“Ireland was the only place in the British European dominions which bestowed any relief on the suffering colony.”
For a full account of the above see “Bodge’s Writings on King Philip’s War”; Publications of the New England Historic, Genealogic Society; Histories of Rhode Island and the Colonies; Writings of Thomas W. Bicknell, and many other authorities therein cited.
In the records of the State of Rhode Island we learn that Michael Kelly was a prominent man in the island of Conanicut as early as 1667. Michael was apparently a Quaker, and was one of a committee of three formed in that year for the purpose of defence against the Indians.
One of the founders of the town of East Greenwich was Charles Macarthy. He was afterwards given five thousand acres of land by the General Assembly for services in King Philip’s War.
Matthew Watson, another Irishman, was one of the most prominent inhabitants of the town of Barrington as early as 1722. His history has been written by Mr. Bicknell.
The present town of Warren was named in honor of Sir Peter Warren, an Irishman.
Another prominent family in the life of Rhode Island from the beginning to the present is that of Dorrance. We shall meet them again.
THE IRISH AND BROWN UNIVERSITY.
What is perhaps the most interesting of all, interesting because it deals with the intellectual life of the state, is the story of the part played by the Irish in the founding and maintaining of our most noted institution of learning, Brown University.
I was always under the impression that if there was one institution in the making of which we Irish had no part, that institution was the college on the hill; and when I first read that the first money contributed for its founding was obtained in Ireland, I confess that I accused the writers of deserting the field of fact and entering the realm of romance. Subsequent investigation, however, convinced me that the claims of the Irish were established beyond peradventure, no less an authority than the records of Brown itself proving our case.