Eugene Linch (Lynch) came to Boston from Virginia in 1712. The name of Lynchburgh in the “Old Dominion” denoted the presence of this good old Galway name. Eugene found a wife in Beverly; and although bearing an aristocratic Norman name, he was not good enough to reside in Boston, being ordered to go to Beverly and stay with his wife. James Bettrell, “an Irish shoemaker,” had better luck, however, being allowed to remain, on giving bonds. James Barry was a noted huntsman in 1702, and was complained of for allowing his dogs to run loose. The town constable ordered him to shut them up.
There is quite frequent mention of ships loaded with passengers from Ireland, bound for Pennsylvania or Virginia, putting into Boston, from stress of weather, want of provisions, or sickness among the people on board. Care was taken by the town authorities to prevent the landing of any of the passengers, and the records are full of such instances, between 1700 and 1800, and the town constables were at their wits’ ends to keep the unwelcome visitors out, for those who landed in other parts of the country came by land to Boston, attracted, no doubt, by the rising trade and manufactures of the future metropolis of New England. Of this class, undoubtedly, was Charles Conner, his wife and child, who came from Philadelphia in 1732, only to be ordered out of town at once—a fate many of his nationality had to suffer during this epoch.
Drake, in his Landmarks of Boston, says: “About 1718 a number of colonists arrived from Londonderry, bringing with them the manufacture of linen and the implements used in Ireland. These emigrants also introduced the general use of their favorite vegetable, the potato.”
They were not met with a warm welcome, however. So many were coming from Ireland, in 1718, that Dea. John Marian was ordered to appear before the courts and take such steps as he might deem proper to keep them away from the town of Boston, and in this respect the authorities were impartial. No distinction was made between the natives of Cork or Belfast, Londonderry or Limerick, the followers of the old faith or the new; all were treated alike; it was enough to know that they were Irish. But despite all the obstacles thrown in their way, they kept coming, and so fast that finally the town council resolved that some steps must be taken to register them, so in case any of them became a town charge, their nationality might be known.
To that end all persons receiving or entertaining any of the Irish people were ordered to notify the authorities, on penalty of being fined twenty shillings for the first forty-eight hours and ten shillings for every twenty-four hours afterwards. Repeated warnings were given, but were as often disregarded. January, 1719, John Maccanis, wife and four children, were ordered to leave (John McGuinnis would be nearer the mark). Two shiploads, under command of Capt. Robert Holmes and a Captain Dennis, were refused permission to land, the same year. In September, 1744, three Irish boys and sixteen Irish girls were captured by a French privateer and forwarded from Capt. Breton to Boston. Among them were James Connor, Thomas Bryan, Charles White, Mary Roberts, Mary Price, Sarah Agin, Mary Benson, Margaret Anderson, Sarah Hathay, Elizabeth Campbell, Mary Hammell, Eliza Fitzgerald, Sarah McMahon, Bridget McNamara, Eliza Dunster, Fanny Brady, Jenny Richardson, Kathleen Morris, Mary Derham. No doubt these poor waifs were looked after by the Charitable Irish Society, which was then instituted about seven years. The feeling against their nationality was gradually wearing away, and the settlements of their countrymen in New Hampshire were already furnishing the best fighting men against the French and Indians.
As early as 1758, the Macs, with many other well-known Irish names, were taking a prominent place in the town records. McCarthy, McCarroll, McClane, MacCluer, McConnell, McCown, McCullum, McDaniel, McDonnell, McDonald, McElroy, McFadden, McFarland, McGowan, McIntire, McKeen, McKey, McKnight, McKenzie, McLean, McNeal, McPherson, McQuestion, Mooney, Montgomery, Moore, Murphy, Ryan, Powers, Welch, etc., were entered side by side with their English neighbors, so that there is no question that Boston had within its borders when the Revolution broke out, a large share of that stock,—the Irish—which made its influence felt during the struggle, and which furnished in the massacre one of the first victims, in the person of Patrick Carr.
Besides Boston, there were few towns in New England where an Irishman could not be found between 1700 and 1800. In the contingent from Ipswich, Mass., in 1755, at Lake George, were John Fitzpatrick, William Connolly and Thomas Looney, and in the records of deaths in the town’s history is that of James Fitzgerald, who died in 1727. Americans bearing these names, some of them changed slightly, are found all over the country—Fitzes and Geralds, Patricks, and Connollys, the latter changed to Colony and Collony. The modern Fitzes discard any but a Norman origin, however, and the Patricks are, of course, “Scotch-Irish.”
Jeremiah Smith, born in Ireland in 1705, came to Massachusetts in 1726, locating at Milton. He was accompanied by his wife. He was the first to raise potatoes in the town, and the first to manufacture paper in the colony, and perhaps in the country. A neighbor of his, a Mr. Babcock, having raised two bushels of potatoes from seed given him by Mr. Smith, came to the latter and told him he did not know what on earth to do with so many. Mr. Smith told him not to fret, he would buy them of him. Babcock said he did not know what to do with his Irish help; they did not understand raising American vegetables; he sent one of them out to get some green corn for dinner the other day, and he came back without any, saying that “he had dug up five or six hills, and the divil a kernel of corn could he find.” Smith told him that the Irish knew as much about raising corn as the Americans did about raising potatoes, and knew less how to use them. Smith was a member of the Presbyterian Church in Boston. He bears honorable mention in the town history, and was respected by all his fellow-townsmen. He died in 1790.
John Sullivan was also interested in the manufacture of paper, in that section, between 1780 and 1790, and associated with him in the business were Patrick Connor and Michael McCarney. Others of Irish birth in the town at the same time, who were prominent in its affairs, were Peter O’Kelly, Hugh McLean, Peter McElroy and James McClary. That was quite a group of Irishmen in a suburb of Boston, and there was no question but that they were men of enterprise and push. O’Kelly, with his wife and six children, went to South Carolina in 1796. McCarney was one of a corporation, organized in 1798, the Mill Creek and Neponset River Company, for the manufacture of paper. Their mills were situated near where the chocolate manufactory of Walter Baker was afterwards located. McCleary’s name appears on the rolls of the Charitable Irish Society in 1789. This is one of the names noted in New Hampshire’s military and civil history. Maj. Andrew McClary, of Stark’s regiment, was killed at Bunker Hill. He was one of the finest looking, as he was one of the bravest, men in the army, and his death was then looked upon as a great loss to the cause of Independence.
Among those who went with a colony from the Massachusetts Bay to Delaware, in 1644, were John Nolin and his wife. The Swedes, who were already located there, looked upon the newcomers as interlopers, and made it very unpleasant for them. The result was the appointment of a commission to investigate the alleged outrage on the Massachusetts men. John Nolin was one of the principal witnesses, the Swedish governor having placed him in irons. Nolan was undoubtedly the correct way of spelling the name, and it would not be at all surprising if, like Darby Field of New Hampshire, he was one of the “Irish soldiers for discovery.”