Denmark From 1570 to 1630, some 6,000 Scots served as mercenary soldiers of
Denmark.
England As England is Scotland's only land neighbour, there has been significant Scottish migration to England since the
Union of the Crowns in 1603. London now has two
Church of Scotland congregations, the ScotsCare charity (formerly the Royal Scottish Corporation), and Scottish social clubs. Described by historian Dan Jackson as having a "symbiotic" relationship with Scotland,
North East England's Scottish diaspora has been well-established since at least the 1500s.
Newcastle upon Tyne alone had hundreds of Scottish inhabitants in the 16th century, including
John Knox (1514-1572), who would later lead the
Scottish Reformation. Many of Newcastle's miners recorded in 1637 were Scottish and, in 1740 over 50% of the city's
keelmen were born in Fife, Stirlingshire or Lothian. By November 1914, there was a
Tyneside Scottish Brigade of the British Army. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Scots in England became prominent figures in fields such as finance, engineering and medicine.
John Macadam,
John Rennie and
Thomas Telford designed many English infrastructure projects including bridges, roads, canals and railways. Between 1860-1882, over 1,115 Scots-born medical graduates had spent some or all of their careers in England; Scottish doctors were found in almost every English county, with the greatest numbers found in
London,
Yorkshire and
Lancashire. The
Industrial Revolution had been a pull for Scottish migrants to England. By 1851, there were 131,000 Scots residing in England and Wales. Scots entrepreneurs James McConnel,
John Kennedy, as well as Adam and George Murray were influential to the growth of the Manchester cotton industry, with many Scots themselves employed in the city's mills.
Corby in
Northamptonshire is known for its large Scottish diaspora community, with the town sometimes being nicknamed "Little Scotland". A major inrush from Scotland to the town occurred in the 1930s, when many flocked to
Stewarts & Lloyds steelworks. By 1961, over a third of the town's population was Scottish-born. In 2001, Corby had the highest concentration of Scottish-born people in the UK outside of Scotland. Following the decline of coal mining in Scotland in the 1950s and 1960s, many Scottish miners sought work in the
South Yorkshire Coalfield, including at
Maltby and
Kellingley. Mining communities in
Nottinghamshire also saw an influx of Scottish mining families in the 20th century.
France , court doctor of Kings of France and Poland Between 1570 and 1630, some 11,000 Scots served as mercenary soldiers of France.
William Davidson (–) was an authority on medicine, pharmacy and chemistry in France, court doctor of the French king, and the first native of the British Isles to become a professor of chemistry in France. Out of gratitude for the opportunity to settle in Kėdainiai, the Scottish burghers funded scholarships for students from Lithuania at the
University of Edinburgh. Many of them intermixed with ethnic Lithuanians, and as a result, there are some Lithuanians with partial Scottish ancestry today.
Poland Since the mid-16th century, historical records document the presence of Scots trading, serving as mercenary soldiers, and settling in
Poland. The vast majority were traders, from wealthy merchants to the thousands of pedlars who ensured that the term became synonymous in the Polish language with "tinker". A "Scotch Pedlar's Pack in Poland" became a proverbial expression. It usually consisted of cloths, woollen goods and linen kerchiefs (head coverings). Itinerants also sold tin utensils and ironware such as scissors and knives. By 1562 the community was sizeable enough that the Scots, along with the Italians, were recognized by the
Sejm as traders whose activities were harming Polish cities; in 1566, they were banned from roaming and peddling their wares. However, from the 1570s onward, it was recognized that such bans were ineffectual. A heavy tax was placed upon them instead. Thomas Chamberlayne, an English eyewitness, described them disapprovingly in a 1610 letter to
Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, stating that "[t]hese Scotts for the most parte are height landers [i.e. highlanders] men of noe credit, a Company of pedeling knaves..." Linked to some degree of persecution and their role in the Danzig uprising, protection (and by extension, a form of control) was offered by
King Stephen Báthory in the Royal Grant of 1576, assigning Scottish immigrants to a district in
Kraków. By the first half of the 17th century, the affairs of the Scottish community were regulated by twelve Brotherhoods with seats across various Polish cities; this included a tribunal that met to adjudicate disputes in the Royal city of
Toruń. It is possible that the shift from peddling to military occupations was connected to the implementation of heavy taxation on pedlars in the 1570s. Scottish mercenary soldiers were recruited specifically by
King Stephen Báthory following his experience with them in forces raised by Danzig against him in 1577. Many came from
Dundee and
Aberdeen. The largest Scottish communities could be found in
Gdańsk,
Kraków,
Lublin,
Lwów,
Poznań,
Warsaw and
Zamość, and sizeable numbers of Scots also lived in
Brzeziny,
Bydgoszcz,
Człopa,
Krosno,
Łobżenica,
Raciąż,
Sieradz,
Sierpc,
Tarnów,
Tuchola,
Wałcz,
Warta and
Zakroczym. Small communities also existed in
Biały Bór,
Borek Wielkopolski,
Brody,
Chojnice,
Czarne,
Człuchów,
Gniew,
Gostyń,
Iłża,
Jedlińsk,
Koronowo,
Opole Lubelskie,
Puck,
Skoki,
Starogard,
Szamotuły,
Szydłowiec,
Świecie and
Węgrów. Settlers from
Aberdeenshire were mainly Episcopalians or Catholics, but there were also large numbers of Calvinists. As well as Scottish traders, there were also many Scottish soldiers in Poland. In 1656, a number of Scottish highlanders travelled to Poland, serving under the
King of Sweden in his
war against it. The Scots integrated well and many acquired great wealth. They contributed to many charitable institutions in the host country, but did not forget their homeland; for example, in 1701 when collections were made for the restoration fund of the
Marischal College, Aberdeen, Scottish settlers in Poland gave generously. Many royal grants and privileges were granted to Scottish merchants until the 18th century, at which time the settlers began to assimilate more and more into the native population.
Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") was half Polish, since he was the son of
James Francis Edward Stuart, the "Old Pretender", and
Maria Clementina Sobieska, granddaughter of
John III Sobieski, king of Poland. There were instances of Scottish immigrants being elected mayors of Polish cities, i.e. Michael Wolson in
Wałcz, James Gordon in
Węgrów and
Alexander Chalmers in
Warsaw. of Scottish parish priest Thomas de Stuart Haliburton at the Saint Anne church in
Biała Podlaska There are places named after Scottish immigrants in Poland, i.e.
Stare Szkoty ("Old Scots"), a former suburb of Gdańsk, today a neighborhood within the city limits, inhabited by Scots since the 15th and 16th centuries, and the village of
Szkocja ("Scotland"), founded in 1823. The
Mier Barracks,
Mier Halls and
Mirów neighbourhood in Warsaw are named after
Wilhelm Mier, Polish
major general of Scottish origin. In 1879, Scottish specialists were brought to Warsaw to run a newly established hornware factory of Polish industrialist . In the
2011 Polish census, 632 people declared Scottish nationality. Notable people include: •
James Murray (),
naval captain and shipbuilder •
Robert Abercromby (1536–1613), Jesuit missionary, lecturer at the
Collegium Hosianum in
Braniewo •
William Bruce (–after 1613), professor and lecturer at the
Zamoyski Academy in Zamość, later diplomat of King
James VI of Scotland. •
William Davidson (–), court doctor of King
John II Casimir Vasa of Poland • (–1661), wealthiest merchant of 17th-century
Krosno •
Patrick Gordon (1635–1699), student of the Collegium Hosianum, officer in the Polish Army •
Alexander Chalmers (1645–1703), merchant, jurist, city mayor in Warsaw •
Wilhelm Mier (–1758),
major general in the Polish army Their presence expanded greatly in the seventeenth century, when the Tsarist government recruited large numbers of foreign officers, engineers, and merchants. Scots became a notable element within this group, particularly under the early
Romanovs and later
Peter the Great. Unlike in Poland–Lithuania, however, Scots in Russia generally faced restrictions on assimilation due to religious and social barriers, and most remained a distinct foreign community.
Sweden From 1570 to 1630, some 30,000 Scots served as mercenary soldiers of Sweden. ==See also==