The McCarthys In Early American History
by Michael J. O'Brien.
Originally published by: Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1921.
This book was scanned and converted to text, for the most part, by Kathy (Burden) Shaffer.
Conversion to webpages was done by Bruce A. Johnson.
| INTRODUCTION | Page v |
| CHAPTER I: THE MC CARTYS OF VIRGINIA | Page 1 |
| CHAPTER II: THE MC CARTYS OF VIRGINIA (continued) | Page 39 |
| CHAPTER III: THE MC CARTYS OF VIRGINIA (continued) | Page 71 |
| CHAPTER IV: THE MC CARTHYS IN MARYLAND, THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA | Page 107 |
| CHAPTER V: THE MC CARTHYS IN LOUISIANA, ILLINOIS AND KENTUCKY | Page 128 |
| CHAPTER VI: THE MC CARTYS IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE | Page 147 |
| CHAPTER VII: THE MC CARTHYS IN NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY | Page 173 |
| CHAPTER VIII: THE MAC CARTYS IN MASSACHUSETTS | Page 199 |
| CHAPTER IX: THE MAC CARTYS OF MASSACHUSETTS (continued) | Page 240 |
| CHAPTER X: MC CARTHYS IN CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND, MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE AND VERMONT | Page 263 |
| CHAPTER XI: THE FIGHTING RACE | Page 287 |
| APPENDIX | Page 301 |
| MARRIAGE RECORDS | Page 309 |
| INDEX (from the book) | Page 319 |
INTRODUCTION
The early Irish settlers in America-Their history neglected- Necessity for research work-The MacCarthys an ancient and royal race-Kings of Monster and Princes of Desmond-The ruthless confiscations of their estates by the English-Exiles to France, Spain and Austria and to the American colonies The various forms of spelling the name in the Colonial records.Although many Irish families were settled in America in Colonial and Revolutionary times, and a vast number of Irish names appear in the official records of the country, the contemporary references to these people in American historical works are lamentably scarce and superficial. Much of the matter necessary for a history of their settlements and of their fortunes in the new country is irrecoverably lost, and, with the exception of some desultory references to Irish families in the work of local town historians, in most cases about the only information that can now be gleaned after the lapse of so many years as that contained in the dry official records of the time. While searching for other historical material relating to the early Irish in America, I have picked up some of the lost threads connecting the descendants of the old Irish family of MacCarthy with the Colonial and Revolutionary history of America and have thought they would be of sufficient interest to publish, so that some member of the family in the United States may be induced to take up the subject in earnest and bring out the full story of the many persons of this name who settled in the Western Hemisphere during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While I have no pretensions to having written a complete history of people of the name in the American Colonies, and this book must be accepted as a mere skeleton of facts, I have no doubt that readers of these pages will be surprised to learn that the McCarthys are represented so largely in early American annals. Yet, since much of the data was obtained in a casual way only, it should be understood that the number of McCarthys referred to in this work is far short of the total number of people of the name who were in this country at the period dealt with. If I were tempted to follow the method of some of our historical writers and had clothed the facts with the garb of fancy, it could have been made a much more readable book, but I have determined to let the facts "speak for themselves," in the belief that they are sufficient to show that the McCarthy family is entitled to a place in American history alongside those of any other name or race, not excluding even the Puritans of New England or the Cavaliers of Virginia.
Among the deficiencies of information connected with the history of the early Irish settlers in America, nothing perhaps is more noticable than the absence of biographies of individual Irishmen or their descendants, or genealogies of American families of apish blood. Comparatively few of such genealogies have been published, and it is indeed surprising that the race pride which is supposed to exist among Irish people and their American descendants of the first and second generations has not found expression in the publication of many more family histories. It is unfortunate that the Irish in America have not shown greater industry in this respect, and any one who examines the early public records of the country must at once conclude that, the
Irish have sadly neglected the opportunities which these records afford, to rescue from oblivion and to perpetuate a knowledge among their fellow Americans of the part played by men and women of the Irish race in laying the foundations of the structure upon which this great nation rests. There is no earthly reason why the Irish, like Americans of other races, should not be accorded a place in the history of this country. The Huguenot Society has put on record the contributions of the French; the Holland Society has told of the part played by Americans of Dutch descent; the Thistle Society has related the story of the Scotch; the Spaniards have a well established place in American history, and the English have had numberless historians who made it a business and a trade to supply the world with histories of their own making and from their own point of view; in short, nearly every race which made up the population of this country in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with the exception of the Irish, has supplied historians who have put on record the creditable deeds of men and women of their own blood. Thus, the American people have had opportunities to learn what each nationality has contributed to the greatness and progress of their country, but, although the Celtic element was numerically important in the Colonies, the general public knows practically nothing of the history of the Irish immigrants or their American descendants.A member of the Virginia branch of the McCarthy family, on reading the manuscript of this volume, remarked that he could not understand why, in the published histories of Virginia, the record of the McCarthys had been ignored. I reminded him of the fact that this applies to many other American families descended
from Irish immigrants, and that in the comparatively few instances where they have been mentioned by the historians, they are referred to as "Scotch-Irish," the intention being to show that they were of mixed nationality and that their predominant race characteristics, their virtues and saving qualities, but not their faults, were derived from the Scotch. I cannot here resist the temptation to point out, that in nearly every instance where an Irishman distinguished himself in early American history, the so-called historians describe him as "a Scotch-Irishman," while a native of Ireland, who committed some discreditable deed, is unhesitatingly called "an Irishman"!Irish-blooded Americans are, however, themselves to blame if their people have been relegated to a place of no importance in American history. For many years they have been complaining that "the historians have kept us out of history," remindful of the fact that the fault is all their own, since the real facts are readily obtainable if they would only devote to the work a part of the energy that they waste in denouncing unsympathetic historians. Since a nation is but as, aggregation of individuals and families, it has been well said that "the history of a country is but the history of its people," and in the numerous published genealogies of American families and the biographical works of historical societies are found some of the most interesting items of the nation's history. American genealogists, however, have devoted their attention mainly to families of English or Dutch descent, because the demand for their work came chiefly from those sources. There is a strong and ever increasing reason, therefore, to see this state of affairs remedied, to look into the emigrant ancestry of Americans of Irish blood.
It is highly desirable that their history should be traced as far as practicable, but it can be done only by consulting the records of the forms and parishes and the official documents of the Colonial governments, and if the proper spirit were displayed this work would result in making many valuable contributions to the historical literature of the country. In many cases, the Colonial records, which contain the only memorials extant of the early settlers, are time-worn and gradually falling into decay, but upon their fading and perishing pages are chronicled some of the events in which Irishmen and Irishwomen took part, whose names and deeds are forgotten, or perhaps have never been brought to light through the neglect of those who should be most interested in the subject. At this late day it is difficult for an individual working alone in this field, to clothe with any degree of interest the dry-as-dust and barren details of the ordinary affairs of life in which these people figured, and the light afforded by the ancient wills and deeds, parish registers, court proceedings, tombstone inscriptions, newspapers, and the many Colonial and Revolutionary records that I have examined, is insufficient to enable one to write a complete narrative of the lives of these people or of what they contributed to the making of America.No attempt has been made to extend this account of the American McCarthys beyond the eighteenth century. I believe, however, it should be and can readily be done, for their descendants are numerous in this country, although in some instances the male line has died out and many of their collateral descendants cannot now be recognized at all. It would undoubtedly be a matter of great interest to the numerous McCarthys throughout the United States if the full story were told, especially of the
descendants of the first two of the name in the Colonies, namely Charles and Owen McCartie, who came to Virginia in 1635, or only fifteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower. A more extensive search than I have been able to make probably would locate them, and perhaps some unwritten American history of an interesting character would thus be unearthed. It would also be an incentive to other Americans of old Irish stock to take up the history of people of their names and then place on permanent record the story of their deeds, if only as an offset to the spurious accounts that have been published of some of the "Scotch-Irish" by the society calling itself by that racial misnomer.The MacCarthys are one of the most ancient families of Ireland. One need not dilate at length on the glories of the name in ancient or modern Ireland; enough, that the family has furnished princes and men of eminence from MacCarthy Mor down to Justly McCarthy, the brilliant author of the present day. The antiquarians tell us that the founder of the family was Cormac, King of Munster, A.D. 483. Burke, the leading authority on English and Irish peerages, declares that "few pedigrees in the British empire, if any, can be traced to a more remote or more exalted source than that of the Celtic house of MacCarthy," 1 and the learned Dr. O'Brien says that "it was the most illustrious of all those families whose names begin with Mac." 2 Their history com-
mences with the first page of authentic Irish records and is as well attested as the history of any royal house in Christendom, and the fame of their chieftains, the learning, piety and zeal of many saintly men among them form a vast inheritance of glorious memories. 3 As the Irish antiquarian, Windele, wrote: "Notwithstanding that a large proportion of the persons forming their high ancestral stock belong to the mythic period of Irish history, the MacCarthys may proudly defy any other family in Europe to compete with them in antiquity or accurate preservation of their records." According to the Anals of the Four Masters, "thirty of the Kings of Ireland and sixty-one of her Saints descended from the MacCarthys, and to them belongs the matchless glory of producing the first Christian King in Ireland, to whom the country owes the welcome of its religion into the land, and not only this but the assembling, christianizing and sanctioning of the code of their laws, the Seanchus Mor, under which our ancestors lived for twelve centuries."The ancestry of the family can be traced through twenty-eight monarchs who governed Ireland, back to the dawn of Christianity, and, if regard be had to primogeniture and seniority of descent, the MacCarthy family is the first in Ireland. "Long before the founders of the oldest royal families of Europe, before Rodolph acquired the empire of Germany, or a Bourbon ascended the throne of France, Cormac MacCarthy ruled over
Munster and the title of King was at least continued in name in his posterity down to the reign of Elizabeth." 4 In the history of ancient Ireland Cormac MacArt, 115th. monarch of the Kingdom, is a famous figure. He is noted especially for establishing a university at Tara, one of whose schools Was for teaching jurisprudence.Unless the Roman Forum be regarded as a law school, Cormac's was the first law school in existence, and it was he also who gave to the world that system of chronicogy which makes the records of a country from year to year synchronize with the history of other countries, by collaring events with the reigns of contemporary foreign potentates.
Heads of families of this name in Munster have held many proud titles; among them were Princes of Desmond, Princes of Carbery, Earls of ClanCarthy, Earls of Muskerry, and Earls of Mountcashel. Their possessions were located chiefly in the Counties of Cork and Kerry, where for centuries they maintained their princely predominance, and in the sixteenth century their influence in Ireland was so great that all Queen Elizabethan designs were aimed at the destruction of their power! An Irish poet has sung of them:
"Oh ! bright are the names of their chieftains and wages That shine like the Bears through the darkness of ages, Whose deeds are inscribed on the pages of story, There forever to live in the sunshine of glory.
Heroes of history, phantoms of fable, Charlemange's champions and Arthur's round table.
Oh! but they all a new lustre could borrow From the glory that hangs round the name of MacCaura." 5
The pedigree of the family as traced by the Irish antiquarians shows that they were a numerous Sept, and for several centuries they were divided into three great stems, each subdivided into several minor, and dependent, but still powerful branches. The main line was that of MacCarthy Mor, the second MacCarthy Reagh, and the third MacCarthy of Muskerry. For several generations the descendants in the main line were known chiefly as Kings of Desmond, the MacCarthy Reaghs as Princes of Carbery and the third branch as Lords of Muskerry. They had several castles in Cork and Kerry. Descriptions of them say that these castles were
massively constructed; their towers and battlements were equal in grandeur and strength to those elsewhere in Europe, and for generation after generation they defied the attacks of time and the elements and proudly reared aloft their stately walls. The principal seat of MacCarthy Mor was historic Muckross castle at the Lakes of Killarney and which is now in the possession of a descendant of a Cromwellian soldier. "Of one hundred and sixty castles in the County of Cork," says Windele, "twenty-six were erected by the MacCarthy Mor." 8 The principal seat of the MacCarthy Reagh branch of the family was a stately building at Kilbrittain, County Cork, and the famous Blarney Castle in the same county, until the Revolution of 1688, was the residence of the branch which bore the title of Lords of Muskerry.One of the most noted members of the family was Florence MacCarthy, who flourished in the latter part of the fifteenth and early in the sixteenth centuries. In the Pacata Hibernia and in Smith's histories of Cork, Kerry and Waterford much interesting detail is related of his career, and "The Life and Letters of Florence MacCarthy Reagh, Tanist of Carbery," compiled from documents in the English State Paper Office at London, by one of his descendants, Daniel MacCarthy Glas, is one of the most interesting and valuable contributions to the history of the family that has ever been published. This Florence was a collateral descendant of Donal Mor na-Caura in the twelfth generation, and according to O'Hart in the year 1600 he was "solemnly created The MacCarthy Mor with all the rites and ceremonies of his family for hundreds of generations, which title and dignity was formally approved of by Hugh
O'Neill, then Ard-Righ, or Ruler of the Irish in Ireland." 9 He married his kinswoman, Elena, daughter of Donal MacCarthy Mor, Earl of Clancare, and became Prince of Desmond. He was twice a prisoner of the English; the first period lasting for eleven years for "the offense of marrying an Irish princess without Queen Elizabethan permission," the second lasting for thirty-nine years and was "for reasons of state," and in neither case was he brought to trial. He died in London in the year 1640. 10Another famous member of the family was Donough MacCarthy, Lord of Muskerry, who was created Earl of ClanCarthy in 1658, and was commander of the Munster forces in the wars in Ireland in 1641 and against the Cromwellians in 1652. He was exiled to the Continent and his property conferred on his second wife, Ellen, sister of the Duke of Ormond. At the Restoretion of Charles II, he returned to Ireland and died in London in the year 1665. He had a son named Donal who was known as the Buchaill Ban, or "the fair-haired boy," and this Donal was the father of Donal, or Daniel, McCarty of Virginia, hereinafter referred to as an exile from Ireland to Virginia after the Treaty of Limerick in 1691. Donough MacCarthy's other sons were Cormac, Callaghan and Justin, the last of whom was created Earl of Mountcashel by King James in 1689. Cormac, eldest son of Donough, became an officer of the English navy and when he fell by the side of the Duke of York (afterwards King James II), at a great naval engagement between the English and Dutch Fleets in the year 1665, it was decided that he should be honored with a public funeral, and "accordingly, with all imaginable heraldic
pomp and solemnity, attended by many of the nobility of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor, the remains of this Milesian chieftain were interred in Westminster Abbey." 11 Callaghan, second son of Donough MacCarthy, married Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of the Earl of Kildare, by whom he had a son named Donough who became fourth Earl of ClanCarthy. Donough was educated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in England and there married Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of Robert Spencer, Earl of Sutherland. On the accession of James the Second he returned to Ireland and took a prominent part with his uncle, Lord Mountcashel, in the James and Williamite war which ended with the Treaty of Limerick. On the landing of King James at Kinsale from France in the year 1689 he received and entertained that monarch and continued to support his cause until captured by the forces of the Duke of Marlborough, who conveyed him a prisoner to the Tower of London. Thence he escaped to France in 1694, where he received the command of King James' Guards. Four years later he ventured to return to England in a fruitless effort to recover his property which had been parceled out among the victorious Williamite Generals and other officers of the English Crown. He was instantly arrested and was exiled on the miserable pension of 300 pounds per year, and on the condition that he should never return to his native land. The enormous wealth of this branch of the MacCarthys may be supposed from a passage in Windele's account of the Earl of ClanCarthy: "With the fortunes of King James fell those of ClanCarthy. His property, which upon a loose calculation made in the middle of the last (eighteenth) century, was supposed to be worth 150,000 pounds per annum and in 1796 about 200,000 pounds, was confiscated." 12The unfortunate Earl, thus deprived of his estates, retired to Altona in Germany and purchased a little island at the mouth of the Elbe, where he died in the year 1734. In a news despatch dated "London, October 1, 1734," printed in the American Weekly Mercury of Philadelphia for the week, December 17-24, 1734, I find the following interesting comments: "Advice is come from Hamburg, that about ten days since died at Altona, a Town near that City, the Right Honourable Donough, Earl of Clancarty, Viscount Muskerry, etc., in the Kingdom of Ireland, aged 78 years. He marry'd the Lady Elizabeth Spencer, Daughter of Robert, Earl of Sutherland, Prime Minister to King James the Second. She died at Copenhagen in the year 1703, whither she accompany'd her Lord in Banishment (he having been attainted for having taken up Arms in Ireland for that unhappy Prince), leaving Issue a Son and a Daughter, Viz. Donah, Viscount Muskerry, now Earl of Clancarty (his Father's attainder having been reversed), who commands one of his Majesty's Ships of War upon the Coast of Newfoundland, and the Lady Charlotte, Wife to the Right Honourable John, Lord Delaware, Treasurer of his Majesty's Household."
Donough, fourth Earl of ClanCarthy, had a son named Donough, who entered the English navy, and through the instrumentality of the Prime Minister of France the English Cabinet, in 1735, was induced to consider a measure for the reversal of the iniquitous outlawry of his deceased father and the restoration of his estates. But, the faction which at that time ruled the English Parlia-
ment, becoming alarmed at the idea of the restoration of so popular a chieftain as the Earl of ClanCarthy, passed a law declaring as "public enemies" all lawyers who should be concerned in his appeal, and the young Earl's cause consequently was abandoned. Thereupon, he threw up his commission and went to France where he spent many years in virtual poverty, until he obtained from the French King an annual pension of 1000 pounds.Justin MarCarthy, Earl of Mountcashel, third son of Donough, Earl of ClanCarthy, was one of the principal commanders of King James' Irish army in the war with William of Orange. On the defeat of his troops at Enniskillen in 1689 he was made prisoner, but he escaped and fled to France where he met with a most flattering reception from Louis XIV, at whose hands he had the distinction of receiving a commission of Lieutenant-General entitling him to command all the Irish troops in the service of France. He died at Barrege in France in the year 1694 of wounds received in battle. His wife was Arabella, daughter of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, and one of his grand-daughters became the wife, first of the famous Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, who commanded the Irish army during the siege of Limerick, and second of James Fitzjames, Duke of Berwick, natural son of James the Second. An reconfirmed tradition in the McCarty family of Virginia says that the Dennis MacCarthy of Rappahannock County hereinafter referred to was a son of Justin, Lord Mountcashel, but the pedigree of the family makes no mention of a son named Dennis and it is said, in fact, that "the Earl of Mountcashel left no male issue". 13 Many other interesting incidents are related in Irish history of the
vicissitudes of this noble family. Of an exiled member of another branch of the MacCarthys the following affecting incident is related by Crofton Croker in his Researches:"A considerable part of the MacCarthy estates in the County of Cork was held by Mr. S --- about the middle of the last century. Walking one evening in his demesne, he observed a figure, apparently asleep, at the foot of an aged tree, and, approaching the spot, found an old man extended on the ground, whose audible sobs proclaimed the severest ambition. Mr. S ----- enquired the cause and was answered 'Forgive me, sir, my grief is idle, but to mourn is a relief to the desolate heart and humbled spirit. I am a MacCarthy, once the possessor of that castle, now in ruins, and of this ground; this tree was planted by my own hands and I have returned to water its roots with my tears. To-morrow I sail for Spain, where I have long been an exile and an outlaw since the Revolution. I am an old man, and to-night, probably for the last time, bid farewell to the place of my birth and the house of my forefathers."
Justin MacCarthy, a representative of the house of MacCarthy Reagh, also became an exile to France after the Revolution of 1689. He lived at Toulouse as late as 1767, and of him a writer in Bolster's Quarterly Magazine 14 many years ago wrote: "The late Comte de MacCarthy Reagh resided at Toulouse and left behind him at his decease a magnificent library, second only to that of the King of France. No other library in Europe possessed so large a number of printed and manuscript books on vellum, of which scarce and valuable material alone it contained not less than 826 volumes. His sons, nevertheless, at his death, found themselves under the necessity of parting with it, and thus the splendid literary cabinet, the pride of this unfortunate family, became scattered over England and France! It
would seem as if Fortune had not yet ceased her persecution of an ancient and distinguished race!" As in the case of other old Irish families, with their power utterly broken and their estates confiscated by the English invaders, they had no recourse but to seek asylum in foreign lands, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries we find many of this ancient and royal race emigrating to France, Spain and Austria and some to the American Colonies. In American records there is less scarcity of this ancient Irish name than one would be led to suppose from a perusal of the work of the historians. In the records of all the original Thirteen Colonies the name is found, beginning in the case of Virginia as early as the third decade of the seventeenth century and down to and beyond the period of the Revolution. The McCarthys are found among the early settlers of nearly every American State and Territory; among the border men and hunters who were the first to penetrate the wilderness of the west and south; in the rosters of the Colonial militia who held back the redmen at the frontiers of civilization; in the ranks of the army and navy of the Revolution; among pioneer merchants and professional men, and more especially among those humbler citizens, the "men with the hoe," who so seldom find a place in the pages of history. In short, people of this name have cut more or less of a figure in those spheres where only men of good red blood and undaunted courage usually find a place.The names and data here given are obtained by examination of the records, and where the records themselves were not obtainable, from official copies of them published by the various states, the town and county histories, genealogies, publications of historical societies and other reliable sources. How many more McCarthys
could be located by a more exhaustive search I am not prepared to say, but those mentioned here seem to be sufficiently numerous and important to serve as an incentive to the American McCarthys to make a special study of the history of people of this name in the Western Hemisphere. For example, an effort might be made, by following up the official records of the regiments of which they were members, to ascertain what part was played by the four hundred or more McCarthys who served in the Colonial and Revolutionary wars and in the second war for Independence. Whatever influence they had during the Revolutionary struggle, it was almost wholly on the patriot side, and according to the enlistment papers we find among them many young men, who evidently were active, eager spirits in the cause of Independence, and who probably rendered good service to their country in her hour of trial. It is a singular fact that only two persons of the name can be found among the "Loyalists of the Revolution," Isiah and Denis McCarty, whose names appear in lists of royalists who settled in Nova Scotia. Where these two McCartys were located in the American Colonies I am unable to say, but I believe it was in New England.While there are clear indications that some of the American Irish McCarthys of those early days were of the better classes and were men of education and refinement, who, "preferring an altar in the desert to a coronet at court," voluntarily expatriated themselves to the Colonies, I have no doubt that the majority of those whose names appear in the early records crossed the seas as poor "redemptioners" and had to work their way against obstacles of the most difficult character. But, their record in America has been an honorable one and in several instances they or their immediate descend-
ants are seen to have risen to places of trust and responsebility in the business, political and social life of their day.Although the correct spelling of the name is "MacCarthy," I have selected for the title of this book the form of the name in most general use, viz., "McCarthy." As in many other cases, the name is spelled in divers curious ways in the colonial records, for all surnames were at the mercy of the whims and caprices of the officials of the period, and while I am quoting the exact spelling as it is recorded in each instance, it should be understood that all such persons mentioned herein were of the old MacCarthy family of Munster. The labor of collecting this material has been great, yet it is only part of other more extensive researches that I have made into the history of the early Irish in America, and this may serve as an explanation of what will probably be noticed by my readers, namely, that in the case of many of the McCarthys whose names appear in public records I have furnished very little details of their history. That is because my opportunities for research were often limited and were confined largely to places where the information is readily accessible.
CHAPTER I
THE MC CARTYS OF VIRGINIA
Charles and Owen McCartie, the first of the name in America-- The Town of Kinsale, Va., founded by Irish Colonists about 1662--Dennis MacCarthy, patentee of lands in Rappahannock and Princess Anne Counties in 1675--Daniel McCarty, King's Attorney in Virginia in 1692--A wealthy land-owner --Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1705-- 1715--His interesting career--Other Irish pioneers in VirginiaIn the State Paper Department at the Public Record Office of England there are still preserved some of the passenger lists of the ships that left English ports for the American Colonies during the seventeenth century. The copies of these manuscripts, as transcribed by John Camden Hotten, are familiarly known as "Hotten's Original Lists" and were published at London in the year 1874, under the title of "The Original Lists of Persons of Quality, Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men, sold for a term of years, etc., who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations between 1600 and 1700."
The "Immigrant Lists to Virginia" of this period contain a surprisingly large number of Irish names, and among those who came to Virginia in the Plaine Joane
which sailed from London on May 15, 1635, were Charles and Owen McCartie. 1 The Plaine Joane is said to have disembarked her passengers at Newport News in whose immediate vicinity some of them are known to have settled, while others moved out along the James and Rappahannock Rivers, where they worked as laborers on the plantations or later received grants of uncultivated lands themselves. A search through the Virginia records fails to disclose any trace of the whereabouts of Charles or Owen McCartie, except that mention is made of their names in the records of Norfolk County, where it is said that Charles was-aged twenty-seven and Owen eigh-teen at the time of their arrival. Their names do not appear in the early land patents, which indicates the probability that they came over as "redemptioners" and were employed in some capacity by Virginia planters.It is noted that they came to this country, not direct from Ireland but from the port of London. At that time and during the period of Oliver Cromwell's activities in Ireland, thousands of Irish youths of both sexes were forcibly seized, taken to English ports and thence transported across the seas. Some were sent to the islands of the West Indies and others to the American Colonies, where they were placed in the service of the planters of Virginia and New England, and in the Colonial records may be found the names of many of those Irish boys and girls acting as servitors to their English masters. No discrimination was made as to the social standing of the families who were visited by these
traffickers in human lives, and Prendergast relates, in The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, the shocking details of the seizures of boys and girls of gentle birth who were caught and hurried to the private prisons of these English "man-catchers" and afterwards transported to the American plantations.It is not perhaps, assuming too much to say that Charles and Owen McCartie were brothers, and no doubt at their age were able-bodied men, and consequently equipped by nature to brave the unknown perils and undergo the privations of a savage and unreclaimed wilderness. If, as appears from a tradition which exists among the McCartys of Virginia, they left the protection of the seaboard settlements and proceeded inland as the servitors of some planter or to carve out destinies for themselves, we can imagine that they were possessed of no mean courage, when we consider the conditions that prevailed in the then unexplored region that stretched from Chesapeake Bay north and west to the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah mountains. At this period, much of that territory was nothing more than a vast hunting ground upon which the savage tribes of the west and south killed elk and buffalo and occasionally encountered each other in bloody conflict. Few permanent settlements existed within its borders. It was inhabited mostly by Indians hostile to the whites, each and all of whom fiercely disputed the settlement of the territory. To meet these conditions required men with nerves of iron and sinews of steel, and it is men of that caliber only that were instrumental in redeeming the great Southwest from the savage and opening the way for the stream of civilization which has since poured over its fertile plains.
The family tradition says that Charles and Owen, in
course of time, returned to the seaboard and found a permanent location for settlement in one of the Virginia Counties bordering on Chesapeake Bay, and that they were among those who began the settlement known afterwards as the town of Kinsale, at the mouth of the Yeocomico River, a branch of the Potomac, about the year 1662. If that were true, it suggests the probability, as in the case of Charles McCarthy of Rhode Island hereinafter referred to, that these interesting pioneers came from Kinsale in the County of Cork and that the name of the Virginia town was selected in memory of their original home in Ireland. 2 Kinsale, Va., is a place that is seldom heard of and it has grown but little in the 250 years of its existence, though it appears to have been a place of much trade in tobacco in colonial days; its shipping was considerable at one time and although it gave promise of becoming a town of no small importance, yet, like many other old places in the South, it failed to fulfill expectations.But, despite the tradition, it is hardly probable that Charles and Owen McCartie were among the founders of Kinsale, because their names do not appear in any of the Virginia land records. It cannot be supposed that the "founders" of a town could be other than substantial colonists, and as nearly all men of standing and substance in those days were landed proprietors, since it does not appear that Charles or Owen McCartie received any grant of land from the Colony it must be assumed that they were employed in some lowly capacity. However, according to a statement made by Captain W. Page McCarty, a former editor of the Richmond Times, whose information was obtained from the papers of his father,
at one time Governor of Florida, "Colonels McClanahan, Andrew Wagoner and Major Richard McCarty of the Revolution were descendants of a small group of Irishmen who named the little town of Kinsale on the Potomac about 1662. Daniel McCarty, Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1715, was of this set of people and was grandson of McCarty of Glencare." 3Mr. William G. Stanard, Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society and one of the leading authorities on early Virginia history, informs me: "it is apparent that a group of immigrants from the South of Ireland located on the Rappahannock River some time between 1650 and 1680, and although there is no tangible proof as to when or by whom the settlement was established, it is known that among those who comprised this early Virginia colony were the families of McCarty, Travers, Rice and my own family, the Stanards." He has no further knowledge of the Irish colony "farther back than William Stanard who appears in Middlesex County on the Rappahannock about 1674," and "although there is no record of any marriage or connection with any family named Eaton, yet one of William Stanard's grandsons named a son Eaton Stanard, and as there was an Eaton Stanard, a lawyer of some prominence and Recorder of Dublin about 1735, who belonged to a family of Stanards described as of Ballyhealy Castle in the County of Cork, the assumption is that the Stanard who came in the Irish colony alluded to was of the Cork family of the name." Accepting Mr. Stanard's statement as correct that the Travers, the McCartys and the others came to Virginia about the same time, the statement as to the founding of the town of Kinsale "about the year 1662," would seem to be con-
firmed, since Virginia records show that the Travers were in the colony in 1663, and in the books of the House of Burgesses of that year the head of the family is styled "Colonel William Travers." 4Members of the Travers and Rice families are mentioned several times in Virginia records in connection with the McCartys. The Travers were an old Cork family of probable English descent, and O'Hart names the Rices among "the chief Anglo-Norman and English families" who settled in the County of Kerry. 5 The records of old Rappahannock County at Essex Court House show that Dennis McCartee was appointed on December 20, 1686, "Attorney for Rebecca Rice, wife of John Rice, a merchant of Rappahannock County," to give her consent to the execution of a deed, and, according to Hayden, compiler of Virginia Genealogies, in executing the deed Rice and his wife both used as seals the arms of the Rice family of Dingle, County Kerry. Their daughter is on record as marrying "William Travers Gentleman," whose will also bears the Rice arms. This John Rice, his wife and his brother, James, were refugees from Ireland to the Island of Barbadoes and their names appear in the list of worshippers at St. Michael's Catholic Church, Barbadoes, in 1675, and on August 3, 1679, they are on record as receiving tickets to emigrate from Barbadoes to Virginia on the ship, Young William. 6 When Daniel McCarty devised certain lands in Richmond County in 1724, his will said that these lands had been entailed on his, Daniel's, father by Captain John Rice, so it is probable that the McCartys and Rices were related either by blood or by marriage.
With the exception of Charles and Owen, no other
immigrants of the name appear in the lists of passengers on the ships that arrived in Virginia up to the end of the seventeenth century, as far as I have been able to find. In all likelihood, Charles and Owen McCartie, or either of them, married, and some of the McCarties whom I have located in Virginia and the neighboring colonies were descendants of the immigrants of the Plaine Joane. The period of their removal to the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay is problematical, since there is nothing on record concerning it, and their permanent settlement in that part of the State prior to the establishment of the town of Kinsale has no other authority than a family tradition. All available sources of information such as land grants, parish registers, court files, wills and deeds and publications of the historical societies have been examined, but, with the single exception of the reference to them in the records of Norfolk County, there is no trace of their names in any public records after their arrival in 1635. In the absence of this information, therefore, the authentic history of the family in Virginia begins with Dennis and Daniel McCarty.In addition to the data secured from public records, Hayden's Virginia Genealogies furnish many interesting items linking the members of this family with other historic families of the South, although it is clear that Hayden erred in several instances, probably because he failed to examine all of the records or became confused through the constant appearance of members of different branches of the family bearing the same Christian names. The pedigree of this ancient family shows the Christian names, Tiege, Donal, Donogh, Finin and Cormac occurring generation after generation, and in the American branches we observe the constant recurrence
of the same given names, that is, the corresponding anglicized forms, Thaddeus, Daniel, Dennis, Florence and Charles respectively. Eoghan, or Owen, was also a popular name in the family, and there can be little doubt that the exiles of 1635, Charles and Owen McCartie, were of this family and were closely related to Dennis and Daniel of Virginia, as well as to Thaddeus and Florence MacCarty of Boston, hereinafter mentioned.So many McCartys appear in Virginia records and there are so many variations in the spelling of the surname, as well as many repetitions of the same given name in the different branches of the family, that it is an extremely difficult matter to trace them and their numerous descendants. The name is found at various periods in the land books and court and church records of Rappahannock, Princess Ann, King George, Northumberland, Norfolk, Stafford, Fairfax, Westmoreland, Loudoun, Hampshire, Prince William, York, Isle of Wight and Richmond Counties, Virginia, beginning in some instances as early as the year 1675 and down to the present time, although their descendants are now scattered all over the Southern States. In the Virginia land books the name is spelled in several different forms, such as MacCarthy, McCarty, McCartee, MacCartoo, McCartie, Maccarty, Macartagh, Mackartee, Carty and Cartie. In all cases it was not in this country that the name was changed from its original form to "Carty" and "Cartie," because the pedigree of the family as published by O'Hart and other authorities shows several instances where the name was spelled without the prefix, "Mac," before any of the family came to the Colonies.
The first mention of the name, aside from that of the two who came over in 1635, is found in the records of the Land Office at Richmond, wherein it is seen that by
deed dated September 21, 1675, one Edmund Moore conveyed to "Dennis MacCartee of Rappahannock County" 250 acres of land, described as "lying on the Eastern Shore of Lynnhaven, at the time of the Survey in the County of Lower Norfolk, but now in Princess Ann County." For some reason that does not appear the title to these lands was further secured by patent dated October 20, 1692, from Governor Francis Nicholson to Dennis Maccartee, and the document states that one hundred acres of the tract were "due unto the said Dennis Maccartee for the importation of two psons." 7 There is a reference also to a deed executed in Norfolk County in the year 1675, by which "Dennis Macartie" sold to Adam Keeling "250 acres of land formerly belonging to Thomas Allen in Linhaven," although there is nothing to show how he came into possession of these lands, and Edmund Moore sold to "Dennis Macartagh" 150 acres "on the Eastern Shore of Lynnhaven" in the same year. 8The next entry in which he appears is on September 15, 1691, in a grant of 250 acres described as "on the east and south sides of a branch of the Wiccocomo River in Northumberland County." In the patent for these lands his name is recorded as "Macarte," and curiously enough in the body of the document he is referred to as "the said Cartoo" and "the said Dennis Macarto," and in the margin of the patent there is a reference to him reading: "Cartoo, Mr. Dennis, pt 250 acres of land." 9 On October 16, 1691, he received a further grant of 250 acres in Princess Ann County, and on October 29, 1697, Dennis Maccartee and Adam Keeling were granted a patent for 400 acres in the same County, "escheated
lands late in the possession of Jonathan Langsworth, deceased." 10 This latter Dennis Maccartee must have been a son of the first Dennis, since the latter died in the year 1694, as the probate of his will filed in Richmond (formerly Rappahannock) County shows. There was also a Dennis MacCartie who lived in Princess Ann County in 1693, described as "old, lame and poor," 11 but it is hardly possible that this could have been the first-mentioned Dennis, since he seems to have been a prosperous land owner. The patent of October 29, 1697, was granted by Governor Edmund Andros and in the original entry in the land book the name is spelled variously "Maccartie," "MacCarty" and "Maccartoo." 12The MacCarthys were not the only Irishmen who owned lands in Norfolk or Lower Norfolk County at this time, and indeed so many of their countrymen are mentioned in the early records of this part of the State that it would appear an Irish settlement was planted there sometime in the seventeenth century. Among the surnames which occur in the land and probate records of this part of Virginia between 1650 and 1700 are Barry, Brady, Burke, Carney, Condon, Connell, Connor, Corbett, Daly, Donnell, Dougherty, Foley, Fitzgerald, Grady, Gilligan, Higgins, Hayley, Hurley, Hayes, Joyce, Kelley, Lary, Mahoney, MacKroree, McEllalen, MacKenny, Macdaniel, McCoy, McLenahan, Mulligan, Murphy, O'Neal, Piggott, Reilly, Shea, Sheane or Sheehan, Slavin and Sullivan.
An unconfirmed tradition in the family says that Dennis MacCarthy of Rappahannock was a son of Justin,
Earl of Mountcasshel, who succeeded to the title and estates of his father, Donoch or Dennis, Earl of Clan Carthy, on the latter's death in the year 1665. Justin, Lord Mountcashel, married Arabella, daughter of the famous Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, although in the issue of this marriage, as listed by O'Hart, there is no mention of a son named Dennis. There are various conflicting statements as to the period of his settlement in Virginia. Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, a former president of William and Mary College and a well-known authority on early Virginia history, states that Dennis MacCarthy came to the colony "about 1670"; 13 yet another historical writer names "1668" 14 as the year of his marriage in Virginia. Still another historian intimates that he settled first in Norfolk County in the year 1675. In the "Registry of American Families entitled to Coat Armor," 15 familiarly known as "Crozier's General Armory," the name is listed. The registry contains descriptions of nearly two thousand coats of arms, with the name of the first of the family in America in each case, the date of his arrival and the place of settlement, and in many instances the town or country whence he came. Under the name, McCarty, appears: "Dennis McCarty of Norfolk, 1675," followed by a description of the arms of the MacCarthy family of Ireland.While it is seen from these different dates that the exact period of Dennis MacCarthy's advent in Virginia is not known for a certainty, it is clear that he was in the colony as early as 1675 and the best evidence is that in March of that year he married an English lady
named Elizabeth Billington, daughter of Luke Billington of Farnham Parish, now in Richmond, but then in Rappahannock County. It is certain that he and his wife lived in or near Farnham Parish in 1678, since the register of Farnham Parish church on file in the County Clerk's office at Warsaw, Va., contains entries of the births of two of their children, namely "Catherine, daughter of Dennis and Elizabeth McCarthy," on April 16, 1678, and "Daniel, son of Dennis and Elizabeth McCarthy," on March 19, 1684. It appears they had two other children named Florence and Dennis, but I am unable to obtain any information as to when or where they were born. According to "Order Book No. I," Richmond County records, the "will of Dennis McCarthy" was admitted to probate on April 4, 1694, 16 so that Hayden's statement that "Dennis died about 1700" 17 is obviously incorrect.We see from the foregoing extracts from the records that Dennis MacCarthy was the owner of a large estate in widely separated parts of Virginia in the closing years of the seventeenth century. From the place where he is first located in old Rappahannock County to Norfolk County, at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, was a very considerable distance to cover in those days of Indian trails, bridgeless streams and virgin forests. He could not have managed his large interests in person, and no doubt his object in acquiring so much land was for the purpose of enabling his sons to carve out careers for themselves. He seems to have retained his plantation in Rappahannock County for himself, that in Norfolk
County he gave to his son Dennis, his estate in Northumberland County to Daniel, and his other son, Florence, was the owner of a plantation in York County. These three became the founders of separate branches of the family whose descendants have since spread themselves all over the United States. It appears there were three of the family named Dennis and three named Daniel, all in Virginia about the same period. These were:
(1) Dennis of old Rappahannock, who first appears in the land records in 1675 and who had four children, viz.--
Catherine, born in Farnham Parish, April 16, 1678;
Daniel, born in Farnham Parish, March 19, 1684;
(2) Dennis, date and place of birth not ascertained;
Florence, date and place of birth not ascertained.
(3) Dennis of Princess Ann County, of whose descendants, if any, nothing is known.
(1) Daniel, the above son of Dennis of Rappahannock.
(2) Daniel of Westmoreland County, who was exiled to the colonies about 1692.
(3) Daniel, who was appointed "King's Attorney for Rappahannock County" in 1692.
The last-mentioned Daniel McCarty could not have been a son of Dennis of Rappahannock, since his son was only eight years old in 1692; nor could the King's Attorney have been the Daniel who was exiled about 1692, because the latter was only thirteen years old at the time. It is possible that the "two psons" Dennis
MacCarthy brought to the Colony, and for whose "importation" he received one hundred acres of land, as stated in the patent of October 20, 1692, were his sons, Dennis and Florence, which may be the explanation why there is no entry of their births in Virginia church records. Who the father of the King's Attorney was there is nothing to indicate, although it may possibly have been the Dennis of Princess Ann County. The branches of the family tree, running in so many different directions, make a very complicated problem to solve at this late day, especially when it is considered that two of the Daniels were known as "Captain" and each had sons named Daniel and Dennis, and it is hard to differentiate between the two when their names appear in public records. In many cases it is impracticable to determine the relationships which existed between the different persons of the name, without making an elaborate study of all the old records, and it is doubtful if even this could be done at all for the reason that some of the parish records and land and will books are not now obtainable. Besides, it is clear from a study of the available information, that some branches of the family became extinct through failure of the male line. Many of the papers and heirlooms of the family were destroyed in a fire at the home of one of the McCartys at Merry Point, Lancaster County, shortly after the Civil War, and I am informed that this house was the repository of much genealogical data relating to the early members of the family in Virginia.Hayden says that Daniel of Westmoreland County "probably" was a son of Dennis of Rappahannock, 18 but he is clearly mistaken in that assumption, since it is known that Daniel of Westmoreland was a son of
Donal McCarthy, and the Farnham Parish register shows that Daniel, son of Dennis, was born in Virginia on March 19, 1684, and Captain William Page McCarty, great-great-grandson of Daniel of Westmoreland, wrote that the latter was "exiled by the Treaty of Limerick" (1691). Besides, the year of the death of Daniel of Westmoreland is shown on his tombstone at Montross, Va., as 1724 at the age of forty-five, while the Farnham Parish register gives the date of burial of Daniel, son of Dennis, as August 6, 1739. And the fact that Dennis resided in Virginia at least four years before Daniel was born again proves that Hayden's assumption as to their having been father and son was an error, and that his genealogy of the family begins on a wrong basis. I think these facts are conclusive and it is plain that Hayden confused the different Daniels.All indications are that Dennis MacCarthy of Rappahannock was a near relative of Daniel, the Irish exile, and, if the tradition before referred to were correct, they were second cousins. Another well-known Virginia historian, also erred in his reference to the McCartys. Bishop William Meade, 19 in his "Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia," 20 says: "The McCartys of Virginia are an ancient family springing from Daniel and Dennis McCarty, who are first mentioned in 1710."
This is obviously incorrect as to the year, since it is shown by the family records that Daniel came to the Colony about 1692 and all three Dennis McCartys were here many years before 1710.Daniel McCarty, King's Attorney for Rappahannock County, was appointed "Queen's Attorney" in 1707. In "Order Book No. 4, 1692-1709," Court records of Richmond County, at Warsaw, Va., under date of February 5, 1707, appears the following entry linking the names of John and Lawrence Washington with that of Daniel McCarty in connection with an action at law:
"The Jury finds that Colonel John Washington, being seized of 1400 acres of land in Rappahannock County (since Richmond), by his last will gave the same to Anne, his daughter, who married Francis Wright, Gent., by whom he had a son, John, and we find that said Francis conveyed 200 acres to Lawrence Washington, George Eskridge and Daniel McCarty, Attorneys for the King." 21
Although King's attorney, Daniel McCarty also practiced law in the County Courts and there are several cases of record where he appeared as counsel for private litigants. He also married into the Billington family, his wife having been Barbara, sister of the Elizabeth Billington who married Dennis of Rappahannock. Daniel McCarty and "his wife Barbary" are on record as executing a deed in Richmond County in 1698. In the nuncupative will of Luke Billington, Junior, given orally to his brother, McCarty Billington, on January 25, 1686, probated March 11, 1687, he left legacies to his sister, Barbara McCarty, "my pistolls to little Daniell McCarty," and after providing for other bequests he directed that "the rest of my estate shall go to my cousins, your three children." The passage in the will
indicates how relationships were sometimes styled in those days, because the three children of Barbara McCarty, whom Luke Billington called his "cousins," were in reality his nephews.In the patents recorded at the Land Office in Richmond prior to 1666 there are 350 Irish names mentioned, nearly all "head rights," among whom were Elisa Macartee who arrived in the year 1653 and Mahan Carty in 1655. 22 John Macartey is mentioned in York County in the year 1681 as "a small farmer brawling with his neighbours," 23 and Charles Macarthy is also mentioned in 1682, but in friendly transactions with his "neighbours." It is quite possible that this may have been the Charles McCartie who came over in 1635. Another Charles, whose surname is spelled "Mackartie," came over in 1688 with Captain Francis Page to York County as a "head right," 24 and when his term of service had expired he received an allottment of fifty acres of land. In Captain Page's list of "head rights" he also mentioned the name of "Dennis Mackartie," showing that he brought over two of the name. There is no further mention of them in the records as far as I can find.
Florence MacCarthy was a resident of York County in 1690, and since he is mentioned as "a son of Dennis MacCartie, the immigrant," that is a clear indication that the latter, while undoubtedly a native of Ireland, could not have been a descendant of either Charles or Owen who came over in 1635, and it also furnishes further proof of the fact that Dennis of Rappahannock
could not have been the "father" (as Hayden says) of the Daniel McCarty of Westmoreland County. In 1705 Florence purchased a tract of land from one William Jordan and in 1714 another tract from John Harrison. In 1711 he served on a jury in York County and in 1717 he was appointed "Constable of the Upper Precinct of Bruton Parish." In the York books (1633-1700) at the Virginia State Library, there are at least two references to Florence MacCarthy. At a court held in York County on May 24, 1699, "fflorence Macarte hath order granted for an Attachment agt ye Estate of Mary Dyer, Adm of William Dyer of Yorke County, Deceased, in an Accon upon ye case for ye sum of one pound five shillings & a halfe penny farthing sterling by Account Returnable by ye next Court." And at a session of the court held on September 25, 1699, "fflorence MacKarte haveing brought suit agt Mary Dyer admtrix of William Dyer Deced in an Accon upon ye Case and now failing to prosecute ye suite is dismist."The fact that Florence MacCartie married Mary Wright, daughter of Dionysius Wright, would indicate that he was a man of some importance in that section of the Colony. Dionysius Wright was a lawyer practicing in York and James City Counties, and according to the Journals of the Council of Virginia he was appointed on December 5, 1700 "Clerke of ye General Assembly," and on August 27, 1701, he was "Clerke at ye Conference (consisting of a committee of Burgesses and Councillors) to settle Indian affairs." Ann Washington, daughter of Colonel John Washington, married Frances Wright, a relative of Dionysius Wright. Florence and Mary MacCartie had issue: Florence, Dennis, Dionysius, Eleanor, Margaret, Mary and Anne. 25 In the church
register of Bruton parish his death is recorded under "March, 1717," and his will, executed on Saint Patrick's Day in that year, was proved in court on May 19, 1718. In this will he is described as "of Bruton Parish, York County." To his son, Florence, he gave "the dwelling plantation" and 101 acres of land, with the proviso that his wife was "to have all the rights she enjoyed during her husband's lifetime." Other bequests of lands and money he left to his sons, Dennis and Dionysius; to John he left "50 pounds in money to purchase him a seate of land," and various bequests to his four daughters. He directed especially that his sons were "to be educated and brought up to schooling, that is, that they be taught to read, write and to cypher as far until they are able to work out the rule of three, all out of the profits of my estate." He signed his will "Flor MacCartie." His widow married Thomas Larke who undertook to manage the estate in the interest of the orphans, but in 1727 the court removed it from his control, charging him with "mismanagement," and thereupon "the children chose new guardians."Dionysius MacCartie married Elizabeth Power and had a son James, who died in 1746. There was a Dr. James McCarty, a physician at Petersburg, Virginia,
who is said to have been a son of James MacCartie, whose estate was administered in 1747 by John MacCartie. Many of the collateral descendants of the original Florence MacCartie are mentioned in the records down to and beyond the period of the Revolution, but, as to the direct line, there is very little information available. His daughter, Eleanor, married Robert Drewry, son of John Drewry who was "Commissioner of Records in York County" in 1702; Anne MacCartie, born June 25, 1706, married Peter Oliver, a planter of Hampton Parish in York County. Their son, Peter, and his wife Ann who also seems to have been a McCarty, removed to the neighborhood of Petersburg, Va., some time before the Revolution, where ten children were born to them. One of them was Rev. Florence McCarty Oliver of Elbert County, Georgia, who was born in Virginia in 1775, and his son, also Florence McCarty Oliver, was born in Georgia in 1809. He had a son named John McCarthy Oliver who settled at Lafayette, Alabama. The Olivers were a very prominent Georgia family and their genealogy shows that through the succeeding generations they preserved the McCarty name and it appears occasionally in the family down to recent years.Perhaps the most interesting of all the pioneers of the name in America was Daniel McCarty of Westmoreland County, Virginia. There is no information available as to the exact date of his arrival in the Colony, but it is evident that it was only a short time after the signing of the Treaty of Limerick, in October 1691, and in after years he is referred to prominently as the owner of large tracts of land in Virginia. As already stated, his father was Donal, son of Donough, Earl of Clan Carthy, 26 and was an officer of the Irish army that fought
against King William. There was a Captain Donal MacCarthy taken prisoner at the siege of Cork in 1689 by Colonel Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, but, as to his ultimate fate, the Irish records are silent, although in all probability this was the father of Daniel of Virginia. D'Alton, one of the historians of the "Williamite War," states 27 that when Lord Mountcashel was attainted in 1691 and again in 1696, "seventy-eight other Inquisitions of Outlawries were held on the MacCarthys, on whose confiscations various claims were held at Chichester House," and one of this number was Captain Donal MacCarthy.That Daniel McCarty came from Ireland when very young is clear from the following statement by one of his descendants: 28
"Captain Daniel McCarty was exiled by the Treaty of Limerick. He was a scion of the Irish house of McCarty. His silver, which I have, is all blazoned with the shield and crest of that house, and some of it bears the date of 1620. Though the tradition is that he was the Earl of Clancarthy, it is more likely that he was the son of Mount Cashel, the head of the younger branch of the family, as the helmet on the arms is a Knight's, not an Earl's, and that his people merely considered him the Earl after the elder branch became extinct, as represented in Ireland by the younger branches, than the Colonial one."
In the "Williamite War" many of the MacCarthys, with their retainers and followers, fought against William of Orange and in Irish annals are mentioned several military officers of the name who espoused the cause of James the Second and fought at the Boyne and at
Limerick. We are told that "the Sept of the MacCarthys furnished for the service of King James four regiments of their name, namely, the regiments of Clan Carthy, Mount-Cashel, MacCarthy Mor and MacCarthy Reagh. The greater number of the officers bore the name of the Sept and these regiments afterwards passed into the service of France and in 1695 were resolved into other regiments. Many of the MacCarthys Reagh attached themselves to the service of Spain and several of their descendants were slain in the wars of succession to the crown of the two Sicilies." 29Once the Treaty was signed and Sarsfield, the commander at Limerick, had capitulated the English broke faith with the Irish, and, as Davis wrote in his celebrated poem on "The Battle of Fontenoy," "the Treaty broken ere the ink with which 'twas writ could dry," the Irish officers, deprived of their properties and seeing no future for them at home, prepared immediately to leave their native land forever. When the "Wild Geese" 30 fled to the Continent after the Treaty of Limerick, some of the McCarthys, broken in fortune like the sons of other noble families whose estates were confiscated to the Crown, followed King James to France and entered the service of the French King, and in the days of France's greatest military glory they received honorable mention as officers of the far-famed Irish Brigade. 31 Those of the family who remained behind in Ireland appear to have sunk into comparative inferiority and their fate thereafter was to become tenants or vassals of the new "owners" of their lands and castles.
Why Virginia instead of France or Spain was chosen as the future home of young Daniel McCarty, is not clear, except it be that Dennis MacCarthy, who undoubtedly was a near relative, was already settled in that Colony. It is entirely unlikely that he came to this country alone and it is probable that he was accompanied on his journey by some older guardian, and as there were several relatives of his father named Donough or Dennis it is possible that the Dennis McCarty of Princess Ann County, who in 1693 was described as "old, lame and poor," was a relative of the boy Daniel and that it was they who brought the family plate to America. Of Daniel's early years in Virginia no trace can be found in the public records, although it is likely that if all the family papers were accessible some interesting information concerning him could be obtained. How or where he spent the years of his boyhood or from what source he derived the education that made him so accomplished a man as to be elected a representative to the Virginia House of Burgesses at the age of twenty-six, and ten years later Speaker of the House, is matter for interesting enquiry.That he was possessed of large means for his time is quite evident from the extent of his property and dealings, and that he occupied a position of social distinction is attested by his being referred to in public documents as "Gentleman," "Esquire," etc., and by the standing of those with whom his name is constantly associated. The form of the name used by him invariably was "McCarty" and it is spelled usually in that way in the records, although occasionally we also find the spelling "McCarthy"; as for instance, to the will of Colonel Rodham Kenner of the Parish of St. Stephens, dated July 26, 1706, as filed in Northumberland County,
"Daniel McCarthy" signed as one of the witnesses and the name is spelled in the same way in the record of his testimony before the court when the will was up for probate on August 21, 1706. The same form of the name was also used in the recording of a lease of a plantation dated January 24, 1746, from his son, "Daniel McCarthy," to James Carter of Washington Parish, Westmoreland County.Captain Daniel McCarty lived on his estate in the Parish of Cople, Westmoreland County, near the Richmond boundary line, and the fact of his settling in that County to where the original immigrants, Charles and Owen, are said to have removed some years before, would seem to confirm the theory that all three were related. He seems to have been particularly fortunate in the selection of a place to establish his home. Before his death his estate extended along both sides of the Rappahannock River in Westmoreland and Richmond Counties, as well as in Stafford County, and across Westmoreland almost as far as Nomini Creek where it drops into the Potomac. It is a place to which nature has been lavish with its gifts, having a salubrious climate and rich soil, and the numerous creeks and inlets along the Potomac boundary abound with the finest fish, oysters and wild fowl. This section also has practically unlimited deposits of marl, brick and pottery clay; the cities of Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia are built largely from bricks made of Westmoreland County clay, and there are also large quantities of pure fuller's earth, principally along the streams. The slaves on their plantations excavated these rich deposits at very little expense, and for many years the industry was carried on by the McCarty and neighboring families, in addition
to the cultivation of tobacco which was shipped to Europe from the nearby wharves on the Potomac.Westmoreland County is one of the oldest settled parts of Virginia and in colonial days it was the home of wealth and influence. Indeed, it is by far the most historic section of the State; many rich and aristocratic families have resided there and the County is dotted with some fine estates. Washington once called Westmoreland "the garden of America," and it has the undisputed distinction of having been the birth-place of some of the most eminent Americans, among them General Washington and others of the Washington family, Richard Henry Lee and his three brothers, Thomas, Francis and Arthur, President Monroe and General Robert E. Lee of Civil War fame.
Daniel McCarty was married twice, first in 1703 to Mrs. Sarah Payne, widow of James Payne, and second in 1715 to Ann (Lee) Fitzhugh, daughter of Richard and Laetitia Lee of Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, and widow of Colonel William Fitzhugh of Eagle's Nest, King George County, who died in January, 1714. 32 More than a century later (on March 30, 1817), we see a re-uniting of the McCarty and Lee families when Anne, daughter of another Daniel McCarty, married Major Henry Lee, son of that famous Revolutionary General who is familiarly known as "Light Horse Harry Lee." Major Lee served in the 12th U.S. Infantry in the war of 1812 and was private secretary to President Andrew Jackson and afterwards Secretary of the United States Legation at Paris. 33 He and his wife lived in a famous colonial mansion in Westmoreland County known as Stratford Hall, in which Richard Henry Lee, Fran-
eis Lightfoot Lee and General Robert E. Lee were born. A strong friendship was maintained between the successive generations of these two families and one of the McCartys, Mrs. Starke, sister of Anne (McCarty) Lee, was at one time the owner of Stratford Hall and lived in it up to the time of the Civil War, and on her death she left the manor house and one thousand acres of land to her nephew, Dr. Richard Stuart, whose family are said to be the present owners of the property. 34 On August 28, 1802, Richard Stuart of Cedar Grove, King George County, married Margaret R. McCarty, widow of Daniel and mother of the Anne McCarty who married Major Lee. In later years Hancock Lee married Sarah McCarty, daughter of Colonel Daniel McCarty, and John McCarty married Ann Lucinda Lee.Between 1705 and 1715 Daniel McCarty was one of the "Gentlemen Justices of Westmoreland County" 35 and was also for some time Sheriff of the County, and in the "official Letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1710-1722," 36 there is a letter dated September 5, 1711, in connection with "Proposals humbly offered to the hon'ble Commissioners of Her Majesty's Customs for the better preventing illegal Trade in the Colony of Virginia," in which "it was recommended to the Commissioners of Customs that Captain Daniel McCarty be appointed Collector of Potomack River." In 1705 and 1706 he was one of the representatives of the County in the Virginia Assembly. Verbatim copies of the Journals of the House of Burgesses were published in several large volumes by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and these Journals show
that on October 26, 1705, the House "Resolved that Mr. George Eskridge and Mr. Daniel McCarty are Duly Returned Burgesses to Serve in this Present General Assembly for the County of Westmoreland, 37 and in the same month Daniel McCarty was appointed one of the four members of the "Committee for Elections and Priviledges." That he took a forward part in the deliberations of the Assembly and served on several important committees during his terms of office, is seen from these Journals, and from 1705 to 1720 his name appears therein not less than 240 times.On August 3, 1715, he was elected Speaker of the House of Burgesses, succeeding Peter Beverley, and on April 23, 1718, he was re-elected to the same important office. We are told that the session of 1715, over which Daniel McCarty presided, was "chiefly memorable for a bitter quarrel between Governor Spotswood and the House of Burgesses," 38 and the session of 1718 is also described in the preface to the printed Journals as "one of the most exciting that occurred in Virginia colonial history." In that year there was a bitter quarrel between members of the House and Governor Spotswood and in the circumstances it required much tact and good judgment on the part of the presiding officer to meet the situations that presented themselves. Usually, the Speaker of the House also was Treasurer of the Colony, but during Daniel McCarty's second term as Speaker, Beverly retained the office. McCarty seems to have been held in high esteem by his fellow members and
on May 29, 1718, the House passed the following resolution: "That the Sume of One hundred pounds out of the money in the Treasurer's hands be paid to the Speaker as a Token of the Respect this House beares him."In 1720 there was considerable agitation in the Northern Neck of Virginia over some features of the tobacco law, and the matter became an issue at the elections held in that year. Daniel McCarty and Thomas Lee were the nominees for the Assembly and the Sheriff declared Lee the successful candidate, but, on November 5, 1720, a "Petition of Mr. Daniel McCarty, complaining of an undue Election and Return of Thomas Lee, Gent., to serve in this present Assembly for the County of Westmoreland," was presented to the House. It was referred to the "Committee for Elections and Priviledges," and the report of the committee and the evidence presented before it occupy considerable space in the records of the Assembly. In the meantime, Lee actually sat as the representative of the County, but on the committee reporting that "the Sheriff made a false Return of the said Thomas Lee," the House directed "that the Sheriff be sent for in Custody of the Messenger to rase out of his Return the Name of Mr. Thomas Lee and instead thereof insert the Name of Mr. Daniel McCarty." On December 8th following, a resolution was passed by the House declaring "that Mr. Daniel McCarty is duly Elected a Burgess to Serve in this present General Assembly for the County of Westmoreland. 39
Virginia records subsequent to this period also show that other members of the family were active in local politics, and among those who are mentioned in the pub-
lic records as occupants of high stations in the councils of the Colony and the State were: Dennis McCarty and Daniel McCarty (2nd), who represented Prince William and Westmoreland Counties respectively in the House of Burgesses between 1732 and 1744; Daniel McCarty (3rd), delegate to the Convention of Virginia in 1775; Charles McCarty, who represented Richmond County at an adjournment of the same body in May, 1776; Daniel McCarty (4th), representative from Westmoreland County in the House of Burgesses from 1781 to 1794, and in the Virginia Senate from 1797 to 1801 he was Senator from the three Counties of Westmoreland, Stafford and King George; Daniel McCarty (5th), who succeeded his father in the General Assembly in 1795; Colonel William McCarty of Richmond County, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1799; Colonel Edward McCarty, who repesented Hampshire County in the General Assembly from 1814 to 1821; Captain John Mason McCarty, member of the House of Delegates in 1818-1819, and lastly William Mason McCarty, who served in thirteen sessions of the Virginia Senate, was Representative in Congress from Loudoun County from 1833 to 1839 and for sometime was Provisional Governor of Florida. 40Among the memorials to certain historic figures in American history in Bruton Parish Church at Williamsburg, there is a bronze tablet commemorating seven of the Speakers of the Virginia House of Burgesses who were worshippers at this church, and one of the names inscribed thereon is that of "Daniel McCarty, 1715-18." Bruton is a church of historic associations and has held a position of unique importance in Virginia history.
Nearby were the Governor's Palace, the College of William and Mary and the halls of the House of Burgesses, and when public celebrations were held in Colonial times, in which the government or the legislature was interested, it was customary for the Governor to attend Bruton Church surrounded by the Burgesses and officials of the Colony. Washington attended this famous church while seeking to win the heart and hand of the beautiful Martha Custis, and Patrick Henry while Governor of Virginia in 1776, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, Edmnund Randolph, Bland and Lee while members of the House of Burgesses, George Wythe and Signer, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Tyler, Chief Justice Marshall and many prominent figures in American history appear in the lists of its worshippers and vestrymen.Comparatively little is known, even among his living descendants, of the career of Daniel McCarty, but the fact that this Irish exile rose to the commanding position occupied by him for several years in the society and politics of the Colony, stamps him at once as a man of rare virtues and qualifications. In the mutations of time the original possessions of the family in Westmoreland County have passed gradually into other hands, and as far as I could learn on a hurried trip through that County, there is now no trace of any person of the name in that particular part of the State, although there are several McCartys in the adjoining Counties of Lancaster and Richmond. Many of the present inhabitants of Westmoreland County are descendants of its early settlers; they have a conscious and justifiable pride in their ancestry, but few can be found among them who have any knowledge of or seem to take any interest in the career of the distinguished Irish exile, who became
a leader among the Cavaliers of Virginia and who is mentioned so prominently in the annals of the State.Dennis and Daniel McCarty undoubtedly were brought up Catholics in Ireland, but, like nearly all the Irish Catholic immigrants to the colonies, they were obliged to renounce the faith and conform to the established church. Cople Parish, where Daniel resided, occupied the lower part of Westmoreland County and Washington Parish the upper part. There were two Protestant Episcopal churches in Cople Parish, one at Yeocomico near Montross and the other about ten miles east, on Nomini Creek near the Potomac, and it is known that Daniel McCarty and his family attended both churches. The church in Washington Parish, which it is said the McCartys also attended occasionally, was known as Pope's Creek church. I am informed that the birth and marriage records of Yeocomico church have been destroyed and also the registers of Pope's Creek church, which were kept at Montross until about twenty years ago. The dates of the births and baptisms of Daniel McCarty's children, therefore, are not obtainable, but his will shows that four sons and four daughters survived him, and the fact that he named one of his sons Billington, indicates that he was a near relative of the Dennis and Daniel McCarty before alluded to as having married into the Billington family.
Yeocomico church was erected in the year 1706, according to the date engraved in the wall over the front door, and so well was it built that it is said by those acquainted with its history that part of the original building still remains. In the year 1906, when the parishioners celebrated the bicentennial of the founding of the church, the committee in charge published a short account of its history, and from this we learn
that it suffered much during the war of the Revolution, having been shamefully abused by soldiers who were quartered in it, and Bishop Meade also says that "the church at Nominy was destroyed by fire during the war of 1812 and the plate belonging to it carried off by Admiral Cockburn and his party when they were on a pillaging expedition on the Potomac and its tributaries, and the house where it was kept was plundered and burned." 41Yeocomico is as quaint as its name and its church is said to be "the only one of the old church buildings of Westmoreland County which has escaped the general wreck." It is situated near Yeocomico Creek about fourteen miles north of the town of Kinsale, established by the McCartys and other Irishmen about two and a half centuries ago. It is in the form of a cross, and situated as it is in a little recess off the main road, in the midst of large trees and surrounded by an old brick wall, it cannot fail to be an object of interest to one whose soul has any sympathy for such scenes. Bishop Meade relates that during the war of 1812 the church, which at that time was abandoned temporarily, was occupied by troops, that "the communion table was removed into the yard where it served as a butcher's block and was entirely defaced, and the baptismal font was taken some miles from the church and used as a vessel to prepare the excitements of ungodly mirth." This, however, was not long permitted, for he relates, "a worthy old man named John Murphy, mortified at the dishonor done to religion, took pains to regain it and restore it to its former place." And, "it deserves further to be mentioned," says Bishop Meade, "that whatever repairs have been put upon this house were
at the expense of the good man mentioned above (Murphy) and a worthy gentleman from New York whose matrimonial connection in the family often brought him to this part of Virginia." 42In Yeocomico churchyard are pointed out the graves where rest the remains of many of the early settlers of Westmoreland County. Close to the base of the east wall of the church may be seen the stone foundation of a vault which seems to be one of the oldest in this ancient graveyard, but it is now a neglected mound of earth and grass, the accumulation of nearly two centuries, with several cedar trees growing upon it and firmly rooted in the spot where the Irish exile after the Treaty of Limerick was laid to rest. Near the center of this mound is a tombstone which evidently has suffered from the ravages of time, and upon this stone, immediately under what appears to be a crude reproduction of the MacCarthy coat of arms and the motto of the family, is the following inscription, although the lettering is now almost indecipherable:
"Here lyeth the body of Daniel McCarthy who departed this life on the fourth day of May, 1724, in the 45th year of his age. He was endowed with many virtues and good qualifications, but the actions proceeding from them bespeak their praise. Here also lyeth the body of Thaddeus Mc-
Carthy, the youngest son of Daniel McCarty, Esqr. who departed this life the 7th of February, 1731, in the 19th year of his age. Near this place likewise is the body of Penelope, wife to Daniel McCarthy, second son of Daniel McCarty, Esqr. and daughter to Christine Higgins, Gent. who departed this life the 26th of March, 1732, in the 19th year of her age with one child." 43Apparently, the first lands he owned were acquired by purchase from John Glendenning and his wife, as appears from a deed dated March 27, 1697, recorded in Richmond County. When examining the records of Patents at the Virginia Land office, the earliest entry I could find covering a grant to Daniel McCarty is March 11, 1703, on which date "Marguritte, Lady Culpeper, Thomas, Lord Fairfax, and Catherine, his wife, Proprietors of ye Northern Neck of Virginia," Conveyed to Daniel McCarty and Daniel Tebbs 1350 acres of land, described as "on ye East side of ye mouth of Mackotique River and extending along Potomack River East by North," 44 etc. These lands were situated in Westmoreland County and were patented originally by one Richard Cole on November 18, 1650, but as Cole and his wife died without heirs or legally disposing of their property, the land was escheated. In the patent to McCarty and Tebbs the proprietors reserved for themselves "all Royall mines" and one-third part of all minerals found on the land, and it provided for "a fee rent of one shilling sterling money for each fifty acres of land hereby granted, to be paid on the feast day of Saint Michael the Archangel." 45 In fact, all deeds from
the proprietors at this time and for many years thereafter contained this provision.In a grant from the proprietors dated January 28, 1707, they conveyed to Daniel McCarty certain other lands in Westmoreland County, which he "surveyed by virtue of a warrant from the Proprietors, dated July 3, 1706," and in this document he is styled for the first time "Captain" Daniel McCarty, and the patent contained the usual reservations as to "royall mines," minerals and fee rent. 46 He received another grant on February 2, 1709, of 2993 acres "above the Falls of Potowmack River, beginning on said River side at the lower end of the Sugar Land Island opposite to the upper part of the rocks in said River." 47 By deed dated December 19, 1716, "the Right Honble Catherine, Lady Fairfax, Sole Proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia," conveyed to Captain Daniel McCarty 648 acres situated "on the south side of the main run of Accotinck Creek in Stafford County, as surveyed by Simon Connell on September 26, 1714," but which he (Connell) had "allowed to lapse through noncomplyance with the rules of the Proprietor's Office." 48 This tract fell into Fairfax County when that County was formed from Stafford and was adjacent to the property of the Washingtons. Again by deed dated December 5, 1722, Lord Fairfax conveyed other lands in Cople Parish to Daniel McCarty. 49
These grants by no means cover all of Daniel McCarty's landed property, and the number of deeds and conveyances recorded in Virginia between 1697 and the
year of his death covering transfers of real estate in Richmond County to and from Daniel McCarty, alone are sufficient to indicate the extent of his holdings. Among the legal instruments recorded in the office of the County Clerk at Warsaw, Va., are the following deeds for lands in that County:---
| Date | Grantor | Grantee |
| 1697, March 27 | John Glendenning & wife | Daniel McCarty |
| 1698, June 15 | Daniel McCarty | Simon Tomasin |
| 1704, August 25 | Samuel Samford | |
| 1706, April 2 | ( Philip Rogers < Vincent Cox ( | Daniel McCarty |
| 1706, April 2 | John Sabre & wife | Daniel McCarty |
| 1707, October 1 | ( John Davis, Sr. < John Davis, Jr. ( | Daniel McCarty |
| 1707, October 2 | SAME | Daniel McCarty |
| 1708, July 7 | ( Charles Barber < George Glascock ( | Daniel McCarty |
| 1714, January 4 | Webley Pavey | Daniel McCarty |
| 1714, August 31 | SAME | Daniel McCarty |
| 1714, November 30 | Benjamin Hinds & wife | Daniel McCarty |
| 1717, May 2 | Robert Baylis & wife | Daniel McCarty |
| 1717, June 5 | Samuel Randal & wife | Daniel McCarty |
| 1719, May 5 | William Fauntleroy | Daniel McCarty |
| 1719, July 13 | Robert Baylis & wife | Daniel McCarty |
It is strange that there is so little mention of this pioneer Irishman in Virginia history. Nor is ther any place in the State called after him or any of his numerous descendants; yet he occupied a prominent place in the society of the Colony and his children married into some of the leading families of the day. The only places where any mention of his name can be found are in the official records of the Colony, in the land and court records of the day, in the birth, marriage and
death registers of the districts where he and his family resided, and in the genealogies of the families with whom the McCartys intermarried. But, as for giving him a place in history, the historians are peculiarly silent!The will of Mrs. Ann McCarty, widow of Daniel, dated November 7, 1728, and probated in Westmoreland County on May 3, 1732, named several members of the Fitzhugh family, as well as Thaddeus and Billington McCarty, as sharing in the bequests. She died in the year 1732.
The estate of Daniel McCarty was the subject of two actions in Chancery in the Courts of Virginia, "for the accounting of a trust estate," one styled "McCarty vs. McCarty's Executors" and the other "McCarty vs. Fitzhugh," Daniel McCarty having been the plaintiff in both suits, and the papers in the second case describe him as "a lawyer." Complete descriptions of these lawsuits with the decisions of the Judge may be found in the "Decisions of the General Court of Virginia" edited by Robert T. Barton. 53
CHAPTER II
THE MC CARTYS OF VIRGINIA (continued)
The descendants of Daniel, the Speaker--Romantic marriage of Dennis McCarty and Sarah Ball--Their children were cousins of George Washington--Thaddeus McCarty married in Washington's home--Colonel Daniel McCarty, the "well-beloved friend" of Augustine Washington and executor of his will-- Associated with eminent Virginians--George Washington's Diary frequently mentions the McCartys--Correspondence between Washington and Daniel McCarty--The McCarty family invited to attend the funeral of Washington--Eleven McCartys members of the Virginia legislature since 1705.Dennis, eldest son of Captain Daniel McCarty, inheritated the "home plantation" in Westmoreland County as well as his father's lands in Stafford County. In the land office at Richmond there is a deed recorded on March 25, 1727, from Lord Fairfax, whereby he conveyed to Dennis McCarty 522 acres of land "upon the upper side of Accotink Creek in Stafford County," 1 and another as of February 20, 1729, from Lord Fairfax to "Dennis MacCarty of the County of Stafford, Gent.," conveying to him a tract of land on the north side of Pohick Run, 2 and in both deeds the boundary lines on three sides are described as McCarty's own lands. In 1724 Dennis married Sarah Ball of the noted Virginia family of that name who lived at Ball's Creek in Lancaster County. In the marriage register at Lancaster court house there is a letter dated September 21, 1724, from William Ball to Thomas Edwards, Clerk of Lancaster County, asking "for a license for mar- riage between Mr. Dennis McCarty of Copeland Parish, Westmoreland County, and my daughter, Sarah Ball," and the marriage was solemnized in Cople Parish church on the day following the issuance of the license. The Balls are referred to by Virginia historians as "one of the best families in Virginia" and tradition says that Sarah was "a girl of acknowledged charm," and, that Dennis McCarty must have been a young man of highly polished manners and areeable personality, is apparent from the fact that he was acceptable to "the old Cavalier, William Ball," as a suitor for the hand of his daughter in marriage.
Sarah Ball's youthful charms must have created havoc in more than one susceptible heart. There is a romantic story told in the family how another aspirant for the hand of the fair Sarah, mortified at his failure, made use of some derogatory remarks concerning his more fortunate rival; how Dennis McCarty came down to Lancaster and threatened to chastise the rash youth in public in front of the courthouse, it being during a term of court, one of the few occasions when the people of the County assembled in any numbers; how, on his rival tendering him an apology, he graciously invited him to attend the wedding. As the story goes, the occasion was "one of the events of the season" in those parts, and, that Dennis and his friends made the most of it, we may judge when we are told that they drove to Ball's Creek in a large coach drawn by six splendid black horses, with grooms and lackeys as outriders, and returned with the bride and bridesmaids to Cople Parish church, where the ceremony was performed, after which days were spent in festivity and rejoicing and hunting parties formed by the gay young bloods of the neighborhood.
This union resulted in a most intersting and historic relationship between the Washington, Ball and McCarty families. According to the genealogy of the Ball family, Sarah was born in Westmoreland County "between 1700 and 1705" and was a granddaughter of William Ball, an immigrant to Virginia in the year 1650. This William Ball had two sons, William and Joseph. William Jr. was the father of Sarah Ball and Joseph was the father of Mary Ball. As already stated, Sarah Ball became the wife of Dennis McCarty and had three sons, Daniel, Thaddeus and Dennis, and two daughters, Anne and Sarah McCarty. Sarah Ball's first cousin, Mary Ball, married Augustine Washington on March 6, 1730, and to this union was born the illustrious "Father of his Country"; so that Daniel, Thaddeus, Dennis, Anne and Sarah McCarty, grandchildren of the Irish exile, Daniel McCarty, enjoyed the rare distinction of having been second cousins of the immortal Washington! That the friendship between the Washington and McCarty families, which had been of long standing, was firmly cemented by this interesting union, is indicated by an account of the marriage of April 20, 1768, of Sarah Richardson and Thaddeus, nephew of the above-named Dennis, which appears in William and Mary College Quarterly. 3 This account says: "According to tradition, the marriage ceremony took place in the home of George Washington, who was related to the McCartys through the Balls."In the year 1730 the present Prince William County was formed from Stafford and we find the name of Major Dennis McCarty recorded as a Justice of the new County in 1731. In the same year he was elected a representative to the House of Burgesses from Prince
William County, serving until 1734. His attendance at the sessions of the House seems to have been intermittent, and the records of the Assembly show that on June 27, 1732, the House "ordered that Mr. Dennis McCarty have Leave to go Home for Recovery of his Health," and a similar resolution was passed on September 28, 1734. Two years later he was defeated for reelection, but he contested the seat and on September 17, 1736, "A Petition of Mr. Dennis McCarty was presented to the House and read, complaining of an undue Election and Return of Mr. Peter Hedgman to serve as Burgess in this present General Assembly for the County of Prince William." 4 It was a long document detailing alleged "undue practices" of his opponent and friends, which prevented many of the freeholders of the County from voting for McCarty, and the latter declared that in any event he had "the greater Number of Legal Voters upon the Poll." The controversy continued for two years, but on November 9, 1738, Dennis McCarty was granted "leave to withdraw his petition" and thereupon Peter Hedgman was declared duly elected. Another "petition of Dennis McCarty" also appears in the records of the General Assembly of November 6, 1738. It prayed "that Leave may be given to bring in a Bill to dock the Entail of Five Hundred acres of Land in the Parish of Lunenburg in the County of Richmond, and for settling other Lands of greater value in the County of Prince William to the same Uses," but on November 27 of the same year McCarty withdrew his petition.In 1741 Prince William County was divided and the eastern part of the County became known as Fairfax. Dennis McCarty's homestead was situated on Pohick
River in what is now Fairfax County and that of his brother, Daniel, was at Cedar Grove in the same County about fourteen miles below Alexandria, where the Pohick and Accotink Creeks pour their waters into the Potomac. Daniel's lands adjoined the estate of the Washingtons whose home at Mount Vernon between 1735 and 1739 was about five miles west of that of Daniel McCarty. The famous Truro Parish is in this vicinity and all of these families and the gentry from the surrounding neighborhood are recorded among the worshippers at old Pohick church in Truro Parish, which was one mile south of Pohick Run until 1772, when a new site was selected about a mile north of the Run. Augustine, Lawrence and George Washington, Dennis and Daniel McCarty and other prominent men of Prince William, Fairfax and Stafford Counties served as Vestrymen of the parish at various times, and indeed the very first name which appears in the parish book as vestryman between 1732 and 1741 is that of Dennis McCarty. Augustine Washinton was sworn in as vestryman of the parish on November 18, 1735.The Vestry Book opens with a reference to the Act of the General Assembly instituting the parish, the election of the vestry and the proceedings at its first meeting. The Act prescribed that the sheriff of the County should summon the freeholders and housekeepers and elect so many of "the most able and discreet persons in said parish as shall make up the number of Vestrymen in the said parish twelve and no more," and at its initial meeting on November 7, 1732, Dennis McCarty, Charles Broadwater, Richard Osborn, John Lewis, Gabriel Adams, Edward Emms, John Heryford and Edward Barry were elected. Barry was nominated for Clerk and served in that capacity for several years
and in 1743 his brother John Berry, was elected Clerk and served until 1775. It is also of interest to note, as showing there were other early Irish settlers in this locality, that when searching for the names of those who appear in the public records of this section, I found the name of Dennis McCarty listed in a "Poll for the Election of Burgesses for the County of Prince William. A.D. 1741," and among his fellow-voters and freeholders were:
Edward Berry
Darby Callahan
Luke Cannon
Dennis Conniers
Thomas Carney
Samuel Conner
James Cullens
James Curry
Thomas Conway
Andrew Dalton
William Davy
Michael Dermond
Joseph Dulany
Edward Feagan
Owen Gilmore
James Halley
Patrick Hamrick
Richard Higgins
William Hogan
John Madden
John Murphey
Henry Murphey
Gabriel Murphy
Daniel McDaniel
James McGlahan
William Reardon
Michael Regan
Michael Scanlon
William Teague
Thomas Welsh
In the History of Truro Parish, by the noted historiographer of the Church in Virginia, Rev. Philip Slaughter, it is said that "the first regular rector of Truro Parish" was Rev. Charles Green who was appointed by the Vestry on August 13, 1737. Dr. Slaughter describes him as "a Doctor of Medicine before he took Orders and appears to have practiced to some extent afterwards, and on at least one occasion he was called in at Mount Vernon and prescribed for the relief of Mrs. Washington. He was a large landowner and his deeds, in which he is described as 'Doctor of Physic and Clerk of Truro Parish,' are of frequent occurrence in the land records of the County. In his will, probated August 19, 1765, he left 3000 acres of land in Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun Counties to his wife. He also mentioned certain relatives in Ireland and advised his wife to re-
turn to that country, from which it is supposed that he was an Irishman."Dennis McCarty's will, dated March 18, 1742, was probated in Prince William County on January 20, 1743. He named his brother, Daniel, John Miner and his son, Daniel, his executors. He died in 1744. The second son of Captain Daniel was Colonel Daniel McCarty who married Penelope Higgins. He lived for a time in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, in the immediate vicinity of the birthplace and residence of Augustine and George Washington, until he established his residence at Cedar Grove, and all three families sometimes attended Pope's Creek Church in Washington Township and were on terms of intimate friendship for many years. Colonel McCarty was the lawyer before referred to and his name appears in the Journals of the House of Burgesses between 1727 and 1736 as one of the representatives of Westmoreland County. In the election of 1734 his opponent contested the seat, and the "Petition of William Aylett complaining of an undue Election and Return of Mr. Daniel McCarty to serve as a Burgess for the County of Westmoreland," was read in the House on September 4, 1734, but two weeks later the House resolved: "that Mr. Daniel McCarty is hereby elected and returned a Burgess to serve in this present General Assembly for the County of Westmoreland." His name is mentioned freq