The New Scots, the men of the army the Scottish covenanters sent to Ireland, were the most formidable opponents of the Irish confederates for several crucial years in the 1640s, preventing them conquering all Ireland and destroying the Protestant plantation in Ulster. The greatest challenge to the power of the covenanters in Scotland at a time when they seemed invincible came from a largely Irish army, sent to Scotland by the confederates and commanded by the royalist marquis of Montrose. Thus the relations of Scotland and Ireland are clearly of great importance in understanding the complex 'War of the Three Kingdoms' and the interactions of the civil wars and revolutions of England, Scotland and Ireland in the mid-seventeenth century. But though historians have studied Anglo-Scottish and Anglo-Irish relations extensively, Scottish-Irish relations have been largely neglected. Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates attempts to fill this gap, and in doing so provides the first comprehensive study of the Scottish Army in Ireland.

This definitive volume brings together the histories of each of the Reformed Presbyterian congregations in Ireland along with the history of RP missions. Of great importance is the inclusion of the 'Fasti', a brief biographical sketch of all Irish Covenanter ministers who had completed their earthly service.

Wayland's sketches of Rockingham County natives and other persons who had become identified with the county or the City of Harrisonburg reflect a wide variety of occupations, achievements and interests inasmuch as they include farmers, businessmen, educators, preachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, jurists, statesmen, soldiers, writers, and so on. Part I, the larger of the two components of the volume, consists of extended biographical sketches, with accompanying portraits, of Wayland's contemporaries. The subjects' careers and civic interests are covered in some detail, as is each individual's date and place of birth--and sometimes death-- and the names and dates associated with the subject's marriages and children. Part II features shorter, un-illustrated essays of a few hundred Rockingham County luminaries of bygone years, any number of whose lines are extended back to the 1700s.

Drawing on unpublished stories, minutes, and reminiscences of Chignecto clergymen, Hay delineates Covenanter life, exploring its beliefs and traditions, leadership, relations with other Presbyterian bodies, and the causes of the movement's collapse. He focuses on two key figures in the movement, Reverend Alexander Clarke, an Irish missionary who established Reformed Presbyterian congregations in the area, and Reverend Joseph Howe Brownell, who consolidated the congregations and led them into the Presbyterian Church of Canada in 1905. The Chignecto Covenanters fills an important gap in the history of Canadian Presbyterianism and of the Maritime region. "A model of how micro-history can be portrayed within a macro-context, The Chignecto Covenanters fills a gap in Maritime regional history and makes a significant contribution to the broader fields of Canadian religious and cultural history." John Moir, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Toronto.