Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

PART II EMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE

Independence (1776-1783), and then the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (1792- 1815) made a migratory fishery dangerous and difficult. Fishermen who were once transitory therefore began to move to Newfoundland permanently, and the resident population of St. John's began to grow rapidly. From a population of just 849 in 1753, the town had over 3,000 residents by 1795, and over 10,000 by 1815. Most were immigrants from England and Ireland. When the long period of conflict came to an end in 1815, St. Johns was a very different town than it had been 100 or even 50 years before. Its permanent resident population had grown considerably, and the Harbour was the primary site of economic activity in Newfoundland”. (Collier, 2011) The Colony’s Irish population reached 38,000 in 1836; five times greater than in 1800. Ireland accounted for 50% of all the colony’s residents in the 1840s. The historian John Manion claimed that 90% of these Irish emigrants came from southeast Ireland within 40 miles of the City of Waterford (Waterford, Wexford, Tipperary, Kilkenny, and Cork). Catholic clergy in BNA were often recruited in Ireland. Michael Anthony Fleming, born near Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary c.1792, was consecrated as bishop in St John’s in 1829 and initiated the construction of the Basilica-Cathedral of St John the Baptist of St John’s in 1839. Completed and consecrated in 1855, it was the largest church building in North America and one of the few buildings in St John’s to survive the Great Fire that destroyed the city in 1892. A commanding structure to elicit the pride of Irish Catholics in Newfoundland.

CHAPTER 4B IRISH EMIGRANT DISPERSAL IN THE USA. Starting with the regional dispersion data extracted from census records. 1850 US Census: Review of regional ethnic settlement in the USA: Total Population %Irish %British %German

%Foreign born

Northeast Total South Total Midwest Total

8,626,629 6,460,501 4,721,649

8.4 1.6 2.8 2.6 0.7 4.8

2.6 0.6 2.4 4.4 2.1 1.9

2.5 1.9 4.9 3.2 0.5 2.9

13.9

4.6

11.1 13.5

California Territories US Total

92,597 86,195

3.5

19,987,571 10.2 1850 Ireland, with 4.8% of the 10.2% total of foreign-born US residents, equal to the combined total from the British mainland and German States, provided the main US immigrant group and demonstrated a strong preference for the Northeast States. The Northeast States: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. The South States: Delaware, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri. The Midwest States: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota. 1860 US Census: Foreign-born US residents increased from 10.2% in 1850 to 15% in 1860:

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