Lockards in America
Between 1650 and 1700 many Scots began fleeing Scotland to avoid religious persecution. They looked to the New World and sailed aboard the 'White Sails," an armada of sailing ships such as the Hector, the Rambler, and the Dove which struggled across the stormy Atlantic. Some ships lost 30 or 40 percent of their passenger list, migrants who were buried at sea having died from diseases and the elements.
Among the first Lockards in America were
- Robert Lockhard, who settled in Virginia in 1677
- Gaven Lockhart, who settled in East New Jersey in 1685
- Robert Lockhart, who settled in New York in 1820
- Hugh, Isaac, Janet, John, Nicholas and Robert Lockhart who arrived in Philadelphia between1840 and 1860.
The immigrants formed wagon trains and later spread throughout the prairies of the midwest and on to the west coast where they became farmers, coal miners, preachers, and even bank robbers.
During the American War of Independence those who remained loyal to the crown moved North into Canada and became known as the United Empire Loyalists.
In the centuries since then the Lockard family has spread throughout the United States and has added its distinctiveness to the melting pot we now know as the American population.