James Cochran, an Irish boy, was captured by Indians in those early days. He was a brave youth and managed to kill a couple of savages and make his escape. The Boston News-Letter of April 29, 1725, said of him: “James Cochran, ye youth that came into Brunswick with two scalps, came into town on Monday last and on Tuesday produced ye same scalps before ye Honorable Lieutenant-Governor and Council, for which he received a reward of two hundred pounds. And for ye farther encouragement of young men and others to perform bold and hardy actions in ye Indian war, His Honor ye Lieutenant Governor has been pleased to make him sargeant in ye forces.”
Verily, a good type of the Fighting Race!
Now to come down to the second half of the period of time which I am considering. One of the most picturesque and interesting figures in the history of Boston was John Hancock, whom, some claim, had Irish blood in his veins. He was a staunch patriot, statesman, leader in public affairs, governor of the Commonwealth, orator and the first signer of the Declaration of Independence (which, by the way, with only his signature as president of the Continental Congress and that of Charles Thomson, a native of Maghera, Ire., as secretary, was sent forth to the world, the other names being added to it later).
As a bit of evidence which may help to indicate Hancock’s ancestry, it may be worth mentioning that he presented a bell and vane to the Irish Presbyterian Church in Boston.
A copy of The Tyrone, Ireland, Constitution, issued some time in or prior to 1876, contained these statements: “Those who are conversant with Reid’s History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland are aware that multitudes of Protestants left Ulster for the plantations of North America. John Hancock’s ancestor was among that number.”
And again: “It is stated by reliable authorities that the ancestors of John Hancock emigrated from near Downpatrick, Co. Down, Ire., and settled in Boston toward the close of the seventeenth century. The Hancocks have been for centuries actively and largely engaged in the foreign and domestic trade of Newry, and it was, doubtless, in a commercial capacity that the first of the name came to Boston. The family to which President Hancock belonged is, it is said, now (1889) represented in Ireland by John Hancock of Lurgan, and by Neilson Hancock, the founder of the Irish Statistical Society. Anthony Hancock, who came from Ireland, resided in Boston in 1681, and he was evidently the founder of the family in America.”
Equal to Hancock in patriotism and brilliant qualities was James Sullivan, who spent the last part of his life in Boston. He was a governor of Massachusetts, patriot, jurist, orator and author and shone conspicuously in his various roles. He was a brother of General John Sullivan, New Hampshire’s most distinguished Kelt, patriot, the soldier who struck the first blow for the freedom of his country, delegate to the Continental Congress, jurist and chief magistrate of the Granite State.
These two great men were the sons of Owen Sullivan or O’Sullivan, who came from Ardea, Co. Kerry, while their mother was from Cork.
The year 1737 was notable in the annals of Boston as marking the birth of a lad who was destined, up to the present time, to become her greatest artist, “the American Vandyke,” as he was fittingly called. He was a painter of portraits and historical subjects, and doubtless many of you have seen some of the splendid works from his brush which enrich the Museum of Fine Arts. I refer to John Singleton Copley. He was the son of Irish parents (they were from County Clare), who settled in Boston in 1736.
Copley began his career under great disadvantages—without teacher or instruction, without model, without materials to practise. He even had to make his own palette and arrange what colors he used. Furthermore, he never saw a good picture until he left his native land. But notwithstanding all this, his genius triumphed.