Edmund Burke, New York Agent, with his letters to the New York Assembly and intimate correspondence with Charles O’Hara 1761-1776

653 Pages·1956·29.154 MB·English

by  Ross J. S. Hoffman

EDMUND BURKE
Memoirs o£ the
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
Held at Philadelphia
for Promoting Useful Knowledge
Volume 41

Fic. 1. Edmund Burke, ae. 45
Painted by James Barry in 1774, and reproduced with the permission of the owner,
Professor Denis Gwynn of Uni\ersity college of Cork, and by the courtesv of the
Cork Examiner.
EDMUND BURKE
NEW YORK AGENT
with his letters to the New York Assembly
and
intimate correspondence
with
Charles O’Hara
1761-1776
ROSS J. S. HOFFMAN
Professor of History, Fordham University
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
INDEPENDENCE SQUARE • PHILADELPHIA
1956
t'-r- t
■ u
Copyright 1956 by the American Philosophical Society
Library of Congress Catalog
Card No. 55-12243
To
William Ezra Lingelbach
with
afEection and gratitude

Acknowledgments
I am most thankful to the late eighth Earl Fitzwilliam,
the Fitzwilliam Estates Trustees, and Mr. J. P. Lamb,
Sheffield City Librarian, for giving me permission to pub¬
lish Burke’s New York letter-book and to make free use of
the Wentworth-Fitzwilliam Manuscripts. Mr. Lamb, in
addition, has done numerous valuable favors for me that
have helped much in preparing this volume. Similar kind
acts of assistance have laid me under obligation to Miss
Rosamund Meredith, of the Sheffield Central Library.
To Mr. Donal F. O’Hara I am grateful in the extreme
for giving me permission to publish the letters of Edmund,
William, and Richard Burke to Charles O’Hara, which
have been a prized possession of his family at Annaghmore
in County Sligo since they were received by his eighteenth-
century ancestor. Mr. and Mrs. O’Hara also hospitably
entertained me at Annaghmore in order that I might
examine other historical documents pertaining to the
Burke-O’Hara correspondence; and Mr. O’Hara generously
provided me with a print of the portrait of Charles O’Hara,
painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1765, which hangs in
the dining hall at Annaghmore.
To Dr. R. James Hayes, Director of the National Library
of Ireland, I owe my discovery of Burke’s letters to Charles
O’Hara, the microfilm of them on which work could begin,
and many other valuable favors.
It was Professor George R. Potter, of Sheffield Univer¬
sity, who found Burke’s New York letter-book among the
Wentworth-Fitzwilliam Manuscripts and placed it in my
hands. For this, and for the charming acts of hospitality
shown by Professor and Mrs. Potter to my wife and to me
during our visit to Sheffield, I am warmly grateful.
I owe much to Professor Thomas W. Copeland, of the
University of Chicago, for giving excellent professional
advice, lending me documents on microfilm, and even aid¬
ing me in editing the Burke-O’Hara letters.
vii
Professor F. W. Hilles, of Yale University, kindly allowed
me to quote from an original Burke manuscript letter in
his possession. The Rev. Aubrey Gwynn, S.J., of the Uni¬
versity College of Dublin; Mr. Basil O’Connell, of Dublin;
Mr. Gerard Slevin, of the Genealogical Office at Dublin
Castle; Mr. Milton S. Smith, of Middletown, Connecticut,
and Mr. Nicholas Varga, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, have
supplied me with various points of information. Professor
John J. Savage, of Fordham University, identified for me
numerous recondite classical quotations in the Burke-
O’Hara letters. Professor Denis Gwynn, of the University
College of Cork, gave me not only good advice but the
privilege of reproducing his prized portrait of Burke
painted by James Barry in 1774. The following members
of my historical seminar at Fordham University worked
with me at the fundamental task of supplying dates for
the Burke-O’Hara letters where no dates were given, and
serially arranging and uniting both ends of that correspond¬
ence: Roger J. Bartman, Joseph Birri, James Bunce,
Francis J. Dene, Herbert Gretsch, James Haggerty, Arthur
Murphy, S.J., DeRoss O’Connor, S.J., Frederick G. Schmidt,
Margaret Zack, and Albert C. Witterholt. To all I declare
sincere gratitude.
I acknowledge with grateful appreciation the unnum¬
bered courtesies shown to me by the library staffs of the
New York Public Library, the New York State Library
at Albany, the New York Historical Society, the Massa¬
chusetts Historical Society, the W. L. Clements Library
at Ann Arbor, the New York Chamber of Commerce
Library, the National Library of Ireland, the Royal Irish
Academy, the British Museum, the Sheffield Central
Library, and the Fordham University Library.
To the American Philosophical Society I am gratefully
indebted for a generous grant made in 1949 to assist in
carrying out the research.
To my former mentor. Professor William E. Lingelbach,
now Librarian of the American Philosophical Society, and
to Professor Robert L. Schuyler, of Columbia University,
I express my thanks for excellent advice in the final stages
of preparing the book for the press.
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