The four Hoy ancestors of the Easton, PA family were born in Ireland

James Hoy was born in the County Louth, Ireland about 1794 and came to America in the first wave of Irish Immigrants in the 1830s. Available records and DNA matches make it likely that he was born in the small townland of Newragh which is in the parish of Darver and is about 8 miles southwest of the county town Dundalk and that his parents were James Hoy and Catherine McCullin.

There were at least 6 children in the family:

• Thomas who was born on the 3rd of April, 1788. Sponsors: Thomas Gartlany and Ann Maginnis
• Hugh who was born on the 3rd of April, 1790. Sponsors: Patrick Maginnis and Mary Tagert
• Mary who was born on the 4th of April, 1792. Sponsors: Neal Harrill and Margaret Maginness
• James who was born on the 16th of May, 1794. Sponsors: Daniel McCart and Mary Lynn
• Margaret who was born on the 4th of July, 1796. Sponsors: Chris Fitzsimmons and Mary Kindelan
• Edward who was born on the 8th of December, 1798. Sponsors: Patrick Byrne and Mary Manville

He married Margaret Phelan on April 30th, 1834 at St. John's Church in Newark, NJ. He arrived in New York from Liverpool before February 1833. James and Margaret lived in Newark, New Jersey where they stayed for 11 years and where three of the children were born. The family moved to Easton, Pennsylvania in 1845.

• James took out citizenship papers in 1860 in Easton.
• 1850 census: Residence - Williams Twp, Northampton, Pennsylvania. Listed as a Laborer.
• 1860 census: Residence - Williams Twp, Northampton, Pennsylvania. Listed as a Laborer at furnace.
• Burial: St Joseph's Church, Easton, PA.

Children of James Hoy and Margaret Phelan are:

1. Margaret Hoy, b. 1836 NJ.
2. Sarah J Hoy, b. 1842 NJ, d. 30 Jan 1889, Easton, PA.
3. Kate Hoy, b. 1844 NJ. d. 13 May 1877, Easton, PA.
4. Mary Hoy, b. 1845 Easton PA.
5. Rosanna Hoy, b. 1846 Easton PA.
6. Thomas Hoy, b. 19 Feb 1849, Easton, PA, d. 14 Jun 1912, Easton, PA.
7. John Hoy, d. 1862, Easton, PA.

Margaret Phelan was born about 1810 and died in 1858 in Easton, PA. She was also known as Maeve.

Available records and DNA matches make it likely that she was born in northern County Kilkenny, Ireland near Castlecomer. She married James Hoy on April 30th, 1834 at St. John's Church in Newark, NJ. where there was a strong Kilkenny presence due to people fleeing the Tithe War in Ireland. Castlecomer was an important coal mining area and many Castlecomer people immigrated to the lower Coal Region in Pennsylvania.

James and Margaret lived in Newark, New Jersey where they stayed for 11 years. Three of the children were born in Newark. The family moved to Easton, PA in 1845 just as the first of the refugees from the Great Hunger began to arrive. The only surviving son was to marry a daughter of one such family, the Lynches.

• 1850 census: Residence - Williams, Northampton, Pennsylvania.
• Burial: St Joseph's Church, Easton, PA.

Philip Lynch was born on the 15th of August 1824 in Kells County Meath, Ireland, and died on the 13th of November 1895 in Easton, PA. He married Mary McInerny about 1852. He had two brothers and was known as 'Scrapper'.

• 1860 census: Residence - South Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania. Listed as a Laborer.
• 1870 census: Residence - South Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania. Listed as a Laborer.
• 1880 census: Residence - South Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania. Listed as a Huckster.
• In the 1880 census his sons were listed as railroad men and printers.
• Burial: St Joseph's Church, Easton, PA.

Children of Phil Lynch and Mary McInerny are:

1. Elizabeth Lynch , b. 14 Dec 1852, Easton, PA, d. 25 Jul 1933, Easton, PA.
2. Francis, b. 1849, Easton, PA.
3. Maria, b. 1850, Easton, PA.
4. Edward, b. 1855, Easton, PA.
5. Philip, b. 1857, Easton, PA.
6. Michael, b. 1859, Easton, PA.
7. Mary, b. 1861, Easton, PA.
8. James, b. 1864, Easton, PA.
9. Ellen, b. 1867, Easton, PA.

Mary McInerny was born in January 1828 in Castlekeeran, County Meath, Ireland, and died 06 July 1911 in Easton, PA. She arrived in Easton in 1846 with her brother and sister, Hugh and Mary.

• She married Philip Lynch about 1852.
• She arrived from Ireland 1846.
• 1860 census: Residence - South Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania.
• 1870 census: Residence - South Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania.
• 1880 census: Residence - South Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania.
• 1900 census: Residence - South Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania. She was listed as a widow living with her children Francis and Ellen.
• 1910 census: Residence - South Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania. She was listed as a widow living with her children Francis and Ellen. They were neighbors with her daughter Elizabeth and Thomas Hoy
• Burial: St Joseph's Church, Easton, PA.

James Hoy was married to Margaret Phelan in Saint John's Parish, Newark NJ on April 30, 1834.

James Hoy was born in the County Louth, Ireland about 1794 and came to America in the first wave of Irish immigrants in the early 1830s during the Tithe War period. Available records and DNA matches make it likely that he was born in the small townland of Newragh which is in the parish of Darver and is about 8 miles southwest of the county town Dundalk. The map of Louth is shown below and is about 25 miles from top to bottom. Dundalk is in the yellow part and Newragh in the tan below it.

He drowned while working on the Lehigh Canal at the Glendon lock in 1862

• He arrived in New York City on April 20, 1830.
• He was in Newark, New Jersey by February 9, 1834.
• He was married to Margaret Phelan in Saint John's Parish, Newark NJ on April 30, 1834.
• The couple had three children in Newark before moving to Easton, Pennsylvania in 1845.
• They had three more children in Easton before Margaret died in 1859 and James followed her in 1862.

James Hoy was born about 1794 in County Louth, Ireland. He arrived in New York on April 20, 1830 on the ship Gardiner and lived in Newark, New Jersey.

Margaret Phelan was born about 1810 in northern County Kilkenny, Ireland, near Castlecomer.

County Louth, Ireland with the 'Baronies' colored.

 

The Story of James Hoy from Ireland to America

 

The Tithe War

James Hoy left County Louth for America in 1830, just as the Tithe War was beginning. His Naturalization Papers indicate that he was bound for Phillipsburg, New Jersey, which is just across the Delaware River from Easton, Pennsylvania, but he stopped in Newark NJ for 15 years first. His believed home was a tiny townland called Newragh which has only 3 families living there in 1800. The next date when we know of inhabitants was 1850 when 3 other families lived there and one of which still lives there. We must think that James was forced to emigrate because his family lost their home due to the War.

The Tithe War in Ireland lasted from 1831 to 1836 and refers to a series of periodic skirmishes and violent incidents connected to resistance to the obligation of Catholics in Ireland to pay tithes for the upkeep of the Church of Ireland which was the Protestant denomination supported by the English Government.

As a consequence of the Tithe War, many Irish people were forced to leave their homes. This was the period when many Irish people began to arrive in America and establish churches and schools. It was the work done by the Tithe War immigrants that made it possible for the Famine immigrants to find a home in America ten years later. (From wikipedia.com. and johngrenham.com)

Read more about The Tithe War

The Ship Gardiner

The Irish who emigrated in the Tithe War era generally went through Liverpool and James Hoy found such a ship named 'Gardiner'. The Gardiner arrived in New York from Liverpool on April 20, 1830. There was a passenger names James Hay or Hoy aboard. He listed his age as 25 and his occupation as none.

Read more about the Ship Gardiner

St. John's Roman Catholic Church, Newark New Jersey

Newark is nine miles west of the Eastside Manhattan docks where immigrant ships docked and one of the first destinations of the Irish who moved on from NYC. Among the Irish people who settled there in the 1820's were several Louth (and also Kilkenny, the county from which James's wife hailed) names whose connections through marriage and baptisms help us understand the families. James Hoy and his wife Margaret Phelan appear in these records in early 1834.

St. John's church was the first Roman Catholic Church to be built in Newark. Its origin provides an interesting story. At the time (1820) Catholics were not welcome in the area. The building of the Morris canal, along with the newly opening factories, brought many Irish workers to Newark. After holding services in private homes, they decided, in 1826, to build a church. The following homes held these meetings: Charles Durning, Martin Rowan, Christopher O'Rourke, John Shelock, Jean Vache and Anseim Fromeget. A lot at 14 Mulberry Street was purchased. The foundation was laid and the church funds ran out. At this time the First Episcopal (Trinity) church allowed the builders to use their church for a lecture by a Catholic clergyman from St. Peter's Church in New York City. This "fundraiser" put $300.00 in the coffers of the builders. Unfortunately, the building treasurer ran off with the money, putting the parish back in the red. This turn of events made the church members willing to underwrite the building costs. The church was finished in 1828 but the building debt almost forced the sale of the church. At the last minute the Propagation of the Faith in France contributed 22,960 francs to pay the debt. By 1848, under the guidance of Father Patrick Moran, the church was enlarged three times. (From oldnewark.com.)

Read more about Old Newark and St. John's Roman Catholic Church

The Records of James Hoy and Margaret Phelan in Newark 1834 - 1845

James Hoy married Margaret Phelan in Newark and they had three children in the period from 1834 until 1845. The church records from this period are from Ancestry.com.

Read more about James Hoy and Margaret Phelan in Newark

James Hoy drowned on the Lehigh River at Glendon, PA in the Aftermath of the Great Flood of 1862.

James Hoy was born in the County Louth, Ireland about 1794 and came to America in the first wave of Irish immigrants in the early 1830s during the Tithe War period. He arrived in New York on April 20, 1830 on the ship Gardiner and lived in Newark, New Jersey until 1845 when the family moved to Easton, PA.

His naturalization papers filed in Easton PA in 1860 state that his "Intended Place of Settlement" was Cooper's Furnace in Phillipsburg NJ, across the river from Easton PA. We know from the census of 1850 that he lived in Glendon PA, a tiny village south of Easton, and worked in the furnace there called the Glendon Iron Works.

By his death in 1862, he was working on the connection between the Lehigh Canal from the Pennsylvania Lower Coal Region and the Delaware Canal which took the coal to Philadelphia. This connection was also in Glendon which was also the place of the 'Change Bridge' where the Lehigh Canal switched from the north side to the south to match the Delaware Canal going south. Near the bridge and the connection locks was a weir across the river to slow the flow of the Lehigh and make it safe to cross.

There was a great flood on the upper Lehigh in the Spring of 1862 bring torrents of water and large amounts of debris down the river towards Glendon which threatened the bride, weir, and locks and ultimately the supply of irreplaceable coal to factories in the second year of the Civil War.

Read more about the drowning death of James Hoy