J. S.
All this condensed into a paragraph is that in Master Sullivan’s veins flowed the blood of the Norman Butlers and Fitzgeralds who went over from England to Ireland, when the Irish were first conquered by the English, and in time they became more Irish than the original race; that is, they fought the English government more fiercely than the Irish themselves did. Master Sullivan’s sons won in America what many generations of their brave ancestors had failed to win in Ireland.
As has already been stated, Master Sullivan was born in Limerick during the siege in 1691. Limerick, however, was not captured; a truce took place, and a treaty was formed. This treaty did not last long, and a large number of Irish were compelled to take refuge in France. Among these were Maj. Philip O’Sullivan and his family.
This family remained in France several years. Major Sullivan died there, as has been stated; his wife and children remained till peace reigned in Ireland to the extent that she was allowed to return and take possession of her large estates. While in France she carefully educated her son John, and, unwittingly, prepared him to be the future schoolmaster of New Hampshire. It was there that Master Sullivan learned his French so thoroughly that when he was past ninety years of age he wrote a letter in excellent French to his son, the general.
When his mother returned to Ireland her son was a young man, and I suppose passed his time as other young Irishmen did who were in the front rank of society in the city of Limerick. At length a difference of opinion arose between Madam O’Sullivan and her son; he fell in love with a young woman, who probably could not tell who her grandmother was. This displeased his mother very much. Madam was very haughty and aristocratic; she was proud of her ancestry and of her son’s ancestry. She could not endure the thought of his marrying a girl of low ancestry; she opposed the match.
I suppose that made Master Sullivan’s love burn more fiercely. After the affair had drifted along quite a while Madam forbid her son, peremptorily, to have anything more to do with the girl, and gave him two weeks in which to break the engagement; if he did not do it inside of that time, she would disinherit him. Per contra, Master Sullivan told his mother he would give her two weeks in which to consent to the marriage; if she did not consent inside of that time, he would leave Ireland forever, and neither she or the girl should ever hear more of him. They were both of the same grit; neither would yield, and the result was he sailed for America and in due time landed in York, Me. But the thought of that girl he had left behind him in Ireland haunted him for many years, and it was not till he was forty-four years old that he again entertained the thought of marriage. His mother afterwards repented of her stern act and made search for years for her runaway son, but she never found any trace of him.
Hamlet says in the great drama that bears his name:
“Rashly,
And praised be rashness for it, let us know
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,