Patrick Carr

Who was Patrick Carr?

Patrick Francis Carr was an early Irish immigrant to the United States as well as the fifth and final victim of the Boston Massacre. He was buried on March 17, 1770, two weeks after the aforementioned event occurred, in the Granary Burying Ground, one of Boston's oldest burial grounds. Carr's role in the Boston Massacre is relatively minor. He was not involved in the events which precipitated the British soldiers' firing on the crowd. However, his deathbed account of the event is regarded as the most important piece of evidence exonerating the eight defendants of murder charges.

Carr testified that the soldiers were provoked by the crowd and that the soldiers were much more restrained against the colonists compared to their usual tactics against the people of his native country of Ireland. He claimed that the Boston mob began to throw dangerous projectiles, and that the soldiers fired their muskets in self-defense. The testimony of Samuel Hemmingway is reprinted below:

Q: Were you Patrick Carr's surgeon?

Samuel Hemmingway: I was...

Q: Was he [Carr] apprehensive of his danger?

SH: He told me… he was a native of Ireland, that he had frequently seen mobs, and soldiers called upon to quell them… he had seen soldiers often fire on the people in Ireland, but had never seen them bear half so much before they fired in his life...