In September, 1739, “about three hundred and fifty people from Scotland” arrived in North Carolina. They were led by a group of gentlemen from the Scottish islands of Islay and Gigha and the neighboring Kintyre peninsula of the shire of Argyll. The Argyll Colony sailed from Scotland in June 1739, arriving in North Carolina during September. Argyll Colony was the first colony of Highland Scots to settle in the Upper Cape Fear. Settled in 1739, the colony was named for the shire in western Scotland from which its members came. They were the vanguard of what began as a trickle and grew into a flood of Highland immigrants to Bladen County (later divided into Cumberland, Moore, Robeson, Harnett, and Hoke Counties). By the 1770s Highland Scots comprised one-third of the population of that region, earning for it the nickname, "Valley of the Scots." Highlanders were encouraged to settle in colonial North Carolina by royal governor Gabriel Johnston. Johnston, himself a native Lowland Scot and the colony's governor from 1734 until 1752, granted the immigrants a ten-year exemption on paying public or county taxes. Most Scots coming to the colony were farmers who needed land, so this tax exemption offered a strong incentive. When the Highlanders arrived, their priorities were to select land, have it surveyed, and plant a crop. Reference: http://www.ncpedia.org/argyll-colony http://www.ncpublications.com/colonial/nchr/subjects/murdoch.htm This project is for those of us who are descendants of those original Highland Scot settlers. Many from these families eventually spread westward to other states such as Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, etc. I know not all surnames are listed but those are the ones I could find in documents and within my own family tree. If you are a descendant and your family surname is not listed, please let me know so that it can be added. Slàinte mhath!