The name Kaley is without question derived from the same Gaelic root, Ceallaigh, more commonly known as Kelly, but occasionally written Kaley and Kiley. The experience of the father and son is a remarkable illustration of the vigor of the old Gaelic blood, for with equal opportunities the men in whose veins it runs, let them be Irish or Highland Scotch, take no second place in the varied walks of life. The birthplace of Timothy Kaley was not a great distance from that of the ancestors of the Sullivans of New Hampshire, who also came from the south of Ireland.
Dr. Nathaniel Kelly was an eminent physician in the town of Plaistow, N. H., where he was born in 1800. He represented his town in the state Legislature. Dr. Langley Kelly was another distinguished physician residing in Weare, N. H., in 1878.
In placing the foregoing names before the reader, one cannot help being surprised at the number of men bearing a distinctive Irish name appearing in either the Town, Provincial or State records of New Hampshire. Even in our day but comparatively few men have their names printed in the public records. It is safe, therefore, to say that the greater part of these men had done something to specially merit them a place in the records.
Again, a good idea can be formed of the number of men bearing distinctively Irish names, as the number of persons bearing this one name figured in New Hampshire affairs, or a greater part of them, before 1800, an unusually large proportion of them having seen service in the Provincial wars or in the war for independence. Assuredly, a most fitting conclusion to this article will be Mr. Joseph I. C. Clarke’s poem:
THE FIGHTING RACE.
“Read out the names!” and Burke sat back,
And Kelly dropped his head,
While Shea—they called him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead:
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,