Page:General James Shields, Soldier, Orator, Statesman.djvu/7



James Shields was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, May 12, 1806. Many authorities place this date four years later, but the original family records, now in the hands of St. Paul relatives, confirm much collateral evidence of the correctness of this statement. He was of notable ancestry. In the paternal line it was distinctly Irish and Catholic, but a great-grandmother was English, and his mother was Scottish. For generations the Shields family were people of property, education, and consideration, living at Cranfield, County Antrim, Province of Ulster. At the battle of the Boyne, in 1690, Daniel Shields and four sons fought on the losing side, that of King James II. There the father and one son were killed. Two of the surviving sons went to Spain, where one of them became a general and finally Captain General of Cuba. Daniel, the youngest son, remained in Ireland, but suffered from the confiscations and banishment visited on the Catholic soldiers of the dethroned king by William of Orange, the victor.

This Daniel married an English girl, whom he had romantically rescued from drowning, and settled on mountain land at Altmore, County Tyrone. He was the direct ancestor of the future American general and senator. Charles Shields, a grandson of Daniel, married Katherine McDonnell, of Glencoe, Scotland, lineage, a woman of education and refinement. To them were born James, the subject of this memoir, Daniel, and Patrick, who thus inherited an infusion of the Scotch-Irish blood which has been manifest in many distinguished Americans. Daniel was the father of Lytton E. Shields and the grandfather of James Shields and Lytton J. Shields, all of whom have long resided in Saint Paul.