A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes – Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Irish History: Fascinating Snippets of Irish History from the Ice Age to the Peace Process
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The greatest attraction, however, was that America offered Ulster Presbyterians access to cheap land.
Episode 136
THE VOYAGE OF THE SALLY
FOR THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA IN AMERICA
The good ship SALLY, burthen three hundred tuns, mounted with twelve carriage guns and six swivels, with small arms in proportion, Captain James Taylor, Commander, will be clear to sail from hence by the 15th day of April next for Philadelphia aforesaid.... She is a fine new ship, and proves to be one of the fastest sailing vessels belonging to North America, and shall be amply provided with proper accommodations for passengers; and as the Captain is well known to be well experienced in that trade, those who take their passage with him, may depend on the best usage. Dated at Belfast, March 1, 1762.
It was this advertisement that John Smilie of Greyabbey read in the Belfast News-Letter. Like so many Ulster Presbyterians, he saw America as a land of opportunity at a time when farm rents at home were rising fast. John bade farewell to his father on 18 May; he was in no danger of missing his ship, for the Sally was delayed, waiting no doubt for a full complement of passengers. Coming into Belfast through Ballymacarrett, he approached the Lagan mouth, spanned by the twenty-one arches of the Long Bridge, described three years before as ‘the longest in His Majesty’s dominions’. Here the stallion ‘Tickle Me Quickly’ stood at the County Down end, ready to cover mares at the cost of ‘half a guinea, and a shilling’. John found High Street thronged with dealers and traders, while importers, shipping agents and sugar refiners in the entries were not short of customers.
Crossing the Farset stream by one of the High Street bridges, John Smilie walked to Donegall Street, and here Mr James Sinclaire, the agent, arranged his passage. The fare was generally around £5, and it is quite likely that Smilie became an ‘indentured servant’, agreeing to work without pay for a fixed term on an American plantation in return for a free passage.
On Monday 24 May 1762 the Sally weighed anchor, nosed past Carrickfergus and Whitehead, and sailed northwards by the Antrim coast, to steer west beyond Rathlin into the open Atlantic. In a letter describing his voyage John Smilie began:
Honoured father ... On the 31st we lost Sight of Ireland, having been detained ’till then by Calms and contrary Winds.... We had our full Allowance of Bread and Water, only for the first Fortnight; then we were reduced to three Pints of Water per day; and three Pounds and a Half of Bread per week.
Grasping shipowners would keep food and water at a bare minimum, and unscrupulous masters would dole them out unfairly, but it was only when adverse weather conditions delayed the voyage that passengers would starve. During a fortnight of storms the Sally was blown off course.
We had a South-West Wind, which drove us so far North, that our weather became extremely cold, with much Rain and hard Gales of Wind: On the 5th of July we had a hard Squal of Wind which lasted 3 Hours, and caused us to lie to; on the 6th we had a Storm which continued 9 Hours, and obliged us to lie to under bare Poles; on the 12th we espied a Mountain of Ice of prodigious Size.
Britain was then at war with France and Spain, and Captain Taylor—disregarding the perilously low stock of food and water on board—eagerly pursued enemy merchant vessels in the hope of taking a prize. After ten weeks at sea, for the remaining twelve days of the voyage each of the passengers had to survive on just two and half biscuits, half a naggin of raw barley and twelve pints of water.
Hunger and Thirst had now reduced our Crew to the last Extremity; nothing was now to be heard aboard our ship but the Cries of distressed children, and of their distressed Mothers, unable to relieve them. Our Ship was now truly a real Spectacle of Horror! Never a day passed without one or two of our Crew put over Board; many kill’d themselves by drinking Salt Water; and their own Urine was a common Drink; yet in the midst of all our Miseries, our Captain shewed not the least Remorse or Pity. We were out of Hopes of ever seeing land. August 29th we had only one Pint of Water for each Person ... and our Bread was done; But on that Day the Lord was pleased to sent the Greatest Shower of Rain I ever saw, which was the Means of preserving our Lives.
A few days later the Sally reached Philadelphia, after a passage of fourteen weeks and five days during which sixty-four passengers died. Despite the hazards of the Atlantic crossing, however, the numbers leaving Ulster continued to rise, reaching a peak in the 1770s.
Episode 137
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND IRELAND
The journey of emigrants across the Atlantic in the eighteenth century could be perilous. In 1729, for example, 175 people died on board two vessels from Belfast during the crossing; and in 1741 the Seaflower sprang her mast en route to Philadelphia and forty-six passengers died, six of their corpses being eaten in desperation by the survivors. For many Ulster Presbyterians, however, these were risks worth taking. As David Lindsay explained to his Pennsylvanian cousins in 1758, ‘The good Bargins of yar lands doe greatly encourage me to pluck up my spirits and make redie for the journey, for we are now oppressed with our lands at 8s an acre.’
During a severe economic downturn in the early 1770s migration to America reached a new peak of about ten thousand a year. In April 1773 the Londonderry Journal reported:
Their removal is sensibly felt in this county—This prevalent humour of industrious Protestants withdrawing from this once flourishing corner of the kingdom seems to be increasing....Where the evil will end, remains only in the womb of time to determine.
The Governor of North Carolina, Arthur Dobbs of Carrickfergus, was only one of many colonial land developers anxious to attract Ulster families to what was known as the ‘back country’. Ulster Presbyterians—known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’—were already accustomed to being on the move and defending their land; woodkerne, tories and rapparees at home had prepared them for frontier skirmishing with Pontiac and other native Americans. The settlers’ pugnacious attitude is tersely expressed in an urgent message sent by the backwoodsman James Magraw to his brother in Paxtang: ‘Get some guns for us—There’s a good wheen of ingens about here.’
Magraw was writing from the Cumberland valley, where the fertile soil attracted many Scotch-Irish pioneers. From there they pushed south into Virginia to the Appalachian Mountains and fanned out over the South Carolina Piedmont, and then on to West Virginia and through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and Tennessee. By now around quarter of a million Ulster Protestants had emigrated to the American colonies, which then had a European population of no more than a million.
On 14 June 1774 Thomas Wright wrote a letter from Bucks County to his friend Thomas Greer in Co. Tyrone:
The Colonies at present is in a very dissatisfied position by reason of the impositions of Great Britain; Boston is entirely blocked up since the first of this month that no vessel is to pass or repass.... Some here is apprehensive the event will be attended with much bloodshed.
Wright’s prediction was accurate—the Boston Tea Party was the beginning of the American Revolution and a very bloody war.
On 13 April 1778 the American privateer John Paul Jones sailed his ship Ranger into Belfast Lough and engaged Drake, a Royal Navy sloop stationed there. After an obstinate fight of forty-five minutes off the Copeland Islands the British vessel struck its colours and was seized. The American War of Independence, now more than two years old, had been brought to the very shores of Ireland.
Stewart Banks, the sovereign, or mayor, of Belfast, applied to Dublin Castle for help. The viceroy, Lord Harcourt, replied that all he could spare were half a company of invalids and a troop or two of cavalry—but without any horses. As Lord Charlemont recalled, ‘Abandoned by the Government in the hour of Danger, the inhabitants of Belfast were left to their own defence, and boldly and instantly undertook it.’ A Volunteer company formed on St Patrick’s Day now took on an urgent role, and recruitment was brisk.
When the American Revolution broke, the sympathy of the northern Protestants was with the colonists. As the Presbyterian minister Will
iam Steel Dickson said in a sermon in Belfast, ‘There is scarcely a Protestant family of the middle classes amongst us who does not reckon kindred with the inhabitants of that extensive continent.’ John Hancock, from Co. Down, was the first to sign the American Declaration of Independence; and other signatories included Thomas McKean from Ballymoney, and Charles Thomson from Maghera, who served as Secretary of Congress and later designed the Great Seal of the United States. Men of Ulster Presbyterian stock, known as the Scotch-Irish, played a pivotal role in the revolutionary armies, and at the height of the war George Washington observed: ‘If defeated everywhere else, I will make my last stand for liberty among the Scotch-Irish of my native Virginia.’ Indeed, Lord Harcourt informed London that Ulster Presbyterians were ‘Americans ... in their hearts ... talking in all companies in such a way that if they are not rebels, it is hard to find a name for them’.
In that year, 1778, however, France had joined the war on the side of the American colonists, and Ulster Protestants had no difficulty in recognising the traditional enemy.
Episode 138
‘FREE TRADE—OR ELSE!’
Where are the legs with which you run?
Hurroo! Hurroo!
Where are the legs with which you run?
Hurroo! Hurroo!
Where are the legs with which you run?
When you went to carry a gun?
Indeed, your dancing days are done!
Och, Johnny, I hardly knew ye!
By 1778 the British government’s position was desperate. The American colonists in revolt had now been joined by France, and soon Spain would add her support. Even though the Penal Laws had made it illegal, the government recruited great numbers of Irish Catholics to fight on the other side of the Atlantic.
With drums and guns, and guns and drums
The enemy nearly slew ye;
My darling dear, you look so queer,
Och, Johnny, I hardly knew ye!
Ireland was stripped of troops to fight in America, and the coffers of the Irish administration in Dublin were empty. No money could be found to form a militia for home defence purposes. The island was completely defenceless against a possible French invasion, as Lord Charlemont explained:
Ireland was hourly threatened with invasion—The Enemy was at our Doors, and Administration had no possible Means of Assistance—Unsupported by England and destitute both of Men and Money they shuddered at the idea of a most trifling Incursion—They feared and consequently hated the Volunteers, yet to them alone They looked for Assistance, for Safety.
The first Volunteer corps had been formed in Belfast in April 1778. Soon every county in Ireland followed Belfast’s example until by the following year there were 40,000 Volunteers drilling to defend Ireland—entirely self-financed and out of the control of government. Only landlords, substantial farmers and professional men could afford to pay around £1 15s for a musket, buy a uniform and suffer loss of earnings while drilling and on manoeuvre. Nevertheless, the Volunteers were democratically organised: officers were elected by the ranks, and, for example, a man who had just paid £25,000 for an estate in Larne was content to serve as a private in his local company.
In fact the French never came. The Volunteers soon realised that they now possessed considerable muscle which they could flex to extract concessions from the beleaguered British government. In particular, they wanted the government to remove laws imposed by England on Ireland, forbidding the export of wool, glass, leather and other goods. Supporting the Volunteers, the ‘Patriot’ opposition in the Irish parliament forced through ‘short money bills’—voting money to the government for six months only.
On 4 November 1779 the Volunteers organised a massive demonstration in College Green in front of the Parliament House. The Dublin Journal published this account:
Thursday being the anniversary of the birth and landing in England of his Majesty King William the Third, of glorious memory ...
At noon the ... volunteer corps belonging of the county and city of Dublin, assembled in St Stephen’s Green ... the whole dressed in scarlet faced with black velvet, silver epaulets and buttons, white waistcoats and breeches, small half gaiters, and white cross belts with silver breast plates ... Luke Gardiner, Esq; commander of the united corps for the day....
The enemies to Ireland ... must confess, no troops in Europe are better disciplined, and none in the world so well appointed. This independent, this Irish army, this martial phaenomenon, must create the wonder and admiration of mankind, when they are informed that the first nobility, most respectable senators, and principal men, for fortune and character, formed the ranks of it.
In this order they proceeded through the city, amidst the acclamations of multitudes, and surrounded the equestrian statue of King William on College-green, where, after a grand salute, they fired three vollies with admirable regularity.... The statue preparatory to this occasion, was new painted, and ornamented with ribbons and from each side of the pedestal hung large labels, on which the following words were inscribed in capital letters:
East.–THE VOLUNTEERS OF IRELAND.
The Motto,
QUINQUAGINTA MILLIA JUNCTA,
PARATI PRO PATRIA MORI.
... translated from Latin that means: ‘50,000 joined together, ready to die for their fatherland’ ...
West.–THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION.
North.–SHORT MONEY BILLS, A FREE TRADE—OR ELSE !!!!!
South.–RELIEF TO IRELAND.
The numbers of spectators on this occasion were almost incredible. Every avenue that leads into College-green, were so crowded that all free intercourse subsided until the whole was over.…
If the scene during the day was busy and beautiful the evening was brilliant and illustrious. A general illumination took place, attended by every mark of real rejoicing. The different corps of our Volunteers ... dined with their commanders and officers. Harmony, affection, and public spirit reigned among them, and truly constitutional, Hibernian toasts were drank.... Bells and bonfires likewise lent their assistance, but we are sorry to say that squibs and crackers, bouncing about, terrified several ladies.
What would the government do now?
Episode 139
THE DUNGANNON CONVENTION
By the autumn of 1779 the British administration in Dublin had been reduced to a state of helplessness. News had come in of catastrophic defeats at the hands of American colonists; a French invasion was daily expected; the treasury in Dublin was empty; and the defence of the island was entirely dependent on 50,000 independent Volunteers demanding drastic political change. In the Irish parliament the ‘Patriot’ opposition commanded a crushing majority. On 24 November, Walter Hussey Burgh, MP, urged his fellow-Patriots to stand firm, declaring that the bonds of slavery imposed by a foreign parliament must be broken:
Talk not to me of peace; Ireland is not in a state of peace; it is smothered war. England has sown her laws like dragon’s teeth and they have sprung up in armed men.
Lord North’s government at Westminster had no choice but to capitulate completely. Prohibitions on the export of Irish wool, cut glass, leather and other items were removed, and legislation was introduced to allow Irish ships to trade directly with Jamaica and other colonies of the British Empire.
For some Patriots and Volunteers, this was only the beginning of a campaign to win for Ireland ‘legislative independence’. The aim was not to make Ireland an independent state but to raise the island from being a colony to being an equal partner with Britain. To achieve this, two statutes would have to be changed or repealed altogether. One was Poynings’ Law, first enacted in the fifteenth century: in practice, this measure made it possible for the government of the day in London to change or even suppress bills passed by the Irish parliament. The other was the Declaratory Act of 1720, by which Westminster declared that it could enact laws for Ireland—a power most often used to regulate Irish trade.
Until these statutes had been changed, it was believed, Irela
nd would continue to be treated as a subservient colony. Nowhere was this felt more strongly than in Ulster, the province where around half of all Ireland’s Volunteers were based. Since the government gave not the slightest indication of making any concessions, Volunteer commanders met at Armagh and agreed new tactics. In accordance with this decision, delegates from every Volunteer company in Ulster were summoned to Dungannon in Co. Tyrone.
On the morning of 15 February 1782 242 delegates, representing 143 Volunteer companies, marched two by two along the streets of Dungannon, lined by the local light infantry company, to the parish church. William Irvine, colonel of the Lowtherstown Company in Fermanagh, took the chair. Between noon and eight o’clock that evening propositions were solemnly debated and voted on. The motions passed were a clarion call for legislative independence:
Resolved unanimously, that a claim of any body of men, other than the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind this kingdom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a Grievance.
Resolved (with one dissenting voice only), That the powers exercised by the privy Councils of both kingdoms, under, or under colour or pretence of, the law of Poynings, are unconstitutional and a Grievance.
These were but two of twenty resolutions approved. In addition to these, the assembled Volunteers agreed to send a public address of support to the Patriots in the Irish parliament. Like the American Declaration of Independence, it pulsates with the spirit of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment: