The continuous stream of Irish immigration was viewed with so much alarm by the Legislature, that in 1728 a law was passed “against these crowds of Irish papists and convicts who are yearly powr’d upon us”—­(the “convicts” being the political refugees who fled from the persecutions of the English Government!).  But the operations of this statute were wholly nullified by the captains of the vessels landing their passengers at Newcastle, Del., and Burlington, N, J., and, as one instance of this, I find in the Philadelphia American Weekly Mercury of August 14, 1729, a statement to this effect:  “It is reported from Newcastle that there arrived there this last week about 2000 Irish and an abundance more daily expected.”  This expectation was realized, for according to “An Account of Passengers and Servants landed in Philadelphia between December 25, 1728, and December 25, 1729”, which I find in the New England Weekly Journal for March 30, 1730, the number of Irish who came in via the Delaware river in that year was 5655, while the total number of all other Europeans who arrived during the same period was only 553.  Holmes, in his Annals of America, corroborates this.  The Philadelphia newspapers down to the year 1741 also contained many similar references, indicating that the flood of Irish immigration was unceasing and that it was at all times in excess of that from other European countries.  Later issues of the Mercury also published accounts of the number of ships from Ireland which arrived in the Delaware, and from these it appears that from 1735 to 1738 “66 vessels entered Philadelphia from Ireland and 50 cleared thereto.”  And in the New York Gazette and Weekly Post-Boy of the years 1750 to 1752, I find under the caption, “Vessels Registered at the Philadelphia Custom House,” a total of 183 ships destined from or to Ireland, or an average of five sailings per month between Irish ports and the port of Philadelphia alone.  A careful search fails to disclose any record of the number of persons who came in these ships, but, from the fact that it is stated that all carried passengers as well as merchandise from Irish ports, we may safely assume that the “human freight” must have been very large.

Spencer, in his History of the United States, says:  “In the years 1771 and 1772 the number of emigrants to America from Ireland was 17,350, almost all of whom emigrated at their own expense.  A great majority of them consisted of persons employed in the linen manufacture or farmers possessed of some property, which they converted into money and brought with them.  Within the first fortnight of August, 1773, there arrived at Philadelphia 3500 immigrants from Ireland.  As most of the emigrants, particularly those from Ireland and Scotland, were personally discontent with their treatment in Europe, their accession to the colonial population, it might reasonably be supposed, had no tendency to diminish or counteract the hostile sentiments toward Britain which were daily gathering force in America.”  Marmion, in his Ancient and Modern History of the Maritime Ports of Ireland, verifies this.  He says that the number of Irish who came during the years 1771, 1772, and 1773 was 25,000.  The bulk of these came in by way of Philadelphia and settled in Pennsylvania and the Virginias.