SOME HISTORICAL PAPERS.

PATRIOTS BEARING IRISH NAMES WHO WERE CONFINED ABOARD THE JERSEY PRISON SHIP.

BY THE HON. JOHN D. CRIMMINS, NEW YORK CITY.^[1]

The horrors of the Jersey prison ship have often been told. The Jersey and other hulks, used by the British, were anchored near the Wallabout, Brooklyn, N. Y. Many thousands of prisoners perished on these ships by cruelty and disease. The conduct of their captors was inhumane and dastardly. It is not surprising, therefore, that the mortality was so great.

William Burke, a prisoner aboard the Jersey, at one time, has left a record in which he states that he was confined on the ship fourteen months, and that he saw, among other cruelties, many American prisoners put to death by the bayonet. This cruel treatment was never relaxed by the English or Scots, but sometimes the more humane Hessians evinced pity for the unfortunate sufferers. Burke says:

“During that period, among other cruelties which were committed, I have known many of the American prisoners put to death by the bayonet: in particular, I well recollect, that it was the custom on board the ship for but one prisoner at a time to be admitted on deck at night, besides the guards or sentinels. One night, while the prisoners were many of them assembled at the grate at the hatchway, for the purpose of obtaining fresh air, and waiting their turn to go on deck, one of the sentinels thrust his bayonet down among them, and in the morning twenty-five of them were found wounded, and stuck in the head, and dead of the wounds they had thus received. I further recollect that this was the case several mornings, when sometimes five, sometimes six, and sometimes eight or ten, were found dead by the same means.”

It is estimated that over eleven thousand prisoners perished, from all causes, aboard these ships during the Revolution. The dead 22would be carried ashore and carelessly buried in the sand, their bodies, in many cases, to be uncovered by returning tides. For many years after, the bones of these martyrs were visible along the shore.

About 1801, John Jackson sold to the United States, through Francis Childs, a middleman, forty acres of the Wallabout for $40,000. About this time large numbers of Irish refugees arrived and located in New York and Brooklyn. They bought some land of Jackson at, or near, the Wallabout, the settlement being named “Vinegar Hill.”

During the summer of 1805, a Mr. Aycrigg, shocked at the exposed remains of the prison-ship victims, made a contract with an Irishman residing at Wallabout, to “collect all the human bones as far as may be without digging,” and deliver the same to him. This was done, and these bones were a portion of those interred in the vault patriotically erected by Tammany.

Among the patriots imprisoned aboard the Jersey were a great many Irish. In 1888, the Society of Old Brooklynites published a pamphlet dealing with the Jersey, and giving the names of several thousand persons who had been confined therein, many of whom perished. A copy of this pamphlet is in the possession of the New York Historical Society. From that authoritative source we have compiled the following list of patriots, bearing Irish names, who were confined on the Jersey:

Barry, Samuel

Black, James

Black, John

Black, Philip

Black, Timothy

Blake, James

Boyle, John

Brady, John

Broderick, William

Brown, Michael

Brown, Patrick

Bryan, Edward

Bryan, John

Bryan, Mathew

Bryan, William

Buckley, Cornelius

Buckley, Daniel

Buckley, Francis

Buckley, John

Burk, Thomas

Burke, James

Burke, William

Burn, William

Burns, Edward

Burns, John

Butler, Daniel

Butler, Francis

Butler, James

Butler, John

Byrnes, Hugh

Cain, David

Cain, Thomas

23Callaghan, Daniel

Campbell, Philip

Cannady, James

Cannady, William

Carney, Anthony

Carney, Hugh

Carr, William

Carolin, Joseph

Carrall, Robert

Carroll, James

Carroll, John

Carroll, Michael

Casey, Edward

Casey, Richard

Casey, William

Christie, James

Cochran, James

Cogan, Thomas

Coleman, David

Collins, James

Collins, John

Collins, Joseph

Collohan, Daniel

Connell, John

Connelly, John

Conner, George

Conner, James

Conner, John

Conner, Robert

Conner, William

Connolly, Patrick

Connolly, Samuel

Connor, John

Conway, John

Conway, Thomas

Corrigan, Bernard

Corrigan, John

Cox, Joseph

Cox, William

Crane, Philip

Cullen, William

Cunningham, Bartholomew

Cunningham, Cornelius

Cunningham, James

Cunningham, Joseph

Cunningham, William

Curry, Anthony

Curry, William

Dailey, Patrick

Daily, James

Daily, William

Darcey, W.

Daunivan, William

Delany, Edward

Doherty, John

Doherty, Thomas

Donalin, Nicholas

Donogan, John

Dorgan, Patrick

Dorgan, Timothy

Dowling, Henry

Downey, John

Downing, Peter

Doyle, Peter

Doyle, William

Dring, Thomas

Duffy, Thomas

Dunn, Peter

Durphey, Patrick

Dwyer, John

Dwyer, Timothy

Dyer, Patrick

Fallen, Thomas

Filler, Patrick

Finagan, Bartholomew

Finn, Dennis

Finn, John

Fitzgerald, Edward

24Fitzgerald, Patrick

Flinn, John

Ford, Bartholomew

Ford, Daniel

Ford, Martin

Ford, Philip

Fox, William

Fury, John

Gallager, Andrew

Gallaspie, John

Goff, Patrick

Grogan, John

Griffin, Joseph

Griffin, Peter

Haggarty, James

Hallahan, James

Halley, John

Hanagan, James

Hanagan, Stephen

Hand, Joseph

Hanegan, John

Hanes, Patrick

Hart, Cornelius

Hart, John

Hayes, John

Hayes, Thomas

Hays, Patrick

Hensey, Patrick

Higgins, George

Higgins, William

Hogan, Roger

Hogan, Stephen

Hughes, John

Hughes, Joseph

Hughes, Peter

Hughes, Thomas

Jordan, John

Jordan, Peter

Joyce, John

Kane, Barney

Kane, Edward

Kane, John

Kane, Patrick

Kane, Thomas

Kelley, John

Kelley, Michael

Kelley, Oliver

Kelley, Patrick

Kelley, William

Kelly, Hugh

Kelly, James

Kelly, John

Kelly, John K.

Kennedy, James

Kennedy, William

Kenney, John

Lafferty, Dennis

Lally, Sampson

Lane, William

Larkin, Thomas

Leary, Cornelius

Lee, Peter

Loggard, Patrick

Loney, Peter

Lowery, John

Lynch, Timothy

Lyon, Peter

Lyons, Daniel

Lyons, Michael

Macguire, Anthony

Malone, John

Marley, James

Martin, Daniel

Martin, James

Martin, John

Martin, Michael

Martin, Joseph

Martin, Philip

25Martin, Thomas

Maxfield, Patrick

Maxwell, James

Maxwell, William

McCampsey, Mathew

McCanery, John

McCann, Edward

McCarty, Andrew

McCarty, Cornelius

McCarty, William

McCash, John M.

McClain, Francis

McClanegan, James

McClavey, Daniel

McClemens, Patrick

McCloskey, Patrick

McCloud, Murphy

McCloud, Peter

McClure, James

McClure, William

McConnell, James

McCormac, Hugh

McCormick, James

McCormick, John

McCowen, William

McCoy, George

McCoy, Peter

McCoy, Samuel

McCrea, Roderick

McCrady, John

McCulla, Patrick

McCullough, William

McCullum, Patrick

McDaniel, James

McDaniel, John

McDavid, John

McDermott, William

McDonald, John

McDonald, William

McDonough, Patrick

McEvin, John

McFall, James

McFarland, Daniel

McGandy, William

McGee, John

McGerr, James

McGill, Arthur

McGill, James

McGinness, Henry

McGinnis, James

McGoggin, John

McGowen, James

McHenry, Barnaby

McKay, Patrick

McKenney, James

McKeon, Thomas

McLain, Edward

McLaughlin, Philip

McLaughlin, Peter

McLayne, Daniel

McMichal, James

McNamee, Francis

McNeal, John

McNeil, James

McNeil, William

McQueen, William

McQuillian, Charles

McWaters, Samuel

Melone, William

Mungen, Michael

Mitchell, Anthony

Mitchell, James

Mitchell, John

Molloy, James

Morgan, Thomas

Montgomery, James

Montgomery, John

Moore, James

26Moore, Joseph

Moore, Patrick

Moore, Thomas

Mooney, Hugh

Morris, Andrew

Morris, James

Morris, John

Muckelroy, Philip

Mullen, Jacob

Mullin, Robert

Mullin, William

Mulloy, Edward

Mulloy, Francis

Mulloy, Silvanus

Murphy, Daniel

Murphy, John

Murphy, Patrick

Murphy, Thomas

Murray, Bryan

Murray, Charles

Murray, Daniel

Murray, John

Murray, Thomas

Murray, William

Neville, Francis

Neville, Michael

Norton, John

Norton, Nicholas

Norton, Peter

O’Brien, Cornelius

O’Brien, Edward

O’Brien, John

O’Bryen, William

O’Hara, Patrick

O’Neil, John

Orsley, Patrick

Power, Patrick

Power, Stephen

Powers, Richard

Quinn, Samuel

Reed, John

Rafferty, Patrick

Regan, Julian

Reid, Hugh

Reynolds, Thomas

Riley, James

Riley, Philip

Riordan, Daniel

Roach, Joseph

Roach, Lawrence

Rowe, William

Rowland, Patrick

Ryan, Frank

Ryan, Jacob

Ryan, Michael

Ryan, Peter

Ryan, Thomas

Sullivan, John

Sullivan, Parks

Sweeney, John

Thompson, Patrick

Tobin, Thomas

Toy, Thomas

Tracy, Benjamin

Tracy, Nathaniel

Twoomey, Dailey

Walsh, Patrick

Ward, Francis

Waters, Thomas

Welch, James

Welch, Mathew

Welch, Robert

Welsh, David

Welsh, John

Wen, Patrick

Whelan, Michael

Wilson, Patrick

27Many other Irish names could be added, but sufficient have been given to establish the fact that a large number of the sons of Erin were among those who suffered the rigors of the Jersey prison ship.

Capt. Thomas Dring, who was a prisoner aboard the Jersey, tells us in his Recollections many startling facts about that terrible ship. He says: “Silence was a stranger to our dark abode. There were continual noises during the night. The groans of the sick and dying; the curses poured out by the weary and exhausted upon our inhuman keepers; the restlessness caused by the suffocating heat and the confined and poisonous air, mingled with the wild and incoherent ravings of delirium, were the sounds which, every night, were raised around us in all directions.”

And another writer states that the lower hold, and the orlop deck, were such a terror that no man would venture down into them. Dysentery, smallpox and yellow fever broke out, and “while so many were sick with raging fever, there was a loud cry for water; but none could be had except on the upper deck, and but one was allowed to ascend at a time. The suffering then from the rage of thirst during the night, was very great. Nor was it at all times safe to attempt to go up. Provoked by the continual cry to be allowed to ascend, when there was already one on deck, the sentry would push them back with his bayonet.”

Stiles in his History of the City of Brooklyn, narrates a scene that took place on the Jersey, July 4, 1782. He says: “A very serious conflict with the guard occurred ... in consequence of the prisoners attempting to celebrate the day with such observances and amusements as their condition permitted. Upon going on deck in the morning, they displayed thirteen little national flags in a row upon the booms, which were immediately torn down and trampled under the feet of the guard, which on that day happened to consist of Scotchmen. Deigning no notice of this, the prisoners proceeded to amuse themselves with patriotic songs, speeches and cheers, all the while avoiding whatever could be construed into an intentional insult of the guard; which, however, at an unusually early hour in the afternoon, drove them below at the point of the bayonet, and closed the hatches. Between decks, the prisoners now continued their singing, etc., until about nine o’clock in the evening. An order to desist not having been promptly complied with, the hatches were suddenly removed and the guards descended among them, with lanterns 28and cutlasses in their hands. Then ensued a scene of terror. The helpless prisoners, retreating from the hatchways as far as their crowded condition would permit, were followed by the guards, who mercilessly hacked, cut, and wounded everyone within their reach; and then ascending again to the upper deck, fastened down the hatches upon the poor victims of their cruel rage, leaving them to languish through the long, sultry summer night, without water to cool their parched throats, and without lights by which they might have dressed their wounds. And to add to their torment, it was not until the middle of the next forenoon that the prisoners were allowed to go on deck and slake their thirst, or to receive their rations of food, which, that day, they were obliged to eat uncooked. Ten corpses were found below on the morning which succeeded that memorable fourth of July, and many others were badly wounded.”

An especially affecting incident is told regarding one prisoner, who died on the ship: “Two young men, brothers, belonging to a rifle corps, were made prisoners and sent on board the Jersey. The elder took the fever and, in a few days, became delirious. One night (his end was fast approaching) he became calm and sensible, and lamenting his hard fate and the absence of his mother, begged for a little water. His brother, with tears, entreated the guard to give him some, but in vain. The sick youth was soon in his last struggles, when his brother offered the guard a guinea for an inch of candle, only that he might see him die. Even this was denied. ‘Now,’ said he, drying up his tears, ‘if it please God that I ever regain my liberty, I’ll be a most bitter enemy!’ He regained his liberty, rejoined the army, and when the war ended he had eight large and one hundred and twenty-seven small notches on his rifle stock.”

The Pennsylvania Packet, September 4, 1781, published a letter from the Jersey, which said: “We bury six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven men in a day; we have two hundred more sick and falling sick every day.” This will illustrate the terrible mortality aboard the ship.

In his Recollections of Brooklyn and New York in 1776, Johnson says of the prisoners dying on the Jersey: “It was no uncommon thing to see five or six dead bodies brought on shore in a single morning, when a small excavation would be dug at the foot of the hill, the bodies be thrown in and a man with a shovel would cover them by shovelling sand down the hill upon them. Many were 29buried in a ravine of the hill; some on the farm. The whole shore, from Rennie’s Point to Mr. Remsen’s dooryard was a place of graves; as were also the slope of the hill near the house ...; the shore from Mr. Ramsen’s barn along the mill pond, to Rapelje’s, and the sandy island between the floodgates and the mill-dam, while a few were buried on the shore on the east side of the Wallabout. Thus did Death reign here, from 1776 until the peace. The whole Wallabout was a sickly place during the war. The atmosphere seemed to be charged with foul air from the prison ships, and with the effluvia of the dead bodies washed out of their graves by the tides. We believe that more than half of the dead buried on the outer side of the mill-pond, were washed out by the waves at high tide, during northeasterly winds. The bones of the dead lay exposed along the beach, drying and bleaching in the sun, and whitening the shore, till reached by the power of a succeeding storm; as the agitated waters receded, the bones receded with them into the deep.... We have, ourselves, examined many of the skulls lying on the shore. From the teeth, they appeared to be the remains of men in the prime of life.”

“The Jersey at length,” declares Stiles, “became so crowded, and the increase of disease among the prisoners so rapid, that even the hospital ships were inadequate for their reception. In this emergency, bunks were erected on the larboard side of the upper deck of the Jersey for the accommodation of the sick between decks. The horrors of the old hulk were now increased a hundred-fold. Foul air, confinement, darkness, hunger, thirst, the slow poison of the malarious locality in which the ship was anchored, the torments of vermin, the suffocating heat alternating with cold and, above all, the almost total absence of hope, performed their deadly work unchecked. ‘The whole ship, from her keel to the taffrail, was equally affected, and contained pestilence sufficient to desolate a world—disease and death were wrought into her very timbers.’”

“There was, indeed,” Stiles remarks, “one condition upon which these hapless sufferers might have escaped the torture of this slow but certain death, and that was enlistment into the British service. This chance was daily offered them by the recruiting officers who visited the ship, but their persuasions and offers were almost invariably treated with contempt, and that, too, by men who fully expected to die where they were. In spite of their untold physical sufferings, 30which might well have shaken the resolution of the strongest; in spite of the insinuations of the British that they were neglected by their government—insinuations which seemed to be corroborated by the very facts of their condition; in defiance of threats of even harsher treatment, and regardless of promises of food and clothing—objects most tempting to men in their condition; but few, comparatively, sought relief from their woes by the betrayal of their honor. And these few went forth into liberty followed by the execrations and undisguised contempt of the suffering heroes whom they left behind. It was this calm, unfaltering, unconquerable spirit of patriotism—defying torture, starvation, loathsome disease, and the prospect of a neglected and forgotten grave—which sanctifies to every American heart the scene of their suffering in the Wallabout, and which will render the sad story of the ‘prison ships’ one of ever-increasing interest to all future generations.”

The corner-stone of a vault for the reception of so many of the bones of the martyred dead as could be collected, was laid in April, 1808, by Tammany. The event was made the occasion of a great demonstration. There was a big military and civic parade, artillery salutes and other features. Major Aycrigg was marshal of the day and an eloquent oration was delivered by Joseph D. Fay of Tammany. On May 26, 1808, the vault being completed, the bones were removed thereto, the event being signalized by another great demonstration. There were thirteen coffins filled with bones of the dead, and 104 veterans of the Revolution acted as pall-bearers. Stiles informs us that “The procession, after passing through various streets, reached the East River, where, at different places, boats had been provided for crossing to Brooklyn. Thirteen large open boats transported the thirteen tribes of the Tammany Society, each containing one tribe, one coffin, and the pall-bearers.” The scene was most inspiring. “At Brooklyn ferry the procession formed again ... and arrived at the tomb of the martyrs amidst a vast and mighty assemblage. A stage had been here erected for the orator, trimmed with black crape. The coffins were placed in front, and the pall-bearers took their seats beneath the eye of the orator. There was an invocation by Rev. Ralph Williston, and the orator of the day was Dr. Benjamin DeWitt. The coffins were huge in size and each bore the name of one of the thirteen original states.”

31

COMMERCE BETWEEN IRELAND AND RHODE ISLAND.

BY THOMAS HAMILTON MURRAY, BOSTON, MASS.

Including Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island has a long extent of coast line. There are in the state 90,000 acres of safe anchorage, varying in depth from six feet to twenty fathoms. The state has the Atlantic Ocean as its southern boundary. Of its cities and towns some twenty border on deep, salt water. It is not surprising, therefore, that Rhode Island early attained maritime importance.

For many years ships were sent all over the world from Providence, Warren, Bristol and Newport. Their sails whitened many seas. These Rhode Island mariners were a hardy race and worthy of the great merchants for whom they sailed.

Before the year 1700, their vessels had already become numerous. In due time they were known in Barbadoes, Jamaica, St. Kitt’s, Nevis, Montserrat and Bermuda. Their sailors cheerily sang in the ports of Madeira, Fayal, Surinam and Curaçao, and were welcomed even in India and China.

The slave trade was the object of some of these voyages, commerce of others, while the fisheries engaged the attention of the rest. In 1738, Newport alone had over one hundred vessels engaged in business throughout the world. In 1763, the same place sent out 182 vessels on foreign voyages in addition to the 352 coastwise and fishing vessels. These were manned, all told, by 2,200 seamen. In June and July, 1774, the vessels arriving at Newport from foreign voyages numbered 64, in addition to 132 coastwise and 17 whalers.

Providence was also a great port. An address to Congress, in 1790, stated that there “is a greater number of vessels belonging to this port (Providence) than to New York,” and that “it is a place of more navigation than any of its size in the Union.” Fortunes were rapidly made by merchants engaged in the foreign trade, while domestic commerce also brought in its wealth. In reaching out to 32trade with the world Rhode Island merchants, unlike some “historians” of today, did not forget Ireland.

Several Rhode Island vessels made regular voyages to and from Irish ports. Others made occasional ones, or touched at Belfast, Newry, Dublin, Londonderry, Cork or Waterford, on their way to or from British and other ports. A list of fifteen vessels engaged regularly or occasionally in the Irish trade, is here given: Ships, Hope, Mary, Neptune, Tristram, Nancy, Robert Burns, Catherine and Faithful Stewart; brigs, Little John, Betsy, Recovery, Sally, Lydia and Happy Return; schooner, Mayflower. There were probably many others, but these fifteen are sufficient to illustrate the point.

Among the captains were Rathbun, Davis, Ambrose, Taggart, Dring, Warner, Crawford, Staples, Coffin, Noyes, Allen, Smith, Cook, McCansland, Coggeshall and Howland.

Of the foregoing vessels, the Mary and Little John belonged to George Gibbs of Newport; the Hope to Samuel Fowler of Newport; the Betsy to Charles Handy and the Recovery to Chris. Ellery, both also of Newport. These five vessels are specifically mentioned in the Newport Historical Magazine as making regular voyages to Ireland. From time to time the Newport Mercury chronicles the arrival from Ireland, or departure therefor, of other ships and brigs. These were all in addition to those sailing between Ireland and Providence.

Among the articles imported from Ireland to Rhode Island at various times, were linen and woolen goods, Irish poplins, cambrics, lawns, silks, hosiery, sheetings, etc. Irish butter, beef and other food products, were also imported. The Newport Mercury, August 3, 1772, contains an advertisement in which, among other things, “Irish beef” is announced for sale. In the Providence Gazette, November 20, 1762, appears the following:

“By the Newport packet from New York, we are informed, for certain, that there are 2000 Firkins of the Best Irish Rose butter, arrived there.—A quantity of it is expected to be imported into this town, which we are confident will fall the price of that commodity.” Under date of December 25, 1762, the Gazette says: “Since our last, we hear that a vessel has arrived at Newport from Ireland, with 1300 Firkins of butter—Captain Champlain, the master of her, died soon after he came out.” In December, 1764, a vessel from Ireland mistook her bearings and went ashore on Block Island. The following 33notice of the disaster was published in the Gazette, January 12, 1765:

“On the 25th of last month, in the day time, a large double-decked brig, loaded with beef, pork, butter, and candles, bound from Ireland to Halifax run ashore on the north part of Block Island, where she soon beat to pieces; the people were all saved except the boatswain, who perished on the deck, which he would not be permitted to quit with the rest.—About 500 barrels of the cargo, with some other articles, were also saved. The master’s name we cannot learn.”

The name of the wrecked brig is believed to have been the Golden Grove. Her Irish cargo was in the nature of supplies for the British garrison at Halifax. The fact that the cargo consisted of beef, pork, butter and candles, indicate that those articles were exported from Ireland in considerable quantities at that period.

Speaking of this wreck, recalls the fact that in 1763, the year before, a Rhode Island vessel was stranded on the Irish coast. She was the Samuel and Joseph, Captain Brown, bound for Amsterdam. In November and December, 1766, the Providence Gazette contained this advertisement:

FOR BELFAST,

THE SHIP

Catherine, Thomas Allen, commander; Takes in her cargo at Newport, and will be ready to sail by the 12^th Day of January.—For freight or passage, apply to said Captain on board or to Mr. Benjamin Greene, in Newport.

Providence, Nov. 7, 1766.

June 15, 1772, the Newport Mercury notes the arrival at Newport of “the brig Joseph, Captain Pie, bound to New York in 49 days from Waterford in Ireland.” July 19, 1773, the same paper states that “Last Thursday arrived the brig Sally, Capt. John Murphy, in 30 days from Jamaica.” She brought several passengers. This was probably the Sally that at another time is mentioned as having reached Dublin under Captain Davis. The Providence Gazette, February 24, 1776, has this interesting note: “Arrived from Ireland, but last from Barbadoes, the sloop N. York packet, Capt. John Freers, who informs that the people in Ireland and Barbadoes are very warm in the cause of America.” The Gazette also published the following:

34

FOR LONDONDERRY,

THE SHIP

FAITHFUL STEWART,

Captain McCausland:

Will sail from Newport in ten days.—For Passage apply to Messieurs Clark and Nightingale, in Providence, or the Captain on board.

Providence, Jan. 29, 1785.

Special attention is called to the fact that “passage” is advertised in connection with these voyages. This is good evidence that passengers sailed direct for Rhode Island from Ireland. Some of these were probably merchants or their agents engaged in the Irish trade. The fact that such accommodations were provided, likewise justifies the conclusion that immigrants also came direct from Ireland to Rhode Island, and in considerable numbers, too. These immigrants, in all probability, landed, some in Newport and others in Providence. It may be, too, that Warren, Bristol, Westerly and other places, likewise received direct Irish accessions from this source. Further on will be found additional evidence of direct immigration from Ireland.

Another advertisement in the Providence Gazette reads as follows:

FOR DUBLIN

THE GOOD SHIP

TRISTRAM,

Gideon Crawford, Commander.

Now lying at Mrs. Hayley’s Wharff, will sail in 10 or 12 days. For Freight or Passage apply to the Master on board or to Joseph and William Russell. She has good accommodations for Passengers.

Providence, Jan. 14, 1786.

Here again “passage” is advertised, it will be noted. Soon after a news item appeared in the Gazette, stating that “the ship Tristram, Captain Crawford, sails this day for Dublin.” It appears that the Tristram made many voyages to and from Ireland. On April 26, 1788, over two years after the trip just mentioned, the Gazette had the following budget of marine news:

The ship Tristram, Capt. Warner, of this port, is arrived at Dublin.—The ship Mary, Capt. Rathbun, and Brig Little John, Capt. Ambrose, of Newport, are also arrived at Dublin.—The Brig Recovery, Capt. Taggart, of Newport, is arrived at Newry.

35In June, 1791, Joseph and William Russell of Providence had an assortment of Irish linens “Just imported in the ship Tristram from Dublin.” The Gazette, under date of Providence, April 13, 1776, says: “Capt. Cook, from Belfast, informs that recruiting parties had been beating up there from September till January to reinforce the ministerial army in America, but they had only inlisted ten men.” This helps the reader to form a good idea as to the direction of Irish sympathies at that time.

The quotations in the remainder of this chapter are from the Providence Gazette. A news paragraph, dated Newport, states that on “Monday last arrived here the ship Mary, Captain Ambrose, in fifty-nine days from Cork.” On February 14, 1789, under the head of Providence, we are told that “On Wednesday also arrived the brig Happy Return, Capt. Dring, from Dublin, Isle of May, and St. Eustatia.” The Happy Return has frequent mention, sometimes as arriving from Dublin and again from other ports. But there came a time when she returned no more. The incident occurred in 1790, and is thus narrated: “The brig Happy Return, Capt. Dring, of this port (Providence), bound for Dublin, is lost near that port. The crew and a part of the cargo were saved.” In April, 1790, is chronicled the arrival at Dublin of the brig Sally, Captain Davis, of Providence, “after a short passage of twenty two days.” In November of the same year, the ship Tristram, Captain Warner, is again mentioned as having cleared for Dublin from Providence. Among the arrivals in the port of Providence in May, 1791, was the “ship Tristram, Warner, Dublin.” In November, 1791, the Tristram, commanded by Captain Holowell, departed from Providence for Newry. December 14, 1792, the brig Betsy left Providence for Newry and in May of the next year, her arrival at Providence is noted “from Newry, which she left the 5th of March, having touched at the Cape de Verds.”

In April, 1796, the brig Lydia, Capt. John Cook, arrived at Providence from Cork in forty-nine days. We find it recorded December 21, 1799, that “A ship from Cork put into Newport on Sunday evening last, and sailed next morning. She brought Cork papers to the 24th of October.” Elsewhere it is stated that earlier in that year the ship Palmyra, Captain Trotter, of Providence, for Hamburg, put into “the Cove of Cork.”

The schooner Mayflower left Providence for Dublin in February, 361801. In 1809, among the departures from the port of Providence was the “Ship Neptune, Staples, Ireland.” The same year it is stated that the “ship Nancy, of Rhode Island, 14 days from Richmond for Cork, was spoke July 6, lat. 43:52.” In October, 1809, the brig Orient arrived at New York “53 days from Dublin. Left there among others, ship Nancy, Capt. Noyes, just arrived from Providence.” These Rhode Island captains became great favorites in Irish ports. They were frequently entertained and were treated in a hospitable manner generally. In 1811, Capt. Peregrine Howland of Newport, died in Belfast. He was in his thirty-ninth year at the time, and his passing away caused much sorrow. The ship Robert Burns, Captain Coffin, arrived at Newport January 3, 1820, “in 39 days from Ireland.” The ship George Washington, of Providence, is noted as having arrived at Cork March 26, 1820, “from Madeira in 15 days.” She was commanded by Captain Allen. Under a Newport date of January 6, 1820, we find the following: “Arrived on Tuesday last, in distress, ship William and Jane, Brown, from N. York, with flaxseed, bound to Londonderry,—Sailed from N. York, Dec. 24, and next day the ship sprung a leak, which continued to increase, and was compelled to throw over part of the cargo, and put into this port.”

It will thus be seen that flaxseed was exported to Ireland from this country. That is perhaps what Black & Stewart, Irish merchants of Providence, intended to do with the “2000 bushels of good and well clean’d flax seed” they advertised for in 1763.

From facts here adduced it will be seen that for a great many years, until Irish manufacturing industries were crushed by English law, commercial relations existed between Ireland and Rhode Island. Irish goods and Irish passengers were landed on the wharves in Newport and Providence, while outgoing ships took goods and passengers for the old land. Too long have these facts been forgotten or ignored. But a new era has dawned and the sun of investigation will yet bring forth even greater and more interesting developments.

37

IRISH SETTLERS IN PENNSYLVANIA.

BY MICHAEL J. O’BRIEN, NEW YORK CITY.

John Burns, a native of the city of Dublin, where he was born in 1730, was a prominent character in Pennsylvania history. He emigrated to Philadelphia when quite young. He prospered in business in that city, where we are told “he took a prominent part in all local and national questions, and was honored by his fellow-citizens with many positions of trust.” He was the first governor of Pennsylvania elected after the adoption of the federal constitution, and “retained in a high degree the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens till his death.”

One of the very earliest white settlers in Greene County was Thomas Hughes, who emigrated from Donegal with his wife, Bridget O’Neill, to Virginia. One of his descendants, Thomas Hughes, wrote the memoirs of his family in 1880, in which he said: “The motive that sent our first ancestor to this country from his native Irish home was of this character, i. e., a desire for religious freedom; he was a devout Catholic.” “Settling,” he continues, “in the valley of Virginia, in Loudoun County, before the year 1739, Thomas Hughes, son of Felime or Felix, and his wife, with his brother Felime or Felix, all from Inver, in Donegal, Ulster, first laid the foundations of his family in this country.”

“Thomas Hughes was a noted hunter, and in one of his expeditions into the backwoods, which lasted for several months, he spent some time in what is now Greene County, Pennsylvania, the soil and general appearance of which pleased him so well that he determined to make his future home there. This he did in 1771, and was one of the very first white settlers in that country. He located where Carmichaelstown now stands, but several years afterwards exchanged farms with a party named Carmichael, and called his new place Jefferson, after his old county in Virginia.”

38His nephew, Felix Hughes, also settled in Pennsylvania, where he erected a fort or blockhouse as protection against the Indians and wild animals. It was a building of only one story and a half, of hewn logs and rough boards, and as an instance of the primitiveness of the period when this Irish pioneer settled in this locality, this building was looked upon as “an elegant house!” His wife’s name was Cinthia Kaighn (or Kane). In 1780, he set out with others to Kentucky to look up lands, but the party was attacked by Indians while descending the Ohio and, after a narrow escape, Hughes returned to Greene County, where he spent the remainder of his days. He and his father were buried in Neill’s burying ground, near Carmichaelstown. Their descendants are still found in considerable numbers in Greene and Fayette counties, Pennsylvania.

A prominent Irish Catholic who settled early on Sherman’s Creek, was Henry Gass. He and his brother erected log cabins on Indian lands in Perry County, but were dispossessed from there in 1750, when they located at Falling Springs.

Patrick Gass, who was born in the latter place in 1771, and who is said to have been the first white man to make an overland trip to the Pacific, is presumed to have been a son of Henry Gass. The original name, of course, was Prendergast.

Among the earlier Irish inhabitants of Carlisle is found the Prendergrass family, whose name is identified with almost all the larger settlements west of Carlisle. Kline’s Carlisle Gazette of November 29, 1797, gave an account of the death of the aged Philip Prendergrass, which occurred two weeks previously, in which it described him as “an old inhabitant of this borough.” The name is found on the “list of taxables” in 1762. He took part in the expedition of Kitanning, in 1756, to repulse the Indians. It was a member of this family, Garrett Prendergrass who, in February, 1770, purchased the ground now occupied by the city of Allegheny, from the Six Nations. The old Prendergrass homestead was near Hanover, and is still occupied by the family. It was built in the last century by an Irishman names Byrnes, who married into the family.

Wing’s History of Cumberland County mentions John and Charles McManus, as settlers in Carlisle in 1762, the latter as “one of the oldest, most progressive and successful business men in the community.”

“The large and commodious dwelling he erected on East Street,” 39says Ganss, one of the historians of Carlisle, “still remains as a monument of post-colonial massiveness, spaciousness and solidity, with its marble slab conspicuously placed in the second story, bearing the date of its erection, 1797, and the name of its builder, and which gives evidence not only of enterprise and wealth, but cultured taste. Originally, he was proprietor of one of the largest distilleries in the county, and amassed a sufficient competence which permitted him to live, if not in luxury, at least in ease and comfort. After the death of Mrs. Mary McManus (born 1703, died 1809), the name becomes less prominent, although that of Charles is still found on the pew list of the Catholic Church as late as 1823. The descendants drifted to Mexico and Philadelphia. The former branch of the family, in the course of time, founded the prosperous and famed banking firm of McManus & Co., an institution of international reputation and the largest and most prominent in our sister republic. The Philadelphia family likewise, achieved more than ordinary success in life.”

Here we have a conspicuous example of the class of men whom Ireland gave to America in her early days.

John Frazer, who was born at Glassborough, County Monaghan, in 1709, left Ireland in 1735 and located in Philadelphia. In course of time he became a very wealthy man. He was a shipping merchant, owning several vessels engaged in the West Indian trade. He married Mary Smith, who was born in Cleary, County Monaghan. He died in Philadelphia in 1765. His son, Patrick Frazer, commanded a company of the Fourth Pennsylvania, a regiment under the command of Anthony Wayne. He became lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Pennsylvania, and was brigadier-general of Pennsylvania militia. His grandson, Robert Frazer, was a distinguished lawyer at Thornbury, Pa.

John McCord emigrated from Ireland in 1750, and settled in Sherman’s Valley, Pa. His father also located at Landisburg, Pa., about the same time, and on his farm a fort was erected for protection against the Redmen in the Indian war of 1755. It is still known as McCord’s Fort.

David Milligan came from Ireland to Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, in 1766. He and his two brothers, John and James, served in the Fifth Battalion of Cumberland Militia through the Revolutionary War. David was twice taken prisoner. All these were in active 40service up to 1778. Their brother, Thomas, and their mother, joined them from Ireland in 1785.

Robert Guthrie, a name Anglicized from McGrath, was born in Derry; settled with his family in Lancaster County in 1744. His wife’s name was Brighid Dougherty, a native of Carndonagh, County Donegal. Their son was a lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Brodhead’s regiment through the Revolutionary War. He was in the expedition against the Six Nations, and with Harbison’s company of rangers in the border wars against the Indians. His great-grandson was mayor of Pittsburg in 1897.

Roger Connor, a native of Cork, settled at Lancaster in 1740. He established a hat factory there and purchased lands in many parts of the province, principally in Lancaster, Carlisle and York. He had Irishmen in his employ, too, and in the Philadelphia Mercury of November 24, 1743, he advertised for “Patrick Dollard, a hatter by trade, aged about twenty years, a lusty, well-set fellow, etc.” Patrick was a redemptioner and had left the service of his countryman before his term had expired. It was Roger Connor who gave the land on which St. Mary’s Church, in Lancaster, was built. His name appears on the list of subscribers to the fund for the relief of the sufferers by the Boston massacre in the Revolution. He died at Lancaster in 1776.

John and Charles Connor also settled in Lancaster about 1740, and are thought to have been kinsmen of Roger. In 1758, Charles went to Philadelphia and his name appears on the list of the early contributors to St. Mary’s Church. He died in 1775 and bequeathed his property to his nephew, Charles, son of Cornelius O’Connor, of Carrigtwohill, County Cork.

Another family named Connor lived in Ashton Township, Chester County. Charles Connor died there in 1750.

Thomas G. Connor, son of another Charles Connor, who was born at Philadelphia in 1786, is buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery, Philadelphia. His wife’s name was Martha Fitzgerald.

Morgan Connor, or O’Connor, was one of the early settlers in Pennsylvania. In the Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. X, he is referred to as “among the first to enter the service of his country as lieutenant in Captain George Nagle’s company, in Colonel Thompson’s regiment.” After the campaign of 1775–’76 he was ordered south as a brigade major for Gen. John Armstrong. He served with credit 41down to the winter of 1779, and on his return in that year he became lieutenant-colonel of Hartley’s regiment and subsequently colonel of the Eleventh Regiment. He was lost at sea in 1780, on a voyage to the West Indies. According to Volume I, No. 47, Register of Wills Office, Philadelphia, letters of administration on O’Connor’s estate were granted to Dennis McCarthy, on September 8, 1780, when McCarthy, Bryan O’Hara and Patrick Byrne gave a bond in the sum of £3,000.

In a pamphlet issued by Benjamin Franklin in 1744, entitled, Plain Talk, or Serious Considerations on the Present State of the City of Philadelphia and Province of Pennsylvania, appears a letter written in that year by Governor Morris of New Jersey, to Governor Clinton of New York, in which he said: “There are here a Popish chapel and numbers of Irish and Germans that are Papists, and I am told that should the French land 1,500 or 2,000 men, they would in that province soon get ten or twelve thousands together, which would in that case be not a little dangerous to these and neighboring colonies.”

Edward McGuire, who belonged to the staff of General McGuire in Austria, came to Philadelphia in 1751, with wines, in which he had invested his patrimony. He was the son of Constantine McGuire and Julia MacEllengot of the County of Kerry. He established himself in business in Philadelphia, but subsequently went to Alexandria, Va., thence to Winchester in 1753, where he built a hotel and gave the ground for and built the Catholic Church at Winchester in 1790. He died in 1806. His descendants were lawyers, doctors and ministers, some of whom married into the best old Virginia families.

Acrelius, in his History of New Sweden (as Pennsylvania was sometimes called prior to the English settlement), writing of 1758, said: “Forty years back our people scarcely knew what a school was. In the later times there have come over from Ireland some Presbyterians and some Roman Catholics, who commenced with school keeping, but as soon as they saw better openings they gave that up.”

Among the early Philadelphia schoolmasters, the following advertised in the Mercury: Charles Phipps, “from Dublin,” in 1729, and James Conway, on July 17, 1729. George Brownwell also advertised his school in the same year. The schoolroom later became a 42dancing academy, and was opened by “Theobald Hacket, dancing master, lately come from England and Ireland.” Alexander Butler advertised his school on November 12, 1741. On June 21, 1790, John Reilly opened a school at Columbia, and in the following year his scholars were taken by Francis Dunlevy, who taught the higher branches. This was continued until 1793, when Reilly gave the entire school to Dunlevy and opened another school at Mill Creek. It is stated in the Magazine of Western History for February, 1888, that this was the first school in the American settlements of the Ohio.

Many of these Irish schoolmasters are mentioned in Wickersham’s History of Education in Pennsylvania.

An Irish schoolmaster taught school at Chester in 1741. Rev. Mr. Backhouse of that borough, wrote the London Society for Propagation of the Gospel, that the Quakers had “set up another schoolmaster, one of their own sort truly, but a native Irish bigoted Papist, in opposition to one Charles Fortesque.” The name of this Irish schoolmaster is not mentioned.

John Conly taught “an advanced school” at Byberry, Philadelphia County, before the Revolutionary War.

John Downey, who was among the first settlers of Harrisburg, according to Wickersham, taught school at Harrisburg for a number of years. He was also a justice of the peace, town clerk and member of the Assembly. In 1796, he presented Governor Mifflin a plan for a state system of education, “in which he discussed the whole subject of education, showing a wonderful sense of its importance in a government like ours and a clear conception of the nature of the system necessary to make it general.”

On May 15, 1767, Miss Mary McAllister advertised in the Philadelphia papers to open a boarding school for young ladies in that city. “Hers was the first school of the kind in Philadelphia” (Wickersham).

Thomas Neill was a schoolmaster in the Wyoming Valley before the massacre of 1778. He is described as “an Irishman of middle age, learned, a Catholic, a Free Mason, fond of dress, remarkable for his fine flow of spirits and pleasing manners, a bachelor and a schoolmaster.” He lost his life in the massacre of Wyoming.

In 1790, a number of Catholics from Maryland settled in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. “A school was opened there,” says Wickersham, “under the direction of a schoolmaster named O’Connor.”

43Wickersham also states that the pioneer settler of northern Cambria County was a Captain Maguire. Other settlers who followed him from Maryland in 1790 were named Kaylor, Burns, McDale and Carroll, the descendants of the latter having been the founders of the present town of Carrolltown. The second white child born in that section is said to have been Michael Maguire. The number of places in Cambria County which bear Irish names indicate the extent of these Irish settlements. For instance, Driscoll, Carrolltown, Kaylor, Dale, Dougherty, Sheridan, Condon and Patton, called after the settlers, and Dysart and Munster, called after Irish places. Immediately to the north of Cambria, in Clearfield County, there are places names Mahaffey, McGee, McCartney, McCauley, Welshdale, Moran, Curryrun, Mitchel, Shawville, Barrett and Donegal, and in the other counties surrounding Cambria, are places called Tyrone, Armagh, Avonmore, McKee, Curryville, Kelley, Fleming, Connor, Daley, Downey, Lavansville, and so on.

James Nowlins taught school at Mauch Chunk. According to Wickersham, he was one of the first white men who located at that place.

“Paddy” Doyle taught school at Phœnixville. He is mentioned in Pennypacker’s Annals of Phœnixville. A description of him says “his nationality was revealed by a very decided brogue.”

Robert Williams, an Irishman, was a teacher at Greensburg.

John Sharpless conducted an academy on Second Street, Philadelphia, in 1791.

Rev. S. Magaw opened an academy on Spruce Street in 1800.

Philip Garrett and two other teachers opened a night school at Philadelphia in 1799, and their advertisement stated it was “for poor children and would do the teaching themselves.” Two years later their effort was organized into the “Philadelphia Society for the Establishment and Support of Charity Schools.”

In the settlement of New Londonderry, Chester County, Samuel Blair, an Irishman, established a school in 1740. This settlement was founded fourteen years before by immigrants from Derry and Donegal. Blair is described in Pennsylvania history as “one of the most able, learned, pious, excellent and venerable men of his day.” His academy was called “the school of the prophets,” and “from it there came forth many distinguished men who did honor to their instructor and their country.”

44One of the most eminent educators in the province was Dr. Samuel Finley, who arrived from Ireland in 1734 and located in Pennsylvania, where he taught school. In 1744 he founded an academy at Nottingham, Md., where some of the most distinguished men in the country laid the foundation of their education and usefulness. Among his many scholars were such men as Governor Martin of North Carolina, the famous Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, his brother, Judge Rush, Governor Henry of Maryland, and Doctor McWhorter of New Jersey. It is said “there were no better classical scholars formed anywhere in the county” than in this school. In 1761, Doctor Finley was appointed president of Princeton College. He died in 1766.

Dr. Francis Alison, of Donegal, came to Pennsylvania in 1735, and settled at New London, Chester County, where he opened a school. At the time of its establishment there was a great want of learning in the Middle Colonies, and Doctor Alison is said to have instructed all who came to him “without fee or reward.” A Dr. Patrick Allison, who was born in Lancaster County in 1740, is thought to have been a relative of the Donegal schoolmaster. He held a place “in the very first rank of the American clergy, and had scarcely an equal for his eloquence.”

The father of John W. Geary, governor of Pennsylvania from 1867 to 1873, was an Irishman who had settled early in Franklin County. He became an iron manufacturer, but having failed in business and lost his entire investment in the mines, he opened a select school in Westmoreland County, to which he devoted the remaining years of his life. His son, General Geary, commanded a Pennsylvania regiment in the Mexican War, and was commissioned governor of Kansas in 1856. He fought in the War of the Rebellion and distinguished himself for his bravery at Gettysburg. “His name will forever be associated with the great events of the brilliant Chattanooga campaign.” While in the command at Lookout Mountain, his son, Capt. Edward Geary, a youth of eighteen, was killed by his side.

William Powers, who was elected a member of the Hibernian Society of Philadelphia in 1790, is referred to in Campbell’s history of that society as “a teacher in the university.”

Benjamin Workman, who also joined in the same year, is described as a teacher of mathematics. He advertised in the Freeman’s 45Journal on June 28, 1786, as “from the University of Pennsylvania.”

Rev. S. B. Wylie, a native of Moylarg, County Antrim, was a teacher in a private academy at Philadelphia in 1797, in which year he fled from the wrath of the British government. He was an early member of the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast. He became professor of languages in the University of Pennsylvania and was vice-provost of that institution. He joined the Hibernian Society in 1811.

William Findlay, who was born in Ireland in 1750, came to Pennsylvania in August, 1763, and taught school in Westmoreland County for several years after his arrival. He was elected to the state Legislature from Westmoreland County, and was a member of Congress from 1791 to 1799, and again from 1803 to 1817. He was a prominent writer and pamphleteer on subjects devoted to the public welfare. He was a member of the Hibernian Society.

Among the members of the Hibernian Society who were elected in 1790, Francis Donnelly, John Barry, John Heffernan and James Kidd are described as schoolmasters in Philadelphia.

Patrick Farrall, who joined the Society in 1792, and who is described as “the first clerk in the office for settling accounts between the United States and individual states” after independence had been won, is thought to have been a Pennsylvania schoolmaster.

Andrew Porter, a member of the Hibernian Society, opened “an English and Mathematical School” in Philadelphia in 1767, in which he taught till 1776, when he was appointed a captain of marines and ordered to the frigate Effingham. He was a son of Robert Porter, who emigrated from Derry to New Hampshire in 1720, and who afterwards removed to Montgomery County, Pa. He was transferred from the marine corps to the command of the Fourth Pennsylvania Artillery, which post he held until the close of the war. He fought in several battles of the Revolutionary War at the head of his gallant regiment, and is said to have been personally commended by Washington for his conduct at the battle of Germantown. He became general of Pennsylvania militia, and took a prominent part in all movements for the welfare of his native state. Gov. David R. Porter of Pennsylvania, Gov. Bryan Porter of Michigan, and James M. Porter, secretary of war under Tyler, were grandsons of the exile from Derry, Robert Porter.

46

EARLY IRISH IN ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

BY FRANCIS J. WARD, ST. LOUIS.

In 1815 the population of St. Louis was 2,000. Billon’s Annals for 1817–’20 states: “The adult male population of that day was about 700. Of American birth 400, French and Spanish 150, and of foreign birth 150. Of these, fully two thirds, or about 100, were Irishmen, some fifteen or twenty European Frenchmen, about the same number English and Scotch, and some ten or twelve Germans.”

The tax list for 1811 shows Auguste Chouteau as the largest taxpayer, the Irish-American firm, McKnight & Brady, second. The first directory of St. Louis (1821) contains 749 names. Of these but few are Germanic. As late as 1827 there were but twenty-seven German families here.

In 1663 Marquis de Tracy was governor-general of all the French possessions in America, and another Franco-Irishman, Chevalier McCarthy, in 1751, was commandant of the French settlement of the Illinois territory, and in 1769 a native Gael, Alexander O’Reilly, had command under the Spanish.

Peter Conley appears as a witness to Laclede’s will. Charles Gratiot was a member of the firm of David McCrae & Co., at Cahokia, from 1771 to 1781. Among the earliest mortgages in St. Louis is that of Pierre Saffray to Joseph O’Neille. Mathew Kennedy, in 1771, executed a bond to Antoine Bernard, and in the will of Jan Louis Lambert, a merchant, who died here in 1771, is found memoranda of an indebtedness due Morrissey & Co. Both Kennedy and Morrissey were prominent merchants here long prior to this.

When Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, determined to check the progress of the English on the Western frontier, he gave the command to the son of an Irishman, Gen. George Rogers Clark. Virginia was unable to furnish the money to equip Clark’s troops for the Illinois campaign, but an Irish merchant of New Orleans, Oliver Pollock, borrowed $70,000 from Count O’Reilly, once commandant of the Louisiana territory. What Morris did in the East 47Pollock did in the West for the American cause. To his financial aid the United States owes the success of Clark’s Illinois campaign. That Clark had many soldiers of Irish birth in his army is shown by a deposition taken at Kaskaskia, June 11, 1779, in which are the names of Andrew McDonald, Aaron Barrett, Patrick Shine, Andrew Coil and Tarrance Mooney.

The first American who settled in St. Louis after Clark’s surprise of Kaskaskia, in 1778, was Philip Fine, son of Thomas Fine, an Irish settler in Virginia. He came in 1781. Kaskaskia was the settling place of many Irish in the early days, among them being Robert Morrison, an Irish merchant, who arrived in 1792.

In 1800 occurred the murder of Adam Horne, on the Meramec. The commandant at Carondelet appointed as witnesses to the inventory John Cummings and John Donald, the witness to the order being Bartholomew Harrington.

In 1803 Governor Delassus organized two companies of militia for the protection of New Madrid, and appointed Richard Waters, captain, and George K. Reagan, lieutenant of cavalry, and Robert McCoy, captain, and John Hart, ensign of infantry. William Sullivan obtained the first tavern license issued in the town after its transfer to the Americans, and was appointed by General Harrison constable and coroner, holding in the latter capacity the first inquest. In 1816, when Chouteau laid out the first addition to the town, Sullivan purchased a half block, on which he built a residence, where he died.

Immediately after the transfer of the territory, Colonel Delassus addressed an official note to the new American officials commending, among others, the following officers who had served under him in the French service: James Mackay, commandant at St. Andrew, “an officer of knowledge, zealous and punctual”; also Mr. Mathew McKonel, Robert McKay, “a brave officer,” and Dr. Samuel Dorsey, surgeon of the fort.

After the transfer came the descendants of Irish settlers of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, the Carolinas and Tennessee, a sturdy, vigorous, independent and progressive race, to whom President Roosevelt, himself a descendant on the maternal side, pays tribute in his Winning of the West. The fathers of many of them took part in the Revolutionary War, others were those who were banished from Ireland through the same laws that forced Americans to rebel.

48Among the latter was Joseph Charless, a native of Westmeath, who sought his fellow refugees, Mathew Carey and William Duane, in Philadelphia. He worked as a compositor on Duane’s Aurora, and set up for Carey the first folio edition of the Bible printed in the United States. Shortly afterward he left for Kentucky, coming later with his printer’s outfit on mulebacks to St. Louis, where he began the publication of the first newspaper printed west of the Mississippi, the Missouri Gazette, in 1808.

In 1804 came John Mullanphy, the celebrated philanthropist. His third daughter, Jane, married Charles Chambers, son of John Chambers, a United Irishman, who, with Thomas Addis Emmet, Dr. William Macneven and thirteen others, after their release from a political prison, came to America, where they rose to distinction.

James Rankin was the first sheriff of St. Louis under American rule, and the first grand jury contains some Irish names, and many transfers of real estate from early settlers are recorded this year, among them that of Manuel Lisa to Patrick Cullen and Joseph Bent. Eighteen hundred and four was the year when the old Fort Bellefontaine was selected for the establishment of Jefferson Barracks, which, after its abandonment, in 1826, was left in charge of Capt. John Whistler, a native of Ireland, founder of Fort Dearborn, in 1803, now the city of Chicago, and grandfather of the famous American artist, James A. McNeil Whistler. He died in St. Louis in 1829.

This year also saw the departure of Lewis and Clark to the Rocky Mountains, Clark being a brother to Gen. Rogers Clark. Among the party were George Shannon, who afterward became United States attorney for Missouri, and Patrick Gass.

A remarkable Irishman came in 1805—Jeremiah Conners. In 1818 he was the owner of the 40–arpent lots, on which he laid out Washington Avenue. Part of his property he donated to Bishop Dubourg, in 1820, for founding St. Louis University, the first of its kind in St. Louis. At his house was organized the first Irish society established in the city, in 1818.

William Christy, whose people came from County Down, was also a famous man. He laid out the whole section known as North St. Louis. Another large Irish landholder was Patrick McMasters Dillon, who, previous to leaving Ireland, was involved in the Emmet rising. He laid out several additions to the city on lands he purchased, 49his last being “Dillon’s Fourth Addition,” in 1840, on a tract purchased from Fred Dent, father-in-law of President Grant. One of his daughters, Martha N., married the celebrated Capt. James B. Eads.

Among other large purchasers of real estate in the early years occur the names of James Mackay, James Conway, Mathew Boyse, John Hogan, Hugh O’Neill and John Dougherty. A famous lawyer of this time was Col. Luke E. Lawless, a native of Dublin, who came in 1816, and who, after the resignation of Judge William C. Carr from the Circuit Court, succeeded him. Still another was Nathaniel Beverly Tucker. He became judge of the Circuit Court. One of the family married John Patten Emmet, youngest son of Thomas Addis Emmet, who was appointed professor of chemistry in the University of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson, the son of the union being the celebrated Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet of New York. Another legal luminary was Hamilton Rowan Gamble, whose people came from Belfast. In 1861 he was chosen provisional governor of the state.

In the first House of Representatives of the territory, S. McGrady represented Ste. Genevieve. In the legislative council occurs the name of James Flaugherty. William Neeley became president of the council. The first state Legislature met in the Missouri Hotel, built by Thomas Brady, a famous Irishman of his day.

Col. John O’Fallon, son of Dr. James O’Fallon, native of County Roscommon, surgeon under Washington, came in 1811, and resided with his uncle, General Clark. The name has become so identified with the history of the city as to need no mention. Francis Redford opened, in 1804, the first school for instruction in English. The honor of giving the grounds for its first seat of learning belongs to a native of the Emerald Isle. The proud distinction of being called the “Father of the University of Missouri” belongs to a man whose ancestors came from the County Tyrone, Dr. James Rollins.

The first bank, the Bank of St. Louis, organized in 1813, had as one of its commissioners Thomas Brady, and the second, the Bank of Missouri, had among its directors John McKnight and Mathew Kerr, and the Bank of the State of Missouri, organized in 1837, had among its directors Hugh O’Neill, Edward Walsh, Edward Dobyns and John O’Fallon. A branch of the United States Bank was started in 1819, with John O’Fallon as president.

50The Merchants’ Exchange began as a debating Society, in 1836, with Edward Tracy as president and John Ford as secretary. The Millers’ Association, the first of its kind in the West, was established in 1849, among the members being John Walsh. Financial exchanges need telegraphic connections, so along came a Leitrim man, Henry O’Reilly, in 1847, who opened here the first telegraph office west of the Mississippi.

In military life the men of the “Fighting Race” were to the fore. The St. Louis Grays, the first volunteer organization, started in 1832, had for its ensign John P. Riley, but a volunteer company of light infantry preceded it in 1819, having for its captain Henry W. Conway. Other companies were added to the Grays in 1842, forming the First Regiment, St. Louis Legion, among the designations of the companies being “Montgomery Guards,” with Patrick Gorman, captain; “St. Louis Guards,” Daniel Byrne, captain; “Mound City Guards,” John H. Barrett, captain; “Morgan Riflemen,” Henry J. McKillop, captain.

In this review of the “pioneer” Irish in St. Louis, many names necessarily are omitted. Sufficient to mention men of worth in their day, such as John C. Sullivan, collector, in 1814; Judge Thomas McGuire, 1817; Captain McGunnegle, the Rankin Brothers, Hugh, Robert and David, who came hither from Ireland in 1819; Bernard Gillully, who was in partnership with Edward C. Cummings; James Clemens, Patrick Walsh, Richard K. Dowling, Thomas Hanley, Thomas M. Doherty, Mayor Ferguson, William Carr Lane, Bryan Mullanphy, and others.

Such men, indeed, were the “cream of St. Louis society” in the early part of the nineteenth century.

We hear much of the part played by the Irish in the creation and maintenance of the American republic in the military sense, but what they have contributed towards its civil, commercial, manufacturing or educational development is much overlooked and remains unknown to readers of the present day.

51

SOME IRISH-FRENCH OFFICERS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.^[2]

From “Les Combattants Francais de la Guerre Americaine.”

Régiment de Dillon.

État-Major.

Colonel.

Le comte Dillon (Arthur).

Colonel En Second.

Le chevalier Dillon (Théobald).

Lieutenant-Colonel.

Dillon (Barthélemy).

Major.

O’Moran (Jacques).

Quartier-Maitre Tresorier.

Moncarelly (Barthélemy).

Capitaines.

Moore (Gerard).

Purdon (Simon).

Bancks (Thomas).

Nugent (Anselme).

Swigny (Paul).

Shee (Robert).

Moore (Guillaume).

O’Neill (Bernard).

O’Berin (Michel).

Taaffe (Laurent).

Capitaines En Second.

De Mandeville (Jacques).

Macquire (Philippe).

Macdermott (Thomas), ainé.

O’Reilly (Jean).

Kelly (Guillaume).

Macdermott (Thomas).

Novolan (Christophe).

O’Doyer (Denis).

Lynck (Isidore).^[3]

Coghlan (Therence).

Lieutenants.

Greenlaw (Jean-Bernard).

Dillon (Thomas).

O’Keeffe (Patrice).

O’Farel (Claude).

De Macdermott (Bernard).

Welsh (Michel).

Evin (Nicolas).

Commerfort (Joseph).

Browne (Jean).

Duggan (Jean).

Lieutenants En Second.

Darcy (Louis).

Fitz Harris (Guillaume).

Browne (Thomas).

Taaffe (Christophe).

Fennell (Jean).

Hussey (Jean).

52Le chevalier Whyte Seyslip (Nicolas).

Swigny (Edmond).

O’Farell (Emanuel).

O’Farell (Jacques).

Sous-Lieutenants.

Maclosky (Jacques).

De Morgan (Jean-Baptiste).

Mac Sheehy (Patrice).

Fitzgerald (Edouard).

Shee (Guillaume).

O’Farell (Emmanuel).

Fitzmaurice (Joseph).

O’Reilly (Charles).

Macdonald (Jean-Baptiste).

O’Meara (Daniel).

Khnopff (Louis).

Mahony (Denis).

Sheldon (Guillaume).

O’Moran (Charles).

Owens (Henry).

Strange (Patrice).

Purdon (Henry).

Murphy (Patrice).

Dehays (Thomas).

Régiment de Walsh.^[4]

État-Major.

Major.

O’Brien (Thadée).

Quartier-Maitre Tresorier.

Bancelin (Charles).

Capitaines.

De Fitz Maurice (Thomas).

Le chevalier de Walsh (Charles).

O’Niel (Jean).

De Nagle (Jacques).

O’Brien (Jean).

D’Arcy (Jacques).

Capitaines En Second.

Stack (Edouard).

Bellew (Laurent).

O’Croly (Charles).

O’Driscol (Jacques).

Le chevalier O’Connor (Armand).

Lieutenants.

Plunkett (François).

O’Riordan (Jacques).

Keating (Guillaume).

Barry (Richard).

Lieutenants En Second.

O’Sheil (Jacques).

O’Meara (Jean-Baptiste).

O’Gorman (Charles).

Meighan (Georges).

Mac-Carthy (Eugène).

Sous-Lieutenants.

Keating (Jean).

Cruice (James).

O’Crowly (Felix).

Darell (Philippe).

O’Flyn (Jacques).

Barker (William).

Traut (Thomas).

Barry (David).

O’Cahill (Louis).

Tobin (Jacques).

53M. Macarty de Marteigue, commandant of Le Magnifque, 1782.

Du Fay de Carty, an ensign aboard Le Magnifque, 1782.

Abbe Maccabe, chaplain of L’Annibal, 1779–1781.

Roger Morrison, chaplain of L’Andromaque, 1778–’79, and of L’Eveille, 1780–’82.

Abbe Bartholome Omahony (O’Mahony), chaplain of L’Ivelly.

Abbe Dowd, “Irlandais,” a chaplain of Le Jason.

Macarty, an ensign aboard Le Conquerant, 1780–’82.

De Rochefermoy (Mathieu), a lieutenant in the regiment de Bourbonnais.

54

CONCERNING “THOMAS THE IRISHMAN.”^[5]

Editorial in the Irish-American, New York, October 14, 1905.

In the preparation for an exhaustive history of early New York Mr. Dingman Versteeg, archivist of the Holland Society, has been able to trace out many heretofore lacking details of the record of the Irishman who was so prominent here in Governor Stuyvesant’s time.

His name was Thomas Lewis, and he must have gone to Holland from Ireland some time previous to 1657. How long he remained there does not appear, but, in that year, he was sent from Amsterdam under contract to the Dutch West Indies Company as a carpenter to New Amsterdam, as this city (New York) was then called. His name was transformed in the records to Thomas Lodewicksen, a sort of Latin-Dutch combination.

For three years after this he does not seem to have made much stir here, and then he appears as the captain of a bark plying between this city and Albany. A man of such standing in this community at that time was a real captain of industry and a citizen of substance.

The favor and regard in which Lewis was held by Governor Stuyvesant is evidenced by the fact that his bark was used to transport troops in the Esopus war of 1663, and on it Stuyvesant made his headquarters, so dating a number of letters still extant.

Lewis was married to a Dutch wife, Geesje Barents, a member of a prominent and well-known family in this city. He had several children. One of them, Thomas Lodewicksen, Jr., married Frances, daughter of the famous Jacob Leisler, head of the colony, which is another indication of his father’s social prominence.

55Lewis died here, on September 14, 1685, and his widow was named executrix of his will by Governor Dongan, April 1, 1686. There are many of his descendants among the various Lewis families scattered over this state, but few of them, perhaps, know that their ancestor was that “Thomas the Irishman” mentioned so frequently in the old Dutch records of Stuyvesant’s time.

AN INTERESTING PIONEER FAMILY.

James and Isaac Savage and their two sisters, came to America from Ireland. Afterward, about 1763, their father, James Savage, being then an aged man, came to this country to Newton, Mass., where the two daughters had settled. There he died and was buried.

His sons, James and Isaac, settled at Woolwich, Me., where James was early killed by the Indians. Isaac married and had a large family. His wife’s name is not known. Among their children was a son, who settled at Wiscasset, Me., another son who settled at Woolwich and another son, James, who also settled at Wiscasset. James (3) married Mary Hilton, who was born at Berwick, Me., in 1721, and lived to be 100 years old. James and Mary had seventeen children. Order of birth is not known.

They were as follows: Isaac, who married Deborah Soule; Abigail, married, June 13, 1765, Robert Lambert; Lydia, married, February 1, 1776, Daniel Ring; Hannah, born 1745, married Thomas McFadden; James, married Annah Young; Ebenezer, born 1753, married Sarah Chase; Abraham, married, in 1783, Patience Young; John, married, in 1783, Susannah Tinkham or Pinkham; Jacob, born in 1759, married, in 1781, Hannah Gray; Mary, married, in 1795, John Card; Charles, married, in 1784, Margaret Corillard, and married, second, about 1785, Margaret Rose Lovejoy; Catherine, died April 24, 1800, unmarried; Edward, born 1776, married, June 6, 1790, Sarah Smith; Andrew, born 1769, married Tamson Tibbetts; Christiana, Daniel, Ann.

56

EDWARD O’BRIEN’S SCHOOL DICTIONARY.

An interesting historical paragraph recently contributed, states that in 1798 Edward O’Brien printed in New Haven, Conn., his “School Dictionary: Being a compendium of the latest and most improved dictionaries,” which exists in two copies—the British Museum copy (perfect) and the Yale College Library copy (lacking ten pages). This was the first dictionary by an American author published in this country. It has no date, but is thought to have been issued towards the end of 1798. Its author, who taught school in Guilford, Conn., was born there March 10, 1757, and died there August 20, 1836. Soon after its publication its author and the Rev. John Elliott (1768–1824, great-great-grandson of John Elliott, the Indian apostle) prepared the second American dictionary, which was copyrighted in June, 1799, and published in January, 1800.

A PATRIOT OF THE REVOLUTION.

James Stevenson, a native of Ireland, was born in 1750 and was brought to this country when a child. During the Revolutionary War he served as a sergeant in Colonel Evans’ Pennsylvania regiment, was captured by the enemy and held for a year in the notorious British prison ships.

After the war he married Hannah Bull, a daughter of Col. John Bull, of Chester County, Pa., a soldier of the Revolution. They removed to Lawrence County, Pa., Mr. Stevenson dying in Poland, Ohio, in 1834. He left many descendants and a society has been formed among them. It holds annual reunions.

Among his descendants may be mentioned: John H. Stevenson, of Allegheny; Prof. William M. Stevenson, of Pittsburg; Rev. Frank B. Stevenson, of New Castle; Dr. Silas Stevenson; James A. Stevenson and E. S. Stevenson, of New Castle; T. D. Stevenson, of New Bedford, Pa.; Mrs. Rebecca Stevenson Neal, of Pulaski, Pa.; Capt. Thomas S. Calhoun, of Georgetown, Pa.; Thomas S. McCready, of Manchester, Kas.; Homer A. McCready, of Hancock County, W. Va.; Thomas W. Stevenson, of East Liverpool, O.; William E. Stevenson, of Hookstown, Pa., and W. H. Stevenson, of Hookstown.

57

THE HALEYS OF THE ISLES OF SHOALS.

Andrew Haley was of the Isles of Shoals. He was of Irish blood and had a son, Andrew, who married Elizabeth Scammon, of Kittery, Me., in 1697. Andrew Haley, Sr., early settled on the islands and eventually became styled “King of the Shoals.” He and his descendants seem to have long occupied that portion of the Shoals known as Haley’s Island. In the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, for 1800, is a paper descriptive of the Shoals, from which paper we extract the following: “The only secure harbour in these islands is Haley’s, which opens to the S. W., having Haley’s island S. E., Malaga N. W., a wall built by Mr. Haley, between 70 and 80 paces in length, on the N. E.... At the close of the year 1800 there were on Haley’s island, three decent dwelling houses, occupied by Mr. Haley, an ingenious and respectable old gentleman of seventy-six, and his two sons, with their families. Mr. Haley has expended a handsome fortune in erecting the expensive wall before mentioned, wharves, and other useful works. Among these are a windmill, rope walk, 270 feet long; salt works erected before the war [Revolution], a bake house, brewery, distillery, built in 1783, and a blacksmith’s and cooper’s shop.”

THE IMPORTATION OF IRISH BUTTER.

Long before the Revolution, and long after that period, Irish pork and butter were imported to this country in great quantities. A Boston paper publishes the following letter, which was dated October 29, 1763, and sent from a leading firm in Boston to parties in Ireland: “This is to Desire you will as soon as possible & without Fail Ship us from Cork 250 Barrels Best Irish Pork & 100 Firkins of good Irish Butter, the weight of each Barrell of Pork to be mark’d on the head, to be well Pack’d. This Article will be very Scarce & Dear here, that we must Depend upon your shipping it with the 100 Firkins of Butter [all] to be here in March if possible & if no oppor’y to this place Ship it to Halifax to the care of Benj. Gerrish Esqr. and as soon as the next May Butter is fit to ship we Desire you will then ship us 100 Firkins more of the best Rose May Butter. We rely on your 58care to have these articles of the best kind & purchased at the best Rates, which charge to our accott. We beg your attention to this that we may not by any means be disappointed, as we shall be in great want of it. We are with Respect, Gent., Your most hum. Servts, Messrs. Jona. Barnard & Co.”—(From The Recorder [A. I. H. S.], Boston, Mass., March, 1902.)

THE DISTRICT KNOWN AS IRISH TRACT.

A Moravian missionary who went from Pennsylvania to Georgia, in 1743–’44, writes that while in the lower valley of Virginia: “I asked him (Joist Hite) for the way to Carolina. He told me of one which runs for 150 miles through Irish settlements, the district being known as Irish tract.”—(Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, October, 1904.)

TWO INTERESTING HISTORICAL FRAGMENTS.

Barnabas Palmer, of Rochester, N. H., was born in Cork or Limerick, 1725, emigrated from there with two brothers, and enlisted under Sir William Pepperill. Barnabas sailed from Portsmouth, N. H.,—one of the force of 3,000 men, 1745, and on the Isle of Cape Breton, under Fort Louisburg, left his right arm. Subsequently he settled in Rochester, N. H., married, had fourteen children, and was a member of the General Court of New Hampshire that ratified the Constitution of the United States. Here is another fragment of history: Lieutenant-General Pepperrell, in 1745, ordered Maj. John Stover to organize a company at Wells, Me., for the Louisburg expedition. The order was promptly carried out. Among the volunteers were Edward Welch, John Conaway, James Gillpatrick, John McDaniel, James Read, Michael Wilson and John Burks (Burke?). They sailed March 24, 1745, for Cape Breton. Some of the company died there. In the fall of 1745 most of the survivors returned to Wells.

59

WORKMEN FIND AN INTERESTING COIN.

Workmen who were digging in Congress Street [Boston] the other day found an interesting old coin which is said by experts to link the records of Boston currency nearly two centuries ago with a mintage controversy that stirred even the phlegmatic George III, and elicited some of the most famous witticisms of Dean Swift and dignified declarations of Sir Isaac Newton. It is about one third larger than an American quarter and has on the obverse side an idealized head of George III, in the center, surrounded with the words “Georgius Deo Gratia Rex.” Perhaps the intrinsic interest is in the reverse side, which has in the center a symbolic figure of Ireland, bearing a harp, and on the border is stamped “Hibernia—1723.” The first anomaly in this is that, although it was on its face an Irish coin, it was neither coined nor circulated in that country, but, owing to indignant protests of Irish dealers, crystallized by the sarcasms of that witty divine, Dean Swift, it was shipped over to Boston, where it circulated as the “colonial half-penny.” In the old country it was called the “Woods half-penny,” on account of its coinage by a Londoner of that name. This was the chief element of grievance, as Ireland was then approaching the time when the aspiration of a Grattan were to find realization, and Swift argued in his famous Drapier letters that the country should not have these foreign and false coins passed upon it.—(Boston Transcript, October 12, 1895.)

DENNIS MACCARTY OF WARREN, R. I.

BY MISS VIRGINIA BAKER, OF WARREN.

Since I forwarded the data relating to Dennis and William Mackarty, I have again examined the probate records of this town, and have made the discovery that the will of Dennis Maccarty of Warren was probated November 7, 1757. As Dennis of Bristol did not die until 1760, it follows that there must have been living in Bristol County two men bearing the same name, both of whom served in the French wars.

60I enclose a copy of the will of Dennis of Warren. In 1757, Warren, as you know, included Barrington. You will notice that the legatees mentioned in the will were all Barrington men; therefore, I conclude that that Dennis resided in the west section of the town. Again, the testator mentions no kindred, while Dennis of Bristol had a wife and son. Here is the will mentioned:

“In the Name of God Amen I Dennis Maccarty of Warren in the County of Bristol in the Colony of Rhode Island Labourer being engaged in the expedition against Crown Point; and not knowing what Shall befall me Being now of a Sound and Disposing mind; Thanks be to God; Do make this my last will and Testament in manner following; Principally and first of all I give my soul to the hands of God that gave it and my Body to the earth to be Decently Buried in a Christian manner hoping for a Blessed Resurrection thro the merits of Jesus our only Redeemer; and as to my worldly goods where with it hath Pleased God to Bless me I give the same in the following manner;

“Item. My Will is that my Just Debts and Funeral Charges be Duly and Seasonably Paid by my executor.

“Item. To my loving and well beloved Friend Peleg Richmond I give a Note of hand I have against him of one hundred and thirty-two pounds old tenor Rhode Island currency.

“Item. To my loving and beloved friend John Roger Richmond I give all my wearing apparel.

“Item. To my friend Mary Richmond Juner I give one hundred pounds. To her sister Elizabeth Richmond I give sixty pounds; and to Sarah Richmond I give forty pounds; all to be paid in old tenor Rhode Island.

“Item. To my beloved friend Benjamin Viall I give a note of hand I have against him of Forty Pounds three Shillings old tenor.

“Item. To my beloved friend Thomas Brown I give Thirty Pounds old tenor Rhode Island currency.

“To my Trusty and Beloved Friend Solomon Townsend of Warren, Clerk, whom I make executor of my last will and Testament I give and bequeath all the Remainder of my moneys, Bills, notes, Bonds, and wares that Shall Remain and become Due After the above Legacies are Paid. And I Do Ratify and confirm this to be my last will and testament. In Witness hereof I have Set my hand and 61Seal this Thirtieth Day of April in the Twenty ninth year of his majesties’ Reign Anno Domini Seventeen Hundred and Fifty Six.

“his

“Dennis X Maccarty,

“mark.

“Signed, Sealed, Published and delivered by sd. Dennis Maccarty to be his last Will and Testament.

“In presence of

“Constant Viall.

“David Allen, Jr.

“Samuel Viall.”

Probated November 7, 1757.”

THE VOYAGE OF THE SEAFLOWER.

From The Recorder (I. A. H. S.), February, 1902.

The sloop Seaflower left Belfast, Ireland, July 10, 1741, bound for Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania. She had 106 persons aboard, mainly emigrants.

The Seaflower was owned by Joseph Thompson of New Haven, Conn., and Capt. Ebenezer Clark, master of the sloop. Thompson owned three fourths and Clark the remainder. When about two weeks out, Captain Clark, the master, sickened and died and the mate was also taken ill.

Thus began a reign of suffering, wretchedness and misery that has seldom been surpassed in the annals of ocean voyages. Some time after the master’s death the sloop sprung her mast and to add to the horrors of the voyage the supply of water and provisions began to run low.

The accident to the mast, the sickness and other troubles greatly extended the voyage so that long before the American coast was sighted many of the ship’s company and passengers had perished of hunger.

In order to sustain life the living were driven to feed on the dead. Six bodies had been thus consumed and the seventh was being cut up when the Success, man-of-war, came alongside and her captain supplied 62the well-nigh crazed survivors of the Seaflower with provisions sufficient to bring them into port.

Now to account for this fearful voyage: It is possible that the sloop was overcrowded on leaving Belfast; also that a miscalculation had been made as to the probable length of time that would be required for the voyage, this leading to an inadequate supply of water and provisions. The death of the master and the illness of the mate likewise had a decided tendency to complicate matters. When the food supply was at length exhausted, and the last drop of water gone, thirst was added to the horrors of hunger. With the vessel still many leagues from land, the awful sufferings of passengers and crew can be imagined, not described.

Forty-six died on the passage.

The Seaflower cast anchor in Boston Harbor, October 31, sixteen weeks having elapsed since she sailed from Ireland. On the date mentioned, October 31, 1741, the selectmen of Boston convened in session, there being present: Captain Forsyth, Caleb Lyman, Jonas Clark, Mr. Hancock, Mr. Cook and Captain Steel. At this meeting was considered “The sloop Seaflower this day arrived from Belfast, Ebenezer Clark, late master, with 65 passengrs on board....” The following minute was recorded, viz., that

“Whereas a Sloop from Ireland with a number of Passengers on board being arrived in this Harbour & apprehending danger may acrue to the Inhabitants by reason of the Hardships the People have Suffered in their Passage being obliged to eat some of their People to Sustain Life, Voted That the Select Men View the State of the Persons on board with Doct^r Clark & Report what Circumstances they are in....”

The selectmen accordingly visited the afflicted survivors of the Seaflower and found the facts as here outlined. So serious was the case, that the Selectmen again met on November 2 and decided to wait on the governor and council to acquaint them with the conditions and see what could be done. The same day, November 2, a meeting of the governor and council was held in the council chamber in Boston, the selectmen appeared, stated their case and sought advice.

They declared that about thirty of the passengers were in “very low circumstances & not able of taking care of themselves, but require the speediest care to preserve life.” The selectmen prayed 63“that suitable provision may be made for them or else they must perish.” The governor and council accordingly

Ordered that the selectmen secure the papers belonging to the owners and last master, with the goods aboard and dispose of the servants and passengers in hospital on Rainsford’s island, where they were to be supported and nursed. It was also ordered that the “owners of the said Sloop” be speedily advised of existing conditions and requested to come to Boston, “pay the Charges herein expended & take all further Care in the Premisses as shall be necessary.”

The selectmen thereupon sent an express to Joseph Thompson, of New Haven, asking him to repair to Boston and take charge of the Seaflower and servants. They likewise directed the town clerk of Boston to write to Mr. Thompson. The selectmen also voted that Captain Forsyth and Captain Steel of their number be a committee to go aboard the sloop and take an account of the papers, etc., and secure them, Mr. Savell to see that the unfortunate people were supplied with all things necessary to their comfort until the vessel was taken to Rainsford’s island. Mr. Ball was directed to take the sloop there as soon as possible.

On Tuesday morning, the vessel and passengers were taken over to the island “with the help of Capt. Tyng & his People who came in the long boat & other persons.” The passengers were all carried ashore and lodged in the hospital. Doctor Clark gave directions for the treatment of the patients, and men were put in charge of the vessel and the goods aboard.

The selectmen met again on November 16. Mr. Thompson of New Haven appeared and stated that he owned three fourths of the sloop and that Ebenezer Clark, the deceased master, owned the rest. He asked that the vessel’s papers he delivered to him and this was done. Thompson and Captain Steel, the latter one of the selectmen, assumed all the charges incurred.

The facts briefly stated herein have been obtained from the minutes of the selectmen of Boston as reproduced in printed form by the record commissioners of that city.

64

THE STORY OF MISS FITZGERALD.

From The Recorder (A. I. H. S.), Boston, Mass., December, 1901.

Portsmouth, R. I., was settled in 1638. Nine years later it was the most populous town in the colony. Here Eleazar Slocum was born on the “25th day of the 10th month 1664.” He resided there until some twenty years of age when he removed to Dartmouth Township, now included in the city of New Bedford, Mass.

In Dartmouth he wedded an Irish girl named Elephell Fitzgerald. Concerning her there are two theories. The first is that she was the daughter of an Irish earl and came to this country with her sister, who was eloping with an English officer. The second theory is that favored by Charles E. Slocum, M. D. Ph. D. In his History of the Slocums he inclines to the belief that Miss Fitzgerald was one of those Irish maidens who were shipped to New England in Cromwell’s time or at later periods.

There were doubtless large numbers of these Irish girls brought over. The majority of them were, without question, Roman Catholics. Frequently their fate was a hard and cruel one. Thebaud, in his Irish Race in the Past and the Present, writing on the subject says:

“Such of them as were sent North were to be distributed among the ‘saints’ of New England, to be esteemed by the said ‘saints’ as ‘idolaters,’ ‘vipers,’ ‘young reprobates,’ just objects of ‘the wrath of God’; or, if appearing to fall in with their new and hard task-masters, to be greeted with words of dubious praise as ‘brands snatched from the burning,’ ‘vessels of reprobation,’ destined, perhaps, by a due initiation of the ‘saints’ to become ‘vessels of election,’ in the meantime to be unmercifully scourged with the ‘besom of righteousness,’ at the slightest fault or mistake.”

Some, however, met a better fate. Their lines fell in more fortunate places. In many cases they were kindly treated and, in time, married into the families of their recent masters. Some of them, too, reared large families of manly sons and womanly daughters and lived to a happy old age. Many of their descendants must exist today in high places. Perhaps some are not aware of their maternal Irish descent, while a few may be reluctant to acknowledge it if they are. 65Yet, many of these Irish girls were descended from the old nobility and clansmen whose names and fames had ranked with the most illustrious in Europe.

Miss Fitzgerald’s marriage to Eleazar Slocum took place about 1687. Their children were Meribah, born in 1689; Mary, born 1691; Eleazar, born in 1693–’94; John, 1696–’97; Benjamin, 1699, and Joanna, 1702. There was also another child named Ebenezer. In 1699 the husband and father is recorded as giving £3 toward building a Quaker meeting house. His will was proved in 1727. It makes the following provisions concerning his wife:

“Item—I give and bequeath Elephell, my beloved wife, the sum of twenty pounds [per] annum of Good and Lawful money of New England, to be paid Yearly and Every Year By my Execut^rs During her Naturall life—

“Item—I give and bequeath to Elephell my beloved wife an Indian girl named Dorcas During the time she hath to Serve by Indenture—she fulfilling all articles on my behalf—

“Item—I give and Bequeath to Elephell my beloved wife, The great low room of my Dwelling house with the two bedrooms belonging together with the Chamber over it and the Bedrooms belonging thereto, and the Garrett and also what part of the N^w Addition she shall Choose and one half of the cellar, During her Naturall life.

“Item—I will that my executors procure and supply Elephell my wife with firewood sufficient During her Naturall life, And whatsoever Provisions and Corn shall be left after my Decease, I give to Elephell my wife for her support, and also the hay for Support of the Cattle. The above gifts and Bequests is all and what I intend for Elephell my wife instead of her thirds or Dowry.”

To his son Eleazar he bequeathed the northerly part of the homestead farm, 100 acres, with house, barns, orchard, etc.; to son Ebenezer, the southerly part of the homestead farm “on which my dwelling house stands.” To Eleazar and Ebenezer he also gives other lands, and to Ebenezer, in addition one pair of oxen, a pair of steers, eight cows, two heifers and £12. The remainder of the horses, cattle, etc., he gives to Eleazar and Ebenezer. The inventory shows £5,790 18s 11d personal estate.

His widow, Elephell (Fitzgerald) Slocum, made a will “the 19th day of the first month called March 1745–6.” It was proved October 4, 1748. Joanna, one of her daughters, married Daniel, son of 66John Weeden of Jamestown, R. I. A son of theirs was named Gideon Slocum Weeden.

The late Esther B. Carpenter of Wakefield, R. I., author of a delightful volume of sketches entitled South County Neighbors, once alluded to Miss Fitzgerald in a note to the writer. Miss Carpenter said that she remembered to have heard her maternal grandmother say that she valued her Irish line of descent from Miss Fitzgerald above any other she could claim. This Irish connection had always been a common remark in the family. The grandmother in question had named one of her daughters Alice Joanna after her Irish ancestress, whose daughter Joanna had married a Weeden as already stated. Many of the Weeden, Slocum and other families now in Rhode Island trace descent back to Elephell, the gentle Irish girl. Descendants of Elephell (Fitzgerald) Slocum are found today in New Bedford, Mass. The writer recently conversed with one of them.

THE DEFENCE OF FORT STEPHENSON ON THE SANDUSKY.

By J. W. Faulkner, in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

“We have determined to hold this place, and, by heavens, we can.” This was the closing sentence of a military despatch written on the night of July 29, 1813. It was penned in the commandant’s room of the rude stockade known as Fort Stephenson, on the Sandusky River.

The writer was Maj. George Croghan, of the Seventeenth United States Infantry, a boy who had just attained his twenty-first year. It was addressed to Gen. William Henry Harrison, in command of the American forces in the Northwest. The reply of General Harrison to this remarkable despatch was an order removing Major Croghan from command and ordering him to report to headquarters under virtual arrest for disobedience.

Young Croghan responded promptly, traversing a dangerous country. Face to face with his general he explained that it was not braggadocio that inspired the language of his message. When it was written it was expected that it would fall into the hands of the enemy, then boastfully advancing to the attack. With the warlike 67eloquence that came as heritage from his Irish ancestors, Major Croghan showed his general that it was too late to retreat from the fort, and that it was a necessary military maneuver to hold it pending the execution of other movements. His tongue won for him what every great soul desires—opportunity. Restored to command, he returned to the fort and won a victory that will forever live in the annals of the early republic.

Not long ago the body of Major Croghan was interred at the base of the monument erected to the memory of the soldiers of Sandusky County. This imposing shaft marks the site of the old fort where the dead hero won his laurels and where the blow was struck that opened the way to ultimate victory over the British and Indian power in the northwestern country. Over his grave will stand as a silent witness the single cannon used in defense of the fort, an ancient six-pounder, which wears the affectionate feminine sobriquet of “Old Betsy.” It was a single belch from the iron jaws of this that decided the fate of the battle, and though inanimate, still it deserved a share of the glory that surrounded the interment of the gallant Croghan.

Since that eventful day in August many great events have occurred to fill the pages of history. General Harrison became greater and filled the president’s chair. Around the base of the old fort a city has sprung up named after Gen. John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder. In Croghan’s day the little settlement was known as Lower Sandusky, to distinguish it from the city in Wyandot County known as Upper Sandusky. So powerful a pleader as Rutherford B. Hayes, then a practising attorney at the Sandusky County bar, and afterward president of the United States, pleaded that the old name be permitted to stand.

There was pomp and ceremony to mark the final sepulture of the old commander’s dust in the ground that he hallowed with his victory, but no greater tribute could be paid to his soldier memory than to tell again the story of the battle. He came of fighting stock, this young American soldier. The blood of “Kelly, Burke and Shea” flowed in his veins and he smelled the battle from afar off. His father was William Croghan, an Irishman, born in Dublin in 1752, but who was well settled in this country when the War of the Revolution broke out. He fought at Monmouth, Brandywine and Germantown, and froze with the rest of the immortal band at Valley Forge.

68Joining in the drift from the Virginias across the mountains, he reached the settlement at the falls of the Ohio, where Louisville now stands. In 1791 he married Lucy Clark, sister of George Rogers Clark, the mighty figure of the Vincennes campaign, who saved an empire to the American republic. Another brother, William, was the Clark who, with Captain Lewis, made the historic exploration tour across the then unknown continent. Of such a union was born the man whom a state and a nation afterward honored for bravery. The exact place of his birth was at Locust Grove, Ky., a few miles below Louisville. When but twenty years of age he gained distinction at the battle of Tippecanoe, and was promoted to a captaincy in March, 1812, being detailed as aide-de-camp to General Harrison, with the rank of major. This was his condition when the events that were to make him famous began to unfold themselves.

The Indians, under Tecumseh, and the British, under General Proctor, had raised the siege of Fort Meigs, in what is now Wood County, and were coming toward the post at Upper Sandusky and Seneca. The British sailed around into Sandusky Bay, while their Indian allies marched across through the swamps and marshes of the Portage River. They expected to meet and make a combined attack upon Lower Sandusky while Harrison was engaged in protecting Forts Winchester and Meigs. The work known as Fort Stephenson was in reality an old stockade used for storage purposes, and inclosed an acre of ground.

Examination by Harrison some days before the allies invested Fort Meigs showed that the stockade was commanded by a hill to the southeast. It was not strong enough to resist heavy artillery, and only 200 men could be accommodated as a garrison. Croghan was left in charge, with orders that if the British approached by water, which carried the presumption that if they had their heavy artillery, he was to retreat, if possible, destroying both the fort and the public stores. If only the Indians came he was to stand fast, as retreat through these wary hostiles was an impossibility and a defense was a certainty.