Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1818-1991 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
13pp
Context area
Archival history
The original letters are located in the Bishop Henry Conwell Papers at the Archives and Historical Collections of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which also provided copies of the materials to Kerby A. Miller in 1991.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The Bishop Henry Conwell letters consist of copies of three letters and one indenture, Kerby A. Miller's summary of the materials and a letter from the assistant archivist at the Archives and Historical Collections of the Archdiocese of Philidelphia. Bishop Conwell (c. 1748-1842) was parish priest in Dungannon, County Tyrone and Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Armagh from 1794 to 1819, when he was appointed Bishop of Philadelphia, and these materials pertain to Irish Catholic immigrants who were members, or former members, of Conwell's congregations in Ireland and/or Philadelphia. Professor Miller notes, 'The documents illustrate the importance of the few Irish Catholic clergy in early 19th-century America in providing various kinds of advice, assistance, references, and patronage to both bourgeois and working-class Irish immigrants.'