[Footnote 187]
[Footnote 187: Authorities: O'Callaghan's Documentary and Colonial Histories of New York. Bancroft's History of the United States. Lingard's History of England. Bishop Bayley's History of the Catholic Church in New York. O'Callaghan's Journal of the Legislature of New York, especially a note thereto, by George H. Moore, Esq. Shea's History of the Catholic Missions. Campbell's Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll. DeCourcy and Shea's Catholic Church in the United States, etc.]
The student of Catholic history may be permitted to recall, with an honorable pride, the illustrious name and recount the eminent public services of Colonel Thomas Dongan, who, while the only Catholic, was one of the most able and accomplished, of the colonial governors of New York. His life and exploits are but little known, even among Catholics; and while his merits place him without a superior in the honored list of our governors, it yet remains, for the Catholic historian especially, to rescue his fame from obscurity, and to weave together, from scattered historical fragments, the story of a career at once brilliant and useful, checkered and romantic. As soldier, ruler, exile, nobleman, or Christian gentleman, he is equally entitled to a distinguished place among the remarkable men of his age. His position was a most difficult and delicate one—a Catholic ruler over Protestant subjects, at a time when religious rivalries and animosities formed the mainspring of public and private political action. It is no small achievement that, in so trying an office, he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of friend and foe; and that Protestant and Catholic historians unite in commending his wise and honorable course. As a patriot, he has won our national gratitude; for it is to his courage and address that we are indebted for the invaluable service of having extended the northern frontier of our republic to the great lakes. His devotion to civil and religious liberty places his name with that of Calvert, in the hearts of Catholics; while both should be hallowed together by all lovers of free government.
The subject of this memoir was descended from a noble and ancient Irish family, distinguished for an energy of character and enterprising spirit which he did not allow to expire with his ancestors. His father was Sir John Dongan, baronet, of Castletoun, in the county of Kildare, Ireland. He was also nephew to Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel, who figured conspicuously in the reign of Charles II., as he did in that of James II. This Earl of Tyrconnel, uncle to Governor Dongan, was one of those against whom Titus Oates informed. He was made lieutenant-governor of Ireland, and afterward lord deputy, on the recall of Clarendon, by James II.; and he aimed at rendering Ireland independent of England, in the event of the Prince of Orange succeeding in his efforts to gain the throne. In furtherance of his patriotic designs, Earl Tyrconnel solicited of James permission to hold an Irish parliament; but that monarch, suspecting his purpose, rejected the measure.
Thomas Dongan was born in 1634; and, after being well-grounded in his religion, and in secular learning, was trained to the profession of a soldier. He entered the military service of France, and served as colonel of a French regiment, under Louis XIV.[Footnote 188]
[Footnote 188: We find his name rendered in French documents as Colonel D'Unguent.]
His services there were so highly prized that it was with great difficulty and at considerable sacrifice that he was able to withdraw from it. In 1677-8, after the English parliament had forced Charles II. to break with Louis XIV., an order was issued commanding all British subjects in the service of France to return home. Colonel Dongan obeyed the order of his own sovereign; and he himself informs us that he was obliged to quit "that honorable and advantageous post, and resisted the temptations of greater preferment, then offered him, if he would continue there; for which reason the French king commanded him to quit France in forty-eight hours, and refused to pay him a debt of sixty-five thousand livres, then due him for recruits and arrears, upon an account stated by the intendant of Nancy." No subsequent efforts of Colonel Dongan succeeded in appeasing the French king's resentment, or in securing the payment of his claim.
On his return from the French service to England, he was appointed, by Charles II., a general officer in the English army, then destined for Flanders, and had an annual pension of £500 settled on him for life, in consideration of his losses in France. But it is regarded as quite certain that he did not go to Flanders under this appointment, to defend and support the English garrisons in that country, then menaced by the French; for, in the same year, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Tangier, a position which he accepted, and continued to fill until the year 1680.
At this time, the American province of New York was under the proprietary government of James, Duke of York, whose deputy's administration of the affairs of the colony had produced great discontent among the people. His governor, Andros, had been recalled to answer the charges of the people; had returned to New York, acquitted by the duke, and resumed the imposition of the heavy system of taxation which had weighed so heavily on the citizens, and produced such discontent. But the resistance of the people, not stopping short even of calling in question the supreme authority of the duke, seconded by the remonstrances of William Penn, finally had the desired effect. Andros was recalled, and Colonel Dongan appointed to succeed him as governor of New York. His commission from the Duke of York, bearing date September 30th, 1682, contains the following appointing clause: