Letter from Hon. John D. Crimmins, President-General of the Society.
40 East 68th Street, New York,
April 15, [190]1.
My Dear Mr. Murray:—It is with pleasure I acknowledge the receipt of your advice that the Annual Volume of our Historical Society is about ready for distribution to our members.
This will be the third volume so distributed, the series showing a constant increase in historical value and interest. We have undertaken a task and set a high standard, to which are attached great responsibilities, which must be maintained and continued. I trust the end of the twentieth century will find our society still vigorous.
During the last century many pretentious efforts were made to collect and publish matters of general interest in regard to the Irish and their descendants in America. They failed primarily for want of an organization to support their efforts. The organization we have; the means we require. Work of this character costs much, and cannot be continued on a scale to do it justice, without a substantial treasury.
We would have ample means modestly to continue our work without extending it beyond prudent requirements, if each member of the Society would pay his annual dues.
The honor of belonging to such a Society as ours should be a matter of pride with our members and everyone should keep in good standing. It is a requirement that dues should be paid. It would certainly be a reflection on a member to be dropped, and still there is no alternative.
Any of our annual members may become life members by the payment of $50. A number of gentlemen have already taken this step, and their generosity is to be commended as having been specially helpful to the Society. If this letter be circulated among our members, I would urge as many as possible to present their names for life membership. From the dues thus derived, I hope to see established a permanent fund, which when wisely and safely invested, will assure the Society an income with which to go forward and enlarge its work.
It should be borne in mind that the American-Irish Historical Society is not a political organization. Its object is the study and handing down of Irish and Irish-American history, and it should be brought to the highest possible standard.
Thus far, our career as an historical organization has been replete with earnest and successful work. The future is bright for a continuance of our great mission; the field is large, the cause noble, the end patriotic, far-reaching, magnificent.
In conclusion let me again urge our members to come forward in answer to this appeal, with their contributions, large and small. There are but a few hundred dollars in our treasury, when there should be thousands.
It will be highly encouraging to the officers of the Society to see that this appeal is met with a prompt and generous response.
With my heartiest and kindest greetings to all our members, believe me
Fraternally,
JOHN D. CRIMMINS,
President-General.
To Thomas Hamilton Murray,
Secretary-General.
[1]. Hon. George F. Hoar.
[2]. State Record Commissioner of Rhode Island.
[3]. Mrs. Charles Warren Lippitt.
[4]. Secretary-General of the Society.
[5]. See Updike’s History of the Narragansett Church.
[6]. History of Bristol.
[7]. This name appears in the writings of the subject of this paper both as “MacSparran” and “McSparran.” In his work “America Dissected,” he repeatedly spells it “MacSparran,” while on other occasions he frequently uses the abbreviated form “McSparran.”
[8]. In Mac Sparran’s time great latitude was exercised, even by educated people, in the matter of orthography, including proper names.
[9]. It will be noticed that Dr. Mac Sparran never uses the cant term “Scotch-Irish.” His education, good sense and patriotic spirit raised him above such a subterfuge.
[10]. Dean Berkeley, the famous “Kilkenny scholar,” located near Newport, R. I., in 1729, and on various occasions visited MacSparran. Berkeley was subsequently made Anglican bishop of Cloyne, in Ireland.
[11]. Recently deceased. Librarian of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
[12]. A small remnant of the Narragansett nation still exists, chiefly at or near Westerly, R. I. Few, if any, of these survivors, are of pure Indian blood.
[13]. The claim has been made that the slaves were kindly treated in Rhode Island. No doubt they were in many cases, but so, in some instances, were those in the South. Still, at the best it was slavery, and the very nature of this traffic in human beings must have been equivalent to injustice, oppression and cruelty.
[14]. This Dr. Giles Goddard was the father of William Goddard who, in 1762, established the Providence (R. I.) Gazette, the first paper ever printed at Providence.
[15]. Captain Wilkinson was an Irishman who resided at Newport, but was an intimate friend of Dr. MacSparran, Col. Updike and other prominent Narragansett people.
[16]. In Narragansett, R. I.
[17]. This was Gilbert Stuart, who afterwards became the famous painter. The name in MacSparran’s time appears to have also been spelled Stewart.
[18]. “America Dissected.”
[19]. “America Dissected.”
[20]. A monument to MacSparran stands in North Kingstown, R. I. A hill in that section of the state also bears his name.
[21]. On the staff of the Boston Daily Globe.
[22]. Treasurer-General of the Society, and State Insurance Commissioner of New Hampshire.
[23]. Ramsay’s History was written by the son of an Irish Protestant. An edition was published in 1805 by Mathew Carey, a native-born Irish Catholic. A list of subscribers to the work was printed with it and here also is another instance of the presence of the Gael. The name of Thomas Addis Emmet appropriately heads the list, and the names following are Irish enough to please the most blue-blooded Milesian: James Buckley, Matthew Carroll, Philip Whelpley, Katherine Mulligan, James Doyle, J. W. McFadden, Charles O’Neal, John D. Toy, Henry C. Neal, Daniel Fagan, Andrew Fleming, William Hickey, John McLeod, Bernard O’Neal, John H. Riley, William Carroll, Patrick Gill, John McDermott, John McBride, M. Sullivan, Francis D. Riordan, Peter Kerr, John Carney, John Carey, John Cowan, Anthony C. Curley, Hamson Kelly, James McElhinney, Hugh McGuire, John McDonald, A. D. Murphy, Harvey Bryan, C. P. Butler, Lydia Bryan, Bartholomew Carroll, Richard Cunningham, Catherine Fitzsimmons, Christopher Fitzsimmons, Daniel Flood, Richard Fair, Andrew Flynn, Peter Murphy, Richard McCormack, Samuel Nolan, Cornelius Driscoll, Dennis O’Driscoll, Henry O’Hara, Thomas H. Egan, Peter McGuire, John Murphy, Joseph Kelly, Patrick Noble, John B. O’Neal, Timothy Dargan, Patrick H. Carns, Patrick Gatlin, Robert Malone, J. S. Bryan, and Daniel Murphy.
[24]. Recently deceased. Mr. Walsh was a founder of our society and was vice-president for Georgia. He had been a United States senator from that state, and was editor and publisher of the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, one of the leading dailies of the South. The article here given is a condensation of an address delivered by him a few years ago at Nashville, on “Irish-American Day” at the Tennessee Exposition.
[25]. Shattuck’s History of Concord, p. 215. But little is known of Cargill’s life. When Shattuck wrote (1852) he said, “What little is known of his life is better stated in his epitaph than from any information I possess.”
[26]. McGee’s Early Irish Settlers, p. 34 n. (6th Edit.)
[27]. Mass. Revolutionary Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 3, p. 93.
[28]. Suffolk Deeds, Libro 167, folio 133.
[29]. Direct Tax, 22d Report Boston Rec. Com., p. 256.
[30]. Selectmen’s Minutes, 25th Report Boston Rec. Com., p. 300.
[31]. Braley’s History of Boston Fire Dept., p. 95.
[32]. Selectmen’s Minutes, 27th Report Rec. Com., p. 123.
[33]. Middlesex Deeds (So. Dist.), Lib. 125, folio 415.
[34]. Concord Births, Marriages and Deaths, p. 362. This is said to have been his third marriage.
[35]. Ibid., p. 323.
[36]. Concord Births, Marriages, and Deaths, p. 362. This is said to have been his third marriage.
[37]. Middlesex Deeds, folio 140, p. 277.
[38]. Cargill’s Epitaph has been published in Shattuck’s Concord, p. 215; Barber’s Historical Collection of Mass. (Edit. of 1839), p. 215; and in McGee’s Early Irish Settlers in North America, p. 35 n.
[39]. In the East Liverpool Tribune the article was entitled: Fawcett Memorial Tablet. Erected in Riverview Cemetery by the fourth generation in 1900, in memory of the founders of “Fawcettstown,” now East Liverpool.
[40]. East Liverpool.
[41]. The exact year as shown in the inscription was 1798.
[42]. East Liverpool.
[43]. The river takes its name from the town of Warren, the latter having been named in honor of Sir Peter Warren, an Irishman.
[44]. Then, and for many years after claimed as a part of Massachusetts.
[45]. Bicknell’s Historical Sketches of Barrington.
[46]. The Society of United Irishmen was largely composed of Presbyterians. Several Irish Presbyterian ministers were executed as “rebels” to English law.
[47]. Encyclopædia Britannica.
[48]. There is a tradition that it was he who first introduced potatoes to Rhode Island, bringing them from Ireland.
[49]. From a letter written to the author, by a descendant of Matthew, some years ago.
[50]. After Matthew Watson’s death, the clay pits remained idle for years, and a young forest gradually grew up.
[51]. Watson sold his brick in Newport and New York, as well as in other places. Bicknell says that “the brick mansions of some of the old Manhattan families were probably made of Barrington clay.”
[52]. Providence Gazette.
[53]. One account says he died in 1803, aged 107 years.
[54]. His second wife, Sarah, died in 1798.
[55]. In 1781 he is described as a “gentleman soldier.”
[56]. Recently clerk of the Rhode Island House of Representatives.
[57]. For an interesting note concerning the O’Brien, see Chronology of the Society, in this volume, date of June 30, 1898.
[58]. Cooper refers to it as the “Lexington of the Seas.”
[59]. The Irish Race in America.
[60]. This membership roll is brought down to March, 1901.