In its “Notes and Documents” section for April 1964 The William and Mary Quarterly printed an article by Ernest J. Moyne entitled “The Reverend William Hazlitt: A Friend of Liberty in Ireland during the American Revolution.” The subject of the article, Hazlitt (1737–1820), whose sons William and John became respectively a noted essayist and an artist, was a nonconformist English cleric. He had moved to the Irish town of Bandon in 1780 from his pastorate in Maidstone, Kent. In Bandon, Hazlitt presided over a dissenter congregation until his temporary departure for America in April 1783. Professor Moyne’s article notes that during his career in western Ireland, the Reverend Mr. Hazlitt had displayed special sympathy for the rebel cause in America, and most particularly for several hundred American captives who were incarcerated nearby within the bleak, cramped confines of a prison in the seaside village of Kinsale. Here, the author provides a concise picture of Hazlitt’s benevolent and occasionally extra-legal activities on behalf of the rebel prisoners, as well as his protests against alleged maltreatment by prison staff and the supervisor John How; and he also notes that these services went unrecognized by the American government. For all these worthy points, however, the article consigns a mere footnote to the role of Reuben Harvey. Harvey, an Irish Quaker, had promoted the American cause and had aided American detainees at Kinsale well before Hazlitt, and, unlike the parson, he did receive significant recognition from the United States for his services.

In light of these facts, as well as his inauspicious contemporary anonymity, Reuben Harvey should merit some measure of historical redress. This chapter seeks to reconstruct not only Harvey’s efforts on behalf of American prisoners detained in Ireland and Britain, but also the various motivations that underlay his support for the precept of independence for the United States.

There were, of course, several prominent individuals within Ireland who expressed their affinity or sympathies toward the cause of the American rebels. Most noted perhaps was Edmund Burke who had offered his famed but unsuccessful Parliamentary oration shortly before hostilities erupted in 1775. Burke’s plaintive exhortations urge concessions as well as reconciliation with the colonies. Other notable Irishmen who also entered their support included Sir Edward Newenham, James Hussey Burgh, Thomas Connolly, Robert Stewart, Henry Grattan, and Barry Yelverton.