Scotland to the White House: Six presidents with Caledonian roots
Iknow that Donald Trump’s mother was Scottish, but how many other US Presidents have some Scottish ancestry? – P.
Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, was born in Tong, a small village on the Isle of Lewis in 1912.
She emigrated to the US in 1930 and married real estate developer Fred Trump in 1936.
They had five children, Maryanne, Frederick Jr., Elizabeth, Donald and Robert.
While almost all US Presidents have Scottish roots, of the 43 men to have held the office apart from Trump, five have close ties to the country.
Thomas Jefferson the third president (from 1801-09) and a founding father of the US, co-wrote the Declaration Of Independence in 1776, which bore a strong resemblance to the Scottish Declaration Of Independence, written in Arbroath in 1320. Jefferson’s mother, Jane Randolph, was Scottish.
Andrew Jackson (president 1829-37) was the son of Scots/Irish immigrants.
The 11th incumbent, James Knox Polk, was president from 1845-49.
The Polks had immigrated to America in the late 1600s, and his mother was a descendant of John Knox, the theologian who led the Reformation.
William McKinley (president 18971901) could trace his ancestry back to MacDuff, Thane of Fife. McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist in New York.
The fifth president with strong Scottish links was Woodrow Wilson, who held office from 1913-21. His maternal and paternal grandparents were Scots who emigrated to America in the 19th Century.