Category: Goshen NY

The Infamous Voyage of the George and Anne

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On May 20, 1729, the George and Anne set sail from Dublin, Ireland for New Castle, Delaware, taking 180 immigrants to their new lives in colonial America.1 More than four months later, the survivors of that terrible voyage disembarked on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, several hundred miles from their intended destination. Some 80 passengers, many of them children, had died at sea.

Among the passengers were several members of the Thompson family, possibly including my seven-times great-grandfather James Thompson.2

The George and Anne was a chartered vessel. Many of the passengers were friends and neighbours of a man named Charles Clinton,3 of County Longford, Leinster Province, Ireland, who organized the trip. Many were members of Corboy Presbyterian Church near Edgeworthstown, County Longford.  

Clinton’s diary noted the first hint of trouble came on the night of June 1 when a strong wind “loosened our bowsprit with hazard of our masts. June ye 2d we had a fair breeze on our westerly course, on the 3rdditto” Then, he reported, his daughter and his son “fell sick of the measles.”4

On June 5, a child died, and a second child died three days later. As the deaths continued over the following weeks, Clinton recorded them, but it is hard to determine exactly how many there were since he appears to have repeated some of the names. Clinton himself lost a son and a daughter, 12 members of the MacDowell family died, and James Thompson lost his wife and three children. Clinton did not note the causes; measles could have been a factor, while poor sanitation, lack of food and overcrowding no doubt led to disease. The desperation most people on board the vessel must have felt led directly to one death as a servant accompanying one of the passengers threw himself overboard and drowned. Several accounts of the voyage written by other families accuse the captain of trying to starve the passengers to death so he could steal their money. 

In July, Clinton reported, gale-force winds from the northwest blew the ship far off course and, for a short time, it was becalmed off the north coast of Africa. Clinton did not say whether this was bad luck or poor navigation on the part of the captain. 

When America finally came into view, it was October 4. Accounts of what happened next vary. One says the passengers had to pay a ransom to the captain before he would allow them to leave the ship, another says the passengers seized the captain and a crew member brought the ship to shore.5

The surviving passengers spent the winter on Cape Cod. They had originally intended to settle near Philadelphia, but instead some bought land a few miles west of the Hudson River, north of New York City. There they founded a community they called Little Britain in Ulster County. Today, some of their descendants still live in this area, now part of Orange County, New York. 

There is some confusion about the identities of the Thompson family members on the voyage.  Orange County genealogy researcher Elmire L. Conklin wrote, “The Charles Clinton diary listed James, Mary and William [Thompson] for a passage of four. The fourth passage was probably for the children of James [Jr.] and Mary, three of whom died on the voyage.”6

Most Thompson family historians have assumed that the William Thompson mentioned was the husband of Ann Jenkins. But Mrs. Conklin suggested this is incorrect. She suggested that the William Thompson mentioned in the diary was actually the brother of James Thompson Sr., who was also with the Clinton party, and that William Thompson and Ann Jenkins (my six-times great-grandparents) came to America later.7

Ann gave birth to daughter Sarah in February, 1729 so perhaps the family remained in Ireland that year rather than risk travelling with an infant. Also, the minister of their church gave them a reference letter to use in America, dated August 1737.8 It is more likely that they brought this letter with them than that they acquired it eight years after their arrival. If in fact they came to America on a ship other than the George and Anne, they made a lucky choice.

See also:

Janice Hamilton, “The Thompsons: from Scotland to Ireland and America,” Writing Up the Ancestors,  https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2015/11/the-thompsons-from-scotland-to-ireland.html

Notes

  1. Jeffrey Clinton, “George and Anne Ship 1729 Passengers.” Genealogy.com,   http://www.genealogy.com/forum/regional/countries/topics/ireland/17044/, posted July 5, 2000. List transcribed from Orange County Genealogical Society, vol. 3 no 4 (Feb. 1974), copied by Elizabeth S. Smith. 
  2. Elmire L. Conklin, “The Two George Thompsons of Early Orange County, N.Y.,” Orange County Genealogical Society, vol. 21 no. 1 (May 1991), 9; Thompson vertical files. Orange County Genealogical Society, Goshen N.Y.
  3. Charles Clinton (1690-1773), was of English descent but was born in Ireland where his grandfather, a military officer, had been given land. One Thompson source says he was a cousin of the Thompsons, but I have not confirmed that. Once settled in New York, Clinton became a farmer, justice of the peace and militia colonel. He was the father of George Clinton, who served as Vice President of the United States from 1804 to 1812, and grandfather of DeWitt Clinton, a New York politician who was instrumental in the construction of the Erie Canal. Leslie Stephen, editor. Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XI, New York: MacMillan & Co., 1887, 91. https://books.google.ca, accessed Nov. 21, 2015. 
  4. Thomas J. Barron, “Presbyterian Exodus, Co. Longford, 1729,” http://www.from-ireland.net/presbyterian-exodus-1729-longford/; article originally appeared in Breifne, no. 18 (1977-78), 253; accessed Nov. 6, 2015.
  5. Fergus D. H. MacDowall and William L. MacDougall. The MacDowalls, Clan MacDougall Society of North America Inc., 2009, 60; https://books.google.ca, accessed Nov. 21, 2015.
  6. Conklin, “The Two George Thompsons of Early Orange County, N.Y.”
  7. Ibid.
  8. “Thompson Genealogy (also Hudson and Duryea)” Orange County Genealogical Society, vol. 8 no. 4 (Feb. 1979), 30. Thompson vertical files. Orange County Genealogical Society, Goshen N.Y.

The Thompsons: from Scotland to Ireland and America

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When my four-time great-grandfather John Thomson (1766-1851) moved his family from New York State to Upper Canada,1 he was continuing a family tradition of migration. His father and his grandparents had migrated from Ireland to colonial America around 1730, and an earlier generation had migrated from Scotland to Ireland.  Members of the Thompson family moved to Goshen, in Orange County, New York, from Edgeworthstown, Longford County, Leinster Province, Ireland, where they were members of Corboy Presbyterian Church.2 I do not know when or why the Thompson family went to Longford. They were probably originally from Scotland because the name Thompson is generally Scottish, and they were Presbyterian, a religion that was strongly identified with Scotland. 

Corboy Presbyterian Church was built in 1729 on the site of an earlier building. Photo credit: Stephen Lockington

Many English and Scottish families moved to Ireland in the 1600s. Most settled in northern Ireland, in what was then known as the Plantations of Ulster. When a group of Irish rebels were forced to leave Ireland in 1607 following a failed rebellion, the government in London confiscated their estates and encouraged Scots to settle on their land. Migration continued over the century. By 1672, an estimated 100,000 Scottish settlers were living in Ulster, and an additional 50,000 families had arrived by the early 1700s.3 Longford County, in central Ireland, also had a number of English and Scottish residents. 

Most of these immigrants were tenants or agricultural workers, attracted by the availability of cheap land. Some were merchants who carried on trade between Scotland and Ulster, and others were either common criminals or people who had been accused of political crimes. 

By 1715, the population of Ireland had grown so much that there was no more cheap land available, and the flow of immigrants stopped. High rents and land prices and expensive provisions became problematic. Several bad growing seasons in the 1720s ruined many families.4 In addition, the Scots in Ireland were annoyed that Presbyterians were barred from holding public office and that Presbyterian marriages were not legally recognized. So when agents from the American colonies and some ships’ captains told the Scots Irish of available land and great plenty in America, many people listened. In the 1720s, thousands of Presbyterians left Ireland, headed for the West Indies or for colonial America, especially for Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas.5

In 1729, several members of the Thompson family joined the exodus.6 They settled in Ulster County (now part of Orange County), New York, in the Hudson River Valley north of New York City. According to some family stories, William Thompson and his wife Ann Jenkins immigrated in 1729, but it is more likely they came in 1737,7 settling near their pioneering relatives on a farm near Goshen. 

According to an article published in a collection of biographies of 19th century Orange County residents, William and Ann had been “wealthy and highly respected.”8 Their good reputation was supported by a certificate signed by the minister at Corboy Presbyterian Church. It read, “That William Thompson and his wife Ann have lived many years in this neighbourhood and all along behaved as it becometh Christians; and may be received into Christian Communion wherever Providence may cast their lot. They have been orderly members of the Protestant dissenting Congregation. And their children have also behaved soberly, inoffensively; certificated at Cork Bay (sic), County Longford, Ireland, 12 May 1737.” 9

At least two of their children probably accompanied William and Ann to America: George (1719-1782), who was my five-times great-grandfather and married Elizabeth Wells, and Sarah (1729-1800), who married James Little.10

Notes 

  1. Janice Hamilton, “A Confirmed Connection: the Thompson Family of Goshen, New York and Sophiasburgh, Ontario.” Writing Up the Ancestors, http://www.writinguptheancestors.blogspot.ca/2015/11/a-confirmed-connection-thompson-family.html. 
  2. Several Thompson family historians have erroneously written that the family came from Cork, Cork Bay or Corkley. In fact, they were members of Corboy Presbyterian Church in County Longford. According to A Flickering Flame: a Brief History of Presbyterian Churches in Longford, Meath and Westmeath, by Chris Aitcheson, Corboy is one of the oldest Presbyterian congregations in Ireland outside of Ulster. The building is still in use.
  3. Michael Perceval Maxwell, “The Scots Migration to Ulster;” University College, Cork, Ireland, Multitext Project in Irish History, History of early Modern Ireland — Sample Materials, 1494-1815. http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/The_Scots_Migration_to_Ulster; accessed Nov. 9, 2015.
  4. Thomas J. Barron, “Presbyterian Exodus, Co. Longford, 1729,” http://www.from-ireland.net/presbyterian-exodus-1729-longford/; article originally appeared in Breifne, no. 18 (1977-78), 253; accessed Nov. 6, 2015.
  5. Kyle J. Betit, “Scots-Irish in Colonial America,” The Irish Times, Irish Ancestors, https://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/magazine/articles/iha_scotsus1.htm; originally appeared in The Irish at Home and Abroad, vol. 2 no. 1 (1994-1995); accessed Nov. 9, 2015.
  6. They were part of a migration group organized by a man named Charles Clinton and sailed to America aboard the George and Anne. The voyage was a nightmare. I will write about it in another post.
  7. Elmire L. Conklin, “The Two George Thompsons of Early Orange County, N.Y.,” Orange County Genealogical Society, vol. 21 no. 1 (May 1991), p. 9; Thompson vertical files. Orange County Genealogical Society, Goshen N.Y.
  8. “John Hudson Thompson, M.D.” Portrait and Biographical Record of Orange County New York; Containing Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County, Together with Portraits of all the Presidents of the United States, New York and Chicago:  Chapman Publishing Co., 1894, 1101.
  9. “Thompson Genealogy (also Hudson and Duryea)” Orange County Genealogical Society, vol. 8 no. 4 (Feb. 1979), 30. Thompson vertical files. Orange County Genealogical Society, Goshen N.Y.
  10. Charles B. Thompson, “1500-1990. The Ancestors and Descendants of William Thompson; the Thompsons of Goshen and Georgia,“ undated manuscript; Orange County Genealogical Society, Goshen, N.Y.