These names are signed to petitions, appeals, or other papers on the records from 1782 to 1786: George Flynn, Malcolm McGee, David Looney, John Adair, Partick Wright, Anthony Geoghegan, Patrick Joyce, James Sullivan, Richard Whelan, James Murphy, Joseph Delaney, William Kelley.
Alexander Drumgoole was sent on a mission to the Cherokee nation by Governor Randolph in 1787.
Major Andrew Donnelly was a gallant officer during the Revolutionary period. Capt. McMahon, who was mentioned, served with Wayne as a major in the expedition against the Indians, and like Gen. Butler, who had served through the Revolutionary War, was killed during that engagement.
Other names appearing on the records, either as magistrates or signers to various papers, were James Corran (Curran), Patrick White, Christopher McConners, Edward McCarthy, Cornelius Conway, Arthur McCann, John McLoghlin, William Flood, Edward McGuire, Anthony Murphy, James Goggins, John Connor, William Brennan, Major Thomas Healey, Capt. Samuel Brady, Col. William Finnie (Feeney), James Dougherty, Joseph Carroll, Archibald Casey, Capt. Daniel Mullins, Patrick Saggert, John Sexton, John McCormick, Thomas Mulledy, David Dungan, Cornelius Brady, Thomas Brannon, Abraham Donovan, Edmond Grady, John Dunn, Francis Kelly, Bernard Gallagher, Thomas O’Hara, William Malone, Dennis Ramsay, Thomas Reardon, George Sweeney, William Fitzgerald, Robert Fitzgerald, Edmund Moran, Dennis Croghan, Philip Boyle, John Butler, Cornelius O’Laughlan, Charles O’Neale, William McManahan, James Connell, Joseph McCaughey, Alexander Leary, Richard Byrne, Thomas McGuire, John Lowery, Joseph Hensey (Hennessey), Anthony Fitzpatrick, Bernard McCord, John McNeill, Henry Garrett, Dan McCarthy, Thomas Burke, Nat Murphy, Charles Connor, Edward Hart, William Danahan, John Casey, James Kelly, Michael Burke, Patrick Wilson, John Cavanaugh, Richard Nugent, Andrew Donnelly, Jr., Lawrence Bryan, Michael Delaney, James Byrne, Michael Tiernan, James Quinn, James Daley, John McEnery, Francis O’Meara, Henry Fitzgerald, John McMullen, James McGonegal, John Hagerty, Pat Donohue, James McCoughlin, Patrick Butler, Cornelius McGuire, Josiah McGuire, Cornelius McKinley, John Lawless, William Doherty, Alexander Dugan, Cornelius Harnett (Hartnett), Patrick Roche, Cornelius Fenny (Feeney), Simon McLaughlan, Thady Kelly and James Murdaugh.
The foregoing, from appearance, were men of standing in the communities in which they lived. As but comparatively few names appear in public records, there must have been many others in Virginia of the same nationality before the beginning of the nineteenth century. Those mentioned were officers in the militia, justices of the peace, judges, or holding other positions which had occasioned their names being printed in the state papers. It will be noticed that the names can be classed as Irish, distinctively. How many more there might be bearing English names, but who may have been as Irish as the others, cannot be determined.
When Ramsay’s History of the United States was written in 1789, or thereabouts, the following Virginians were among those who subscribed for it in order to guarantee its publication: Patrick Gill, William Carroll, Edward Cunningham, James Fleming, H. H. Lacey, John McDermott, John McBride, M. Sullivan, Thomas H. Mitchell, J. C. Vaughan, A. Jordan, W. C. Moore, H. H. Redman, Edward Sexton, Francis Riordan, John Bowery, William Matthews. On examination it will be found that a majority of these surnames appear among the early settlers of the Old Dominion.
Thomas Fleming, whose name has been mentioned, was colonel of the Ninth Virginia regiment. One of its field officers was Major M. Donovan.
It is related in the Historical Collections of Virginia that Gen. Andrew Lewis was born in Ireland, and came here with his father and two brothers. They were obliged to fly from their native land on account of the resistance made by them against being evicted by their landlord.
Another prominent man in Virginia in 1753 was Dr. James O’Fallon. He is supposed to have been the ancestor of the O’Fallons of St. Louis, Mo., who were among the latter city’s first settlers. One of the latter, Col. John O’Fallon, served on the staff of Gen. Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe. Another well-known Irish name was that of Michael Dillon, whose death is recorded from a fall from his horse in 1704. Richard Donnahan was concerned in Bacon’s Rebellion in 1677, and with him was a Capt. Hubert Farrell, who is mentioned as being one of Bacon’s majors.
Philip Connor was an associate justice of the Provincial court in 1650, and Robert Managan (Monaghan) is recorded as taking an apprentice Sept. 24, 1690.