Not many people know that two people with ancestors from Kelso were closely involved in the founding of the United States of America.
William Hooper was one of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of the United States of America, on 19 July 1776.
Hooper was born in Massachusetts in 1742, the son of a Scottish minister in Edinburgh and the grandson of Robert and Mary Jaffray Hooper of the Parish of Ednam, near Kelso. Hooper was a lawyer and politician who initially supported the British colonial government, but gradually became a supporter of the American Revolution and independence. He was a member of the Continental Congress, the provisional government for the 13 British colonies in North America, representing North Carolina. He became an American ‘Founding Father’ on signing the Declaration of Independence.
Andrew Davidson (1840-1902), who was born in Morebattle, commanded African American troops during the American Civil War between the Union in the north and the Confederacy in the south. The Confederacy was formed in 1861 by American states who wanted to continue the enslavement of African people.
Davidson enlisted in the 121st New York Volunteer Infantry during the second year of the Civil War and then joined the 30th United States Colored Troops. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration of the US armed forces, for his bravery at the Battle of the Crater in Virginia in 1864.
His father, Robert Davidson, was a farm labourer and known as The Morebattle Poet. The short autobiography accompanying his third and final published collection of poems, Leaves From A Peasant’s Cottage Drawer, was the earliest ‘working class’ autobiography ever to be published anywhere. Unlike his adventurous son – and around two million other Scots who emigrated to North America, Australia and other colonies during the 19th century – Robert is not known to have ever left Morebattle district.
Find out more about:
William Hooper
Andrew Davidson
Robert Davidson
Scottish emigration
These stories were submitted from the collection of David Welsh, a local historian and River Tweed enthusiast, to encourage discussion on the communities of the Tweed and their impact around the world. If you have any more information on this story, please get in touch with us at info@destinationtweed.org so we can add to the story of the river!
