Cortlandt Schuyler of Albany, N. Y., was captain in “a marching regiment” of the British Army. He married a handsome Irishwoman in Ireland, while stationed there, and brought her to Albany about 1763. Upon his death, she returned to Ireland with her children, “where it is said their desendants bearing the name Schuyler still live.” (Mrs. Grant’s Memoirs of an American Lady, quoted by Hon. Franklin M. Danaher of Albany.)
In 1769–’70, Rev. Hezekiah Smith made a tour of South Carolina and Georgia in aid of Rhode Island College, now Brown University. He says in his diary of the tour: “Thursday, March 1, 1770, went to Malachi Murfee’s.” The list of those who subscribed in aid of the college, on this Southern trip, includes Edward Dempsey, Charles Reilly, Patrick Hinds, James Welsh, Hugh Dillon, John Boyd, Matthew Roach and Capt. John Canty.
An officer who came with our French allies during the Revolution was Isidore de Lynch. He was at one period an aide-de-camp to the Chevalier de Chastellux. Referring to the return of the French to Boston after the surrender of the British at Yorktown, Count Segur speaks of “Isidore de Lynch, an intrepid Irishman, afterwards a General.” Lynch became commander of the Irish-French regiment of Walsh, and was decorated with the Cross of St. Louis.
The Dutch records of Albany, N. Y., mention Jan Fyne, “van Waterfort in Irlandt.” His name likewise appears as Johannes Fine, which in English would probably be John Finn. He is believed to have been a soldier who was sent to Albany in 1690. He settled there and is later mentioned as a cooper. In 1696 he wedded Jopje Classe Van Slyck. His second wife, whom he married in 1699, was Alida, daughter of Jacob Janse Gardiner of Kinderhook.
Watson H. Harwood, M. D., of Chasm Falls, N. Y., in a paper contributed to the Register of the New England Historic, Genealogical Society, January, 1898, treats of the Clogstons of New Hampshire. He states that “The Clogston family is of Irish origin,” and that it came to New Hampshire sometime after 1718. Paul Clogston, a descendant of the immigrants, died of wounds received at Bunker Hill, 1775. The name is sometimes written Clogstone.
Blair McClenachan, an Irishman by birth, settled in Philadelphia, Pa., at an early age, and became the “largest importer in the city except Robert Morris”; was a patriot of the Revolution; subscribed, in 1780, £10,000 in aid of the army; was one of the original members of the First City Troop; a member of Congress, 1797–’99; was made commissioner of loans by President Jefferson. One of McClenachan’s daughters married Gen. Walter Stewart.
One of the early settlers of Peterborough, N. H., was William McNee. He was born in Ireland, 1711, and before coming to this country married Mary E. Brownley. In an address delivered at Peterborough, some years ago, Hon. James F. Brennan of that town said that McNee’s “descendants have now reached the eighth generation, but unfortunately the name is entirely lost. The first and second generations retained the name, but the third changed it to Nay.”
Michael Morgan O’Brien, a native of Ireland, became a West India merchant in Philadelphia, Pa., and was located there as early as 1780. He was a member of the First City Troop of Philadelphia, of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the Hibernia Fire Company, and the Hibernian Society. He died in France, 1804. He bequeathed his books to the “Rt. Reverend Father in God, John Carroll, R. C., Bishop of Baltimore, as a testimony of the great respect and esteem I bear him.”
A prominent man in his day was John Patton. He was born in Sligo, Ireland, 1745, settled in Philadelphia, Pa., and became a merchant there. A patriot of the Revolution, he was successively major and colonel of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania regiment, and rendered gallant service during the war. In 1780 he subscribed £1,000 in aid of the army. After the war he was an iron manufacturer, and at the time of his death, 1804, was major-general of Pennsylvania state troops.
Christopher Colles, a native of Ireland, was born in 1737. He came to this country and lectured on pneumatics, inland navigation, water supply for cities and similar topics. In 1775, he became an instructor in gunnery and was so employed in the American Continental Army until 1777. He memorialized the New York Legislature, in 1784, in favor of a canal from the Hudson River to Lake Ontario. He constructed and operated a telegraph, in 1812, at Fort Clinton.