To what extent did south-west England contribute to the settlement of America?

[connordayman]

Just curious about this. I am interested in the history of colonial British settlement in the United States, and from where and to where they settled. I know the English specifically probably came from all over the country to America but I am curious of the influence of southwest England speicifically (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, etc) on the settlement of America.

 

[Angela]

Just curious about this. I am interested in the history of colonial British settlement in the United States, and from where and to where they settled. I know the English specifically probably came from all over the country to America but I am curious of the influence of southwest England speicifically (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, etc) on the settlement of America.

I don't remember a lot of the particulars, but there's a book called "Albion's Seed" which goes into great depth about all of this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion's_Seed

 

[Highlander]

People like Newfoundlanders have a rather obvious western connection via their accents, the dialectical terms they use, etc. In fact, some of the old "original" Newfoundland dialects [the one you may still find the old timers using or among the people from the smaller towns] have been compared to southwestern English accents/regions a number of times.

Other than that who exactly knows. Angela's link mentions Puritans. The problem with religious ideals is unless they moved en mass from a singular town in England they likely came from all over the generic southern English regions. I believe the Puritans also found some favor in Wales so possibly from Wales too.

 

[LATGAL]

I'll second Fisher's "Albion's Seed" and add Woodard's "American Nations" for more information on that. From memory, the Southwest colonized mostly Virginia and the Southeast USA and to a much lesser extent New England (which was more of an Eastern thing). Cornwall in particular though didn't send many people until the 19th century. I think Fisher also mentions something about regional dialects in Virginia preserving dialectal characteristics of Devon and Cornwall that have been lost in their homeland.

There was a recent genetic study on this sort of thing that you might be interested in:

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14238/