INDEX.

[1]. Amended so that annual membership fee is now $5.

[2]. Father O’Leary’s paper appears elsewhere in the Journal.

[3]. Mr. McCarthy since the meeting requested that his paper be returned to him, presumably for additions and corrections. Later he notified the Secretary-General that he preferred his article be not published.

[4]. Mr. Clarke is Vice President of this Society and author of an article printed elsewhere in this volume.

[5]. Miss Mary L. Linehan, The Colonial Irish in New England.

[6]. J. A. Spencer. Hist. of U. S., Vol. 1, p. 198, 1774–76.

[7]. James Grahame. Colonial History of the United States, Vol. II, p. 481, 1850.

[8]. Spencer. The Hist. of the United States, Vol. I, p. 80.

[9]. Ramsay. The History of South Carolina, 1809.

[10]. H. Marshall. The History of Kentucky, 1824.

[11]. The Story of the Irish in Boston, 1889.

[12]. The Irish Scots and the Scotch Irish, page 44.

[13]. Irish Colonists in New York. A Lecture Delivered before the New York Historical Association at Lake George, New York, 1906.

[14]. Prof. E. D. Sanborn writing of these Puritans (1 Granite Monthly, 34), said: “Some portion of the bigotry, intolerance and persecution of Massachusetts Puritans migrated to New Hampshire with their laws. The result was a few prosecutions of witches and Quakers, but no capital convictions. After the lapse of a century some disabilities and distraint of goods for the support of ‘the standing order’ or clergy were inflicted on dissenters from the established creed. This petty intolerance continued until about 1819, when the Toleration Act became a law of New Hampshire.”

[15]. The late L. A. Morrison, of Derry, N. H., said of them (10 Granite Monthly, page 249), that “They were hard-hearted, long-headed, level-headed, uncompromising, unconquered and unconquerable Presbyterians. They were of a stern and rugged type. They clung to the tenets of the Presbyterian faith with a devotion, constancy and obstinacy little short of bigotry and in it was mingled little of that charity for others of a different faith, ‘which suffereth long,’ and it was said of them in 1790: ‘They have a great deal of substantial civility, without much courtesy to relieve it, and set it off to the best advantage.’ The bold idea of rights and privileges, which seem inseparable from their Presbyterian church, renders them apt to be ungracious and litigious in their dealings. On the whole the middle and lower ranks of people, in this quarter of the kingdom, are a valuable part of the community; but one must estimate their worth as a miner often does his ore, rather by its weight than its splendor.”—Letters concerning the Northern Coast of the County Antrim Island, by William Hamilton, Dublin, 1790, page 117.

[16]. “From the notices given and extracts taken from records, it will be seen that Presbyterianism in New England had passed its noonday, and that its tide had begun to ebb.” History of Presbyterianism in New England, by Alexander Blaikie, 1882, page 197. With reference to the condition in Peterborough, it was stated: “The number of members of the church in 1850 was 175, in 1856 their roll was reduced to 67 members and in 1859 Presbyterianism became extinct in Peterborough.” Ib., page 367.

[17]. As an instance of this evolution may be mentioned the efforts of a very estimable lady of our town in 1896 at a church meeting, called for the purpose, who proposed the substitution of water for wine in the church service; the question was solemnly and prayerfully discussed, was not voted down, but the motion was laid on the table, where it still remains for future determination; the matter was not decided then; possibly their progressiveness had not sufficiently advanced. But less important questions have been the foundation of some modern church doctrines. Who will say that this theory, advanced, as then alleged, in the interest of temperance, may not find favor in some new church of, so called, advanced ideas, which will profoundly urge—as is already urged by individuals—that the wine mentioned in the Bible was not in fact wine at all, nothing more or less than water?

A strange spectacle indeed, ten persons of only ordinary intelligence and scholarship—who came together after a few hours’ notice—essaying to make a corrected interpretation of the Bible and radically changing one of the most important church dogmas which has received the consideration and approval of the great theologians of the past; absurd you may say, but it is in a very similar manner that many of the churches composing the present religious medley came into existence. Oh shades of old Presbyterianism, could your ancient devotees but see the wanderings of their progeny in the groping for the true path!

[18]. They were from an ancient race of pure Celtic (Irish) origin, whose ancestors had emigrated from Ireland to southern Scotland, and, in 1612–20, returned to their ancestors’ former home; remaining in Ireland over a century before the emigration to America in 1718–36. In other words, from Ireland to Argyle (Scotland) these Irish went, to Ireland from Scotland they returned in the seventeenth century and to America their descendants came over a century later. Strange indeed it is that the history of the Irish origin of these so called Scots is suppressed by these modern “Scotch-Irish” writers. (See Vol. 2, pages 333 and 712, and Vol. 7, page 555, of Chambers Encyclopædia.)

These hardy and opinionated Celts, while in Scotland, left their indelible and unmistakable imprint on the language and character of the people, in the design of their humble dwellings and churches and more pretentious round towers. In reference to the Round Towers of Ireland, Hamilton wrote in 1790: “There have been but two buildings of this species hitherto discovered out of Ireland; they are both in Scotland, and the fashion of them has probably been borrowed from this country (Ireland), where they are still extremely numerous. One of these usually called a Pictish tower, stands at Abernethy in Perthshire, and seems to be of very ancient date; the other is at Brechin in Angusshire, probably much more modern than the former.” Letters concerning the Northern Coast of the County Antrim, Ireland, by William Hamilton, Dublin, 1790, page 62.

[19]. Rev. David Annan made a fiddle with his jackknife and would sit with his Bible open before him and his inspiring glass standing by, and play tunes while the children danced. His people were shocked, however, on one occasion when he told them in one of his sermons that “he had prayed over one bed of onions and fiddled over another to see which would fare the best.” The result of the experiment was not reported.—Judge Nathaniel Holmes’ Address of Oct. 24, 1889, page 23.

Jonathan Smith, a lawyer in Clinton, Mass., in his recently published “Home of the Smith Family” on page 56, gives a description of a wake held in Peterborough on the occasion of the death of Elizabeth Smith, April 18, 1769, as follows: “The near relatives and neighbors assembled in the evening to watch through the night with the body in the dimly lighted room. The exercises began with the reading of the Bible, followed by prayer; then words of consolation and comfort were spoken to the mourners, and the virtue and character of the deceased were passed in review. Soon stories of ghosts, witches and demons were exchanged, tales of death warnings to the deceased and her friends. Later, stimulants were freely circulated, and before morning there was eating as well as drinking.” Mr. Parker, in speaking of the custom, says: “The affair often ended by shouts of laughter and revelry breaking up the company.”

[20]. It is not generally known that the Society of St. Tammany (the present Tammany Hall) was more directly associated than any other organization or party in securing the fight for titles of plain “Mr. President” for the President of the United States. While not actually a member of the St. Tammany Society, William Maclay, who was Senator from Pennsylvania 1789–1791, gave his great influence to St. Tammany by making an address at one of its first meetings, May 12, 1790. Under this date he records in his Journal: “This day exhibited a grotesque scene in the streets of New York. Being the old First of May the Sons of St. Tammany had a grand parade through the town in Indian dress. I delivered a talk at one of their meetinghouses and went away to dinner. There seems to be some sort of a scheme laid of erecting some sort of order or society under this denomination, but it does not seem well digested as yet. The expense of the dresses must have been considerable and the money laid out on clothing might have dressed some of their ragged beggars. But the weather is now warm.”

Without doubt Maclay was in sympathy with the democratic spirit of this association and it was Maclay who led the successful fight against titles and royal forms in the first session of Congress.

[21]. The Burnham Tavern is still standing in Machias, and is now owned by the local Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. It is the repository of relics of the Revolution. The building is practically the same, in appearance, as when the “O’Brien boys,” and other Machias patriots gathered there at the opening of the War for Independence, and discussed ways and means for the defense of their liberties.

[22]. From “The Liberty Pole; A Tale of Machias.”

[23]. For a detailed account of the armament of the “Margaretta,” and of the engagement between her and the American sloop, see “Life of Captain Jeremiah O’Brien, Machias, Me.,” by the writer of this sketch.

[24]. According to at least one authority, the “Unity” was re-named the “O’Brien.”

[25]. Words fail me to describe my emotions, when, a few years ago, I visited the spot where the “Margaretta” was beached by the victory-elated young men who had wrested her from her foreign commander and crew, a century and a quarter before.

[26]. For an account of the capture of the “Hannibal,” see Life of Captain Jeremiah O’Brien.

[27]. In July, 1902, the writer of this sketch received a letter from Mr. G. F. Dunning, of Farmington, Connecticut. From this letter I quote the following words, which I am certain will be of deep interest to the readers of the sketch of Captain O’Brien: “I was born in Brunswick, Maine, in 1817, three years before Captain O’Brien removed from Newburyport to Brunswick, in 1820. My mother, eldest of his three daughters, was Mary O’Brien, whom my father, Robert D. Dunning, married in 1802—just 100 years ago. I am the eighth of eleven children and I am ‘the last leaf on the tree.’ I remember my grandfather distinctly, as he died in May, 1832, when I was 15 years old.

[28]. The above is a verbatim transcript of Mr. Wheaton’s letter, as sent me from the Maine Historical Society a few years since.—A. M. S.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

PageChanged fromChanged to
[95]that a minister by sent to labor in Maryland, and in 1863 thethat a minister by sent to labor in Maryland, and in 1683 the