John Fitzpatrick

The Irish peasant of the 1700 and 1800’s was suffering under English Protestant rule. The penal laws, although on the way out by the late 1700’s, forbade Catholics to buy or inherit land, bear arms, build churches, or conduct Mass. It is said “An Irishman could not speak his language, practice his religion, be educated, hold office, or own a horse worth more than $10.” The religious laws were largely unenforceable, but the economic restrictions reduced most Catholics to mere tenant farmers subject to eviction and high rent.

In 1798 one in the long line of many revolts against the British ended with the Irish leaders being sent to the gallows. John Fitzpatrick was only a very young boy when the revolt of 1798 took place, and as he grew up in this troubled land we can only speculate on his political and economic position. He lived in the parish of Clunan, in County Clare and it is almost certain that he was not very well off. Conditions worsened in Ireland with the advent of the great potato famine in 1845. Along with the famine came economic collapse. Landlords could collect no rent and resorted to mass evictions and the destruction and burning of cottages. Though food was plentiful and stored in private and government warehouses, none was made available to the starving poor unless they could afford it; and there were few who had any money at all. As a result, as many as one million people starved to death, all the while food was being exported to the markets in Europe and elsewhere. In the six years between 1845 and 1851, over two million people (the equivalent of one-fourth the population of Ireland) either died or left the country.

By 1850 John had emigrated to America. For a while he lived in a Baltimore boarding house with his son, Maurice, whom had come over separately. Later records show John being married to a woman named Bridget. It is uncertain whether she was his wife from Ireland, or a second wife he married after arriving in America. It is therefore possible that his children’s mother may have died in Ireland before he moved to America. John Fitzpatrick died at the residence of his son-in-law in the village of Mount Washington, Maryland in 1874.

Originally written by Michael Fitzpatrick