From _The Recorder_ (A. I. H. S.), Boston, Mass., December, 1901.
Portsmouth, R. I., was settled in 1638. Nine years later it was the most
populous town in the colony. Here Eleazar Slocum was born on the “25th
day of the 10th month 1664.” He resided there until some twenty years of
age when he removed to Dartmouth Township, now included in the city of
New Bedford, Mass.
In Dartmouth he wedded an Irish girl named Elephell Fitzgerald.
Concerning her there are two theories. The first is that she was the
daughter of an Irish earl and came to this country with her sister, who
was eloping with an English officer. The second theory is that favored
by Charles E. Slocum, M. D. Ph. D. In his _History of the Slocums_ he
inclines to the belief that Miss Fitzgerald was one of those Irish
maidens who were shipped to New England in Cromwell’s time or at later
periods.
There were doubtless large numbers of these Irish girls brought over.
The majority of them were, without question, Roman Catholics. Frequently
their fate was a hard and cruel one. Thebaud, in his _Irish Race in the
Past and the Present_, writing on the subject says:
“Such of them as were sent North were to be distributed among the
‘saints’ of New England, to be esteemed by the said ‘saints’ as
‘idolaters,’ ‘vipers,’ ‘young reprobates,’ just objects of ‘the wrath of
God’; or, if appearing to fall in with their new and hard task-masters,
to be greeted with words of dubious praise as ‘brands snatched from the
burning,’ ‘vessels of reprobation,’ destined, perhaps, by a due
initiation of the ‘saints’ to become ‘vessels of election,’ in the
meantime to be unmercifully scourged with the ‘besom of righteousness,’
at the slightest fault or mistake.”
Some, however, met a better fate. Their lines fell in more fortunate
places. In many cases they were kindly treated and, in time, married
into the families of their recent masters. Some of them, too, reared
large families of manly sons and womanly daughters and lived to a happy
old age. Many of their descendants must exist today in high places.
Perhaps some are not aware of their maternal Irish descent, while a few
may be reluctant to acknowledge it if they are. Yet, many of these Irish
girls were descended from the old nobility and clansmen whose names and
fames had ranked with the most illustrious in Europe.
Miss Fitzgerald’s marriage to Eleazar Slocum took place about 1687.
Their children were Meribah, born in 1689; Mary, born 1691; Eleazar,
born in 1693–’94; John, 1696–’97; Benjamin, 1699, and Joanna, 1702.
There was also another child named Ebenezer. In 1699 the husband and
father is recorded as giving £3 toward building a Quaker meeting house.
His will was proved in 1727. It makes the following provisions
concerning his wife:
“Item—I give and bequeath Elephell, my beloved wife, the sum of twenty
pounds [per] annum of Good and Lawful money of New England, to be paid
Yearly and Every Year By my Execut^{rs} During her Naturall life—
“Item—I give and bequeath to Elephell my beloved wife an Indian girl
named Dorcas During the time she hath to Serve by Indenture—she
fulfilling all articles on my behalf—
“Item—I give and Bequeath to Elephell my beloved wife, The great low
room of my Dwelling house with the two bedrooms belonging together with
the Chamber over it and the Bedrooms belonging thereto, and the Garrett
and also what part of the N^w Addition she shall Choose and one half of
the cellar, During her Naturall life.
“Item—I will that my executors procure and supply Elephell my wife with
firewood sufficient During her Naturall life, And whatsoever Provisions
and Corn shall be left after my Decease, I give to Elephell my wife for
her support, and also the hay for Support of the Cattle. The above gifts
and Bequests is all and what I intend for Elephell my wife instead of
her thirds or Dowry.”
To his son Eleazar he bequeathed the northerly part of the homestead
farm, 100 acres, with house, barns, orchard, etc.; to son Ebenezer, the
southerly part of the homestead farm “on which my dwelling house
stands.” To Eleazar and Ebenezer he also gives other lands, and to
Ebenezer, in addition one pair of oxen, a pair of steers, eight cows,
two heifers and £12. The remainder of the horses, cattle, etc., he gives
to Eleazar and Ebenezer. The inventory shows £5,790 18s 11d personal
estate.
His widow, Elephell (Fitzgerald) Slocum, made a will “the 19th day of
the first month called March 1745–6.” It was proved October 4, 1748.
Joanna, one of her daughters, married Daniel, son of John Weeden of
Jamestown, R. I. A son of theirs was named Gideon Slocum Weeden.
The late Esther B. Carpenter of Wakefield, R. I., author of a delightful
volume of sketches entitled _South County Neighbors_, once alluded to
Miss Fitzgerald in a note to the writer. Miss Carpenter said that she
remembered to have heard her maternal grandmother say that she valued
her Irish line of descent from Miss Fitzgerald above any other she could
claim. This Irish connection had always been a common remark in the
family. The grandmother in question had named one of her daughters Alice
Joanna after her Irish ancestress, whose daughter Joanna had married a
Weeden as already stated. Many of the Weeden, Slocum and other families
now in Rhode Island trace descent back to Elephell, the gentle Irish
girl. Descendants of Elephell (Fitzgerald) Slocum are found today in New
Bedford, Mass. The writer recently conversed with one of them.