USA > Massachusetts > The pre-revolutionary Irish in Massachusetts, 1620-1775 > Part 2
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The last mention of an Irishman in the decade was on May 15, 1667 when Walter Burke, a "plaintiffe," against Michael White, "defendt," obtained a favorable decision from the General Court. The Court "found for the defendt costs of Courts" after the case had been previously tried in the Court of the Assistants.69
During the next decade, from 1670 to 1680, a gradual rise in the number and influence of the Irish is seen. The Celtic contribution to King Philip's War which took place during this time will be taken up more conveniently under that topic as it is related to the Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies and not to Boston alone.70
All types of society were represented in this decade. Morrison,
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the Massachusetts historian, indirectly suggests the tradesman when he refers to a John Hull, who on September 18, 1671 gave directions to John Older, master of the ketch Friendship, about disposing of the cargo in Ireland.71 Then there was the indentured servant group. In the Town's report for 1672 three were men- tioned, all girls, John Glover's daughter who was twelve years old, Bryan Morphew's daughter-in-law, Martha Dorman, also twelve years of age and John Griffin's daughter, a girl of ten years.72 The name of John Cogan again enters, this time as that of a property owner.73 On October 24, 1674, a committee was appointed by the Court to examine the claims to the estate of John Cogan and make "fynoll issue thereof."7+ Cogan was not the only Irishman of means for an examination of the tax list for 1676 reveals other names of Celtic extraction. Samuel Cohone's name appears once, Florence Charty's twelve times, with other spellings as Maccarty, Meccartour and Carty, Mullagin's five times and Riley's once.75 Another indication of wealth was shown in the case of Teag Cro- hoar who was allowed on March 25, 1677, to take "2800 clabord" for what purpose is not indicated.76
During 1678 and 1679 several Irish, the exact number is un- known, came to Boston from the Barbadoes. From February, 1678 to October 4, 1679 two out of forty immigrants were Irish in name, Alexander Collins and Mary Fitznichols, representing .05 per cent of the total number.77 Another Irishman from the same quarter was John Querk, to whom on March 13, 1678 a ticket was issued which entitled him to come to Boston. It described him as the servant of Thomas Allen and identified Ralph Parker as commander of the ketch William and Susan.78 Of unusual interest in connection with the same quarter is. the reference made to a William Murphy, as captain of the ship Friendship, which made regular trips between the Barbadoes and Boston in the 1670's.79
In 1678 an unfortunate position was acted upon favorably by the Court. A Mary Madox was freed from her marriage bond and was placed "at liberty to dispose of hirselfe as she shall see meete." Her husband, Henry Madox, of Irish extraction, had been absent for thirteen years and "never wrote or sent to hir in y' time. . . . "80
The next year Thomas Walter, an attorney, came to Boston from Youghall in Ireland. He brought a letter of recommendation
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THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY IRISH IN MASSACHUSETTS
to the churches in New England from a Congregational church in Youghall. Through this letter he was made a member of the Second Church in Boston, November 2, 1680. His son, Nehemiah, who was born in Ireland in December, 1663, came with his father to Massachusetts in the same year. One writer claims that father and son came over together$1 while another authority states that Nehemiah was sent by his father to serve an apprenticeship to a Boston upholsterer.82 Nehemiah was very fond of books. He was prepared for college, entering Harvard College, from which in- stitution he was graduated in 1684. In the same year he settled in Roxbury, then went to Nova Scotia but later returned and associated himself with John Eliot, the Indian missionary. He married Sarah, daughter of Increase Mather, the president of Harvard College. He was the minister of Roxbury from October 17, 1688 to September 17, 1750, the day of his death. There were five children, Increase, Hannah, Maria, Sarah and Thomas. The two sons were Harvard graduates, Increase graduating in 1711 and Thomas in 1713.
Reverend Nehemiah Walter published An Essay on the Sense of Indwelling Sin in the Regenerate, 1707, Practical Discourses on the Holiness of Heaven, 1726, and Sermons on Isaiah LV, which appeared posthumously in 1755. Nehemiah's son, Thomas, also became a clergyman, being ordained in 1718. Three of his known published works are Grounds and Rules of Music Ex- plained, 1721, A Sermon at the Boston Lecture, 1723, and In- fallibility May Sometimes Mistake, 1724.
Hannah Walter married Caleb Trawridge of Groton on Sep- tember 18, 1718. Of the twelve children resulting from this union, Sarah, the eldest, married General Artemas Ward, who was later a member of Congress. Abigail, another daughter, married Ebene- zer Champney, a judge in the Probate Court of Massachusetts.
C. F. Adams is the author of a fairly complete sketch of Nehe- miah Walter.83 A genealogical table covering six generations of the family from 1663 to 1847 recalls a gradual reduction in its numerical strength, so that by 1854, according to the best authori- ties on the subject, the family was entirely extinct.84 The influ- ence of the family waned after the third generation, the second and third generations being especially important.
Immigration into Boston still continued. On November 4, 1679,
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forty-four passengers disembarked from the ship Hannah and Elizabeth. Only one passenger was of Irish extraction, an Eliza- beth Walsh.85 Feeling against the Irish was high at all times de- spite the apparent warm reception given to the Walter family. Henry Sharlot, a citizen of Dublin, Ireland, arrived in Boston in August, 1681. He was denied the right of residence. To recount clearly Sharlot's experience it is necessary to recall the various laws passed regulating the admission of strangers to the colony.
The General Acts of 1637, amended at various times and re- enacted in the General Laws of 1660, provided that "No town or person shall receive any stranger resorting hither with intent to reside in this jurisdiction, nor shall allow any lot or habitation to any, or entertain any such above three weeks, except such person shall have allowance under the hand of some one Magistrate . . . and of every person receiving any such, for longer time than is hereby allowed, except in case of entertainment of friends, re- sorting from other parts of this Country in amity with us, to for- feit as aforesaid not exceeding twenty pounds, nor less than four pounds, etc."8" By the Act of 1675 it was also provided that "That account be taken of all straingers who are not his majestes sub- jects, and that they remajn not in toune vnless security be given for their fidelity; and that none be admitted but vpon the like security, and that no master of any vessell bring in any without acquainting the Gouernor therewith, and presenting their persons in order to their examination; who if vpon their examination can give no good account of their business, and security for their good behaviour shall be sent to prison, vnless they doe forth with de- part."87
Sharlot was in Boston only a few days when he was summoned to appear before the selectmen who examined him and apparently declined to consent to his stay in Boston. There were other hear- ings in August but they refused to allow him to remain. He ap- pealed and on September 1 appeared before the Commissioners of Boston, a court created by the Act of 1654. The Act of 1675 (against strangers) declared that "The Commissioners and the Selectmen of Boston are ordered and required respectively to have a special care that this order in the several parts thereof be duly observed and attended."88 Sharlot's case was heard on September first. On September second he was again summoned before the
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THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY IRISH IN MASSACHUSETTS
Commissioners and having refused to give a bond to depart from Boston in three weeks was arrested under the order of Anthony Stoddard and committed to prison. The original order of imprison- ment reads : "To the Keeper of the Prison in Boston. You are in his majtes name Requiered heerwith to Recev the body of Mr. Henry Sherlett and him to keep in safe Custody being a Strainger and none of his Majtes Subjects, having the liberty granted him by Authority, vpon Security to abide heer three weeks and then to depart hence which he Refuseth and appeals from said Set- ance, for which this shal be your suffitiant warrant, dated Boston, Septr. 2: 1681. Anthony Stoddard, Commissioner."89
He remained in jail for nearly a week and on the 6th of Sep- tember appealed, as he had a right to do under the statute of 1658, from the decision of the Commissioner's Court to the Court of Assistants, which was then in session. From the petition it was learned that Sharlot had "lately arrived from the Kingdome of Ireland, to this Towne of Boston." He also had lived "many years in the Kingdome of Ireland a protestant and can produce good Testimony of his creditt and Civill deporttment in the Citty of Dublin. And there bore arms for his Majesty of England. . . . "90
The answer of the Court was given on September 6, 1681. It declared that Henry Sharlot was "a Frenchman [an assertion never proved] a Dancing Master, and a person very Insolent and of ill fame. .. . " He was requested to "depart ... at once within two months on penalty of Contempt of Authority." Among the prominent men who signed the order were Governor Simon Brad- street, Richard Saltonstall, William Stoughton, Joseph Dudley, Nathaniel Saltonstall and twelve others.º1 What happened to Shar- lot later history has not revealed.
An important achievement in behalf of Massachusetts by an Irishman who was not a resident of the Colony was performed by Colonel Thomas Dongan, Governor-General of New York. He was instrumental on July 30, 1684 in arranging a treaty of friendship at the Town House in Albany between Stephanus Van Curtland, who represented the colony of Massachusetts, and the Macquar Indians of New York and western Massachusetts. Vir- ginia and Maryland were also parties to this treaty.92
There would appear to be a strong probability that the leading actor in the following incident was an Irishman. The Massachu-
-
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PLYMOUTH AND BOSTON
setts Bay Company records relate : "In answer to the petition of John Langley, it is ordered, that, whereas John Langley, of Hing- ham hath presented his accompt of charges in mainteying & look- ing after Patrick Bymion, a wounded seaman, lodging at his house, amounting to the sume of thirty one pounds seventeen shillings, that he be forthwith payd five pounds in money by the Treasurer towards sajd charge, and Capt. John Holbrooke, Left, Samuell White, of Weymouth, with Capt. John Jacob of Hingham, be a committee to audit & examine the acco, & to make report thereof to the country Treasurer, & he is to take care of ye payment hereof wth what may be."93 The account discloses that Bymion had re- mained in the colony for fifty weeks. The expenses were divided c as follows :.
"Washing & lodging, at his house, 29 00 00
For 3 journeys to Boston, & medicines, 2 17 00
Miscellaneous 06 00 00"94
On July 8, 1685, it was ordered by the Court : "In answer to the petition of Patrick Inan, a wounded strainger .. . " to give "re- leife" and to order the Treasurer to deliver to him, or his order, sixe pounds in mony."95
An Irishman of some importance was John Marcy, son of the high sheriff of Limerick, Ireland. He was born in 1662, came to the colony at an carly age and was admitted into Elliot's Church in Roxbury March 7, 1685. In 1686 he removed to Woodstock, Connecticut and settled on grants of land made to the town of Roxbury by Massachusetts. Although his history properly belongs to the Connecticut colony, it is worthwhile to note that three im- portant descendants of his in the United States were William Marcy, Secretary of State, General Randolph Marcy, and Dr. Erastus E. Marcy.96
Another Irish famly which exerted influence in the pre-Revolu- tionary period was the Maccarty group, headed by Florence and Thaddeus Maccarty, who settled in Boston in 1686. Florence had two sons and three daughters. He was worth three thousands pounds when he died. Thaddeus had four sons and one daughter. One son, Thomas, was graduated from Harvard in 1691 but was prevented from performing a long list of noble acts by an early death in 1698. Another son, Charles, was badly wounded in an ex-
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THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY IRISH IN MASSACHUSETTS
pedition to Quebec in 1690. Next to the Cogan family they were the most outstanding Irish family in Boston in the seventeenth century. Haltigan leans toward the Maccarty family also.97 A reference to Thaddeus' fortune appears in a bill of sale for Au- gust 18, 1686 when William Rodell sold to Thaddeus Maccarty, his ketch the Rose of forty-five tons, the commander of which was Captain Nicholas Baker, the ship at the time being on a voy- age to the Barbadoes. One-half of the vessel the Blossom of sev- enty tons, was also included in the sale. The ship, commanded by Captain John Beck, was then on a voyage to Holland.98
In contrast to the wealth just described were the unfortunate circumstances connected with the trial and execution of Goody Glover in 1688. She was "an illiterate Irish woman and a Catho- lic."99 Governor Hutchinson described her as "one of the wild Irish."10º She was also a "wild Irish" laundress.101 Goody Glover was the mother of a laundress engaged by the Goodwin family. The daughter was charged with having stolen some linen. The mother repelled the accusation and gave Goodwin's eldest daugh- ter, age thirteen years, a severe reprimand. For this she was ac- cused of "diabolical purposes." A sister and two brothers, the youngest, five, joined in the accusation. The woman was examined and was accused of conspiring with the devil, of coming down chimneys and other ridiculous things. She was also charged with "communion with her prince 'in the air." For these things and others she was branded as a witch and put to death. An account of the whole affair was published by Cotton Mather, and re- printed in England, with a preface by Richard Baxter, who said, "The evidence is so convincing that he must be a very obdurate Sadducee who will not believe."102
In the last decade of the century, 1690-1700, only a few iso- lated persons of Irish descent can be identified. A man bearing the name of Donnell was one of the members of the new govern- ment of Massachusetts in 1692.103 In 1693 two marriages to which the parties were Irish were recorded, that of Mary Keefe and Henry Tomson on August 8,104 and that of Mary Kelley and John Battis on June 15.105 In the following May Christopher Killiowe and Elija Foster were married.106 In a list of forty-two New Eng- landers in Canadian prisons in 1695, is to be found the name of Hannah Dongan of Boston.107 An increase in marriages is ob-
.
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served for 1696. Lydia Logan and Thomas Thaxter were married on November 26.108 James Conniars and Naomi Harmon,109 Thomas Bridgwater and Elizabeth Mackarta,110 were also mar- ried in the same year. One Irishman in the public eye during the decade was Florence Macarta, who petitioned with other citizens for the repeal of a law forbidding the use of bricks in the con- struction of buildings. They gave as a reason the increasing fire menace of wooden structures.111 One more Boston marriage ended the decade and century when Florence Macarti and Sarah New- work were joined in wedlock August 24, 1697.112
Perhaps the most significant incident in the history of Irish in- fluence in Boston and in New England as well was the proposal of England to establish a New Ireland similar in scope to New England. If it had been established the Celtic element in Massa- chusetts might have had an altogether different history. The text of the document is as follows :
It being judged proper and necessary to separate the Country lying to the North East of the Piscataway River from the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay, it is proposed to erect so much of it as lies between the Sawho River and the St. Croix (which is the South West boundary of Nova Scotia) and to extend from the Sea between two North Lines drawn from the heads of those Rivers to the Boundary of Canada, into a New Province, which from its situation between the New England Province and Nova Scotia, may with great propriety be called New Ireland, es- pecially as the Ara of its establishment is coeval with that of opening the Trade of Ireland with the American Provinces. The remainder of the country lying between the Sawho River and the Piscataway it is proposed to throw into New Hampshire in order to give that Province a greater Front on the Sea than it now has, and for the reasons of deeper policy.
It is proposed that the Constitution of the New Province should be similar to that of East Florida at the outset, consisting of only a Gover- nor and Council, a Chief Justice, and other Civil Officers, provided for by Estimate granted by Parliament, but that a declaration be made of the King's Intention to give it a complete local Legislative whenever the Cir- cumstances of the Province will admit of it, and it may be proper to de- clare what that legislature will be, as a model of the Constitution wished to take place throughout America.
It has been found by sad experience that the Democratic power is pre- dominant in all parts of British America. It is in vain to expect the Gover- nor to support the shadow even of the influence of the Crown to balance it, and the Council in the Royal Governments holding their Seats at the pleasure of the Governor. Men of personal weight prefer being Members of the Assembly to Seats at that Board, and therefore the Members of it
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THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY IRISH IN MASSACHUSETTS
being chiefly Officers of the Crown without property add but little of the Aristoeratie Influence to the Regal Authority of the Governor, altho they form a sort of Middle Branch of Legislature. To combat the prevailing disposition of the People to Republicanism, and to balance the Democratie . Power of the Assembly it is proposed to form a distinct Middle Branch of Legislature. The Members to be appointed by the Crown and to hold their Seats during Life unless removed by His Majesty in Couneil upon a charge exhibited by a majority of the Assembly, or by the Governor and a Majority of the Privy Couneil. To preserve the Influence of the Governor in the Upper House it is proposed that the Privy Council should all be Members of it, and to compose a Major Part of the Whole, and that in case of vacancies in the Privy Council they should be filled up out of the Members of the Upper House. It is also proposed that the Seats in the Privy Council should have Titles of Honor annexed to them or some Emoluments in the place of them desired, at the same time the Governors now have of suspending them from their Seats and thereby from their Honors of Emoluments, and if any distinction in England could be given them it would have a most powerful effeet.
No quit rents have been reserved to the Crown in any grants within the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay but it is proposed that the Lands in New Ireland shall be granted subject to a Quit Rent, tho it might be proper to deelare that when the Legislature shall make a grant of permanent Rev- enue for the support of the Government the produce of the Quit Rents will be given to be disposed of by them. An exemption from the payment of Quit Rent for a certain Term would however, be proper to be granted to distinguished Loyalists. To prevent the admission of the disaffected and to continue the Inhabitants in their Principles of Loyalty and attachment to Great Britain and perpetuate those Principles in their descendants, it is proposed that a Declaration be required to be made by every Grantee be- fore the Governor and Couneil in the following Words. 'I do promise and deelare that I will maintain and defend the authority of the King in His Parliament and the Supreme Legislature of this Provinee,' and that a con- dition be inserted in the Grant obliging all persons who shall come to .Le possession of any part of the lands contained in it, either by inheritance or purchase, to make and subscribe the same Declaration before a Magistrate within Twelve Months after coming into possession, and to have it Regis- tered in the Secretary's office of the Province on pain of forfeiture of the Lands to the Crown.
The Province to be divided into Counties or Circuits, and subdivided into Parishes, in each Parish a Globe Laud to be laid out and vested in Trustees for the Minister. The Church of England to be declared the Es- tablished Church, but the Governor to be the Ordinary and have the presen- tation to all Benefices. A Salary to be granted to Minister payable out of the General Fund, and issued by the Warrant of the Governor and Coun- eil. The King to appoint one of the Clergy His Vicar General to superin- tend the rest to hold Visitations and report to the Governor their behaviour who may suspend or dismiss any Minister the Viear General and his
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Clergy in Convocation shall represent against. Application to be made to the Bishops to superadd to the Vicar General a Power to Ordain. This has been done of necessity in certain cases and if it be done here the Church will have the advantage of a Bishop and no alarm excited by the name, and when the function is become familiar the Title may easily be assumed. The Ordination of the Unitas Fratrum is allowed as valid as ours, and yet their ordainers are neither called Bishops nor Lords. The Vicar Gen- eral, however, to have a handsome allowance.
To Reward or indemnify the Loyal Sufferers from the other Provinces, and at the same time lay the ground of an Aristocratic Power, the Lands to be granted in Large Tracts to the most meritorious and to be by them leased to the lower People in manner as has been practiced in New York, which is the only Province in which there is a Tenantry, and was the least inclined to Rebellion. The poorest Loyal Sufferers should, however, have Grants from the Crown ..
The Attorney and Solicitor General of England should be directed to report what of the Laws of England will of their own authority take place in the New Province, and what Acts of Parliament the King may by His Proclamation introduce and give effect to therein, tho they are not cx- tended by express words, to the Colonies. This has never been done and much confusion has arisen in the New Colonies from the want of it.
These are the things necessary to be done in the New Province at the outset, but if the present be judged a proper time to digest a system of Government for all America the occasion may be used for declaring the purpose of the crown.
Estimate of the Civil Establishment of the Province of New Irelande.
Salary to the Governor-in-Chief-Oliver-
1,200
Chief Justice
Leonard- 400
Attorney General
100
Secretary and Register
100
Clerk of the Council
Dr. Califf
50
Receiver General of Quit Rents and Casual Revenue
100
Survey of Lands
100
Provost Marshall or Sheriff
100
Agent
Nothing
Ministers of the Church of England
400
Vicar General in addition
200
Contingent Expences
1,000
3,750
Salaries to the twelve Counsellors
1,200
4,950""113
On the last page of the section are the words "New Ireland ap- proved in Cabinet, August 10, 1700, by the king George, the 11th."
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THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY IRISH IN MASSACHUSETTS
The movement failed but later was revived when a writer, a Mr. Elliot, wrote "An opinion relative to the King's right to grant cer- tain lands petitioned for, lying between Nova Scotia and the Prov- ince of Main, December 18, 1717."114 The work was based upon the words of a Mr. Dummer, who represented the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was unfavorable to the plan and not only declared that Massachusetts was opposed to the proposal but even denied the right of the King to grant any lands in the territory mentioned above.
The first Irish immigrant of the eighteenth century was An- thony Hancock, who came from County Down and settled in Boston. Haltigan gives 1681 as the year of entrance into the colony.115 John Hancock, a descendant, was born in Braintree in 1737, graduated from Harvard in 1754 and in 1766 was chosen to represent Boston in the General Assembly. In 1774 he was elected President of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts and a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was president of the Continental Congress from 1779 to 1784, and governor of Massachusetts from 1787 to 1783, his death taking place on October 8, 1793.
In 1704 one Edward Northey disputed the right of Massachu- setts to refuse lands to Catholics. Since many New England Irish- men were of the Catholic faith, they were probably principally considered in the argument. His document reads: "A Roman Catholick Petitions the Queen for a Grant of a tract of Land within the Government of New England, but reserved to the Crown. Query. Whether a Roman Catholic is capable of a Grant of Lands in the Plantations, the. Act of Parliament made in the 11th and 12th years of the late King William the third disabling them only to purchase within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed.
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