In 1740, an emigration scheme, called the Grand Design, was devised with the goal of bringing about 200 Scots-Irish Presbyterians to Philadelphia. They were compelled to leave Northern Ireland as a result of social prejudice, religious zeal and environmental disaster. The ship, Martha & Eliza, left Londonderry, Northern Ireland July 28, but encountered a storm which disabled masts and set the ship adrift. After 11 weeks in the merciless North Atlantic, they were cast on the desolate shore of Grand Manan Island, now in New Brunswick, Canada. Many passengers had succumbed to stress and deprivation. The captain and crew left the survivors and sailed in the longboat to Fort Frederick at Pemaquid, Maine where, twelve years earlier, Colonel David Dunbar had brought a group of Scots/Irish from Ulster to rebuild the fort and had remained a thriving colony. The captain and crew of the Martha & Eliza “tarried” here for several weeks. As winter weather grew more difficult, they decided to return to the wreck to salvage the goods on board. Finding passengers still alive, the crew removed only the healthiest of them to New Harbor. They were charged an exorbitant fee for the rescue, stripped of their clothes, and sold into service. This first group registered a complaint with the Governor in Boston. Another ship set out seeking to plunder the remaining goods. Two sisters were found alive and removed at this time, but because the captain had originally dispersed the people around the island, another group was left to endure the entire winter. These were finally discovered in April by local Native Americans (Passamaquoddy). In spite of the danger to themselves, both elemental and socio-political, these men carried letters to the fort in St. George, Maine over 100 miles southeast of the island, and arranged the rescue. This last group consisted of ten women including Isabel Galloway and her infant child. The survivors were taken in by the people of the midcoast Maine Scots-Irish communities. Many remained, married locally, and their descendants still live in the area.
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About the Program
The Grand Design Project is a unique combination of history, music and drama. It is available in a concert version which includes 6 musicians, 2 readers, and projected imagery. The play is adaptable, portable, and presentable in a variety of venues. Auxiliary informative workshops may also be presented to enhance audience understanding of the concert and engage local schools, museums, or historical societies.

The program provides an opportunity not only to commemorate a remarkable event but to create an experience of that event and a connection with the people involved in it. Through the use of music and imagery, an audience comes to understand the event’s significance and hopefully gain personal inspiration from it. In addition, dialogue and exchange between the communities included in the story will be facilitated through the shared experience of the performances and workshops.

In order to maintain historical integrity, Julia Lane spent four years researching as much factual information as possible from resources in New England, the mid-Atlantic states, Canada, and Northern Ireland regarding the events and the times and culture in which they occurred. This information provides the basis for the use of appropriate traditional music and inspiration for compatible original composition and lyrics. The dramatic readings are taken from historic documents and images used in the projections are either historic maps and etchings or scenery of the actual landscapes involved in the story.

Notes on the Music
In choosing the music for this story, I first went to collections of music popular in the first half of the 1700’s. It is clear that the musical life of the people was multi-dimensional and I found a wonderful variety of music, from tavern songs to deeply religious unadorned hymns, from chamber music to country dance tunes. The music reflects the social experiences of the people and their Scots Irish heritage. If I could not find an appropriate song or melody to underscore the story, I composed one in the traditional style. In some cases, traditional melodies of the times had evocative names -The Dangers of the Sea, Crossing from Ireland, The Death of My Friend, Any Privation But This, Fye, let us to the Bridal- and coincidentally were perfect for the score. Separation of Soul and Body was composed by Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan who died in 1738. This version of Auld Lang Syne is circa 1733, 26 years prior to the birth of Robert Burns.