CHAPEL HILL -- When people consider the Irish in America -- usually around St. Patrick's Day -- they tend to think of such major cities as New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
But North Carolina was the first place the Irish entered the New World to settle, according to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill historian William S. Powell. Before 1835, the Tar Heel state was called "the Ireland of America" because economic hard times were the rule rather than the exception.
Powell described North Carolina's strong Irish connection in "The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America," a University of Notre Dame Press book published late last year.
In 1584, Walter Raleigh, later knighted for trying to explore and colonize what was then called Virginia, sent the first of three expeditions sailing west. Raleigh chose Ralph Lane, the sheriff of County Kerry in Ireland, to govern the colony.
"Failing to receive timely supplies from home, after 11 months Lane returned to Britain with his men in 1586," Powell wrote. "In 1589 he was named muster-master general and clerk of the check in Ireland. Knighted in 1593, he was badly wounded in an Irish rebellion in 1594 but continued to serve in Ireland until his death in 1603."
Among those who remained nearly a year with Lane's colony were several Irishmen, including Darby Glande and Edward Nugen, Lane's servant. In 1587, Glande crossed the Atlantic again with the group later to be called "The Lost Colony," but was not lost himself since he abandoned his wife Elizabeth and jumped ship in Puerto Rico before the group reached Roanoke Island.
"Yet Elizabeth may not have lacked for companionship in the New World, as Irishmen Denice Carrell, Thomas Butler and James Lasie were also aboard," the historian wrote.
John White, the colony's governor and possibly an Irishman, was then delayed in re-supplying the settlers after what was supposed to have been a quick trip to England. As a result, his daughter Eleanor, her husband Ananias Dare, their daughter Virginia -- the first British child born in America -- and all the others were never heard from again.
"From his residence in Ireland in 1593, White sadly wrote that he still hoped his colony might be found," Powell said.
Among the earliest Carolinians to be clearly identified as Irish, he wrote, was Dr. John Brickell of Edenton, physician to Gov. Richard Everard and compiler of the "Natural History of North Carolina," printed in Dublin in 1737. By 1741, 12 Roman Catholics lived in North Carolina, and the first known Catholic priest, Patrick Cleary, arrived in 1784.
"The Irish ... often were as proud of their descent as if they had been members of the peerage," Powell wrote. "Books bearing armorial bookplates of Irish families from 18th century North Carolina families survive in the North Carolina Collection in the University library in Chapel Hill."
The largest influx of Irish into the state was in the form of Protestants -- largely Presbyterian but also Anglican -- who became known as "Scotch-Irish" or "Scots Irish," since their ancestors originated in Scotland. So many thousands of these people entered the colony by around 1750 that the assembly created the new counties Johnston, Granville, Anson, Orange and Rowan.
"By the second half of the 19th century it was customary for writers to denigrate the Irish while at the same time often lauding the Scotch-Irish as wholly Scottish," the UNC-CH historian wrote. "Their hyphenated name, it was said, merely indicated that they had once lived in Ireland. In the late 20th century, however, this practice was generally abandoned in favor of regarding the Scotch-Irish as one people -- an amalgamation of the two."
Before the American Revolution, Powell said, colonial officials often referred to the settlers as Irish, and they were not offended except when confused with Roman Catholic Irish. Writers, educators and politicians later frequently mentioned how much the United States owed its success to the Scotch-Irish.
In his 1920 book on the subject, the first archivist of the United States, N.C. historian R.D.W. Connor, said the "Scotch-Irishman was domestic in his habits and loved his home and family; but we know also that he was an unemotional being, seldom giving expression to his affections and accordingly presenting to the world the appearance of great reserve, coldness and austerity.
"He was loyal to his own kith and kin, but stern and unrelenting with his enemies. He was deeply and earnestly religious, but the very depth and earnestness of his convictions tended to make him narrow-minded and bigoted. He was law-abiding so long as the laws were to his liking, but when they ceased to be he disregarded them, quietly if possible, forcibly if necessary."
The Scotch-Irishman was independent, self-reliant, opinionated, aggressive, brave and unafraid of death in battle, Connor said.
"In short, in both his admirable and his unadmirable traits, he possessed just the qualities which were needed on the Carolina frontier in the middle of the 18th century."
An unscientific examination of his own six-volume "Dictionary of North Carolina Biography," Powell said, revealed that subjects bearing known Irish or apparent Irish or Scotch-Irish names dominate the listings.
Note: Powell can be reached at (919) 942-7295 or via email at wpowell@email.unc.edu
Contact: David Williamson, 962-8596.