Part 6

The Catholics of Ireland were the only people of Europe who had at this time so great a necessity for leaving their country. It is a well established fact that during the greater part of the eighteenth century thousands of able-bodied male Catholics, in the south and western portion of Ireland, left the country at an early period of life for some European port, and very few ever returned. This is corroborated by the circumstance that the Catholic population of Ireland steadily decreased during this period, and at one time it was less than half a million of individuals scattered through the bogs and wilds of the country.

The wealthy English people invested their money freely in the early settlement of the West Indies and in Virginia, but they remained at home. The middle and lower classes, who were more likely to have emigrated to a new country, were, to a great extent, contented at home. They had no cause to leave it, as the political changes which occurred in England during the seventeenth century had a decided tendency to better their condition.

I believe that with the exception of some among the first settlers in Virginia and New England, the far greater portion of the English who did emigrate during the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century, went to Bermuda, Barbadoes, Jamaica, and the other West India Islands, and did not come to this country. The American colonies were mostly settled under a grant to some proprietor or corporation, with more restrictions on business pursuits than were made by the English government for the West India Islands. Consequently the field for individual enterprise was greater on the Islands.

Those of English birth who settled on the main land did so largely in Virginia and Carolina, and as a rule their business was confined to the seaport towns. I believe that a larger proportion of the English than of any other people, when successful in business, returned in after life to their native country, or went with their families to Barbadoes or Jamaica to invest their money in sugar plantations. It is from this circumstance that these islands have always been more English in character than any American colony now within the territory of the United States.

For an Irishman without means there was no opening in any of the West India Islands but as a common laborer. In the American colonies, however, he could easily reach the frontiers, free from all restriction after he had served out the time necessary to pay for his passage, and could there establish his independence with the labor of clearing off the forest from the land selected by himself.

In consequence of the restrictions made by England to destroy Irish commerce, it is well known that for several centuries the intercourse between Ireland and different continental countries, by means of vessels engaged in smuggling, was far greater than by any communication with England, which was almost an unknown land to the west coast Irishman.

It is not possible to form even an estimate as to the numbers of Irish who went by means of these smugglers chiefly to France and Spain. We only know the fact that a steady current of impoverished Irishmen passed over to the continent year after year. We also know that a very large number served in the armies of those countries, but it is doubtful, under any circumstances, if more than a comparatively small proportion of the number could have been thus provided for. Of the remaining portion but few could have had any other means of support, and no other explanation presents itself but emigration to America from necessity, and on their arrival in a foreign vessel their nationality would have been overlooked.

The English government during the eighteenth century allowed no vessel, knowingly, to sail from Ireland direct, but it was necessary by law first to visit an English port before clearance papers could be obtained for the voyage. A record was also kept for the purpose of collecting a head tax on every individual thus leaving an English port for the colonies. I have gone carefully over this register, and to my surprise scarcely a name appears which could be identified with Ireland. Notwithstanding this fact the official register has been cited in proof that there was no emigration from Ireland but those who were sent abroad in servitude, and consequently that this country for a century, at least, was settled chiefly by English people.

But we must remember that every Irishman in Ireland within reach of English authority was at that time governed by the following law: “An act that Irishmen dwelling in the counties of, etc. ... go appareled like Englishmen and wear their beards after the English manner, swear allegiance, and take English sirnames; which sirnames shall be of one town, as Sutton, Chester, Trim, Skryne, Corke, 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 this name under pain of forfeyting of his goods yearly, etc.” As a consequence, every Irish emigrant crossing in an Irish or English vessel and from either England or Ireland, appeared in the official record as English, for the voyage did not begin according to law until cleared from an English port.

By this circumstance we prove the converse, that a large Irish emigration did reach this country by some route which was not under English control. How otherwise can we explain the presence of undoubted Irish surnames unchanged, as found in early records of the country? And on the other hand we find to-day Irishmen and their descendants in this country, bearing the names of Sutton, Chester, Kinsale, White, Black, Brown, Smith, Carpenter, Cook, Butler, etc., proving thereby that this law was enforced, by which they were deprived of their pure Irish names, and that they did not change these names after coming to this country.

Virginia was undoubtedly first settled by the English, but at an early period the Irish began to come in, bound to serve a stated term in payment for their passage money, but eventually these people became free men, settling down on the frontier, and their descendants in the next generation, as indicated by their names appearing in the records, began to take part in the affairs of the colony.

Maryland was largely settled by Irish Catholics, and Calvert himself received his title of Lord Baltimore from a place in the southwest of Ireland.

William Penn spent a portion of his life in Ireland before he received his grant in America. A number of his followers were Irish, and the most prominent person next to Penn himself was James Logan, an Irishman, who acted as governor of the province for a number of years. He was most tolerant to the Irish Catholics, who were allowed free exercise of their religion, and they received protection in this colony from the first settlement.

Many of those who first settled in New Jersey were from Ireland, and there were undoubtedly some Irish in New Amsterdam. In the Jesuit Relations it is shown that Father Jogues, who afterwards suffered the death of a martyr among the Indians of Central New York, came about 1642 from Canada to administer to some of his faith then living among the Dutch and in New Jersey.

In 1634 the General Court of Massachusetts Bay granted lands on the Merrimac river for an Irish settlement, and there were many Irishmen who served in King Philip’s Indian War, whose names are still preserved in the colonial records. I have a record of the fact, but neglected to note the authority, of a reference to a contemporaneous account of a fearful storm which occurred in the winter of 1634–’35, off the north coast of Ireland.[2] As one of the incidents mention is made of the shipwreck of a vessel filled with Irish emigrants, on the second day out of their voyage to join, as was stated, the Merrimac river settlement in New England.

This straw of information is a valuable indication in our current of circumstantial evidence. It establishes the fact by another source that an Irish settlement was planned on the Merrimac river as early as 1634. It also shows that however intolerant the New England Puritans were sometimes to the Irish in their immediate surroundings, they did tolerate in this instance and likely in many others, the “fighting Irish,” as they were termed. In fact they gave little thought to their religious belief so long as they remained on the frontier to fight the Indians. This incident shows that emigrants sailed from the north of Ireland for this settlement, notwithstanding it may have been necessary to have officially commenced their voyage from an English port. The fact as to their religion is established by a knowledge of the condition of the country at that particular time, which I have attempted to describe. The Catholics were fleeing in all directions from the districts of country which had been laid waste, and in some instances they had to subsist on the dead bodies of those who had preceded them, and who had died on the way from starvation. Comparatively few but Catholics left Ireland at this time, as individuals in sympathy with the English were then busy in bettering their condition by securing a portion of the spoils.

There were a number of adult Catholics, as I have stated, sent out to New England through the efforts of Cromwell, and, although they may not have come at that time as willing emigrants, they were not likely to have lost their faith under the circumstances, and their descendants must afterwards have become identified with the country.

Prendergast in “The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland,” states the following: “As one instance out of many: Captain Vernon was employed by the commissioners for Ireland into [from] England, and contracted in their behalf with Mr. David Selleck and Mr. Leader, under his hand, bearing date of 14th of September, 1653, to supply them with two hundred and fifty women of the Irish nation, above twelve years and under the age of forty-five, also three hundred men above twelve years of age and under fifty, to be found in the country within twenty miles of Cork ... to transplant them into New England.” These men and women were seized and sold in New England at a profit for the English commissioners. Prendergast further states in this connection: “How many girls of gentle birth must have been caught and hurried to the private prisons of these men-catchers none can tell.” “But at last the evil became too shocking and notorious, particularly when these dealers in Irish flesh began to seize the daughters and children of the English themselves, and to force them on board their slave ships; then, indeed, the orders, at the end of four years, were revoked.”

If we take into consideration the total number of “Puritan Fathers” in New England at this time, it would seem not improbable that these two hundred and fifty young Irish women, with many others sent over from Ireland about the same time, must have all eventually been transformed at least into Irish Puritans. If so their progeny must in time have given quite a Hibernian tint to the blue blood of the descendants from the _Mayflower_. I have not found that the New England writers have noted these facts, but probably they failed to do so on evidence that they were not “Scotch-Irish” women.

From the time that William of Orange possessed himself of the British crown and until the beginning of our Revolution, a steady stream of emigrants passed out of Ireland to this country. The English government manifested a determination to destroy utterly every Irish industry, and this policy was maintained until the Volunteer movement, when for a period a portion at least of the Irish people had charge of their own affairs.

William, of “Blessed Memory,” in consequence of his hatred of the Irish people, both Catholic and Protestant, caused the destruction of all woolen manufactories, and other industries of the north of Ireland. The so-called “Scotch-Irish” were chiefly the sufferers at this time, and as a consequence thousands of them emigrated to France, where, with the assistance of the French government, these people established in that country woolen and silk industries which, for nearly two hundred years, have been a constant menace to England’s trade.

After the departure of a large portion of these people from Ulster, the country became again gradually settled up from England, and by Catholic, Presbyterian, and Protestant Irish from different parts of Ireland, who were not Scotch.

In a few years later a large proportion of the Irish Presbyterians, with a limited number of Catholics in Ulster, became engaged in commerce and various manufacturing interests. But all these people were ultimately ruined by England’s policy, that Ireland should not prosper, and they were gradually forced to leave the country to better their condition by emigration to the American colonies.

The Presbyterians who settled in the north of Ireland, after the early part of the eighteenth century, had come chiefly from the central portion of England, and as a rule represented the better element among the new settlers. They, like Cromwell, hated the Scotch, and would never have accepted the term “Scotch-Irish” for themselves. After “the Restoration” these people in common with the Catholics, were only tolerated as non-conformists, and were not allowed by the Protestant authorities to take any part in public affairs.

From adversity these people became in time more tolerant towards their fellow sufferers, the Catholic portion of the population, and were finally moulded into a remarkably fine and self-reliant type of men. Those who emigrated to the colonies were well fitted to help lay the foundation of the American Republic, and those who remained behind proved sturdy patriots. A little more than one hundred years ago they originated in Belfast the United Irishmen movement, and they were the first to make the demand for religious tolerance in Ireland, that their Catholic countrymen might be free to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience.

During the last century, Maine, New Hampshire, the greater part of Vermont and west Massachusetts, west Pennsylvania, a large portion of Maryland, the western part of Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany mountains, into North Carolina, along the French Broad river, to the upper part of South Carolina, and into the territory now forming Tennessee and Kentucky, with a part of the northwest territory, to the north of the Ohio river, and which then belonged to Virginia, was largely, and in some sections was entirely, settled by Irish, who did not change their names before or after leaving Ireland. From the latter circumstance the course of settlement can be traced by the surnames of the first settlers, and the indications are rendered all the stronger by the names of so many settlements which clearly indicate the localities in Ireland whence these people came.

It can be claimed that some of these Irish emigrants were of English descent from some period more or less remote. This was doubtless true, but they became Irish by birth, and were no longer in sympathy with English interests, or they would not have left the country. Notwithstanding the severe penalties, which were so long in operation, for “taking up with the Irishy,” the fate of many of the invaders was the same after each invasion. In time they yielded to the charms of the Irish women, and their progeny became often more Irish than those from the original Celtic stock. The descendants of many a Cromwellian soldier can be found in Ireland and abroad, who are to-day bitter and uncompromising foes to England’s rule in Ireland, and are a potent check to her influence elsewhere.

I have found reported among the debates in the Irish Parliament, a speech by the Hon. Luke Gardiner, delivered April 2d, 1784, on Irish Commerce, and from which I quote: “America was lost by Irish emigrants. These emigrations are fresh in the recollection of every gentleman in this house. I am assured, from the best authority, the major part of the American army was composed of Irish, and that the Irish language was as commonly spoken in the American ranks as English. I am also informed it was their valor determined the contest, so that England had America detached from her by force of Irish emigrants, etc.”

I find in Marmion’s work, “The Ancient and Modern History of the Maritime Ports of Ireland,” some interesting facts bearing upon a portion of the exodus to this country.

In 1771, 1772, and 1773, over twenty-five thousand emigrants left Belfast, and other ports in that immediate neighborhood, for the American colonies, in consequence of having been evicted from one of the estates of the Marquis of Donegal, in Antrim.

Marmion states, “The emigrants were chiefly farmers and manufacturers who, it was calculated, by converting their property into specie, which they took with them abroad, deprived Ulster of one fourth of its circulating medium, which then consisted altogether of specie; and also a portion equal thereto to the most valuable part of its population.”

Could Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, enlighten us as to the effect from bringing this amount of specie into the country, we would realize that the benefit was an incalculable one, and it is a matter of surprise that writers of our history have not noted so important a circumstance.

What credit we had in this country after the paper money had depreciated, was based upon this specie throughout the greater part of the Revolution. Among many instances to this purpose was its use in moving the army to Virginia with such expedition as to ensure the capture of Cornwallis, which event contributed more to the termination of the war than any other; and without the credit based on this specie the struggle would have terminated long before the alliance was made with France.

The Irish people throughout this country were with few exceptions in sympathy with the cause of the colonies, and immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill thousands among them entered the army, but particularly such was the case with these emigrants from the north of Ireland, who, from their continuous service and discipline, became a mainstay of the organization until the end of the war. These Irishmen, who had settled in Pennsylvania, turned out chiefly under the command of Col. Edward Hand and Col. William Irving. They were both Irishmen, and had served as surgeons in the British service, the first in the army and the latter in the navy.

Hand was certainly of Catholic parents from the north of Ireland, and his command, composed largely of Presbyterians, joined the army before Boston shortly after Washington took command. But the arrival of Hand’s troops, it is claimed, had been preceded a few days by a body of Catholic Irishmen from Maryland and lower Pennsylvania, under the command of Col. Stephen Moylan, who was a personal friend of Washington, an aide on his staff, and an active officer throughout the war. Moylan was a brother of the Catholic bishop of Cork, Ireland, who was a devoted friend to the American cause.

Joseph Galloway, a native of Maryland, but long a resident of Pennsylvania before the Revolution, was one of the best informed men in the colonies, and probably, with the exception of Franklin, had no equal as to his accurate knowledge relating to the general condition of affairs in the country. He was an early and active sympathizer in the American cause until the Declaration of Independence, when he became a Loyalist. During a visit to England he was examined in June, 1779, before an investigating committee of the House of Commons, and his testimony has been frequently published. When asked as to the composition of the Rebel army—his answer was—“The names and places of their nativity being taken down I can answer the question with precision,—there were scarcely one fourth natives of America; about one half Irish,—the other fourth were English and Scotch.” He might have stated more in detail, that the fourth part was composed of some English, very few Scotch, and more Germans, or Dutch, as they were called, from Pennsylvania and the valley of Virginia, who formed the brigade under the command of Muhlenberg, and the Eighth Virginia regiment.

Galloway’s testimony was in relation to his experience while superintendent of the police in Philadelphia during the British occupancy. It is but just to state that to a subsequent question, “Do you know anything of the army of the Rebels in general, how that is composed—of what country people?” His answer was, “I judge of that by the deserters that came over.” Had we no other testimony to corroborate Galloway’s first statement it would be to the discredit of the Irish, but taken as a whole it is shown that no larger proportion of them deserted than of any other nationality; and if the proportion of native born from Irish parents could be ascertained, the number of deserters among those of Irish blood would be shown to have been less than any other.

I have estimated that about one fourth of all the American officers were Irish by birth or descent.

A large number of Irish were in the Continental Congress or prominent as leaders in every station of life. I may mention that even Washington was possibly descended on his father’s side from a Washington who had lived in Ireland, and his mother’s family, the Balls, beyond doubt came from the neighborhood of Dublin. Walford in his “Country Families of the United Kingdom” shows that at the present time the only families with any property bearing the name of Ball, are to be found in Ireland. The family, it is stated, came to Ireland in the Fourteenth century as Flemish emigrants. The De Wessyngtons, it is also claimed, were Flemish, who settled about the same time in both England and Ireland. But the head of the English family, it seems, died some years before the planting of Jamestown, Va. The members of the Irish branch[3] have all been traced and some of them to this country. One, a son of Henry Washington, who was a prominent man, disappeared from Ireland during the troubles I have described. He probably escaped to Bermuda, where many vessels first stopped on their way to the American colonies.

During a visit to Bermuda in 1852, I had occasion to examine some of the early church records. I there saw several references made in the minutes of the Vestry meetings to one Washington, “a sojourner,” who was several times fined for not conforming by attending the service of the Established church. He seemed to have proved incorrigible as he was finally ordered “to go his way.” He probably did so to Virginia, from the known fact that his father had been a friend of Lord Baltimore, and others who were connected with the Virginia settlements.

The Irish Presbyterians and Catholics were in full sympathy with this country during the Revolution, while in Ireland or elsewhere there were very few Scotch who favored the American cause. A noted exception to the rule was John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey, who was a devoted patriot. The only large settlement of Scotch in the colonies was formed in North Carolina by the British government, after the battle of Culloden, by transplanting the Highlanders. Among them was Flora McDonald, whose husband, with every other man in the settlement, espoused the English cause and fought against the Americans.

It is full time that we divest ourselves of English influence in this country. Until this be done we will remain in ignorance of the truth relating to a large portion of our history, which has yet to be written in strict accord with the facts.