English Americans

Group	English Americans
Image
Population	Alone (one ancestry) 25,536,410 (2020 census) 7.70% of the total US population Alone or in combination 46,550,968 (2020 census) 14.04% of the total US population
Regions	Found Nationwide with significant populations in the South and New England
Region1	Illinois
Pop1	3,754,933
Region2	Texas
Pop2	3,520,547
Region3	Florida
Pop3	2,540,795
Region4	Ohio
Pop4	2,037,771
Region5	North Carolina
Pop5	1,869,609
Region6	New York
Pop6	1,641,789
Region7	Pennsylvania
Pop7	1,641,137
Region8	Michigan
Pop8	1,637,351
Region9	Georgia
Pop9	1,594,956
Region10	Tennessee
Pop10	1,430,466
Langs	English
Rels	Traditionally Christianity
Related	Other English diaspora, American ancestry, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, Old Stock Americans, other British Americans, White Americans, European Americans, Irish Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, Cornish Americans, Scotch-Irish Americans, Dutch Americans, German Americans, French Americans, Scandinavian Americans

Overview

Despite their status as the largest self-identified ancestral-origin group in the United States, demographers still regard the number of English Americans as an undercount. As most English Americans are the descendants of settlers who first arrived during the colonial period which began over 400 years ago, many Americans are either unaware of this heritage or choose to elect a more recent known ancestral group even if English is their primary ancestry.

The term is distinct from British Americans, which includes not only English Americans but also others from the United Kingdom such as Scottish, Scotch-Irish (descendants of Ulster Scots from Ulster and Northern Ireland), Welsh, Cornish, Manx Americans and Channel Islanders. In 1980, 49.6 million Americans claimed English ancestry. At 26.34%, this was the largest group amongst the 188 million people who reported at least one ancestry. The population was 226 million which would have made the English ancestry group 22% of the total.

Scotch-Irish Americans are for the most part descendants of Lowland Scots and Northern English (specifically County Durham, Cumberland, Northumberland and Yorkshire) settlers who migrated to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. Additionally, African Americans tend to have a significant degree of English and Lowland Scots ancestry tracing back to the Colonial period, typically ranging between 17 and 29%. English immigrants in the 19th century, as with other groups, sought economic prosperity. They began migrating in large numbers, without state support, in the 1840s and continued into the 1890s.

English American elites, known as "WASPs" (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of American history. The majority of presidents of the United States, as well as the majority of sitting U.S. congressmen and congresswomen, were born into families of English ancestry. The majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States were also of English ancestry. Ivy League universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University were established by and have been mostly composed of WASPs.

Historically, many different ethnic groups assimilated into the Anglo-American population during and after the British colonial period, specifically Germans, Irishmen, Swedes, French Huguenots, Native Americans, Africans, Dutchmen, and Finns. This intermarriage resulted in the creation of a uniquely Anglo-American frontier identity, specifically in the Upland South.

In states such as Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, and California; former colonies of Spain and France, Anglo-American settlers developed a cohesive identity centered around their Protestantism, English language, and British colonial heritage. Despite the overwhelming majority of Anglo settlers being native-born white American Protestants of colonial immigrant ancestry, there were also English, French-Canadian, Irish, German, Jewish, Melungeon and even Catholic settlers as well. Many Anglos married into the families of Spanish, French, and Mexican elites.

An early expression of Anglo-American nationalism occurred during the Texas Revolution, when revolutionaries created flags which included the British Union Jack, George Washington, and elements of the American flag. The term Anglo-American can be ambiguous and used in several different ways. While it is primarily intended to refer to people of English ancestry, it (along with terms like Anglo, Anglic, Anglophone, and Anglophonic) is also used to denote all people of British or Northwestern European ancestry. Most broadly it is used to include all people of Northwestern European ethnic origin who currently speak English as a mother tongue and their descendants are in the New World, thus including a large assimilated group of mostly Protestant Europeans.

Sense of identity

Number of English Americans

As the primary founding group, the original 17th century settlers were overwhelmingly English. Most of these early settlers came from what is referred to as Southern England. The largest migration from the British Isles occurred in the 18th century, and consisted of around 250,000 settlers of mainly Northern English and Scottish origin. From the time of the first permanent English presence in the New World until the 1900s, these migrants and their descendants outnumbered all others firmly establishing the English cultural pattern as predominant for the American version.

1700–1775

According to studies and estimates, the ethnic populations in the British American Colonies from 1700 onwards were: (*Georgia not included)

Ethnic composition of the American Colonies
1700 / %		1755 / %		1775 / %
English / Welsh	80.0	English / Welsh	52.0	English	48.7
African	11.0	African	20.0	African	20.0
Dutch	4.0	German	7.0	Scots-Irish	7.8
Scottish	3.0	Scots-Irish	7.0	German	6.9
Other European	2.0	Irish	5.0	Scottish	6.6
		Scottish	4.0	Dutch	2.7
		Dutch	3.0	French	1.4
		Other European	2.0	Swedish	0.6
				Other	5.3
Colonies*	100.0	Thirteen Colonies	100.0	United Colonies	100.0

Data

National origins: 1790–1900

English American population estimates (1790)

The 1909 Century of Population Growth report came under intense scrutiny in the 1920s; its methodology was subject to criticism over fundamental flaws that cast doubt on the accuracy of its conclusions. The catalyst for controversy had been passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, which imposed numerical quotas on each country of Europe limiting the number of immigrants to be admitted out of a finite total annual pool. The size of each national quota was determined by the National Origins Formula, in part computed by estimating the origins of the colonial stock population descended from White Americans enumerated in the 1790 Census.

The undercount of other colonial stocks like German Americans and Irish Americans would thus have contemporary policy consequences. When CPG was produced in 1909, the concept of independent Ireland did not even exist. CPG made no attempt to further classify its estimated 1.9% Irish population to distinguish Celtic Irish Catholics of Gaelic Ireland, who in 1922 formed the independent Irish Free State, from the Scotch-Irish descendants of Ulster Scots and Anglo-Irish of the Plantation of Ulster, which became Northern Ireland and remained part of the United Kingdom. In 1927, proposed immigration quotas based on CPG figures were rejected by the President's Committee chaired by the Secretaries of State, Commerce, and Labor, with the President reporting to Congress "the statistical and historical information available raises grave doubts as to the whole value of these computations as the basis for the purposes intended."

Among the criticisms of A Century of Population Growth:

• CPG failed to account for Anglicization of names, assuming any surname that could be English was actually English
• CPG failed to consider first names even when obviously foreign, assuming anyone with a surname that could be English was actually English
• CPG started by classifying all names as Scotch, Irish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, or other. All remaining names which could not be classed with one of the 6 other listed nationalities, nor identified by the Census clerk as too exotic to be English, were assumed to be English
• CPG classification was an unscientific process by Census clerks with no training in history, genealogy, or linguistics, nor were scholars in those fields consulted
• CPG estimates were produced by a linear process with no checks on potential errors nor opportunity for peer review or scholarly revision once an individual clerk had assigned a name to a nationality

Concluding that CPG "had not been accepted by scholars as better than a first approximation of the truth", the Census Bureau commissioned a study to produce new scientific estimates of the colonial American population, in collaboration with the American Council of Learned Societies, in time to be adopted as basis for legal immigration quotas in 1929, and later published in the journal of the American Historical Association, reproduced in the table below. Note: as in the original CPG report, the "English" category encompassed England and Wales, grouping together all names classified as either "Anglican" (from England) or "Cambrian" (from Wales).

Estimated English American population in the Continental United States as of the 1790 Census.

Another source by Thomas L. Purvis in 1984 estimated that people of English ancestry made up about 47.5% of the total population or 60.9% of the European American or white population (his figures can also be found, and as divided by region, in Colin Bonwick, The American Revolution, 1991 p. 2540-839-1346-2). The study which gives similar results can be found in The American Revolution, Colin Bonwick in percentages for 1790: 47.9 English, 3.5 Welsh, 8.5 Scotch Irish (Ulster), 4.3 Scottish, 4.7 Irish (South), 7.2 German, 2.7 Dutch, 1.7 French, 0.2 Swedish, 19.3 Black, 103.4 British. The difference between the two estimates are found by comparing the ratios of the groups (adding and subtracting) to accommodate and adding the Welsh.

The category 'Irish' in the Bonwick study represents immigrants from Ireland outside the province of Ulster, the overwhelming majority of whom were Protestant and not ethnically Irish, though from Ireland. They were not Irish Catholics. By the time the American War for Independence started in 1776, Catholics were 1.6%, or 40,000 persons of the 2.5 million population of the 13 colonies.

Some 80.7% of the total United States population was of European origin.

Using the first model above, in 1900, an estimated 28,375,000 or 37.8% of the population of the United States was wholly or partly of English ancestry from colonial roots. The estimate was based on the Census Bureaus Estimate that approximately thirty five million white Americans were descended from colonial forebears.

Census

1980

In 1980, 23,748,772 Americans claimed only English ancestry and another 25,849,263 claimed English along with another ethnic ancestry. 13.3 million or 5.9% of the total U.S. population chose to identify as "American" (counted under "not specified") as also seen in censuses that followed. Below shows the persons who reported at least one specific ancestry are as follows.

1990

In 1990, the national level response rate for the question was high with 90.4% of the total United States population choosing at least one specific ancestry and 9.6% ignored the question completely. Of those who chose English, 66.9% of people chose it as their first response.

Totals for the English showed a considerable decrease from the previous census.

Responses for "American" slightly decreased both numerically and as a percentage from 5.9% to 5.2% in 1990 with most being from the South.

2000

In the 2000 census, 24.5 million or 8.7% of Americans reported English ancestry, a decline of some eight million people. At the national level, the response rate for the ancestry question fell to 80.1% of the total U.S. population, while 19.9% were unclassified or ignored the question completely. It was the fourth largest ancestral group. Some Cornish Americans may not identify as English American or British American, even though Cornwall had been part of England since long before their ancestors arrived in North America. Responses were:

2010 ACS

In 2010, the official census did not include a question on origins or ancestry. However, the American Community Survey enumerated Americans reporting English ancestry at 27.4 million, 9.0% of the U.S. population; in 2015, 24.8 million, 7.8% of the population. A decade thereafter, in 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau recorded 25.2 million Americans reporting full or partial English ancestry, about 7.7% of the U.S. population.

2020

Results for the 2020 United States census showed that English Americans were the largest group in the United States where 25,536,410 (12.5%) identified as "English alone" with a further 21 million choosing English combined with another ethnic origin.

The total is 46,550,968 Americans self-identifying as being of English origin representing (19.8%) of the White American alone or in any combination population.

Geographical distribution

1980

2000

English Americans are found in large numbers throughout the United States, particularly in the Northeast, South and West.

Cities

The following are the top 20 highest percentages of people of English ancestry, in U.S. communities (total list of the 101 communities, see source):

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2020 census by state

History

The English came to North America because of their desire to counter the Spanish and French influence in the New World.

In the sixteenth century, Spain became increasingly affluent and powerful due to its control over the New World. England, apprehensive about its prospects, sought to partake in the New World trade similarly to the Spanish. When Spain declined to share its wealth, English privateers commenced assaults on Spanish vessels and settlements throughout the Americas. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake launched an attack on St. Augustine, Florida, the principal city in Spanish Florida, setting it ablaze. This conflict persisted for nearly two decades. Ultimately, in 1604, both nations ratified a peace treaty. Consequently, England was poised to assert its claim over North America. The English sought to emulate the Spanish by colonizing the Americas.

Early settlement and colonization

English overseas possessions

English immigration after 1776

Cultural similarities and a common language allowed English immigrants to integrate rapidly and gave rise to a unique Anglo-American culture. An estimated 3.5 million English immigrated to the U.S. after 1776. English settlers provided a steady and substantial influx throughout the 19th century.

A number of English settlers moved to the United States from Australia in the 1850s (then a British political territory), when the California Gold Rush boomed; these included the so-called "Sydney Ducks" (see Australian Americans). In prior eras there were English-centered cultural events such as Morris dance events and Saint George's Day. There had been conflicts between English immigrant groups and Irish immigrant groups. A magazine article from The Republic in 1852 had criticized English immigrants for remaining loyal to the British Crown.

During the last years of the 1860s, annual English immigration grew 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 82,000, with peaks in 1882 and 1888 and did not drop significantly until the financial panic of 1893. The building of America's transcontinental railroads, the settlement of the great plains, and industrialization attracted skilled and professional emigrants from England.

Political influence

As early colonists of the United States, settlers from England and their descendants often held positions of power and made and enforced laws, often because many had been involved in government back in England. In the original Thirteen Colonies, most laws contained elements found in the English common law system. The majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States were of English extraction. A minority were of high social status and can be classified as White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP). Many of the prewar WASP elite were Loyalists who left the new nation.

While WASPs have been major players in every major American political party, an exceptionally strong association has existed between WASPs and the Republican Party, before the 1980s. A few top Democrats qualified, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt. Northeastern Republican leaders such as Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts, Prescott Bush of Connecticut and especially Nelson Rockefeller of New York exemplified the pro-business liberal Republicanism of their social stratum, espousing internationalist views on foreign policy, supporting social programs, and holding liberal views on issues like racial integration. A famous confrontation was the 1952 Senate election in Massachusetts where John F. Kennedy, a Catholic of Irish descent, defeated WASP Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. However the challenge by Barry Goldwater in 1964 to the Eastern Republican establishment helped undermine the WASP dominance. Goldwater himself had solid WASP credentials through his mother, of a prominent old Yankee family, but was instead mistakenly seen as part of the Jewish community (which he had never associated with). By the 1980s, the liberal Rockefeller Republican wing of the party was marginalized, overwhelmed by the dominance of the Southern and Western conservative Republicans.

Asking "Is the WASP leader a dying breed?" journalist Nina Strochlic in 2012 pointed to eleven WASP top politicians—typically scions of upper class English families. She ended with Republicans George H. W. Bush elected in 1988, his son George W. Bush elected in 2000 and 2004, and John McCain, who was nominated but defeated in 2008.

Relations with Native Americans

Indian commerce with early English colonists and the early United States
When English colonists initiated the establishment of colonies on the North American continent, they aspired to coexist harmoniously with their Native American neighbors. The English believed that their indigenous counterparts would acknowledge the superiority of English civilization and would seek to imitate the English colonists. Regrettably for the English settlers, the Native Americans were not inclined to fulfill these expectations. Equally troubling for the colonists was the fact that several of their own found Indian culture more appealing than English society. This situation alarmed colonial leaders, prompting all colonies to take measures to prevent their citizens from adopting Native American lifestyles. The English colonists exhibited an unquenchable desire for Native American lands. To rationalize their appropriation of Indian territory, English officials and colonists relied on three specific justifications. Firstly, they asserted their claim to the land by virtue of discovery. Secondly, they claimed the land through conquest. Lastly, they contended that they had a superior right to the land because they could utilize it more effectively than the Native Americans. Land was arguably the most significant source of tension in Anglo-Indian relations during the colonial era.

Language

American English

Expression

"In for a penny, in for a pound" is an expression to mean, ("if you're going to take a risk at all, you might as well make it a big risk"), is used in the United States which dates back to the colonial period, when cash in the colonies was denominated in Pounds, shillings and Pence.

Cultural contributions

Cuisine

Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies
Some English foods appear similar to American dishes but are prepared or used differently. For example, baked beans on toast are commonly eaten for breakfast or as a quick comfort meal in England. Broiled tomatoes are also a typical breakfast item. "Mushy peas" are dried marrowfat peas cooked into a soft mush, often served like mashed potatoes. What Americans call "potato chips" are known as "crisps" in England, while English "chips" refer to what Americans call "French fries." In England, cider usually means alcoholic "hard cider," unlike in the United States where it often refers to pressed apple juice. Additionally, tea in England can mean both a drink and a type of meal. "High tea" is a more formal dinner with a wide variety of dishes, whereas "low tea" is an afternoon snack featuring cakes, scones, biscuits, small sandwiches, fruit, and cheese served with tea and other beverages. English scones are more like sweet baking-powder biscuits rather than the cake-like cookies common in the U.S., and "biscuits" in England are what Americans call cookies. Some dishes considered to have English origins in the United States include roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, beef Wellington, dessert trifles, bangers and mash and fish and chips. Other distinctly English products available in the U.S. include Weetabix breakfast cereal, Marmite, marmalade, Nutella, clotted cream, treacle and Cadbury's chocolate.

• Apple pie – New England was the first region to experience large-scale English colonization in the early 17th century, beginning in 1620, and it was dominated by East Anglian Calvinists, better known as the Puritans. Baking was a particular favorite of the New Englanders and was the origin of dishes seen today as quintessentially "American", such as apple pie and the oven-roasted Thanksgiving turkey. "As American as apple pie" is a well-known phrase used to suggest that something is all-American.
• Roast beef – In the middle of the 17th century a second wave of English immigrants began arriving in North America, settling mainly in the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia and Maryland, expanding upon the Jamestown settlement. Their roast beef was often served with Yorkshire puddings and horseradish sauce.
• Strawberry shortcake – The dish came from England and rapidly became a classic in American cuisine. Early English settlers discovered strawberries that they viewed as a symbol of America's plentiful resources and even the dish continues to be a seasonal favorite in American culinary traditions.

Celebrations

• Thanksgiving was celebrated by English settlers to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive the brutal winter. This feast lasted three days, as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow.

Law

The American legal system also has its roots in English law. English law prior to the American 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.

Education

The first American schools opened in the 17th century in New England. Boston Latin School was founded in 1635 and is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States. The first free taxpayer-supported public school in North America, the Mather School, was opened in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1639.

New England had a long emphasis on literacy in order that individuals could read the Bible. Harvard College was founded by the colonial legislature in 1636, and named after an early benefactor. Most of the funding came from the colony, but the college began to build an endowment from its early years. Harvard at first focused on training young men for the ministry, but many alumni went into law, medicine, government or business. The college was a leader in bringing Newtonian science to the colonies.

A school of higher education for both Native American young men and the sons of the colonists was one of the earliest goals of the leaders of the Colony of Virginia. The College of William & Mary was founded on February 8, 1693, under a royal charter (legally, letters patent) to "make, found and establish a certain Place of Universal Study, a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and other good arts and sciences...to be supported and maintained, in all time coming." Named in honor of the reigning monarchs King William III and Queen Mary II, the college is the second oldest college in the United States. It hired the first law professor and trained many of the lawyers, politicians, and leading planters. Students headed for the ministry were given free tuition.

Yale College was founded by Puritans in 1701, and in 1716 was relocated to New Haven, Connecticut. The conservative Puritan ministers of Connecticut had grown dissatisfied with the more liberal theology of Harvard, and wanted their own school to train orthodox ministers. However president Thomas Clap (1740–1766) strengthened the curriculum in the natural sciences and made Yale a stronghold of revivalist New Light theology.

The Colonial Colleges are nine institutions of higher education that were chartered in the Thirteen Colonies before the United States of America became a sovereign nation after the American Revolutionary War. These nine have long been considered together, notably since the survey of their origins in the 1907 The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Seven of the nine colonial colleges became seven of the eight Ivy League universities: Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, and Brown.

Music

• National anthem – The Star-Spangled Banner takes its melody from the 18th-century English song "The Anacreontic Song" written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. The lyrics were written by Francis Scott Key of English descent. This became a well-known and recognized patriotic song throughout the United States, which was officially designated as the U.S. national anthem in 1931.
• Hail to the Chief – is the song to announce the arrival or presence of the President of the United States. English songwriter James Sanderson (), composed the music and was first performed in 1812 in New York.

• The Liberty Song – written by John Dickinson of English descent in 1768 to the music of Englishman William Boyce's "Heart of Oak", is perhaps the first patriotic song written in America. The song contains the line "by uniting we stand, by dividing we fall", the first recorded use of the sentiment.
• America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee) – whose melody was indirectly derived from the British national anthem, also served as a de facto anthem before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

• Amazing Grace – written by English poet and clergyman John Newton became such an icon in American culture that it has been used for a variety of secular purposes and marketing campaigns, placing it in danger of becoming a cliché.
• Yankee Doodle – is written and accredited to Englishman Richard Shuckburgh an army doctor. The tune comes from the English nursery rhyme Lucy Locket.

Sports

• Baseball was invented in England. English lawyer William Bray recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, Surrey; Bray's diary was verified as authentic in September 2008. This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by British immigrants. The first appearance of the term that exists in print was in "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book" in 1744, where it is called Base-Ball.
• American football traces its roots to early versions of rugby football, played in England and first developed in American universities in the mid-19th century.

Religion

The predominant faith among English colonists was Protestant Christianity, with variations in specific denominations depending on the region. The New England colonies were primarily inhabited by Puritans and Congregationalists, who aimed to reform the Church of England. In the Middle Colonies, a variety of Protestant groups, including Quakers and Mennonites, coexisted with Anglicans, whereas the Southern Colonies were mainly Anglican, mirroring the established Church of England.

Most common family last names

In 2010, the top ten family names in the United States, seven have English origins or having possible mixed British Isles heritage, the other three being of Spanish and/or Basque origin.

Many African Americans have their origins in slavery (i.e. slave name) and ancestrally came to bear the surnames of their former owners. Many freed slaves either created family names themselves or adopted the name of their former master. Due to anti-German xenophobia during the first and second world wars, some German families anglicized their names. For example, changing "Schmidt" to "Smith," causing an increase of English names.

Locations with an English-origin name

Locations in the United States with an English name

Alabama

• Birmingham for Birmingham, West Midlands
• Bradford, Alabama, for Bradford, West Yorkshire
• Brighton for Brighton, West Sussex
• Langdale, named for the Lang textile manufacturing family from Oldham, Greater Manchester
• Leeds, for Leeds, West Yorkshire
• Sheffield, Alabama for Sheffield, South Yorkshire
• Woodstock, for Woodstock, Oxfordshire
• York, for York, North Yorkshire

California

• Jesmond Dene, named after Jesmond Dene in Newcastle upon Tyne.
• Keswick, for Keswick, Cumberland
• Westminster after Westminster in London
• Exeter after Exeter, Devon
• Windsor after Windsor, Berkshire

Connecticut

• Avon after Avon, England
• Colchester after Colchester, England
• Cornwall after Cornwall, England
• Danbury after Danbury, Essex, England
• Enfield after Enfield, London, England
• Greenwich after Greenwich, England
• Guilford after Guildford, England
• Kent after Kent, England
• Litchfield after Lichfield, England
• New London after London, England
• Norwich after Norwich, England
• Stamford after Stamford, Lincolnshire, England
• Stratford named after Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, owing to the English town's prestige as the birthplace of playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616).
• Windsor after Windsor, Berkshire, in England

Delaware

• Dover after Dover, England
• Wilmington named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister in the reign of George II of Great Britain.

Florida

• Windermere, named for Windermere, Westmorland, the largest lake of the Lake District and England.

Georgia

• Georgia was named after King George II.
• Acton, for Acton, London.
• Camden County, for English jurist Sir Charles Pratt, Earl of Camden (1714–1794).
• Chatsworth, for Chatsworth, Derbyshire
• Cumberland Island, named for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland (1721–1765).
• Dungeness, on Cumberland Island, named for Dungeness in Kent, where the Duke of Cumberland held a county seat.
• Effingham County, for Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham (1746–1791) an English nobleman.
• Epworth, for Epworth, Lincolnshire.
• Eton, for Eton College, Berkshire
• Fairburn, for Fairburn, West Riding of Yorkshire.
• Liverpool, for Liverpool, Lancashire.
• Malvern, for Malvern, Worcestershire.
• Hardwick, for Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1690–1764), Lord High Chancellor of England.
• Harris County, named for the English lawyer Charles Harris (1772–1827).
• Manchester, Georgia, for Manchester, Lancashire
• Midway River, possibly for River Medway, Kent.
• Oglethorpe, after James Oglethorpe (1696–1785), an English Member of Parliament.
• Oxford, for Oxford University, Oxfordshire.
• Saint George's Parish (now Burke County), for Saint George, the Patron Saint of England.
• Tweed, after the River Tweed in southeastern Scotland and Northumberland in northern England.
• Wilmington Island, for Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington (1673–1743).
• Winchester, for Winchester, Hampshire.
• Windsor, for Windsor, Berkshire.
• Wooster, for George Wooster, the Englishman who established the first post office here in the 1870s.
• York, Georgia, named for York, the county town of Yorkshire in northern England.

Illinois

• Albion, named for Albion, a poetic name for England derived from an ancient name for Britain.
• Brereton, possibly for Brereton, Staffordshire.
• Burton, for Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire.
• Chesterfield, probably for Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
• Lincolnshire, named for Lincolnshire, a county in England.
• Stratford, probably for Stratford-upon-Avon, in honour of the English town being the birthplace of William Shakespeare (1564–1616).

Indiana

• Avon, named for Avon, an English river name.
• Darlington, named for Darlington, County Durham, for its links to Quakerism.

Kentucky

• Cumberland River in Kentucky and northern Tennessee (with Cumberland Gap, Mountains and Plateau), named in the 1750s for the northern English county of Cumberland, if not the Duke of Cumberland.
• Epworth, for Epworth, Lincolnshire.
• London, for London
• Manchester, Kentucky, for Manchester, Lancashire.
• Kingston, possibly for Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire.
• Middlesboro, founded as "Middlesborough", for the town now known as Middlesbrough, North Riding of Yorkshire.
• Newstead, for Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire.
• Stanford, for Stamford, Lincolnshire.
• Richardsville, named for English-born wagonmaker Thomas Richards (1812–1896).
• Wendover, for Wendover, Buckinghamshire
• Williba, for Willoughby, Lincolnshire

Maine

• Berwick, named for Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland.
• Kittery, for Kittery Court, Kingswear, Devon.
• Leeds, for Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire.
• Newcastle, for Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (1693–1768).
• Winthrop, for Suffolk-born John Winthrop (1588–1649), the 2nd colonial Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Maryland

• Maryland named so for Queen Henrietta Maria (Queen Mary).
• Anne Arundel County, named for Lady Ann Arundell (1615–1649), the daughter of Wiltshire noble Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour.
• Barton, named for Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, the hometown of the father of an early settler.
• Brinklow, for Brinklow, Warwickshire
• Chevy Chase, named for "The Battle of Chevy Chase", a 15th-century English ballad about a hunt led by the Earl of Northumberland.
• Cumberland, for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland (1721–1765).
• Darlington, for Darlington, County Durham
• Manchester, named for Manchester, England.
• Pomfret, named for Pontefract, West Riding of Yorkshire.

Massachusetts

• Andover, for Andover, Hampshire
• Attleboro, for Attleborough, Norfolk.
• Beverly, after Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire.
• Billerica, for Billericay, Essex
• Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire
• Boxford, for Boxford, Suffolk
• Braintree after Braintree, Essex
• Cambridge, for Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.
• Chelmsford, for Chelmsford, Essex
• Framingham, for Framlingham, Suffolk
• Gloucester after Gloucester, Gloucestershire
• Groton, for Groton, Suffolk
• Hadley, for Hadleigh, Suffolk.
• Haverhill, for Haverhill, Suffolk
• Hingham, for Hingham, Norfolk
• Holland, for Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland (1705–1774)
• Ipswich, for Ipswich, Suffolk
• Kragsyde, for Cragside, Northumberland
• Lancaster, for Lancaster, Lancashire, the hometown of an early settler.
• Leominster after Leominster, Herefordshire
• Lynn, for King's Lynn, Norfolk
• Malden, for Maldon, Essex
• Manchester-by-the-Sea, for Manchester, Lancashire
• Marlborough after Marlborough, Wiltshire
• Northampton after Northampton, Northamptonshire
• Newton, for Newton, Norfolk
• Plymouth, for Plymouth, Devon, the port from which the first Pilgrim settlers departed in 1620
• Rowley, for Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire
• Shrewsbury, named after George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury
• Southampton after Southampton, Hampshire
• Springfield after Springfield, Essex
• Sunderland, after Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (1675–1722)
• Topsfield, for Toppesfield, Essex
• Woburn, for Woburn, Bedfordshire
• Worcester, after Worcester, Worcestershire, England
• Wrentham, for Wrentham, Suffolk

Michigan

• Birmingham, Oakland County after Birmingham, West Midlands.
• Sherwood, for Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire

Missouri

• Leeds (area of Kansas City), for Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire.
• Sheffield (area of Kansas City), for Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire.

New Hampshire

• New Hampshire state (after Hampshire)
• Acworth, New Hampshire for Sir Jacob Acworth, a former Surveyor of the Royal Navy.
• Allenstown, New Hampshire for Samuel Allen, English proprietor and governor of the Province of New Hampshire
• Alton, New Hampshire for Alton, a small market town in Hampshire, England.
• Amherst, New Hampshire for General Jeffery Amherst, who served as Commander-in-Chief, North America during the French and Indian War.
• Barrington, New Hampshire, named for Samuel Shute of Barrington Hall, colonial governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. His brother was John Shute Barrington, 1st Viscount Barrington.
• Bath, New Hampshire, for the politician William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath.
• Bedford, New Hampshire , for John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford
• Boscawen, New Hampshire, for Edward Boscawen, the British admiral who distinguished himself at the 1758 Siege of Louisbourg.
• Cheshire County, for Cheshire.
• Croydon, named for Croydon, Surrey.
• Dover, for Dover, Kent
• Hillsborough County, after Wills Hill, 1st Earl of Hillsborough (1718–1793).
• Manchester after Manchester, England
• Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for Portsmouth
• Strafford County, for William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (1626–1695).
• Winchester, New Hampshire, for Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton who also served as the Marquess of Winchester

New Jersey

• Amwell, for Amwell, Hertfordshire.
• Andover, for Andover, Hampshire
• Asbury Park, named for Staffordshire-born bishop Francis Asbury (1745-1816)
• Avon-by-the-Sea, New Jersey for Avon, England
• Beverly, for Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire
• Burlington County with Burlington for Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire
• Camden named by local Jacob Cooper after Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden.
• Chesterfield, for Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
• Cumberland County named for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland (1721–1765).
• Deal, for Deal, Kent
• Deptford, for the port Deptford, Kent.
• Dover, for Dover, Kent
• Essex County, for the county English county Essex.
• Gloucester County and Gloucester City after the city of Gloucester / county of Gloucestershire in England.
• Kenilworth, for Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire
• Leeds Point, for Daniel Leeds, 17th century local surveyor born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire.
• Mansfield, for Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
• Margate City, for Margate, Kent
• New Durham, for Durham, County Durham.
• Newark for Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire.
• Penns Grove, Penns Neck and Pennsville, for English Quaker William Penn (1644–1718).
• Shrewsbury, for Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
• Somerset County with Somerville, for the English county Somerset.
• Stafford, New Jersey, named for the English county of Staffordshire, of which Stafford is the county town.
• Woolwich, for Woolwich, London.

New York

• Cornwall (originally "New Cornwall") after the county of Cornwall in southwest England
• Liverpool Village after Liverpool England.
• New York City (after the Duke of York)
• New York (State) (also after the Duke of York)
• Scarsdale, after Scarsdale in northern Derbyshire, England.
• Suffolk County after Suffolk, England

North Carolina

• The province, named Carolina (The Carolinas-North and South) to honor King Charles I of England, was divided into SC and NC in 1729, although the actual date is the subject of debate.
• Bertie County, for the English politicians Henry (1675-1735) and James Bertie (1674-1735)
• Bladen County, named for Yorkshire-born politician Martin Bladen (1680–1746).
• Charlotte, North Carolina named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
• Cumberland, named for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland (1721-1765).
• Craven County, named after Yorkshire-born nobleman William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (1608–1697).
• Durants Neck (now New Hope, Perquimans County), named for Worcestershire-born pioneer George Durant (1632-1692).
• Hyde County, for the Cheshire-born 1st Governor of North Carolina Edward Hyde (1667–1712).
• Macclesfield, for Macclesfield, Cheshire.
• New London, for London, England
• Onslow County, after Middlesex-born Arthur Onslow (1691–1768), Speaker of the House of Commons.
• Raleigh after Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the first English explorers of the Carolinas.
• Wickham Precinct (now Hyde County), from Temple Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
• Wilkes County, with Wilkesboro, named for London-born politician John Wilkes (1725-1797).

Ohio

• Kendal, Ohio after Kendal, Westmorland.
• Liverpool, Medina County Ohio and East Liverpool, Ohio, after Liverpool, England.

Pennsylvania

• Bedford and Bedford County after Bedford, England
• Berks County after Berkshire (pronounced "Barkshire"), England
• Bristol and Bristol Township after Bristol, England
• Bucks County after Buckinghamshire, England
• Carlisle, after Carlisle, England which, like the northern English city, is in a county called Cumberland.
• Chester County and Chester after Chester, England
• Darby derived from Derby (pronounced "Darby"), the county town of Derbyshire (pronounced "Darbyshire")
• Durham, for Durham, County Durham
• Edgmont, for Edgmond, Shropshire.
• Horsham after Horsham (pronounced "Hor-sham"), England
• Lancaster County and Lancaster after the city of Lancaster in the county of Lancashire in England, the native home of John Wright, one of the early settlers.
• Liverpool, for Liverpool, Lancashire.
• Malvern, for the Malvern Hills in England.
• Marple, after Marple in the Cheshire Pennines.
• New Castle after Newcastle upon Tyne, England
• Northampton County after Northamptonshire, England
• Pendle Hill, named for Pendle Hill, Lancashire.
• Reading, Berks County after Reading (pronounced "Redding"), Berkshire (pronounced "Barkshire"), England
• Rydal, for Rydal, Westmorland
• Sheffield, for Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire
• Swarthmore, named for Swarthmoor, Lancashire.
• Trafford for Trafford, Lancashire.
• Warminster after the small town of Warminster in the county of Wiltshire, at the western extremity of Salisbury Plain, England.
• Warrington after Warrington, England
• Warwick after Warwick, England
• Westmoreland County, for Westmorland, a county in northwest England.
• York, Pennsylvania, named for York, the county town of the English county of Yorkshire, the ancestral home county of many Quaker settlers in the region.

South Carolina

• Charleston, South Carolina, named after Charles II of England
• Chesterfield County, for English politician Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773).
• Colleton County, for Sir John Colleton, 1st Baronet (1608-1666), an early English proprietor in the Carolinas.
• Edgecombe County, for English politician Richard Edgecumbe, 1st Baron Edgecumbe (1680-1758).
• Georgetown, for George I of Great Britain (1660-1727).
• Kershaw County, for the prominent Kershaw family from which Joseph B. Kershaw (1822-1894) came, originally from Sowerby, West Riding of Yorkshire.

Tennessee

• Acton, for Acton, London.
• Amherst, for the Kent-born general Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst (1717–1779).
• Cambridge, for Cambridge University, Cambridgeshire
• Carlisle, if not for the Pennsylvania city, then named for Carlisle, Cumberland.
• Cumberland City, for the county Cumberland in northwest England.
• Dover, for the White Cliffs of Dover, Kent.
• Harrogate, named after Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire.
• Kingsport, named for English-born James King (born 1752), who established a mill in the area in 1773.
• Manchester, after Manchester, Lancashire, England, for hopes that it, like the English Manchester, would become a similarly prosperous industrial city.
• Pall Mall, for Pall Mall, London
• Rugby, after Rugby School, Rugby, Warwickshire.
• Westmoreland, named after Westmorland, a county in northwest England.

Texas

• Bronte, named for English novelist Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855).
• Cheapside, after Cheapside, a London street.
• Derby, after Derby, England.
• Liverpool, after Liverpool, a port city traditionally in Lancashire, England.
• Newcastle, after Newcastle upon Tyne, northeast England.

Vermont

• Barnet, for Barnet, Middlesex
• St. Albans, named after St Albans in Hertfordshire, England.

Virginia

• The name Virginia was first applied by Queen Elizabeth I (the "Virgin Queen") and Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.
• Bath County, named for Bath, Somerset.
• Charles City, named for Charles I of England (1600–1649)
• Chesterfield County, for Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773).
• Crewe, for Crewe, Cheshire.
• Exmore, for Exmoor, Devon.
• Farnham, for Farnham, Surrey.
• Gloucester County, named for Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester (1640–1660).
• Hampstead, for Hampstead, London
• Isle of Wight County, for Isle of Wight, English Channel.
• James River, for James I of England (1566–1625)
• Keswick, Albermarle County, for Keswick, Cumberland.
• Leedstown, formerly Leeds, for Leeds, Yorkshire.
• Malvern Hill, named for the Malvern Hills, southwestern England.
• Norfolk after the county of Norfolk, England
• Northampton, from Northamptonshire, a county in the English South Midlands.
• Northumberland County, Virginia, after Northumberland, a county in northeast England.
• Portsmouth after Portsmouth, England
• Richmond named by William Byrd II after Richmond, London where he spent part of his childhood.
• Stafford County with Stafford, from Staffordshire, of which Stafford is the county town.
• Suffolk after the county of Suffolk, England
• Sunderland Creek (now Lagrange Creek), for Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland (1620–1643), if not for Sunderland, County Durham.
• Surry County, for Surrey, a county in southeast England.
• Westmoreland County, Virginia, after Westmorland, a county in northwest England.
• Yorkshire, Virginia for the county Yorkshire in northern England.

West Virginia

• Arden, Berkeley County, named for Arden in Warwickshire.
• Carlisle, named for Carlisle, Cumberland, the ancestral home of an early settler.
• Chester, possibly for Chester, the county town of Cheshire.
• England Run, a river in Braxton County and tributary of the Little Kanawha, named after England itself.
• English, named for the nationality of many coal miners in the area.
• Evenwood, named for Evenwood, County Durham, the birthplace of the parents of T.W. Raine, an early inhabitant.
• Hallidon, named after Halidon Hill, the site of a 1333 battle in Northumberland, near the Anglo-Scottish border.
• Kendalia, named for the original landowner, Mr. Kendall who was also born at Kendal, Westmorland, England.
• Liverpool, named for Liverpool, Lancashire.
• Romney, named for Romney, one of the Cinque Ports.
• Saint Albans, probably for St Albans, Hertfordshire.
• Scarbro, named for Scarborough in the North Riding of Yorkshire, owing to the prevalence of "Scarbrough" as a local surname.
• Selbyville, named in 1870 for Lord Thomas Selby, a member of the English gentry.
• Skelton, for Skelton, North Riding of Yorkshire (near York).

Wisconsin

• Cambridge, Wisconsin, from Cambridge, England
• Chilton, Wisconsin, from Chillington Hall, Staffordshire, the English ancestral home of an early settler.
• Plymouth, Wisconsin, after Plymouth, England, and Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• Ripon, Wisconsin, after Ripon, North Yorkshire, the English ancestral home city of one of its earliest settlers, John S. Horner.

Notable people

Presidents of English descent

Most of the presidents of the United States have had English ancestry. The extent of English heritage varies. Earlier presidents were predominantly of colonial English Yankee origin. Later presidents' ancestry can often be traced to ancestors from multiple nations in Europe, including England. The presidents who have lacked recent English ancestry are Martin Van Buren, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Donald Trump.

18th century

George Washington, John Adams.

19th century

Thomas Jefferson, James Madison John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley.

20th century

Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton.

21st century

George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden.

See also

• American ethnicity
• Ancestral background of presidents of the United States
• Americans or American people
• Anglo-America
• Anglo-American relations
• Anglo-Celtic Australians
• Boston Brahmin
• British Americans
• Demographic history of the United States
• English (ethnic group)
• English Australians
• English Canadians
• English New Zealanders
• English diaspora
• England
• European Americans
• Immigration to the United States
• Maps of American ancestries
• Non-Hispanic whites
• Old Stock Americans
• Scotch-Irish Americans
• Scottish Americans
• Welsh Americans
• White Americans
• White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
• White Southerners
• Yankee
• English people in Paraguay
• English Chileans
• English Argentines
• English settlement in Nicaragua

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Further reading

• Berthoff, Rowland. British Immigrants in Industrial America, 1790–1950 (1953). online
• Bridenbaugh, Carl. Vexed and Troubled Englishmen, 1590–1642 (1976). online
• Erickson, Charlotte. Invisible Immigrants: The Adaptation of English and Scottish Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century America (1972).
• Furer, Howard B., ed. The British in America: 1578–1970 (1972). online; chronology and documents
• Hanft, Sheldon. "English Americans." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 2, Gale, 2014), pp. 73–86. Online
• Richards, Eric. Britannia's children: emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600 (A&C Black, 2004) online.
• Shepperson, Wilbur S. British emigration to North America; projects and opinions in the early Victorian period (1957) online
• Tennenhouse, Leonard. The Importance of Feeling English: American Literature and the British Diaspora, 1750–1850 (2007). online
• Van Vugt, William E. "British (English, Scottish, Scots Irish, and Welsh) and British Americans, 1870–1940'." in Elliott Barkan, ed., Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration (2013): 4:237+.
• Van Vugt, William E. British Buckeyes: The English, Scots, and Welsh in Ohio, 1700–1900 (2006).
• Van Vugt, William E. Britain to America: mid-nineteenth-century immigrants to the United States (University of Illinois Press, 1999).