“Gaine died April 27, 1807, at the ripe age of eighty-one, and was buried in Trinity Churchyard. Two of his children had predeceased him, and three survived, as well as his second wife. His executors were his son-in-law, John Kemp, and his friends Richard Harrison and Daniel McCormick, the latter already referred to. His lines had not fallen in pleasant places during the Revolution and his abandonment of the patriot cause was never entirely forgiven, but as a business man his integrity was never questioned.
“It is not my purpose to refer to Irish activity in the city during Revolutionary days, for that would be a field worthy of independent study and treatment. The roll of the martyrs of the Jersey prison ship, for example, is studded with Irish names. Nor is it pertinent to our subject, for no pioneers came here then, as the tide of immigration practically stopped during the war, although it is worthy of note that Richard Montgomery, destined to undying fame, bought a farm at Kingsbridge in 1773, and had intended to make this city his home. He was born at Swords, near Feltrim, Ireland. Like nearly all the Irish of New York, he did not hesitate a moment before casting his life and fortune into the balance when the call to arms came.
“But after the declaration of peace the Irish Catholic influx began. Among those whose names have survived, no one stands higher than Dominick Lynch. Born in Galway in 1754, he received a thorough education and went to Bruges in Flanders to open a commercial house, in which he accumulated a fortune. There he met Don Thomas Stoughton (afterwards his brother-in-law and Spanish Consul at New York) with whom he entered into partnership for the establishment of business in New York. Stoughton came here first, arriving in 1783, and Lynch followed in 1785, with his fortune in ready money, the largest sum brought to the colonies in many years. The firm dissolved in 1795. Lynch lived in luxury, occupying a house on Broadway, near the Battery, adjoining that of the Spanish Minister. He was a prominent figure in assisting in the establishment of the first Catholic Church in New York. Tradition has it that the first Catholic congregation worshipped in Ann Street, where they were ministered to by Rev. Ferdinand Farmer, and we find later a record of another composed of Frenchmen and Spaniards, who met in a building in Warren Street, known as Vaux Hall, where Rev. Charles Whelan, a Capuchin, was their pastor in 1784. St. Peter’s Church was incorporated, succeeding them, June 10, 1785. Lynch helped from his private purse to meet their needs and was one of the trustees and incorporators. He issued an appeal to the people of Galway for funds to help in building the church, most of the Irish in the fold coming from that County. He was one of the laymen authorized by Bishop Carroll to receive subscriptions for the establishment of Georgetown Academy (now the University) and was one of the signers of the address on behalf of the Catholics of America to General George Washington, four being laymen, and Bishop Carroll, the fifth. One of his sons was baptized in St. Peter’s Church—Alexander Didacus—born April 23, 1788, and for whom His Excellency Didacus de Gardoqui, Ambassador of Spain, was a sponsor. He owned two thousand acres of land adjoining Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River, where he laid out a village called Lynchville, which afterwards became the city of Rome. His county seat was in Westchester County, on the site of the present Sacred Heart Academy, at Classon-on-the-Sound, said to have been the place where Mass was first said in that county. He died June, 1825, and was buried in Old Saint Patricks. His son, Dominick, was a vocalist, musician, musical critic and general society favorite, whose house was the favored resort of the most brilliant people of his time. He lived in Greenwich Street, near the Battery, and is thought to have been instrumental with Lorenzo da Ponte, the librettist of “Don Giovanni” and “Le Nozze di Figaro,” in having brought to New York the first Italian Grand Opera troupe under Garcia, when Mme. Malibran first won success and laid the foundation of her fame.
“Cornelius Heeney, born in Kings County, Ireland, in 1754, was another contemporaneous successful merchant. He was a bookkeeper for William Backhous, an English Quaker furrier, at 40 Little Dock (now Water) Street. John Jacob Astor was a porter and salesman there. When Backhous retired from business he turned it over to Astor and Heeney, who afterwards dissolved partnership. He was a very wealthy and a very charitable man, and his benefactions still continue, through the agencies he created, to maintain them. He was one of those who took title to new Saint Patricks, the other being Andrew Morris, a successful soapmaker, also born in Ireland.
“A trio of great men who came to New York after the rising of ’98 were Thomas Addis Emmet, Dr. William James McNevin and William Sampson. The lives, high professional attainments and success of the first two are too well known to require more than a passing reference. They did immeasurable good in instilling respect for Irish characteristics and admiration for Irish genius. Emmet exercised a potent influence on the early political history of the country. His location in this city, instead of going to Ohio as he had intended, was due to the advice of Governor George Clinton, and was followed by his election as Attorney-General of the State within eight years after his reaching these shores. The monument to his memory in St. Paul’s churchyard is a fitting companion to the memorial to General Montgomery. He collaborated with Doctor MacNevin in the production of ‘Pieces of Irish History.’ Doctor MacNevin, in the midst of a busy and highly lucrative practice, and while acting as a professor in a medical college, found time to establish a bureau to obtain places for Irish servant girls, and to publish “Directions or Advice to Irishmen Arriving in America.” William Sampson, the third of the number, was born in Londonderry, Ireland, January 17, 1764. He held a commission in the Irish Volunteers, after studying at Dublin University and being admitted as a barrister. His sympathy with the patriots and his brilliant professional defense of members of the United Irishmen led to his arrest after the uprising and his confinement in prison for some time. After his release he was re-arrested in Portugal, whither he had gone for safety, and was imprisoned on the complaint of the British Government. Secretly taken to France, he finally came to New York, arriving here July 4, 1806. He then practised stenography, as well as his profession of the law, ranking second only to Thomas Lloyd, the great reporter of Congress, as a shorthand writer. His notes furnished the basis of many volumes of reports. But as a lawyer he was especially successful and made a reputation for wit, forcefulness, ability and integrity. His daughter married a son of Theobold Wolf Tone. When Sampson removed to Washington in 1825, he was presented with an address from the citizens of New York, among the signers being James Kent and DeWitt Clinton.
“The years after the Revolution were fruitful of steady Irish arrivals, without much of great note occurring. A careful study of the statistics of the first third of the nineteenth century, so far as they are available, would doubtless be productive of good results. By 1833 there were 40,000 Irish-born residents here, it was then estimated. This growth had been gradual, but hardly remarked, and certainly was not expected. This may well be realized when we know that the graveyard in the rear of St. Peter’s Church answered all the purposes of burial for the Irish Catholics at the outset, and, until old St. Patrick’s site was bought from St. Peter’s Church in 1801, to serve for a general Catholic burial ground. It is also worthy of note that no move for a larger cemetery was made until 1826, when the site of the present Cathedral was bought at a cost of $5,500 for that purpose by the parishes of St. Peter’s, St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s, but was abandoned after a few years’ trial as being too far out in the country. Of course, a tremendous tide of Irish immigration set in after the famine years of 1846, 1847 and 1848. But before that time, the period of the pioneers had ceased, and that of construction had begun. It ended in New York with the arrival of Bishop John Hughes. Under his masterful guidance the position of the Irish here completely changed; from the dwarfed and apologetic attitude which many of his people had theretofore assumed, they rose to man’s estate. He asserted their rights and made them realize the justice of their appeal for fair treatment and decent consideration. He courageously defended them from unjust attack and took every possible occasion to announce the splendor of their history and the value to American citizenship of their racial characteristics. Impressing himself on the country, and finally winning its confidence, he did more than any other one man has ever done to make the Irish people an active, useful, aggressive force in the community. He pointed out the way by which they have since risen from poverty, misery and persecution—from an isolation worse than the Ghetto—to a position so commanding as to seem almost miraculous.
“There is an impression that Irish immigration is a matter of only half a century. From this hasty sketch we have seen that it is a matter of gradual growth, the earlier citizens being successful merchants, adding to their capital, the later being the industrious, if humble, whom necessity had driven abroad from a land which no other force could have induced them to leave. Let us hope that the inspiration of this Society may lead some one to undertake this seemingly hopeless task of wresting from the past the record of those who, today unknown, did the work whose fruits we are all enjoying. All honor to the early exiles, whose very names are forgotten, and yet who, hungry, exhausted from toil, hated and despised, with their very heartstrings throbbing with the grief of a sensitive race justly proud of its glorious traditions, then scorned and derided,—yet in silence and resignation built deep and solid the foundations of the free institutions of our country. Without these pioneers the history of Irish genius and its accomplishments would have been the less glorious, but without them there would have been as well a different tale to write of this latest experiment in human freedom. New York owes that race a particular debt of gratitude, which gave to the State its first Governor, George Clinton, the son of a County Longford emigrant, and his kinsman, DeWitt Clinton, the father of the Erie Canal; which gave to the city its first mayor, James Duane, an Irishman’s son; and which gave to the city fame as the scene of the first successful attempt to conquer a way over the waters by the use of steam, when the son of a Kilkenny man, Robert Fulton, saw the fruition of his dreams as the Clermont sailed the Hudson, August 11, 1807.
“Irishmen and their sons have always been fond of the city which to them symbolized the freedom and opportunity of the West. New York has been the haven of their hopes. Here their eyes, still dim with tears at the thought of Erin, first saw the glimmerings of hope and confidence. She has honored and enriched their sons, and they have not been ungrateful nor unworthy. From tens of thousands of Irish hearts, when the hour for the closing of their earthly pilgrimage was near at hand, has gone up an aspiration for her continued prosperity who had not forgotten the stranger within her gates. Many an Irishman has voiced the wish which Diedrich Knickerbocker was represented as uttering as the expression of the Dutchman’s love: ‘Haply this frail compound of dust, which while alive may have given birth to nothing but unprofitable weeds, may form a humble sod of the valley, whence may spring many a sweet wild flower to adorn my beloved island of Mannahata!’”
Judge Dowling’s address met with hearty applause and he received many compliments upon the masterly manner with which he handled the difficult subject assigned him.
President-General Quinlan: “Ladies and Gentlemen, I have much pleasure in announcing to you that the next speaker of the evening, who comes from the garden spot of the Middle West and who will respond to the toast of ‘The Irish Pioneers of the West and Their Descendants,’ is the Hon. Maurice T. Moloney, Ex-Attorney General of the State of Illinois.”