Leaving Scotland

James Hector was born on June 20, 1788; he was the son of John (1757-1831) and Mary Duncan Hector. He was the oldest of three children. He married Charlotte Teresa Mathieson, daughter of Lieutenant Alexander Mathieson of the Queens Rangers in Old Aberdeen, Scotland. Their marriage produced seven children. Four of the children were born in Scotland; the three youngest in Virginia.

Growing up in Scotland, James and Charlotte Hector managed to achieve a better than average education—for their particular situation in Scotland—and were avid readers of books. Their devotion to the ancient Latin and Greek authors apparently caused them to name their children after characters in the Iliad.

The descendants of James and Charlotte Hector were honest, hardworking and loyal citizens—with few exceptions—and eventually contributed sweat and blood to the settlement of the western territories and their Country's subsequent wars. Descendants of James and Charlotte Hector range throughout the Southwest United States. Two of their children left Virginia and arrived in the Republic of Texas on Christmas Day 1837. James and Charlotte would eventually follow their children from Virginia to Hays County, Texas.

The experiences, trials, tribulations and adventures of the Hectors in America span several generations and have untold numbers of descendants located throughout the United States. During the early 1800's there was rampant strife and hunger throughout Europe. The large landowners and the very rich ruled their realms with iron fists; showed little or no mercy for the poor and downtrodden. The new and unsettled lands across the ocean seemed to provide the only hope for freedom and better living conditions. All such conditions caused great unrest among the citizens of Scotland. Fear, strife, and hunger continued to plague the lower classes. Some of the less fortunate people found that their effort to stay alive was an awesome burden. They wanted to give up as there seemed to be no hope in sight. They began to believe death would be a relief; their oppressive government existed for the landowners and the rich families. The workers struggled to feed their families and avoid being caught up in the dreaded web of indebtedness that meant jail or a bonded slave.

It was said that those sorry conditions in Scotland were not inflicted by disease, famine or some other great natural calamity; but oppressive governmental laws and regulations and almost total disregard for the downtrodden and civil rights. The commoners felt that only the rich and powerful ever gained favor with the government. Their lives depended entirely on the whim of the government and those with money and influence.

Then widespread unemployment added to the burdens of the working class caused in part by onerous taxes that favored only certain segments of the society. The big landholders and those who managed to gain their wealth from inheritance, government contracts or had other high placed connections and influences always support the government corruption and excesses.

These were hard times throughout most of the world, except perhaps in the new and generally unsettled frontiers where governments had not been in control long enough to establish unwanted laws and regulations; especially over taxation.

Starvation was getting to be a daily threat throughout the Scottish realm. Some of the commoners who were educated and informed began to understand that it was no longer possible to support their large families under the stringent labor laws and extreme working conditions. There was no sense of justice as the laws favored the rich: big landowners who lived in their large castles and that were bequeathed from one generation to the next.

The commoners seldom had steady work, and when it could be found was normally from sunup to sundown and most times into the nights for a mere pittance of money for the hard labor demanded by employers and sanctioned by the ruling class who controlled the courts. Anyone who happened to owe money, rent or labor could without a doubt end up in the Scottish Indebtedness Court and more often than not remanded to prison and then for the fortunate ones released as bonded servants to an important landowner or sold to one of the overseas resettlement programs.

It was common knowledge throughout Scotland that bonded servants suffered a lifetime of horrible abuse, eventual death, and finally burial in pauper graves. Not even their families had any rights; even to be informed of the death of their disgraced relatives ensnarled in forced service. Then as late as the early 1820's such conditions continued to amplify and some members of James and Charlotte Hector's families had escaped to other lands to seek better living conditions. In Scotland and much of Europe hope was running out and the James and Charlotte Hector family became more disillusioned everyday as there was no positive sign of real change in sight.

The story chronicled here then, is about the proud and fairly well educated James and Charlotte Hector family who decided that regardless of what might happen elsewhere they had to escape the ever increasingly horrible living conditions. James and Charlotte Hector were well off financially in comparison to the greater population, but still struggled to pay their ever-mounting debts. Their holdings and income were limited and consisted mainly of what the James could earn as a part-time merchant and Charlotte's inheritance from her father's family.

Charlotte's father had served in the military and accumulated some wealth which he bequeathed to Charlotte, but he had limited her use of the funds to only the interest. James tried to avoid using any of Charlotte's inheritance, but occasionally they had to draw on the account to supplement the small amount of money earned by James. Even then it seemed to never be enough to maintain the family and keep them debt free. The ever-looming possibility of becoming bonded servants was considered something they could tolerate or contend with the rest of their lives. In fact, this was their greatest concern and cause for nightmares with visions of hard labor, starvation, chains, and whips. James vowed he would not let his family fall prey to the government's mismanagement and extreme inhuman policies.

The situation seemed to deteriorate by the day; finally they decided their living conditions demanded they find someway to drastically improve their lives. It was demonstrable clear that to change their prospects for a better life they would have to seek new environs. The unending fear of the government and its authoritarian rule made James realize that he had to eliminate the worry of his family becoming bonded servants and wards of the government. Already many of their brethren had escaped to distant lands including America, Canada, and Australia. The relatives in Scotland received letters often from these siblings relating the wonderful experiences and prosperity found in those far away places.

Their discussions about what they considered an impending calamity for...