Part 7
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.
THE IRISH IN AMERICA.[7]
BY HERBERT N. CASSON, NEW YORK CITY.
Footnote 7:
Published originally in _Munsey’s Magazine_, New York, April, 1906.
A certain green isle in a northerly sea is the historic home of the Irish people, but the present address of at least two thirds of the scattered race is “United States of America.” Boston, not Belfast nor Dublin, is now the greatest Irish city in the world; and the overwhelming majority of Irishmen who have risen to places of distinction have done so under the Stars and Stripes.
The historian who shall do full justice to the Irish branch of the human family has not yet appeared, either in the United States or elsewhere. Consequently, there are few races, if any, which have been so persistently misunderstood and undervalued. Even in this country, where such a mistake is least excusable, there has been a tendency in some quarters to regard the Irish as merely an element of the rank and file. The truth is that they have contributed their share of leaders and pioneers in almost every line of progress.
_At least seven of our presidents_ have had more or less of Irish blood in their veins. Jackson, Buchanan and Arthur were the sons of Ulster parents; and the first American ancestor of Polk was an Irish immigrant. Monroe and McKinley were more remotely related to the “fighting race.” The latter, it is well known, was fond of saying, “We Irish.” Roosevelt, also, had several Hibernian twigs on his family tree. This, in itself, is an amazing record of Celtic leadership—to have helped to mold the character of seven American presidents out of twenty-five.
In the making of America, the Irish have been structural. No other word represents their influence so well. In the clearing of forests, the digging of canals, the building of railroads, and the extension of commerce, our civilization owes an incalculable debt to Irish hands and Irish heads.
In the traits of our national character, too, we Americans are all more Irish than we realize. Our versatility and buoyancy, our quickness of initiative, our free and unconventional ways, and the sporting instinct that leads us to take chances and beat records, are a few of the evidences of an Irish strain in our blood.
If the handiwork of the Irish were painted green, the average American city would be splashed on all sides with emerald hues. Yet there are few who are aware of this, even among the Irish themselves. A New Yorker, for example, may rise in the morning, bathe in water that comes from the Croton dam, built by James Coleman, ex-president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick; breakfast on Cudahy bacon; then take the subway, built by John B. McDonald, past the new College of the City of New York, built by Thomas Dwyer, to his office in a skyscraper built by John D. Crimmins, where he will cable to Alaska over a line laid by David Lynch, to order certain freight sent _via_ James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railroad. Then, with a cigar bought from one of George J. Whelan’s 300 cigar stores, he will read the New York _Sun_, published by William M. Laffan and delivered by the American News Company, founded by Patrick Farrelly—and remark to an English friend:
“Yes, of course, this is an Anglo-Saxon country.”
When J. I. C. Clarke, the genial playwright, wrote his famous poem on “Kelly and Burke and Shea,” it was generally supposed to be a poetic fancy. On the contrary, I find it to be a simple matter of American history that the Kellys, the Burkes and the Sheas have been to the fore in every generation. They were all three in the battle of Lexington, as well as in the death-list of the _Maine_. When Hobson sank the _Merrimac_, a Kelly and a Murphy were his comrades in danger. Our first noted woman abolitionist was Abbie Kelley. William Darrah Kelley, of Philadelphia, was a Congressman for nearly thirty years. Hall Jackson Kelley was the founder of Oregon. The late Eugene Kelly, the New York banker, won renown as a philanthropist. Among the living members of this redoubtable family, James E. Kelly is a well-known electrical engineer. The Kelly Ax Company has a fifty-acre plant in Charleston, W. Va. Elsewhere * * * you will find the wonderful story of William Kelly, whose invention has added hundreds of millions to the wealth of the steel industry.