towns of Lisburn and Lurgan which are southwest of Belfast), County Down.  Branches of the Mac Labhradha/ O Labhradha sept were called Baun-Lavery, Roe-Lavery and Trin-Lavery, these epithets being the Gaelic adjectives ban (white), rua (red) and tran (strong).  The oldest names in Ireland are Gaelic, usually preceeded by the famous`O`meaning `Grandson of` and `Mac` meaning `son of`.

Ulster was first an ancient province of northeast Ireland, named after one of it's chief inhabitants, the Ulaid (Voluntii.).  Other early peoples in Ulster included the Pictish tribe of the Robogdii, the Cruithin and the Darini.  Later there were the Dal Riata, Dal nAraide and the Dal Fiatach.  Ulster had its ancient capital at Emuin Machae (var. Emain Macha), which was located near the town of Armagh (approximately two miles west of the town at Navan Fort).  The term "capital" does not mean an administrative or legislative center; rather it was the more-or-less permanent site of the royal residence.

Attacks from the midland kingdom of Mide led to Ulster's disintegration in the 4th and 5th centuries.  The province subsequently split into the three kingdoms of Airgialla (in central Ulster), Aileach, (in western Ulster), and the kingdom of Ulaid (in eastern Ulster).  By the 8th century the island's clans had grouped themselves into five provinces, of which Ulster under the Uí Néill dynasty was the leading one until the 11th century.

Norman adventurers from England, South Wales, and the European continent succeeded in establishing themselves in Ireland by the late-12th century, and in 1205 the English king, John Plantagenet, took control and created an earldom of Ulster.  Meanwhile, the O'Neills (of County Tyrone) and the O'Donnells (of County Tyrconnell) had become virtually supreme in much of Ulster.  These two Roman Catholic clans were involved in a serious rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I from 1594 to 1601, caused in part by attempts to impose the English Reformation on the Irish.  The failure of negotiations with James I led to the flight of the northern earls of Tyrone, Tyrconnell, and many others in 1607.

The McClorys are historically associated with the old Irish clan Oirghialla, or Oriel, descended from the semi-legendary Irish king Conn of the Hundred Battles who reputedly died in 157 AD.  The kingdom of Oriel at one point encompassed much of Ulster, but was in later times confined to the area of modern Monaghan, Armagh and adjacent parts of Down and Fermanagh.  The McClorys and other Oriel septs claim descent from three princes known as the three Collas.  The eponymous ancestor of the McClorys is said to have been the chieftain Eochaidh Labhradha mac’Fhogartaigh, eighth century lord of Fermanagh.  Historical records of the McClorys became numerous from the sixteenth century: Elizabethan pardons (or royal indemnities) list, amongst others, Thady and Philip O’Lowrowe in 1570, together with several McClory followers of O’Neill in the 1590s, and a Morgh M’Glory in 1600.  Later eighteenth century wills note a Patrick M’Clowery of Ballinaskeagh in 1779, with a Hugh McClory recorded in the same parish in 1839.  According to old pedigrees the ancestors of the McClorys were kinsman of the O’Davins with lands in the barony of Tirkennedy.  Notable McClory families were also on record in later centuries at Ballynaskeagh, Lisnacrappin and Drumballyroney.  Other old anglicised forms of the name include McLory, McLawry and McLavery while in some parts of east Ulster, and also in Offafy, local dialect has rendered the name McGlory and Maglory.  The surname is most commonly met in modern times in the forms Lowry and Lavery.

Ulster today contains the counties of Donegal, Derry, Antrim, Tyrone, Down, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Armagh, and Cavan. (Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal are in the Republic; the rest constitute Northern Ireland.)  In ancient times, the extension of Ulster was determined more by the presence of the Ulaid (i.e., the people of Ulster) than any geographical boundaries; this observation applies, of course, to all the geographical divisions of Ireland in ancient times.  Louth, Monaghan, Armagh, and Down were all certainly part of ancient Ulster; as one moves away from this area, the identification becomes more and more vague.

Among the legendary persons or groups most prominently associated with Ulster are King Conchubur (var. Conchobar, Conor mac Nessa), Cú Chulaind (var. Cú Chulainn), the important warriors Conall Cernach and Loegaire Buadach, the troublemaker Bricriu Nemthenga (Bricriu of the poisonous tongue), a one-time king of Ulster, Fergus (the name means manly force), who resigned in favor of his wife's (Ness) son (Conchobar). Fergus also was a foster father of Cú Chulaind.

The Anglo-Saxon invasions in the twelfth century injected a new strain which, when added to the earlier Viking incursions (Note that the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs states that over 50% of the Irish population belongs to blood group`O`, directly linking that population to Nordic origins), complicated the picture still further.  Many of these Norman names refer to original occupations: Falconer, Smith, Cooke, Taylor, Mason, Archer and Harper.  Further complications arose when the old Gaelic names were transposed into English, thus Carey, derived from the Gaelic O`Ciardha, became Carew or even Carr.  Other names were actually referring to place names in Northern France or in Wales (Walsh) that the invaders came from.  For example Cusack (Cussac) Lyons (Lyons) De Lacey (Lacey) Joyce (Jose) and French.  Lowry (Lawrie and Lowrie) however, is an old Scottish name, for fox; it also means a crafty person.

SCOTLAND

The Lowry surname is also found in Ulster as a result of 17th century settlers arriving there from Scotland.  Scottish families are found here under the spelling of Laurie as well.  The Earl Belmore family is recorded as arriving from Scotland at the time and settling in County Tyrone, and he was said to be of the Laurie family of Maxwelton.  The Scottish people from Ulster are often referred to as "Scot-Irish".

The first record of the name Laurie was found in Dumfriesshire (a Scottish maritime county, on southern border of Scotland/England) around 1000 AD where the archives record several spellings of the name.  Scribes and church officials spelt the name phonetically (from its sound) and thus we have the name variation found today.  LAURIE, LAWRIE, LARRIE, LARRY, LAURY, LAWRY, LOWRIE and LOWRY are just some of the more commonly seen variations in Scotland and abroad.  This was particularly true for the Lauries who moved to Ireland during the time of the Ulster Plantation of 1609, whose surnames through time changed to Lavery, Lowry and O'Lowry.  Other names associated with the Lauries are Bissett, Lavender and Green.

The Scottish border counties (including Dumfriesshire) were for many centuries the battleground between Scotland and England.  Largely as a result of this the reiving tradition arose, something which only really died out with the Union of the Crowns in 1603.  For over 350 years up to the end of the 16th century what are now Northumberland, Cumbria, The Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway rang to the clash of steel and the thunder of hooves.  Robbery and blackmail were everyday professions, raiding, arson, kidnapping, murder and extortion an accepted part of the social system.  

While the monarchs of England and Scotland ruled the comparatively secure hearts of their kingdoms, the narrow hill land between was dominated by the lance and the sword.  The tribal leaders from their towers, the broken men and outlaws of the mosses, the ordinary peasants of the valleys, in their own phrase, 'shook loose the Border'.  They continued to shake it as long as it was political reality, practising systematic robbery and destruction on each other.  History has christened them the Border Reivers.  They gave blackmail and bereaved to the English language.   

The stamp of the Reivers is still to be seen on the Border Lands - in it's architecture, culture and people.  From the secretive fortified towns and farms to names that once struck fear into men's hearts - Armstrongs, Grahams, Kerrs, Nixons, Robsons - the legacy of the Reivers remains.

Clans from Scotland containing forms of the surname Lowry are GORDON (Septs include: Lawrie, Laurie) and MACLAREN (Septs include: Lawrie, Laurie, Lowery, Lowry).

IRELAND

In the Stone and Bronze Ages (approximately 2 million B.C to 650 B.C.), Ireland was inhabited by Picts in the north and a people called the Erainn in the south, the same stock, apparently, as in all the isles before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain.  About the 4th century B.C., tall, red-haired Celts arrived from Gaul or Galicia.  They subdued and assimilated the inhabitants and established a Gaelic civilization.  By the beginning of the Christian Era, Ireland was divided into five kingdoms (later to be called provinces - Irish word for the provinces, cóiceda means fifths) — Ulster (Ulaid), Connacht, Munster (Mumu), Leinster (Lagin), Meath (Mide).  Saint Patrick introduced Christianity in 432, and the country developed into a center of Gaelic and Latin learning.  Irish monasteries, the equivalent of universities, attracted intellectuals as well as the pious and sent out missionaries to many parts of Europe and, some believe, to North America.

Norse depredations along the coasts, starting in 795, ended in 1014 with Norse defeat at the Battle of Clontarf by forces under Brian Boru.  In the 12th century, the pope gave all of Ireland to the English Crown as a papal fief.  In 1171, Henry II of England was acknowledged “Lord of Ireland,” but local sectional rule continued for centuries, and English control over the whole island was not reasonably absolute until the 17th century.  In the Battle of the Boyne (1690), the Catholic King James II and his French supporters were defeated by the Protestant King William III (of Orange).  An era of Protestant political and economic supremacy began.  Today Ireland is 93% Catholic and England is 60% Protestant.

Large-scale emigration from Ireland to North America began in the 1720s and throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century involved many thousands of settlers, mainly from Ulster, who sought land and a new way of life on the Appalachian frontier.  These early pioneers were predominantly Presbyterian and became known in their adopted country as the Scotch Irish.

Interrupted only by the American War of Independence (1775-83) and the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815), the great tide of emigration continued into the nineteenth century as America began to attract immigrants from all parts of Ireland.  By the Act of Union (1801), Great Britain and Ireland became the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.”  A steady decline in the Irish economy followed in the next decades.  The population had reached 8.25 million when the great potato famine of 1845–49 took many lives and drove more than 2 million people to immigrate to North America.

In the meantime, anti-British agitation continued along with demands for Irish home rule.  The advent of World War I delayed the institution of home rule and resulted in the Easter Rebellion in Dublin (April 24–29, 1916), in which Irish nationalists unsuccessfully attempted to throw off British rule.  Guerrilla warfare against British forces followed proclamation of a republic by the rebels in 1919.  The Irish Free State was established as a dominion on Dec. 6, 1922, with six northern counties remaining as part of the United Kingdom.  A civil war ensued between those supporting the Anglo-Irish Treaty that established the Irish Free State and those repudiating it because it led to the partitioning of the island.  The Irish Republican Army (IRA), led by Eamon de Valera, fought against the partition but lost.  De Valera joined the government in 1927 and became prime minister in 1932.  In 1937 a new constitution changed the nation's name to Éire. Ireland remained neutral in World War II.

In 1948, de Valera was defeated by John A. Costello, who demanded final independence from Britain.  The Republic of Ireland was proclaimed on April 18, 1949, and withdrew from the Commonwealth.  From the 1960s onwards, two antagonistic currents dominated Irish politics.  One sought to bind the wounds of the rebellion and civil war.  The other was the effort of the outlawed Irish Republican Army and more moderate groups to bring Northern Ireland into the republic.  The “troubles”—the violence and terrorist acts between Republicans and Unionists in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland—would plague the island for the remainder of the century.

Under the First Programme for Economic Expansion (1958–63), economic protection was dismantled and foreign investment encouraged.  This prosperity brought profound social and cultural changes to what had been one of the poorest and least technologically advanced countries in Europe.  Ireland joined the European Economic Community (now the EU) in 1973.  In the 1990 presidential election, Mary Robinson was elected the republic's first woman president.  The election of a candidate with socialist and feminist sympathies was regarded as a watershed in Irish political life, reflecting the changes taking place in Irish society.  Irish voters approved the Maastricht Treaty, which paved the way for the establishment of the EU, by a large majority in a referendum held in 1992.  In 1993, the Irish and British governments signed a joint peace initiative (the Downing Street Declaration), in which they pledged to seek mutually agreeable political structures in Northern Ireland and between the two islands.  A referendum on allowing divorce under certain conditions—hitherto constitutionally forbidden—was held in Nov. 1995 and narrowly passed.

In 1998 hope for a solution to the troubles in Northern Ireland seemed palpable.  A landmark settlement, the Good Friday Agreement of April 10, 1998, called for Protestants to share political power with the minority Catholics, and gave the Republic of Ireland a voice in Northern Irish affairs.  The resounding commitment to the settlement was demonstrated in a dual referendum on May 22: The North approved the accord by a vote of 71% to 29%, and in the Irish Republic 94% favored it.  After numerous stops and starts, the new government in Northern Ireland was formed on Dec. 2, 2000, when the British government formally transferred governing powers over to the Northern Irish Parliament.  But the Good Friday Accord stipulated that the IRA and other paramilitary groups disarm; it wasn't until Oct. 2001 that the IRA finally began to comply.  In July 2002 the IRA publicly apologized for killing civilians.

In June 2001, Ireland voted against expansion of the EU to include other countries.  Ireland's rejection of the Nice Treaty came as a shock to the 14 other EU members as well as to the numerous countries aspiring to EU membership—the vote had to be unanimous among the EU partners to move ahead with the expansion.

Despite a number of recent corruption and bribery scandals, most of which involved the centrist Fianna Fáil party of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, the party won 81 of 166 seats in May 2002.  Ahern became the first Irish prime minister in 33 years to be elected to a second successive term.

Who are the Scotch-Irish (Ulster-Scots)?

Very simply they were Scottish peoples who migrated to the ancient Province of Ulster and from there emigrated to the old Colonies of England.  They were mainly of the Presbyterian faith and opposed to the control of it by the Bishops as in the established church.

The name Scotch - Irish is the North American title, they are known elsewhere as the Ulster Scots.  In U.S. and Canada, they are mainly associated with the Ulstermen who settled in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and who played a large part in settling the wilderness, service in the American Revolution and the foundation of the United States.

It should be remembered that the West Coast of Scotland has very many lochs and two belts of islands; the Inner and Outer Hebrides between the mainland of Scotland and Ireland.  It is only 21 miles at its nearest, and there was always the movement between the coasts of fishermen and some small-scale trading  In times of crisis, famine or war it was sometimes safer to move family and flocks to another safer and more attractive place.  Such escapes were often followed within a generation by a return to the original homeland once conditions had returned to normal.  As long ago as the 13 th century there had been the movement of "galloglass" - mercenary soldiers, plying their trade in Ireland who were often paid by giving a plot of land.  So there was a Scottish presence which was enhanced considerably when John Mor MacDonnell, Lord of the Isles married Margery Bissett, heiress to some two thirds of the Glynns of Antrim. in 1399.

A troubled Scotland

There was much change in Scotland in the 16th century as the poor feudal population just about survived from subsistence farming on small strips of land.  Hunger and poverty was the norm and they moved about driven by political, economic and religous pressures.  There were a number of campaigns to force clearance of areas conducted directly by the British Crown and also by substantial landowners evicting their tenants.  In 1513 Henry VIII defeated James IV of Scotland at Flodden Field and there followed years of disruption and war as Henry sought control.  The defeat of James V at Hadden Rig near Berwick in 1542. and the "rough wooing" in 1544 and 1545 all contributed to driving the population out of southern Scotland.  The accession of James VI of Scotland ( James I of England) in 1603 merged the two crowns and led to further political and especially religous pressures that had a direct impact on migration to Ireland.

Against this background a ray of hope came with the opportunity of greater religous freedom and permanent settlement in Ireland with land on offer at reasonable rents on the estates of two Scottish landlords from Ayrshire, Hugh Montgomery and Sir James Hamilton ca 1606.  Subsequently more land became available for settlement under the Plantation of Ireland 1610 - 1630.

A troubled Europe

Not only was there disturbance within Scotland there were also turbulent external relationships with Europe  There was the inevitable religious discrimination depending on whether the King was Catholic or Protestant.  Ireland had become part of the English lands under Henry VIII, but remember that until 1707 Scotland was a foreign country.  Thus England was concerned with its safety along its borders with Scotland and Ireland whilst there was the ever present threat of war with France and Spain.  On the political front the English Parliament tended to regard the internal affairs of Ireland as a side show and compounded the issue by allowing the local Lord Deputy, who represented the King, to manage as he saw fit.

The migration to Ireland

In 1603 King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England and this saw a major change of direction in Ireland.  The existing Scottish and English families in Ireland expected a better deal from the Protestant King James and he saw that by getting loyal Scottish Protestants into Ireland he could also remove a lot of his other problems.  On the Scottish - English border the Border "Reivers" had been a thorn in the flesh for a long time with several families (Armstrong, Elliott, Irvine, Graham, Nixon, Johnson, etc) called `the riding clans` , living by pillaging the populace ("reiver" means plunderer ).  He dealt with the Reivers very harshly, hanging many and transporting others to the Province of Connacht in western Ireland.  James also saw the opportunity to encourage the Scottish Presbyterian "Dissenters" who were severely opposed to the rule by Bishops, to move across the Irish Sea.

His opportunity came when the Irish Earls fled from Ireland in 1607 leaving the whole of Tyrone and Donegal and half of Fermanagh liable to seizure.  The subsequent confiscation of virtually all non- church lands in Counties Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh, Donegal, Cavan and Coleraine meant that much of the Province of Ulster was available for disposal by the Crown.

Plantation was not a new idea but followed a number of earlier attempts to settle people in Ireland.  There was a mainly English Plantation in the mid-16th Century when Queen Elizabeth I wanted lands settled and sought to curb the growing friendship between the Scottish McDonnells in North Antrim and France.  There were several attempts in cluding one by Sir Thomas Smith to settle the Ards in Co Down in 1572.

Thousands of Scottish people went to Ulster with the Plantation and thus was born the Scotch - Irish / Ulster Scot.  In 1649 -50, there was another major redistribution of lands when Cromwell offered land in lieu of wages to his soldiers - many took the offer and sold the lands on without themselves even visiting their allotment.  In later years many of these Scots - Irish and the indigenous Irish people who were badly treated in so many ways, subsequently emigrated to the USA and Canada.  It was not until the late 18th and 19th century that their ancestors continued the tradition of emigration to other colonies in Australia and New Zealand.

There you have a snapshot of how the Scotch - Irish originated and of whom President Teddy Roosevelt said that they were, "the kernel of the distinctively and intensely American stock who were the pioneers of our people in their march westward."