USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The story of the Irish in Boston, together with biographical sketches of representative men and noted women > Part 4
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John Noble is on record on the 15th of October, 1740, as giving bond with Arthur Noble for the latter's wife and two children in the sum of £200. This family came from the colony of Georgetown, in Virginia. Arthur Noble was elected a member of the Charitable Irish Society in July of this same year. In 1796 he lived on Han- over street, corner Friend street.
William Stewart was a cooper, who came from Ireland with his wife and two children in 1736. Joshua Winslow had engaged to be responsible for him, but finally he got Peter Curtice, a teamster, and Robert Dunlop, a laborer, to be his bondsmen.
Thomas Bennett was a " retaylor of strong drink."
John Little came here in 1722, and was so little known or ap- preciated that the selectmen warned him to "depart out of this town," as was the custom in cases where a new-comer had not much property nor any friends to pledge themselves for him. But he seems to have satisfied their doubts, for we soon after find them urging him to serve the town in one way and another, while he was trying in every way to get rid of it. He was chosen constable in 1731, and excused by the town-meeting; again in 1732, and he asked to be relieved. In 1733 he was chosen hogreeve, and he paid to be let off, in accordance with the custom still prevailing in town governments, to accept money as an equivalent for public service. It is evident that his prosperity was no longer open to question.
William Hall was president of the Society in 1766, and was the first to have his name on the records in that capacity. He served the town as constable in 1730. With John Carr and Capt. James Finney he " executed a bond of the penalty of six hundred pounds
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
to indemnify the town on account of one hundred and sixty-two passengers imported by the said Finney in the Snow1 Charming Molly, November 7, 1737."
George Glen was a tailor. He had come from South Carolina in 1718, and was also warned to depart the town by the selectmen; but he did not go, for we find him in 1742 in trouble for having in his house David Watts, his wife and two children, " from Topsham at the Eastward." They had been there about a month, and were like to become a town charge. It was voted by the selectmen to prose- cute Glen for not having informed of his receiving them into his house, according to law.
Robert Duncan was a constable in 1740 and 1741. With two others he was on a bond for one hundred and fifty pounds in 1745.
The Clark family were numerous and prominent in Boston, but the John and James here mentioned were probably of different stock. There was a James Clark in 1736 belonging to the engine company in the building next to the old North Church.
Peter Pelham was a painter and engraver, and the father of fine arts in New England. He was in London in 1722; in 1727 he en- . graved a portrait of Cotton Mather from a painting by himself. In 1734 he had already commenced a school; but in 1737, fearing probably to incur somebody's displeasure by the teaching of such vanity as dancing, he applied to the selectmen for " Liberty to Open a School in this Town for the Education of children in Reading, Writing, Needlework, Dancing, and the Art of Painting upon Glass, &c." The petition was read and granted " While he continues to regulate the same in Conformity to the Laws of this Province, and has the Approbation of the Select men of the Town for the time being." With this authoritative license he felt safe to advertise his accomplishments to all "Gentlemen and Ladies in Town and Country."
His places of abode were various; he seems to have led a very
1 A "snow " was a vessel having main and foremasts like a ship, and a smaller mast aft carrying a trysail.
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THE CHARITABLE IRISH SOCIETY.
unsettled life. In 1734 he lived near the Town Dock;1 here he ad- vertised his household goods for sale, as he was about to break up housekeeping. In February, 1738, he lived on Summer street. In 1742 he lived in Leverett's lane (now Congress street). In 1747 he kept his school on Queen (now Court street). Finally, after his second marriage, in 1748, he lived in "Lindel's row," 2 till his death, in 1751.
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As to his origin, there is nothing outside of his own description of himself, in the Rules and Orders of the Charitable Irish Society, as " of the Irish Nation residing in Boston." It has been conjectured that his father was Peter Pelham, an English engraver, born about 1684. But the father of the New England artist had sat for his pict- ure at eighty, and " there never was so handsome, so charming a man at that age as he was; " and he must have died before March 13, 1761, because a letter from his daughter Helen, to Charles Pel- ham, a son by the first wife, mentions the death of the grandfather as a fact already known, and also that the date given above was that of her last previous letter. Besides the fact of Peter Pelham's mem- bership in that famous first meeting of the Charitable Irish Society, the family interest in Irish affairs is noteworthy. Henry Pelham, the son of Peter by his second wife, and half-brother to Copley, the famous artist, engraved a mezzotint of the Countess of Desmond, and was very much interested in the antiquities of Kerry. He intended to publish a history of that county, but was cut off by accidental death.
But by far the most striking circumstance in this connection is the marriage of Peter Pelham, the founder of the Irish Society, with the widow of Richard Copley. She was the daughter of Squire Singleton, of Ireland, and had been married in Limerick. They came to Boston, and John Singleton Copley was born to them July 3, 1737. Richard Copley died, and his widow for some time kept a tobacco store on Long Wharf, " selling the best Virginia Tobacco, : Cut, Pigtail, and Spun, of all sorts, by Wholesale and Retail, at the
1 Where Faneuil Hall now stands; Dock square was at the head of it.
& Properly Lindall's lane, now Exchange place.
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
cheapest rates." In 1748 Pelham, who had probably lost his wife in 1734, when he " broke up housekeeping," married the widow Copley. He continued his school-teaching and she her shop.
John Singleton Copley, the future artist, probably learned as much from his step-father as his time would permit. We may well guess, that between the teaching and the engraving and painting of pictures, little was told of the secrets of art in the three and a half years that Pelham lived, and Copley afterwards vainly regretted the lack of proper instruction in his early years. But in 1753 he engraved a portrait of Rev. Wm. Welsteed that is said to show traces of Pel- ham's teaching. His masterpiece was a portrait of his half-brother Henry Pelham, whose death in Ireland is mentioned above. The picture is called the "Boy and the Squirrel."1 It was sent to Eng- land in 1774, and, owing to the miscarriage of an accompanying letter, its author was for a time unknown ; but it was received enthu- siastically by the best judges of art in England, and its phenomenal success finally drew the young artist to that country, where he was joined in a few years by his family. He never returned to America.
His best pictures were painted here. One of his later paintings, executed in England, that of "King Charles I. demanding in the House of Commons the five impeached members, 1641," is in the Boston Public Library.
Robert Auchmuty, father and son, members of the Charitable Irish Society in the years that preceded the Revolution, were learned lawyers, and their influence was felt in the progressive tendency of the town. The elder Robert was instrumental in bringing about the expedition for the capture of Louisburg. The house is still standing which was built about 1761 by the younger Auchmuty, and where the secret council of British officers - Bernard, Hutchinson, Hallow- ell, and the rest of them - met to discuss the inconvenient privileges granted by the provincial charter, and the feasibility of frightening the colonists into submission. The father was distinguished for wit and learning; he was short in stature, of crabbed manner, and with a squeaky voice. The son rose into prominence in his profes-
1 This picture is now in Boston.
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THE CHARITABLE IRISH SOCIETY.
sion, but died an exile in London, in 1788. The family were tories. They are called Scotch by the cyclopædias, but the elder Robert was for three years president of the Society, and its rule as to nationality has already been mentioned.
Capt. William Mackay - described as " gentleman " (i.e., not engaged in business), in the Directory of 1789-lived on Fish street,1 and was appointed in 1772 on a committee to draw up a statement of the colony's rights and grievances. He succeeded Robert Auchmuty in the presidency of the Society, and continued to hold that office till succeeded by Simon Elliot, in 1788. During the revolutionary period he enjoyed to the fullest extent the confidence of his towns- people, serving on many committees for various purposes. Among other things he was a member of the "Committee of correspondence, safety, and inspection," appointed by the town in 1776.
At a meeting of the Society held in October, 1784, the first after the Revolutionary war, the president, William Mackay, made an address, which was placed on the records, and is as follows: -
Gentm Members of the Charitable Irish Society I congratulate you on this Joyful Occasion, that we are assembled again after Ten years absence occasioned by a Dreadful and Ruinous war of near Eight years ; also that we have Conquered One of the greatest and most potent Nations in on the Globe so far as to have peace and Independency. May our friends, Countrymen in Ireland, Behave like the Brave Americans till they recover their Liberties.
It is to be remembered that the tory members of the Society - and they were neither few nor petty - had been weeded out, and the president was speaking to loyal citizens of the new republic. The Scots' Charitable Society had absconded in a body at the be- ginning of the Revolution, carrying off their Society records to Halifax. They reorganized in Boston, and were incorporated with eleven members, in 1786. Mr. William Mackay was dead in 1801.
Capt. John Mackay was master of the schooner "Margaret;" he was elected into the Society in 1791. On the way home from Amsterdam, in 1796, with a valuable cargo, he was wrecked in Salem
1 Now North street, between Cross and Fleet streets.
:
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harbor, during a blinding snow-storm, and perished, with three of his crew.
Capt. Robert Gardner furnished the town of Boston a ship to take home "a true account of the horred Massacre " of Nov. 5, 1770. This gentleman's interest in his fellow-countrymen appears from the records of the Charitable Irish Society. At his instance, the Society voted, in 1794, a sum not exceeding £3 to purchase school-books for poor children of Irish extraction. Again, in 1801 he advanced money from his own purse to the distressed emigrants on the brigantine " Albicore," trusting to the Society to repay him. The last record we have of him is 1812, when he held the office of treasurer of the Society.
James Downing (1737) kept a lodging-house in Wing's lane ; in 1740 an Irish woman, named Abigail Richardson, was lying there, friendless and destitute, and near her time of travail, and from there she was taken to the poorhouse. Thomas Lawlor (1739) was an innholder or retailer of spirits. He served on a fire-engine in 1741, and as constable in 1749. Rev. William McClennehan (1741) was not of Irish birth. He was a colleague of Rev. Thomas Cheever in the meeting-house at Rumney Marsh (Chelsea), and was said to rival Whitefield for eloquence. In 1754 he joined the Episcopal Church, and soon went to England. William Moore (1743) was a distiller ; he served the town as fence-viewer for ten years (1745- 1755). In 1742 he paid for release from the duty of constable. Benjamin Thompson (1757) was a coppersmith of some means, and lived on Orange street. Patrick Tracy (1737) was of Newburyport, and quite successful. John McLane (1768) was a slater on Orange street. In 1766 he presented a bill of £82 to the town for repairs made by him on Faneuil Hall. He was a secretary of the Society. Capt. Alexander Wilson (1768) was appointed on a committee of merchants in 1779, whose duty it was to fix prices on different commodities, and thus relieve the distress due to a debased cur- rency. Patrick Conner kept a livery stable and boarding-house at 38 Marlboro' street. Henry Pelham (1774) has been spoken of before. He made a plan of Boston in 1775, a tracing of which is
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THE CHARITABLE IRISH SOCIETY.
reproduced in the Evacuation Memorial, 1876. Gen. Simon Elliot, Jr. (1791), was a good soldier, and for a long time prominent in the town. Thomas McDonough, Esq., was the English consul, and lived in Oliver's lane. Andrew Campbell (1797) was a school- master in Leverett's lane, afterwards on Common street. Rev. John Murray (1797) was born in England, and is regarded as one of the founders of the Universalist movement in America. His preaching excited considerable interest, some of it unfavorable in the extreme ; but he lived to enjoy the highest esteem of all. He died in Boston, in 1815.
Samuel Bangs (1769) was appointed sealer of leather by the town in the year 1769-70. In 1789 he appears in the Directory as a cordwainer (shoemaker) on Kilby street. Hugh McDaniel (1739) in 1758 was a lessee of one of the town's buildings, and paid an an- nual rent of about £13.
Some of the members of the Society, as has been said before, sided with the British; but it is more than probable that these lists of the proscribed were not very carefully made, and that on general principles the name of a man would be inserted if he had simply not been active in the colonial cause. At any rate, names of members of this Society are to be found in the lists of loyalists, that, after the Revolution, turn up in Boston citizens in good and regular standing. Two or three such names, that happen to be easily reached, are here given; they occur in the Directories of 1789 and 1796, after having been classed with the refugees: 1 John Bryant was a trader and inn- holder on Eliot street, and on Exchange lane; John Magner was a smith and farrier, first on Oliver's dock, afterwards on Lindell's row; William McNeil had a rope-walk (William McNeil & Son) in Cow lane, on Fort Hill.
An important part of the membership of the Charitable Irish Society was the Irish Presbyterian Church, established in Boston in 1727. They first worshipped in a building which had been a barn on the corner of Berry street and Long lane (now Channing and Federal streets) ; and this unpretentious building served them, with
1 Mem. Hist. Bost., iii., 176-177.
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
the addition of a couple of wings, till 1744, when a comfortable church 1 was erected that bore a conspicuous part in the history of the town, and indeed of the nation, for it was here that the Massa- chusetts Convention met to debate the Federal Constitution, and finally to accept it, Feb. 7, 1788; and to this fact Federal street owes its name. Governor Hancock presented to the new building the bell and vane of the old Brattle-street meeting-house. Their first pastor was John Moorhead, who was born near Belfast, in Ireland, in 1703, and was educated at one of the Scotch universities. He was described as a forcible preacher, honest and blunt, and an " earnest and enthusiastic young Irishman." He published nothing, but maintained his connection with the church till his death, which occurred just at the beginning of the struggle for American Indepen- dence. He was elected a member of the Charitable Irish Society in 1739, and gave them sound advice upon occasion.2 He held no office in the Society. Among his effects at his death was " a likely negro lad," to be sold by his executor.
Another colony of the same class of Irish immigrants had ar- rived in 1717, with Capt. Robert Temple. He settled at Noddle's Island,3 where he had a mansion-house that "contained elegant rooms suitable for the reception of persons of the first condition."
These immigrants were not very cordially received. The Know- nothing spirit was already abroad; or, rather, the English hatred for the nation they had so long trodden under foot followed the emi- grants that fled from them across the water. But when the Revolu- tion was at hand such an unhesitating stand was taken by the members of the Irish Presbyterian Church, and by other prominent Irishmen, that the coldness disappeared, and a cordial regard sprang up for Irish valor and patriotism that found its reward on many battle-fields.
The charitable work of the Society is made up of small donations to tide over special emergencies, and is not, in general, of such a sort
1 For the curious inscription on its columns, see Snow, " History of Boston," p. 222; for Dr. Channing's intelligible arrangement of it, see Drake, p. 576.
2 Extracts from the Records, p. 27.
3 East Boston.
JAMES BOYD.
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THE CHARITABLE IRISH SOCIETY.
that any display could be made of it; still there are occasional con- tributions of five hundred or a thousand dollars at a time. The Society is not rich. If it had been wisely managed at its origin, its age would, by this time, have made it wealthy. A very large fraction of the annual income goes towards celebrating the anniversary of St. Patrick, and satisfying the natural longing of Irishmen for the society of their countrymen.
One of the most notable events in the history of the Society was its visit, in a body, to Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, at the Tremont House, June 22, 1833. In reply to an address of welcome by Mr. James Boyd, on behalf of the Society, Jackson said : -
I feel much gratified, sir, at this testimony of respect shown me by the Chari- table Irish Society of this city. It is with great pleasure that I see so many of the countrymen of my father assembled on this occasion. I have always been proud of my ancestry, and of being descended from that noble race, and rejoice that I am so . nearly allied to a country which has so much to recommend it to the good wishes of the world. Would to God, sir, that Irishmen on the other side of the great water enjoyed the comforts, happiness, contentment, and liberty that we enjoy here ! I am well aware, sir, that Irishmen have never been backward in giving their support to the cause of liberty.
They have fought, sir, for this country valiantly, and, I have no doubt, would fight again were it necessary; but I hope it will be long before the institutions of our country need support of that kind. Accept my best wishes for the happi- ness of you all.
The members of the Society were about to withdraw when President Jackson took Mr. Boyd by the hand, and said: -
I am somewhat fatigued, sir, as you may notice ; but I cannot allow you to part with me until I again shake hands with you, which I do for yourself and the whole Society. I assure you, sir, there are few circumstances that have given me more heart-felt satisfaction than this visit. I shall remember it with pleasure, and, I hope you, sir, and all your Society will long enjoy health and happiness.
On September 6, 1834, the Society joined in a procession in honor of Lafayette, " with a standard bearer and ten marshals, who decorated themselves with the medals of the Society, and a special
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
badge provided for the occasion in honor of General Lafayette, and bearing his likeness."
The centennial celebration was held on March 17, 1837, and the Society entertained as guests, Governor Edward Everett, Mayor Samuel A. Eliot, Hon. Stephen Fairbanks, President of the Massa- chusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, the Rev. Mr. John Pier- pont, Hon. John P. Bigelow, Hon. Josiah Quincy, Jr., and others.
Among the remarks of the President of the Charitable Mechanics Association, we find the following : -
The relation which you yourself, Mr. President, as well as some others whom I have now the honor to address, sustain to that institution is some indication of the readiness of its members to avail themselves at all times of the friendly aid and co- operation of the intelligent and scientific, to whatever nation they may belong, and more especially of the natives of that country from which we have derived some of our earliest impressions of the importance of cultivating the arts. The liberal policy of that institution in regard to the admission of members is worthy of all praise, and the great accession of members, from time to time, is the best proof of the wisdom of this course, and I trust it will never subject itself to the imputation of rejecting any high-minded, intelligent mechanic, who has complied with the conditions of the constitution, whether a native or adopted citizen.
Just fifty years later, Hugh O'Brien, the Mayor of the city, and one of the foremost Irishmen in Boston, well known for his active business interest in matters of practical science, was successfully opposed for admission to this association by a Mr. Henry N. Sawyer, on the ground that he was a Fesuit !
The Society marched in the funeral processions of President Harrison in 1841, and of Andrew Jackson in 1845. In 1847 the famine, then destroying their countrymen in Ireland, moved them to give up their annual celebration, and strain every nerve to relieve their suffering fatherland.
In 1860, at the December quarterly meeting, held at the Parker House, Hugh O'Brien, the president, called the attention of the Society to the danger our country was in, and said " it would be well for this time-honored Society to express its deep feeling on this occa- sion." A committee was appointed to prepare resolutions, and, after
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THE CHARITABLE IRISH SOCIETY.
brief consideration, submitted the following draft, which was unani- mously adopted : -
Whereas, The chronicles of the day show the lamentable fact that these beloved United States are passing through a crisis that portends ruin to the integ- rity of this fair Republic and its institutions, and,
Whereas, Our venerable Society preceded the foundation of the Confederacy and of the Constitution, guarded its infancy, and is identified with the existence and prosperity of the Union, and most sensitively feels the shock to the national body politic, - therefore,
Resolved, That the Charitable Irish Society of Boston condemns and abhors every principle or movement that would dissever these United States, - and we now solemnly renew our vows of fealty and love for the Union and the Constitution, and emulating the example and glorious achievements of our predecessors of '76 and '89, we pledge our efforts and our influence for the vindication and maintenance, "pure and undefiled," of this most perfect form of civil and religious liberty.
Resolved, That we invoke our brethren and fellow-citizens throughout the Union, by the memories of our past united career, to lay aside all sectional or partisan animosities, and devote themselves to the cause of our endangered common country.
From the report of the secretary at the one hundred and twenty- fifth anniversary, March 17, 1862, we clip the following : -
A good many of our members have gone to the war to fight for the restoration of the glorious Constitution and Union of the States. Several of them, we can mention with pride, have already obtained a position in the army of the Union, which has redounded to the honor of their nationality. Thomas Cass and Patrick R. Guiney may be named in this record. The former, Colonel, and the latter, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 9th Massachusetts Volunteers, which regiment, we are proud to say, composed entirely of Irish and Irish extraction, is to-day one of the best and bravest on the soil of deluded Virginia.
The Society took part in the procession to celebrate the centen- nial anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill. They formed part of the third division, composed of historic societies and civic associa- tions.
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
CHAPTER IV.
CAPTAIN DANIEL MALCOM AND THE REVENUE ACTS.
C APTAIN DANIEL MALCOM was a citizen of Boston of con- siderable prominence in the exciting times that immediately preceded the Revolution. In the town records the name first occurs in the meeting of 10th March, 1766, where he is appointed on a com- mittee to regulate the sale of lambs, probably to prevent the sale of unhealthy meat. He had good Jan Malcom company on the committee, and his appointment thereon is a voucher of his high standing in the community. Soon the atten- tion of the town was attracted to an event of no common im- portance, in which Captain Malcom was the principal figure. The revenue officers, suspecting contraband goods to be on his prem- ises, began a search without due warrant. The sturdy captain stopped them at the door of a room that he had his own reasons for protecting, and so stubborn and defiant was he that they were glad to postpone the affair. But when they returned their reception was even worse. Captain Malcom had his Irish temper stirred, and would not suffer them to cross his threshold. Gathering his friends about him, he showed fight, and for a moment it looked as if bloodshed would follow. Fortunately, however, for the British offi- cers, at least, they consulted their better part of valor, and let the contraband goods remain under their very safe guardianship. It may well be imagined that no love was lost on either side.
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