Lieut. Hugh McManus and Lieut. John Riley served in the Sixth Regiment, Albany County, N. Y., Militia, during the Revolution. The regiment was commanded by Col. Stephen John Schuyler.
The Connecticut Revolutionary records mention Michael McGee, a soldier who served in Colonel Burrall’s regiment of that state. McGee was taken prisoner in “the affair at the Cedars,” 1776.
Over fifteen members of Capt. John Giles’ company, 1723–’24, were natives of Ireland. The company was engaged operating against the Indians in Maine, and is mentioned in the Massachusetts records.
Tench Francis, son of an Irishman, was born in Maryland, 1732; became attorney-general of the province of Pennsylvania; was captain of the Quaker Blues; subscribed £5,500 in aid of the Patriot army.
David Dowd, soldier of the Revolution, served in a Connecticut light infantry company, under Lafayette, February-November, 1781. The company was commanded by Capt. Samuel Barker of Branford, Conn.
A settler at Sudbury, Mass., Richard Burke, came from Ireland prior to 1650. He married in 1670 and left many descendants. He was one of the earliest Burkes to settle in America of whom we have record.
An early resident of Newport, R. I., was Owen Higgins. His wife was born in 1640. In 1701, his son Richard is recorded as a freeman of Newport. (See Austin’s Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island.)
Five ships arrived in Boston Harbor, Aug. 4, 1718, with Irish immigrants aboard. Many of these subsequently settled in New Hampshire. These facts are referred to in Cullen’s Story of the Irish in Boston.
Daniel Sullivan, born in Ireland, 1717, died in Providence, R. I., 1814. In an obituary notice it is stated that “He had long resided in this town where his integrity and piety secured him confidence and esteem.”
Charles McAfferty, “an Irishman,” was a soldier of the Revolution and served in Col. Jeremiah Olney’s Rhode Island Continentals. He was one of the first to enter the enemy’s redoubts at the capture of Yorktown.