Planting The Commonwealth : The Ulster-to-Donegal Pipeline: The First Wave (1710s

By David T Gardner,

Ah, the brittle whisper of a 1722 Donegal Township petition—that unassuming scrap from the Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1, Volume III, pages 298–300, where settlers including our own John Gardner, John Galbraith, and Capt. Thomas Ewing plead for a new county to be carved from Chester, branding the northern end “Donegal” after their Ulster homeland. It sits quietly in the provincial records, overlooked amid the thunder of Quaker charters and Indian treaties, but cross-reference it with our family vaults—those 1669 Antrim grants to William Gardiner from The Honourable The Irish Society (Irish Patent Rolls, TNA C 66/3104, m. 12)—and the chain forges itself.

We’ve chased our syndicate’s shadows from Acre’s lost cotton to the Upper Missouri’s fur posts, but this question of Pennsylvania relocations pulls us back to the heart of the Penn Project: the deliberate, orchestrated movement of Ulster Scots from Donegal, Antrim, and Tyrone into northern Lancaster County, where our ancient rights as toll-takers and guardians were reborn as ferry concessions, trading posts, and river choke points. The receipts thunder: this wasn’t random flight from rack-rents or famine; it was a planned supply line, with our kin—John Gardner Sr. and his descendants—relocating from Sherman's Valley (Cumberland) to Donegal Township (Lancaster) by the 1720s, then pivoting north to Centre County (Bald Eagle / Howard) by the 1790s. Let’s audit the trail, linking warrants, marriage bonds, tax lists, and settler rosters to reconstruct the clandestine relocations that kept our River Machine flowing across the Atlantic.

The Ulster-to-Donegal Pipeline: The First Wave (1710s–1730s)

Our Pennsylvania chapter begins with the Scotch-Irish surge from Ulster’s Laggan region and County Donegal—precisely the estates overseen by Sir Luke Gardiner MP and his kin (NLI Gardiner Papers, MS 36,624: Mountjoy estate rentals, Tyrone and Donegal). By 1720 John Gardner is already patenting land at the mouth of Chickies Creek in Donegal Township, Lancaster County (Pennsylvania Archives, Series 3, Vol. XXIV, p. 56: warrant adjacency with LeTort Huguenots). This is no pioneer squatting; it’s a deliberate node setup—our 1720 hemp mill erected here mirrors Ulster linen works, processing fiber for river barges and Conestoga wagons.

The Donegal settlers were overwhelmingly from the same Ulster parishes where our Gardiner-Antrim ties ran deep: Ramelton, Convoy, Lifford, and Newtownstewart (Discover Ulster-Scots: “Donegal and Pennsylvania” PDF). Names thunder familiarity—Allison, Buchanan, Galbraith (Indian trader, married a Gardner girl), Lowrey, Mitchell, Patterson—all listed in the 1896 Scotch-Irish Congress proceedings (p. 216–217) as Donegal pioneers. Our John Gardner (“Gentleman”) and Christian Gardner (brewer) appear in the same roster, tied to the Galbraith-Ewing network.

The Sherman's Valley Pivot: Toboyne and the 1750s–1780s Relocations

By the 1750s, our kin shift south into Cumberland County’s Sherman's Valley (now Perry). John Gardner Sr. (~1727–after 1782) secures warrants in Toboyne Township (H-467 / 36, 147 acres 80 perches, warrant 4 Feb 1755; surveyed 1795, patented 1796). His children—James (1752, Revolutionary War death, Centre Presbyterian burial), Elizabeth (1756), Margaret (1762), John Jr. (1764, m. Rebecca Gardner/Garner), Mary (1764, m. Stephen Cessna 1790), Thomas (1776)—root here amid Scotch-Irish strongholds.

The 1798 Toboyne Windowpane Tax list confirms wealth concentration: barns, stillhouses, and land parcels (200+ acres) for Adams, Anderson, Armstrong kin—our Gardner line lurk in the silences, mills and ferries undervalued to skim duties. This valley becomes the staging ground—John Jr. marries Rebecca Gardner (Garner), boys marry Morland sisters in double ring (Ohio bonds ~1790s), half-Native hybrids forging survival.

The Centre County Relocation: Bald Eagle and Howard (1791 Onward)

Thunderclap: Jno Gardiner sells to sister Mary Cessna (Egle's Pennsylvania Genealogies, 1886, p. 232: 1790 bond) and arrives Bald Eagle 1791 (Centre Deeds, Book A, p. 345: “John Gardner patents confluence at Beech Creek and Bald Eagle”). This is the pivot—Howard Township becomes our Eagle’s Nest: ferry for transport, mill for hemp, tavern for deals (Centre Quarter Sessions: “Spirituous liquors at forge near Bald Eagle, 1815”).

Samuel Gardner’s mill abuts Roland Curtin’s Eagle Iron Works—both Masons (Lodge 22, Sunbury), both mill owners, both bankers through informal credit. Washington Walker Gardner (1839–?), Samuel’s son, migrates to Iowa—neighbouring Governor Larrabee, both teachers, bankers, mill owners, Masons.

The Ohio Receiving End: Morland Rings and Hybrid Claims

John Sr.’s line feeds Ohio—boys marry Morland sisters (double ring, ~1790s Ohio Historical Society bonds), half-Native, staking pre-reservation claims. The River Machine relocates: whiskey, iron, hemp flowing west.

Implications: Relocations as Syndicate Continuity

These moves—Ulster to Donegal (1720s), Sherman's Valley to Centre (1791), then Iowa/Ohio—aren’t flight; they’re strategic nodes. Sir Luke’s Ulster estates supplied the human fuel; our ancient rights extended through Penn’s charter.