According to Grahame, Vol. II., page 84, “In 1729 no fewer than six thousand two hundred and eight European settlers resorted to this Province.” They are thus particularized by Anderson in his Historical Deductions of the Origin of Commerce; English and Welsh passengers and servants, 267; Scotch servants, 43; Irish passengers, 1,155; Palatine passengers, 243. At Newcastle, in Delaware, passengers and servants, chiefly from Ireland, 4,500.
The colony of Maryland was founded in 1634[[8]] by Cecilius Calvert, with Leonard Calvert as first Governor. Foremost among the Irish families early in Maryland were the Carrolls, all of whom threw their influence on the side of independence and at least three of whom played particularly distinguished parts in the subsequent conflict. The first of them to come to Maryland was Charles Carroll, who was a clerk in the office of Lord Powis in the reign of James the Second and who left Ireland on the accession of William and Mary in 1689. Before he was two years in Maryland he was appointed Judge and register of the land office and receiver of the rent of Lord Baltimore. His son, Charles Carroll, was one of the most prominent men in the colony, whose son, Charles, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Charles, the signer’s cousin, John Carroll, a priest of God, was sent with Franklin, Charles Carroll and Samuel Chase in 1776 to secure the coöperation of the French Catholics with the American cause. After the war, Father Carroll became Bishop and Archbishop. Daniel Carroll, cousin of both Charles and John, was one of the foremost members of the first Congress. He was a member of the Continental Congress for four years and a delegate to the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States. His farm formed a part of the site of the present City of Washington. Associated with him in Congress was Thomas Johnson, whose grandfather, also Thomas Johnson, came from Ireland in 1689 with Charles Carroll, the founder of the Carroll family in Maryland. He was three times Governor of Maryland, Chief Judge of the General Court of Maryland and Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
In regard to South Carolina[[9]] Ramsay says, Vol. I., page 20, “Of all other countries none has furnished the province with so many inhabitants as Ireland. Scarcely a ship sailed from any of the ports that was not crowded with men, women and children.” Among the prominent men of Irish origin were the Moores, Rutledges, Jacksons, Lynches, Polks, Calhouns, who distinguished themselves as patriots and statesmen.
Speaking of Kentucky, H. Marshall[[10]] says: “John Finley explored Kentucky in 1767 and circulated accounts and descriptions which Boone authenticated and enlarged.” Finley was the pilot of Boone in 1769. No permanent settlements were made in Kentucky till 1775. According to Marshall, page 13, in this year, a few permanent settlements were made, particularly at Harrodsburg and at Logan’s Camp, later called St. Asaphs, and at Boonesborough, named after Boone, the leader of the first colony to the bank of the Kentucky River.
Associated with Boone in his hazardous labors we find Michael Stoner.
Logan, after whom the Camp was named, was of Irish parents, and was among the earliest settlers of Kentucky. He was a man of prominence. On page 42, Marshall says: “The names of Mrs. Denton and Mrs. McGary and Mrs. Hogan are worthy of mention, they being the first white females who appeared with their husbands and children at Harrodsburg.” Speaking of Mr. McGary he says: “For enterprise and daring courage none transcended Major Hugh McGary.” Others were Butler, McLellan and Hogan, all Irishmen, pioneers and among the first to explore the country beyond the Ohio. In the wars with Indians, Butler, Bulger and Logan were especially prominent.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony legislated against the Irish of all creeds and in 1720 ordered them out. “As early as 1632,” however, as may be read in Haltigan’s “The Irish in the American Revolution,” we find mention of Irish in Boston. In an old legal document of that year an Irishman named Coogan is described as the first merchant of Boston. Miss Linehan, previously referred to, says: “In 1718 a petition was sent to Governor Shute of Massachusetts by three hundred and twenty leading Irishmen, among whom were ministers, asking permission to settle in the State. The same year one hundred and twenty Irish families arrived in Boston and brought with them the manufacturing industry of linen and also introduced the use of potatoes. There was not a town incorporated from that time on but what contained the descendants of those men or of those who followed them directly.”
“In 1730 the First Presbyterian Irish Church was founded in Boston.”
The Boston Irish Charitable Society was founded in 1737 on St. Patrick’s Day.
James Sullivan, son of Owen Sullivan, the emigrant from Limerick and brother of General Sullivan, represented Massachusetts in Congress in 1788 and was later Attorney General and Governor of Massachusetts.