Sims’ “Life of General Marion” says: “The people of Williamsburg were sprung generally from Irish parentage. They inherited in common with all the descendants of the Irish in America a hearty detestation of the English name and authority. This feeling rendered them excellent patriots and daring soldiers wherever the British lion was the object of hostility.
“The most numerous name in the First Census of South Carolina is Murphy, there having been fifty distinct families of that name, although the forty-eight Kelly families gave them a close race. The Gill and McGill families run nip and tuck with the O’Neills and Nealls; there were thirty-four of the former to thirty-three of the latter. The O’Briens and O’Bryans ran the gauntlet of many changes. The Census enumerators failed to appreciate the significance of the regal prefix ‘O,’ so they wrote the name Obrient, Obriant, Bryan and Briant. There were fifty-three of these in South Carolina in 1790. The Celtic ‘Macs’ make a great showing. There are upwards of 1,000 of such families in all. When we consider that in 1790 the total number of free white males of 16 years of age and upward in South Carolina was only 35,766 we can readily understand that one thousand heads of families, with their wives and children, must have constituted a large percentage of the population. Among the ‘Macs’ are McCarts, McCarthys, McMahon, McClures, McMullens, McNeils, etc. Then there are forty-one distinct families of Bradleys, twenty-four Sullivans, twenty-eight Reynolds, twenty-three Connors and O’Connors, twenty-one Carrolls, etc.” (I have taken the foregoing from a very instructive article by Michael J. O’Brien in Vol. 8 of “The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society.”) The names are interesting as showing that the emigrants from Ireland to the colonies during the 18th century were not all from the North of Ireland, as is generally supposed.
But the Irish were even more distinguished, if not more numerous, in Virginia than in South Carolina. I will mention only a single family, that of John Preston, who was born in Ireland and came to Virginia in 1735. Dr. R. A. Brock in his “Virginia and Virginians” says: “Scarce another American family has numbered as many prominent and honored representatives as that of the yeoman founded Preston, with its collateral lines and alliances. It has furnished the national Government a Vice-President (Hon. John Cabell Breckenridge); has been represented in several of the executive departments and in both branches of Congress. It has given Virginia five governors—McDowell, Campbell, Preston and the two Floyds—and to Kentucky, Missouri and California, one each, in Governors Jacobs, B. Gratz Brown and Miller; Thomas Hart Benton, John J. Crittenden, William C. and William Ballard Preston, leading molders of public sentiment; the Breckenridges, Dr. Robert J. and William L., distinguished theologians of Kentucky; Professors Holmes, Venable and Cabell of the University of Virginia, besides other distinguished educators.” To this family also belonged Generals Wade Hampton, Albert Sydney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston, John B. Floyd, John C. Breckenridge and John S. and William C. Preston.
The families of Charles Carroll of Maryland and John Sullivan of Massachusetts, with their collateral branches, became as distinguished, if not as numerous, as the Preston family.
I cannot dismiss this part of my subject without mentioning one other distinguished Irish immigrant, the renowned Dean of Derry, known later as Bishop Berkeley, the friend of Swift and the founder of the school of philosophy which bears his name. He was a native of Kilkenny. He came to America to found a college for the conversion and education of Indians. Before he returned to Ireland he gave his private library to Yale College, the most magnificent collection of books that had been brought to America down to that day. Our University Town across the Bay is named after him.
Let me now call attention briefly to the part which the Irish element played in the Revolution. Did they ally themselves with the patriots of the day and were their services in any degree commensurate with their numbers and their wealth? In regard to the numbers of Irish in the Revolutionary army, the following testimony should be considered conclusive:
In the British House of Commons’ report, fifth session, fourteenth Parliament, Vol. 13, page 303, the following report of an investigation of the causes of the defeat in the war with the colonies will be found. The investigation was held in 1779. Major General Robertson, who had served twenty-four years in America, was asked: “How are the Provincial Corps composed, mostly from native Americans or from emigrants from various nations from Europe?” He answered: “Some of the corps mostly of natives; others, I believe the greatest number, are enlisted from such people as can be got in the country and many of them may be emigrants. I remember General Lee telling me he believed half the rebel army were from Ireland.” In Vol. 13, British Commons’ Reports, page 431, Joseph Galloway, a native of Pennsylvania, speaker of the Assembly of the Colony for twelve years and a delegate to the first Continental Congress, who became a violent Tory in 1773, was examined for several days by members of the House of Commons. Among the questions asked was: “That part of the rebel army that enlisted in the service of Congress, were they chiefly composed of natives of America, or were the greater part of them English, Scotch, or Irish?” Galloway answered: “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, one-half Irish, the other one-fourth English and Scotch.” So much for the rank and file.
Among those who distinguished themselves during the Revolution were: General John Sullivan, the son of an Irish teacher; O’Brien, who, with his sons, won the first naval battle of the Revolution, known as the “Lexington of the seas”; Montgomery, who, after capturing Fort St. John and Montreal, was killed at Quebec; General Knox, commander of the artillery in the American army, and who commanded the American troops when they marched into New York after the evacuation of the British; General Reed, Major General Stark, the hero of Bennington, General Walter Stewart, who was a colonel in the American army before he was 21; John Barry, “Father of the American Navy”; General Anthony Wayne, General George Clinton, General Stephen Moylan, General John Fitzgerald, General William Irvine, General Richard Butler, Generals Campbell, Cochran, McDowell, McCall, McCreary, Jasper, Graham, Pickens and many others. It has been officially ascertained that out of 131 of the most prominent officers in the war for American Independence twenty were of English ancestry, twenty-five of French, ten of German and Dutch, eight of Scotch, two of Polish, and eighty-four of Irish and Welsh.
But the Irish were not less conspicuous in commercial and industrial life during the Colonial period, and the assistance which they gave to Washington and his army during the darkest days of the long struggle for independence contributed materially to his final success. In 1780, when the finances of the nation were at their lowest ebb, when the patriot army encamped at Valley Forge had neither sufficient food nor clothing, when discontent among the troops, in consequence, almost bordered on mutiny, when Congress importuned by Washington was unable to comply with his repeated demands for supplies, the business men of Philadelphia raised 315,000 pounds sterling and gave it to Congress. Of this amount the “Friendly Sons of St. Patrick” contributed £103,000. This timely contribution saved the national cause from disaster.
Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence of Irish birth or blood were John Hancock, descended from a County Down family; James Smith, George Taylor, George Read, Thomas McKean, William Whipple, Edward Rutledge, Charles Carroll, Matthew Thornton, born in Ireland; Thomas Nelson, Thomas Lynch, Robert Treat Paine, whose real name was O’Neill, but his father, to save an estate, changed his name from O’Neill to Paine, his mother’s family name. Thomas Nelson was also descended from the O’Neills of Ulster. He succeeded Jefferson as Governor of Virginia, and commanded the State’s troops during Lafayette’s campaign against Cornwallis, down to the surrender of Yorktown.