b. Tallistown, near Ardee (Co. Louth); son of a flour-merchant with whom he worked before emigrating to America; involved with editorship of the Boston Pilot in its earliest years; edited the Irish Shield and Monthly Milesian, a miscellany of literary and historical articles including chapters of a History of Ireland which was published separately in book-form by Devereux and Donahoe of Boston in 1835;

the Irish Shield went into quarto format and was bound as a single volume in 1829 - the sole surviving edition; probably perpetuated the journal this the appearance of the completed history within two years of his death which occurred on 11 May 1837 in Boston, having given his coat to an under-clad fellow-Irishman and caught a fatal cold at the age of 45, according to an account given in Thomas Mooney in A History of Ireland (Boston 1853) [see infra].

• The Irish Shield and Monthly Milesian (1829) [see details]
• The History of Ireland, From the First Colonization of the Country, Down to the period of the English Invasion, Comprehending the Topography of the Scenes of Battles, and Memorable Events, as well as a Review of the Rise and Progress of Irish Literature and the Fine Arts (Boston Devereux & Donahoe 1835),  ix, [11]-572, [4]pp. [i.e., Irish History to 1172; see details].
• Kathleen O’Neil, or, A picture of feudal times in Ireland: a national melo-drama of the fourteenth century, in three acts (Philadelphia: Thomas Town 1832), vii, 84pp.[NLI Stephen Griffin Coll. [see details]; dates ?1792-37; otherwise listed as work with with Mary E. Balfour; see Preface "The author owes it ... to acknowledge on this occasion, that he has borrowed from her [Mary Balfour, q.v.] some of the scenes and incidents, as well as the outlines of three of the characters of his play")

GEORGE PEPPER,
HISTORIAN OF IRELAND,
BORN IN TALLISTOWN, CO.LOUTH, IRELAND.
Died in Boston, May 11th, 1837.

Further: Mooney quotes Pepper on Sylvester O’Halloran: ‘These combined properties of O’Halloran’s work justified Pepper in denominating him the Irish Livy.’ (Ibid., p.124.)

Also cites Pepper in remarks on Martin MacDermott’s History of Ireland: ‘Martin M’Dermott, of the Coulavin family, died in London, 1821, at thirty-one years of age, while superintending the publication of his history of Ireland. Pepper lauds that portion which appeared, very highly; and says, no historian of Ireland has infused so much of the spirit of historical eloquence into the narrative of his country’s story, as that gifted and lamented son of Irish genius.’ (p.125.)

It has often been asked by foreigners, why a country justly boasting of her poets and orators, has not produced an able historian, who can be classed with a Voltaire, a Gibbon, or a Robertson; and why the learning of an Usher, or the genius of a Swift, has left no historical monument to perpetuate the ancient glories of a nation, that in remote ages was styled, the “Isle of learning, and the school of the west?” We confess our inability to answer the question satisfactorily.

Perhaps the primary cause of the desideratum, in our ancient history, may be principally ascribed to the zeal of St. Patrick, who, to the eternal loss of Irish literature, caused more than 500 volumes of our records to be committed to the flames at Tara. McDermott, Lynch, and Flanagan, are of opinion that Ossian’s autographs blazed in the conflagration kindled by the Christian Missionary. Another cause of the scantiness of historical materials, may be fairly traced to the vile assiduity of Danish and English invaders, to annihilate all memorials of our ancient greatness, power, and grandeur. [...; iii.]

It must surely have excited surprise in the minds of the inquisitive readers, that while we have numberless histories of England and Scotland, adapted to popular use, no successful attempt has been made, since the days of the Irish Livy, O’Halloran, to familiarize the reading world with the events of Irish history, by presenting its records in a commodious and economical form. Yet it will not be denied, that the occurrences which took place in Ireland, during the last two centuries, and especially since the accession of George HI. to the present time, demand the attention of the philosopher and the historian — furnishing, as they do, moral lessons, from which not only they, but the statesmen of the world, might derive wisdom, experience, and instruction; for to form a just and impartial estimate of her present character, they must know something of her past greatness, and present degradation; — her wrongs, persecutions, and injuries, which may be pronounced as flagitious, as ever the most wicked and tyrannic oppressors inflicted on a nation, to depress her spirit, sap her moral energies, and deteriorate her inherent and indigenous virtues. The picture presented by such mercenary Irish apostates, as Dr. Thomas Leland, the Rev. Mr. Gordon, Sir Richard Musgrave, Barlow, Taylor, and the late renegade. Dr. O’Connor,* (the degenerate grand-son of the celebrated and patriotic author of the “Dissertations on Irish History,”) who, like a parricide of his country’s fame, sold all the manuscripts of his venerable grandfather, to the Duke of Buckingham, in whose sepulchral library, at Stowe, “they rot in state,” is distorted in its outline by venality, and heightened in its coloring by exaggeration, so that it bears no resemblance to the original. While, however, Ave denounce these hired traducers of their native land, let us not withhold merited praise from the venerable Keating, the learned O’Halloran, the impartial Dr. Warner, (an Englishman) the acute O’Flaherty, the erudite Bishop Usher, the sympathetic and intelHgent Curry, the eloquent Lawless, the zealous TaafFe, the accomplished McDermott, the classic Dalton, and “though last not least,” the elegant and efficient vindicator of the aspersed Irish, Mr. Plowden, whose history [viii] of Ireland, in all the great historical essentials, is superior to any similar production extant. All these historians have contributed materially to illuminate the antique darkness of our annals; but their works do not embrace those topics, which the ample materials in our hands will enable us to introduce in our History.

[...]

We will give a fair, and we hope, an impartial history of Ireland; though candor obliges us to confess, that when we come to detail the wrongis and persecutions of our native land, we cannot help speaking with warmth; for he that would merit the title of quite an impartial historian, should, like Imlac’s Poet, divest himself of all the passions, feelings, and prejudices of his age and country.

In our history we shall give a luminous review of the literature, manners, and customs of the Irish people, embracing an inquiry into the merits of their genius, eloquence, valor, and characteristics, as well as specimens of the forensic and senatorial displays of Grattan, Curran, Burke, Sheridan, Burgh, Flood, O’Connell, Plunket, Sheil and Phillips. (pp.viii-ix; end; see full copy - as attached.)

* See Plowden’s historical letter to Columbanus, and McDermott of Coolovin’s statement in relation to these manuscripts.

[Contents:] An Inquiry into the causes from whence Ireland derived the various names by which she has been distinguished in ancient times; the reason to which she owes the oiigin of her present appellation. The arrival of the first Colony in Ireland, under the command of Fartholanus, of Migdonia, in Greece. The Rivers and Lakes found, in the Island, by this Scythian Colony, with remarks on them.

PEPPER, GEORGE. — A writer of this name produced in New York in 1830 a play entitled Kathleen O’Neill: Ireland Redeemed, or The Devoted Princess. He may have been the B.A., T.C.D., 1795. Thomas D’Arcy McGee mentions in his “Irish Settlers in America” a George Pepper, who soon after 1822 started a paper called The Irish Shield, in Philadelphia, which was superseded by his Literary and Catholic Sentinel, published at Boston. He was born at Ardee, Co. Louth, and wrote a History of Ireland. McGee says he was probably the first to initiate any literary project in America exclusively for the Irish settlers. He died in Boston, and was buried at Bunker’s Hill, where a monument was raised to his memory. “The only shamrock in the churchyard, some years ago, was found growing on his grave.” This was written about 1850. Doubtless this Pepper was the dramatist above referred to.