McCadden History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

In the 18th and 19th centuries, thousands of Irish families fled an Ireland that was forcibly held through by England through its imperialistic policies. A large portion of these families crossed the Atlantic to the shores of North America. The fate of these families depended on when they immigrated and the political allegiances they showed after they arrived. Settlers that arrived before the American War of Independence may have moved north to Canada at the war's conclusion as United Empire Loyalists. Such Loyalists were granted land along the St. Lawrence River and the Niagara Peninsula. Those that fought for the revolution occasionally gained the land that the fleeing Loyalist vacated. After this period, free land and an agrarian lifestyle were not so easy to come by in the East. So when seemingly innumerable Irish immigrants arrived during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s, free land for all was out of the question. These settlers were instead put to work building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. Whenever they came, Irish settlers made an inestimable contribution to the building of the New World. Early North American immigration records have revealed a number of people bearing the Irish name McCadden or a variant listed above, including:

McCadden Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

• Patrick McCadden, who settled in Augusta Co. Virginia in 1739

McCadden Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

• Henry, James, Robert, and Thomas McCadden, who landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between 1844 and 1880

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

McCadden Settlers in Canada in the 19th Century

• Mr. James McCadden, aged 38 who immigrated to Canada, arriving at the Grosse Isle Quarantine Station in Quebec aboard the ship "Ganges" departing from the port of Liverpool, England but died on Grosse Isle on 18th August 1847 1