On a wall adjoining the Porter's Lodge of the School of Medicine at Edinburgh University can be found a plaque recalling that, in the eighteenth century, one hundred and seventeen Americans were awarded medical degrees in Edinburgh. It also notes that one of these, Benjamin Rush, and Dr John Witherspoon, a theologian from Edinburgh, were signatories of the American Declaration of Independence...

What the plaque fails to mention is that men of Scottish descent enjoyed an extraordinary representation among signatories of the Declaration of Independence. Well over a third, and by some estimations as many as three-quarters, of the fifty-six signatories were Scots-born or had some Scots ancestry. The prominence of Scots colonialists in the push towards independence and the contribution of so many Scots and Americans with Scottish blood in the creation and shaping of the United States illustrates the profound and widespread influence of the ideas and values of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, a rich source of information on prominent Americans of Scottish descent, relates that Witherspoon was born in Gifford and educated at Haddington Grammar School and Edinburgh University, and that he served as a Presbyterian minister in Paisley before leaving for America. There he became President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he was influential in spreading the Enlightenment philosophy while also making his reputation as a statesman, serving as a member of two provincial congresses and subsequently of the Continental Congress. Dr Witherspoon was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.

The other signatory mentioned, Benjamin Rush, later known as "Hippocrates of Pennsylvania" and a pioneer of psychiatry, was born in America but also had Scottish ancestry... as did Thomas Jefferson, who drafted the Declaration, and George Washington, popular hero of the Revolution and first president of the United States of America.

Well before the American Revolution, or any moves towards independence, people of Scottish ancestry wielded a disproportionate influence on life in America – not least through tenure of the majority of British colonial governorships. By the time of the War of Independence, however, people of Scottish blood were divided in their allegiance. Many took the side of the British in the conflict leading up to the Declaration; many others, such as Dr Witherspoon, strongly supported the emergence of a new, independent country.

Scottish precedent was also strongly influential in the formulation of American independence. Authors such as Duncan A. Bruce have pointed out a number of remarkable similarities between the wording and aspirations of the US Declaration of Independence and the subsequent Constitution Convention and two much earlier Scottish documents. These were the fourteenth-century Scottish Arbroath Declaration, addressed to the Pope as an expression of Scotland's determination for independence from England, and the National Covenant of 1638.

The Scottish influence persisted and it is estimated that well over half of US presidents to the present day have been at least partly of Scottish descent: from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Andrew Jackson to James Buchanan, William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D Roosevelt, among many others.

"If all else fails, I will retreat up the valley of Virginia, plant my flag on the Blue Ridge, rally around the Scotch-Irish of that region and make my last stand for liberty amongst a people who will never submit to British tyranny whilst there is a man left to draw a trigger." George Washington at Valley Forge.

The ancestry of George Washington, Virginia planter, American general, victorious commander-in-chief of the Colonial Forces and unopposed first president of the USA, has been traced back to the Scottish King Malcolm II. This grand, indomitable and immensely popular father of the USA, who is so colourfully described in Alistair Cooke's America*, chose as the four members of his first cabinet Thomas Jefferson as secretary of state, Alexander Hamilton as secretary of treasury, Henry Knox as secretary of war and Edmund Randolph as attorney general. All four were of Scots descent.

"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Resolution drafted by Henry Lee upon the death of George Washington and passed by Congress.

Thomas Jefferson, son of a Virginia planter, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, first secretary of state, and third president of the USA was, notes Duncan A. Bruce, a descendant of a sister of King Robert I of Scotland. As reflected in the Declaration he penned, Jefferson was devoted to the concept of liberty. Opposed to slavery, in 1778 he successfully passed a law prohibiting importation of slaves into Virginia. Starting his first term as Republican president in 1801, he retired aged 66 following his second term and a total of 40 years in politics. Thomas Jefferson was considered an extraordinarily cultured and talented man and his final contribution to his country was the founding of the University of Virginia.

"... probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius [in the White House] except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone," remarked President J F Kennedy of his guests when hosting a dinner for Nobel Prize winners, a century and a half after Jefferson's presidency.

Born in the British West Indies, Alexander Hamilton was a grandson of the Laird of Cambuskeith, Ayrshire. Moving to mainland North America as a teenager, he strongly supported the colonists' cause, serving against the British in the War of Independence and becoming an aide-de-camp to General George Washington in 1777. Subsequently Hamilton studied law and later became leader of the Federalist Party. He was nominated first secretary of the treasury in 1789.

Henry Knox distinguished himself when, as an artillery colonel during the Revolution, he transported a quantity of captured British artillery for three hundred miles over snow and ice to secure the relief of Boston which was under siege. Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that Knox later ran an artillery school in Morristown, the forerunner of West Point Military Academy of which he is considered the founder. General Knox succeeded Washington as commander of the army at the end of the war, and was nominated first secretary of war.

Edmund Jennings Randolph, a Virginia lawyer, served at the siege of Boston as an aide to General George Washington. The War of Independence created a rift in the Randolph family. His father, who was the king's attorney, his mother and sisters all left America for England while Edmund Randolph stayed to support the colonists. Nominated first US attorney general, he became secretary of state on the resignation of Jefferson in 1793.

Read part 2.