Part 3

1903. Sept. 7. Death of Stephen J. Geoghegan, New York City, a life member of the Society and a member of the executive council of the latter.

1903. Sept. 15. About this time G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York City, issued a new work by Thomas Addis Emmet, M. D., LL. D., on _Ireland Under English Rule: a Plea for the Plaintiff_.

1903. Oct. 19. The Society observed the anniversary of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and the British army at Yorktown (1781). The anniversary exercises took place at the Hotel Brunswick, Boston, Mass., James Jeffrey Roche, of Boston, presiding.

1903. Nov. 11. Meeting of the executive council of the Society at the office of the City Trust Co., 36 Wall St., New York City. Hon. John D. Crimmins presided.

1903. Dec. 26. Meeting of the executive council of the Society at the Catholic Club, 120 Central Park South, New York City.

1904. Jan. 2. Meeting of the executive council of the Society at the Catholic Club, 120 Central Park South, New York City.

1904. Jan. 12. Annual meeting and dinner of the Society at the Hotel Manhattan, New York City. Hon. William McAdoo presided and was reëlected president-general of the organization. Rev. Andrew M. Sherman, of Morristown, N. J., read a paper dealing with “The O’Briens of Machias, Me., Patriots of the American Revolution.” He is a descendant of these O’Briens. The paper, together with an account of the meeting and dinner, was subsequently published in book form, the expense of publication being generously defrayed by Hon. John D. Crimmins, New York City, ex-president-general of the Society.

1904. Jan. 28. Death of Rev. James L. O’Neil, O. P., editor of _Dominicana_, San Francisco, Cal. He had previously been editor of the _Rosary Magazine_, New York City. At his initiative, “the editor of the _Rosary Magazine_” became a life member of the organization. The membership is arranged so that successive editors of the publication may enjoy the rights and privileges of the Society. Father O’Neil was the first to represent the magazine in the organization.

1904. Feb. 5. A. B. Olson, Denver, Col., writes for information concerning the Society. He states that the Swedish-Americans contemplate forming an organization on similar lines.

1904. Feb. 13. T. H. Murray, secretary-general of the Society, opens temporary quarters at 509 Fifth Ave., New York City, to advance the interests of the organization.

1904. Feb. 15. Death of James F. Redding, Charleston, S. C., a member of the Society.

1904. Feb.-March. The following gentlemen have become life members of the Society at this time: Rev. Henry A. Brann, D. D., New York City; P. E. Somers, Worcester, Mass.; George J. Gillespie, New York City; Hon. Patrick Garvan, Hartford, Conn.; Stephen Farrelly, New York City; Patrick Gallagher, New York City; Robert A. Sasseen, New York City; and Hon. Jeremiah O’Rourke, Newark, N. J.

1904. March 2. Death of Hon. James M. Fitzsimons, New York City, a member of the Society. He was chief justice of the City Court of New York.

1904. March 4. Death of Rev. Francis D. McGuire, rector of the Cathedral, Albany, N. Y., a member of the Society.

1904. March 8. Hon. Edward F. O’Dwyer becomes chief justice of the City Court, New York. He is a member of the Society.

1904. March 9. Death at Exeter, N. H., of Miss Margaret Sullivan, a granddaughter of Gen. John Sullivan of the Revolution. Her father, George Sullivan, son of the general, was an able lawyer, attorney-general of New Hampshire many years and held other prominent positions.

1904. March 16. Edward F. McSweeney, Boston, Mass., of the Society, delivers an address entitled “A Forecast of Irish Influence on American Life.”

1904. April 21. Obsequies of Bernard Foley, Roxbury (Boston), Mass., a member of the Society.

1904. April 23. Death of Patrick Farrelly, New York City, of the American News Co. He was a member of the Society.

1904. May 11. H. Warren Phelps, Columbus, O., applies for admission to the Society.

1904. June. T. H. Murray, secretary-general of the Society, assembled a loan collection of Irish-American memorials to be exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Mo. A national supervisory committee was formed in connection with the project and included many members of the Society. The collection was placed on exhibition at St. Louis and attracted much attention. Among those who contributed articles to the collection were Hon. John D. Crimmins, New York City; Major Patrick Maher, New Haven, Conn.; William M. Sweeny, Astoria, L. I., N. Y.; Miss Mary Boyle O’Reilly, Boston, Mass.; Capt. Laurence O’Brien, New Haven, Conn.; Hon. Alexander C. Eustace, Elmira, N. Y.; Thomas Addis Emmet, M. D., LL. D., New York City; Capt. John J. Coffey, Neponset, Mass.; Thomas M. Cahill, M. D., New Haven, Conn.; Jeremiah O’Donovan (Rossa), New York City; Dennis H. Tierney, Waterbury, Conn.; Rev. James H. O’Donnell, Norwalk, Conn.; James E. Kelly, New York City, and Meagher’s Irish Brigade Association, New York City.

1904. June. Among the articles loaned the collection just mentioned, for the Irish-American exhibit at St. Louis, Mo., was an Irish flag carried by the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts (the “Faugh-A-Ballagh” regiment) in the Civil War. The regiment formed part of Meagher’s Irish Brigade, First Division, Second Corps. The flag was loaned by Capt. John J. Coffey, of Neponset, Mass., a member of the Society, who wrote as follows to Secretary T. H. Murray concerning it: “This flag has a precious history. It was presented to the Twenty-eighth regiment, through the late Patrick Donahoe, by the Irish women of Boston, on Sept. 24, 1861, at the same time Governor Andrew presented the regiment with the flag of the State of Massachusetts. My company [C], was selected as the right centre or color company, and my brother, Michael J., whose height exceeded mine by two inches, was selected as color sergeant of this green flag and carried it until he fell mortally wounded at the second battle of Bull Run, August 30, 1862; after that it went through Chantilly, South Mountain, and Antietam. On the memorable day of the attack on Marye’s Heights, at Fredericksburg, it was the only green flag unfurled—and by this I do not intend to cast any reflections on the four other regiments of the Irish brigade. Sometime before Chancellorsville, in May following, Colonel Byrnes and the other officers of the regiment concluding that it was too cumbersome, subscribed among themselves and procured a flag of lighter fabric (worsted), and laid the old flag (this one) aside, but in safe keeping, and you may rest assured that it has been scrupulously cared for and treasured by the custodian.”

1904. June. Meagher’s Irish Brigade Association loaned to the Irish-American collection for the World’s Fair at St. Louis, Mo., two battle-flags carried by the Sixty-ninth regiment, New York, in the Civil War. One of these was an American flag and the other an Irish flag. Regarding the two flags, the following letter is of interest: “Mr. Thomas Hamilton Murray, New York City. Dear Sir: I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter regarding the Historic Loan Collection of Irish-American Memorials you are getting together for the St. Louis Exposition. I placed the matter before the Irish Brigade Association at last Sunday’s meeting, and they resolved to send you two of their best preserved battle flags. Also other relics which, I believe, will be of interest to visitors at the World’s Fair. These flags were presented to the Irish Brigade after the battle of Fredericksburg, Va., and were carried with honor through the battles that followed in which the Army of the Potomac participated. The flags were presented by a body of public-spirited citizens of American birth from the city of New York who, on hearing that the battle flags of the Irish Brigade had become so torn and shattered by shot and shell of the many battles, resolved to present them a new stand of colors. The presentation took place in the old Catholic church at Fredericksburg. I believe it is needless to caution you as to the preservation of these battle-scarred relics. I know that you and the gentlemen who compose your organization realize what these flags mean to us; how many recollections they tend to stimulate amongst us, for they are part of our very life, and were anything to happen to them it would be an irreparable loss. Money could never compensate for the tender memories they inspire of our comrades who died beneath them and the noble lessons of patriotism and duty that they bring to our minds, and will teach to the generations of the future. It has always been our unswerving custom never to allow these flags out of our custody, but when we read the names of the gentlemen that make up your organization, and the worthiness of the project contemplated, we felt that we could safely trust these sacred relics in your hands. Respectfully yours, Capt. John O’Connell, president Irish Brigade Association, 440 East 14th St., New York City, June 7, 1904.”

1904. July 28. The Librarian of Congress writes, requesting publications of the Society for the Congressional Library.

1904. August. Hon. John W. Corcoran, of Boston, Mass., a member of the Society, passes away. He was a lawyer by profession, had been a judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, and held other positions of trust and honor.

PAPERS BY MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY.

EARLY IRISH SETTLERS IN VIRGINIA.

BY HON. JOHN C. LINEHAN,[1] CONCORD, N. H.

Virginia was first settled by white men in 1607. On the authority of a work published recently, Francis Maguire, an Irishman and a Roman Catholic, visited the colony a year later. “He wrote an account of his voyage to Virginia and submitted it to the privy council of Spain.” From this it is evident that he was not in the interest of England and did not remain in the colony.

Virginia, even in its early days, was not friendly to those of the faith of Maguire. In 1625 the same writer mentioned that “Symon Tuchin master of the _Due Return_ having been banished out of Ireland was reported as strongly affected to popery, and the Governor and Council of Virginia sent him as a prisoner, in January, 1625, to the Company in England.” This ended the career of Symon in the Old Dominion, and no further mention is made of him.

Who the first actual settlers in Virginia from Ireland were, and the period of their arrival, can be determined only from the names printed in the early colonial records and in the calendar of state papers following.

The population of the colony from 1609 to 1624, as given in the work mentioned, namely, _The First Republic in America_, was as follows:

In 1609 one authority gives it as being, in July, not over one hundred and nine persons.

In 1611 it is estimated at about two hundred and eighty persons. In 1616 it increased to about four hundred. In 1618 it had increased to six hundred. In 1619 it had dropped to about four hundred. The census of 1620 gives it as eight hundred and eighty-seven. In 1621 it fell to eight hundred and forty-three. In 1622 it had increased to one thousand two hundred and forty, and in 1624 it was reduced to eleven hundred.

An idea can here be formed of the struggles of the first settlers of the Old Dominion against disease, famine, and the attacks of the Indians. In 1621 or 1622, the year is in dispute, there was a terrible massacre of the settlers by the Indians, the number of killed being given as “three hundred and forty-seven men, women and children.”

If names are any indication of the nativity of the bearers, the first Irish settlers arrived in Virginia during this troublesome period. Their condition in the colony could not be much worse than it was in their native land, for about that time the long struggle for the possession of the land, beginning with the Reformation, had taken root, not to end until the war between William and James.

In Hotten’s _Original Lists_ of emigrants, among others is published the names of the following persons arriving in Virginia between 1616 and 1624: John Higgins, John Cannon, John Collins, John Healey, Francis Downing, John Fludd, Tege Lane, “of Corke in Ireland”; Tege Williams, “Irishman”; John French, of Washford “(Wexford) in Ireland”; Thomas Cawsey (Casey), James Connor, James Dore, Ann Mighill, John Duffee, Thomas Doughtie (Dougherty); John Moore, Giles Martin, Thomas Jordan, Francis Butler, Thomas Burns, “and Bridget, his wife”; Thomas Dunn, Edmund Blaney, John Burroughs, “and Bridget, his wife”; John Griffin, William Lacey, Alice Kean, Thomas Farley, A. Conoway, Hugh Hughes, Bryan Rogers, William Joyce, John Haney, Elizabeth Haney, Peter Jordan, Luke Boyse, Thomas Oage, his wife and son.

Some, undoubtedly, of the foregoing came here as the servants of English landed proprietors in Ireland, and there is no doubt that others came as actual settlers, for there is mention later of grants of land to some of them. Let that be as it may, however, here was quite an addition to the scant population of the colony of a liberal mixture of Irish blood with that of the early English settlers.

On the same authority, Hotten, there was a large increase of the same blood some years later, in 1635. Hotten copied his lists from the originals preserved in England. Many of the originals were either lost, mutilated, or destroyed. In consequence, they are incomplete. The period thus partly covered is between 1600 and 1700. The following names are published among hundreds of others in the lists as arriving in Virginia during the year 1635: Richard Hughes, Garrett Riley, Miles Riley, James Bryan, Thomas Murphie, Christopher Carroll, Philip Connor, Jo Dunn.

As the ages of the foregoing are given and the average was twenty years, it is fair to presume that they came over as servants. They are followed by Richard Fleming, Charles McCartee, Owen McCartee, Bryan McGowan, Patrick Breddy, Bryan Glynn, John Neale, William Redman, William Hart, Elizabeth Riley, Daniel Flood, William Hickey, John Herron, Edward Hughes, James Morfey, Robert Bryan, Dennis Hoggan (Hogan), Jo Dermott, Jo Butler, Jo O’Mullen, Charles Gibbon, Richard Kirby, Humphrey Buckley, Olough Berne, Daniel Vaughan, Bryan Hare, Thomas Connier (Connor), Jo Tullie, Donough Gorkie, Gerald Butler, John Griffin, Thomas Purcell, John Duffy, Edmund Butler, James Gavett and John Gavett, “Irishmen”; James Fenton, Thomas Dunn.

Hotten’s book also contains many names, Irish in appearance, of persons who went to Barbadoes during the same period, or later, and states that permission had been given many of them to go to New England and other parts of the English colonies between 1635 and 1680. That many availed themselves of the opportunity, and migrated to Virginia is evident from the names printed in colonial records and the state publications. That the greater part were useful citizens, and not a few of their descendants filled positions of honor and emolument in Virginia, and in the territories settled by her people, is quite clear.

Thomas Jordan, bearing the name both given and proper, borne by one of the emigrants of 1624, was a sheriff of Nansemond county, in 1718, and a public-spirited citizen.

Col. Fleming, a namesake of another of these sturdy immigrants, bore an honorable part in civil and military affairs before and after the Revolution, and has frequent mention in the publications treating of those stirring times.

The McCartys have been prominent in Virginia almost from the earliest period in the history of the colony. Whether or not all were descendants of Owen and Charles McCartee, who came over in 1635, cannot here be determined. The name, with various spellings, has frequent mention in the colonial and state records. It has been represented in the National Congress, and one of the bravest of the Confederates during the Civil War, noted for his courage, was Capt. Page McCarty of Richmond. He was equally noted as a duelist.

In a letter to the writer, some six years ago, Capt. McCarty said there was a belief in the family that the original immigrants of the name came from Kinsale in Cork, but some of the name, as is the custom nowadays, called their ancestors “Scotch-Irish.” He was an exception, however.

In an account of the death and funeral of Washington, by his private secretary, Tobias Lear, a native of New Hampshire, he wrote that the families of McCarty, McClanahan, and Callahan were especially invited to attend the funeral by the widow, at the request of Washington on his death-bed.

Daniel McCarty was a justice for Fairfax county in 1770. Capt. Richard McCarty was in command of an expedition against the Indians in 1779. With him as an associate officer was Captain Quirk. The name is spelled indifferently as McCartee, McCarty, McCarthy, etc., which makes it appear that there were others of the same name later and spelling their names in accordance with the Irish method.

In 1742 there is a record deeding two hundred and ninety-eight acres of land to Dennis Conneirs,—the good old name of Connor was undoubtedly twisted by the scribe. Major William Lynn was an officer in the Spottsylvania militia in 1757. Lynn is a name frequently met in Ireland. Judge Wauhope Lynn, of New York, is a splendid representative of the Irish Lynns of Antrim, in Ulster, Ireland. Daniel Lyon and Daniel Currie were two of the defenders of Hickey’s Fort against the Indians in 1758. Another old Irish name heads a list of signers complaining against the Brunswick county court in 1764. It is Malone, spelled properly, and was borne by Shakespeare’s great Irish commentator, Edmond Malone, who has frequent mention in Boswell’s Johnson, and who flourished in London about the same period as his Virginia namesake.

John Hooe (Hoey), Lynaugh Helm, Henry Gee, William Keenan, Daniel Herring, Daniel McCarty, Philip Nowland (Nolan), Elijah McClenachan, John Grattan, Walter McClerry (Clary), James McLaw, Nicholas W. Curie, Jeremiah Glenn, Jeremiah Early, John Fitzpatrick, William Mead, Charles Lynch, were all magistrates in the several counties of Virginia in 1770.

In a letter of George Mason, written in 1775, declining a nomination to Congress, he writes his excuses to Mr. McCarty and other inquiring friends. Capt. Richard McCarty has frequent mention during the Revolutionary period. As showing the friendship of the Irish people in Ireland for the Americans during that struggle, the following extract, written by an American agent, Philip Mazzei, from France to Governor Jefferson of Virginia, is of interest:

“I shall now tell you how that came about. Mr. Mark Lynch, merchant in Nantes, came to me with a bill I had drawn in Ireland on Penet & Co., D’Acosta having refused to accept it. My old creditor, Mr. John P. Cotter, of Corke, had ordered that in case of non-payment, the bill should be returned without protest or molestation. Mr. Cotter’s generous and delicate behavior had probably prepared Mr. Lynch in my favor and the sight of my situation completed the business. His countenance expressed his sensibility at the bad usage I had met with in that town, and in the most genteel manner offered me the assistance I was in so great need of, on the security I had proposed to others.”

This letter was written in 1780. It is evident from the closing part of the quotation that Mr. Mark Lynch, the Irish merchant in Nantes, had cashed the draft. It recalls a similar act of kindness extended to Ethan Allen by the people of Cork while he was a prisoner on board an English vessel in the harbor of that city. They were so lavish of their hospitality in money and provisions to the American prisoner that the British captain put an end to it, saying at the same time that he would not allow the damned Irish rebels to thus treat the damned American rebels. It also recalls an entry in the diary of John Adams, where he mentions the hospitable treatment he had received in Spain from two Irish merchants located in one of its maritime cities.

Between the years 1700 and 1800, many Virginians bearing distinctive Irish names, and filling honorable positions in civil and military life, are published in the records of the times. They reflected credit on the community. John Daly Burk wrote a history of Virginia, and during the Revolutionary period Thomas Burke was governor of North Carolina, and Ædanus Burke was chief justice of South Carolina. In connection with this it is of interest to note that in the report of the part taken by his regiment, the Thirtieth Virginia Cavalry, in the battle of Bull Run, Col. Radford credits his adjutant, B. H. Burke, with capturing Col. Michael Corcoran, of the Sixty-ninth New York. Beside Col. Radford’s report is that of Lieut.-Col. Henagin of the Eighth South Carolina. Some of the officers of this regiment, Capt. Harrington, Capt. Hoole, Capt. McLeod, and Capt. John C. McClenaghan, are also mentioned. It will be noticed that the name of the colonel—Cash—and the lieutenant-colonel—Henagin,—are also Irish in appearance.

The battery attached to the regiment was commanded by a Capt. Shields, one of whose lieutenants was a McCarty; possibly it may have been Page McCarty, mentioned before. This battery was from Virginia. The adjutant-general of Gen. Beauregard was Thomas Jordan. It will be noticed that this name, given and proper, was borne by one of the immigrants coming over before 1624. Shields and McCarty were also among the early Irish names. Surgeon McClanahan is commended in a letter written by Gen. Robert E. Lee, and in the report of Gen. Stonewall Jackson. He also speaks in the highest terms of his surgeon, Dr. Hunter McGuire. A Francis McGuire was in Virginia in 1608, and a Capt. Francis McGuire, who was a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary War, was the occasion of trouble between the states of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

McGuire was charged with taking away a free negro man from Pennsylvania. The correspondence between the states in consequence, as given in the state papers, is quite lengthy. From this it can be seen that the McGuires have figured from an early period in the history of the Old Dominion down to the present. Dr. Hunter McGuire was by the side of Stonewall Jackson when the latter died, after receiving the fatal wound from a volley fired by his own men at Chancellorsville.