Life
1760-1839 [var. 1826]; b. Summerhill, Dublin, the son of a baker; bookseller,
and son of baker; publ. A Letter to the Irish Catholics (1779),
a pamphlet on Penal Laws that necessitated his flight to Paris for a year;
ed. Freeman’s Journal, Dublin, prosecuted under a bill introduced
by John Foster for association Volunteer Record (1783), which had
been declared ‘scandalous and seditious’ in the Irish House
of Lords (5th April 1784); emigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia,
1784; issued The Plagi-Scurriliad (1786), a Hudibrastic poem; resumed
printing, some time after 1795; in Philadelphia; issued Vindiciae Hiberniae
(Philadelphia 1819), a vindication of the Rebellion of 1641; other works
incl. Don Juan, or the Libertine Destroyed (1787), 2-act tragic
panto, and The Porcupiniad (1799), presum. inspired by Cobbett;
his br. William Carey publ. Carey’s Atlas of America; a son
Henry Carey became a well-known economist. DNB PI DIW OCAL
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Works
Vindiciae Hiberniae, or, Ireland Vindicated: An Attempt to Develop and
Expose a Few of the Multifarious Errors and Falsehoods respecting Ireland
[…] particularly in the legendary tales of the conspiracy and
pretended massacre of 1641 (Philadelphia: M. Carey & Son 1819),
xxxvi [17], 504pp. [8], 22cm., and Do. [another edn.] (Philadelphia 1837),
viii, 474pp.; also Carey’s Autobiography (NY: E. L. Schwaab
1942).
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D. J. O'Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary, (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912)
Earl L. Bradsher, Matthew Carey: Editor Author and Publisher (NY:
Columbia UP 1912)
David Kraser, Messrs. Carey and Lea of Philadelphia: A Study in the History of the Book Trade (Pennsylvania UP 1957)
James D. Hart, The Oxford Companion to American Literature [5th edn.] (Oxford: OUP 1983)
William Clarkin, Mathew Carey: A Bibliography of His Publications (NY: Garland 1984)
Richard Cargill Cole, ‘Irish Booksellers in America, Phases I and II, 1750-1794’ [Chap. 3], Irish Booksellers and English Writers 1740-1800 (London: Mansell Pub.; NJ: Atlantic Heights 1986)
Brian Cleeve & Anne Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin: Lilliput 1985)
Richard Cargill Cole, Irish Booksellers and English Writers, 1740-1800 (London: Mansell Pub.; NJ: Atlantic Heights 1986), ‘Irish Booksellers in America, Phases I and II, 1750-1794’, pp.40-61; espec. pp.48ff.
Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, gen. ed., Seamus Deane, Derry: Field Day 1991, Vol. 1; extract from Davis.
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Notes
Sir John Gilbert, In his History of Dublin (1865-67),
John Gilbert writes that ‘[...] Carey’s elaborate Vindiciae
Hibernicae (1819), a compendium of which was given to the public under
the title of Memoir on Ireland, Native and Saxon, by the late Daniel
O’Connell’; but note that O’Connell’s Memoir (Dublin:
Duffy 1844) is clear derived from Carey’s work but makes no acknowledgement
of the fact in the preface or elsewhere.
Hans Kohn (Nationalism: Its Meaning and History, rev. edn., NJ: Robert E. Kreiger Publ. 1965) remarks that Carey established the Volunteer’s Journal, aiming ‘to defend the Commerce, the Manufacturers, and the political rights of Ireland, against the oppression and encroachment of Britain.’ (pp.320-21).
Riposte?: Vindiciae Hibernicae. An historical argument to prove Ireland not a conquered country ... By a clergyman of the Church of England [...] (London: J. Ridgway & Son 1838). 128pp. [cited in Yale UP Orbis Catalogue] is possibly a riposte to Carey’s Vindiciae Hibernicae.
Yale University Library gives bio-dates 1760-1839 and lists 278 entries incl. very many ‘Addresses’ to the Philadelphia Society on industry, agriculture and so forth,as well as ‘American Museum or Universal Magazine’ and ‘American Remembrancer or An Impartial Collection of Essays Resolve, Speeches, &c. Relative, or having affinity, to the treaty with Great Britain (Philadelphia: H. Tuckniss for M. Carey 1795). Also, Vindiciae Hibernicae, or, Ireland vindicated: an attempt to develop and expose a few of the multifarious errors and falsehoods respecting Ireland ... : particularly in the legendary tales of the conspiracy and pretended massacre of 1641 (Philadelphia : M. Carey & Son 1819), xxxvi [17], 504pp. [8], 22cm. (Yale UP). NOTE Vinculae [?err. for Vindiciae] Hiberniae (Phil. 1823), copy in Library of Herbert Bell (Belfast).
Belfast Linen Hall Library holds Vindiciae Hiberniae, some 500 closely-printed pages, issued by subscription in Philadelphia 1823 [but cf. 1819, Leerssen, infra]. Carey takes English partisan historian of Ireland to task, notably Temple, Davies, Borlase, Carte, Leland, Rushworth, Clarendon, Macauley and Hume, casting doubts on reports of massacre of Protestants in 1641 in particular. Did it happen at all? He points out that the numbers of Protestants claim to have been brutally murder were greater than the total of Protestants in Ireland at the time.
Hyland Books (Cat. 219) lists Vindiciae Hibernicae; or, Ireland Vindicated: An Attempt to Develop and Expose a Few of the Mulifarious Errors and Falsehood Respecting Ireland (Philadelphia 1837), viii, 474pp.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)