English Americans
(occasionally known as Anglo-Americans,
although this may have a wider linguistic meaning) are citizens of the United States
whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in
England
. According to
2000 U.S census data, Americans
reporting English ancestry made up an estimated 9.0% of the total
U.S. population, and form the
third largest European ancestry group after
German Americans and
Irish Americans. However,
demographers regard this as an undercount as the
index of inconsistency is high, and many, if not most, people from
English stock have a tendency to identify simply as
Americans or, if of mixed
European ancestry, nominate a more recent and
differentiated ethnic group. In the
1980 U.S census, over 49 million
Americans claimed English ancestry, at the time around 22% of the
total population and which, even today, would make them the largest
ethnic group in the United States.
The overwhelming majority of the founding fathers of America were
of English extraction, including
Ben
Franklin,
George Washington,
Alexander Hamilton,
John Adams and
Thomas
Jefferson.
As with most immigrant groups, the English later sought economic
prosperity and began migrating in large numbers without state
support, particularly in the 19th century.
Number of English Americans

Map of England highlighted in
red.
Census data
1775 census
According to the United States Historical Census Data Base (USHCDB)
(2002), the ethnic populations in the American Colonies of 1775
were:
1790 census
The ancestry of the 3.9 million population in 1790 has been
estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the very
first United States official census and assigning them a country of
origin. The results indicate that people of English ancestry made
up about 47.5% of the total United States population with 80.7% of
the population being of
European heritage.
2000 census
1790 U.S Ancestry
Based on Evaluated census figures
|
2000 U.S Ancestry
from the official U.S census
|
Ancestry group |
Number
(1790 estimate)
|
% of
total
|
Ancestry |
Number
(2000 count)
|
% of
total
|
British (Total) |
2,500,000 |
62.5 |
British (Total)
|
36,564,465 |
12.9 |
English |
1,900,000 |
47.5 |
German |
42,885,162 |
15.2 |
African |
750,000 |
19.0 |
African |
36,419,434 |
12.9 |
Scotch-Irish |
320,000 |
8.0 |
Irish |
30,594,130 |
10.9 |
German |
280,000 |
7.0 |
English |
24,515,138 |
8.7 |
Irish |
200,000 |
5.0 |
Mexican |
20,640,711 |
7.3 |
Scottish |
160,000 |
4.0 |
Italian |
15,723,555 |
5.6 |
Welsh |
120,000 |
3.0 |
French |
10,846,018 |
3.9 |
Dutch |
100,000 |
2.5 |
Hispanic |
10,017,244 |
3.6 |
French |
80,000 |
2.0 |
Polish |
8,977,444 |
3.2 |
Native
American |
50,000 |
1.0 |
Scottish |
4,890,581 |
1.7 |
Spanish |
20,000 |
0.5 |
Dutch |
4,542,494 |
1.6 |
Swedish or
other |
20,000 |
0.5 |
Norwegian |
4,477,725 |
1.6 |
Total |
3,929,326 |
100 |
Scotch-Irish |
4,319,232 |
1.5 |
/ |
/ |
/ |
Native
American |
4,119,301 |
1.5 |
/ |
/ |
/ |
Swedish |
3,998,310 |
1.4 |
|
In the 2000 census, 24.5 million Americans reported English
ancestry, 8.7% of the total U.S. population. This estimate is
probably a serious undercount by over 30 million given that, in the
1980 census, around 50 million citizens claimed to be of at least
partial English ancestry.
In 1980, 23,748,772 Americans
claimed wholly English ancestry and another 25,849,263
claimed English along with another ethnic ancestry. 80
million people in the 2000 census were listed under 'other
ancestries' and 20 million as 'American.' Thus, the number of
people who could be classified, if they so wish, as English
Americans in the United States is more likely to be at least 60-80
million.
In 1860, an estimated 11 million or almost 35% of the population of
the United States was wholly or primarily of English ancestry. The
population has increased by almost ten times the numbers in 1860.
As with any ethnicity, Americans of English descent may choose to
identify themselves as just '
American
ethnicity' if their ancestry has been in the United States for
many generations or if, for the same reason, they are unaware of
their lineage.
English expatriates
In total, there are estimated to be around 678,000
British born
expatriates in the United States with the majority of these
being English. Modern England is an increasingly diverse nation,
and a significant minority are not indigenous
English. By American definition there are
around 540,000
English people of any
race in the United States, 40,000
Asian
English, 20,000
Black English
people and approximately 10,000 people of a
mixed background.
Distribution
English Americans are found in large numbers throughout America,
particularly in the
Northeast and
West. According to the
2000 US census,
the
10 states with the largest populations of self reported
English Americans are
- California
(2,521,355 - 7.4% of state population)
- Florida
(1,468,576 -
9.2%)
- Texas
(1,462,984 -
7%)
- New
York
(1,140,036 - 6%)
- Ohio
(1,046,671 -
9.2%)
- Pennsylvania
(966,253 - 7.9%)
- Michigan
(988,625 -
9.9%)
- Illinois
(831,820 - 6.7%)
- Virginia
(788,849 - 11.1%)
- North Carolina
(767,749 - 9.5%)
The 10 states with the highest percentages of self reported
English ancestry are:
English
was the highest reported European ancestry in the states of
Maine
, Vermont
and Utah
; joint
highest along with German in
the Carolinas.
Maps


On the left, a map showing the population density of Americans who
declared English ancestry in the census. Dark blue and purple
colours indicate a higher density: highest in the east and west
(see also
Maps of American
ancestries). Center, a map showing the population of English
Americans by state. On the right, a map showing the percentages of
English Americans by state.
History
Early settlement and colonization

The red and pink areas of the map show
land over which the British claimed authority in 1775
The
earliest English settlers in America inhabited the Elizabethan era Anglican Colony and Dominion of
Virginia and Puritan New England
, named by John
Smith for the unsettled New Albion;
these were two thirds of Virginia,
which also originally included Bermuda
, which became nucleus of the British West Indies. The former
two have largely influenced formation of
the South and
the Northeast. Due to their
joint-stock company charter explicitly stating that settlements
from each should not approach within 100 miles of one another,
subdivision resulted in the foundation of newer colonies such as
the Catholic
Province of
Maryland and Quaker
Province of Pennsylvania, expressly
settled for the freedom of religion in America, as it did not exist
in Anglican and Puritan England.
These two have largely influenced
formation of the Federal government of
the United States in Washington, D.C.
and outward from the Mid-Atlantic States, the Midwest; Maryland and
Pennsylvania respectively.
There were also
Dutch and
Swedish immigrants, who were allowed to move in
by neglect to settle fast enough the claims made by Queen Elizabeth
(who had a
Dutch protectorate
governed by the Puritan
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of
Leicester, relative of
Lady Jane
Grey and of
Anne Bradstreet, an
influential
Pilgrim; Protestant
William III of England was
Dutch as well and had a feud with his uncle & father-in-law
Catholic
James II of England,
who had conquered the Dutch settlement for himself and added it to
New England), similar to the
French presence
in Canada due to failures by the
Tudor
era English government to occupy
Newfoundland following
John Cabot's discovery for
Henry VII of England. England itself
seized upon the failure of France to seriously follow up on the
claims of
Francis I of France
made by
Giovanni da
Verrazzano. England was preoccupied with the
English Reformation and France was
preoccupied by the
French Wars
of Religion. The
Low Countries is
where English exiles have usually gone to, for either religious or
political reasons, since the
Pale of
Calais was English. Both the pro-
Mary I of England Catholic
Douay-Rheims Bible and the pro-
Edward VI of England Puritan
Marian exiles had English connections there.
Sweden
was where Church of
Scotland
Covenanters went to fight
on behalf of Gustavus
Adolphus of Sweden in the Thirty
Years' War and this is why their settlement had connections
with the Stuart Scottish settlements of the Carolinas on the Great Wagon Road and also Nova Scotia
in Canada
, sharing
together the same log cabin
tradition.
These
Anglo-European migrations indicate why German Americans were also integrated in
Americana, as the British Royal
Family came from and continued to rule the Kingdom of Hanover and their toponymy is
reflected in Georgia
, as well as New Brunswick
, Prince Edward Island
, Alberta
and the Northwest Territories
(once known as Rupert's
Land) in Canada. Despite the voyage of Cabot, English
colonists knew themselves as "Americans" chronologically before
"Canadians", since the latter country was founded by elements of
the American population who were either politically attached to the
Georgians, or were interested in the spoils of war with French
Canada (before called "Quebec
", a
description which included the Great Lakes
, as separate from the Mississippi River-centered French Louisiana
), in the Second Hundred Years' War.
Anglo-Spanish ties dating at least as far back as Queen Mary Tudor
and her husband
Philip II of
Spain (if not Mary's mother,
Catherine of Aragon, or
John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of
Lancaster) influenced American sentiment and policy towards
annexation of Spanish and Mexican territories, which is why
Mexican Americans eventually became
citizens. They were also co-monarchs of
Southern Italy, from whence priests catered
to the English and Irish Catholics and most
Italian Americans today source their
heritage there. Also, one of the famous
First Families of Virginia, was
Taliaferro (anglicized Toliver).
Thus,
statewide majority ancestries of Americans largely owe their place
in America, due to the English component, save for Japanese Americans, whose country did not
have significant relations with England as the others, during the
time of founding the USA—although it was Italian
navigators who charted the early, Catholic claims
for England and other preeminent colonial nations and their attempt
by sailing West, was to reach places such as Japan
.
English
colonial government also resulted in, after the most significant
chapter was concluded in the French and Indian War (Royal Proclamation of 1763), the
first Indian Reserve (eponym
of Indiana
), model of Jeffersonian
plans for Indian removal to the Wild West, originally in Oklahoma
's Indian
Territory.
English immigration after 1776
An estimated 3.5 million English emigrated to the USA after
1776
[737169] English settlers provided a steady and
substantial influx throughout the nineteenth century.
The first wave of
increasing English immigration began in the
late 1820s and was sustained by unrest in the United
Kingdom
until it peaked in 1842 and declined slightly for
nearly a decade. Most of these were small farmers and tenant
farmers from depressed areas in rural counties in southern and
western England and urban laborers who fled from the depressions
and from the social and industrial changes of the late 1820s-1840s.
While some English
immigrants were drawn
by dreams of creating model utopian societies in America, most
others were attracted by the lure of new lands, textile factories,
railroads, and the expansion of mining.
A number of English settlers moved to United States from
Australia in 1850s (then a
British political territory),
when
California Gold Rush
boomed; these included the so-called “
Sydney Ducks” (
see Australian Americans).
During the last years of 1860s, annual English immigration
increased to over 60,000 and continued to rise to over 75,000 per
year in 1872, before experiencing a decline. The final and most
sustained wave of immigration began in 1879 and lasted until the
depression of 1893. During this period English annual immigration
averaged more than 80,000, with peaks in 1882 and 1888. The
building of America's transcontinental railroads, the settlement of
the great plains, and industrialization attracted skilled and
professional emigrants from England. Also, cheaper steamship fares
enabled unskilled urban workers to come to America, and unskilled
and semiskilled laborers, miners, and building trades workers made
up the majority of these new English immigrants. While most settled
in America, a number of skilled craftsmen remained itinerant,
returning to England after a season or two of work. Groups o f
English immigrants came to America as missionaries for the
Salvation Army and to work with the
activities of the
Evangelical and
Mormon Churches.
The depression of 1893 sharply decreased English immigration, and
it stayed low for much of the twentieth century. This decline
reversed itself in the decade of World War II when over 100,000
English (18 percent of all European immigrants) came from England.
In this group was a large contingent of
war
brides who came between 1945 and 1948. In these years four
women emigrated from England for every man. In the 1950s, English
immigration increased to over 150,000.and rose to 170,000 in the
1960s. While differences developed, it is not surprising that
English immigrants had little difficulty in assimilating to
American life. The American resentment against the policies of the
British government as rarely
transferred to English settlers who came to America in the first
decades of the nineteenth century.
Throughout American history, English immigrants and their
descendants have been prominent in every level of government and in
every aspect of American life. Eight of the first ten American
presidents and more than that proportion of the 42 presidents, as
well as the majority of sitting congressmen and congresswomen, are
descended from English ancestors. The descendants of English
expatriates are so numerous and so well integrated in American life
that it is impossible to identify all of them. While they are the
third largest ethnic nationality identified in the 1990 census,
they retain such a pervasive representation at every level of
national and state government that, on any list of American
senators, Supreme Court judges, governors, or legislators, they
would constitute a plurality if not an outright majority.
Political involvement
Colonial period
Image:Generall Historie of Virginia.jpg|"
The
Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer
Isles", by
Capt.
John SmithImage:Declaration
independence.jpg|
John Trumbull's
famous painting,
Declaration of Independence. Two
Red Ensigns, one
British
flag, and one
English flag can
be seen upon the wall.
As the
earliest colonists of the United States, settlers from England
and their
descendants often held positions of power and made or helped make
laws , often because many had been involved in government back in
England. In the original
13
colonies, most laws contained elements found in the English
common law system.
The Founding Fathers
The lineage of most of the
Founding Fathers was
English. Such persons include
Samuel
Adams. Others signatories of the
Declaration of Independence,
such as
Robert Morris were
English born .
Of the "Committee of Five" (the group delegated to
draft the Declaration of Independence), John
Adams of Massachusetts
, Benjamin Franklin
of Pennsylvania
, Thomas Jefferson
of Virginia
, Robert
Livingston of New
York
, and Roger Sherman of
Connecticut
had English roots.
English influence in the United States
English language
The English have contributed greatly to American life. Today,
English is the most commonly spoken language in the U.S, where it
is estimated that one third of all native speakers of English
live.
English was
inherited from
British colonization,
and it is spoken by the vast majority of the population. It serves
as the
de facto official language:
the language in which government business is carried out. According
to the 1990 census, 94% of the U.S. population speak only English.
Adding those who speak English "well" or "very well" brings this
figure to 96%. Only 0.8% speak no English at all as compared with
3.6% in 1890.
American English is
different from
British English in
terms of spelling (a classic example being the dropped "u" in words
such as color/colour), grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and slang
usage. The differences are not usually a barrier to effective
communication between an
American
English and a
British English
speaker, but there are certainly enough differences to cause
occasional misunderstandings, usually surrounding slang or region
dialect differences.
Some
states, like California
, have amended their constitutions to make English
the only official language, but in practice, this only means that
official government documents must at least be in English,
and does not mean that they should be exclusively
available only in English. For example, the standard
California Class C
driver's license
examination is available in 32 different languages.
Culture
Much of
American
culture also shows influences from English culture. For
example, popular American sports such as
baseball and
American
football have their origins in sports played in England in the
19th century.Another area of cultural influence, the
American national anthem takes its
melody from the 18th century English song "
To Anacreon in Heaven" and lyrics
written by an English American called
Francis Scott Key.
Places in
the United States named after those in England include New York
(after York
), New Hampshire
(after Hampshire),
Manchester
, Boston
, Southampton
, Gloucester
and the region of New England
. In addition, some places were named after
the
English royal family. The
name Virginia was first applied by Queen
Elizabeth I (the "Virgin Queen") and Sir Walter
Raleigh in 1584.
, the Carolinas
were named after King Charles I
and Maryland
named so for his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria (Queen
Mary).
Architecture such as the
United
States Capitol
building in Washington, D.C.
which was first designed by English-educated
American Architect William
Thornton. Also, many American college campuses, such as Yale
, Princeton
University
, and the University of Delaware
, have Gothic or Georgian looks.
The
American legal system
also has its roots in
English law. For
example, elements of the
Magna Carta
were incorporated into the
United States constitution.
English law prior to the
revolution is still part of the law of
the United States, and provides the basis for many American legal
traditions and policies.After the revolution, English law was again
adopted by the now independent American States.
Presidents of English Descent
A number of the Presidents of the United States have English
Ancestry. The extent of English Heritage varies in the presidents
with earlier presidents being predominantly of English Yankee
stock. Later US Presidents ancestry can often be traced to
ancestors from multiple nations in Europe, including England. The
current President, Barack Obama, has English heritage originating
from his Kansas born mother whose ancestry is English and Irish,
while his father was a black Kenyan.
- George
Washington, 1st President 1789-97 (great-grandfather, John Washington from Purleigh
, Essex, England
.)
- John Adams, 2nd
President 1797-1801 (great-great-grandfather, Henry Adams born 1583
Barton St
David
, Somerset
, England
, immigrated
to Boston
, Massachusetts
.)
- Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President
1801–1809 (Maternal English ancestry from William Randolph.)
- James Madison, 4th President
1809-17
- James Monroe, 5th President
1817-25
- John Quincy
Adams, 6th President 1825-29 (Henry Adams born 1583 Barton St
David
, Somerset
, England
.)
- Zachary Taylor, 12th President
1849-50
- James Buchanan, 15th President
1857-61
- Abraham
Lincoln, 16th President 1861-65 (Samuel Lincoln baptised 1622 in Hingham, Norfolk, England
, died in
Hingham,
Massachusetts
.)
- Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President 1869-77
- James A. Garfield, 20th President 1881-81
- Chester A. Arthur, 21st President 1881-85
- Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th
President 1885-89, 1893-97
- Benjamin Harrison, 23rd
President 1889-93
- William McKinley, 25th
President 1897-1901
- Warren G. Harding, 29th President 1921-23
- Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd President 1933-45
- Harry S. Truman, 33rd President 1945-53
- Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President 1963-69
- Richard Nixon, 37th President
1969-74
- Gerald Ford, 38th President
1974-77
- Jimmy Carter, 39th President
1977-81
- George H. W. Bush,
41st President 1989-93
- Bill Clinton, 42nd President
1993-2001
- George W. Bush, 43rd President 2001-2009 (Reynold Bush
from Messing
, Essex, England
emigrated in
1631 to Cambridge, Massachusetts
.)
- Barack Obama, 44th President
2009-Present
Notables
See
List of English
Americans
Image:Benjamin Franklin by Jean-Baptiste Greuze.jpg|Benjamin FranklinImage:John Quincy
Adams.jpg|John Quincy
AdamsImage:Jm4.gif|James
MadisonFile:William Clark.jpg|William ClarkImage:Abraham Lincoln
head on shoulders photo portrait.jpg|Abraham LincolnImage:Ulysses Grant
1870-1880.jpg|Ulysses S. GrantFile:Thomas Edison2.jpgThomas EdisonImage:North by Northwest movie
trailer screenshot (26).jpg|Cary
GrantFile:Lucy YankArmy cropped.jpg|Lucille
BallFile:Official_portrait_of_Barack_Obama.jpg|Barack ObamaImage:Richardgere.jpg|Richard GereFile:Hillary Clinton official
Secretary of State portrait crop.jpg|Hillary Rodham
ClintonFile:JustinTimberlakeJune07 crop.jpg|Justin Timberlake
See also
References
- Reynolds Farley, 'The New Census Question about Ancestry: What
Did It Tell Us?', Demography, Vol. 28, No. 3 (August
1991), pp. 414, 421.
- Stanley Lieberson and Lawrence Santi, 'The Use of Nativity Data
to Estimate Ethnic Characteristics and Patterns', Social
Science Research, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1985), pp. 44-6.
- Stanley Lieberson and Mary C. Waters, 'Ethnic Groups in Flux:
The Changing Ethnic Responses of American Whites', Annals of
the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol.
487, No. 79 (September 1986), pp. 82-86.
- Mary C. Waters, Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in
America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), p.
36.
- English Emigration
- Ethnic groups in the U.S in 1775 Census
- United States Federal Census
- Historical U.S population by race
- The Source: Gen
- U.S 1790 Census
- World Culture Encyclopedia
- Brits Abroad
- English Ethnicity 2005
- [1]
- The Laws of Olde England Stateside, Marcus Hampshire
- Historians.org
- The Colonial Period
- [2] "Laban Adams belongs to the illustrious
family of Henry Adams who came from Devonshire, England, about 1636
and settled in Quincy, Mass. His great great grandson, Samuel
Adams, was the "Father of the Great American Revolution,"
- UShistory - Robert Morris
- Benjamin Franklin Timeline
- Languages Spoken in the United States.
- History of Baseball.
- American Football.
- Star-Spangled Banner origins
- Star Spangled Banner
- 50 States - NY.
- Netstate - New Hampshire.
- Manchester
History.
- Boston History.
- Southampton, Massachusetts.
- In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh sent Philip Amadas and
Arthur
Barlowe to lead an exploration of what is now the North Carolina coast,
and they returned with word of a regional "king" named "Wingina."
This was modified later that year by Raleigh and the Queen to
"Virginia", perhaps in part noting her status as the "Virgin
Queen."
- Introduction to Maryland
- Sources of United States Legal Information
- Magna Carta
- COMMON LAW V. CIVIL LAW SYSTEMS
- Henry Adams born 1583 Barton St David, Somerset, England
- Henry Adams
- The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, James Henry Lea,
Robert Hutchinson, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1909, p.
4.
- Ancestors of Abraham Lincoln
- George W Bush, Essex boy