Hand was certainly of Catholic parents from the north of Ireland, and his command, composed largely of Presbyterians, joined the army before Boston shortly after Washington took command. But the arrival of Hand’s troops, it is claimed, had been preceded a few days by a body of Catholic Irishmen from Maryland and lower Pennsylvania, under the command of Col. Stephen Moylan, who was a personal friend of Washington, an aide on his staff, and an active officer throughout the war. Moylan was a brother of the Catholic bishop of Cork, Ireland, who was a devoted friend to the American cause.
Joseph Galloway, a native of Maryland, but long a resident of Pennsylvania before the Revolution, was one of the best informed men in the colonies, and probably, with the exception of Franklin, had no equal as to his accurate knowledge relating to the general condition of affairs in the country. He was an early and active sympathizer in the American cause until the Declaration of Independence, when he became a Loyalist. During a visit to England he was examined in June, 1779, before an investigating committee of the House of Commons, and his testimony has been frequently published. When asked as to the composition of the Rebel army—his answer was—“The names and places of their nativity being taken down I can answer the question with precision,—there were scarcely one fourth natives of America; about one half Irish,—the other fourth were English and Scotch.” He might have stated more in detail, that the fourth part was composed of some English, very few Scotch, and more Germans, or Dutch, as they were called, from Pennsylvania and the valley of Virginia, who formed the brigade under the command of Muhlenberg, and the Eighth Virginia regiment.
Galloway’s testimony was in relation to his experience while superintendent of the police in Philadelphia during the British occupancy. It is but just to state that to a subsequent question, “Do you know anything of the army of the Rebels in general, how that is composed—of what country people?” His answer was, “I judge of that by the deserters that came over.” Had we no other testimony to corroborate Galloway’s first statement it would be to the discredit of the Irish, but taken as a whole it is shown that no larger proportion of them deserted than of any other nationality; and if the proportion of native born from Irish parents could be ascertained, the number of deserters among those of Irish blood would be shown to have been less than any other.
I have estimated that about one fourth of all the American officers were Irish by birth or descent.
A large number of Irish were in the Continental Congress or prominent as leaders in every station of life. I may mention that even Washington was possibly descended on his father’s side from a Washington who had lived in Ireland, and his mother’s family, the Balls, beyond doubt came from the neighborhood of Dublin. Walford in his “Country Families of the United Kingdom” shows that at the present time the only families with any property bearing the name of Ball, are to be found in Ireland. The family, it is stated, came to Ireland in the Fourteenth century as Flemish emigrants. The De Wessyngtons, it is also claimed, were Flemish, who settled about the same time in both England and Ireland. But the head of the English family, it seems, died some years before the planting of Jamestown, Va. The members of the Irish branch[[3]] have all been traced and some of them to this country. One, a son of Henry Washington, who was a prominent man, disappeared from Ireland during the troubles I have described. He probably escaped to Bermuda, where many vessels first stopped on their way to the American colonies.
During a visit to Bermuda in 1852, I had occasion to examine some of the early church records. I there saw several references made in the minutes of the Vestry meetings to one Washington, “a sojourner,” who was several times fined for not conforming by attending the service of the Established church. He seemed to have proved incorrigible as he was finally ordered “to go his way.” He probably did so to Virginia, from the known fact that his father had been a friend of Lord Baltimore, and others who were connected with the Virginia settlements.
The Irish Presbyterians and Catholics were in full sympathy with this country during the Revolution, while in Ireland or elsewhere there were very few Scotch who favored the American cause. A noted exception to the rule was John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey, who was a devoted patriot. The only large settlement of Scotch in the colonies was formed in North Carolina by the British government, after the battle of Culloden, by transplanting the Highlanders. Among them was Flora McDonald, whose husband, with every other man in the settlement, espoused the English cause and fought against the Americans.
It is full time that we divest ourselves of English influence in this country. Until this be done we will remain in ignorance of the truth relating to a large portion of our history, which has yet to be written in strict accord with the facts.
HON. MORGAN J. O’BRIEN,
A Justice of the New York Supreme Court.