Philip MacIntire

Argyle County, Scotland

Birth Notes

Born between 1627 and 1630.

Reading, MA

General Notes

As Philip reached adulthood, the British Isles were torn apart by the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell had defeated the Royalists and beheaded Charles I, son of the Scottish king James VI. In 1650 Cromwell and his troops marched north to subdue the Scots. After taking Edinburgh, the troops engaged in battle with 13,000 Scot Royalists at Dunbar. Within the first hour of battle 3,000 Scots were dead and the remainder taken as prisoners. Half the prisoners were released due to injury and exhaustion; the other half were held at the Cathedral of Durham. Philip, along with Micum and Robert MacIntyre (possibly his brothers), were among those held in Durham. Cromwell's forces decided to kill all officers and every tenth private. The remainder would be sent to the colonies as indentured servants. Philip, Micum and Robert were among those who set sail for America 11 November 1650 aboard the Unity. Arriving in Massachusetts in late December 1650, Philip served his seven year indenture and settle in Reading, MA. He married Mary Nichols on 6 September 1666 in Reading and they had 11 children.

At the Battle of Dunbar, Scotland on September 3, 1650, Oliver Cromwell’s troops killed 3,000 Scots and took another 10,000 prisoner. About 5,000, those ‘wounded and fatigued by flight’ were released almost immediately on parole. Cromwell ordered 5,100 Scottish soldiers marched south from Dunbar into captivity in England. Three McIntire’s were among those 5,100 Scots’ prisoners of war: Micum, Robert, and Philip. Approximately, 1,500 prisoners were lost during the march. Some escaped, but most died of disease and wounds or were killed by their captors while attempting to flee home to Scotland. For a period of time during their captivity, the Scots were housed in Durham Cathedral, where they perished at a rate of thirty per day. Only 1,400 of the 5,100 men who started the march from Dunbar in September were still alive two months later, when England’s traders in flesh came for them. 150 of those prisoners, including the three McIntire’s, who were thought to be brothers, were put on board the ship Unity and sent to the colonies, indentured to the Company of Undertakers, the owners of the Ironworks at Lynn, MA. While there is no positive proof that Philip was at the Ironworks, it is documented that Micum and Robert were there. Micum was later sent to work at a sawmill on the Piscataqua River in New Hampshire and later relocated to York, ME. Robert may have gone to work at an ironworks in Connecticut. Philip showed up at Reading, MA about 1660 and settled near John Upton, who had been a blacksmith at the ironworks. Philip’s family intermarried with that of John Upton, and the family of George Thomson, another of the Scots’ prisoners. It is documented that Thomson was at the ironworks, and it is assumed that Philip was there as well. The above information was excerpted from "The Battle of Dunbar" by Dennis Bell-Sept 20,1998.

Click here for details of Philip's family with Mary Nichols