The Irish Donation of 1676 is the name sometimes used to refer to a

foreign aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Ai ...

consignment sent to the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...

in 1676 from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. A return donation 171 years later – from Massachusetts to Ireland – has been described as repayment for the original aid.

Background

In 1675, the

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England colon ...

erupted between the Wampanoag Confederacy and their allies, on the one hand, and the United Colonies of New England and their

Mohegan The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the east ...

and

Pequot The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or t ...

allies on the other. The destructive conflict saw rapid Wampanoag gains and bloody losses by the United Colonies who were largely refused military assistance both by the British government and by the neighboring colony of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...

. By the spring of 1676 the frontier of Massachusetts had been overrun and lay "in shambles" with eleven towns – including Dartmouth and Springfield – entirely evacuated, and much of the population sheltered in a besieged

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- m ...

The Donation

In 1676 Nathaniel Mather – a

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

-born,

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...

-educated, independent Protestant clergyman – was ministering in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

. 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. USS Jamestown 1844

Massachusetts Donation of 1847

In 1847, during the Great Famine, Massachusetts businessmen organized a fundraising drive for distressed Irish families which collected $150,000 in goods. The donation, transported to Ireland aboard the U.S. Navy

sloop-of-war In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' en ...

was, according to captain Robert Bennett Forbes, "for the payment of an old debt" – a reference to the Irish Donation of 1676. A second planned donation shipment, to be collected from citizens of New York and transported aboard the U.S. Navy frigate , saw less success; agitation by the ascendant, anti-Catholic

Know Nothing The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...

movement had resulted in popular hostility to the idea of sending supplies to benefit the Irish. The shortfall in New York was made-up by additional provisions offered by Bostonians which ultimately enabled USS ''Macedonian'' to put to sea with a full cargo.

References

{{reflist, 2 1676 in North America Ireland–United States relations

Background

The Donation

Massachusetts Donation of 1847

See also

References