Re: Patrick Sinnett from Ireland
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Re: Patrick Sinnett from Ireland
John Sagert 12/15/10
Hello John:
I am trying to track down the reference to "Patrick Smith" immigratiing to Philadelphia 1773 (It was in some publication one one of the Philadelphia German societies.I found it on USgenweb and am not tryint to relocate it.It was published years ago in hardcopy - these are just lists of indentures.Each ship had a number who could not pay and their contracts were auctioned.Farmers and shopowners would go to these - knowing when the ships would come in- and bid for the contracts. Of course the essential problem with the reference is that it is to Patrick "Smith" so there is the problem of whether it really was Smith or a mistranscription of Sinnett (Smith was not an uncommon mistranscription)But being possible and being the case are admittedly not the same thing.
Re Dumfries - Dumfriues really got into the port business in the early 1730 - tobaccco shipment.Immigrants were a special trade.I suspect they were all pretty much coming through Philadelphia (or some odd place like Charleston or New Orleans) at this point.The British had a rule that only Protestants could settle in the North American colony and there were loyalty oaths etc etc.So there may have been a logic for expecting all or most immigrants to go through one port.In the 17th century many disembarked and were indentured in Virginia (eg John Teague)But try as I might I have never been able to find reference to a single immigrant who arrived in Dumfries (unless you accept the oral history attributed to Patrick Sinnett).The problem is if there were so few it is doubtful Jacob Conrad would go there to purchase indentures (close as it was to Pendleton) and if indentures were sold there it is likely we could find at least one person who descended from someone who was indentured there.It is known (from the record I referred to above) that Jacob Conrad did make the trip on occasion to Philadelphia to purchase indentures (among other business I am sure) and I realize there is no logical imperative that he either always went to Philadelphia or never went to Dumfries only because he is recorded as having purchased the contract of a Skidmore (I think it was) in Philadelphia.It would help though to obtain any record of this thing happening at Dumfries and if we did we could probably also locate Patrick beccause I do not think that many people were indentured in the 1770'S there if any were at all.The reasons is we just don't see their descendants anywhere - as we do see the descendants of people indentured in Virginia 2 or 3 generations earlier.
In regard to Dumfries - and since this was probably second hand oral history retold by someone who may never have neen outside of Virignia in his life except for Ohio - ie one of Patrick'S children or grandchildren - my guess is that what Patrick actually said was "I was born in Dublin on St Patrick's day 1752.As a young man I was in the Kings Waiters.I quit them (deserted or ended his term I cannot say but one suspects 7 years implies a finished term and if he had deserted they would have hung him, not sold him on indenture) and decided to come to America (here is my speculation) where my Aunt Catherine Sinnett Cunningham had been living for some years.I boarded ship in Dumfries Scotland and disembarked in America (here I would guess Philadelphia) and not having the price of the passage was indentured to Jacob Conrad, a German from Virginia.This is my speculative reconstruction of what generated the oral history we see copied parts in Walter Eye's book and parts in other family remembrances.I emphasize - this is not a quote from Patrick himself.The original quote has been lost though I think the History of Ritchie County/Walter Eye quote reflects some of his exact wording (doubtless he told the story many times to inquiring grandchildren and the like)No way to say what his interpolated and what quoted or misquoted.
Note there are Scots Irish immigrants in the 1774 and 1775 era who went Dumfries Scotland to Philadelphia.Dumfies was one of the small number of British ports (Bristol, Liverpool, Dumfries, Glasgow) that was allowed to (or bothered to) ship passengers to America.In earlier times London and Southampton (and Plymouth) would have been included.
Now a recent rereading of the Rictchie County quote (or is it Walter Eye - it is the devil to find out) says Patrick (though we seem sure he is Irish) spent seven years (14-21) in England.Other accounts say Dublin.That is the wages of the past sin of our preecessors mixing assumptions with accounts and facts. It has only occurred to me today that he may have shipped out from Dumfries Scotland which may be something that can be checked.And I, like others, will continue to try to find some evidence of disembarkation of passengers at Dumfries Virginia.The location of his service and embarcation is important if we meant to use British Military records (assuming they were not burned in the Blitz) to locate him further.
I also need to produce the cite for those indenture records on Jacob Conrad and the ones for Patrick Smith.(Now as I remeber it it may not have been an indenture record for Patrick Smith but membership in a passenger list on a ship full otherwise of Germans - the kind of ship - and they had a yearly arrival schedule - Jacob Conrad would likely go to meet.I think in fact I am still trying to get the indenture recors foor 1773 if they still exist.I think Skidmore may have been 1772.
Best Regards
Grady
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Re: Patrick Sinnett from Ireland
Christopher Hill 11/08/11