James Irving of Ironshore and His Descendants 1713-1918
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James Irving the Elder. /5' JAMES IRVING OF IRONSHORE AND HIS DESCENDANTS 1713-1918 JAMES IRVING OF IRONSHORE AND HIS DESCENDANTS 1713-1918 By Sir T^milius Irving, Knight Bachelor, King's Counsel, Canada; &c., &c. Edited by L. Homfray Irving. Printed by College Press Limited Toronto, Canada 19 18 /, I' \ AT THE DESIRE OF THE LATE SIR /EMILIUS IRVING, ONE HUNDRED COPIES OF THIS BOOK HAVE BEEN PRINTED FOR DISTRIBUTION AMONG THE DESCENDANTS OF JAMES IRVING, OF IRONSHORE, JAMAICA, AND HIS WIFE ELIZABETH MOTTE, OF WHICH THIS COPY IS NO. ILLUSTRATIONS James Irving the Elder Facing Title-page {From the painting in possession of Gugy M. Irving) James Irving the Elder 10 {From the miniature in possession of Mrs. Louis Sutherland) Elizabeth Motte 22 {Ditto) Jacob ^Emilius Irving the First 32 {From the painting by Gilbert Stuart in possession of Gugy yE. Irving) Jacob ^milius Irving^-Memorial Tablet, St. James' Church, Liverpool 44 {From a photograph by Mowll & Morrison, Liverpool) Ironshore Sugar Works, 1893 54 {From a photograph by J. Shore, Montego Bay, Jamaica) Hannah Margaret Irving—Memorial Tablet, St. John's Church, Stamford 64 (Designed and made by Patterson & Heward, Toronto) Memorial Tablet, St. John's Church, Stamford 67 {Designed and made by Patterson &f Reward, Toronto) CoRBETT House, Cumberland Street, Charleston, S.C 76 {From pen and ink drawing in possession of Mrs. Mmilius Jarvis) Memorial Tablet, Church of Ascension, Hamilton. ..80 {Designed and made by Patterson df Heward, Toronto) Jacob ^milius Irving the Second, 1816 88 {From the miniature in possession of Gugy M. Irving) BoNSHAW, Canada, 1840-1913 98 {From a photograph by Oscar Freemantle, Toronto) Catherine Diana Homfray, 1820 100 {From the pastel in possession of L. Homfray Irving) Sir ^milius Irving, 1908 112 {From a photograph by Inglis, Toronto) Gugy ^Emilius Irving, 1916 122 {From a photograph by J. Kennedy, Toronto) Sir Jeremiah Homfray, 1820 134 {From the pastel in possession of L. Homfray Irving) INTRODUCTION With a view to the writing of a History of James Irving and his descendants my father, Sir ^milius Irving, must have prepared and committed to paper, prior to the early Seventies, considerable amount of material dealing with his relatives and to have ceased further work thereon in 1881. I judge that, by his recording the deaths of his cousin John Beaufin the Second, at Cheltenham in 1876 and that of his uncle John Beaufain the First at West Bergen in 1881 as no later dates appear after the above two. Other duties in a, busy life compelled him to postpone its termination for many years, until old age prevented the com- pletion of further family recoUect'ons, or even the revision of the notes which he had prepared. It was in May, 1913, that he transferred the work over to me and at his request I under- took to carry it to a finality. Upon this occasion when he was already confined to bed, he instructed me to "go ahead and print," adding whatever seemed necessary, and that a copy was to be given to each descendant of James and Elizabeth Irving, that he himself would write an Introduction and select a suitable Title for the book. Would that he had, but his long illness followed by his death in November of that year, prevented his ever again putting his hand to paper. Sir iCmilius' death, prior to the book's completion, neces- sitated the consent of my sisters and brothers being obtained before the necessary expenses could be entailed for its publica- tion; their co-operation in meeting our late father's wishes was most readily given. Whether it was intended by him or not to have printed the History, as the manuscript stood at the time of its transfer to me, cannot now be ascertained, but, presumably, his instruc- tions permitted the inclusion, for instance, of his own life as well as those of others omitted by him; believing that I was justified in so doing, considerable fresh matter has been intro- duced as it is assumed that James Irving's descendants would naturally take an interest in finding out exactly "Where they come in" and "Who was So-and-so." As examples of additions the cases of ".Emilia Irving, 1751-1809," and "Elizabeth Irving, 1747-1808," are submitted; in the former, my father's narrative ends with the fifth paragraph and in the latter with the second. The sketches of the chief actors and important epochs in this History remain untouched by any other hand, with one exception—they are James the Elder; James the Second, the Third and the Fourth; John Beaufin the First and the Second; Hannah Margaret Corbett and her many trials; Jacob ^Cmilius the First and his two children, Thomas Corbett and Elizabeth Margaret; John Beaufain the First; Canada, 1834; the Graves at Stamford, and Ironshore and Hartfield, the latter being the one exception. The foregoing are specified for more reasons than one, but I do not wish to have my errors placed upon my father's shoulders, and at the same time may it be added that the footnotes are mine, with but two exceptions which are indicated by my father's initials. To the best of my ability I have endeavoured to carry out his wishes of securing further information relating to the Mottes, Harlestons and other Carolina connections, and in this respect have been much assisted by Miss Webber, Secretary of the South Carolina Historical Society—that Society's Magazine being a mine of wealth. A number of the early marriages, births and deaths have been taken from the former sources as well as from the printed Register of St. Philip's Church, Charles- ton. The long and stormy voyage of AfTra Harleston in the "Caroline," lasting from August, 1669, to April, 1670, is fully described in the Shaftesbury Papers which are to be found in the Public Record Office, London. Other sources of informa- tion have been Sir Jere Homfray's Memoranda Book, 1796- 1832; Jacob ^milius the Second, 1821-1850; my father's diaries and correspondence, 1843-1913; letters to Hannah Margaret Corbett as well as those of the family generally; and the letter books of Jacob ^Emilius the First from 1795 to 1816, dealing chiefly with Ironshore and Hartfield; all of the foregoing being in my possession, and are available for further family enquiries. There remain several points yet to be cleared up: (a) James Irving's career prior to his appearance in the Bermudas, ^milius Jarvis during his visit to Russia in 1915 endeavoured to secure this information but without success; the British Embassy's papers of those times having been transferred to the PubHc Record Office, and; the present War rendering further searches impossible, the subject ended there. Gugy iEmilius Irving the Second, during his visit to Scotland in 1914, was good enough to undertake searches in connection with James' medical career, and reported that neither in the Catalogue of the Graduates in Arts, Divinity and Law of Edinburgh University, as published by the Bannatyne Club, nor in the Charter and Regulations of the College of Physicians from 1681 (published at Edinburgh in 1789) does the name of James Irving appear. There were, however, other places and means in those days of becoming a professional man—one by apprenticeship to a physician. (b) The antecedents of the Motte family, before John Abraham Motte's arrival in South Carolina, and the why and wherefore of his migration from Europe to the Barbadoes. A search amongst the publications of the Huguenot Society failed to bring anything to light chiefly because one did not know whether the name then was De la Motte or not. In August of this year a book of interest to the family has been published under the title, "The Dwelling Houses of Charleston, South Carolina," which contains numerous references to the Motte family and others mentioned in these pages, with illustrations of Jacob Motte's residence for "many years before 1762"; I think this illustration also appeared in Harper's Magazine, October, 1915. I mention this as the latter may be accessible to the many, whilst the book is a limited edition. (c) The origin of the Harleston family; a family of this name, and resident in the district from which Affra Harleston came, is constantly met with in the Publications of The Harleian Society and in the Sloan MS. No less interesting would be the solution of the origin of the name, "Affra"; whether it has any con- nection with Micah, chapter 1, verse 10, and Jeremiah, chapter 6, verse 26? Besides the authorities quoted in the text, I owe thanks to many members of James* descendants, for help and information dealing with their immediate relations; also to Mr. Tugwell for solving the difficulties connected with the illustrations, the export from Great Britain of the desired paper having been prohibited, and to the College Press Limited, for the careful and friendly interest shown in the typographical execution and appearance of the volume. The work, with its many shortcomings, now goes forth as a memento of my late father, and I cannot do better than date its birth as being of the same day as that of my eldest brother, the present proprietor of Ironshore and Hartfield. L. HOMFRAY IRVING. 372 Huron Street, Toronto, Canada. 2nd October, 1917 JAMES IRVING OF IRONSHORE AND HIS DESCENDANTS JAMES IRVING a younger son of a Border Laird* in the County of Dumfries, who went into the world to seek his fortune, first to Russia, then to Bermuda, afterwards to South Carolina and eventually to Jamaica where he lived many years, brought up a large family, acquired property and an honourable position.