5. The 'Killing Times' and Scottish Migration

Puritan forces under Oliver Cromwell defeated the army of Charles I, but the people of England eventually decided they preferred a king, and invited the son of Charles to come and take the throne. Charles II immediately launched a campaign of destruction against the Puritans in England and the Presbyterians in Scotland, which heightened the incentives in both places to migrate to the colonies hoping for a place of respite from the persecution.