Irish immigration in Saint Kitts and Nevis began in the 1620s with the English settlement of the island, and continued into the 18th century.
1620s to 1642
The first
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...
was established in 1623, followed by a
French colony in 1625. The English and French briefly united for the
Kalinago Genocide of 1626 (pre-empting a Kalinago plan to massacre the Europeans), and then partitioned the island, with the English colonists in the middle and the French on either end. A
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
force sent to clear the islands of non-Spanish settlement led to the
Battle of St. Kitts (1629)
__NOTOC__
The Battle of St. Kitts or St. Cristopher was a successful Spanish expedition that seized the islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis from the English and French during the Anglo-Spanish War (1625–30).
Background
By the year 1629, the co ...
. The English settlement was rebuilt following the 1630 peace between England and Spain.
The Irish emigrated to the islands with the English, both as merchants and
Irish indentured servants
Irish indentured servants were Irish people who became indentured servants in territories under the control of the British Empire, such as the British West Indies (particularly Barbados, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands), British North America and ...
. One of the earliest known Irish settlers, merchant Gregory French of Galway, was there in 1630 when tried for "certain speeches ... tending to the dishonour" of King
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
.
[Adrian Martyn, ''The Tribes of Galway,'' pp. 176–177, 1 Jun 2016, ] In an incident at
Kinsale
Kinsale ( ; ) is a historic port and fishing town in County Cork, Ireland. Located approximately south of Cork City on the southeast coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon, and has a population of 5,281 (a ...
in 1634, Irish emigrants were "ready to go ... to the West Indies ..
n a ship whichcould have carried 150 passengers thence, for which passage there is commonly paid £6 per head ... and the freight of goods from Ireland to St Christopher, or other parts of the West Indies, is £3 to £4 per ton."
[
According to Matteo Binasco,
]
The English Caribbean received a growing influx of white settlers, whose number, before 1660, was estimated to be around 190,000. This emigration pattern was largely dictated by the absence of a large native population that could be used as a labour force, and consequently, the islands needed indentured servants . A considerable number of these indentured servants were Irish, who, in the 1630s, began to be recruited to work in the English West Indies (Bridenbaugh 1972: 14) ... and decided to improve their economic and social conditions.[The Activity of Irish Priests in the West Indies: 1638-1669 by Matteo Binasco]
/ref>
Citing as typical the case of Captain Thomas Anthony, forced in 1636 by his Irish passengers to change his course from Virginia to St. Christopher the West Indies, Akenson writes:
"Irish labourers were well informed about comparatives wage rates and knew they would be better paid in the West Indies than in Virginia. So Captain Anthony was forced to change his plans and to make St. Christopher his destination; this is where most of them wanted to go."
In March 1638, Archbishop of Tuam
The Archbishop of Tuam ( ; ga, Ard-Easpag Thuama) is an archbishop which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Catholic Church.
Histor ...
Malachy Ó Caollaidhe sent two priests, Ferdinand Fareissy and David O’Neill, to accompany "six hundred Irish of both sexes hocame to those parts, thanks to a safe and functional communication line, recently established." It was believed that the mission would be a success because of "the scarce presence of Protestant ministers."[
]
Warfare, transportation, and the introduction of African slavery
Irish emigration was disrupted during the Irish Confederate Wars. In its aftermath, around 10,000 Irish and an unknown number of English, Welsh, and Scots were transported
''Transported'' is an Australian convict melodrama film directed by W. J. Lincoln. It is considered a lost film.
Plot
In England, Jessie Grey is about to marry Leonard Lincoln but the evil Harold Hawk tries to force her to marry him and she w ...
as convicts and prisoners of war to colonies in British North America
British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestow ...
, including Saint Kitts and Nevis. While Irish immigration continued, the rise of the Atlantic slave trade in Africans brought indenture wages down and forced many to leave the islands for mainland North America. Some former indentures remained and became slave-owners.
According to Nini Rogers:
"The irony of the Irish as ‘colonised and coloniser’ is intellectually disturbing to readers in a later generation; it was not so to the actual participants. Needy Catholic gentry, landless swordsmen, particularly from the provinces of Connacht and Munster, might look west to recoup their losses. The earliest surviving Irish emigrant letter from the New World comes from the Blake brothers on Barbados and Montserrat, conventionally carrying messages home to Galway of the good living to be made in a new land."The Irish in the Caribbean 1641-1837: An Overview, by Nini Rodgers
/ref>
See also
*Irish immigration to Barbados Irish transport to Barbados dates back to the 1620s, when Irish people began arriving on the island. The majority were emigrants, indentures, and merchants, though with an unknown number of political and convict transportees during the 1650s
Histo ...
*Irish people in Jamaica
Irish people in Jamaica or Irish Jamaicans, are Jamaican citizens whose ancestors originated from Ireland. Irish people are the second-largest reported ethnic group in Jamaica, after Jamaicans of African ancestry. Most Jamaicans with Irish ancest ...
* Irish slaves myth
*Redleg
Redleg is a term used to refer to poor whites that live or at one time lived on Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada and a few other Caribbean islands. Their forebears were sent from Ireland, Scotland and Continental Europe as indentured servants, ...
s
References
Other sources
* '' "A "riotous and Unruly Lot": Irish Indentured Servants and Freemen in the English West Indies, 1644-1713'', in The William and Mary Quarterly
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
47, no. 4, Hilary Beckles
Sir Hilary McDonald Beckles KA (born 11 August 1955) is a Barbadian historian. He is the current vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission.
Educated at the University of Hu ...
, 1990.
* ''If the Irish Ran the World: Montserrat, 1630-1730'', Donald Harman Akenson, 1997
* ''Subjects Without an Empire: The Irish in the Early Modern Caribbean'', Past and Present, Kristen Block, 2011.
* ''Everyday Life in the Early English Caribbean: Irish, Africans, and the Construction of Difference'', Jenny Shaw, University of Georgia Press, 2013.
External links
*
*
{{Ancestry and ethnicity in Saint Kitts and Nevis
Irish Caribbean
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain ...