During the Revolution, Capt. William Burke of the armed schooner Warren was captured by the British frigate Liverpool and carried into Halifax, from whence he was sent to New York and confined on board a prison ship. He was later exchanged for Capt. Richard Jones, “a British officer of equal rank.” Captain Burke is mentioned as of Marblehead, Mass.
Susannah Lightfoot, a native of Ireland, was born in 1720. She was a Quaker, and with Ruth Courtney came from Ireland to America on a visit to Friends here. On her return to the Old Land, she landed at Cork. In 1760, she paid a second visit to these shores, and four years later removed with her husband from Ireland and permanently settled here.
Among those serving under Esek Hopkins, during the Revolution, was Patrick Kaine. He is mentioned as a marine and served aboard the Cabot. In an engagement with the British ship Glasgow, April 6, 1776, he was killed. Anthony Dwyer, Richard Sweeney, John Connor, Thomas Dowd and Andrew Magee also served aboard the Cabot under Hopkins.
Jeremiah Driskel, William Henussey and John Leary all served in the Commander-in-Chief’s Guard (Washington’s) during the Revolution. Driskel had previously served in a Maryland regiment; Henussey, in a Pennsylvania command, and Leary, in a regiment commanded by John Stark. (See Godfrey’s work on The Commander-in-Chief’s Guard.)
In 1776, John O’Kelley was a member of a military company in the town of Warren, R. I. The company was commanded by Capt. Ezra Ormsbee. Also in the company were Daniel Kelley and Joseph Kelley. The General Assembly of Rhode Island, in 1782, gave “Mrs. Elizabeth O’Kelley, widow of John O’Kelley,” of Warren, permission to sell certain real estate.
Thomas Jones, “from Strabane, Ireland,” came to Rhode Island prior to 1699; later he removed to Long Island, N. Y. He married Freelove Townsend, whose father gave them land at Massapequa, where they settled. They are mentioned in Bunker’s Long Island Genealogies. Mr. and Mrs. Jones had a son David, born in 1699. Thomas, the immigrant, died in 1713.
Andrew Meade, a Kerry Irishman, and a Catholic, emigrated to New York, married Mary Latham, a Quakeress of Flushing, went to Nansemond County, Va., and died there in 1745. His son was Col. Richard Kidder Meade, an aide-de-camp of General Washington. (Quoted by Martin I. J. Griffin of Philadelphia, Pa., in American Catholic Historical Researches.)
Thomas, John and Walter Dongan, kinsmen of Governor Dongan of New York, are believed to have been residing in New York in 1715. In 1723 a private act was passed by the Assembly of the province “to enable Thomas Dongan and Walter Dongan, two surviving kinsmen of Thomas, late Earl of Limerick,” to sell part of their estate. A similar act was passed in 1726.
Hotten’s Original Lists (London, 1874) contain the names of many Irish who were conveyed to Virginia, Barbadoes and other parts. The work comprises the period from 1600 to 1700 and mentions “Persons of quality, emigrants, religious exiles, political rebels, serving men sold for a term of years, apprentices, children stolen, maidens pressed” and other wayfarers of the time.
Charles Carroll, grandfather of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, came to this country about 1689 and settled in Maryland. In 1691 he was made judge and register of the land office, and agent and receiver for Lord Baltimore’s rents. His son, also named Charles Carroll, was born in 1702 and died in 1782. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a son of this second Charles Carroll.