In the 1700's Protestants from Ireland were being wooed to come settle in South Carolina. They were given land for simply registering for it, and being a male of a certain age. The amount they received and the age they had to be varied in different decades.
In Ulster there was a minister named William Beatty who would come to town on market days and recruit families to go to South Carolina. He went to Lurgen in County Armagh and Ballynahinch & Dromore in County Down. Ballynahinch is near Belfast. Alexander McDowell probably signed up with Beatty to take his family across the Atlantic.
Most likely, the McDowells crossed on the Prince of Wales in spring of 1767. There is no surviving passenger list from this voyage of the Prince of Wales, but the men usually went in to register for their bounty land two weeks after they arrived in Charleston, South Carolina. Alexander Mcdowell and his sons had their land granted on the 28 May 1767. The Prince of Wales had arrived on 14 May 1767, so she seems the most likely vessel.
The older sons of Alexander received land in 1767: James, Andrew and William. From following their lives, it seems these sons were born in the early to mid-1750's. Alexander's son, Hugh, and daughter, Elizabeth, were born closer to 1760. In another post I will detail where the land grants were located. Also, Alexander and Hugh wrote wills that detail some of the family members.
