Part 2

Among those present from New York City, were: Hon. James Fitzgerald, a justice of the New York Supreme Court; Hon. Edward F. O’Dwyer, chief justice of the New York City court; Hon. Samuel Adams, Robert E. Danvers, M. E. Bannin, Richard Deeves, John J. Rooney, William F. Clare, M. J. Drummond, Cyril Crimmins, J. Henry Haggerty, Nathaniel Doyle, Col. James Quinlan, formerly of Meagher’s Irish Brigade; Sylvester J. O’Sullivan, James O’Flaherty, Robert T. Dyas, Edward J. McGuire, John W. Donovan, Dr. Hugh M. Cox, Henry Wright, Rev. Dr. Henry A. Brann, John A. Brann, John Jay Joyce, Willis B. Dowd, Rt. Rev. Mgr. Charles McCready, William J. Broderick, J. J. Hickey, W. E. Callahan, Charles V. Halley, J. H. Rohan, John J. Ryan, Thomas S. Lonergan, John O’Sullivan, Owen J. Brady, James J. Phelan, and other people of note.

Present from other places were: Rt. Rev. Mgr. William Byrne, D. D., V. G., Boston, Mass.; Rt. Rev. Arthur J. Teeling, D. D., Lynn, Mass.; Rev. Gerald P. Coghlan, Philadelphia, Pa.; Hon. P.T. Barry, Chicago, Ill.; Hon. Patrick Garvan, Hartford, Conn.; James L. O’Neill, Elizabeth, N. J.; Hon. Thomas Z. Lee, Providence, R. I.; Thomas A. O’Gorman, Providence; John F. O’Connell, Providence; Dr. J. F. Hayes, Waterbury, Conn.; P. F. Magrath, Binghamton, N. Y.; James J. Higgins, Elizabeth, N. J.; City Clerk Kenah, Elizabeth; Hon. P. J. Ryan, Elizabeth; John Moriarty, Waterbury, Conn.; Prof. J. E. Madigan, Waterbury; Philip A. Curran, Waterbury; William M. Sweeny, Astoria, L. I., N. Y., a son of the late Gen. Thomas W. Sweeny; Dr. A. J. Anderson, Astoria, L. I., N. Y.; Fire Commissioner Cox, Elizabeth, N. J.; Dr. John D. Hanrahan, Rutland, Vt.; William P. Connery, Lynn, Mass., and a number of others.

Letters expressing interest in the occasion, and regretting inability to be present, were received from Hon. Joseph T. Lawless, Norfolk, Va.; Hon. Thomas H. Carter, Washington, D. C.; Hon. Andrew C. Smith, M. D., Portland, Ore.; Hon. Patrick Egan, New York City; Hon. Edward A. Moseley, Washington, D. C.; Hon. M. T. Moloney, Ottawa, Ill.; Hon. Franklin M. Danaher, Albany, N. Y.; Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Conaty, D. D., Los Angeles, Cal.; Rt. Rev. Mgr. D. J. O’Connell, S. T. D., Washington, D. C.; Brig-Gen. Michael Cooney, U. S. A. (retired), Washington, D. C.; Rev. John J. McCoy, LL. D., Worcester, Mass.; John J. Lenehan, New York City; William Doogue, Boston, Mass.; James A. Fogarty, New Haven, Conn.; Michael J. Ward, Brookline, Mass.; William Lyman, New York City; James Connolly, Coronado, Cal.; M. P. O’Connor, Binghamton, N. Y.; R. J. Donahue, Ogdensburg, N. Y.; James G. Hickey, Boston, Mass.; Patrick H. Garrity, Waterbury, Conn.; P. C. Walsh, Jr., Newark, N. J.; Rev. M. J. Cooke, Fall River, Mass.; F. L. Dunne, Boston, Mass.; J. J. O’Connor, Elmira, N. Y.; J. T. Gibbons, New Orleans, La.; Maurice O’Meara, New York City; Rev. J. C. Harrington, Lynn, Mass.; D. H. Tierney, Waterbury, Conn.; Rev. D. W. Fitzgerald, Penacook (Concord), N. H.; Dr. J. E. Sullivan, Providence, R. I.; W. H. Mahony, New York City; Gustav W. Lembeck, Jersey City, N. J.; Myles Tierney, New York City; Roger G. Sullivan, Manchester, N. H.; Richard W. Meade, New York City; John L. Carroll, Newark, N. J.; W. J. O’Hagan, Charleston, S. C.; James McMahon, New York City; John C. Griffin, Skowhegan, Me.; Stephen Farrelly, New York City; M. J. Morkan, Hartford, Conn.; Osborne Howes, Boston, Mass.; James W. Kenney, Boston, Mass.; P. J. Byrnes, New York City; Frank S. O’Neil, Binghamton, N. Y.; D. H. McBride, New York City; Rev. J. P. McCaughan, Warren, Mass.; Hon. George J. Gillespie, New York City; J. A. O’Keefe, Lynn, Mass.; Laurence Clancy, Oswego, N. Y., and Patrick J. Lawlor, Waterbury, Conn.

The company inspected Mr. Crimmins’ splendid library and his costly collections of rare old manuscripts and original letters. Among the latter were notes written by Washington, Adams, Calhoun, Jackson, Jefferson, Carroll, and other historic personages.

Among the Washington letters was one in which the father of his country mentions his contemplated purchase of an Irish wolfdog, on the recommendation of Lafayette. In a letter by Andrew Jackson occurs this sentence: “For you know my parents were Irish.” This very effectually disposes of those who have classed Jackson as “Scotch-Irish.”

Attention was called to Cyrus Townsend Brady’s new work, _The True Andrew Jackson_, which is dedicated to Mr. Crimmins and the American-Irish Historical Society, Doctor Brady being a member of the latter. Much interest was also displayed in a new volume by Mr. Crimmins himself, entitled _Irish-American Historical Miscellany_, which has recently been brought out. It is a volume of some five hundred pages and is replete with interesting data.

After the exercises in the drawing-room, lunch was served, and was followed by addresses, readings and musical selections. The whole occasion was one of unusual interest.

SOME HISTORICAL PAPERS.

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

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

Footnote 1:

From Mr. Crimmins’ recent book, _Irish-American Historical Miscellany_. (New York, 1905.)

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

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

“During that period, among other cruelties which were committed, I have known many of the American prisoners put to death by the bayonet: in

## particular, I well recollect, that it was the custom on board the ship

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

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

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

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

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

Barry, Samuel Black, James Black, John Black, Philip Black, Timothy Blake, James Boyle, John Brady, John Broderick, William Brown, Michael Brown, Patrick Bryan, Edward Bryan, John Bryan, Mathew Bryan, William Buckley, Cornelius Buckley, Daniel Buckley, Francis Buckley, John Burk, Thomas Burke, James Burke, William Burn, William Burns, Edward Burns, John Butler, Daniel Butler, Francis Butler, James Butler, John Byrnes, Hugh Cain, David Cain, Thomas Callaghan, Daniel Campbell, Philip Cannady, James Cannady, William Carney, Anthony Carney, Hugh Carr, William Carolin, Joseph Carrall, Robert Carroll, James Carroll, John Carroll, Michael Casey, Edward Casey, Richard Casey, William Christie, James Cochran, James Cogan, Thomas Coleman, David Collins, James Collins, John Collins, Joseph Collohan, Daniel Connell, John Connelly, John Conner, George Conner, James Conner, John Conner, Robert Conner, William Connolly, Patrick Connolly, Samuel Connor, John Conway, John Conway, Thomas Corrigan, Bernard Corrigan, John Cox, Joseph Cox, William Crane, Philip Cullen, William Cunningham, Bartholomew Cunningham, Cornelius Cunningham, James Cunningham, Joseph Cunningham, William Curry, Anthony Curry, William Dailey, Patrick Daily, James Daily, William Darcey, W. Daunivan, William Delany, Edward Doherty, John Doherty, Thomas Donalin, Nicholas Donogan, John Dorgan, Patrick Dorgan, Timothy Dowling, Henry Downey, John Downing, Peter Doyle, Peter Doyle, William Dring, Thomas Duffy, Thomas Dunn, Peter Durphey, Patrick Dwyer, John Dwyer, Timothy Dyer, Patrick Fallen, Thomas Filler, Patrick Finagan, Bartholomew Finn, Dennis Finn, John Fitzgerald, Edward Fitzgerald, Patrick Flinn, John Ford, Bartholomew Ford, Daniel Ford, Martin Ford, Philip Fox, William Fury, John Gallager, Andrew Gallaspie, John Goff, Patrick Grogan, John Griffin, Joseph Griffin, Peter Haggarty, James Hallahan, James Halley, John Hanagan, James Hanagan, Stephen Hand, Joseph Hanegan, John Hanes, Patrick Hart, Cornelius Hart, John Hayes, John Hayes, Thomas Hays, Patrick Hensey, Patrick Higgins, George Higgins, William Hogan, Roger Hogan, Stephen Hughes, John Hughes, Joseph Hughes, Peter Hughes, Thomas Jordan, John Jordan, Peter Joyce, John Kane, Barney Kane, Edward Kane, John Kane, Patrick Kane, Thomas Kelley, John Kelley, Michael Kelley, Oliver Kelley, Patrick Kelley, William Kelly, Hugh Kelly, James Kelly, John Kelly, John K. Kennedy, James Kennedy, William Kenney, John Lafferty, Dennis Lally, Sampson Lane, William Larkin, Thomas Leary, Cornelius Lee, Peter Loggard, Patrick Loney, Peter Lowery, John Lynch, Timothy Lyon, Peter Lyons, Daniel Lyons, Michael Macguire, Anthony Malone, John Marley, James Martin, Daniel Martin, James Martin, John Martin, Michael Martin, Joseph Martin, Philip Martin, Thomas Maxfield, Patrick Maxwell, James Maxwell, William McCampsey, Mathew McCanery, John McCann, Edward McCarty, Andrew McCarty, Cornelius McCarty, William McCash, John M. McClain, Francis McClanegan, James McClavey, Daniel McClemens, Patrick McCloskey, Patrick McCloud, Murphy McCloud, Peter McClure, James McClure, William McConnell, James McCormac, Hugh McCormick, James McCormick, John McCowen, William McCoy, George McCoy, Peter McCoy, Samuel McCrea, Roderick McCrady, John McCulla, Patrick McCullough, William McCullum, Patrick McDaniel, James McDaniel, John McDavid, John McDermott, William McDonald, John McDonald, William McDonough, Patrick McEvin, John McFall, James McFarland, Daniel McGandy, William McGee, John McGerr, James McGill, Arthur McGill, James McGinness, Henry McGinnis, James McGoggin, John McGowen, James McHenry, Barnaby McKay, Patrick McKenney, James McKeon, Thomas McLain, Edward McLaughlin, Philip McLaughlin, Peter McLayne, Daniel McMichal, James McNamee, Francis McNeal, John McNeil, James McNeil, William McQueen, William McQuillian, Charles McWaters, Samuel Melone, William Mungen, Michael Mitchell, Anthony Mitchell, James Mitchell, John Molloy, James Morgan, Thomas Montgomery, James Montgomery, John Moore, James Moore, Joseph Moore, Patrick Moore, Thomas Mooney, Hugh Morris, Andrew Morris, James Morris, John Muckelroy, Philip Mullen, Jacob Mullin, Robert Mullin, William Mulloy, Edward Mulloy, Francis Mulloy, Silvanus Murphy, Daniel Murphy, John Murphy, Patrick Murphy, Thomas Murray, Bryan Murray, Charles Murray, Daniel Murray, John Murray, Thomas Murray, William Neville, Francis Neville, Michael Norton, John Norton, Nicholas Norton, Peter O’Brien, Cornelius O’Brien, Edward O’Brien, John O’Bryen, William O’Hara, Patrick O’Neil, John Orsley, Patrick Power, Patrick Power, Stephen Powers, Richard Quinn, Samuel Reed, John Rafferty, Patrick Regan, Julian Reid, Hugh Reynolds, Thomas Riley, James Riley, Philip Riordan, Daniel Roach, Joseph Roach, Lawrence Rowe, William Rowland, Patrick Ryan, Frank Ryan, Jacob Ryan, Michael Ryan, Peter Ryan, Thomas Sullivan, John Sullivan, Parks Sweeney, John Thompson, Patrick Tobin, Thomas Toy, Thomas Tracy, Benjamin Tracy, Nathaniel Twoomey, Dailey Walsh, Patrick Ward, Francis Waters, Thomas Welch, James Welch, Mathew Welch, Robert Welsh, David Welsh, John Wen, Patrick Whelan, Michael Wilson, Patrick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

COMMERCE BETWEEN IRELAND AND RHODE ISLAND.

BY THOMAS HAMILTON MURRAY, BOSTON, MASS.

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

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

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