page_title: Irish Donation of 1676
section_title: The Donation
hierarchical_section_title: Irish Donation of 1676 / The Donation
caption_attribution_description: English: USS Jamestown, a sloop built in 1844
context_page_description: The Irish Donation of 1676 is the name sometimes used to refer to a foreign aid consignment sent to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1676 from Ireland. A return donation 171 years later – from Massachusetts to Ireland – has been described as repayment for the original aid.
context_section_description: In 1676 Nathaniel Mather – a Lancashire-born, Harvard-educated, independent Protestant clergyman – was ministering in Dublin. Mather organized a fundraising drive among Dubliners to send foodstuffs and other goods to Massachusetts Bay Colony. The resulting donation was loaded onto the hired ship Katherine which sailed from Dublin, en route to Boston, on August 28, 1676. 
  Upon arrival, the consignment was to be given to a committee composed of William Tyng, James Oliver, and John Hull, "or as many of them as shall be alive". The committee was instructed to sell the goods to pay the shipping charges and distribute the remainder to colonists and members of colonial-allied Native American tribes who had been made refugees. Proceeds from the donation were ultimately divided among approximately 600 families.
caption: The United States sloop-of-war USS Jamestown (pictured) carried a return donation to Ireland in 1847.
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