Among the soldiers serving in the Revolution was the son of Mr. Greaton, who kept the Greyhound Tavern in Roxbury. That boy became known to fame as General John Greaton. He belonged to the first company of minute men raised in America in 1775, and was chosen major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel of Heath’s regiment. After the battle of Lexington he was engaged in the skirmishes about Boston until he joined that memorable excursion to Quebec. He served throughout our struggle for independence and was one of Washington’s most trusted officers.
William Connolly was another Boston Kelt who fought in the Revolution. And so was Michael Cassady. Cassady was one of the patriots at Valley Forge.
Among the residents of Milton in colonial days was Anthony Gulliver, who was born in Ireland in 1619. He was the ancestor of a large number of able and influential men and women who have been prominent in public and religious affairs of Milton, Mass., for nearly two centuries.
The Story of the Irish in Boston contains the following interesting paragraph about a member of the Gulliver family:
“Capt. Lemuel Gulliver, who once lived at Algerine Corner, returned to Ireland in 1723 and gave a glowing description of the American country to his neighbor, Jonathan Swift. Lemuel’s imagination was vivid and fanciful and he turned it to a quaint account in this instance.
“He declared to Swift that ‘the frogs were as tall as his knees and had musical voices that were guitar-like in their tones; the mosquitoes’ bills were as long as darning needles’; and from these exaggerated and fabulous accounts of the country the great Swift conceived and wrote the famous Gulliver’s Travels, which was published in 1726, displaying a unique union of misanthropy, satire, irony, ingenuity and humor.”
CONCERNING “AN IRISH MAN-OF-WAR.”
Further information is wanted regarding the following incident mentioned in Winthrop’s History of New England: “A ship from the Colonies, carrying fourteen guns * * * on a voyage to the Canaries about the close of the year 1644, fought nearly all day at close quarters, and finally beat off an Irish man-of-war of superior force.” Additional details on this subject would be of great interest.
THEY FIRED THREE VOLLEYS.
In connection with a celebration of St. Patrick’s Day in Baltimore, Md., in 1798, it is noted that “at eleven o’clock Captain Stewart’s Irish brigade and Keating’s Irish grenadiers, accompanied by a detachment of Captain Weaver’s artillery, with two pieces of cannon, marched to Federal Hill and fired three volleys in honor of the day.”