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AMES BOND was a Scotsman. At least the Bond played by Sean Connery was. None of the others really count.
Super-rich industrialist Andrew Carnegie was Scottish.
Half the patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence were of Scottish descent.
Fredericksburg Revolutionary War hero Hugh Mercer, a Scot, is the only American general ever to have died of bayonet wounds.
Alexander Graham Bell was Scottish.
Half of America's presidents have been of Scottish descent.
Even Lassie had Scottish roots.
This year is the 700th anniversary of William Wallace leading Scotland's battle for freedom from England, and the 10th anniversary of the film "Braveheart," which seared Wallace's story into American pop culture.
But it doesn't bother Robert Scott, the co-host of the PBS series "Tartan TV" (seen locally on WNVT-Goldvein) one bit that the Scot best known to this nation's young people might well be the crazed school maintenance man Groundskeeper Willie from "The Simpsons."
Willie has the fearlessly independent, simultaneously dark and carefree attitude about life that Scots prize.
Principal Skinner: "Willie. Go into the vent and get him."
Groundskeeper Willie: "What!? Have ye gone waxy in your beester? I canna fit in the wee vent, ye croquet-playin' mint-muncher!"
Principal Skinner: "Grease yourself up and go in you guff-speaking work-slacker."
Groundskeeper Willie: "Ooh. Good comeback."
"He's sort of the archetypal, bearded Scotsman," Scott, whose real last name is Sproul-Cran, said of the cartoon character with a laugh during a phone interview from Scotland.
Groundskeeper Willie: "I was wrestlin' wolves back when you were at your mother's teat."
And he has the dark, soulful humanity of the immortal Scottish poet Robert Burns.
Groundskeeper Willie: "I dinna cry when me own father was hung for stealing a pig. But I'll cry now."
It does bother Sproul-Cran a wee bit that older Americans may first think of television's "Star Trek's" iconic and laconic Scotty, played by James Doohan.
The late Doohan's acting was less than stellar, and Scotty was always getting his knickers in a twist.
Scotty: "If I push these impulse engines too hard in the condition they're in, they'll blow apart."
Scotty: "The emergency bypass control of the matter anti-matter integrator is fused."
Scotty: "We can't do it. If we keep this speed, we'll blow up any minute now."
"His accent was always a source or embarrassment," Sproul-Cain said about the late Doohan's starship engineer character. "People in this country [Scotland] cringe every time they hear it."
Immigrants from tiny Scotland didn't spread the influence of their homeland around the world by focusing on what cannot be done, as "Star Trek's" Scotty did.
Scottish merchants shaped Fredericksburg as we know it today.
There are currently 5 million people living in Scotland, and 90 million people of Scottish descent around the world--many of them in America.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 9.2 million Americans consider themselves primarily of Scottish or Scotch-Irish descent, which is more than 3.2 percent of the population. Scotch-Irish are Scots who moved to Ireland, then moved to the United States.
In Virginia, that percentage is higher--4.4 percent, or over 310,000 people.
Also in 2000, 5.4 percent of people in the city of Fredericksburg claimed to be of Scottish heritage, along with 5 percent in Spotsylvania County, 4.6 percent in Stafford County and 4.2 percent in King George County.
But it's estimated that 34 million Americans have some Scottish blood.
And between the censuses of 1990 and 2000, the number of Americans who claim to be of Scottish descent rose by 48 percent.
Carl Braun, the owner of Highlander Health & Fitness in Fredericksburg, said that learning about his Scottish heritage helped him understand his own place in the tapestry of history, and had something of a spiritual impact.
"As we get older, we all try to figure out where we came from," said Braun, a Stafford High School graduate.
He said it's interesting to look at the steps your ancestors took, where they ended up, and how that made you who you are.
"I think things happen for a reason," Braun said. "It's part of God's ultimate plan."
His heritage interested Braun in competing in the Scottish Games. He set a number of records, including one for the hammer throw in the 1994 Scottish National Games.
He also hosted the Highland Games at Maury stadium in Fredericksburg with his parents' help from 1995 to 2001, including two world championships that drew competitors from around the world.
When Braun's father died in 2001, those events ended, but he is bringing the Highland Games back on the weekend of Sept. 23, 2006, moving them from Maury to Belvedere Plantation.
And it's likely he'll take advantage of a continuing surge in Scottish pride.
In 1998, the U.S. Senate declared April 6 Tartan Day, a national day of recognition for Scottish-Americans. In New York and many places across the country, Tartan Day parades and special events will celebrate the people and heritage of the fifth-largest ethnic group in America.
On Wednesday, Tartan Day, the Scottish Society of Fredericksburg will set up a display of Scottish history at the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop at 1020 Caroline St. downtown. Taking part in the exhibition, which will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be descendants of Scottish immigrants, pipers and storytellers.
On April 9, the Scottish Society of Fredericksburg will join with the Virginia Society, Sons of the American Revolution, in honoring Gen. Hugh Mercer, Scottish immigrant and American hero, in a wreath-laying tribute at the Mercer monument in Fredericksburg. Participants will gather at noon at the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop and a march will take place to the monument at roughly 1 p.m.
It's quite an honor paid to the memory of Mercer, who died at the Battle of Princeton in 1777.
"Trying to get Scots to march is like herding cats," joked Ray Gill, a Spotsylvania County resident of Scottish descent who is commissioner emeritus of Clan Donald, one of the most powerful Scottish clans.
There will be a Scottish Block Party April 30 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. adjacent to the James Monroe Museum to celebrate the 247th anniversary of the birth of President Monroe, who was of Scottish descent. The museum, the Rappahannock Colonial Heritage Society and the Scottish Society of Fredericksburg will co-sponsor this event.
Mercer fought with the Jacobites at Culloden, escaped, and traveled to America as a political refugee. Here, he was befriended by George Washington. He was made an American brigadier general and is considered a hero of the American Revolution.
Paula S. Felder, a Fredericksburg historian specializing in the area's 18th-century past, said Mercer was atypical of the strong Scottish presence in the town.
"Mainly it was commercial--the Glasgow merchants," she said.
Scottish businessmen came up the river in the 1700s "and they took over the Rappahannock--they dominated the trade here right through the Revolution," Felder said.
She said that while Scots were often looked down upon by the gentry in other Colonial towns, they were quickly accepted here, perhaps because George Washington and and his brother-in-law Fielding Lewis joined the Masonic Lodge the Scots opened in Fredericksburg.
That Masonic Lodge pushed a fund-raising effort to build the market house at Market Square that now houses the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center. Washington donated 5 pounds to that effort, Felder said.
William Hunter and John Allan were the first of many Scottish merchants on Caroline Street, she said.
"It's an enormous contribution," Felder said of the Scottish impact on Fredericksburg's development.
She said the period of 1750 to 1775 "was probably the heyday of Fredericksburg's most colorful society" because of the influx of Scottish merchants from Glasgow.
Many local people will be learning about their roots on Tartan Day.
"Not everybody who's got a Scottish connection actually realizes it," said Tartan TV's Sproul-Cain.
He said Scots established themselves in the American colonies so early that they sort of became part of the landscape.
"They were many of the first bankers, general storekeepers, teachers, and they had an effect on the growing American establishment," he said.
"Scots tend to think of themselves as Americans. Later immigrants, such as the Irish, tended to keep their identity and still to identify themselves as ethnics.
"If your name is McDonald, you might think you're Scottish, but if it's Simpson, you might have forgotten you were Scottish," Sproul-Cain said. "Wherever I travel in America, I see signs of Scottishness."
Fiona Kennedy, his co-host on "Tartan TV," said she's "amazed and delighted with the great passion for their heritage she's found in American Scots "who have never even visited Scotland.
"I don't know whether it's a post-Sept. 11 phenomenon, but my sense is that people have a greater desire to connect with who they are--to have that sense of belonging."
She said more than 600,000 Scots arrived in America between 1799 and 1830.
Kennedy said "Braveheart" did a lot to connect Americans with Scottish history.
During a Chicago cab ride on her way to interview Randall Wallace, who wrote "Braveheart," the cabdriver, with no connection to Scotland, told her "I know Braveheart" and "he proceeded to tell me the whole history," Kennedy said.
Every January, about 100 people gather at the Fredericksburg Country Club to observe Burns Night (also called Burns Supper), a worldwide tribute to the poet Robert Burns, his life and his works.
Robert Burns' "Grace before Meat": "Some hae meat and canna eat,
"And some would eat that want it;
"But we hae meat, and we can eat,
"Sae let the Lord be thankit."
"Although it's [Burns Night] in-tended to be a dignified tribute to a great poet, it's also intended to be fun and lighthearted," said Ray Gill.
He was master of ceremonies at this year's local event, sponsored and organized by the Scottish Society of Fredericksburg, but anyone can attend. In January, the 11th annual Fredericksburg Burns Night was attended not only by those of Scottish ancestry, but also those of Welsh, Irish, English and German descent.
In addition to his greatness as a poet, Burns is celebrated for his endearing imperfection as a human being.
Burns liked to drink too much, Gill said, "and he was known to like the ladies."
Among the many toasts at the event is always the "Toast to the Lassies."
Other "Loyal Toasts" often include toasts to the President of the United States, the Queen of England, the Prime Minister of Canada, the United States Armed Forces, the Scottish Regiments and others.
The evening ends with everyone joining together to sing Burns' "Auld Lang Syne."
MICHAEL ZITZ is a staff writer with The Free Lance-Star. Contact him at 540/ 374-5408, or mikez@freelancestar.com. SCOTT NEVILLE is a staff photographer with The Free Lance-Star.
