A native of Dublin, Ireland, John Read was born in 1688. He came to this country, purchased an estate in Maryland, and was one of the founders of Charlestown on the headwaters of Chesapeake Bay. He was appointed by the Colonial Legislature a commissioner to lay out and govern the town.
Paul Cox, an Irishman, was of Philadelphia, Pa., as early as 1773. He became a member of the Pennsylvania State Navy Board, 1777, and was otherwise prominent. The inscription on his tombstone in Philadelphia states that he was “Thrice an elector of the president of the United States.”
Christopher Marshall, a native of Dublin, Ireland, was born in 1709. He settled in Philadelphia, Pa., and was a druggist. During the Revolution his firm furnished drugs and medicines to the Continental army. He was a member of the Committee of Safety throughout the whole period of the war.
Maj. John Gillespy is mentioned as serving during the Revolution in the Fourth Regiment, Ulster County (N. Y.) Militia, commanded by Colonel Hardenburgh. Also of the same regiment was Lieut. Samuel Gillespy. (Vide New York in the Revolution, by Comptroller James A. Roberts, Albany, 1898.)
In the old graveyard attached to the stone church built on the site of Fort Herkimer in the Mohawk valley, N. Y., is buried John Ring “of the Kingdom of Ireland, captain of one of His Majesty’s companies of this Province, who departed this life 20th day of Sept., 1755, in the 30th year of his age.”
Thomas McCarthy, a soldier of the Revolution, enlisted from Newtown, Pa., Jan. 14, 1776, for three years, in Capt. George Lewis’ troop, Third Regiment, Continental Dragoons, commanded by Col. George Baylor. On May 1, 1777, he was assigned to the cavalry of the Commander-in-Chief’s Guard.
John M. O’Brien is mentioned in the Rhode Island records as a soldier of the Revolution. He served in Captain Dexter’s company, of the “Late Col. Greene’s regiment,” and died in 1781. He is believed to have been the soldier elsewhere mentioned in the Rhode Island records as John Morris O’Brien.
Andrew Caldwell, born in Ireland, became a prominent merchant in Philadelphia, Pa. He was a patriot of the Revolution; member of the Council of Safety; member of the First City Troop, Philadelphia; member of the Navy Board; port warden of Philadelphia; a director of the Bank of North America.
George Bryan, an Irishman, became a resident of Philadelphia, Pa.; was a member of the Assembly; a delegate, in 1765, to the Stamp Act Congress; a patriot of the Revolution; vice-president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania: president of the same; a judge of the Supreme Court of the state.
In Mason’s Reminiscences of Newport (R. I.) is an interesting reference to Henry Goldsmith, a native of Westmeath, Ireland. He settled in Newport when he was 24 years of age, married there in 1779, and had 14 children. At the close of the Revolution, Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith removed from Newport.