8. A ‘cunning hussy’ from County Wicklow.

Chris Lawlor

Diversion 8. Today’s diversion comes in the form of a newspaper extract from 1763! Old newspapers provide a rich source of historical material. Sometimes the advertisements and notices reveal as much as the articles themselves. Even before independence, the American colonies were receiving Irish immigrants. Some were sent out, but many of them made the Atlantic crossing in the hope of a better life in the colonies during the eighteenth century. Not all American-Irish migrants in the eighteenth-century hailed from Ulster! Moreover, whether their migration was forced or voluntary, not all of them were happy with their new lot. A young woman called Katey Norton from County Wicklow was one of those, as the following newspaper extract reveals:

 

The Pennsylvania Gazette, 7 July, 1763.

RUN away from the Subscriber, living in Lancaster, on the 26th
of June, a Native Irish Servant Woman, named Katey Norton, who came from the County of Wicklow, in Ireland, last Fall, she is about 25 or 26 Years of Age, of a dark Complexion, has black

Hair, talks in the Irish Dialect, rocks in her Walk, and is
pretty sharp in talking: Had on, and took with her, a black
and white Calicoe Bed gown, a black calimancoe Skirt, an old
Skirt, a striped Lincey Petticoat, red, blue and white, and an
homespun Cotton tight bodied Wrapper, with fine blue and white
small Stripes. She has likewise stolen a fine Cotton chintz
Gown, of a genteel Figure, with red, green, blue and yellow
Flowers; a white Gown, two fine Shirts, with Ribbons at the
Sleeves, one white Apron, two Check Ditto, one Silk Gauze Cap, with broad Lace, which she wears far back on her Head; and has a black Peeling Bonnet, with Pasteboard and Gimp round it, two black Handkerchiefs, one Linnen Ditto, white homespun Thread Stockings, new Shoes, with Brass square Buckles set with Stones. She talks of Friends she has at Chester, New York and Baltimore; she is a cunning Hussey, and no Doubt will pass a While for an honest Woman, as she has good Cloaths with her, and can behave herself. Whoever takes up said Woman, and brings her to the Subscriber, in Lancaster, shall have Three Pounds Reward, and reasonable Charges, paid by me

ROBERT FULTON.

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