"Work An was it for that, after a, that I left the snug toonlan o Maughrygowan, an cam owre the ocean, whan I thocht I wad become a gentleman on my very landin Work why what waur could I hae done at hame, than to hae laboured for my daily bread But I was nae quite at that need either. Eh Sirs - Nelly, puir lass is as little likely to become a lady in Pennsylvania as the sang we used to sing says, that she was in her ain country".
............
These are the first words spoken by Gilbert Frazier, an Ulster-Scots emigrant who left the countryside between Coleraine and Londonderry in April 1723, and sailed with his wife Nelly to Philadelphia. Gilbert was the key character in the novel The Wilderness; or, Braddocks TImes - a Tale of the West, which was published in New York in 1823.
It was written by James MHenry who was born in Larne on 20 December 1785. He studied medicine at Glasgow University, while there he published a poem about the 1798 Rebellion - which he would have witnessed as a teenage boy - entitled Patrick: A Poetical Tale of 1798 published by McKenzie, Glasgow 1810. MHenry returned to Co Antrim and became a doctor in Larne in 1811 - he then moved to Belfast in 1814 and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1817. He lived there for 25 years during which time he became one of the most celebrated writers and novelists of his generation. In 1842 he returned to Ulster and became American Consul in Londonderry, a post he retained until his death on 21 July 1845.
MHenrys characters were predominantly Ulster-Scots - in the preface of Hearts of Steel 1825 he wrote that "the majority of actors in both works belonged to the population of Ulster; the lower and middle classes of whom speak a dialect very similar to that spoken by the Scotch Lowlanders, from whom they are mostly descended". When Lady Morgan /�Sydney Owensons 1806 novel The Wild Irish Girl characterised Ulster as follows "...?this part of Ireland may in some respects be considered as a Scottish colony; and in fact, Scotch dialect, Scotch manners, Scotch modes, and the Scotch character almost universally prevail..." he may have been pleased by her recognition of the cultural distinctiveness, but when the description went on to attack the "chill", "calculating industry" and "luxury" of Ulster he was far from happy. He responded to Owenson, again via the preface of Hearts of Steel. Have a read at the bottom of page vi and the top of page vii - doubtless she was one of the "tribe of romance writers who have... spread this false notion of the Irish character which has gone abroad through the world. That these writers in general knew extremely little of the people they undertook to describe is evident...".
Chapter Two of The Hearts of Steelhas been described as a "tour de force" - the deathbed scene of an old farmer called John Rainey. The language is marvellous - this chapter was featured in Frank Fergusons Anthology of Ulster-Scots Writing Four Courts Press 2008.
MHenry has also been described as a "personal friend and ardent admirer" of another great east Antrim man, President Andrew Jackson and in 1829 published a poem entitled "Jacksons Wreath". James MHenry was a hugely significant figure of his generation, regarded as the first "Irish-American" novelist and deserves to be better known in Ulster today. Like so much of Ulster-Scots heritage MHenry has been forgotten and ignored. Nobody is sure where he was buried - his brief entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says he died at Larne. A blue plaque either near Larne if his birthplace or even grave could be traced or the site of the former Consuls premises in Londonderry should be considered.
If MHenry were alive today, he might even have been featured in an episode of "Jackies the Boy".
LINKS:
- Memoir of James MHenrys life
- The Wilderness on Archive.org
- The Wilderness as a searchable text file at Stanford University
- biography of James MHenry p43 - 55
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