We have already seen how Marmaduke Brown, an Irishman, was a member of the university’s first board of Fellows. We now come to another man of Irish blood who was a graduate of the institution and subsequently a member of its governing body. I refer to John Dorrance. The immigrant Dorrances arrived from Ireland about 1715–1720. They settled in what is now the town of Foster, this state. The immigrants included George and his two sons, George and James. John Dorrance, the alumnus of Brown, was born about 1747. He entered Rhode Island college, and in 1774 was graduated therefrom. For the last sixteen years of his life, the citizens of the town (Providence) manifested their confidence in him by making and continuing him president of the town council.
Thus as head of the town he enjoyed a period of duty nearly as long as the late Mayor Doyle, head of the city. Dorrance was elected sixteen times and Doyle, I believe, eighteen.
The study of Ireland and the Irish people has for a long period received attention from many students of Brown. Thus at the graduation exercises in 1824 Ezra Wilkinson’s oration was entitled a “Defence of the Irish Character.” At the exercise in 1848, Samuel B. Vernon took as the subject of his oration “The Mission of St. Patrick to Ireland.”
Joseph Moriarty graduated in the class of 1830, at which time he delivered an essay on the “Character of Roger Williams.” Mark D. Shea graduated in 1865. James G. Dougherty was also of that class.
Pleasant memories cluster around the walls and halls of old Brown. The university is rich in reminiscence and association. In 1799 the institution conferred the degree of LL. D. upon Hon. James Sullivan, a son of the Limerick schoolmaster. James was a brother of Gen. John Sullivan, and with the latter participated in the siege of Newport and in the battle on the island of Rhode Island. He became governor of Massachusetts. James Sullivan was, no doubt, intimately acquainted with leading Rhode Island people and was in all probability a frequent visitor here. Brown honored herself in honoring him.
In 1844, over fifty years ago, the degree of D. D. was conferred by Brown upon John Sharp Maginnis. His parents—John and Jane Maginnis—were from Ireland. In May, 1827, John was licensed to preach as a Baptist. He was a student of Brown, but his health being poor, his studies were interrupted. In the winter of 1837–’38, he became pastor of the Pine Street church in Providence. Delicate health obliged him to resign, however, and he later became professor of philosophy in Rochester University. Brown recognized his ability and showed her appreciation of his talents by making him a doctor of divinity, as stated.
In 1860, Brown again conferred eminent honor upon a gentleman of Irish lineage. I allude to John Meredith Read, the great jurist, a descendant of one of the Irish signers of the Declaration of Independence. Brown gave him the degree of LL. D. Dr. Read was chief justice of Pennsylvania. His son, John Meredith Read, Jr., was a graduate of Brown, and received the degree of A. M. During his residence in Providence this latter gentleman became captain of the National Cadets, or Tigers, and also served on the staff of Governor Hoppin.
Early in the present century, when Brown had a medical department, there were several students of the latter whose names are indicative of Irish extraction, though one or two may be of Scotch blood. Among these were John Mackie (A. B. 1800), believed to have graduated in medicine about 1813; Andrew Mackie (A. B. 1814), medicine 1817; John McGore (A. B. 1811), medicine 1816; and Joseph Mulliken (A. B. Dartmouth, 1802), medicine, Brown 1817.
At the centennial of the university in 1864, General Burnside, always a warm friend of Brown, was among the speakers, as he indeed was at various other times. It is not generally known, perhaps, that maternally Burnside was of Irish descent. Yet such is the fact. Ambrose E. Burnside, whose portrait occupies an honored place on the walls of the university, was a son of Edghill and Pamelia (Brown) Burnside. Pamelia Brown, the general’s mother, was the daughter of John Brown, an Irish immigrant, who had located in South Carolina. Ben: Perley Poore’s “Life of General Burnside” refers to Pamelia, his mother, as “having the fair skin and brown hair of her Celtic ancestors, with large, expressive hazel eyes.” She was born in the Laurens district, S. C.
It is generally claimed that Burnside, in the male line, was of direct Scottish descent. I do not dispute this, although Burnsides are numerous in Ireland, and have been so for nearly three hundred years. The Irish Burnsides have been allied with prominent families in Cavan, Donegal and other parts of the country. The name is mentioned in O’Hart’s Irish Pedigrees. Betsy Burnside, an Irish woman, was a resident of Lincoln, R. I., some years ago, being then ninety-five years of age. We read that at Fredericksburg, as Meagher’s shattered lines were retiring from their heroic efforts, Burnside saluted Meagher as the latter passed and silently grasped his hand. It was a meeting of two valiant commanders, the one of Irish birth, the other of maternal Irish descent, a fit subject for the greatest painter that ever lived. Fitting it was that an Irish sculptor was selected to produce the equestrian statue of Burnside which stands in Providence.