 That same year, James McNab, a land promoter living in Toronto Township, petitioned to bring 30 families of Scottish origin to Ontario from the economically depressed towns of Barnet and Ryegate in the US state of Vermont.Both towns had been founded by a group-migration from Scotland in the late 1700s, and many then migrated to the Scotch Block area.Other Scotch Block settlers arrived directly from Scotland, the majority from the Perthshire and Roxburghshire regions.