Footnote 6:
Died in September, 1905. He was a founder of the Society and its first
treasurer-general. This paper was the opening one of a series
contributed by him to the Boston _Pilot_, in 1890, and bearing the
general title of “How the Irish Came as Builders of the Nation.”
“The Massachusetts Bay” was, of all the original thirteen colonies, the
most hostile towards the Irish, and it made but little difference with
the Puritans whether the former were Catholic or Presbyterian, all fared
alike, and were looked upon as people neither to be encouraged nor
tolerated.
However, they continued to come in, despite this dislike, in one
capacity or another, and one—Captain Patrick—appears in the records of
1632. Florence McCarthy was a resident of Boston in 1686. He was a
butcher by occupation, and one of the founders of the first Episcopal
Church in the town.
Esther MacCarty’s name is signed to an indenture, as a witness, about
the same period. According to Palfrey, New England, up to the beginning
of the great Irish emigration, was more unmixed in blood than any county
in England. While this may seem true of Massachusetts, it will hardly
apply to New Hampshire, and will not stand investigation in the Bay
State, for according to the same authority, 400 or 500 Scotch were
transported by Cromwell to Massachusetts in 1651, and thirty-four years
later 150 families of French Huguenots came, followed in 1719, by 120
families of Irish, mainly from the North of Ireland. To these mentioned
by Palfrey must be added, on the authority of Drake, 200 families of the
unfortunate Acadians sent to Massachusetts about 1750.
No mention is made at all of the thousands sold into a kind of slavery
by Cromwell to New England and the West India Islands, from Ireland, and
yet, between 1651 and 1655, on the authority of Prendergast, over 6,000
boys and girls, mainly from the South of Ireland, were shipped to those
two points.
The addition of 400 or 500 Scotch, 150 families of French Huguenots and
the unknown number of Irish arriving in Massachusetts in less than
twenty-five years from the establishment of the colony of Massachusetts
Bay, will justify a contradiction of this statement of Palfrey’s. The
Acadians and the Irish are prolific, and in this respect could keep pace
with their English neighbors, and a comparison of the well-known New
England families of the past hundred years, with an equal number of
families in any English county, will prove it, for names, as a rule, are
the surest guides to nationalities, and scattered over New England, from
the dates named, are families bearing well-known French and Gaelic
names, many of them slightly changed, but enough left of the original to
trace the transformation. When the War of the Revolution broke out, this
mixture of English, Irish, Scotch and French blood was pretty well
compounded, and it was not surprising that the men of the new American
race humbled Britain, and brought her to her knees.
Adams and Hancock, Sullivan and Knox, Stark and McClary, Revere and
Bowdoin were, in New England, representatives of the nations mentioned,
while the names of Washington and Jefferson, Moylan and Carroll, Mercer
and Paul Jones, Laurens and Marion, showed that the same process was at
work throughout the colonies.
Many Americans, no matter whence they sprung, now mount the
“Anglo-Saxon” hobby, which, like a circus steed, has been so well padded
by writers of history that there is little danger of a dismount, and in
order to be in harmony with the aristocratic trend of the age, a double
hitch is provided by trotting out the “Scotch-Irish” nag as a running
mate, a trifle bony, perhaps, and a little ungainly at first, but time,
good feeding and careful grooming, will make a perfect match, for both
are of the same stock-humbug—a princely origin, for in this age humbug
is king, and its capital, unlimited, is wind.
While Irish blankets and Kilkenny rugs were mercantile commodities in
New Hampshire before King William of “glorious and immortal memory” had
trigged the wheels, Irish butter was a most desirable article in Boston,
as we find that John Hancock, among other goods advertised in his
Faneuil Hall store, speaks of “Newcastle coal and Irish butter cheap for
cash.” Cork from time immemorial being the great butter mart, it would
not be at all surprising if some of the light-footed and light-hearted
sons of that lively city came over with butter. McCarthy is one of the
great Cork names, and in addition to Florence and Esther, named between
1680 and 1760, Elizabeth, Thade, William and Calvin Maccarty are met
quite frequently in the records of the town of Boston, all persons of
means and holding responsible positions.
Florence was town constable in 1693, and Thade Maccarty was elected to a
similar position in 1673. For damage to her house, blown up to check a
fire, Mrs. Elizabeth Maccarty was awarded the sum of $300 and Maccarty’s
corner, on King Street, was a locality frequently mentioned. Florence
was a man of consequence, and one of the leading men in his business.
Leave was given him, in 1693, to build a slaughter house, and from the
frequent mention made of him he must have been the John P. Squire of his
day at the Hub. William Bryant was a servant of Capt. William Hudson in
1679, doubtless one of Cromwell’s transports, many of whom were, by that
date, scattered over New England, especially in what is now Maine and
New Hampshire. Larry is quite common along the border, between the Pine
Tree and Granite states, and the first met in history bear the
distinctive given names of Cornelius, Dennis and Teige. O’Leary is a
South of Ireland name, and the presence of persons bearing it so early
in the colonies, substantiates what is stated by Prendergast in the
_Cromwellian Settlement_.
Eugene Linch (Lynch) came to Boston from Virginia in 1712. The name of
Lynchburgh in the “Old Dominion” denoted the presence of this good old
Galway name. Eugene found a wife in Beverly; and although bearing an
aristocratic Norman name, he was not good enough to reside in Boston,
being ordered to go to Beverly and stay with his wife. James Bettrell,
“an Irish shoemaker,” had better luck, however, being allowed to remain,
on giving bonds. James Barry was a noted huntsman in 1702, and was
complained of for allowing his dogs to run loose. The town constable
ordered him to shut them up.
There is quite frequent mention of ships loaded with passengers from
Ireland, bound for Pennsylvania or Virginia, putting into Boston, from
stress of weather, want of provisions, or sickness among the people on
board. Care was taken by the town authorities to prevent the landing of
any of the passengers, and the records are full of such instances,
between 1700 and 1800, and the town constables were at their wits’ ends
to keep the unwelcome visitors out, for those who landed in other parts
of the country came by land to Boston, attracted, no doubt, by the
rising trade and manufactures of the future metropolis of New England.
Of this class, undoubtedly, was Charles Conner, his wife and child, who
came from Philadelphia in 1732, only to be ordered out of town at once—a
fate many of his nationality had to suffer during this epoch.
Drake, in his _Landmarks of Boston_, says: “About 1718 a number of
colonists arrived from Londonderry, bringing with them the manufacture
of linen and the implements used in Ireland. These emigrants also
introduced the general use of their favorite vegetable, the potato.”
They were not met with a warm welcome, however. So many were coming from
Ireland, in 1718, that Dea. John Marian was ordered to appear before the
courts and take such steps as he might deem proper to keep them away
from the town of Boston, and in this respect the authorities were
impartial. No distinction was made between the natives of Cork or
Belfast, Londonderry or Limerick, the followers of the old faith or the
new; all were treated alike; it was enough to know that they were Irish.
But despite all the obstacles thrown in their way, they kept coming, and
so fast that finally the town council resolved that some steps must be
taken to register them, so in case any of them became a town charge,
their nationality might be known.
To that end all persons receiving or entertaining any of the Irish
people were ordered to notify the authorities, on penalty of being fined
twenty shillings for the first forty-eight hours and ten shillings for
every twenty-four hours afterwards. Repeated warnings were given, but
were as often disregarded. January, 1719, John Maccanis, wife and four
children, were ordered to leave (John McGuinnis would be nearer the
mark). Two shiploads, under command of Capt. Robert Holmes and a Captain
Dennis, were refused permission to land, the same year. In September,
1744, three Irish boys and sixteen Irish girls were captured by a French
privateer and forwarded from Capt. Breton to Boston. Among them were
James Connor, Thomas Bryan, Charles White, Mary Roberts, Mary Price,
Sarah Agin, Mary Benson, Margaret Anderson, Sarah Hathay, Elizabeth
Campbell, Mary Hammell, Eliza Fitzgerald, Sarah McMahon, Bridget
McNamara, Eliza Dunster, Fanny Brady, Jenny Richardson, Kathleen Morris,
Mary Derham. No doubt these poor waifs were looked after by the
Charitable Irish Society, which was then instituted about seven years.
The feeling against their nationality was gradually wearing away, and
the settlements of their countrymen in New Hampshire were already
furnishing the best fighting men against the French and Indians.
As early as 1758, the Macs, with many other well-known Irish names, were
taking a prominent place in the town records. McCarthy, McCarroll,
McClane, MacCluer, McConnell, McCown, McCullum, McDaniel, McDonnell,
McDonald, McElroy, McFadden, McFarland, McGowan, McIntire, McKeen,
McKey, McKnight, McKenzie, McLean, McNeal, McPherson, McQuestion,
Mooney, Montgomery, Moore, Murphy, Ryan, Powers, Welch, etc., were
entered side by side with their English neighbors, so that there is no
question that Boston had within its borders when the Revolution broke
out, a large share of that stock,—the Irish—which made its influence
felt during the struggle, and which furnished in the massacre one of the
first victims, in the person of Patrick Carr.
Besides Boston, there were few towns in New England where an Irishman
could not be found between 1700 and 1800. In the contingent from
Ipswich, Mass., in 1755, at Lake George, were John Fitzpatrick, William
Connolly and Thomas Looney, and in the records of deaths in the town’s
history is that of James Fitzgerald, who died in 1727. Americans bearing
these names, some of them changed slightly, are found all over the
country—Fitzes and Geralds, Patricks, and Connollys, the latter changed
to Colony and Collony. The modern Fitzes discard any but a Norman
origin, however, and the Patricks are, of course, “Scotch-Irish.”
Jeremiah Smith, born in Ireland in 1705, came to Massachusetts in 1726,
locating at Milton. He was accompanied by his wife. He was the first to
raise potatoes in the town, and the first to manufacture paper in the
colony, and perhaps in the country. A neighbor of his, a Mr. Babcock,
having raised two bushels of potatoes from seed given him by Mr. Smith,
came to the latter and told him he did not know what on earth to do with
so many. Mr. Smith told him not to fret, he would buy them of him.
Babcock said he did not know what to do with his Irish help; they did
not understand raising American vegetables; he sent one of them out to
get some green corn for dinner the other day, and he came back without
any, saying that “he had dug up five or six hills, and the divil a
kernel of corn could he find.” Smith told him that the Irish knew as
much about raising corn as the Americans did about raising potatoes, and
knew less how to use them. Smith was a member of the Presbyterian Church
in Boston. He bears honorable mention in the town history, and was
respected by all his fellow-townsmen. He died in 1790.
John Sullivan was also interested in the manufacture of paper, in that
section, between 1780 and 1790, and associated with him in the business
were Patrick Connor and Michael McCarney. Others of Irish birth in the
town at the same time, who were prominent in its affairs, were Peter
O’Kelly, Hugh McLean, Peter McElroy and James McClary. That was quite a
group of Irishmen in a suburb of Boston, and there was no question but
that they were men of enterprise and push. O’Kelly, with his wife and
six children, went to South Carolina in 1796. McCarney was one of a
corporation, organized in 1798, the Mill Creek and Neponset River
Company, for the manufacture of paper. Their mills were situated near
where the chocolate manufactory of Walter Baker was afterwards located.
McCleary’s name appears on the rolls of the Charitable Irish Society in
1789. This is one of the names noted in New Hampshire’s military and
civil history. Maj. Andrew McClary, of Stark’s regiment, was killed at
Bunker Hill. He was one of the finest looking, as he was one of the
bravest, men in the army, and his death was then looked upon as a great
loss to the cause of Independence.
Among those who went with a colony from the Massachusetts Bay to
Delaware, in 1644, were John Nolin and his wife. The Swedes, who were
already located there, looked upon the newcomers as interlopers, and
made it very unpleasant for them. The result was the appointment of a
commission to investigate the alleged outrage on the Massachusetts men.
John Nolin was one of the principal witnesses, the Swedish governor
having placed him in irons. Nolan was undoubtedly the correct way of
spelling the name, and it would not be at all surprising if, like Darby
Field of New Hampshire, he was one of the “Irish soldiers for
discovery.”
John Patrick of Barre, Mass., was a lieutenant in the company recruited
in that town, at the outbreak of the Revolution. His father was an
emigrant from Ireland, and the original name was Kilpatrick. His
descendants are scattered through New England, and like all sprung from
Gaelic stock, have been prolific. He died in 1807, aged sixty-eight.
Gen. M. R. Patrick, provost marshal of the Army of the Potomac, and at
his death superintendent of the Soldiers’ Home at Dayton, Ohio, was one
of his descendants. In harmony with the usage of the day, the
descendants of the lieutenant derive a “Scotch-Irish” ancestry for the
founder of the family.
Among the births recorded in Boston in the returns of births and
baptisms, from 1630 to 1699, are Francis, son of Thaddeus and Eliza
MacCarty, February 19, 1666; Thaddeus, son of the same parents, in
September, 1670; Margaret, born February 25, 1676; Catherine, born
January 23, 1679, of the same parents; Elizabeth, daughter of Florence
and Elizabeth MacCarty, born December 25, 1687; Thomas, son of the same,
born February 5, 1688 (evidently a mistake in dates); William, son of
the same, born February 3, 1690. Mrs. Eliza MacCarty died July 6, 1696.
Florence waited a little over a year before taking another partner, but
not thinking it best to live alone, he married Sarah Newwork on August
24, 1697. She presented him with another Sarah in 1698.
The William MacCarty mentioned, became a noted shipmaster, and had the
reputation of being a fine navigator. He was an enterprising man, fully
up to the standard reached by his father and grandfather. The son, Rev.
Thaddeus MacCarty, born in 1721, was a graduate of Harvard College and a
minister in the Congregational Church. He was called to the pastorate of
the first parish in Worcester, in 1746, where he remained thirty-seven
years. He married a Welsh girl, and by her had fifteen children. He is
described as being tall and slender, with dark eyes, sonorous voice and
very pleasing address. He was a prolific writer, and like James Sullivan
of another Munster family, one of the most scholarly men of his day; he
died in 1784. His son, Thaddeus, born in 1747, was a noted medical
practitioner. He first located in Dudley, then changed to Fitchburg,
Mass., where he established a hospital for the treatment of smallpox by
the Suttonian method. Here at one time he had 800 patients. He
afterwards removed to Keene, N. H.
Another son, William MacCarty, was quartermaster of Colonel Bigelow’s
Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment in the Revolutionary War. Thus, in
Massachusetts, three of the best known South of Ireland families,
O’Brien (in Maine), MacCarty and Sullivan, were represented before and
during the Revolution; and it is pleasant to record that all were true
to the cause of Independence.
The Mackues had a representative in Timothy, son of Timothy and Ann
Mackue, born October 20, 1699, probably one of the McCues or McHughes,
all the same. Sarah, daughter of William and Olive McLoughlin, was born
on October 29, 1689; and Eliza followed on September 10, 1691, who was
joined by Mary, born on March 22, 1694. These undoubtedly are the
ancestors of many McGloughlins, McLathlans, or Lafflins, as the fancy
seized their descendants to alter the spelling, just as the name
McCarthy became in time Maccarty, Maccartie, MacCarter, Carter or Carte,
varied occasionally by Carty. On February 14, 1658, not a great many
years after the founding of the colony, “James Webster a Scotishman &
Mary Hay an Irish maid were married.” Mary was, no doubt, one of the
poor girls torn from her home in Ireland, but hard as her lot was, she
was fortunate in not being sent to the West Indies; but would it not be
of interest to find, at the present time, the descendants of the Scotch
laddie and the Irish lassie, the Websters of 1658?
Another couple, married April 5, 1692, bear names that denote Irish
blood—Andrew Rankins and Grace Butler. The ceremony was performed by
Gov. Simon Bradstreet. Daniel, son of Dermin—probably Dermot—Mahoone,
was born Oct. 4, 1646. The next child born to the couple, on August 29,
1648, bore the well-known Irish name of Honour, and the name itself must
have been Mahon, or Mahoney. Mrs. Mahone died November 8, 1656, and her
husband, like his countryman, McCarty, did not remain single long, as
another child, Margaret, was presented him on June 3, 1661, but it was
after his death, which took place on April 2, 1661. His widow, Margaret,
did not long grieve for him, for in the following July, 1661, the record
reads, “Bryan Morfrey (Murphy) an Irishman & Margaret Mayhoone widow
were married 20th July by John Endecott Governor.”
The Murphys were on hand “airly,” and no doubt made their mark, but
where are their descendants? Hannah, daughter of John and Ann Cogan, was
born September 6, 1636. This may be one of the characteristic names of
England, but is more common in Ireland, being carried there by Milo De
Cogan, one of Strongbow’s Norman knights. John was born to Garrett and
Mary Bourne, May 30, 1643. Both given and proper names have an Irish
appearance. The first Kelly having the honor of being entered on the
records of births was Daniel, son of David and Elizabeth Kelly, born
December 18, 1647; like the Murphys, they were on hand early; and also
like the Murphys, are of the undiluted old stock, Gaelic to the core.
Today, on account of the prominence of the name, it is as American as it
is Irish, and what is still better, the spelling remains the same in
both countries.
The first Butler, who heads the roll of a long line of descendants, and
a representative of one of the most illustrious names on two continents,
makes his bow in August, 1653, in the person of Benjamin, son of Stephen
and Jane Butler. November, 1656, “Edmond Coussins of Pulling Point and
Margaret Bird an Irish maid servant to John Grover of Rumney Marsh were
married.” An Irish linnet to a French Huguenot, probably. Mary and John
Bohanno, another Scotch laddie, and an Irish lass, were blessed with a
little Mary on May 9, 1658. From these records it can be safely inferred
that the exiles from Scotland and Ireland, the victims of Cromwell’s
tyranny, were, in their persons, uniting the two branches of the old
Gaelic race, as frequent mention is made of marriages between them.
Bohanno was undoubtedly Bohan or Buchanan, both from the same root. John
Morrell, an Irishman, and Lysbell Morrell, an Irishwoman, were married,
August 31, 1659. March 15, 1661, John Reylean, an Irishman, and Margaret
Brene, an Irishwoman, were married by John Endicott, Governor. John, son
of John and Sarah Starkey, was born on September 23, 1666, abbreviated
later on to Stark. Barry appears on the roll, January 8, 1688. James,
son of James, being born on that date. Kenney does not appear until
1691, when, on February 13, Moses and Margaret Kenny were blessed with
the gift of a daughter. Like Butler and Kelly, this is not one of the
most common names in America, as it is in Ireland—McKenna, Kenna, Kenny.
Mulligan turns up in 1681, in the person of Robert, son of Hugh and
Eleanor Mulligan, born on August 9. The Millikens and Mullikens can
trace the stream and find the source, perhaps, here. Morrissey (spelled
Morris and Morrisse) appears in 1655.
Edward Morris and Dermon (Dermot) and Honora Morrisse are mentioned
quite often—some of the transports, undoubtedly. Another of the exiles,
or the child of one, was Johanna Heffernan who married Christopher Vale
in 1692. Mary Lynch married James Townsend in 1693, and Henry Townsen
wedded Mary Keefe the same year—two more “Scotch-Irish” unions if names
are an index to nationality—and still another at the same time was that
of Mary Peard to Samuel Swetman.
The good old name of Hayes, in the persons of Thomas and his wife,
Bridget, shows up July 25, 1690, when unto them a child was born, named
Eliza. This is like some other names mentioned, found now all over the
country; in this case, Bridget must be the Eve of the modern Garden of
Eden—the Hub—at least so far as the Hayes’ are concerned, for she was
the first of the tribe in the Trimountain Paradise. Reilly has two
representatives in John and Bridget Rylee, who had born to them on
September 10, 1693, a daughter, Hannah. After 1700, Irish names peculiar
to the South, as well as the North of Ireland, rapidly appear. In the
records of the selectmen of the town of Boston, September 27, 1736, John
Savell was required to give a bond for a servant imported from Ireland
by Captain Arnold. James Wimble had to do the same for George Lucas’
wife and child from Ireland.
Captain John Carrell—Carroll—ditto, for twelve persons he brought from
Ireland in his vessel. Dinish and Honor Cniae—Kenna—and their two boys,
were of this number. September 29, Joshua Winslow, Esq., gave a bond for
William Steward, wife and two children, imported by Captain Boyd.
Steward was a cooper, and in the following November was admitted an
inhabitant of the town.