11. The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, New York City.
A Vice-President of the society.
12. The Navy Mutual Aid Society. An ex-President, having held the office
five years.
13. The Society of Graduates of the U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.
Class of 1850.
Admiral Meade is also a lineal descendant of John Benjamin (gentleman),
who came over from Wales, England, with Governor Winthrop in 1630, and
settled at Cambridge, Mass. His son John removed to Connecticut. Admiral
Meade’s great-great-grandfather, Col. John Benjamin, of Stratford,
served in the War of Independence and received a British musket ball in
his shoulder at the battle of Ridgefield. His brother, Col. Aaron
Benjamin, of Stratford, was with Montgomery in the expedition to Quebec,
and in the battles of White Plains, Princeton, Monmouth, Germantown,
Fort Mifflin, Stony Point, and at Valley Forge. He was more than one
hundred times under fire. At Stony Point, it is said, he was the second
man to enter the fort. He was lieutenant and adjutant during the greater
part of his service.
The Admiral is also a lineal descendant of John Hopkins, of Hartford,
Conn., who came to America in 1630. This John Hopkins is now alleged to
have been one of the children (by first wife) of Stephen Hopkins, who
came over in the _Mayflower_, 1620, and was the fourteenth signer of the
compact of the Plymouth colonists. It is alleged (see the _Signers of
Mayflower Compact_, by A. A. Haxtun) that John Hopkins (of Hartford)
having a harsh stepmother, was left behind with his dead mother’s
relatives in England, but followed his father to America in 1630, being
then only seventeen years of age.
Another line of descent is through Thomas Coates, who came over with
William Penn in 1682. The descendant of this Thomas Coates was William
Coates, of Philadelphia (a colonel in the Revolution), and the
great-great-grandfather of the admiral.
* * * * *
Summing up the various strains of blood, here is the result:
_Irish._—Meade, Butler.
_English._—Meigs, Willard, Hopkins, Austin, Worsam, Stretch, Hosmer,
Hamlin, Wilcox, Judd, Fry, Backus, Beckley, Sharpe, and Bronson.
_Welsh._—Benjamin.
_French._—Jacques.
* * * * *
_Religions._ _Catholic._—Meade.
_Church of England._—Worsam, Butler, Austin, Richard Willard.
_Non-Conformist or Puritan._—Meigs, Simon Willard, Hopkins, Hosmer,
Benjamin, Wilcox, Hamlin, Judd, Fry, Backus, Beckley, Bronson, and
Sharpe.
_Quaker._—Coates.
_Huguenot._—Jacques.[2]
Footnote 2:
This Jacques was Thomas Jacques, who, with his wife Elizabeth, were
Huguenot refugees from France, settling in Leicestershire, England.
They subsequently emigrated to America, and their daughter Beulah
married, October, 1694, Thomas Coates (son of Henry), who was born
1659 in Sproxton, England, emigrated, as before stated, with William
Penn, and died in Philadelphia, July 22, 1719.
* * * * *
At the funeral of Admiral Meade, the society was represented by Messrs.
Edward A. Moseley, J. R. Carmody, J. D. O’Connell, and Capt. John M.
Tobin. The honorary bearers were: Rear-Admiral John G. Walker, Commodore
Charles S. Norton, Admiral George Dewey, Commodore Norman H. Farquhar,
Commodore Winfield S. Schley, Capt. A. S. Crowninshield, Capt. Charles
O’Neil, U. S. N., and Col. Charles Heywood, United States Marine Corps.
Eight stalwart seamen bore the body. A battalion of marines from the
Washington barracks, under command of Capt. E. B. Robinson, and a
delegation from Lafayette Post of New York City, escorted the body to
Arlington, preceded by the United States Marine Band.
The following letter was subsequently received:
1100 Vermont Ave.,
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 7, 1897.
MY DEAR MR. MOSELEY:—Your kind and sympathetic note of the 5th was
most gratefully received, as was also the beautiful emblem of your
society, which now rests on my father’s grave. On behalf of my
mother and sisters, as well as myself, I want to thank you,
individually, and the American-Irish Historical Society, for the
touching tributes you have paid his memory. We shall not forget how
much this crushing blow has been lightened by the sympathy of my
father’s associates in the organizations of which he was a member.
Respectfully and sincerely yours,
(Signed) RICHARD W. MEADE, Jr.
The council of the society, at its September meeting, was entertained by
the Rhode Island members at a banquet in Pawtucket, at which Hon. Hugh
J. Carroll presided. Mr. Thomas Hamilton Murray delivered the following
address of welcome on that occasion:
Gentlemen of the Council of the American-Irish Historical
Society,—We are glad to have the honor of your visit, and we hope
that your stay in Pawtucket will be pleasant to you and profitable
to the great movement in which you are engaged.
The organization you represent seeks to write an unwritten chapter
of American history, an essential chapter which has been too long
ignored. Yet, until this chapter is written and its prime importance
recognized, American history as published will be radically
defective.
Every American, therefore, no matter what his ancestry and no matter
what his creed, must wish you Godspeed in your patriotic labors.
While supplying this missing chapter in American history, you are at
the same time helping to supply a missing chapter in Rhode Island
history.
The Irish chapter in the history of Rhode Island has its roots away
back in the days of Roger Williams. But it is little known by this
generation. In the old colonial days men of Irish blood figured
prominently in this land of refuge. Like Williams and his
colleagues, they found here a haven of peace, found rest and
freedom.
Many soldiers of Irish birth or extraction battled during King
Philip’s War, 1675–76, in defense of the homes and lives of the
settlers. Not a few of them participated in the Great Swamp Fight in
Southern Rhode Island, and settled here when that war had ended. We
may mention as an interesting fact that an Irishman, Robert Beers,
was killed by the Indians in 1676 within a few miles of where you
meet to-night.
Another Irishman, Charles Macarty (McCarthy), was one of the
founders in 1677 of our town of East Greenwich. The town of Warren
in this state was named in honor of an Irishman, Sir Peter Warren,
whose deeds of valor no word of ours need chronicle.
Irish Rhode Islanders are heard from in the capture of Louisburg,
and there the bones of some of them repose to this day.
The Revolution found among its most ardent supporters in Rhode
Island men of Irish lineage. The Blacks, the Dorrances, the
Sterlings, the Larkins, and a host of other people of Hibernian
origin are evidence of this.
General Knox, a member of the Boston Charitable Irish Society, was
here during the early part of the Revolution; Gen. John Sullivan,
son of the Irish schoolmaster, commanded the Rhode Island Department
for a considerable period, and was in command of the patriot forces
at the siege of Newport and the battle that ensued. His brother
James, the Governor of Massachusetts, received in after years the
degree of LL.D. from Brown University.
You see, therefore, gentlemen, that Rhode Island is rich in historic
material for your society. The shaft needs but be sunk to bring the
treasures to the surface. Your coming here on this occasion helps to
sink it.
We Rhode Islanders are very proud of our little state. That much of
the Irish chapter in the history of this state is but little known
we acknowledge and regret.
Yet some of it we do know. We recall many noble men that Ireland has
given us—Berkeley, McSparran, Brown, Jackson, and the rest. We
recall the Irishman Wilson, who was head of one of the first free
schools opened in Providence, and of those other Irish schoolmasters
here at an early day—Kelly, Reilly, Knox, Phelan. May their memory
be in benediction!
We know, too, that Irish blood was not wanting in the veins of Perry
and of Burnside. At least two of our governors could truthfully
claim an Irish ancestry on the one side or the other, and at least
three of our secretaries of state. We know that at the founding of
Rhode Island College, now Brown University, the first funds for the
institution came from Ireland, generously contributed by Irish men
and women.
We are aware that many people of Irish extraction have married into
families of other extractions, some of these families representing
the oldest in the state. Thus we learn from the colonial and state
records that a Mahoney wedded an Olney, that a McGowan married an
Angell, that a McCarthy married a Maxson, that a Connor became the
wife of a Robinson, a McLoughlin the wife of a Steere, a Murphy the
husband of a Pitman. We see, moreover, that Prudence Mathewson
became Mrs. Kelley, that Harriet Thayer became Mrs. Patrick Brown,
that Rachel Aldrich wedded David Flynn.
Patrick Cunningham, the records show, was married in Providence to
Mary Goddard; Sally Mahoney became the wife of Asa Capron. The
records further show the marriage of persons bearing the following
names: Heffernan and Coggeshall, Flanagan and Cornell, Riley and
Sabin, Fallon and Cook, Connor and Odlin, Burke and Greene, Kenney
and Chadwick, Mulholland and Hooper, Hurlihy and Thorp, Carroll and
Slater, O’Brien and Newcome, McGee and Perkins, Donohue and Sutleff,
Egan and Wilson, and a long list of others.
I have already referred to the Olney name. I take it up again.
Thomas Olney came from England in 1635, and was one of the original
thirteen proprietors of Providence. His descendants are widespread.
Some of them were married as follows: Benjamin Olney to Mary
McFadyan, Sylvester Olney to Eliza McLaughlin, Sylvanus Olney to
Joanna W. Gorman, Frances M. Olney to J. P. Mahan, George E. Olney
to Mary E. Gilpatrick, Thomas D. Olney to Mary A. Dunagan, Bradley
Olney to Dora Fitzgerald, William N. Olney to Mary Oday (O’Day),
Amanda Olney to Jerry Mackay, Louis B. Olney to Kitty Sheehan,
Hattie M. Olney to Casper McManus.
This indicates that the process of assimilation has been progressing
in Rhode Island for many generations, and that Irish blood courses
to-day through the veins of thousands of the old Rhode Island stock.
These things we know, but there are many other facts just as
important we do not know.
We depend upon you, gentlemen, and the society of which you are the
official representatives, to unroll the drapery so that our
knowledge may be greatly increased.
Again we say, welcome to Pawtucket!
Addresses were made by Joseph Smith, of Lowell; James Jeffrey Roche, of
Boston; and Thomas B. Lawler, of Worcester.
On May 15, 1897, Hon. Edward A. Moseley, of Washington, D. C., was
chosen President-General of the society, to fill the vacancy caused by
the death of Admiral Meade.
A committee of three Washington members of the society was appointed to
wait upon Mr. Moseley and officially notify him of his selection. This
committee consisted of Mr. J. D. O’Connell of the U. S. Treasury
Department; Paymaster Carmody, U. S. N., and Capt. John M. Tobin.
The committee had waited upon Mr. Moseley as instructed, and Chairman
O’Connell thus presented the matter:
Mr. Moseley,—Complying with the directions of the Council of the
American-Irish Historical Society, we have come to announce to you,
in their name, your selection as President-General of the society.
To be the bearer of such information is generally a pleasant duty;
and it would be a pleasure to us in this instance, were it not for
the bereavement felt so keenly by every member of our society
because of the death of its first President-General, the late
Richard W. Meade, Rear-Admiral of the United States Navy—illustrious
in name and lineage and in the annals of his country.
It is a great honor to you, sir, to have been selected by the
unanimous voice of our council to the highest office in our society,
in immediate succession to such an illustrious man. Nevertheless, we
hope that under your administration the society is destined to grow
with the growth and strengthen with the strength of the Republic,
and that it will eventually achieve the glorious object of its
institution, namely, to prove to the civilized world, and especially
to the “English-speaking peoples,” that there is no distinction of
blood or race among the colonists and their descendants who peopled
this part of the continent from Great Britain and Ireland; that they
and the succeeding and ever-increasing waves of immigration, up to
and long after the Revolutionary War, were all people of the same
mixture of blood—Celtic and Germanic; the Celtic—and in that the
Irish Celtic—then predominant, as it still continues to be in every
region of the globe where the English language is spoken;
predominant also on every ocean where floats our own flag, and the
flag of “our kin beyond the sea,” which bears the insignia of the
“three kingdoms”—a flag we do not now respect, and never shall while
it is the emblem of tyranny in any land or on any sea.
[Illustration:
GEN. JAMES R. O’BEIRNE
NEW YORK
]
[Illustration:
M. J. HARSON
RHODE ISLAND
]
[Illustration:
GEN. M. C. BUTLER
SOUTH CAROLINA
]
[Illustration:
GEN. ST. CLAIR A. MULHOLLAND
PENNSYLVANIA
]