Irish origin.  And, in this connection, we must not overlook Thomas Burke, a native of “the City of the Tribes”, distinguished as lawyer, soldier, and statesman, who became governor of North Carolina in 1781, as did his cousin Aedanus Burke, also from Galway, who was judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina in 1778.  John Rutledge, son of Dr. John Rutledge from Ireland, was governor of South Carolina in 1776 and his brother Edward became governor of the State in 1788.

But there were Irishmen in the Carolinas long before the advent of these, and indeed Irish names are found occasionally as far back as the records of those colonies reach.  They are scattered profusely through the will books and records of deeds as early as 1676 and down to the end of the century, and in a list of immigrants from Barbados in the year 1678, quoted by John Camden Hotten in the work already alluded to, we find about 120 persons of Irish name who settled in the Carolinas in that year.  In 1719, 500 persons from Ireland transported themselves to Carolina to take the benefit of an Act passed by the Assembly by which the lands of the Yemmassee Indians were thrown open to settlers, and Ramsay (History of South Carolina, vol.  I, page 20) says:  “Of all countries none has furnished the Province with so many inhabitants as Ireland.”

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In the Pennsylvania records one is also struck with the very frequent mention of Irish names.  William Penn had lived in Ireland for several years and was acquainted with the sturdy character of its people, and when he arrived on board The Welcome in 1682 he had with him a number of Irishmen, who are described as “people of property and people of consequence.”  In 1699 he brought over a brilliant young Irishman, James Logan from Lurgan, who for nearly half a century occupied a leading position in the Province and for some time was its governor.  But the first Irish immigration to Pennsylvania of any numerical importance came in the year 1717.  They settled in Lancaster County.  “They and their descendants,” says Rupp, an impartial historian, “have always been justly regarded as among the most intelligent people in the County and their progress will be found to be but little behind the boasted efforts of the Colony of Plymouth.”  In 1727, as the records show, 1155 Irish people arrived in Philadelphia and in 1728 the number reached the high total of 5600.  “It looks as if Ireland is to send all her inhabitants hither,” wrote Secretary Logan to the provincial proprietors in 1729, “for last week not less than six ships arrived.  The common fear is that if they continue to come they will make themselves proprietors of the Province” (Rupp’s History of Dauphin County).