Robert Dunlap was a native of the County Antrim, Ireland, and was born in 1715. He embarked for America in the spring of 1736. The vessel, with nearly 200 emigrants aboard, was wrecked at the Isle of Sable and nearly one half of the passengers perished. The survivors, including Dunlap, managed to reach Canso and were then taken to Cape Ann, Mass. Governor Dunlap of Maine (elected in 1833), was a descendant of Robert, the Irishman.
The records of Trinity Church, New York city, contain mention of the following marriages: Hugh Kelly and Elizabeth Griffin, 1746; Ralph Steel and Mary Branegan, 1747; John Trotter and Ann Hogan, 1748; John Cusick and Mary Freeman, 1748; John Hurley and Elizabeth Hannon, 1748; Patrick Hawley and Jane Ament, 1748; Jeremiah Dailey and Margaret Fitzgerald, 1748; Patrick Boyd and Mary Peltreau, 1748; Patrick Martin and Rozannah O’Neil, 1748.
The Boston News Letter, Sept. 12, 1720, has an advertisement in which it is stated that an Irish man servant, Edward Coffee, had run away from his master, Stephen Winchester of Brookline, Mass. Coffee was probably a bond servant or redemptioner. He is described as about twenty years of age, with “cinnamon coloured breeches with six puffs tied at the knees with ferret ribbon.” He also had “a wig tied with a black ribbon.” A reward was offered for his capture.
Capt. James Magee, “a convivial, noble-hearted Irishman,” commanded an American privateer in the Revolution. In the winter of 1779 his ship was driven ashore near Plymouth, Mass., during a terrible storm, and 79 of the crew were frozen to death. Twenty-eight of the survivors were rescued by the men of Plymouth. Drake’s Town of Roxbury, Mass., states that in 1798 Capt. Magee bought an estate in Roxbury. In 1819 William Eustis purchased the estate of Magee’s widow.
The Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Philadelphia, Pa., was instituted on March 17, 1771. No creed lines were drawn, and in the organization “Catholics, Presbyterians, Quakers, and Episcopalians were united like a band of brothers.” Stephen Moylan, brother of the Catholic bishop of Cork, Ireland, was the first president. The Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, New York city, was founded in 1784. Daniel McCormick, a Presbyterian, was the first president.
In 1644, Roger Williams, arriving at Boston, from England, brought with him letters from members of the British parliament to “leading men of the Bay” in which, counseling friendship, mention is made of undesirable “neighbours you are likely to find near unto you in Virginia, and the unfriendly visits from the west of England and from Ireland.” It so happened that, eventually, Roger Williams himself became “undesirable” and “unfriendly” to the self-sufficient rulers of “the Bay”
Thomas Healey is mentioned as of Cambridge, Mass., in 1635, and William Healey in 1645. John Joyce was an early resident of Lynn, Mass., and removed to Sandwich, Mass., about 1637. David Kelly was of Boston as early as 1664, and belonged to the artillery company there. Stephen Hart was of Cambridge, Mass., in 1632; Edmund Hart of Weymouth, Mass., 1634; John Hart of Salem, Mass., 1638; Thomas Hart of Ipswich, Mass., 1648. (Farmer’s Genealogical Register.)
In a Virginia regiment, of which George Washington was colonel, long before the Revolution, appear the following surnames: Barrett, Bryan, Burns, Burke, Carroll, Coleman, Conner, Connerly, Conway, Coyle, Daily, Deveeny, Devoy, Donahough, Ford, Gorman, Hennesy, Kennedy, Lowry, McBride, McCoy, McGrath, McGuire, McKan, McLaughlin, Martin, Moran, Murphy, Powers, etc. The regiment participated in the struggles against the French and Indians. (Virginia Historical Magazine.)
Dennis Rochford, of County Wexford, Ireland, and his wife Mary, came to Pennsylvania with William Penn in 1682, on the ship Welcome. All or nearly all the passengers were Quakers. Two daughters of Dennis and Mary died on the voyage. The passengers were described as “people of consequence” and as “people of property.” Dennis was a member of the Assembly in 1683. (Scharf-Wescott History of Philadelphia, Pa., quoted in Vol. VI, Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society.)
In the “Great Swamp fight” in Southern Rhode Island, during King Philip’s war, 1675–’76, were the following soldiers from Connecticut, among others: James Murphy, Daniel Tracy, Edward Larkin, James Welch and John Roach. The town of Norwalk, Conn., subsequently gave Roach, as a gratuity, a tract of land “consisting of twelve acres more or less, layed out upon the west side of the West Rock, so called.” In the Norwalk records Roach is spoken of as a soldier in the “Direful Swamp Fight.”