Carey spent the summer of 1784 dreading prosecution for seditious libel. Irish officials thought the radical wing of the Volunteers were cooperating with France to gain independence for Ireland.   Suspecting some of Carey’s associates as being part of the plot, they tried to find out if Carey was in contact with the French. Over the summer, rioting resumed. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland blamed French and American agitators for urging Catholics to press for parliamentary reform. Carey’s association with American sympathizers, his stint in France, his contact with Lafayette, and his Catholicism implied that Carey could be in collusion with these  agitators.[1]   He was under surveillance. Constables lurked about his house at night and sometimes during the day. The odds were against him. He took the advice of his mentor, John Chambers, and decided to leave Ireland for America.[2]

Carey chose Philadelphia because the Pennsylvania Packet ran a story about his arrest in Ireland.[3] Early in the morning of September 7, 1784, he left his house in disguise as a cleaning woman on the arm of John Chambers. He surreptitiously boarded the ship America bound for Philadelphia, and awaited its departure. The crew hid him in the lazaretto, the ship’s sickbay.   Government officials boarded the ship several times searching for him without success.

In Dublin earlier that summer, in a devious maneuver, the Carey brothers inveigled James Dowling, a journeyman printer, into posing as the owner of the Volunteer’s Journal. They sold him some equipment and printing supplies for £100. This ploy avoided the government’s requirement for the Careys to register under the new Stamp Act. Registration would reveal their identities as owners. Two months later, the government imprisoned Dowling, the Journal’s alleged proprietor, for high treason. Christopher Carey paid Dowling’s expenses and fees while he was in prison. Dowling held his tongue until November, when he divulged the identities of Mathew and Thomas. Authorities raided the Journal’s printing office searching for the Carey brothers. They paid careful attention to the workers’ feet, hoping to identify Mathew by his deformity.[4] Under oath Dowling had accused Mathew, who had just arrived in Philadelphia, and Thomas, still in Dublin, of high treason.[5]

When authorities charged Mathew and Thomas with high treason, Christopher Carey bought the Volunteer’s Journal from them. Dowling was released from prison one month after he betrayed Mathew and Thomas. He persuaded William Nicholson to buy the paper, although Christopher Carey owned it. Nicholson registered as its proprietor in January of 1785 and published his version of the Volunteer’s Journal. Dowling’s behavior infuriated Christopher Carey, who registered as the owner of a second Volunteer’s Journal, or Irish Advertiser, proving to the court that he was the true owner of the original paper. The rival journals maliciously argued in print until April 1786 when Christopher Carey ceased publication. The court curiously acquitted Thomas Carey of treason the following month, leading to speculation that Christopher Carey bribed authorities to drop the charges.[6] Mathew Carey later claimed the government used Nicholson’s paper to divert subscribers and advertisers from the original Volunteer’s Journal.[7]

Mathew later recollected that he was awaiting £500 from Thomas from the sale of the Journal. He waited in vain. Five years later, Patrick Byrne, a friend and bookseller in Dublin, wrote Mathew that £450 in bills drawn on Thomas’ account had not cleared. Thomas, now a starch maker, was unsure when he could repay his brother. [8]

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[1] Edward C. Carter II, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey, Nationalist, 1760-1814,” PhD Dissertation, Bryn Mawr College, 1962. 35.

[2]Mathew Carey, Miscellanies II, ms. (c. 1834) private collection, 59.

[3]Mathew Carey, Autobiography, (Brooklyn: Research Classics, 1942) 9.

[4] M. Pollard, Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade, 1550-1800 (London: Bibliographical Society, 2000) 85-7; Carey, Miscellanies II, 61.

[5] Pollard, Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade, 85-7.

[6] Pollard, Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade, 85-7.

[7] Carey, Autobiography, 11-12.

[8] Pollard, Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade, 88.