Morgan Edwards’s journey to Ireland and England was made in 1767. His Irish subscription list, mentioned by Dr. Guild, is still preserved in the university archives. It bears the following heading, written by Edwards himself:
“A list of persons in Ireland who have contributed towards endowing the college in Rhode Island government. Published, according to promise, partly for the honor of the benefactors, and partly to satisfy them and the college of the fidelity of their humble servant, by whom the money has been collected. The sums are put down in English currency, because better known in America.”
Let us accompany him on his Irish visit. I am inclined to believe that not all his contributors were Protestants. Doubtless there were also generous, large-hearted Roman Catholics who aided him. In Cork he found over fifty subscribers. They included Mary Murphy, Matthew O. Dwyer, Francis McCarthy, Humphrey Crowley and Samuel Neale. In Waterford he found many friends. In Dublin his contributors included Mrs. Luke Kelly, Rachel Connor, John Reilly, William Gowan, James Martin and sixty or seventy others. Samuel McCormick was one of the many who aided him in Antrim. James Brennan and several others helped him in Westmeath. And so it was elsewhere throughout the country—a cordial greeting and a generous reception. The sums contributed were remitted to the college, from Cork, Newry, Belfast and Derry. Before leaving Ireland, he designated certain agents in Dublin to whom additional contributions intended for him could be sent.
In concluding his Irish tour he thus wrote: “Mr. Edwards begs the excuse of those gentlemen on whom he has not been able to wait a second time to receive their subscriptions; and desires they will be pleased to pay the same to Mr. Abram Wilkinson of Park street, or Mr. John Pym Joshua of Ushers Quay, Dublin, who will soon be authorized by the college to solicit, receive and remit money for its use. Mr. Edwards has also heard, since he left Ireland, of several who expressed a willingness to become benefactors to said college. He thanks them for their good will; and entreats them to deposit their gifts, whether money or books, with the above mentioned merchants in Dublin. This list may be had of the Rev. W. Boulton, in Golden Lane, Dublin.”
From the foregoing it would appear that Irish friends of Rhode Island college gave books as well as money to the institution. Writing from abroad in 1768 to President Manning at Warren, Edwards says:
“My Dear Friend: I long to hear from you. Your last was of October 12, 1767.... Mr. Miles informed me that he had sold one of my Irish bills ... for £138 12s 4d, which gained for the college upward of £13. I have not had any account of the sale of the other bill for the same country. I want much to know how you intend to put the money out.... You must also observe that in England, as in Ireland, I solicit for money towards endowing the college, and, therefore, take care that you all attend to the design of the donors. Inclosed you have a list of all the sums I received in Ireland, which list was distributed in the several places where I have been. The design was to let every one of them see that I gave credit for what I received.”
Irish generosity was likewise early displayed in this country toward the young institution. In 1769–’70, Rev. Hezekiah Smith solicited funds in South Carolina and Georgia. He says in his diary of the tour: “Thursday, March 1 [1770], went to Malachi Murfee’s.” The list of those who subscribed in aid of the college on this Southern trip includes Edward Dempsey, Charles Reilly, Patrick Hinds, James Welsh, Hugh Dillon, John Boyd, Matthew Roach and Capt. John Canty. Their names deserve to be perpetuated.
Rev. and Mrs. Edwards, to whom reference has just been made, had several children. Some of the latter were perhaps born in Ireland. One of the sons, William, was graduated from Brown in 1776, under President Manning. At the commencement in 1770, six years previously, this incident occurred as narrated in the Providence Gazette:
“The business of the day being concluded, and before the assembly broke up, a piece from Homer was pronounced by Master Billy Edwards, one of the Grammar school boys, not nine years of age.”
Joshua, another son of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, was hale and hearty in 1849, at over 80 years of age, and presented his father’s Irish and English subscription lists to the university. I think it may be justly claimed that if Brown is now prosperous, vigorous and progressive, she is largely indebted for it to the assistance rendered in the formative period by Morgan Edwards and his Irish wife.