Old Stock American (also known asColonial Stock, Founding Stock, orPioneer Stock) is a colloquial name forAmericans who are descended from the original settlers of theThirteen Colonies. Historically, Old Stock Americans have been mainlyProtestants fromNorthwestern Europe whose ancestors emigrated toBritish America in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[2][3][4][5]

In the statistical terminology of the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans from the third-, fourth-, and fifth-generations are labelled "Old Stock" unless they areAfro-Americans,Asian Americans, orAmerican Indians.^[6]

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population of theThirteen Colonies in July 1776 was 2.56 million,and around 3.9 million in 1790 - of which around 3.2 million were ofEuropean American stock.^[7] About 85% of the White population in 1790 was British:English and Welsh (64%), Scottish, directly from Scotland or viaUlster, (15.8%) and Irish (5.8%). In addition there were Germans (8.9%) Dutch (3.1%), French (2.1%) and others down to Hebrew (less than 0.1%).^[8]

While the majority of colonists were fromGreat Britain, these were not monolithic in ethnic, political, social, and cultural origins, but rather transplanted different Old World folkways to the New World. The two most significant colonies had been settled by opposing factions in theEnglish Civil War and the widerWars of the Three Kingdoms. The founders ofPlymouth andMassachusetts Bay Colony in the North were mostlyPuritans fromEast Anglia, who had been influenced by egalitarianRoundhead republican ideals ofOliver Cromwell'sCommonwealth of England andthe Protectorate; inNew England they concentrated in towns where decisions were made bydirect democracy, prizingcommunalconformity,social equality, andPuritan work ethic. Partially owing to the insularity of Puritan communities, colonial New England was far more homogeneously "English" than other regions, in contrast to the historically tolerant Dutch colonial parts of theNortheast, and more diverse colonies of theMid-Atlantic and theSouth which from an early stage had strong elements ofGerman andScottish stock, from varying religious traditions.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Conversely, inChesapeake Colonies to the south, theColony of Virginia had been settled by theirCavalierroyalist rivals—many younger sons ofEnglish gentry who fledSouthern England when Cromwell took power, accompanied byindentured servants. SirWilliam Berkeley, colonialgovernor of Virginia, loyal toKing Charles I, banished Puritans while offering refuge to theVirginia Cavaliers—many of whom becameFirst Families of Virginia. For his colony's fidelity to the Crown,Charles II awarded Virginia its nickname "Old Dominion".^[16] In contrast to egalitarian and collectivistNew England Colonies to the north, settlers of theSouthern Colonies inVirginia,Maryland,Carolina, andGeorgia recreated ahierarchicalsocial order governed by anaristocraticAmerican gentry which would dominate the antebellumOld South for generations. Sons ofBritish nobility establishedAmerican plantations where theplanter class employedindentured servants to farmcash crops; later replaced byAfrican slaves, especially inDeep South states where a feudalWest Indies-style slave plantation economy developed. FreedEnglish American indentured servants, along withScottish Americans,Scotch-Irish Americans,Palatines and otherGerman Americans pioneered hilly wilderness areas not yet settled by Europeans, becoming old stock of the mountainous backcountry. To contrast againstYankee "Anglo-Saxon" democratic radicalism of New England, at times even English Americans inDixie (especially in decades leading up to theAmerican Civil War) would not only identify with chivalrous Cavaliers, but even assert a distinct aristocratic racial heritage as knightly heirs to theNormans whoconquered and civilized "barbaric" and unrulyAnglo-Saxons of medievalEngland.^{[13][14][17][18][15]}

Until the second half of the 20th century, the Old Stock dominated American culture and Republican party politics.^[19][20] Of the 15 leading American cities, 7 elected a Catholic as mayor before the Civil War, and 13 had done so by 1893. The last two were Edward Dempsey inCincinnati in 1906, andJames Tate inPhiladelphia in 1962.^[21][22]

Beginning in the 1840s, millions ofGerman andIrish Catholics immigrated to fill new jobs in the rapidly industrializing United States. TheKnow Nothing movement emerged with an anti-Catholic platform in the North. It had brief success in the mid 1850s, but subsequently collapsed. Its presidential candidate, former presidentMillard Fillmore, took 22% of the total national vote in the1856 United States presidential election, but he was not a party member and he disavowed its anti-Catholic tone.^[23]

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The largest ethnic group within the Old Stock are the English-Americans, whose ancestors emigrated via England directly, or via partially English-descended populations, such as theAnglo-Irish andScots-Irish.

English settlement in what is today America began withJamestown in theVirginia Colony in 1607. With the permission ofJames I, three ships (theSusan Constant,The Discovery, andThe God Speed) sailed from England and landed atCape Henry in April, under the captainship ofChristopher Newport,^[24] who had been hired by theLondon Company to lead expeditions to what is now America.^[25]

The second successful colony wasPlymouth Colony, founded in 1620 by people who later became known as thePilgrims. Fleeing religious persecution in theEast Midlands in England, they first went toHolland, but feared losing their English identity.^[26] Because of this, they chose to relocate to theNew World, with their voyage being financed by English investors. In September 1620, 102 passengers set sail aboard theMayflower, eventually settling at Plymouth Colony in November.^[27] Of the passengers on theMayflower, 41 men signed the "Mayflower Compact" aboard ship on November 11, 1620, while anchored inProvincetown Harbor. Signers includedCarver,Alden,Standish,Howland,Bradford,Allerton, andFuller.^[28][29] This story has become a central theme in the United States cultural identity.

A number of English colonies were established under a system ofproprietary governors, who were appointed under mercantilecharters to Englishjoint stock companies to found and run settlements.^[30]

England also took control over theDutch colony ofNew Netherland (including theNew Amsterdam settlement), renaming it theProvince of New York in 1664.^[31] With New Netherland, the English came to control the formerNew Sweden (in what is nowDelaware), which the Dutch had conquered fromSweden earlier. This became part ofPennsylvania.^[32]

The second largest group were the Scottish-Americans, whose ancestors emigrated via Scotland directly, or via the predominately Scottish-descendedUlster Scots, orScots-Irish, inUlster. Most Scottish-Americans descended from the largelyScots-speakingLowlands although a large percentage of them were actually of Northern English in origin.^{[citation needed]}

After theUnion of the Crowns ofScotland andEngland in 1603,King James VI, a Scotsman, promoted joint expeditions overseas, and became the founder ofBritish America.^[33] The first permanent English settlement in the Americas,Jamestown, was thus named for a Scot.

In the 1670s and 1680sPresbyterianDissenters fled persecution by theRoyalistprivy council inEdinburgh to settle inSouth Carolina andNew Jersey, where they maintained their distinctive religious culture.^[34]

More than 50,000 Scots, principally from the west coast,^[34] settled in theThirteen Colonies between 1763 and 1776, the majority of these in their own communities in theSouth,^[35] especiallyNorth Carolina, although Scottish individuals and families also began to appear as professionals and artisans in every American town.^[34] Scots arriving inFlorida and theGulf Coast traded extensively withNative Americans.^[36]

Large groups of Highland Scots started arriving in North America in the 1730s. Unlike their Lowland and Ulster counterparts, the Highlanders tended to cluster together in self-contained communities, where they maintained their distinctive cultural features such as theGaelic language andpiobaireachd music. Groups of Highlanders existed in coastal Georgia (mainly immigrants fromInverness-shire) and theMohawk Valley in New York (from the West Highlands). By far the largest Highland community was centered on theCape Fear River, which saw a stream of immigrants fromArgyllshire, and, later, other regions such as theIsle of Skye. Highland Scots were overwhelminglyLoyalists in the Revolution.^[37] Distinctly Highland cultural traits persisted in the region until the 19th century, at which point they were assimilated into Anglo-American culture.

TheUlster Scots, known as the Scots-Irish (or Scotch-Irish) in North America, were predominately descended from people originating in the Lowlands of Scotland, as well as from the north of England and other regions, whocolonized the province of Ulster in Ireland in the 17th century. After several generations, their descendants left for America, and struck out for the frontier, in particular theAppalachian mountains, providing an effective "buffer" for attacks from Native Americans. In the colonial era, they were usually simply referred to as "Irish," with the "Scots-" or "Scotch-" prefixes becoming popular when the descendants of the Ulster emigrants wanted to differentiate themselves fromIrish Catholics who were flocking to many American cities in the 19th century. Unlike the Highlanders and Lowlanders, the Scots-Irish were usuallyPatriots in the Revolution. They have been noted for their tenacity and their cultural contributions to the United States.^[38]

There have been several historical figures with (Old Stock) Scottish ancestry, including US presidents (Thomas Jefferson,James Monroe,Andrew Jackson,James Buchanan,William McKinley,Woodrow Wilson, and more), as well as founding fathers (Alexander Hamilton,James Wilson,John Witherspoon,James McHenry, and several more).^{[citation needed]}

Welsh settlers were on the three ships that headed for what is now Jamestown in late December 1606.^[39] Additional Welsh settlers arrived in America, such asHugh Gwyn and David ap Hugh - two tradesmen who arrived in Jamestown with theSecond Supply in 1608.^[40] More Welsh arrivals came from Wales after 1618. In the mid to late seventeenth century, there was a large emigration of WelshQuakers to theColony of Pennsylvania, where aWelsh Tract was established in the region immediately west ofPhiladelphia. By 1700, Welsh people accounted for about one-third of the colony's estimated population of twenty-thousand. There are a number of Welsh place names in this area. The Welsh were especially numerous and politically active and elected 9% of the members of thePennsylvania Provincial Council.

There have been several historical figures with (Old Stock) Welsh ancestry, including US presidents (Thomas Jefferson,^[41]John Adams,John Quincy Adams,James A. Garfield,^[42]Calvin Coolidge,Richard Nixon,^[43] and more), as well as founding fathers (William Floyd,Button Gwinnett,Francis Lewis,Gouverneur Morris,Lewis Morris, and several more).

Most settlers from Ireland were not of native Irish descent, but of English or Scottish descent. Half of the Irish immigrants to theUnited States in its colonial era (1607–1775) came from the Irish province ofUlster and were largely Protestant, while the other half came from the other three provinces (Leinster,Munster, andConnacht).^[44]

The very first Irish settlers - Francisco Maguel and Dionis Oconor - arrived in Jamestown with the First and Second supplies, respectively.^[45]

Most Irish immigrants to the Americas traveled asindentured servants, with their passage paid for a wealthier person to whom they owed labor for a period of time. Some were merchants and landowners, who served as key players in a variety of different mercantile and colonizing enterprises.^[46]

In the 1620s significant numbers of Irish laborers began traveling toEnglish colonies such as Virginia on the continent, and theLeeward Islands andBarbados in the Caribbean region.^[47]

In the 17th century, immigration from Ireland to theThirteen Colonies was minimal, confined mostly to maleIrish indentured servants who were primarilyCatholic and peaked with 8,000prisoner-of-warpenal transports to theChesapeake Colonies from theCromwellian conquest of Ireland in the 1650s.^[48][49]

In the 18th century, emigration from Ireland to the Thirteen Colonies shifted from being primarily Catholic to being primarilyProtestant. With the exception of the 1790s, it would remain so until the mid-to-late 1830s,^[50][51] withPresbyterians constituting theabsolute majority until 1835.^[52][53] These Protestant immigrants were principally descended fromScottish andEnglish settlers in Ulster.^[54][55][56]

From 1717 to 1775, though scholarly estimates vary, the most common approximation is that 250,000 immigrants from Ireland emigrated to the Thirteen Colonies.^{[57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65]} By the beginning of theAmerican Revolutionary War in 1775, approximately only 2 to 3 percent of the coloniallabor force was composed of indentured servants, and of those arriving from Britain from 1773 to 1776, fewer than 5 percent were from Ireland (while 85 percent remained male and 72 percent went to theSouthern Colonies).^[66] Out of the 115 killed at theBattle of Bunker Hill, 22 were Irish-born. Their names include Callaghan, Casey, Collins, Connelly, Dillon, Donohue, Flynn, McGrath, Nugent, Shannon, and Sullivan.^[67]

In the 18th century Thirteen Colonies and the independent United States, whileinterethnic marriage among Catholics remained a dominant pattern, Catholic-Protestant intermarriage became more common (notably in theShenandoah Valley where intermarriage among Ulster Protestants and the significant minority of Irish Catholics in particular was not uncommon or stigmatized).^[68] While fewer Catholic parents required that their children be disinherited in their wills if they renounced Catholicism, compared to the rest of the US population, this response was more common among Catholic parents that Protestants.^[69]

There have been several historical figures with (Old Stock) Irish ancestry, including US presidents (Andrew Johnson andGrover Cleveland), as well as founding fathers (Charles Carroll,^[70]Daniel Carroll,Thomas Lynch Jr,^[71]Thomas FitzSimmons,^[72]James Duane,^[73] and several more).

German-Americans were the largest group originating outside of the British Isles.^{[citation needed]}

In 1608 fiveglassmakers and three carpenters or house builders arrived at Jamestown - the first permanent British settlement.^[74][75][76] The first permanent German settlement in what became the United States wasGermantown, Pennsylvania, founded nearPhiladelphia on October 6, 1683.^[77]

Large numbers of Germans migrated from the 1680s to 1760s, with Pennsylvania the favored destination. They migrated to America for a variety of reasons.^[78]Push factors involved worsening opportunities for farm ownership in central Europe, persecution of some religious groups, and military conscription;pull factors were better economic conditions, especially the opportunity to own land, and religious freedom. Often immigrants paid for their passage by selling their labor for a period of years asindentured servants.^[79]

Large sections of Pennsylvania,Upstate New York, and theShenandoah Valley of Virginia attracted Germans. Most wereLutheran orGerman Reformed; many belonged to small religious sects such as theMoravians andMennonites.^[80]

In 1709, Protestant Germans from the Pfalz orPalatine region of Germany escaped conditions of poverty, traveling first to Rotterdam and then to London.Queen Anne helped them get to the American colonies. The trip was long and difficult to survive because of the poor quality of food and water aboard ships and the infectious diseasetyphus. Many immigrants, particularly children, died before reaching America in June 1710.^[81]

They kept to themselves, married their own, spoke German, attended Lutheran churches, and retained their own customs and foods. They emphasized farm ownership. Some mastered English to become conversant with local legal and business opportunities. They tolerated slavery (although few were rich enough to own a slave).^[82]

Shortly thereafter, the first colonization of Louisiana would be organized byJohn Law, with the help of German immigrants - primarily from theAlsace Region. TheMississippi Company settled thousands of German pioneers in French Louisiana during 1721.

Two waves of German colonists in 1714 and 1717 founded a colony inVirginia calledGermanna, located near modern-dayCulpeper, Virginia. The name "Germanna", selected by GovernorAlexander Spotswood, reflected both the German immigrants who sailed across the Atlantic to Virginia and the British queen,Anne, who was in power at the time of the first settlement at Germanna.^{[citation needed]}

The tide of German immigration to Pennsylvania swelled between 1725 and 1775, with immigrants arriving asredemptioners or indentured servants. By 1775, Germans constituted about one-third of the population of the state. German farmers were renowned for their highly productive animal husbandry and agricultural practices. Politically, they were generally inactive until 1740, when they joined aQuaker-led coalition that took control of the legislature, which later supported theAmerican Revolution. Despite this, many of the German settlers wereLoyalists during the Revolution, possibly because they feared their royal land grants would be taken away by a new republican government, or because of loyalty to a British German monarchy who had provided the opportunity to live in a liberal society.^[83] The Germans, comprisingLutherans,Reformed,Mennonites,Amish, and other sects, developed a rich religious life with a strong musical culture. Collectively, they came to be known as thePennsylvania Dutch (fromDeutsch).^[84][85]

In the American Revolution the Mennonites and other small religious sects were neutral pacifists. The Lutherans of Pennsylvania wereon the patriot side.^[86] The Muhlenberg family, led by Rev.Henry Muhlenberg was especially influential on the Patriot side.^[87] His sonPeter Muhlenberg, a Lutheran clergyman in Virginia became a major general and later a Congressman.^[88][89] However, in upstate New York, many Germans were neutral or supported theLoyalist cause.

There have been several historical figures with (Old Stock) German ancestry, including US presidents (Dwight D. Eisenhower^[90] andHerbert Hoover).

The earliest Dutch settlement was built around 1613; it consisted of a number of small huts built by the crew of theTijger (Tiger), a Dutch ship under the command of CaptainAdriaen Block which had caught fire while sailing on the Hudson in the winter of 1613. The ship was lost and Block and his crew established a camp ashore. In the spring, Block and his men did some explorations along the coast of Long Island.Block Island still bears his name. Finally, they were sighted and rescued by another Dutch ship and the settlement was abandoned.^[91]

Permanent settlers arrived in 1617 at what is nowAlbany, New York. New Amsterdam was settled in 1625. In 1629, Dutch officials tried to expand the northern colony through a plan that promised "Liberties and Exemptions" to anyone who would ship fifty colonists to America at his own expense. Anyone who did so would be allowed to buy a stretch of land along theHudson River from theDutch West India Company of about twelve miles, extending as far inland as the owner wanted. The landowners were calledpatroons and had complete jurisdiction over their domains as well as extensive trading privileges. They also received these rights in perpetuity. That was a form offeudalism, which had vanished in the Dutch Republic but was introduced in North America. The Patroonships were not a success; by 1635, the Dutch West India Company had bought back four of the five patroonships originally registered in Amsterdam.^[92]

The Native Americans were no longer consulted, offered or asked to sell their lands. The Dutch were confronted with a new phenomenon, Native American raids, since the local tribes had now realized that the Dutch were not simply visitors but people set to settle their land.^[93]

The Dutch realized that they had gone with the wrong approach as they offered great privileges to wealthy, not poor, citizens. It was not until 1656 that the Dutch state abandoned its passivity and decided to actively supportNew Netherland. The Dutch state issued a proclamation, which stated that "all mechanics and farmers who can prove their ability to earn a living here shall receive free passage for themselves, their wives and children".^[94]

Although the Dutch were in control, only about half the settlers were ethnically Dutch (the other half consisted mainly ofWalloons, Germans, and FrenchHuguenots as well as New England Yankees). Manhattan grew increasingly multicultural. In 1664, the English seized the colony and renamed itNew York. The Dutch briefly recaptured the colony in 1673, but during peace talks with the English, they decided to trade it in 1674 forSuriname in South America, which was more profitable.^[95]

In the hundred years of British rule that followed the change of ownership of New Netherland, Dutch immigration to America came to an almost complete standstill.^[96]

While the Netherlands was a small country, the Dutch Empire was quite large so emigrants leaving the mother country had a wide variety of choices. New Amsterdam was not high on their list, especially because of the Native American risk. The major Dutch cities were centers of high culture, but they still sent immigrants. Most new arrivals were farmers from remote villages who, on arrival, in America scattered into widely separated villages with little contact with one another. Even inside a settlement, different Dutch groups had minimal interaction. With very few new arrivals, the result was an increasingly traditional system cut off from the forces for change. The people maintained their popular culture, revolving around their language and their Calvinist religion.^{[citation needed]}

Dutch Quakers came to the Philadelphia area in response to the appeal ofWilliam Penn. Penn, himself of mixed British and Dutch descent (his mother being fromRotterdam),^[97] had paid three visits to the Netherlands, where he published several pamphlets.

There have been several historical figures with (Old Stock) Dutch ancestry, including US presidents (Martin van Buren^[98][99] andTheodore Roosevelt), as well as founding fathers (John Jay,Robert R. Livingston,Nicholas van Dyke, and several more).

In the 17th and early 18th centuries, there was an influx of a few thousandHuguenots, who wereCalvinist refugees fleeing religious persecution following the issuance of the 1685Edict of Fontainebleau byLouis XIV of theKingdom of France.^[100] Some of these refugees settled in the Dutch colony ofNew Netherland and its capital city,New Netherland, including being among the first Europeans to settle onStaten Island.^[101] In 1674, with the signing of theTreaty of Westminster to end theThird Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674), theNetherlands ceded the colony toGreat Britain, who renamed the colonyNew York, and its capital toNew York City, afterPrince James, Duke of York, the brother ofKing Charles II of England.

For nearly a century, French settlers fostered a distinctive French Protestant identity that enabled them to remain aloof from American society, but by the time of theAmerican Revolution, they had generally intermarried and merged into the largerPresbyterian community.^[102] In 1700, they constituted 13% of the white population of theProvince of Carolina, and 5% of the white population of theProvince of New York. The largest number settling inSouth Carolina, where the French comprised around 2% of the White population in 1790.^[103][104] With the help of the well-organized international Huguenot community, many also moved to Virginia. In the north,Paul Revere ofBoston was a prominent figure.

The Cajuns of Louisiana have a unique heritage. Their ancestors settledAcadia, in what is now the Canadian provinces ofNew Brunswick,Nova Scotia,Prince Edward Island and part ofMaine in the 17th and early 18th centuries. In 1755, after capturingFort Beauséjour and several other French forts in the region, British authorities demanded the Acadians swear an oath of loyalty to theBritish Crown, which the majority refused to do. In response, the British deported them to theThirteen Colonies in the south in what has become known as theexpulsion of the Acadians. Over the next generation, some four thousand Acadians made the long trek to Louisiana, where they began a new life. The nameCajun is a corruption of the wordAcadian. Many still live in what is known as theCajun Country, where much of their colonial culture survives.French Louisiana, when it wassold byNapoleon in 1803, covered all or part of fifteen currentU.S. states and contained French and Canadian colonists dispersed across it, though they were most numerous in its southernmost portion.

A new influx of French-heritage people occurred at the very end of the colonial era. Following the failedinvasion of Quebec in 1775-1776, hundreds of French-Canadian men who had enlisted in theContinental Army remained in the ranks. Under colonels James Livingston andMoses Hazen, they saw military action across the main theaters of the Revolutionary War. At the end of the war, New York State formed theCanadian and Nova Scotia Refugee Tract stretching westward from Lake Champlain. Though many of the veterans sold their claims in this vast region, some remained and the settlement held. From early colonizing efforts in the 1780s to the era of Quebec's "great hemorrhage," the French-Canadian presence in Clinton County in northeastern New York was inescapable.^[105]

According to the United States Historical Census Data Base (USHCDB), the ethnic populations in the British American Colonies of 1700, 1755, and 1775 were:

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After the end ofWorld War I, many German immigrants (especiallyLutherans) began to consider themselves "Old Stock" in reaction to xenophobia against immigrants from Eastern and Southeastern Europe.^[108][109]

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