Irish Catholic Immigrant Patrick Carr was a True Hero of the Boston Massacre

  

 

Patrick Carr was the last man shot at the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, the last to die on March 14, and the last to be buried at the Old Granary Burying Ground on St. Patrick's Day, March 17.  The other four victims were Crispus Attucks, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell and Samuel Gray.

Carr was also the only Irish Catholic immigrant among the five victims. His very presence in Boston had to have been circumspect, because of the longstanding prejudice that Bostonians had against Catholics that dated back to the first Puritans who arrived here in 1630.  Religious liberty was not a strong suit of 18th century Massachusetts, and Catholics were despised more than any other religious group.  

There are several anti-Catholic themes in the Boston Massacre and subsequent trial.

Attorney John Adams , who defended the accused soldiers of firing into the crowd at the famous trial, characterized the Bostonians that night as a mob, stating in court, ““The plain English is, gentlemen, most probably a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and molattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs.—And why we should scruple to call such a set of people a mob, I can’t conceive, unless the name is too respectable for them.”

Teague is a derogatory term used for Irish Catholics.  It originated in Britain but spread quickly to the American colonies.

Adams continued that “Carr, a native of Ireland, had often been concerned in such attacks, and indeed, from the nature of things, soldiers quartered in a populous town, will always occasion two mobs, where they prevent one. They are wretched conservators of the peace!”

Historian J.L. Bell observes that Adams was simply “highlighting the elements of that crowd that seemed most dangerous and expendable. Adams could make that argument because he knew the Suffolk County jury was prejudiced against all of those other parts of the population."

A further anti-Catholic theme emerged when it became known that the Twenty-ninth Regiment of British soldiers on guard that night was a battalion of Irishmen who had been conscripted to fight in the colonies. The regiment was described this way: “the average man was over 30, medium tall, and Irish.”  The 29th was led by Captain Thomas Preston, and included men named Hartigan, McCauley, Kilroy, Warren, Carroll and Montgomery. It was Preston who ordered his men to present arms to keep the crowd at bay, but the taunting continued until someone panicked and shot into the crowd. Years later, it was revealed that the person who yelled out the fatal call to fire was Hugh Montgomery.

Carr himself was not involved in the fracas; he and fellow Irishman Charles Connor head the commotion outside and were walking toward the standoff when a bullet caught Carr in the hip, exciting from his side.  He lingered for 10 days and died on March 14.  Three days later he was buried with the other four victims at the Old Granary Burying Ground on Tremont Street. 

Ironically, on his deathbed, Carr’s essentially forgave the soldier who shot him, and his dying testimony exonerated the soldiers and help Adams to win the case, proving to the world that the American colonies were capable of having an impartial and fair justice system. 

“John Jeffries, Carr's surgeon, testified on his patient's behalf, relaying Carr's dying declaration to the court,” according to the Adams National Historic Park.  “Jeffries testified in  court that (Carr) told me...he was a native of Ireland, that he had frequently seen mobs, and soldiers called upon to quell them...he had seen soldiers often fire on the people in Ireland, but had never seen them bear half so much before they fired in his life.”

Right before he died, Jeffries testified, Carr told him “he forgave the man whoever he was that shot him, he was satisfied he had no malice but fired to defend himself.”

Could it have been that Carr was sympathetic to the soldiers who fired that night because they were fellow Irishmen and he understood their plight?    In any case, his act of contrition was extraordinary in its candor and compassion. 

The Boston Massacre Monument on Boston Common and the gravesite of the Boston Massacre victims are both on the Irish Heritage Trail.