The Irish standard., 1897-01-23

L
In fact the governor of Virginia in 1911
begged the King to "banish hither al
offenders condemned to die out of com.
mon gaoles and likewise to continue that
grant unto the colonies for three years,
thus reckoning it a privilege to get them
Whether this request was granted or de-
| MED, the jails continued to give up their
convicts to the colonies. 1t was we'll fol
a murderer that he was a carpenter or a
skilled mechanic. Virginia or other parts
beyond the seas were almost sure to get
him. Young people, men and women,
twice punished and unreformed, were
sent in fifties-three out of twelve in
one batch were women; six out of an
other ten were women.
Thus the Treats of Connecticut reckon
among their ancestors one Elizabeth
Canning, who on July 28, 1864, was
transported to some of his majesty's col
onies and was handed over to mer-
chant for that purpose, and the account
goes on: "'Tis certain that in case she
be found at large in this kingdom before
the expiration of seven years she will
be liable to the pains of DEATH" She
didn't return, for in 1856 she married
John Treat and died at Wethersfeld,
Conn.,, In 1878. One of the best things
in the article is the fine irony contained
in this sentence Mr. Butler has found
it difficult to get the facts he is looking
for. They are in the police court rec
ords of England, and the genealcgists
have a better chance than he to find
them. Accordingly" he says, Il have
urged Mr.. H. r. Waters, who has been
employed in London for years in search
ing out the lineage Of Bostonians, to be-
take himself to Old Bailey" Old Bailey!
He adds that Mr.. Waters has found
only gleanings at Somerset House, the
heralds office, and the record of archi-
episcopal Canterbury.
Virginia, in 1870, indignant that it was
considered only place fit to receive
"base and lewd persons "felons and
other desperate Villains" passed an en-
actment prohibiting them, but to little
purpose, for shortly afterwards fifty lewd
women out of the houses of correction,
and thirty others who walked the streets
after 10 at night. were on their way to
the Old Dominion. Bristol was the port
of departure for many OF them, for Bris-
tol from the most ancient times made
profit from traffic in human freight. 1t
was the Bristol merchants who stole
away the Irish widows and orphans
made by Cromwell-shipped to the West
Indies, which might mean even the col
onies, the relics Of $4,000 exiles and of
countless slain, were hurried away into
slavery-the women and, girls for pur-
poses of sin; the boys for slavery. The,
order ran for boys who were of an age
to labor and women who were marriage
able and not past breeding" Massachu
setts, in 1854, prohibited the entrance of
these Irish "convicts'' on penalty of $50
sterling, but they were brought and
bought, also. In 1880 there were sixty
Irish in Massachusetts, and after that
many came. Here is an entry of Octo-
ber, 1890: "Entered-Dove, Sterling, cap
tain, Dublin" and soon after the News
Letter reads: Some servant lads on the
ship Dove at Long Wharf (Boston);
their time Of service to be disposed of"
Pennsylvania was opposed to this
trade, but all the other colonies entered
into it heartily. Rhode Island was most
anxious for them. In 1714, bringing in
any Indian as servant or slave was pro-
hibited under penalty Of ESQ. The rea-
son given for this law was that such
importations daily encouraged the ip-
porting Of white servants from Great
Britain
The English papers Of the last century
give testimony in plenty to the exporta-
ton of burglars, adventurers, default
ers, embeZzlers, murderers and all man
ner of dissolute men and women. The
schoolmasters were generally convicts,
Rev. Jonathan Boucher being authority
for the information that George Wash
ington had no other education than read
ing, writing and accounts, which he was
taught by convict servant whom his
father had bought for a schoolmaster
Thus 1t came about that old writer's re-
ferred to the colonies as "emuncrories or
sinks of state to drain away their filth"
Maine was thus entirely settled by the
offscourings of English jails, and a Bit
ter saying went in England that the COL
onies were very like England indeed
''as being spit out of the very mouth OF
it,
Here lies the glory of native American
ancestry, and out of the jails our noble
men have sprung!
Death of nrs. Foley.
Mrs. Foley, mother of Michael E. Fo-