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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
the place where the marriage takes place; otherwise
they require the permission of the pastor of at least
one of them.
(4) Persons having no fixed abode can not be law
fully married without permission from the Bishop.
(5) The marriage ceremony should be performed
by the parish priest of the bride, unless some just
cause excuses from this.
(6) The parish priest or Bishop may grant per
mission to another priest to assist at a marriage with
in their district.
(7) When it is absolutely impossible to get a
priest, marriage may be validly contracted before a
civil magistrate and at least one other witness, but
in such rare cases the record should be sent promptly
to the nearest parish priest to be entered upon the
parish register.
(8) A certificate of baptism is required from every
one before contracting marriage, if they come from
another parish or district.
(9) The above laws are binding on all persons bap
tized in the Catholic Church and on all those who
have been converted to it, even if they have after
wards fallen away by heresy or schism, whenever
they contract marriage with one another.
(10) No dispensation from all publications of the
banns will be granted except to avoid serious scandal
or for other equally grave reason. Dispensation from
one or two publications may be obtained when there
is a valid reason given.
(11) Non-Catholics, whether baptized or unbap
tized, who contract marriage with each other, are
nowhere bound to observe the Catholic form of mar
riage.
+ BENJAMIN JOSEPH KEILEY,
Bishop of Savannah.
Bishop’s House,
Savannah, Ga.,
February 23d, 1921.
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
(Continued from Page 9)
them were many of the nobles and gentry of France
who had fled, to San Domingo for safety at the out
break of the French Revolution. Most of them came
first to Philadelphia, but Georgia offered a better
asylum for their slaves, and they gradually settled in
Savannah, Charleston and Augusta and the islands
along the coast. From 1793 to 1811 Savannah was
the home of most of these refugees. Those who
came first were able to save a great deal of their
wealth, consisting chiefly of slaves; but as the years
went on and the massacres increased in violence, the
condition of the later refugees became one of abso
lute destitution.
There was no opposition made to their coming to
Savannah at first, but the stories of the horrible
massacres at last made the citizens fearful lest the
San Domingan negroes might incite the other slaves
here to a similar revolt. The result was that the
people of Savannah held a mass meeting in 1795 and
decided to prevent any more French slaves from being
landed. The city council advised their owners to
land them “at such other places as would be less
obnoxious to the people’’; and this party explains the
San Domingan settlements on the coast islands of
Sapelo, Little Sapelo, Jekyl, St. Simon’s and St. Cath
erine s. The objection of the citizens of Savannah
does not seem to imply any antipathy to the refugees
themselves; for in 1 794 congress had appropriated
$500.00 for the relief of these people, and had
placed the amount in the hands of the Mayor and
Aldermen of Savannah for distribution; and even as
late as 1809, when one of the City Aldermen had
taken $748 from the owners of some of these negroes
in order to have them landed, he was reprimanded
by council not only for breaking the law, but “for
taking money from these people who were more
worthy of charity than extortion.”
It is hard for us to realize the pitiable and helpless
condition of these refugees who had fled from the
horrors of the insurrection. Most of them of noble
birth—some the former courtiers of the King and
holding high positions of honor and trust in old
France—driven from their homes first by the reign
of Terror to San Domingo, and afterwards driven on
again by the no less horrible massacres on that Island
to Savannah they finally came, abandoned and pen
niless; to a strange land, among a strange people and
speaking a strange language in a new and undevel
oped country. But they bravely faced their condi
tion and entered into the life of their new home.
Some of them became merchants, others professional
men, and others taught schools; and all of them did
their part in founding the first Catholic congrega
tion. They were well received by the best people;
there is little or no indication of bigotry in those
days. Their position in society was recognized, and
those who remained in this country occupied posi
tions of prominence in civic affairs. Most of those
who had estates that could be re-claimed returned
to France or to San Domingo after the troubles were
over, but others stayed in Savannah and Augusta,
and their descendants are still living in these two
cities. Among the French and San Domingan fam
ilies that have representatives still living in Savannah
who have remained true to the Church of their fa
thers may be mentioned the names of Gaudry, Ros-
signol, Thomasson, Blois, Boisfieullet, Cabos, Du Gas,
Couquillan, Barie, Roma, du Bignon, Boulineau, Con
stantine, Teynac, and others. Some branches of
these families are lost to the Church, but others have
lived on to help in the upbuilding and preserving of
the Catholic faith in Georgia. Through inter-mar
riage, the family names are in some cases lost to
view, but the present parishes of Savannah and Au
gusta still number among their people the descendants
of those who bore the old French Catholic names
above mentioned.
The First Irish Settlers.
Does the Catholic Church exist anywhere in
America without the Emerald Isle being represented?
The Irish did not come in very great numbers to
Georgia until the first quarter of the Nineteenth Cen
tury was well under way; but there were some of this
wonderful Catholic race already in Savannah and Au
gusta before the French had formed their congrega
tions, and they soon added to the colony at Locust
Grove as well. From the beginning they took an ac
tive part in the affairs of the Church, and so far as
the records of Savannah can tell us, they aided ma
terially in the maintenance of Church and Priest.
The first Irish people who came to Savannah were
not the poverty-stricken immigrants of the early 20’s
and 30’s, who were literally driven from their native
country by the tyranny and oppression of British rule
or rather mis-rule. These early Irish families who
lived in Savannah before that time were people of
moderate means and good education, who seized the
opportunity to come to America to better their con
dition and enjoy the blessings of freedom denied them
at home. They were respected members of the com
munity, and mingled with the best people of the city.
There were some fine Irish Protestant families here
also, who formed the Hibernian Society for the wel
fare of their less fortunate fellow-countrymen, and
they welcomed the Catholic Irish as their friends and
confreres. The records show the names of some of
these Irish members of the Savannah congregation
present at many of the social functions of the French
refugees, as well as inter-marriage between the two
races. In fact, quite a few of the Catholics still living
in Savannah and Augusta are of both French and
Irish descent. Among the Irish names we find in
those early days on our records are Dillon, Dollaghan,
Callahan, Halligan, Murphy and O’Keefe—some of
their distant relations or descendants being with us
even today.