George Hortense Edwards stated in 1894:
p. 22 "What is known or the antecedents of the Todd family is most honorable. Of the covenanters captured at Bothwell Bridge, two hundred and fifty were sentenced to be transported to America; and two hundred of these were drowned in the shipwreck of the vessel conveying them, off Orkney. They had been shut up below the hatches of the ship by the order of Patterson, the cruel merchant who had contracted for their transportation and sale. Fifty escaped and afterward took part in the defense of Londonderry.
Among those who were drowned were Robert Todd of Fenwick and James Todd of Dunbar. In 1679 - the year in which Robert Todd of Fenwick was drowned - John Todd fled from the persecutions of Claverhouse, in Scotland, to find refuge in the north of Ireland. Two of his grandsons, Andrew and Robert Todd, came with their families to America in 1737."
