Shevlin Immigrants of Hunter, N.Y.
Who were they?
Irish immigrants Charles and Bridget
Shevlin were among the first Shevlin's in America. They moved to
Hunter, Greene County, New York about 1832 after the births of son Michael and possibly son John in New
York City. They are also believed to have brought with them a young son
named James born in
Ireland. The couple spoke Gaelic, possibly as their primary
language. In fact, they may have known very little English when they
arrived in America. Charles worked as a shoemaker and farmer.
Settling in Hunter, he and Bridget raised a large family with nine sons and one
daughter living to adulthood.
A number of years after their arrival in Hunter,
Charles
and his family were joined by widower Daniel Shevlin, a farm laborer born about 1798, who
was said to be a brother of Charles. Daniel is known to be
the son of Charles and Majorica Shevlin who are also therefore the likely
parents of Charles. With Daniel were his children Patrick and
Ann, both
born in Ireland.
After 1860 the Hunter Shevlin's were also
joined by Mary Shevlin, widow of Hugh Shevlin, who had given birth to ten children
and who was probably a
sister-in-law. With her were sons Charles and Peter, also born in
Ireland.
In 1860, Mary was living in New York City with Charles,
Peter, Catharine, and John, all presumed to be her children.
John, a lithographer, remained in New York City, and raised a family
there. In 1879 he purchased land in Hunter. His daughter Mary E. "Minnie"
Shevlin married Robert E.
Nicholls. She and Theresa Shevlin Cox, daughter of James
Shevlin and
granddaughter of Charles and Bridget, referred to each other as "cousins".
They almost certainly were not first cousins, but they were second cousins
if Hugh was a brother of Charles, which seems likely.
Descendants of these immigrants carried the Shevlin surname
in Hunter for 130 years. Other descendants are still believed to be
in the town in 2003.
Where did they come from?
Like many other Irish immigrants of the day, Mary
passed through Canada on her way to the United States. She is the Mary Shivlen who is
listed as a passenger on the J.J. Cooke ship Barbara that sailed from
Londonderry to
St. John,
New Brunswick
in 1851. Traveling with her were five people, assumed to be her
children. They were Charles, Sally, Peter, Catharine and John. The passenger list gives
their address as Mt. Charles, which is in Inver Parish in southern Donegal. [Brian Mitchell. IRISH
PASSENGER LISTS, 1847-1871. Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1992,
333 p.]
Patrick Shevlin, son of
Daniel, was born in Northern Ireland, according to the 1930 Federal
Census record for his son Anson. [Federal census, 1930, Bronx, New York, ED
3-615, SD 26, sheet 12B]. Other information suggests that he, or at least
his father Daniel, may have come from northern Ireland, without the
capital letter.
In 2003 an Irish genealogist named Dr. Mary McAuliffe was
hired to track the Irish origins of Charles and Bridget Shevlin of Hunter, New
York. She concluded the following:
“While we cannot ever be 100% certain without
the parish records we can say that the surviving tithe and land records firmly
point to the Barony of Bannagh and more especially to the Killybegs area as a
place of origin for [Charles and Bridget].”
The Barony of Bannagh is in
southwestern Donegal and includes all or parts of several parishes, including
Kilcar, Upper and Lower Killybegs, Inishkeel, Inver, and others.
Donegal is in the northernmost part of
Ireland
and
consists mostly of glacier carved hills known as drumlins. The climate is
rainy with cool summers and mild winters. To the north of Killybegs are
small mountains. The village
of
Killybegs is
on Donegal
Bay
and
is known for fishing. Local residents along the coast were often both farmers and
fishermen.
What is the Evidence?
Dr. McAuliffe’s information sources were the Tithe
Applotment Books (1824-1838), the Primary Valuation of Ireland (commonly called
Griffith’s Valuation) of 1848-1864, Stuart-Murray Estate Papers (1842 and
1850), and Connolly Estate Papers. For
the period in question, neither civil nor church vital records are available.
Information provided to Dr. McAuliffe included the
names and approximate birth dates of Charles and Bridget, an estimated
emigration date of 1828-1832, and the names of all of their known children.
She was also
given information about the other Irish immigrant Shevlin’s with ties to
Hunter, including Daniel, the widow Mary, and John J. Shevlin, the son of Hugh and
Mary.
While Dr. McAuliffe is correct that the evidence is not
airtight, it is rather convincing. A key assumption, based on very limited documentary
evidence, is that the Shevlin families in Hunter were close relatives who lived
near one another in Ireland. This is a reasonable, perhaps unavoidable
assumption. After all, why else would so many immigrants of a
comparatively rare name converge in a small village deep in the Catskill
Mountains if they were not closely allied back in Ireland?
Based on that assumption, various bits and pieces of
information that might otherwise be viewed as separate and therefore inconclusive
can be linked together, forming a persuasive argument . They are as follows, not necessarily in
order of importance:
In Griffith's Valuation, there are 156 Shevlin heads of family listed for all
of Ireland, including various spellings. The two largest concentrations
of the Shevlin surname are in the counties Donegal and Monaghan, each with
about one third of the overall total. Within Donegal, most of the
Shevlin's are in the south with the greatest concentrations in Inishkeel and
Killybegs. This is a small area; in fact, many of the Shevlin's in Donegal
were probably within a radius of about 15 or 20 kilometers.Charles Shevlin from
Carricktaggart appears in the tithe applotment records
in 1834. By 1842 there is no Charles in Carricktaggart, suggesting either death or emigration.
Later, in Griffith's Valuation there is a James in Carricktaggart, who may have been
Charles' heir. The Charles from Carrigtaggart may have been the
one who emigrated to Hunter,
New York, although this would suggest that the family left
Ireland
a few years later than thought. More
likely is that it was his father. It also could have been some other
Charles Shevlin; however, there were not
very many individuals of that name. In fact, in Griffith's Valuation, conducted some
years later, there is only one Charles in all of Ireland listed as a head of
household, and as discussed below there is a good chance that he was the son
of the widow Mary who later settled in Hunter. Although
Mary Shevlin was from Mt. Charles, according to the passenger list, Dr. McAuliffe indicates that Mount
Charles may not actually have been her residence.
Mount
Charles
was often an assembly point for emigrants from the area, so Mary may actually
have lived elsewhere in the vicinity. There
were in fact multiple Shevlin widows named Mary in the region before 1851,
including a Mary Shevlin in Lagunna, Inishkeel parish, found in the
Stuart-Murray Estate Papers of 1850. The
estate papers also show a Charles Shevlin in Lagunna, and the Griffith
Valuation shows both a Charles and a Peter in Lagunna. Given that a Mary
Shevlin appeared in Hunter with sons Charles and Peter, this is strong
evidence that this branch of the family originated in Lagunna.
The first names of the Shevlin heads of household in the
south of Donegal match very closely the names that Charles and Bridget
assigned to their nine sons. Eight of the first names
match exactly, and if the name Cornelius was derived from the name Connell, as
it was sometimes known to be, then this would be the ninth match. There
are almost as many Shevlin's in Monaghan as in Donegal, but the first names do
not match nearly as well. None of the names found in Donegal are
actually the children of Charles and Bridget, most of whom were born in
America, but people often named their
children after other family members, which is why this is worthy of note.
Bridget’s maiden name was
Byrnes. The widow Mary’s
parents were James Doran and Sarah McGoily. All three surnames, Byrnes,
Doran, and McGoily [McGuily] were found in the Barony of Bannagh. The
first two are relatively common names throughout Ireland, however, McGoily is
not very widespread, adding
significance to the finding.
There is a high probability that Mary's husband Hugh
Shevlin came from
the southern part of Donegal. Three Hugh Shevlin’s are referenced in the Stuart-Murray Estate
Papers of 1842, including one in Killybegs.
Griffith's Valuation lists only three Hugh's for all of Ireland, and
they are all from Inishkeel parish.
Charles' alleged brother Daniel is not known to have emigrated before about
1850 and could have been any one of several Daniel's in and around the Barony of
Bannagh. There were also a
number of Denis Shevlin’s, the name Denis sometimes used
interchangeably with Daniel.
In Hunter, next to St. Mary's of the Mountain Church, there is a
small cemetery in which several Shevlin's are buried, including Charles and
Bridget, Daniel, James Shevlin, son of Charles, and his family. Two of the
graves are for John Gara and his wife Mary McIntyre, who according to cemetery
records were born in Kilcar, County Donegal. The parishes of Kilcar and
Killibegs are contiguous, and the villages by the same name are only a few
kilometers apart. Although they are not known to be relatives of Charles and
Bridget, their origin so close to Killybegs may be more than a coincidence. It
is a known fact that many Irish immigrants moved to where they knew someone.
Therefore finding an Irish immigrant couple from the vicinity of Killybegs makes
it probable that there were other immigrants from the same geographic area
living in Hunter.
In the same cemetery is a stone shard inscribed with several words, most of
which are illegible. But among those than can be read are the name "Burns" and
the location "Killybegs". Among the cemetery records there are
also a few references
to Irish locations outside of Donegal; but to find a specific reference to Killybegs
clearly strengthens the case for the Killybegs area as the origin of
the Hunter Shevlin's.