The Hon. Ben.
J. Webb's "The
Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky"
[1884], by the Hon. Ben. J. Webb.
594+ pages, including index. If you have family who were involved in
the migration of Roman Catholics from Maryland to Kentucky and points north,
south, and west in the years just following the American Revolution, this book will at a very minimum provide background
information about the migration and the way Roman Catholics made their way
and were treated in America in the early years. It is likely to
provide you with far more than that, however.
Catholicity in Kentucky discusses the Catholic settlement
of Kentucky in settlement-by-settlement detail. It discusses the early
clergy, the arrival of the various missionaries and the foundation of the
various religious orders, convents, cathedrals, colleges and missions.
The author makes a point of saying that his intention was to provide family
historians with information about families who were part of the Catholic
migration from Maryland to Kentucky.
To provide a sense of the scope of the
families discussed in the book -- some at great length, here is a quote from
the Preface:
Among these names, alike
familiar to the Catholic ear in Maryland and in Kentucky, may be
mentioned the following: Adams, Alvey, Aud, Bean, Beaven, Boone,
Brewer, Beckett, Blandford, Bowlin, Blacklock, Boles or Bowles, Burch,
Cecil or Cissell, Carrico, Clark, Clements, Clarkson, Cambron, Coomes,
Cooper, Craycroft, Dant or Dent, Downs, Drury, Elder, Edelin, Elliott,
Fenwich, Forrest, Fowler, Gardiner, Gwynn, Greenwell, Gettings, Hayden,
Hardisty, Howard, Hamilton, Hill, Hutchins, Jenkins, Jarboe, Johnson,
Lancaster, Livers, Lucas, Luckett, Montgomery, Mattingly, Miles, Medley,
Mills, Mudd, Norris, Osborne, Payne, Queen, Raley or Raleigh, Rapier,
Rudd, Rhodes, Roby, Spalding, Sanders, Speaks, Spink, Sansbury, Sims,
Smith, Thompson, Tucker, Wathen, Wheatley, Willett, Weatherington,
Worland, Yates, and numerous others....
Then we have others that are
as distinctly Irish, such as Bryan and O'Brien, Byrne, Dolan, Donohoo,
Fagan, Flannigan, Gannon, Gallahan, Hagan, corruntion of O'Hagan,
Hughes, Kelly, Mahony, Mollahorne, corruption of Mollihan, McAtee, Nally,
Neeley, O'Neil, Roney, and possibly, Riney, by some written Raney.
The copy of Catholicity in Kentucky
that we scanned for this book is unique: it was owned by one I. A.
Spalding -- and we assume that the owner's name was Ignatius A. Spalding.
The footnote on page 109 of the book mentions three descendents of Benedict
Spalding with this name. These were the Ignatius A. Spalding who married
Ann Pottinger, and his son and grandson. One of these men -- and we are
not likely to ever know which one, annotated this particular copy of
Catholicity in Kentucky, making a number of corrections and additions in
names and places. All his annotations are legible in the scanned copy on
the CD-ROM.
