In 1634 the General Court of Massachusetts Bay granted lands on the Merrimac river for an Irish settlement, and there were many Irishmen who served in King Philip’s Indian War, whose names are still preserved in the colonial records. I have a record of the fact, but neglected to note the authority, of a reference to a contemporaneous account of a fearful storm which occurred in the winter of 1634–’35, off the north coast of Ireland.[[2]] As one of the incidents mention is made of the shipwreck of a vessel filled with Irish emigrants, on the second day out of their voyage to join, as was stated, the Merrimac river settlement in New England.
This straw of information is a valuable indication in our current of circumstantial evidence. It establishes the fact by another source that an Irish settlement was planned on the Merrimac river as early as 1634. It also shows that however intolerant the New England Puritans were sometimes to the Irish in their immediate surroundings, they did tolerate in this instance and likely in many others, the “fighting Irish,” as they were termed. In fact they gave little thought to their religious belief so long as they remained on the frontier to fight the Indians. This incident shows that emigrants sailed from the north of Ireland for this settlement, notwithstanding it may have been necessary to have officially commenced their voyage from an English port. The fact as to their religion is established by a knowledge of the condition of the country at that particular time, which I have attempted to describe. The Catholics were fleeing in all directions from the districts of country which had been laid waste, and in some instances they had to subsist on the dead bodies of those who had preceded them, and who had died on the way from starvation. Comparatively few but Catholics left Ireland at this time, as individuals in sympathy with the English were then busy in bettering their condition by securing a portion of the spoils.
There were a number of adult Catholics, as I have stated, sent out to New England through the efforts of Cromwell, and, although they may not have come at that time as willing emigrants, they were not likely to have lost their faith under the circumstances, and their descendants must afterwards have become identified with the country.
Prendergast in “The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland,” states the following: “As one instance out of many: Captain Vernon was employed by the commissioners for Ireland into [from] England, and contracted in their behalf with Mr. David Selleck and Mr. Leader, under his hand, bearing date of 14th of September, 1653, to supply them with two hundred and fifty women of the Irish nation, above twelve years and under the age of forty-five, also three hundred men above twelve years of age and under fifty, to be found in the country within twenty miles of Cork ... to transplant them into New England.” These men and women were seized and sold in New England at a profit for the English commissioners. Prendergast further states in this connection: “How many girls of gentle birth must have been caught and hurried to the private prisons of these men-catchers none can tell.” “But at last the evil became too shocking and notorious, particularly when these dealers in Irish flesh began to seize the daughters and children of the English themselves, and to force them on board their slave ships; then, indeed, the orders, at the end of four years, were revoked.”
If we take into consideration the total number of “Puritan Fathers” in New England at this time, it would seem not improbable that these two hundred and fifty young Irish women, with many others sent over from Ireland about the same time, must have all eventually been transformed at least into Irish Puritans. If so their progeny must in time have given quite a Hibernian tint to the blue blood of the descendants from the Mayflower. I have not found that the New England writers have noted these facts, but probably they failed to do so on evidence that they were not “Scotch-Irish” women.
From the time that William of Orange possessed himself of the British crown and until the beginning of our Revolution, a steady stream of emigrants passed out of Ireland to this country. The English government manifested a determination to destroy utterly every Irish industry, and this policy was maintained until the Volunteer movement, when for a period a portion at least of the Irish people had charge of their own affairs.
William, of “Blessed Memory,” in consequence of his hatred of the Irish people, both Catholic and Protestant, caused the destruction of all woolen manufactories, and other industries of the north of Ireland. The so-called “Scotch-Irish” were chiefly the sufferers at this time, and as a consequence thousands of them emigrated to France, where, with the assistance of the French government, these people established in that country woolen and silk industries which, for nearly two hundred years, have been a constant menace to England’s trade.
After the departure of a large portion of these people from Ulster, the country became again gradually settled up from England, and by Catholic, Presbyterian, and Protestant Irish from different parts of Ireland, who were not Scotch.
In a few years later a large proportion of the Irish Presbyterians, with a limited number of Catholics in Ulster, became engaged in commerce and various manufacturing interests. But all these people were ultimately ruined by England’s policy, that Ireland should not prosper, and they were gradually forced to leave the country to better their condition by emigration to the American colonies.
The Presbyterians who settled in the north of Ireland, after the early part of the eighteenth century, had come chiefly from the central portion of England, and as a rule represented the better element among the new settlers. They, like Cromwell, hated the Scotch, and would never have accepted the term “Scotch-Irish” for themselves. After “the Restoration” these people in common with the Catholics, were only tolerated as non-conformists, and were not allowed by the Protestant authorities to take any part in public affairs.