The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-08-29
A REAL AMERICAN PRINCE.
Ex-Governor John Lee Carroll's Claim to
the Title of Uriel.

kEaI AMEhiCAN tHfNCE.
Ex-Governor John Lee CarroIl's Claim to
the Title OF Uriel.
1t is not generally known that there
is a real, live American prince, born
on the soil, able to trace his direct de-
scent to the man who last bore the IT,
tie, and having no European or other
competitor to contest his right. An
other lives in the ancient castle, re-
novated and modernized, and derives
his income from his broad lands, but
he makes no claim to the title and
bears another which is the gift of an
English king. The man is John Lee
Carroll, once governor of Maryland,
and the title is Prince of Uriel.
One of his progenitors, Charles Car
roll, of Carrollton, signed the Declara-
ton of Independence, rather demo
cratic document for a prince to put
his name to, and the family have long
since ceased to trouble themselves
about the title, but they are the ineal
and only descendants of the men who
bore it for thousand years.
Ex-Governor Carroll is descended
from Roger Carroll, or, more correctly,
Rory O'Carroll, the last chief of the
Irish clan of that name, and the lineal
descendant of the princess of Uriel,
who played a not unimportant part in
the history of ancient and medieval
Ireland. He espoused the cause of
the Stuarts in the wars between Charles
! and the parliament, and stood
loyalty by that ungrateful family
when other Irishmen of his kind un-
der Owen Roe O'Neill, who had won
rank and fame in the armies of Spain,
were battling to shake off the English
yoke.
Ireland was crushed under the iron
heel of Cromwell, and Col. Roger
Carroll accompanied Charles II in his
exile, taking service under various
European governments according as
the whims of the banished prince die
tated. During his absence the lord
deputy, Sir John Parsons, found the
Clan OCarroll's domain, which, in
violation of the rights of clansmen,
had been conferred on the chief by
an English title, most desirable loca-
ton and selected it for himself He
settled down there and made it his
home.
Among the numerous Irish and
Scotch Jacobite families who made
their home in Maryland were the Mac
Tavishes. They were the chief of the
clan, and, as such matters go, as
''blue" in blood as the Argyles or the
Sutherlands or the Fifes, or any
others now counting among the Scotch
aristocracy. In later times the Mac
Tavishes intermarried with the Car
rolls and the families are now related
This involves curious feature of
family history and strange freak of
the old ''blue blood" run wild. One
daughter of the CAROLS, as is we'll
known, married a Bonaparte. An
other married Wellesley, brother of
'the Iron Duke" of Wellington. Still
another married MacTavish.
A son of this MacTavish conceived
the idea of running for the British
parliament, and with the aid of the
Wellesleys contested the borough of
Dundalk, then rotten to the core The
Wellesleys were Tories, but family in
fuence was stronger than party
fealty, and MacTavish was elected
over a candidate supported by the
Carlton club in London.
An old Irishman now living in this
city remembers well that rollicking
canvass, and describes how MacTavish
used to drive four-in-hand through
town "showering fistfuls of sixpences
and fourpenny bits among the mob"
He was unseated on petition of brib-
cry, these "sixpences and fourpenny
bits" constituting the bribes. Then
he commenced suit to recover the
O'Carroll estate from Lord Rosse, and
wound up in private lunatic asylum.
His son was trained with great care,
and everything possible was done to
keep from him the knowledge which
led to his fathers mania. But it was
of no avail, and he, too, undertook
the task of ousting Lord Rose from
the ancestral home of the O'Carrolls.
Neither seemed to bother about the
bleak, heath covered hills over which
the MacTavishes held sway.
This last prince of Uriel, as MacTav-
ish called himself, once made an alli-
ance with the O'Donovan Rosa Fen
ians, by which for a time they re-
ceived donation of $50 month. FL
nally he notified them that, unless
they recognized him as prince of
Uriel and began their communications
in the proper form with ''May it please
your highness," he would not conde-
scend to take any notice of them. That
ended the alliance. The council would
not hear of ''prirre~ or royal high
nesses."
1--WE must draw the line some
where" said one of them, 'an' be the
hokey pokeyl l wouldn't call any
man 'Yei. Royal Highness' if he was
to give ten thousand year to the
cause"
Poor Prince MacTavish, who was
tall, slim and very aristocratic looking
young man, went through course Of
training to fit him for the task of win
ming back the ancestral lands by the
sword. He entered the Servian army
as volunteer during their disastrous
war with Turkey some thirteen years
ago, fought under the banner of Don
Carlos and sought the sanction of the
pope for his enterprise. He found
unscrupulous lawyers who preyed
upon his mania and encouraged him
to go on, until he was finally put in
place of safety by his friends.-New
York Journal.