Irish Presbyterians and the Shaping of Western Pennsylvania, 1770–1830 is a historical study examining the religious culture of Irish immigrants in the early years of America. Despite fractious relations among competing sects, many immigrants shared a vision of a renewed Ireland in which their versions of Presbyterianism could flourish free from the domination of landlords and established church. In the process, they created the institutional foundations for western Pennsylvanian Presbyterian churches. Rural Presbyterian Irish church elders emphasized community and ethnoreligious group solidarity in supervising congregants’ morality. Improved transportation and the greater reach of the market eliminated near-subsistence local economies and hastened the demise of religious traditions brought from Ireland. Gilmore contends that ritual and daily religious practice, as understood and carried out by migrant generations, were abandoned or altered by American-born generations in the context of major economic change.

Using letters written by Agnes Hatley, the author takes readers on a journey through Agnes' engagement to James Kinnier Wilson, their marriage, travels and their arrival and life in America.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1834.

Copy held in Manuscripts [papers of Thomas Smyth (1808-1875)], includes correspondence tipped into volume and bookplates of Rev. Smyth and Rev. J. William Flinn.