Mary Agnes Hickson

Sammi Salyer

BA Candidate in History, New York University

Mary Agnes Hickson was a unionist Protestant antiquarian and genealogist who focused on Kerry history in the 17th century. Hickson is most known for her book Selections from Old Kerry Records, published in 1872, as well as her history on the Irish Rebellion of 1641, published in 1884. Hickson was born in County Kerry in 1825 to Protestant parents, although she had Catholic relatives also living in Kerry. Growing up, Hickson informally studied both Kerry and family history with her father by visiting local museums and historical sites until he died in 1839.^[1] The death of Hickson’s father coupled with the impending famine caused the Hickson family to suffer financial loss, resulting in the Hickson’s getting evicted from their home. Soon after they got evicted, Hickson’s mother died causing Hickson to move in with other relatives in Ireland, and eventually to move to England.^[2] In 1860 Hickson returned to Ireland and converted to Catholicism, although it is thought that she reverted to protestantism at some point because her later writings hold an anti-Catholic sentiment, especially concerning her interpretations of the 1641 Rebellion Depositions. Her interpretation of the 1641 Rebellion that she published is not included in the archives at the American Irish Historical Society, and the reason for this could be because the book did not align with the values of the American Irish Historical Society that are laid out in the journal of the Society.

Once Hickson returned to Ireland, she began writing historical research on her family and Kerry, and would publish her research in newspapers such as the Kerry Evening Post, as well as scholarly journals. She also joined the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, which the American Irish Historical Society has many of their publications, and became well known amongst other Irish historians, and while she struggled financially as a result of the famine, she had the support of other historian friends she had made, many of them also women.^[3] Selections from Old Kerry Records was published in 1872 and contains historical and genealogical information on Kerry from 1600 to 1870. In it, Hickson goes through the genealogies of many prominent families from Kerry, including the Blennerhassetts, a noble family involved in English and Irish politics, and includes historical records of land forfeitures, grand juries, and high sheriffs.^[4] Selections from Old Kerry Records stands out first because she was a woman historian which was uncommon for the time, but also because Hickson was doing archival research on Kerry using historical manuscripts, and she made a list of the papers and journals she consulted at the beginning of the book. 

Hickson’s use of primary sources is also a focal point of her other notable book, Ireland in the Seventeenth Century, or the Irish Massacres of 1641. The main source for the Irish Rebellion in 1641 are the testimonies given by protestant settlers about the violence committed by Catholics. The validity of these testimonies have been debated by historians, both in the past and in the present, including Hickson herself. Catholic historians believe the testimonies to be exaggerated or made up, while many protestant historians believe that the testimonies are evidence that tens of thousands of protestants were slaughtered by Catholics. Although Hickson had converted to Catholicism, she sided with the protestants in the debates over the validity of the testimonies. After intense study of the depositions, Hickson determined that “about 27,000 Protestants were murdered” by Catholics.^[5] Historians today believe that the number of Protestants killed in the rebellion was only 4,000, a significantly smaller number than Hickson had estimated.^[6] Hickson published her findings in her book Ireland in the Seventeenth Century. With this book she aimed to educate Catholics about what she believed truly happened, as well as promote the idea that Catholics were morally inferior to Protestants, and uphold the Protestant version of history that she believed was under attack by Catholic historians. Hickson’s political stance clearly influences her work. As a unionist Protestant she saw Irish Catholics as lesser than, and part of her writing about this history in the 1880s might have been a way of her protecting her Protestant identity that she felt was being undermined by Irish nationalists.

Hickson received criticism of her work, most notably by Robert Dunlop. Dunlop was a historian and contemporary of Hickson who disputed the number of deaths she came up with. Hickson publicly replied to him by writing a public response defending her findings. This was a bold movement for Hickson because she was an unmarried female historian and there are not many instances of women pushing back against their male counterparts, especially in academia.  

        It is interesting that the American Irish Historical Society only has one of her books, Selections from Old Kerry Records, and not Ireland in the Seventeenth Century, or the Irish Massacres of 1641. One reason this could be is that because the archives did not want to take a side in the debate. When the American Irish Historical Society was created in 1897, they said that “the work of our projected society will be influenced by no religious or political divisions” and that they would avoid the “misrepresentation of hostile writers” on Irish issues.^[7] Ireland in the Seventeenth Century, or the Irish Massacres of 1641, was published only a few years before the creation of the American Irish Historical Society, and Hickson’s writings show that the debate was still relevant 200 years later. The society might not have wanted to support one side over the other by including a book that demonizes Irish Catholics and argues that they are a political threat, but still included Selections From Old Kerry Records because the publication of this book was a significant moment for female historians.

        One contemporary of Mary Agnes Hickson was Emily Lawless, an author and historian.  Lawless was born in London but spent her formative years in Ireland. She was also a Protestant Unionist, but unlike Hickson, Lawless had more sympathy for Native and Catholic Irish. In her book, The Story of Ireland, Lawless commends Early Christian Ireland for its literature and role of women in society. She also criticizes Oliver Cromwell’s brutality of the Irish in the 17th century, saying that his violent acts were “some of the worst blemishes” in Irish history.^[8] Like Hickson though, Lawless’ writing reveals her support for Irish and English unionism. Even though she admired Ireland’s past, she was uneasy with the idea of Ireland rejecting English colonial identity and was against the concept of Home Rule, or the idea that Ireland should govern itself. Although Hickson and Lawless share similar ideas about Irish unionism, Lawless’ name is more remembered when talking about female historians and authors of the 19th century. This might be because she was more sympathetic towards Irish nationalism and her views on Catholicism were more complex than Hickson’s were.

        Mary Agnes Hickson was a significant Irish historian in the nineteenth century in part because she was a woman historian, which was uncommon, and partly because of her original research of primary sources on Kerry history. She was also a woman who was unafraid to go toe-to-toe with male historians at the time, and was unafraid to defend her work against historians who had more formal and prestigious education. Her strong anti-Catholic stance on the 1641 rebellions, however, might have resulted in one of her books being excluded from the American Irish Historical Society collection, as it would have been seen as too divisive and did not align with the values of the AIHS at the time. The American Irish Historical Society’s inclusion of one of Hickson’s books but not the other reveals the nature of many archives to omit material that does not align with their mission or the image they want to project.

Author Bio:

Sammi Salyer is a senior History major at New York University. She has taken courses in Irish history and plans to continue studying Library and Information Science.

Brockington, William  S. “Ulster Insurrection: Research Starters: EBSCO Research.” EBSCO, 2022. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/ulster-insurrection.

Hickson, Mary Agnes. Ireland in the Seventeenth Century, or the Irish Massacres of 1641. (London: Longmans, 1884).

Hickson, Mary Agnes. Selections from Old Kerry records: historical and genealogical: with introductory memoir, notes and appendix. (London 1872).

Lawless, Emily. The Story of Ireland. (New York: G. P. Putnam's sons 1887).

McMorran, Russell. “Mary Hickson: Forgotten Kerry Historian.” Kerry Magazine (2000).

Murray, Thomas  Hamilton, ed. “The Journal  of the  American-Irish Historical Society.” The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Journal of the American-Irish Historical Society.  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/56261/56261-h/56261-h.htm.

Smith Nadia Clare, Unionist Women Historians, 1868–1922. In: A “Manly Study”?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. (2006).