THE IRISH IN THE UNITED STATES

By MICHAEL J. O'BRIEN,

_Historiographer, American Irish Historical Society_.

Students of early American history will find in the Colonial records

abundant evidence to justify the statement of Ramsay, the historian

of South Carolina, when he wrote in 1789, that:

"The Colonies which now form the United States may be considered as

Europe transplanted. Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Germany,

Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, and Italy furnished the

original stock of the present population, and are generally supposed

to have contributed to it in the order named. For the last seventy or

eighty years, no nation has contributed so much to the population of

America as Ireland."

It will be astonishing to one who looks into the question to find

that, in face of all the evidence that abounds in American annals,

showing that our people were here on this soil fighting the battles

of the colonists, and in a later day of the infant Republic, thus

proving our claim to the gratitude of this nation, America has

produced men so ignoble and disingenuous as to say that the Irish who

were here in Revolutionary days "were for the most part heartily

loyal," that "the combatants were of the same race and blood", and

that the great uprising became, in fact, "a contest between

brothers"!

Although many writers have made inquiries into this subject, nearly

all have confined themselves to the period of the Revolution. We are

of "the fighting race", and in our enthusiasm for the fighting man

the fact seems to have been overlooked that in other noble fields of

endeavor, and in some respects infinitely more important, men of

Irish blood have occupied prominent places in American history, for

which they have received but scant recognition. The pioneers before

whose hands the primeval forests fell prostrate; the builders, by

whose magic touch have sprung into existence flourishing towns and

cities, where once no sounds were heard save those of nature and her

wildest offspring; the orators who roused the colonists into activity

and showed them the way to achieve their independence; the

schoolmasters who imparted to the American youth their first lessons

in intellectuality and patriotism; all have their place in history,

and of these we can claim that Ireland furnished her full quota to

the American colonies.

It must now be accepted as an indisputable fact that a very large

proportion of the earliest settlers in the American colonies were of

Irish blood, for the Irish have been coming here since the beginning

of the English colonization. It has been estimated by competent

authorities that in the middle of the seventeenth century the

English-speaking colonists numbered 50,000. Sir William Petty, the

English statistician, tells us that during the decade from 1649 to

1659 the annual emigration from Ireland to the western continent was

upwards of 6000, thus making, in that space of time, 60,000 souls, or

about one-half of what the whole population must have been in 1659.

And from 1659 to 1672 there emigrated from Ireland to America the

yearly number of 3000 (Dobbs, on Irish Trade, Dublin, 1729).

Prendergast, another noted authority, in the _Cromwellian Settlement

of Ireland_, furnishes ample verification of this by the statistics

which he quotes from the English records. Richard Hakluyt, the

chronicler of the first Virginia expeditions, in his _Voyages,

Navigations, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation_

(London, 1600), shows that Irishmen came with Raleigh to Virginia in

1587 and, in fact, the ubiquitous Celts were with Sir John Hawkins in

his voyage to the Gulf of Mexico twenty years earlier. The famous

work of John Camden Hotten, entitled "The Original Lists of Persons

of Quality, Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving

Men sold for a term of years," etc., who were brought to the Virginia

plantations between 1600 and 1700, as well as his "List of the

Livinge and the Dead in Virginia in 1623," contains numerous Celtic

names, and further evidence of these continuous migrations of the

Irish is contained in "A Booke of Entrie for Passengers passing

beyond the Seas", in the year 1632. The Virginia records also show

that as early as 1621 a colony of Irish people sailed from Cork in

the _Flying Harte_ under the patronage of Sir William Newce and

located at what is now Newport News, and some few years later Daniel

Gookin, a merchant of Cork, transported hither "great multitudes of

people and cattle" from England and Ireland.

In the "William and Mary College Quarterly," in the transcripts of

the original records published by the Virginia Historical Society,

and in all County histories of Virginia, there are numerous

references to the Irish "redemptioners" who were brought to that

colony during the seventeenth century. But the redemptioners were not

the only class who came, for the colonial records also contain many

references to Irishmen of good birth and education who received

grants of land in the colony and who, in turn, induced many of their

countrymen to emigrate. Planters named McCarty, Lynch, O'Neill,

Sullivan, Farrell, McDonnell, O'Brien, and others denoting an ancient

Irish lineage appear frequently in the early records. Much that is

romantic is found in the lives of these men and their descendants.

Some of them served in the Council chamber and the field, their sons

and daughters were educated to hold place, with elegance and dignity,

with the foremost of the Cavaliers, and when in after years the great

conflict with England began, Virginians of Irish blood were among the

first and the most eager to answer the call. Those historians who

claim that the South was exclusively an "Anglo-Saxon" heritage would

be completely disillusioned were they to examine the lists of

Colonial and Revolutionary troops of Celtic name who held the Indians

and the British at bay, and who helped in those "troublous times" to

lay the foundations of a great Republic.

There is no portion of the Atlantic seaboard that did not profit by

the Irish immigrations of the seventeenth century. We learn from the

"Irish State Papers" of the year 1595 that ships were regularly

plying between Ireland and Newfoundland, and so important was the

trade between Ireland and the far-distant fishing banks that "all

English ships bound out always made provisions that the convoy out

should remain 48 hours in Cork." In some of Lord Baltimore's accounts

of his voyages to Newfoundland he refers to his having "sailed from

Ireland" and to his "return to Ireland," and so it is highly probable

that he settled Irishmen on his Avalon plantations. After Baltimore's

departure, Lord Falkland also sent out a number of Irish colonists,

and "at a later date they were so largely reinforced by settlers from

Ireland that the Celtic part of the population at this day is not far

short of equality in numbers with the Saxon portion"--(Hatton and

Harvey, _History of Newfoundland_, page 32). Pedley attributes the

large proportion of Irishmen and the influence of the Catholics in

Newfoundland to Lord Falkland's company, and Prowse, in his History

(pp. 200-201), refers to "the large number of Irishmen" in that

colony who fled from Waterford and Cork "during the troubled times"

which preceded the Williamite war (1688). Many of these in after

years are known to have settled in New England.

But it was to Maryland and Pennsylvania that the greatest flow of

Irish immigration directed its course. In the celebrated "Account of

the Voyage to Maryland," written in the year 1634 by Mutius

Vitellestis, the general of the Jesuit Order, it is related that when

the _Arke_ and the _Dove_ arrived in the West Indies in that year,

they found "the island of Montserrat inhabited by a colony of

Irishmen who had been banished from Virginia on account of their

professing the Catholic faith." It is known also that there were many

families in Ireland of substance and good social standing who, at

their own expense, took venture in the enterprise of Lord Baltimore

and afterwards in that of William Penn, and who applied for and

received grants of land, which, as the deeds on record show, were

afterwards divided into farms bought and settled by O'Briens,

McCarthys, O'Connors, and many others of the ancient Gaelic race, the

descendants of those heroic men whose passion for liberty, while

causing their ruin, inspired and impelled their sons to follow

westward "the star of empire."

After the first English colonies in Maryland were founded, we find in

all the proclamations concerning these settlements by the proprietary

government, that they were limited to "persons of British or Irish

descent." The religious liberty established in Maryland was the

magnet which attracted Irish Catholics to that Province, and so they

came in large numbers in search of peace and comfort and freedom from

the turmoil produced by religious animosities in their native land.

The major part of this Irish immigration seems to have come in

through the ports of Philadelphia and Charleston and a portion

through Chesapeake Bay, whence they passed on to Pennsylvania and the

southern colonies.

The "Certificates of Land Grants" in Maryland show that it was

customary for those Irish colonists to name their lands after places

in their native country, and I find that there is hardly a town or

city in the old Gaelic strongholds in Ireland that is not represented

in the nomenclature of the early Maryland grants. One entire section

of the Province, named the "County of New Ireland" by proclamation of

Lord Baltimore in the year 1684, was occupied wholly by Irish

families. This section is now embraced in Cecil and Harford Counties.

New Ireland County was divided into three parts, known as New

Connaught, New Munster, and New Leinster. New Connaught was founded

by George Talbot from Roscommon, who was surveyor-general of the

Province; New Munster, by Edward O'Dwyer from Tipperary; and New

Leinster, by Bryan O'Daly from Wicklow, all of whom were in Maryland

prior to 1683. Among the prominent men in the Province may be

mentioned Charles O'Carroll, who was secretary to the proprietor;

John Hart from county Cavan, who was governor of Maryland from 1714

to 1720; Phillip Conner from Kerry, known in history as the "Last

Commander of Old Kent"; Daniel Dulany of the O'Delaney family from

Queen's County, one of the most famous lawyers in the American

Colonies; Michael Tawney or Taney, ancestor of the celebrated judge,

Roger Brooke Taney; the Courseys from Cork, one of the oldest

families in the State; the Kings from Dublin; and many others.

The only place in the State bearing a genuine Irish name which has

reached any prominence is Baltimore. Not alone has the "Monumental

City" received its name from Ireland, but the tract of land on which

the city is now situate was originally named (in 1695) "Ely

O'Carroll," after the barony of that name in King's and Tipperary

counties, the ancient home of the Clan O'Carroll. To subdivisions of

the tract were given such names as Dublin, Waterford, Tralee, Raphoe,

Tramore, Mallow, Kinsale, Lurgan, Coleraine, Tipperary, Antrim,

Belfast, Derry, Kildare, Enniskillen, Wexford, Letterkenny, Lifford,

Birr, Galway, Limerick, and so on, all indicating the nationality of

the patentees, as well as the places from which they came.

From such sources is the evidence available of the coming of the

Irish to Maryland in large numbers, and so it is that we are not

surprised to find on the rosters of the Maryland Revolutionary

regiments 4633 distinctive Irish names, exclusive of the large

numbers who joined the navy and the militia, as well as those who

were held to guard the frontier from Indian raids, whose names are

not on record. However, it is not possible now to determine the

proportion of the Revolutionary soldiers who were of Irish birth or

descent, for where the nationality is not stated in the rosters all

non-Irish names must be left out of the reckoning. The first census

of Maryland (1790), published by the United States Government,

enumerates the names of all "Heads of Families" and the number of

persons in each family. A count of the Irish names shows

approximately 21,000 persons. This does not take into account the

great number of people who could not be recorded under that head, as

it is known there were many thousand Irish "redemptioners" in

Maryland prior to the taking of the census, and while no precise data

exist to indicate the number of Irish immigrants who settled in

Maryland, I estimate that the number of people of Irish descent in

the State in 1790 was not far short of 40,000.

* * * * *

The Land Records and Council Journals of Georgia of the last half of

the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century afford

like testimony to the presence of the Irish, who crossed the sea and

colonized the waste places of that wild territory, and whose

descendants in after years contributed much of the strength of the

patriot forces who confronted the armed cohorts of Carleton and

Cornwallis. From the Colonial Records of Georgia, published under the

auspices of the State Legislature, I have extracted a long list of

people of Irish name and blood who received grants of land in that

colony. They came with Oglethorpe as early as 1735 and continued to

arrive for many years. It was an Irishman named Mitchell who laid out

the site of Atlanta, the metropolis of the South; an O'Brien founded

the city of Augusta; and a McCormick named the city of Dublin,

Georgia.

* * * * *

From the records of the Carolinas we obtain similar data, many of an

absorbingly interesting character, and the number of places in that

section bearing names of a decidedly Celtic flavor is striking

evidence of the presence of Irish people, the line of whose

settlements across the whole State of North Carolina may be traced on

the high roads leading from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Hawk, one of

the historians of North Carolina, refers to the "Irish Romanists" who

were resident in that Province as early as 1700, and Williamson says

that "the most numerous settlers in the northwestern part of the

Province during the first half of the eighteenth century were from

Ireland." The manuscript records in the office of the Secretary of

State refer to "a ship load of immigrants" who, in the year 1761,

came to the Carolinas from Dublin. The names of the Irish pioneers in

the Carolinas are found in every conceivable connection, in the

parochial and court records, in the will books, in the minutes of the

general Assembly, in the quaint old records of the Land and

Registers' offices, in the patents granted by the colonial

Government, and in sundry other official records. In public affairs

they seem to have had the same adaptability for politics which, among

other things, has in later days brought their countrymen into

prominence. Florence O'Sullivan from Kerry was surveyor-general of

South Carolina in 1671. James Moore, a native of Ireland and a

descendant of the famous Irish chieftain, Rory O'More, was governor

of South Carolina in 1700; Matthew Rowan from Carrickfergus was

president of the North Carolina Council during the term of office of

his townsman, Governor Arthur Dobbs (1754 to 1764); John Connor was

attorney-general of the Province in 1730, and was succeeded in turn

by David O'Sheall and Thomas McGuire. Cornelius Hartnett, Hugh

Waddell, and Terence Sweeny, all Irishmen, were members of the Court,

and among the members of the provincial assembly I find such names as

Murphy, Leary, Kearney, McLewean, Dunn, Keenan, McManus, Ryan,

Bourke, Logan, and others showing an Irish origin. And, in this

connection, we must not overlook Thomas Burke, a native of "the City

of the Tribes", distinguished as lawyer, soldier, and statesman, who

became governor of North Carolina in 1781, as did his cousin Aedanus

Burke, also from Galway, who was judge of the Supreme Court of South

Carolina in 1778. John Rutledge, son of Dr. John Rutledge from

Ireland, was governor of South Carolina in 1776 and his brother

Edward became governor of the State in 1788.

But there were Irishmen in the Carolinas long before the advent of

these, and indeed Irish names are found occasionally as far back as

the records of those colonies reach. They are scattered profusely

through the will books and records of deeds as early as 1676 and down

to the end of the century, and in a list of immigrants from Barbados

in the year 1678, quoted by John Camden Hotten in the work already

alluded to, we find about 120 persons of Irish name who settled in

the Carolinas in that year. In 1719, 500 persons from Ireland

transported themselves to Carolina to take the benefit of an Act

passed by the Assembly by which the lands of the Yemmassee Indians

were thrown open to settlers, and Ramsay (_History of South

Carolina_, vol. I, page 20) says: "Of all countries none has

furnished the Province with so many inhabitants as Ireland."

* * * * *

In the Pennsylvania records one is also struck with the very frequent

mention of Irish names. William Penn had lived in Ireland for several

years and was acquainted with the sturdy character of its people, and

when he arrived on board _The Welcome_ in 1682 he had with him a

number of Irishmen, who are described as "people of property and

people of consequence." In 1699 he brought over a brilliant young

Irishman, James Logan from Lurgan, who for nearly half a century

occupied a leading position in the Province and for some time was its

governor. But the first Irish immigration to Pennsylvania of any

numerical importance came in the year 1717. They settled in Lancaster

County. "They and their descendants," says Rupp, an impartial

historian, "have always been justly regarded as among the most

intelligent people in the County and their progress will be found to

be but little behind the boasted efforts of the Colony of Plymouth."

In 1727, as the records show, 1155 Irish people arrived in

Philadelphia and in 1728 the number reached the high total of 5600.

"It looks as if Ireland is to send all her inhabitants hither," wrote

Secretary Logan to the provincial proprietors in 1729, "for last week

not less than six ships arrived. The common fear is that if they

continue to come they will make themselves proprietors of the

Province" (Rupp's _History of Dauphin County_).

The continuous stream of Irish immigration was viewed with so much

alarm by the Legislature, that in 1728 a law was passed "against

these crowds of Irish papists and convicts who are yearly powr'd upon

us"--(the "convicts" being the political refugees who fled from the

persecutions of the English Government!). But the operations of this

statute were wholly nullified by the captains of the vessels landing

their passengers at Newcastle, Del., and Burlington, N, J., and, as

one instance of this, I find in the Philadelphia _American Weekly

Mercury_ of August 14, 1729, a statement to this effect: "It is

reported from Newcastle that there arrived there this last week about

2000 Irish and an abundance more daily expected." This expectation

was realized, for according to "An Account of Passengers and Servants

landed in Philadelphia between December 25, 1728, and December 25,

1729", which I find in the _New England Weekly Journal_ for March 30,

1730, the number of Irish who came in via the Delaware river in that

year was 5655, while the total number of all other Europeans who

arrived during the same period was only 553. Holmes, in his _Annals

of America_, corroborates this. The Philadelphia newspapers down to

the year 1741 also contained many similar references, indicating that

the flood of Irish immigration was unceasing and that it was at all

times in excess of that from other European countries. Later issues

of the _Mercury_ also published accounts of the number of ships from

Ireland which arrived in the Delaware, and from these it appears that

from 1735 to 1738 "66 vessels entered Philadelphia from Ireland and

50 cleared thereto." And in the _New York Gazette and Weekly

Post-Boy_ of the years 1750 to 1752, I find under the caption,

"Vessels Registered at the Philadelphia Custom House," a total of 183

ships destined from or to Ireland, or an average of five sailings per

month between Irish ports and the port of Philadelphia alone. A

careful search fails to disclose any record of the number of persons

who came in these ships, but, from the fact that it is stated that

all carried passengers as well as merchandise from Irish ports, we

may safely assume that the "human freight" must have been very large.

Spencer, in his _History of the United States_, says: "In the years

1771 and 1772 the number of emigrants to America from Ireland was

17,350, almost all of whom emigrated at their own expense. A great

majority of them consisted of persons employed in the linen

manufacture or farmers possessed of some property, which they

converted into money and brought with them. Within the first

fortnight of August, 1773, there arrived at Philadelphia 3500

immigrants from Ireland. As most of the emigrants, particularly those

from Ireland and Scotland, were personally discontent with their

treatment in Europe, their accession to the colonial population, it

might reasonably be supposed, had no tendency to diminish or

counteract the hostile sentiments toward Britain which were daily

gathering force in America." Marmion, in his _Ancient and Modern

History of the Maritime Ports of Ireland_, verifies this. He says

that the number of Irish who came during the years 1771, 1772, and

1773 was 25,000. The bulk of these came in by way of Philadelphia and

settled in Pennsylvania and the Virginias.

The Irish were arriving in the Province in such great numbers during

this period as to be the cause of considerable jealousy on the part

of other settlers from continental Europe. They were a vigorous and

aggressive element. Eager for that freedom which was denied them at

home, large numbers of them went out on the frontier. While the

war-whoop of the savage still echoed within the surrounding valleys

and his council fires blazed upon the hills, those daring adventurers

penetrated the hitherto pathless wilderness and passed through

unexampled hardships with heroic endurance. They opened up the roads,

bridged the streams, and cut down the forests, turning the wilderness

into a place fit for man's abode. With their sturdy sons, they

constituted the skirmish line of civilization, standing as a bulwark

against Indian incursions into the more prosperous and populous

settlements between them and the coast. From 1740 down to the period

of the Revolution, hardly a year passed without a fresh infusion of

Irish blood into the existing population, and, as an indication that

they distributed themselves all over the Province, I find, in every

Town and County history of Pennsylvania and in the land records of

every section, Irish names in the greatest profusion. They settled in

great numbers chiefly along the Susquehanna and its tributaries; they

laid out many prosperous settlements in the wilderness of western

Pennsylvania, and in these sections Irishmen are seen occupying some

of the foremost and most coveted positions, and their sons in after

years contributed much to the power and commercial greatness of the

Commonwealth. They are mentioned prominently as manufacturers,

merchants, and farmers, and in the professions they occupied a place

second to none among the natives of the State. In several sections,

they were numerous enough to establish their own independent

settlements, to which they gave the names of their Irish home places,

several of which are preserved to this day. It is not to be wondered

at then that General Harry Lee named the Pennsylvania line of the

Continental army, "the Line of Ireland"!

Ireland gave many eminent men to the Commonwealth, among whom may be

mentioned: John Burns, its first governor after the adoption of the

Constitution, who was born in Dublin; George Bryan, also a native of

Dublin, who was its governor in 1788; James O'Hara, one of the

founders of Pittsburgh; Thomas FitzSimmons, a native of Limerick,

member of the first Congress under the Constitution which began the

United States Government and father of the policy of protection to

American industries; Matthew Carey from Dublin, the famous political

economist; and many others who were prominent as nation-builders in

the early days of the "Keystone State."

* * * * *

While the historians usually give all the credit to England and to

Englishmen for the early colonization of New England, whose results

have been attended with such important consequences to America and

the civilized world, Ireland and her sons can also claim a large part

in the development of this territory, as is evidenced by the town,

land, church, and other colonial records, and the names of the

pioneers, as well as the names given to several of the early

settlements. That the Irish had been coming to New England almost

from the beginning of the English colonization is indicated by an

"Order" entered in the Massachusetts record under date of September

25, 1634, granting liberty to "the Scottishe and Irishe gentlemen who

intend to come hither, to sitt down in any place upp Merimacke

river." This, doubtless, referred to a Scotch and Irish company

which, about that time, had announced its intention of founding a

settlement on the Merrimac. It comprised in all 140 passengers, who

embarked in the _Eagle Wing_, from Carrickfergus in September, 1636,

bringing with them a considerable quantity of equipment and

merchandise to meet the exigencies of their settlement in the new

country. The vessel, however, never reached its destination and was

obliged to return to Ireland on account of the Atlantic storms, and

there is no record of a renewal of the attempt. In the Massachusetts

records of the year 1640 (vol. I, p. 295) is another entry relating

to "the persons come from Ireland," and in the Town Books of Boston

may be seen references to Irishmen who were residents of the town in

that year.

From local histories, which in many cases are but verbatim copies of

the original entries in the Town Books, we get occasional glimpses of

the Irish who were in the colony of Massachusetts Bay between this

period and the end of the century. For example, between 1640 and

1660, such names as O'Neill, Sexton, Gibbons, Lynch, Keeney, Kelly,

and Hogan appear on the Town records of Hartford, and one of the

first schoolmasters who taught the children of the Puritans in New

Haven was an Irishman named William Collins, who, in the year 1640,

came there with a number of Irish refugees from Barbados Island. An

Irishman named Joseph Collins with his wife and family came to Lynn,

Mass., in 1635. Richard Duffy and Matthias Curran were at Ipswich in

1633. John Kelly came to Newbury in 1635 with the first English

settlers of the town. David O'Killia (or O'Kelly) was a resident of

Old Yarmouth in 1657, and I find on various records of that section a

great number of people named Kelley, who probably were descended from

David O'Killia. Peter O'Kelly and his family are mentioned as of

Dorchester in 1696. At Springfield in 1656 there were families named

Riley and O'Dea; and Richard Burke, said to be of the Mayo family of

that name, is mentioned prominently in Middlesex County as early as

1670. The first legal instrument of record in Hampden County was a

deed of conveyance in the year 1683 to one Patrick Riley of lands in

Chicopee. With a number of his countrymen, Riley located in this

vicinity and gave the name of "Ireland Parish" to their settlement.

John Molooney and Daniel MacGuinnes were at Woburn in 1676, and

Michael Bacon, "an Irishman", of Woburn, fought in King Philip's war

in 1675. John Joyce was at Lynn in 1637, and I find the names of

Willyam Heally, William Reyle, William Barrett, and Roger Burke

signed to a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts on August

17, 1664. Such names as Maccarty, Gleason, Coggan, Lawler, Kelly,

Hurley, MackQuade, and McCleary also appear on the Cambridge Church

records down to 1690. These are but desultory instances of the first

comers among the Irish to Massachusetts, selected from a great mass

of similar data.

In the early history of every town in Massachusetts, without

exception, I find mention of Irish people, and while the majority

came originally as "poor redemptioners", yet, in course of time and

despite Puritanical prejudices, not a few of them rose to positions

of worth and independence. Perhaps the most noted of these was

Matthew Lyon of Vermont, known as "the Hampden of Congress," who, on

his arrival in New York in 1765, was sold as a "redemptioner" to pay

his passage-money. This distinguished American was a native of county

Wicklow. Other notable examples of Irish redemptioners who attained

eminence in America were George Taylor, a native of Dublin, one of

Pennsylvania's signers of the Declaration of Independence; Charles

Thompson, a native of county Tyrone, "the perennial Secretary of the

Continental Congress", and William Killen, who became chief justice

and chancellor of Delaware. Some of the descendants of the Irish

redemptioners in Massachusetts are found among the prominent New

Englanders of the past hundred years. The Puritans of Massachusetts

extended no welcoming hand to the Irish who had the temerity to come

among them, yet, as an historical writer has truly said, "by one of

those strange transformations which time occasionally works, it has

come to pass that Massachusetts today contains more people of Irish

blood in proportion to the total population than any other State in

the Union."

So great and so continuous was Irish immigration to Massachusetts

during the early part of the eighteenth century that on Saint

Patrick's Day in the year 1737 a number of merchants, who described

themselves as "of the Irish Nation residing in Boston," formed the

Charitable Irish Society, an organization which exists even to the

present day. It was provided that the officers should be "natives of

Ireland or of Irish extraction," and they announced that the Society

was organized "in an affectionate and Compassionate concern for their

countrymen in these Parts who may be reduced by Sickness, Shipwrack,

Old Age, and other Infirmities and unforeseen Accidents." I have

copied from the Town Books, as reproduced by the City of Boston, 1600

Irish names of persons who were married or had declared their

intentions of marriage in Boston between the years 1710 and 1790,

exclusive of 956 other Irish names which appear on the minutes

between 1720 and 1775.

In 1718, one of the largest single colonies of Irish arrived in

Boston. It consisted of one hundred families, who settled at

different places in Massachusetts. One contingent, headed by Edward

Fitzgerald, located at Worcester and another at Palmer under the

leadership of Robert Farrell, while a number went to the already

established settlement at Londonderry, N.H. About the same time a

colony of fishermen from the west coast of Ireland settled on the

Cape Cod peninsula, and I find a number of them recorded on the

marriage registers of the towns in this vicinity between 1719 and

1743. In 1720, a number of families from county Tyrone came to

Shrewsbury, and eight years later another large contingent came to

Leicester County from the same neighborhood, who gave the name of

Dublin to the section where they located. The annals of Leicester

County are rich in Irish names. On the Town Books of various places

in this vicinity and on the rosters of the troops enrolled for the

Indian war, Irishmen are recorded, and we learn from the records that

not a few of them were important and useful men, active in the

development of the settlements, and often chosen as selectmen or

representatives. On the minutes of the meetings of the selectmen of

Pelham, Spencer, Sutton, Charlestown, Canton, Scituate, Stoughton,

Salem, Amesbury, Stoneham, and other Massachusetts towns, Irish names

are recorded many years before the Revolution. In local histories

these people are usually called "Scotch-Irish," a racial misnomer

that has been very much overworked by a certain class of historical

writers who seem to be unable to understand that a non-Catholic

native of Ireland can be an Irishman. In an exhaustive study of

American history, I cannot find any other race where such a

distinction is drawn as in the case of the non-Catholic, or so-called

"Scotch," Irish. In many instances, this hybrid racial designation

obviously springs from prejudice and a desire to withhold from

Ireland any credit that may belong to her, although, in some cases,

the writers are genuinely mistaken in their belief that the Scotch as

a race are the antithesis of the Irish and that whatever commendable

qualities the non-Catholic Irish are possessed of naturally spring

from the Scotch.

* * * * *

The first recorded Irish settlement in Maine was made by families

named Kelly and Haley from Galway, who located on the Isles of Shoals

about the year 1653. In 1692, Roger Kelly was a representative from

the Isles to the General Court of Massachusetts, and is described in

local annals as "King of the Isles." The large number of islands,

bays, and promontories on the Maine coast bearing distinctive Celtic

names attests the presence and influence of Irish people in this

section in colonial times. In 1720, Robert Temple from Cork brought

to Maine five shiploads of people, mostly from the province of

Munster. They landed at the junction of the Kennebec and Eastern

rivers, where they established the town of Cork, which, however,

after a precarious existence of only six years, was entirely

destroyed by the Indians. For nearly a century the place was

familiarly known to the residents of the locality as "Ireland." The

records of York, Lincoln, and Cumberland counties contain references

to large numbers of Irish people who settled in those localities

during the early years of the eighteenth century. The Town Books of

Georgetown, Kirtery, and Kennebunkport, of the period 1740 to 1775,

are especially rich in Irish names, and in the Saco Valley numerous

settlements were made by Irish immigrants, not a few of whom are

referred to by local historians as "men of wealth and social

standing." In the marriage and other records of Limerick, Me., as

published by the Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder, in the

marriage registers of the First Congregational Church of Scarborough,

and in other similarly unquestionable records, I find a surprisingly

large number of Irish names at various periods during the seventeenth

and eighteenth centuries. In fact, there is not one town in the

Province that did not have its quota of Irish people, who came either

direct from Ireland or migrated from other sections of New England.

* * * * *

The records of New Hampshire and Rhode Island are also a fruitful

source of information on this subject, and the Provincial papers

indicate an almost unbroken tide of Irish immigration to this

section, beginning as early as the year 1640. One of the most noted

of Exeter's pioneer settlers was an Irishman named Darby Field, who

came to that place in 1631 and who has been credited by Governor

Winthrop as "the first European who witnessed the White Mountains."

He is also recorded as "an Irish soldier for discovery," and I find

his name in the annals of Exeter as one of the grantees of an Indian

deed dated April 3, 1638, as well as several other Irish names down

to the year 1664. In examining the town registers, gazeteers, and

genealogies, as well as the local histories of New Hampshire, in

which are embodied copies of the original entries made by the Town

Clerks, I find numerous references to the Irish pioneers, and in many

instances they are written down, among others, as "the first

settlers." Some are mentioned as selectmen, town clerks,

representatives, or colonial soldiers, and it is indeed remarkable

that there is not one of these authorities that I have examined, out

of more than two hundred, that does not contain Irish names. From

these Irish pioneers sprang many men who attained prominence in New

Hampshire, in the legislature, the professions, the military, the

arts and crafts, and in all departments of civil life, down to the

present time. In the marriage registers of Portsmouth, Boscawen, New

Boston, Antrim, Londonderry, and other New Hampshire towns, are

recorded, in some cases as early as 1716, names of Irish persons,

with the places of their nativity, indicating that they came from all

parts of Ireland. At Hampton, I find Humphrey Sullivan teaching

school in 1714, while the name of John Sullivan from Limerick,

schoolmaster at Dover and at Berwick, Me., for upwards of fifty

years, is one of the most honored in early New Hampshire history.

This John Sullivan was surely one of the grandest characters in the

Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and the record of his descendants serves

as an all-sufficient reply to the anti-Irish prejudices of some

American historians. He was the father of a governor of New Hampshire

and of a governor of Massachusetts; of an attorney-general of New

Hampshire and of an attorney-general of Massachusetts; of New

Hampshire's only major-general in the Continental army; of the first

judge appointed by Washington in New Hampshire; and of four sons who

were officers in the Continental army. He was grandfather of an

attorney-general of New Hampshire, of a governor of Maine, and of a

United States Senator from New Hampshire. He was great-grandfather of

an attorney-general of New Hampshire, and great-great-grandfather of

an officer in the Thirteenth New Hampshire regiment in the Civil War.

* * * * *

In Rhode Island, Irish people are on record as far back as 1640, and

for many years after that date they continued to come. Edward Larkin

was an esteemed citizen of Newport in 1655. Charles McCarthy was one

of the founders of the town of East Greenwich in 1677, while in this

vicinity as early as 1680 are found such names as Casey, Higgins,

Magennis, Kelley, Murphy, Reylie, Maloney, Healy, Delaney, Walsh, and

others of Irish origin. On the rosters of the Colonial militia who

fought in King Philip's war (1675) are found the names of 110

soldiers of Irish birth or descent, some of whom, for their services

at the battle of Narragansett, received grants of land in New

Hampshire and Massachusetts. The New England Historical and

Genealogical Register for 1848 contains some remarkable testimony of

the sympathy of the people of Ireland for the sufferers in this cruel

war, and the "Irish Donation," sent out from Dublin in the year 1676,

will always stand in history to Ireland's credit and as an instance

of her intimate familiarity with American affairs, one hundred years

prior to that Revolution which emancipated the people of this land

from the same tyranny under which she herself has groaned. And yet,

what a cruel travesty on history it reads like now, when we scan the

official records of the New England colonies and find that the Irish

were often called "convicts", and it was thought that measures should

be taken to prevent their landing on the soil where they and their

sons afterwards shed their blood in the cause of their fellow

colonists! In the minutes of the provincial Assemblies and in the

reports rendered to the General Court, as well as in other official

documents of the period, are found expressions of the sentiment which

prevailed against the natives of the "Island of Sorrows." Only twenty

years before the outbreak of King Philip's war, the government of

England was asked to provide a law "to prevent the importation of

Irish Papists and convicts that are yearly pow'rd upon us and to make

provision against the growth of this pernicious evil." And the

colonial Courts themselves, on account of what they called "the cruel

and malignant spirit that has from time to time been manifest in the

Irish nation against the English nation," prohibited "the bringing

over of any Irish men, women, or children into this jurisdiction on

the penalty of fifty pounds sterling to each inhabitant who shall buy

of any merchant, shipmaster, or other agent any such person or

persons so transported by them." This order was promulgated by the

General Court of Massachusetts in October, 1654, and is given in full

in the American Historical Review for October, 1896.

With the "convicts" and the "redemptioners" came the Irish

schoolmaster, the man then most needed in America. And the fighting

man, he too was to the fore, for when the colonies in after years

called for volunteers to resist the tyranny of the British, the

descendants of the Irish "convicts" were among the first and the most

eager to answer the call.

* * * * *

Although it does not appear that Irish immigrants settled in the

Province of New York in such large numbers as in other sections, yet,

as far back as the third quarter of the seventeenth century, Irish

names are found on the records of the Colony. O'Callaghan, the

eminent archivist and historian, refers to "Dr. William Hayes,

formerly of Barry's Court, Ireland," as one of New York's physicians

in the year 1647, and from the same authority we learn that there

were "settlers and Indian fighters in New Netherland" named Barrett,

Fitzgerald, Dowdall, Collins, and Quinn in 1657. In records relating

to the war with the Esopus Indians (1663), and in fact as early as

1658, frequent references are made to "Thomas the Irishman", whose

name was Thomas Lewis, a refugee from Ireland to Holland after the

Cromwellian war. Lewis is on record in 1683 as one of the wealthiest

merchants of New York and a large owner of real estate in the present

downtown portion of the city. Such names as Patrick Hayes, John Daly,

John Quigly, and Dennis McKarty appear among its business men between

1666 and 1672, and in a "Census of the City of New York of the year

1703" we find people named Flynn, Walsh, Dooley, Gillen, Carroll,

Kenne, Gurney, Hart, Mooney, Moran, Lynch, Kearney, and others, all

"Freemen of the City of New York." In the "Poll List" of the city

from 1741 to 1761, more than one hundred such names appear, while

among the advertisers in the New York newspapers all through the

eighteenth century I find a large number of characteristic Irish

names.

One would scarcely expect to find an Irishman in the old Dutch

settlement of Beverwyck as early as 1645. Yet such is the case, for

"Jan Andriessen, de Iersman van Dublingh"--(John Anderson, the

Irishman from Dublin)--is mentioned as the owner of considerable

landed property in the neighborhood of Albany and Catskill, and in

every mention of this ancient pioneer he is referred to as "the

Irishman." At Albany, between 1666 and 1690, we find people named

Connell, Daly, Larkin, Shaw, Hogan, and Finn, all Irishmen, and in

Jonathan Pearson's "Genealogies of the First Settlers of the Ancient

County of Albany" and in his "Genealogies of the First Settlers of

the Patent and City of Schenectady", I find 135 distinctive Irish

names. These were mostly merchants, farmers, artisans, millers, and

backwoodsmen, the pioneers, who, with their Dutch neighbors, blazed

the trail of civilization through that section, rolled back the

savage redman, and marked along the banks of the Hudson and Mohawk

rivers the sites of future towns and cities. In the rate lists of

Long Island between 1638 and 1675, I find Kelly, Dalton, Whelan,

Condon, Barry, Powers, Quin, Kane, Sweeney, Murphy, Reilly, as well

as Norman-Irish and Anglo-Irish names that are common to Irish

nomenclature. Hugh O'Neale was a prominent resident of Newtown, L.I.,

in 1655. In a "Report to the Lord President," dated September 6,

1687, Governor Dongan recommended "that natives of Ireland be sent to

colonize here where they may live and be very happy." Numbers of them

evidently accepted the invitation, for many Irishmen are mentioned in

the public documents of the Province during the succeeding twenty

years.

That the Irish continued to settle in the Province all through the

eighteenth century may be seen from the announcements in the New York

newspapers of the time and other authentic records. The most

important of these, in point of numbers and character of the

immigrants, were those made in Orange County in 1729 under the

leadership of James Clinton from Longford, and at Cherry Valley, in

Otsego County, twelve years later. On the Orange County assessment

and Revolutionary rolls, and down to the year 1800, there is a very

large number of Irish names, and in some sections they constituted

nearly the entire population. In the northwestern part of New York,

Irishmen are also found about the time of the Franco-English war.

They were not only among those settlers who followed the peaceful

pursuits of tilling and building, but they were "the men behind the

guns" who held the marauding Indians in check and repelled the

advances of the French through that territory. In this war, Irish

soldiers fought on both sides, and in the "Journals of the Marquis of

Montcalm" may be seen references to the English garrison at Oswego,

which, in August, 1756, surrendered to that same Irish Brigade by

which they had been defeated eleven years before on the battlefield

of Fontenoy. In the "Manuscripts of Sir William Johnson", are also

found some interesting items indicating that Irishmen were active

participants in the frontier fighting about that time, and in one

report to him, dated May 28, 1756, from the commandant of an English

regiment, reference is made to "the great numbers of Irish Papists

among the Delaware and Susquehanna Indians who have done a world of

prejudice to English interests."

The early records, with hardly an exception, contain Irish names,

showing that the "Exiles from Erin" came to the Province of New York

in considerable numbers during the eighteenth century. The baptismal

and marriage records of the Dutch Reformed and Protestant churches of

New York City; of the Dutch churches at Kingston, Albany,

Schenectady, and other towns; the muster rolls of the troops enrolled

for the French, Indian, and Revolutionary wars; the Land Grants and

other provincial records at Albany; the newspapers; the Town, County,

and family histories, and other early chronicles, supplemented by

authoritative publications such as those of the New York Historical

and Genealogical and Biographical Societies--these are the

depositories of the evidence that thousands of Irish people settled

in the Province of New York and constituted no inconsiderable

proportion of the total population.

The majority of the Irish residents of New York whose marriages are

recorded in the Dutch Reformed church were, doubtless, of the

Catholic faith, but, as it was necessary to comply with the

established law, and also so that their offspring might be

legitimate, they could be bound in wedlock only by a recognized

Minister of the Gospel. As there was no Catholic church in New York

prior to 1786, the ceremony had to be performed in the Dutch Reformed

or Protestant church. Many of these Catholics were refugees from

Ireland on account of the religious persecutions. Like the people of

Ireland in all ages, they were devoted to their religion, and while,

no doubt, they eschewed for a while association with the established

churches, yet, as time went on, they and their children were

gradually drawn into religious intercourse with the other sects,

until eventually they became regular communicants of those churches.

The variations which from time to time were wrought in their names

brought them further and further away from what they had been; in

their new surroundings, both social and religious, they themselves

changed, so that their children, who in many cases married into the

neighboring Dutch and French families, became as wholly un-Irish in

manner and sentiment as if they had sprung from an entirely different

race. That fact, however, does not admit of their being now included

in the category "Anglo-Saxon."

In a work entitled "Names of Persons for whom Marriage Licenses were

issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York, previous to

1784," compiled by Gideon J. Tucker (when Secretary of State), and

taken from the early records of the office of the Secretary of State

at Albany, we find ample corroboration of the church records. Page

after page of this book looks more like some record of the Province

of Munster than of the Province of New York. It is a quarto volume

printed in small type in double columns, and there are eleven pages

wholly devoted to persons whose names commence with "Mac" and three

to the "O's." Nearly every name common to Ireland is here

represented.

New York, as a Province and as a State, is much indebted to Irish

genius. Ireland gave the Province its most noted governor in the

person of Thomas Dongan from Co. Kildare, and in later years Sir

William Johnson from Co. Meath, governor of the Indians from New York

to the Mississippi. It gave the State its first governor, George

Clinton, son of an immigrant from Co. Longford, and to the city its

first mayor after the Revolution, James Duane, son of Anthony Duane

from Co. Galway. Fulton, an Irishman's son, gave America priority in

the "conquest of the seas." Christopher Colles, a native of Cork, was

the originator of the grand scheme which united the waters of the

Atlantic and the Lakes--one of the greatest works of internal

improvement ever effected in the United States--while the gigantic

project was carried to a successful end through the influence and

direction of Governor DeWitt Clinton, the grandson of an Irishman.

* * * * *

Many of the pioneer settlers of New Jersey were Irish. As early as

1683 "a colony from Tipperary in Ireland" located at Cohansey in

Salem County, and in the same year a number of settlers, also

described as "from Tipperary, Ireland," located in Monmouth County.

In the County records of New Jersey, Irish names are met with

frequently between the years 1676 and 1698. Several of the local

historians testify to the presence and influence of Irishmen in the

early days of the colony, and in the voluminous "New Jersey Archives"

may be found references to the large numbers of Irish

"redemptioners," some of whom, after their terms of service had

expired, received grants of land and in time became prosperous

farmers and merchants. Perhaps the most noted Irishman in New Jersey

in colonial days was Michael Kearney, a native of Cork and ancestor

of General Philip Kearney of Civil War fame, who was secretary and

treasurer of the Province in 1723.

* * * * *

All through the west and southwest, Irishmen are found in the

earliest days of authentic history. Along the Ohio, Kentucky, Wabash,

and Tennessee rivers they were with the pioneers who first trod the

wilderness of that vast territory. As early as 1690, an Irish trader

named Doherty crossed the mountains into what is now Kentucky, and we

are told by Filson, the noted French historian and explorer of

Kentucky, that "the first white man who discovered this region"

(1754) was one James McBride, who, in all probability, was an

Irishman. The first white child born in Cincinnati was a son of an

Irish settler named John Cummins; the first house built on its site

was erected by Captain Hugh McGarry, while "the McGarrys, Dentons,

and Hogans formed the first domestic circle in Kentucky." Prior to

the Revolution, Indian traders from Western Pennsylvania had

penetrated into this region, and we learn from authentic sources that

no small percentage of those itinerant merchants of the west were

Irishmen. Among the leading and earliest colonists of the "Blue Grass

State" who accompanied Daniel Boone, the ubiquitous Irish were

represented by men bearing such names as Mooney, McManus, Sullivan,

Drennon, Logan, Casey, Fitzpatrick, Dunlevy, Cassidy, Doran,

Dougherty, Lynch, Ryan, McNeill, McGee, Reilly, Flinn, and the noted

McAfee brothers, all natives of Ireland or sons of Irish immigrants.

Irishmen and their sons figured prominently in the field of early

western politics. In the Kentucky legislature, I find such names as

Connor, Cassidy, Cleary, Conway, Casey, Cavan, Dulin, Dougherty,

Geohegan, Maher, Morrison, Moran, McMahon, McFall, McClanahan,

O'Bannon, Powers, and a number of others evidently of Irish origin.

On the bench we find O'Hara, Boyle, and Barry. Among the many

distinguished men who reflected honor upon the west, Judge William T.

Barry of Lexington ranks high for great ability and lofty virtues.

Simon Kenton, famed in song and story, who "battled with the Indians

in a hundred encounters and wrested Kentucky from the savage," was an

Irishman's son, while among its famous Indian fighters were Colonels

Andrew Hynes, William Casey, and John O'Bannon; Majors Bulger,

McMullin, McGarry, McBride, Butler, and Cassidy; and Captains

McMahon, Malarkie, Doyle, Phelon, and Brady. Allen, Butler, Campbell,

Montgomery, and Rowan counties, Ky., are named after natives of

Ireland, and Boyle, Breckinridge, Carroll, Casey, Daviess, Magoffin,

Kenton, McCracken, Meade, Menifee, Clinton, and Fulton counties were

named in honor of descendants of Irish settlers.

* * * * *

In the councils of the first territorial legislature of Missouri were

Sullivan, Cassidy, Murphy, McDermid, McGrady, Flaugherty, McGuire,

Dunn, and Hogan, and among the merchants, lawyers, and bankers in the

pioneer days of St. Louis there were a number of Irishmen, the most

noted of whom were Mullanphy, Gilhuly, O'Fallon, Connor, O'Hara,

Dillon, Ranken, Magennis, and Walsh. In all early histories of

Missouri towns and counties, Irish names are mentioned, and in many

instances they are on record as "the first settlers."

* * * * *

And so it was all through the west. In Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and

Illinois, across the rolling prairies and the mountains, beyond the

Mississippi and the Missouri, in the earliest days of colonization of

that vast territory, we can follow the Irish "trek" in quest of new

homes and fortunes. They were part of that irresistible human current

that swept beyond the ranges of Colorado and Kansas and across the

Sierra Nevada until it reached the Pacific, and in the forefront of

those pathfinders and pioneers we find Martin Murphy, the first to

open a wagon trail to California from the East. The names of Don

Timoteo Murphy, of Jasper O'Farrell, of Dolans, Burkes, Breens, and

Hallorins are linked with the annals of the coast while that

territory was still under Spanish rule, and when Fremont crossed the

plains and planted the "Bear flag" beyond the Sierras, we find

Irishmen among his trusted lieutenants. An Irishman, Captain Patrick

Connor, first penetrated the wilderness of Utah; a descendant of an

Irishman, Hall J. Kelly, was the explorer of Oregon; Philip Nolan and

Thomas O'Connor were foremost among those brave spirits "whose daring

and persistency finally added the Lone Star State to the American

Union"; and the famous Arctic explorer, scientist, and scholar, Dr.

Elisha Kent Kane, was a descendant of John O'Kane who came from

Ireland to the Province of New York in 1752.

* * * * *

To form any reliable estimate of the numerical strength of the Irish

and their descendants in the United States would, I believe, be a

hopeless task, and while several have attempted to do so, I am of the

opinion that all such estimates should be discarded as mere

conjecture. Indeed, there is no standard, or fixed rule or principle,

by which a correct judgment of the racial composition of the early

inhabitants of the United States can now be formed, and the available

statistics on the subject are incomplete and confusing. The greatest

obstacle in determining this question is found in the names of the

immigrants themselves. With names such as Smith, Mason, Carpenter,

and Taylor; White, Brown, Black, and Gray; Forrest, Wood, Mountain,

and Vail, and other names that are similarly derived, the first

thought is that they are of English origin. Yet we know that for

centuries past such names have been numerous in Ireland, and there

are many Irish families so named who are of as pure Celtic blood as

any bearing the old Gaelic patronymics. By a law passed in the second

year of the reign of Edward IV., natives of Ireland were forced to

adopt English surnames. This Act was, substantially, as follows: "An

Act that Irishmen dwelling in the Counties of, etc.... shall go

appareled like Englishmen and wear their beards in English manner,

swear allegiance and take English sirnames, which sirnames shall be

of one towne, as Sutton, Chester, Trim, Skryne, Cork, Kinsale; or

colours, as white, black, brown; or arts, or sciences, as smith or

carpenter; or office, as cook, butler, etc., and it is enacted that

he and his issue shall use his name under pain of forfeyting of his

goods yearly", etc.

This Act could be enforced only upon those Irish families who dwelt

within the reach of English law, and as emigrants from those

districts, deprived of their pure Celtic names, came to America in an

English guise and in English vessels, they were officially recorded

as "English." Moreover, numbers of Irish frequently crossed the

channel and began their voyage from English ports, where they had to

take on new names, sometimes arbitrarily, and sometimes voluntarily

for purposes of concealment, either by transforming their original

names into English or adopting names similar to those above referred

to. These names were generally retained on this side of the Atlantic

so as not to arouse the prejudice of their English neighbors. In

complying with the statute above quoted, some Irish families accepted

the rather doubtful privilege of translating their names into their

English equivalents. We have examples of this in such names as

Somers, anglicised from McGauran (presumably derived from the Gaelic

word signifying "summer"); Smith from McGowan (meaning "the son of

the smith"); Jackson and Johnson, a literal translation from MacShane

(meaning "the son of John"); and Whitcomb from Kiernan (meaning,

literally, "a white comb").

In addition to this, in the case of some of those Irish immigrants

whose family names were not changed in Ireland, their descendants

appear in a much disguised form in the colonial records. Through the

mistakes of clergymen, court clerks, registrars, and others who had

difficulty in pronouncing Gaelic names, letters became inserted or

dropped and the names were written down phonetically. In the

mutations of time, even these names became still further changed, and

we find that the descendants of the Irish themselves, after the lapse

of a generation or two, deliberately changed their names, usually by

suppressing the Milesian prefixes, "Mac" and "O". Thus we have the

Laflin and Claflin families, who are descended from a McLaughlin, an

Irish settler in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century; the Bryans

from William O'Brian, a captain in Sarsfield's army, who, after the

fall of Limerick in 1691, settled in Pasquetank County, N.C., and one

of whose descendants is William Jennings Bryan, now Secretary of

State; the Dunnels of Maine, from an O'Donnell who located in the

Saco Valley; and at the Land Office at Annapolis I have found the

descendants of Roger O'Dewe, who came to Maryland about 1665,

recorded under the surnames of "Roger", "Dew", and "Dewey". I find

Dennis O'Deeve or O'Deere written down on the Talbot County (Md.)

records of the year 1667 with his name reversed, and today his

descendants are known as "Dennis". Many such instances appear in the

early records, and when we find a New England family rejoicing in the

name of "Navillus" we know that the limit has been reached, and while

we cannot admire the attempt to disguise an ancient and honorable

name, we are amused at the obvious transposition of "Sullivan".

Thus we see, that, numerous though the old Irish names are on

American records, they do not by any means indicate the extent of the

Celtic element which established itself in the colonies, so that

there is really no means of determining exactly what Ireland has

contributed to the American Commonwealth. We only know that a steady

stream of Irish immigrants has crossed the seas to the American

continent, beginning with the middle of the seventeenth century, and

that many of those "Exiles from Erin", or their sons, became

prominent as leaders in every station in life in the new country.

Nor is the "First Census of the United States" any criterion in this

regard, for the obvious reason that the enumerators made no returns

of unmarried persons. This fact is important when we consider that

the Irish exodus of the eighteenth century was largely comprised of

the youth of the country. Although the First Census was made in 1790,

the first regular record of immigration was not begun until thirty

years later, and it is only from the records kept after that time

that we can depend upon actual official figures. During the decade

following 1820, Ireland contributed more than forty per cent, of the

entire immigration to America from all European countries, and the

Irish Emigration Statistics show that between 1830 and 1907 the

number of people who left Ireland was 6,049,432, the majority of whom

came to America. The _Westminster Review_ (vol. 133, p. 293), in an

article on "The Irish-Americans", puts a series of questions as

follows: "Is the American Republic in any way indebted to those Irish

citizens? Have they with their large numbers, high social standing,

great places of trust, contributed aught to her glory or added aught

to her commercial greatness, refined her social taste or assisted in

laying the foundations of the real happiness of her people, the real

security of her laws, the influence of her civic virtues, which more

than anything else give power and permanency to a naissant and mighty

nation? The answer is unquestionably affirmative. We have only to

look back on the past, and to scan the present state of American

affairs, to feel certain of this." If it be further asked: "Does this

statement stand the test of strict investigation?" the answer must

also be in the affirmative, for in almost every line of progress the

Irish in America have contributed their share of leaders and

pioneers, thus proving that there are characteristics among even the

poor Irish driven to emigration for an existence that are as capable

of development as those possessed by any other race. When we scan the

intellectual horizon, we see many men of great force of character:

preachers and teachers; statesmen and scholars; philanthropists and

founders of institutions; scientists and engineers; historians and

journalists; artists and authors; lawyers and doctors, of Celtic race

and blood, while, in the industrial field, as builders of steamships

and railroads and promoters of public works, as merchants,

manufacturers, and bankers, and in all other fields of endeavor, we

find the American Irish controlling factors in the upbuilding of the

Republic.

Of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Thornton, Taylor,

and Smith were natives of Ireland; McKean, Read, and Rutledge were of

Irish parentage; Lynch and Carroll were grandsons of Irishmen;

Whipple and Hancock were of Irish descent on the maternal side; and

O'Hart (_Irish Pedigrees_) declares that Robert Treat Paine was a

great-grandson of Henry O'Neill, hereditary prince of Ulster, who

"changed his name to that of one of his maternal ancestors so as to

save his estates". It was an Irishman who first read the immortal

Document to the public; an Irishman first printed it; and an Irishman

published it for the first time with facsimiles of the signatures.

At least six American Presidents had more or less of the Celtic

strain. President Jackson, whose parents came from Co. Down, more

than once expressed his pride in his Irish ancestry. Arthur's parents

were from Antrim, Buchanan's from Donegal, and McKinley's

grandparents came from the same vicinity. Theodore Roosevelt boasts

among his ancestors two direct lines from Ireland, and the first

American ancestor of President Polk was a Pollock from Donegal. The

present occupant of the White House, Woodrow Wilson, is also of Irish

descent. Among the distinguished Vice-Presidents of the United States

were George Clinton and John C. Calhoun, sons of immigrants from

Longford and Donegal respectively, and Calhoun's successor as

chairman of the committee on foreign relations was John Smilie, a

native of Newtownards, Co. Down.

Among American governors since 1800, we find such names as Barry,

Brady, Butler, Carroll, Clinton, Conway, Carney, Connolly, Curtin,

Collins, Donaghey, Downey, Early, Fitzpatrick, Flannegan, Geary,

Gorman, Hannegan, Kavanagh, Kearney, Logan, Lynch, Murphy, Moore,

McKinley, McGill, Meagher, McGrath, Mahone, McCormick, O'Neal,

O'Ferrall, Orr, Roane, Filey, Sullivan, Sharkey, Smith, Talbot, and

Welsh, all of Irish descent. Today we have as governors of States,

Glynn in New York, Dunne in Illinois, Walsh in Massachusetts, O'Neal

in Alabama, Burke in North Carolina, Carey in Wyoming, McGovern in

Wisconsin, McCreary in Kentucky, and Tener in Pennsylvania, and not

alone is the governor of the last-mentioned State a native of

Ireland, but so also are its junior United States Senator, the

secretary of the Commonwealth, and its adjutant-general.

In the political life of America, many of the sons of Ireland have

risen to eminence, and in the legislative halls at the National

Capital, the names of Kelly, Fitzpatrick, Broderick, Casserly,

Farley, Logan, Harlan, Hannegan, Adair, Barry, Rowan, Gorman,

Kennedy, Lyon, Fitzgerald, Fair, Sewall, Kernan, Butler, Moore,

Regan, Mahone, Walsh, and Flannegan, are still spoken of with respect

among the lawmakers of the nation. William Darrah Kelly served in

Congress for fifty years, and it remained for James Shields to hold

the unique distinction of representing three different States, at

different times, in the Senate of the United States. Senator Shields

was a native of Co. Tyrone.

In the judiciary have been many shining lights of Irish origin. The

Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court is Edward D. White,

grandson of a '98 rebel, and one of his ablest associates is Joseph

McKenna. No more erudite or profound lawyer than Charles O'Conor has

adorned his profession and it can be said with truth that his career

has remained unrivalled in American history. James T. Brady, Daniel

Dougherty, Thomas Addis Emmet, and Charles O'Neill were among the

most eminent lawyers America has known, while the names of Dennis

O'Brien, Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals, John D.

O'Neill, who occupied a like elevated place on the bench of South

Carolina, John D. Phelan of the Alabama Supreme Court, Richard

O'Gorman, Charles P. Daly, Hugh Rutledge, Morgan J. O'Brien, and

others of like origin, are household words in the legal annals of

America. There is no State in the Union where an Irish-American

lawyer has not distinguished himself.

The history of medicine in the United States is adorned with the

names of many physicians of Irish birth or blood. Several Irish

surgeons rendered valuable services in the army of the Revolution,

among whom are found Drs. McDonough, McHenry, McCloskey, McCalla,

Burke, Irvine, and Williamson. Dr. John Cochran was appointed by

Washington surgeon-general of the army. Dr. James Lynah of

Charleston, a native of Ireland, became surgeon-general of South

Carolina in recognition of his valuable services to the patriot army.

Dr. John McKinley, a native of Ireland, who was a famous physician in

his day, became the first governor of Delaware. Dr. Ephraim McDowell

is known in the profession as the "Father of Ovariotomy", as is Dr.

William J. McNevin the "Father of American Chemistry". Dr. John Byrne

of New York had a world-wide fame, and his papers on gynecology have

been pronounced by the medical press as "the best printed in any

language". One of the most conspicuous figures in medicine in the

United States was Dr. Jerome Cochran of Alabama. Drs. Junius F. Lynch

of Florida; Charles McCreery of Kentucky; Hugh McGuire and Hunter

McGuire of Virginia; Matthew C. McGannon of Tennessee; and James

Lynch, Charles J. O'Hagan, and James McBride of South Carolina are

mentioned prominently in the histories of their respective localities

as the foremost medical men of their times, while in Wisconsin the

pioneer physician was Dr. William H. Fox, and in Oregon, Dr. John

McLoughlin. Among New York physicians who achieved high reputations

in their profession were Drs. Thomas Addis Emmet, Frank A. McGuire,

Daniel E. O'Neill, Charles McBurney, Isaac H. Reiley, Alfred L.

Carroll, Howard A. Kelly, Joseph O'Dwyer, and James J. Walsh. These

and many others of Irish descent have been honored by medical

societies as leaders and specialists, while it can be said that no

surgeon of the present day has achieved such a world-wide reputation

as Dr. John B. Murphy of Chicago. Among experts in medico-legal

science, the names of Drs. Benjamin W. McCreedy and William J.

O'Sullivan of New York stand out prominently, and among the most

noted contributors to medical journals in the United States, and

recognized as men of great professional skill and authorities in

their respective specialties, have been Drs. F.D. Mooney of St.

Louis; Thomas Fitzgibbon of Milwaukee; John D. Hanrahan of Rutland;

James McCann and James H. McClelland of Pittsburgh; John A. Murphy

and John McCurdy of Cincinnati; John Keating of Philadelphia; John H.

Murphy of St. Paul; John W.C. O'Neal of Gettysburg; and Arthur

O'Neill of Meadville, Pa. Indeed, it can be said that American

medical science owes an incalculable debt to Irish genius.

Theodore Vail, the presiding genius of the greatest telephone system

in the world, is Irish, and so is Carty, its chief engineer. Morse,

the inventor of the telegraph, was the grandson of an Irishman; Henry

O'Reilly built the first telegraph line in the United States; and

John W. Mackey was the president of the Commercial Cable Company.

John P. Holland, the inventor of the submarine torpedo boat, was a

native of Co. Clare; and McCormick, the inventor of the reaping and

mowing machine, was an Irishman's grandson.

Sons of Irishmen have stood in the front rank of American statesmen

and diplomats who represented their country abroad. To mention but a

few: Richard O'Brien, appointed by Jefferson American representative

at Algiers; James Kavanagh, Minister to Portugal; and Louis McLane,

Minister to England in 1829 and afterwards Secretary of State in

1832. In recent years, an O'Brien has represented American interests

in Italy and Japan; a Kerens in Austria; an Egan in Chili and another

of the same name in Denmark; an O'Shaughnessy in Mexico; a Sullivan

in Santo Domingo; and an O'Rear in Bolivia.

Among historians were John Gilmary Shea, author of numerous

historical works; Dr. Robert Walsh, a learned historian and

journalist of the last century, whose literary labors were extensive;

McMahon and McSherry, historians of Maryland; Burk, of Virginia;

O'Callaghan, Hastings, and Murphy of New York; Ramsay of South

Carolina; and Williamson of North Carolina, all native Irishmen or

sons of Irish immigrants.

In the field of American journalism have been many able and forcible

writers of Irish birth or descent. Hugh Gaine, a Belfast man, founded

the New York _Mercury_ in 1775. John Dunlap founded the first daily

paper in Philadelphia, John Daly Burk published the first daily paper

in Boston, and William Duane edited the _Aurora_ of Philadelphia in

1795. All these were born in Ireland. William Coleman, founder of the

New York _Evening Post_ in 1801, was the son of an Irish rebel of

1798; Thomas Fitzgerald founded the Philadelphia _Item_; Thomas Gill,

the New York _Evening Star_; Patrick Walsh, the Augusta _Chronicle_;

Joseph Medill, the Chicago _Tribune_. Henry W. Grady edited the

Atlanta _Constitution_; Michael Dee edited the Detroit _Evening News_

for nearly fifty years; Richard Smith, the Cincinnati _Gazette_;

Edward L. Godkin, the New York _Evening Post_; William Laffan, the

New York _Sun_; and Horace Greeley, the New York _Tribune_. All of

these were either natives of Ireland or sprung from immigrant

Irishmen, as were Oliver of the Pittsburgh _Gazette_, O'Neill of the

Pittsburgh _Despatch_, John Keating of Memphis, William D. O'Connor,

and many other shining lights of American journalism during the last

century. Fitz James O'Brien was "a bright, particular star" in the

journalistic firmament; John MacGahan achieved fame as a war

correspondent; Patrick Barry of Rochester, an extensive writer on

horticultural and kindred subjects, was the recognized leader of his

craft in the United States; and William Darby, son of Patrick and

Mary Darby, and Michael Twomey were the ablest American geographers

and writers on abstruse scientific subjects.

In the field of poetry, we have had Theodore O'Hara, the author of

that immortal poem, "The Bivouac of the Dead"; John Boyle O'Reilly;

Thomas Dunn English, author of "Ben Bolt"; Father Abram Ryan, "the

poet priest of the South"; James Whitcomb Riley; Eleanor Donnelly;

M.F. Egan; T.A. Daly; and Joseph I.C. Clarke, president of the

American Irish Historical Society.

To recount the successful men of affairs of Irish origin it would be

necessary to mention every branch of business and every profession.

Recalling but a few, Daniel O'Day, Patrick Farrelly, John and William

O'Brien, Alexander T. Stewart, John Castree, Joseph J. O'Donohue,

William R. Grace, John McConville, Hugh O'Neill, Alexander E. Orr,

William Constable, Daniel McCormick, and Dominick Lynch, all of New

York, were dominant figures in the world of business. Thomas Mellon

of Pittsburgh; John R. Walsh and the Cudahy brothers of Chicago;

James Phelan, Peter Donahue, Joseph A. Donohoe, and John Sullivan of

San Francisco; William A. Clark and Marcus Daly of Montana; George

Meade, the Meases and the Nesbits, Thomas FitzSimmons and Thomas

Dolan of Philadelphia; Columbus O'Donnell and Luke Tiernan of

Baltimore, all these have been leading merchants in their day. Few

American financiers occupy a more conspicuous place than Thomas F.

Ryan, and no great industrial leader has reached the pinnacle of

success upon which stands the commanding figure of James J. Hill,

both sons of Irishmen. The names of Anthony N. Brady, Eugene Kelly,

James S. Stranahan, and James A. Farrell, president of the United

States Steel Corporation, are household words in business and

financial circles.

John Keating, the first paper manufacturer in New York (1775); Thomas

Faye, the first to manufacture wall-paper by machinery, who won for

this distinction the first gold medal of the American Institute; John

and Edward McLoughlin of New York, for many years the leading

publishers of illustrated books; and John Banigan of Providence, one

of the largest manufacturers of rubber goods in America, were natives

of Ireland. John O'Fallon and Bryan Mullanphy of St. Louis, and John

McDonough of Baltimore, who amassed great wealth as merchants, were

large contributors to charitable and educational institutions;

William W. Corcoran, whose name is enshrined in the famous Art

Gallery at Washington, contributed during his lifetime over five

million dollars to various philanthropic institutions; and one of the

most noted philanthropists in American history, and the first woman

in America to whom a public monument was erected, was an Irishwoman,

Margaret Haughery of New Orleans.

Irishmen have shown a remarkable aptitude for the handling of large

contracts, and in this field have been prominent John H. O'Rourke,

James D. Leary, James Coleman, Oliver Byrne, and John D. Crimmins in

New York; John B. McDonald, the builder of New York's subways; George

Law, projector and promoter of public works, steamship and railroad

builder; and John Roach, the famous ship-builder of Chester, Pa. John

Sullivan, a noted American engineer one hundred years ago, completed

the Middlesex Canal; and John McL. Murphy, whose ability as a

constructing engineer was universally recognized, rendered valuable

service to the United States during the Civil War. Among pioneer

ship-builders in America are noted Patrick Tracy fron Wexford and

Simon Forrester from Cork, who were both at Salem, Mass., during the

period of the Revolution and rendered most valuable service to the

patriot cause; and the O'Briens, Kavanaghs, and Sewalls in Maine.

But it is not in the material things of life alone that the Irish

have been in the van. Thousands of Americans have been charmed by the

operas of Victor Herbert, a grandson of Samuel Lover, and with lovers

of music the strains of Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore's band still linger

as a pleasant memory. Edward A. MacDowell, America's most famous

composer, was of Irish descent. The colossal statute of "America" on

the dome of the National Capitol was executed by Thomas Crawford, who

was born in New York of Irish parents in 1814; Henry Inman, one of

the very best of portrait painters, was also born in New York of

Irish parents; John Singleton Copley, the distinguished artist, came

to Boston from Co. Clare in 1736; Thompson, the sculptor, was born in

Queen's Co.; another noted sculptor was William D. O'Donovan of

Virginia; and Augustus Saint Gaudens, one of the greatest sculptors

of modern times, was born in Dublin. Other sculptors of Irish race

have been elsewhere mentioned. Among America's most talented artists

and portrait painters may be mentioned George P. Healy, William J.

Hennessy, Thomas Moran, Henry Pelham, Henry Murray, John Neagle, and

William Magrath, all of Irish birth or descent.

Ireland has given many eminent churchmen to the United States. The

three American Cardinals, Gibbons, Farley, and O'Connell, stand out

prominently, as do Archbishops Carroll, Hughes, McCloskey, Kenrick,

Ryan, Ireland, Glennon, Corrigan, and Keane, all of whom have shed

lustre on the Church. History has given to an Irishman, Francis

Makemie of Donegal, the credit of founding Presbyterianism in

America, while among noted Presbyterian divines of Irish birth were

James Waddell, known as "the blind preacher of the wilderness,"

Thomas Smyth, John Hall, Francis Allison, William Tennant, and James

McGrady, all men of great ability and influence in their day. Samuel

Finley, President of Princeton College in 1761, was a native of

Armagh, and John Blair Smith, famous as a preacher throughout the

Shenandoah Valley and the first president of Union College (1795),

was of Irish descent. Among the pioneer preachers of the western

wilderness were McMahon, Dougherty, Quinn, Burke, O'Cool, Delaney,

McGee, and many others of Irish origin.

Irishmen and their sons have founded American towns and cities, and

the capital of the State of Colorado takes its name from General

James Denver, son of Patrick Denver, an emigrant from county Down in

the year 1795. Sixty-five places in the United States are named after

people bearing the Irish prefix "O" and upwards of 1000 after the

"Macs", and there are 253 counties of the United States and

approximately 7000 places called by Irish family or place names.

There are 24 Dublins, 21 Waterfords, 18 Belfasts, 16 Tyrones, 10

Limericks, 9 Antrims, 8 Sligos, 7 Derrys, 6 Corks, 5 Kildares, and so

on.

Immigrant Irishmen have also been the founders of prominent American

families. One of the most ancient of Irish patronymics, McCarthy, is

found in the records of Virginia as early as 1635 and in

Massachusetts in 1675, and all down through the successive

generations descendants of this sept were among the leading families

of the communities where they located. In Virginia, the McCormick,

Meade, Lewis, Preston, and Lynch families; in the Carolinas, the

Canteys, Nealls, Bryans, and Butlers; and in Maryland, the Carrolls

and Dulanys are all descended from successful Irish colonizers.

Even from this very incomplete summary, we can see that Irish blood,

brain, and brawn have been a valuable acquisition to the building of

the fabric of American institutions, and that the sons of Ireland

merit more prominent recognition than has been accorded them in the

pages of American history. The pharisees of history may have withheld

from Ireland the credit that is her due, but, thanks to the

never-failing guidance of the records, we are able to show that at

all times, whether they came as voluntary exiles or were driven from

their homes by the persecutions of government, her sons have had an

honorable part in every upward movement in American life. Testimony

adduced from the sources from which this imperfect sketch is drawn

cannot be called into question, and its perusal by those who so

amusingly glorify the "Anglo-Saxon" as the founder of the American

race and American institutions would have a chastening influence on

their ignorance of early American history, and would reopen the long

vista of the years, at the very beginning of which they would see

Celt and Teuton, Saxon and Gaul, working side by side solidifying the

fulcrum of the structure on which this great nation rests.