Transcriber’s Note:

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

HON. JOHN C. LINEHAN.
A Founder of the Society, and the first Treasurer-General of the same. Born in Macroom, County Cork, Ireland, Feb. 9, 1840. Died in Penacook (Concord), N. H., Sept. 19, 1905.

THE JOURNAL
OF THE
AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

BY

THOMAS HAMILTON MURRAY,

Secretary-General.

VOLUME V.

BOSTON, MASS.,

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY,

1905.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The present is the fifth volume of the Journal of the American-Irish Historical Society. I desire to acknowledge the many courtesies received during its preparation, and to express my deep appreciation of the same. This volume sets forth the work done by the organization during the year, presents several historical papers of value and contains other matter of interest. All the volumes of the Journal thus far issued have received a cordial welcome and have been the recipients of the most gratifying praise. It is hoped that the present work will be equally well received. The Society continues to enjoy a prosperous existence, has no indebtedness, and is constantly adding new members to its roll.

T. H. Murray.

Boston, Mass.,

Dec. 15, 1905.

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY, A. D. 1905.

President-General,

Hon. John D. Crimmins,

New York City.

Vice-President-General,

Hon. Joseph T. Lawless,

Norfolk, Va.

Secretary-General,

Thomas Hamilton Murray,

36 Newbury St., Boston, Mass.

Treasurer-General,

Hon. John C. Linehan,[^[1]]

Concord, N. H.

Librarian and Archivist,

Thomas B. Lawler,

New York City.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL,

The foregoing and

• Hon. William McAdoo, New York City.
• Hon. Thomas J. Gargan, Boston, Mass.
• Thomas Addis Emmet, M. D., New York City.
• Rev. John J. McCoy, Chicopee, Mass.
• Patrick F. Magrath, Binghamton, N. Y.
• Edward J. McGuire, New York City.
• Stephen Farrelly, New York City.
• James L. O’Neill, Elizabeth, N. J.
• Cyrus Townsend Brady, New York City.
• Major John Crane, New York City.
• Thomas J. Lynch, Augusta, Me.
• Francis C. Travers,[^[2]] New York City.
• M. Joseph Harson, New York City.
• Col. John McManus, Providence, R. I.
• Hon. Patrick Garvan, Hartford, Conn.
• John J. Lenehan, New York City.
• John Jerome Rooney, New York City.
• Hon. William Gorman, Philadelphia, Pa.
• Hon. Francis Q. O’Neill, Charleston, S. C.
• James Connolly, Coronado, Cal.

STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS.

• Maine—James Cunningham, Portland.
• New Hampshire—Hon. James F. Brennan, Peterborough.
• Vermont—John D. Hanrahan, M. D., Rutland.
• Massachusetts—Hon. Joseph H. O’Neil, Boston.
• Rhode Island—Thomas A. O’Gorman, Providence.
• Connecticut—Dennis H. Tierney, Waterbury.
• New York—Joseph I. C. Clarke, New York City.
• New Jersey—John F. Kehoe, Newark.
• Pennsylvania—Hugh McCaffrey, Philadelphia.
• Delaware—John J. Cassidy, Wilmington.
• Virginia—James W. McCarrick, Norfolk.
• West Virginia—John F. Healy, Thomas, Tucker County.
• South Carolina—Henry A. Molony, Charleston.
• Georgia—Capt. John Flannery, Savannah.
• Ohio—John Lavelle, Cleveland.
• Illinois—Hon. P. T. Barry, Chicago.
• Indiana—Very Rev. Andrew Morrissey, C. S. C., Notre Dame.
• Iowa—Rt. Rev. Philip J. Garrigan, D. D., Sioux City.
• Montana—Rt. Rev. M. C. Lenihan, D. D., Great Falls.
• Minnesota—Hon. C. D. O’Brien, St. Paul.
• Missouri—Julius L. Foy, St. Louis.
• Kentucky—John J. Slattery, Louisville.
• Tennessee—Michael Gavin, Memphis.
• Kansas—Patrick H. Coney, Topeka.
• Utah—Joseph Geoghegan, Salt Lake City.
• Texas—Gen. A. G. Malloy, El Paso.
• California—John Mulhern, San Francisco.

OTHER VICE-PRESIDENTS.

• District of Columbia—Hon. Edward A. Moseley, Washington.
• Arizona—Col. O’Brien Moore, Tucson.
• Indian Territory—Joseph F. Swords, Sulphur.
• Canada—Hon. Felix Carbray, Quebec.
• Ireland—Dr. Michael F. Cox, Dublin.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1905.

THE ANNUAL MEETING AND DINNER.

The Society held its annual meeting and dinner on Tuesday evening, Jan. 24, 1905, at the Hotel Manhattan, 42d Street and Madison Avenue, New York City. In the unavoidable absence of the President-General, until late in the evening, Hon. Morgan J. O’Brien of New York presided. Thomas Hamilton Murray of Boston, Mass., Secretary-General of the Society, attended to the duties of the latter office. The following is a copy of the notice for the event:

AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING AND DINNER.

Dear Sir: The annual meeting and dinner of the American-Irish Historical Society will take place at the Hotel Manhattan, 42d Street and Madison Avenue, New York City, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 24, 1905.

A reception committee will be on duty at the Manhattan as early as 3 p. m., to greet members of the Society and their guests, especially those coming from other cities and states.

At 6.30 p. m. members and guests will be received by the officers of the Society.

At 7 p. m. the annual meeting will be called to order.

At 8 p. m. the line will be formed and proceed to the annual dinner.

Tickets for the dinner will be $3.50 each, and are now ready for delivery. A dinner committee of New York members of the Society has been appointed and consists of Mr. John F. Doyle, 45 William Street; Major John Crane, 10 Bridge Street; Hon. Samuel Adams, 339–355 Sixth Avenue; Dr. J. Duncan Emmet, 103 Madison Avenue; Mr. James Curran, 512 West 36th Street; Mr. Thomas B. Lawler, 70 Fifth Avenue; Mr. John Goodwin, 70 West 23d Street; Mr. James O’Flaherty, 22 North William Street, and Mr. P. Tecumseh Sherman, 15 William Street.

Checks for dinner tickets should be made payable and forwarded to Mr. Doyle of the committee, at his address here given.

During the dinner, selections will be rendered by one of the best orchestras in New York City, and there will also be vocal numbers by eminent soloists. The after-dinner exercises will include a number of brief addresses along the Society’s line of work by Hon. Hugh Hastings, State Historian of New York; Mr. Osborne Howes, Treasurer of the Boston Board of Fire Underwriters, and by other gentlemen. Mr. Howes, here mentioned, is a descendant of an Irishman who settled on Cape Cod, Mass., as early as 1657—nearly 250 years ago.

Kindly state, as soon as possible, whether you intend to be present with us on the forthcoming occasion.

Members may bring personal guests.

Fraternally,

William McAdoo,

President-General.

Thomas Hamilton Murray,

Secretary-General,

36 Newbury Street, Boston, Mass.

The attendance was one of the largest ever present at a like event under the auspices of the Society. The business session was of more than usual interest, the annual reports elicited the closest attention, and the whole affair was marked by a most commendable degree of enthusiasm.

Secretary-General Murray stated in his annual report that the following members of the Society had died during the year:

• Capt. James F. Redding, Charleston, S. C.
• Mr. Bernard Foley, Boston, Mass.
• Mr. Patrick Farrelly, New York City.
• Rev. John F. Redican, Leicester, Mass.
• Mr. Patrick Brady, New York City.
• Rev. Francis D. McGuire, Albany, N. Y.
• John O’Flaherty, M. D., Hartford, Conn.
• Mr. Joseph P. Flatley, Boston, Mass.
• Mr. John H. Spellman, New York City, and
• Hon. John M. Fitzsimons, New York City.

The Secretary-General paid an appropriate tribute to each of the foregoing, and fitting action in honor of the deceased was taken by the Society.

It was stated by the Secretary-General that during the year the following-named gentlemen had become Life members of the organization, each paying $50:

• Mr. George J. Gillespie, New York City.
• Mr. Robert A. Sasseen, New York City.
• Mr. P. E. Somers, Worcester, Mass.
• Mr. Stephen Farrelly, New York City.
• Hon. Patrick Garvan, Hartford, Conn.
• Rev. Henry A. Brann, D. D., New York City.
• Hon. Jeremiah O’Rourke, Newark, N. J., and
• Mr. Patrick Gallagher, New York City.

The Secretary-General stated that during the year he had opened temporary headquarters at 509 Fifth Avenue, New York, for the purpose of securing new members and inducing members in arrears to settle their indebtedness. Although able to devote but a few weeks to the work, the result was very satisfactory.

During the year the Secretary-General collected and remitted to the Treasurer-General, $1,247. “The Society is today,” said Mr. Murray, “in as prosperous a condition as at any period since its formation, and we hopefully look forward to many years of continued prosperity and usefulness.”

Hon. John C. Linehan of Concord, N. H., Treasurer-General of the Society, in his annual report stated that the total resources of the Society for the year were $2,341.17; and the total expenditure, $1,248.80, leaving a balance in the treasury, Dec. 31, 1904, of $1,092.37.

The committee appointed to audit the Treasurer-General’s accounts, reported the same as correctly kept and that all expenditures were accompanied by proper vouchers.

The annual reports were unanimously accepted and adopted.

Mr. Joseph Smith of Lowell, Mass., moved as the sense of the Society, that the latter heartily approves the project to erect a monument in Washington, D. C., to Commodore John Barry. The motion was unanimously adopted.

The annual election of officers for the Society then took place and resulted in the choice of the gentlemen whose names are given on pages [5], [6] and [7] of this volume.

The following were elected to membership in the Society:

• Hon. Hugh Hastings, State Historian of New York, Albany, N. Y.
• Rev. James J. Baxter, D. D., Boston, Mass.
• Mr. T. Vincent Butler, New York City.
• Mr. Michael J. Morkan, Hartford, Conn.
• Mr. Edward R. Carroll, New York City.
• Mr. John Jay Joyce, New York City.
• Mr. D. H. McBride, New York City.
• Mr. P. H. Garrity, Waterbury, Conn.
• Mr. G. W. Lembeck, Jersey City, N. J.
• Mr. T. F. Donnelly, New York City.
• Mr. Patrick Murray, New York City.
• Mr. Arthur McAleenan, New York City.
• Hon. Lawrence O. Murray, Washington, D. C.
• Mr. Thomas Kenney, Worcester, Mass.
• Thomas F. Kenney, M. D., Vienna, Austria.
• M. X. Sullivan, Ph. D., Providence, R. I.

The Annual Dinner.

Upon the adjournment of the business meeting, the Society and guests proceeded to the banquet room for the annual dinner. One hundred and forty-five gentlemen participated.

Among those seated at the head table with Hon. Morgan J. O’Brien, the presiding officer, were: Rev. Henry A. Brann, D. D., New York City; Hon. Joseph F. Daly, New York City; Mr. Osborne Howes, Boston, Mass.; Hon. John C. Linehan, Concord, N. H.; Hon. Hugh Hastings, Albany, N. Y.; Thomas Addis Emmet, M. D., New York City; Mr. M. F. Dooley, Providence, R. I.; Mr. John F. Doyle, New York City; Mr. Stephen Farrelly, New York City, and Mr. Joseph I. C. Clarke, New York City.

After grace had been said the company devoted itself to the fine menu.

During the repast music was furnished by an orchestra. There was also singing by the entire company, in chorus, and solo singing by Mr. John W. Donovan of New York; Mr. Joseph M. Byrne of Newark, N. J., and Hon. John C. Linehan of Concord, N. H.

At an interval during the dinner, Mr. Joseph Smith of Lowell, Mass., alluding to the approaching departure of James Jeffrey Roche, LL. D., for Genoa, Italy, as United States Consul, moved that the Society bid him God-speed on his journey and wish him a brilliant career in his new sphere of duty. The motion was adopted.

While the post-prandial exercises were in progress, Hon. William McAdoo arrived and the chair was yielded him by Judge O’Brien.

The paper of the evening was by Hon. Hugh Hastings, State Historian of New York, who took for his subject: “Thomas Dongan and the Earl of Bellomont, Governors of New York.” The paper was one of great merit and was frequently applauded.

Several brief addresses were made during the evening, having a bearing on the Society’s line of work.

While the dinner was under way, a toast to President Roosevelt, “one of our members,” was proposed by Hon. Thomas Z. Lee of Providence, R. I., and drank amid great enthusiasm.

The following letter written by President Roosevelt to Mr. William M. Sweeny of Astoria, L. I., N. Y., a member of the Society, was read to the company by Judge O’Brien:

My Dear Mr. Sweeny: Replying to your letter of the 14th inst., I would say that my Irish ancestors came to Pennsylvania early in the seventeenth century. They included John Potts and his wife, Elizabeth McVaugh (so set down in the records; I do not know what the real name was); John Barnhill, whose wife was Sarah Craig, and a man named Lukens, who may have been a German from the Palatinate.

They were all of them humble people, farmers, merchants, etc., although Sarah Craig is put down as being descended on her mother’s side, through the Barnwalls, from various well known Irish families, both of the pale and outside the pale, the Butlers, the Fitzgeralds, O’Neills and O’Briens. But about this more illustrious descent I fear I cannot give you any specific particulars.

Sincerely yours,

Theodore Roosevelt.

The reading of the foregoing letter was received with great applause.

Letters expressing regret at inability to attend the dinner were received from the following:

• Hon. John D. Crimmins, New York City.
• Gen. M. V. Sheridan, U. S. A. (retired), Washington, D. C.
• Rt. Rev. Philip J. Garrigan, D. D., Sioux City, Ia.
• Rev. Christopher Hughes, Fall River, Mass.
• James E. Sullivan, M. D., Providence, R. I.
• Mr. P. Tecumseh Sherman, New York City.
• Mr. George W. McCarthy, Portsmouth, N. H.
• Rev. James Coyle, Taunton, Mass.
• Daniel J. Phelan, M. D., New York City.
• Hon. Edward A. Moseley, Washington, D. C.
• Hon. Thomas J. Gargan, Boston, Mass.
• Col. James Moran, Providence, R. I., and
• John D. Hanrahan, M. D., Rutland, Vt.

PATRIOTIC PILGRIMAGE TO LEXINGTON, MASS.

Interesting Observance by the Society of the Anniversary of the Battle of April 19, 1775.

The Society held an interesting observance, April 19, 1905, the date being the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, Concord and Cambridge, fought in 1775. The programme comprised a patriotic pilgrimage to Lexington, and other features of interest.

The Boston members, and their guests, went out to Lexington in automobiles, leaving Boston about 10.15 a. m. Each member and guest wore a neat badge, specially designed for the occasion, and comprising the Revolutionary colors buff and blue. Each badge bore the initials of the Society, “A. I. H. S.,” and the inscription, “Lexington, 1775–1905.”

Reaching Cambridge, the party stopped at the City Hall there and a call was made on Hon. Augustine J. Daly, mayor of Cambridge. All the members of the party were introduced to the mayor, who was assisted in receiving by City Clerk Edward J. Brandon, J. Edward Barry, president of the board of aldermen; Mr. Edward A. Counihan, mayor’s clerk, and other officials.

After the introduction and greetings, lunch was served. Leaving Cambridge city hall, the party started for Lexington. Many historic points were passed, including Harvard College, the Old Elm, where Washington took command of the American Army, and a number of memorial tablets.

Arriving at the Lexington town hall, the party was warmly welcomed by Mr. George W. Taylor, chairman of the board of selectmen, and by other officials of the town. All then walked to the battle monument on the village green, where the Society placed a laurel wreath to the memory of the patriotic dead. This wreath measured about three feet in diameter, and was tied with buff and blue ribbon.

Assembled around the monument at this time, in addition to the members of the Society, was a large gathering of the people of Lexington, and visitors from out of town. After the wreath had been put in place on the monument, an oration was delivered by City Clerk Brandon of Cambridge, who dwelt upon the objects of the Society and the lessons of patriotism inculcated by the observance of the day. Mr. Brandon’s remarks were frequently applauded and at the close he was given an ovation. The Society was then grouped, with the monument as a background, and a large photograph of the whole taken.

The Society and guests, escorted by Chairman Taylor of the board of selectmen, then proceeded to the latter’s beautiful residence, “Larchmont,” where they were hospitably entertained. The ladies of the party were specially taken charge of by Mrs. Taylor, while the gentlemen were waited upon by Mr. Taylor and his talented daughter, Miss Amy Ethel Taylor. An elaborate lunch was served, and then followed congratulatory and patriotic addresses by a dozen or more of the visitors.

Following the lunch and the speech-making there was vocal and instrumental music, the whole affair being one of great enjoyment.

Members of the Society were present, during the day, from Boston, Cambridge, Lowell, Lexington and Springfield, Mass.; Providence and Pawtucket, R. I.; Hartford, Conn.; and New York City.

Among those participating in the exercises were: Hon. Patrick Garvan of Hartford, Conn., and his daughters, the Misses Agnes and Genevieve Garvan; Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Murphy, Springfield, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. T. H. Murray, Boston, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. Charles V. Ryan, Springfield, Mass.; Miss M. Olive Murphy, Boston, Mass.; Mr. T. Vincent Butler, New York City; Mr. Patrick Carter, Providence, R. I.; Mr. John F. Kinsela, Lowell, Mass.; Mr. J. J. Cassidy, Lowell, Mass.; Mr. Bernard McCaughey, Pawtucket, R. I.; Mr. T. P. Kelly, New York City; Mr. Bernard J. Joyce, Boston, Mass.; Mr. M. H. Cox, Mr. Joseph F. O’Connell and other Boston people; Mr. Christopher S. Ryan, Mr. Orlando Bowman and Rev. M. H. Owens, all of Lexington, Mass., Mr. T. F. Gorman, Boston, Mass., and a number of others.

The following is a copy of a letter from Selectman Taylor in connection with the foregoing event, and received previous thereto:

Lexington, Mass., Mar. 24, 1905.

Thomas Hamilton Murray, Esq.,

Sec’y of the American-Irish Historical Society,

36 Newbury St., Boston, Mass.

My dear Sir: Your favor of the 22nd inst., relative to a patriotic pilgrimage of the American-Irish Historical Society on April 19th, is at hand.

As Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, I shall be most happy to receive you at the Town Hall at noon, and will also be glad to attend your exercises on the Common, after which I should be pleased, if you find it convenient, to have you make an informal call at “Larchmont,” my home on Bedford Street, where I had the pleasure of meeting so many of your Society three years ago.

Very truly yours,

Chairman, Board of Selectmen,
Town of Lexington.

SOME INTERESTING HISTORICAL PAPERS.

GOODY GLOVER, AN IRISH VICTIM OF THE WITCH CRAZE, BOSTON, MASS., 1688.

BY HAROLD DIJON.[^[3]]

Leonard Scot, in his Discoverie of Witchcraft, gives this definition of a witch: “The sort of such as are said to be witches are women which be commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles; poore, sullen, superstitious, and Papists; or such as know no religion.” Ralph Hoven, an Anglican divine, concedes: “All Papists be not witches, but commonly all witches be the spawn of the Pope.”

The Rev. Josiah Templie, in a sermon preached at Rye in 1619, says: “Because of witchcraft we have divers mischiefs and disorders; and witches they be so long as there be Papists, drabs of the strumpet Pope,” and so on. Oates, in The Witchcrafts of the Roman Jezebel—a folio that brought him a considerable fortune,—repeats the foregoing statements in language not printable.

John Cunliffe of Preston complained in 1596 that witchcraft was made a plea for “burning those of the Old Religion; in moste parte they who be in great povertie.” How many of those burned for witchcraft in England were Catholics, it is not impossible to ascertain. Much material appertaining to the subject waits to be investigated.

The opinion fostered in England that a witch, a devil, and a Catholic were different terms for the same thing, was as sedulously cared for in New England; and we find Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia, and in a sermon preached in Old North Church, Boston, using virtually Scot’s definition of a witch to describe the subject of this sketch.

“Glover,” he says, “was a scandalous old Irishwoman, very poor, a Roman Catholic and obstinate in idolatry.”

A Boston merchant, one Robert Calef, who knew Mrs. Glover, writes of her in More Wonders of the Invisible World, printed in London in 1700. The sympathy he expresses for her was bold for the time, prevented the publication of the work in Boston, brought on him the vituperations of Cotton Mather, and caused the book to be burned in Harvard College yard, by order of Harvard’s president, Dr. Increase Mather.

Calef says: “Goody Glover was a despised, crazy, poor old woman, an Irish Catholic, who was tried for afflicting the Goodwin children. Her behavior at her trial was like that of one distracted. They did her cruel. The proof against her was wholly deficient. The jury brought her guilty. She was hung. She died a Catholic.”

Drake, in his Annals of Witchcraft in New England, makes the following comment on this passage: “Glover was not a crazy person, as we now understand the word; it was not meant that she was insane, but simply that she was weak and infirm.” We have not lost the old meaning of the word; and such expressions as “a crazy table,” “a crazy structure,” are quite common.[^[4]]

Ann Glover [commonly called Goody Glover] and her daughter had been living in Boston for some years prior to her execution in 1688. It is not known what part of Ireland she came from. She herself has stated that she and her husband were sold to the Barbadoes in the time of Cromwell. She also related that, shortly after the birth of her daughter, her husband was “scored to death and did not give up his religion, which same I will hold to.”

How Mrs. Glover came to be in Boston can only be conjectured. It is possible she came in that train of servants and Indian slaves brought to the Puritan Colony from the Barbadoes, some of whom fell to the Rev. Mr. Parris, of Salem fame. Little is known of her life in Boston before 1682, beyond the fact that the presence of a Catholic in a community that looked upon itself as “the only Christian people” gave great umbrage.

In 1682 a woman who had labored in vain to convince Mrs. Glover of her “Papistical errors,” accused her of witchcraft; and, dying shortly after, prophesied that “Goody Glover would be hung.” The prophecy was not forgotten.

The mother and daughter were wretchedly poor, and barely able to make a scant living by washing the clothes of such as could be induced to employ a “Papist.” Among those who employed them was the family of John Goodwin. John Goodwin had come to Boston from Charlestown, and was the father of four children—Nathaniel, Martha, John and Mercy,—all of whom were to be in the plot which did to death two harmless women, and which “sadly perplexed and befooled Cotton Mather.”

Cotton Mather, who was charged in 1693 with being “the chief cause, promoter and agent, and favourer of the prosecutions for witchcraft”! Cotton Mather, who “countenanced the executioners by his presence, and in various ways urged the terrible work of blood in Salem”! Cotton Mather, who, from being extolled for sanctity and learning, has come to be scoffed at as an “ignoramus, vain and mendacious”! Such was the pastor of Old North Church, of which the Goodwins were “pillars.”

In 1687 Martha Goodwin, who was then a child of twelve years, charged Mrs. Glover’s daughter with having purloined some clothes. The charge was indignantly repelled, and accusation was made that Martha wished to get Mrs. Glover into trouble. And then the daughter cried out: “You may have us whipped, but to the sermons we will not go.” Hereupon, Martha fell into a fit, which the “learned physicians of Boston declared to be diabolical.”

I think you will agree with me, when Martha’s pranks are further displayed, that the little girl had an attack of nerves and temper. What between tirades against witches, Catholics, Baptists and Quakers, and long sermons and long faces, the whole community was in a highly nervous state. Cheerfulness was sinfulness. Read of that monstrous Pharisee of five years old lauded in the Magnalia. She never laughed; she prayed her mother might be one of the elect, even as she was.

Mrs. Glover and her daughter were now in sorer straits than ever. No one would employ them, and had it not been for some secret aid they received from the Calefs, who were not bereft of reason and humanity, they must have starved. Even as it was, the treatment the daughter received—“stonings and revilings”—turned her brain, and she died a lunatic, frightened to death.

In the meanwhile, the lost clothes were found, by a woman employed in the Goodwin household, “stuck under a wardrobe.” This discovery led to no good results for Mrs. Glover, for now Mercy and the two Goodwin boys had fits “like unto those of the maid Martha”; and then Martha took it into her head to be again “afflicted.” The children asserted that the spirit of Goody Glover struck them with blows, cut them with knives, strangled them and sat on their chests. At devotions they pretended they could hear nothing of what was said. “Goody Glover stopped their ears! Goody Glover would have them worship her idols!” was their cry.

All this was so much gospel to a people saturated with prejudice; and the Boston and Charlestown ministers held a fast at Mr. Goodwin’s house. “The fast did greatly relieve the children.” Which goes to prove that if Mr. Goodwin had “whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed,” they would have been permanently cured.

But now “the magistrates, long annoyed by the presence of an obstinate Papist in Boston, ordered Goody Glover to be taken into custody.” A search was made of her house, “and certain images were found in secret.” It is not difficult to conjecture what they were. Beads or medals, maybe; certainly a cross or crucifix was one of them.

She was “loaded with chains” and placed in a prison. As no provision was made to feed prisoners in Massachusetts at that time, her condition must have been one of great distress. It is said that the Calefs continued to succor her, and there is a statement that a Dame Nourse of Salem, visiting Boston, gave her some aid. Can this be the explanation of Mather’s inexorable pursuit of Rebecca Nourse?

To relieve the tedium of an existence deprived of innocent amusements, the Goodwin children renewed their deceptions, and Cotton Mather, “to relieve the distress of the afflicted John Goodwin, took Martha to his house to live.” Now it was that the cunning mischief-maker befooled Cotton Mather to the top of his bent. Page after page of the ponderous Magnalia is occupied with a grave recital of the pranks played by this child in the minister’s house. “She screamed with pain, and cried that Glover’s chains were about her leg.... To prevent the escape of the prisoner’s spirit, to afflict the child, they put other chains on Glover.... They chained the Papist till she could not move and she did spew blood.”

Martha would not allow the spirit to be confined. She said Goody Glover brought her a horse to ride, and her pastor tells us “she would make all the motions of a person who rides, about the room and up the stairs, like one astraddle of a horse.”

Imagine the impish glee of the child at seeing the most important person in the Colony following her about in her horseplay, with looks of awe! Her terrible precocity taught her to play on his hatred of Mrs. Glover’s creed. “While possessed of the devil and Mrs. Glover,” he says, “she could read Popish books, but not books against Popery.” In the pastor’s study “she would become calm, and no longer afflicted. This was witnessed by divers persons, and many times.” When asked why she was not afflicted in the pastor’s study, the child replied, with a thorough reading of Mather’s greatest weakness—his vanity, “Your study is too holy a place for the devil or Glover to enter.”

The trial of Mrs. Glover was a farce. Pounded with questions on all sides, the poor woman was only able to answer her tormentors in Irish. “This she was instigated to do by the devil,” says Cotton Mather. There be no doubt that, owing to her great age, her sufferings in prison, the confusion of the court, which was added to by the screams of pretended pain from the Goodwin children, Mrs. Glover was temporarily deprived of English, “for which she never had a great facility.” One question, however, she did give answer to in English. They asked her if it was true that she was a Papist, “and showed to her an idol which was secret in her house. She snatched at it with a joy that was diabolical, and said: ‘I die a Catholic!’” Considering the material of which it was composed, it is no wonder that the jury, after this declaration of Faith, found her guilty.

The magistrates visited her in prison that night, “and they found her agreeable to their questions.” They asked her what would become of her soul after she was hanged. The simple and much-tried woman had the humility Cotton Mather lacked. “You ask me a very solemn question, and I can not tell what to say to it. I trust in God,” she replied. Cotton Mather also visited her in prison.... He asked her to say the Lord’s Prayer; for the common belief was that this could not be done by a Catholic or a witch. “She recited the Pater Noster to me in Latin,” he says, “and in Irish, and in English, but she could not end it.” Of course she could not end it in Cotton Mather’s way.

She caused Mather to wonder that she repeated in a voice “marvellous strong” the petition, “deliver us from evil.” He considers this to be a sign that she “reproached the devil for deserting her to be hung.” Poor, befogged man, whose conceit would not permit him to see that it was he himself she petitioned to be delivered from; for he argued with her to destroy her Faith. She refused Mather’s spiritual ministrations, and he feels assured that her “Catholic spirits” will not permit her to accept them, and he predicts to her, her speedy and eternal damnation.

The proffering of these several consolations increased Mather’s habitual satisfaction with himself, and he says: “Comforted at having performed a solemn duty” [the consigning of a soul to perdition], “I returned to my house.” Arrived there, he found the “Maid Martha galloping about the room on the horse, her feet not touching the ground, which was a great wonder.”

Mrs. Glover was hanged on the following day. “There was a great concourse of people to see if the Papist would relent.... Her one cat was there, fearsome to see. They would to destroy the cat, but Mr. Calef would not [permit the cat to be killed]. Before her execution she was bold and impudent [!] making to forgive her accusers and those who put her off.... She predicted that her death would not relieve the children, saying it was not she afflicted them.” This was construed into a threat; and the children continued their sport, till, “a very strict fast being held, they were completely restored.” After recounting the details of this “joyful restoration,” Cotton Mather becomes more than usually prolix in a relation of the piety of his protegés.

It is not denied that before and after the execution of Ann Glover there was a vast number of arrests and executions of reputed witches and wizards in New England, beginning in 1647, under John Winthrop, and culminating in the Salem massacre of 1692. It is not denied that neither age, sex, nor condition was spared. Some were children—one but four years old,—others of eighty and beyond; one was a minister; many were the most reputable people in the Massachusetts Colony.

What is asserted is that Ann Glover was put to death not so much because she was reputed a witch, as for the certainty that she was a Catholic. All we know of her is in the words of her enemies and executioners, except what is found in the scant record of Robert Calef, who exposed himself to utter ruin by his defence of her. The little we know, however, confirms the truth of my assertion.

It was only when all attempts to move Mrs. Glover’s “obstinate Papacy” had failed, that she was first accused of witchcraft in 1682. That the Goodwins were in the league “to bring her out of the burning”—that is, to induce her to forswear the Faith—may be inferred with safety from what took place in 1687. When her daughter was accused of theft by Martha Goodwin, she does not say, “You may have us whipped, but we are innocent of stealing”: this she had asserted before. She cries out: “You may have us whipped, but we won’t go to the sermons.” Does not this outburst unfold a tale of antecedent persecution suffered for religion’s sake?

A fast “had greatly relieved the Goodwin children”; the tempest they had aroused was lulled, and what happened? “The magistrates, long annoyed by the presence of an obstinate Papist in Boston, ordered Goody Glover to be taken into custody,” says Drake. At her trial there was not even such evidence to prove her a witch as would satisfy the gullible magistrates. It was only when Goody Glover made the declaration that she would die a Catholic that “the jury brought her guilty.”

It went hard with the magistrates and Cotton Mather that a poor old Catholic, a “scandalous Irishwoman,” withstood the doctrine of the self-reputed “saints”; and even now Goody Glover could have saved her life had she “relented.” The magistrates went to her on her last night alive, to beat down her opposition by questions of her soul. They failed, and Cotton Mather took their place.

He was above the law in the cheerless Colony. When, in 1692, the jury brought in poor Rebecca Nourse innocent of witchcraft, he had them sent to reconsider the evidence: at his beck they found her guilty. Then the governor, Sir William Phipps, pardoned her. In defiance of the pardon, Cotton Mather had her hanged, and saw her die on Witches’ Hill at Salem; and, “sitting on his black horse, he rebuked those who did bewail her; for she was an excellent woman.”

In view of this exhibition of his arbitrary power, is it too much to say that, had Goody Glover “relented,” in his vainglory over the conquest of a broken-down old woman, Cotton Mather would have had her set free? But the old Irishwoman conquered Cotton Mather. “She died a Catholic”; and, imitating her Divine Master, she died forgiving her enemies,—all those from whom she had suffered grievous wrong.

CAPT. DANIEL NEILL, AN ARTILLERY OFFICER OF THE REVOLUTION.

BY GEN. J. MADISON DRAKE[^[5]].

It has never been generally known that the first cannon shot at the enemy, after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by Congress, at Philadelphia, on the evening of July 4, 1776, was fired in Elizabeth, N. J., then known as Elizabethtown, and as the present time seems opportune for the revivication of local incidents in the war for independence, I will narrate an exciting episode to awaken additional interest.

Up to February, 1776, the state of New Jersey, or province as it then was, had no artillery organization, and the importance of that arm of the service being acutely felt, the Provincial Congress, in session at Burlington, on the 13th of that month, adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That two complete artillery companies be raised in this colony.

The ordinance provided that the term of enlistment should be for one year, and that one company should be stationed in the eastern part of the province, the other in the western. Each company was to consist of a captain, one captain-lieutenant, two second lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, and one hundred and fifty matrosses. (The last term was at that time used to denote gunners’ mates, or soldiers in a train of artillery, who assisted in loading, firing and sponging the guns.) The day following the passage of the ordinance the first or eastern company was organized in Newark by the election of the following officers:

Captain—Frederick Frelinghuysen.

Captain-Lieutenant—Daniel Neill.

Second Lieutenants—Thomas Clark and James Heard.

Captain Frelinghuysen served but one month and resigned—Lieutenant Neill succeeding him.

Shepard Kollock, born in Delaware in 1750, after learning the “art preservative of all arts” in Philadelphia, came to Elizabethtown after the war had commenced, and joined Captain Neill’s battery. He was with it when it attacked and destroyed a British gunboat off this city, and by his distinguished gallantry on that occasion was promoted to the first lieutenancy.

At the close of the campaign in 1778, General Knox, commanding the American artillery, advised Lieutenant Kollock to establish a newspaper in Elizabethtown, as he would thereby be able to render great service to the patriot cause. Lieutenant Kollock liked a soldier’s life, and did not want to leave the army, but General Knox finally prevailed upon him to engage in the newspaper enterprise, so he resigned, and securing a rude outfit located in Chatham, a much safer place than Elizabeth was at that period, and for some years afterwards Lieutenant Kollock continued the publication of the New Jersey Journal and Political Intelligencer at Chatham, until peace was declared, when he removed his plant to Elizabeth, where it has since remained.

Captain Neill, a young man born in Ireland, by untiring energy and devotion to duty, quickly got his command in good trim for the active service it was soon to engage in. In the latter part of June Captain Neill, who had been stationed in Newark, N. J., being ordered to Elizabeth, took possession of the earthworks at what is now the foot of Elizabeth Avenue, where he made a comfortable camp. To relieve his men from ennui when not engaged in drilling, Captain Neill caused them to throw up more earth, thus adding to the strength of the redoubt. He placed his four guns so they would command the sound, narrow at that point, as well as the entrance to the Elizabeth River, then known as “Mill Creek.”

William Livingston, a resident of Elizabeth, who resigned his seat in the Provincial Congress at Burlington, to be made commander-in-chief of the New Jersey militia, overjoyed at the presence of Captain Neill’s battery, on the morning of July 4, 1776, wrote General Washington as follows:

... We now have two field pieces, 18 pounders, with a part of Captain Neill’s company of artillery in this province.

Shortly after the mounted courier had set out with the dispatch for Washington’s headquarters in New York, American piquets posted on the ground now occupied by the buildings of the Singer Company, were surprised to see a large British gunboat lying off the southern end of Shooters’ Island. They at once sent word to General Livingston, whose home on Morris Avenue is now occupied by the family of Senator Kean.

Early in the evening General Livingston mounted his horse, ever saddled, and rode to the lower part of the town, where he had a conference with Captain Neill, who had already taken steps to repel an attack, in case the vessel meditated mischief.

The sudden appearance of the gunboat in our waters was a great surprise to our soldiers, as no British vessel had been hereabouts since Washington occupied New York City and Long Island. The gunboat was a part of Admiral Lord Howe’s fleet, just arrived from England, and that day anchored off Cliffton, Staten Island. The British army at once landed on the eastern shore of the island, gladly welcomed by the supporters of British oppression.

Along towards the middle of the night the gunboat was seen coming slowly through the Achter Koll, opposite the Singer factory. In the soft moonlit night the craft was plainly distinguishable to our argus-eyed soldiers keeping watch and ward along the shore. As any effort they could make against the ship with their smooth-bore muskets would be innocent, they maintained a painful silence, feeling assured that when it reached the battery our guns would give a good account of themselves.

The commander of the vessel, in blissful ignorance of the possession of artillery by the Americans, sailed unconcernedly and tranquilly over the placid waters. Like most British officers at that period of the war, he had profound contempt for American militiamen, whom he did not consider foemen worthy of his steel.

Captain Neill, who had been on the qui vive for some time, on learning of the vessel’s approach, impatiently awaited a closer proximity in order that his shots might be fully effective and his welcome to the stranger more hearty, if less hospitable. His guns, ready shotted, were admirably posted close to the water, and matches already lighted by the fire-workers.

It was only when the vessel, but slowly making its way through the silver-rippled water, owing to the lightness of the breeze, reached a point directly opposite the redoubt occupied by Captain Neill, that his dogs of war were loosened, and from their brazen throats belched forth sheets of bright red flame, preceded by iron missiles, which swept the deck of the craft, carrying death, destruction and dismay to the hitherto confident and unsuspecting crew.

The salvo, like a clap of thunder from a serene sky, awoke echoes, which were followed by a rain of merciless iron, utterly demoralizing the officers and crew, and creating scenes of indescribable confusion and terror. A state of chaos ensued; discipline was thrown to the winds—it was every man for himself. The distracted sailors, finding themselves in a trap and seeing no way of escape save by surrender, deserted the vessel by jumping overboard, at least those who had not been killed or maimed by the well-directed fire of our artillerymen.

Those who thus sought safety by springing into the water, endeavored to reach either shore; most of them, however, struck out for the Jersey side on account of its nearness. Some succeeded in gaining the Staten Island shore, but many failed to reach either.

Meanwhile the gunboat, totally disabled, drifted with the outgoing tide, no attempt being made by any one on board to work any of the fourteen guns with which she was armed.

When Captain Neill, true-hearted soldier that he was, saw the desperate helplessness of the British sailors, and their attempts to save themselves, he ceased firing and sent men to rescue them from watery graves. The gunboat was carried by the tide beyond the mouth of the Elizabeth River, and, being in flames, went down to Davy Jones’ capacious locker just after passing the spot now occupied by the Dry Dock Company.

Some thirty years ago, oystermen raked up a large number of British coins and many other articles from this spot, and many believed the treasure was at one time possessed by the sailors of the ill-fated gunboat.

General Livingston, who had remained with Captain Neill and witnessed the attack and destruction of the vessel, at once wrote the following dispatch to General Washington, sending it off post-haste:

Elizabethtown, July 4, 1776.

Midnight.

One of the enemy’s sloops of war, mounting fourteen guns, having this evening run up to this point, was attacked from the shore by the twelve-pounders, a great number of her men killed, she set on fire and entirely destroyed.

As Captain Neill’s attack on the British gunboat occurred about midnight, July 4, 1776, there can be no shadow of doubt that his guns were the first ones fired after the immortal Declaration of Independence was adopted, the Congress in session at Philadelphia having formally performed this act between nine and ten o’clock that evening. It was the first exploit of the new-born nation, and a gallant young Irish patriot, a citizen of this province, carried it to success.

Captain Neill and his battery was shortly after assigned to Col. Thomas Proctor’s[^[6]] regiment of artillery, and subsequently to the brigade of artillery commanded by General Knox.[^[7]] The battery participated in the battles of Trenton, Assinpink Creek, Princeton and Monmouth.

But it was at Princeton that the heroic Neill sealed his devotion to the cause of American liberty and independence with his life’s blood. He was instantly killed by a British sharpshooter just after Hugh Mercer, a Scotsman, was mortally wounded.

In view of the important services rendered by this patriotic son of the Emerald Isle to the cause of American freedom, it would seem especially fitting at this time that a proper recognition of Captain Neill’s devotion to the interests of this community in a dark hour of its history should be made by our citizens.

Daniel Neill nobly gave all he possessed for the benefit and enrichment of posterity, and it behooves us to recognize the value of his splendid services in our behalf by erecting a suitable monument, marking the spot in our town where he struck a deadly and brilliant blow at the ruthless enemies of our blessed land.

Shall it be done?

RICHARD DEXTER, ONE OF BOSTON’S IRISH PIONEERS.

BY THOMAS HAMILTON MURRAY.

Richard Dexter was admitted a “townsman” of Boston, Mass., in 1641. He was an Irishman and came to this country with his wife Bridget. Less worthy people have been adequately chronicled. Of Richard Dexter, however, but little has been said. He may be ranked as a forgotten pioneer.

In the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, January, 1891, is a brief paper on “The Dexter Family.” In that it is stated that “Richard Dexter, the pioneer, with his wife, Bridget, came from Ireland, where his fathers had lived for upwards of 400 years.”

The descendants of Richard and Bridget have been very numerous, many of them attaining prominence in civil, military and educational life. F. Gordon Dexter, a wealthy Boston man, is mentioned as one of these descendants, as is also the late George Dexter of Albany, N. Y. Mention of others will hereinafter be found.

In Vol. III, page 181, of a work published by Munsell on American Ancestry (Albany, N. Y., 1899), it is stated that John Dexter, the only son of Richard, the immigrant, was born in 1639 and probably in Ireland. He was doubtless brought to this country by his parents while still an infant.

The Irish Dexters derive their descent from Anglo-Norman sources and are first heard of in Ireland about A. D. 1169, or more than seven centuries ago. The name has variously appeared in Ireland as De Exeter, D’Exeter, Dexeter, Dexetra, Dexter, etc.

Some of the family, especially those settling in Mayo, in the kingdom of Connaught, assumed the surname Mac Jordan (descendant of Jordan), after an ancestor—Jordan Teutonicus, or Jordan De Courcy, a brother of John De Courcy, Earl of Ulster. These Dexters were commonly known as Dexter-Mac Jordans, and sometimes as Mac Jordan-Dexters. Much of the history of the Dexters must be sought under the names Jordan and Mac Jordan.

The pioneer Dexters in Ireland soon fell in with the people and though, at first, conflicts ensued between them and the old native clans, their descendants eventually became “as Irish as the Irish themselves.” The fact that they were of the same religious faith greatly assisted, of course, in bringing this about.

Richard Dexter, son of Stephen Dexter, wedded, in 1272, Lady Penelope O’Connor, a daughter of the ruler of the Irish kingdom of Connaught. The Dexter-Mac Jordans became lords of Athleathan, in Mayo, Connaught, and built one of their strongest castles there. Stephen Dexter, son of one of the lords of Athleathan, was a Dominican monk, and wrote the Annals of Multifernan.

The Dexter-Mac Jordans also had possessions in the Irish principality of Meath, where they built Castle Jordan. About 1274 they founded an abbey in Mayo. In De Burgo’s time the Dexter family had reached its thirteenth generation in Ireland.

In common with other great Irish families, the Dexters suffered much at the hands of the English enemy, a large part of their choicest property being seized and confiscated. While some of the Irish Dexters took the name Mac Jordan, others, it would appear, did not, for we find Dexters prominently mentioned in the Munster counties of Cork and Limerick.

It is a well-known fact that at one time the Irish living within the pale were obliged by law to drop their Irish surnames and assume others. Possibly, some of the Dexters bearing the name Mac Jordan came under the operation of this enactment and went back to their original name of Dexter. Be that as it may, it is certain that several of the Irish Dexters of Munster were unscrupulously victimized during the Cromwellian and Williamite regimes.

Thomas Dexter of Cloyne, Cork, was among the forfeiting proprietors under the Cromwellian settlement. He was of the Barony of Imokilly. Stephen Dexter of the Parish of Templemurry, County Limerick, also suffered at the same time and in like manner. William Dexter, likewise of Templemurry, was similarly treated by the rapacious foe.

What part of Ireland Richard Dexter, the Boston pioneer, came from we do not know. It is reasonable to conclude, however, that he was from either Munster or Connaught—the south or the west, since it is in these two provinces the Irish Dexters are mainly found. Neither do we know the maiden name of his wife, Bridget. Richard Dexter was admitted a townsman of Boston on “the 28th day of the twelfth month, 1641.” At the meeting where this action was taken there were present: Richard Bellingham, John Winthrop, William Tynge, Captain Gibbones, Valentine Hill, Jacob Eliot, James Penn and John Oliver.

According to Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary, Richard Dexter, the pioneer, was of Charlestown, Mass., in 1644. Munsell’s American Ancestry states that he was born in 1606, which would make him about thirty-five years of age on his arrival in Boston from Ireland. He bought a large amount of land on “Mystic side,” and must, at the outset, have been a man of considerable means. In 1648 his name appears signed to a petition relative to the laying out of a highway in Charlestown, Mass. The petition thus quaintly concludes: “So shall wee be bound to pray as we desire dayly to doe for yr prsptie & peace temporall & Eternall.”

On “the 14th of the third month, 1650,” Richard Dexter purchased of Robert Long of Charlestown five lots on “Mystic side.” In 1654 John Palmer mentions the sale to Dexter of five acres of “arable land” in Charlestown, which land had at one time belonged to Maj. Robert Sedgwick. Richard Dexter also purchased other pieces of land, chiefly upland, in Charlestown at various times. In 1663 he became owner of forty acres in Malden, Mass., buying the same of Edward Lane of Boston. This latter property was increased from time to time, and much of it remained in possession of descendants of Richard down to as late a period as 1854.

In 1651, Richard’s wife, Bridget Dexter, signed a petition of Malden and Charlestown women. This was called “The petition of Many Inhabitants of Malden and Charlestown on Mestickside.” A record is extant showing that “Thomas Molton of Malden, Planter,” sold to Richard Dexter five acres of upland. “It is scituate on mistik syde nere the south springe.” Richard Dexter, the pioneer, died at Charlestown in 1680.

John Dexter, the only son of Richard, was born in 1639. He is spoken of as “of Charlestown and Malden.” He was killed in the latter place in 1677. His wife’s name was Sarah. They had several children, including a son, who was named Richard. This Richard is mentioned as “of Lynn and Malden.” He was born in the latter place in 1676, and died there in 1747. John Dexter of the family was a selectman of Malden for many years, and in 1717 was commissioned captain of a company of Foot by Governor Shute. This John Dexter died in 1722. He had eight children.

Another John Dexter of Malden, of the same family, was born in 1705 and died in 1790. He had thirteen children, was clerk of the town for several years, a patriot of the Revolution and delegate to the Provincial Congress.

The Rev. Samuel Dexter was born in 1700, dying in 1755. He was a brother of Selectman John of Malden. This Samuel graduated at Harvard College, 1720, and subsequently taught school at Taunton, Lynn, Malden, and elsewhere in Massachusetts. He eventually located in Dedham, Mass. He had a son, also named Samuel, who became an eminent merchant of Boston, and died in 1810.

This second Samuel left a bequest to Harvard University, on which bequest was subsequently founded the Dexter lectureship. He became a member of the Council of Massachusetts. He was “an active and sagacious leader on the popular side, and a man of marked ability.”

Another member of this distinguished family was Richard Dexter, a physician at Topsfield, Mass. He was born in 1713 and died in 1783. This Richard was a brother of the Rev. Samuel Dexter, and wedded Mehitable Putnam, a sister of Gen. Israel Putnam.

Two members of the Dexter family, William and Richard, descendants of Richard, the Irishman, were members of a Malden company of Minutemen that marched to Watertown, Mass., April 19, 1775, in response to the Lexington alarm. John Dexter, probably the one just mentioned, was with Captain Blaney in the Point Shirley expedition, 1776, and later was lieutenant aboard the brigantine Hawke. William Dexter of Malden, who responded to the Lexington alarm was with Colonel Brooks’ regiment of guards at Cambridge from February to April, 1778. Thus we see these descendants of the immigrant Richard were as ready to oppose British tyranny as their Irish ancestors had been.

Another member of the family, Aaron Dexter, was born in 1750 and graduated at Harvard in 1776. He witnessed the battle of Bunker Hill from the Malden side of the river; studied medicine and made several voyages as surgeon. He was captured by the British and taken into Halifax, but was subsequently exchanged. Thomas Dexter is heard from at Lynn, as early as 1630. He at one time owned 800 acres in that vicinity. Whether he was related to Thomas Dexter of Cloyne, Cork, to Stephen or William Dexter of Limerick, or to Richard Dexter, the Boston pioneer, is not known.

THE NEW HAMPSHIRE KELLYS.

BY HON. JOHN C. LINEHAN.

Who was the first among New Hampshire’s early settlers to bear the ancient west-of-Ireland name Kelly, is now hard to determine. Probably it was either Roger Kelly, who, with his two brothers John and William, were on the Isles of Shoals shortly after their settlement by the English, or one of the descendants of John Kelly, who came to Newbury, Mass., in 1635.

The exact year when Roger Kelly and his two brothers came to the Shoals is not given in Jenness’ history of the island, but it must have been about the date mentioned. It is written of them that “they were men of energy and substance.” All three lived on Smutty Nose Island. From the records Roger seems to have been the most prominent. A conveyance of land and buildings at the Shoals to him from Nathaniel Fryer is entered in the Province records.

Therein he is styled the fisherman. For this reason it would not be surprising to learn that he came from Galway, Ireland’s greatest fishing mart from the earliest times. Elsewhere in the same work he is alluded to as “Roger Kelly, the ancient magistrate and taverner.” A queer combination of titles from a modern standpoint, and no doubt the occasion for the underscoring of the word taverner.

The people on the Shoals in those early days led a free and easy life. Neither women nor hogs, it is said, were allowed there,—not even married women. The swine ate or spoiled the fish, and the presence of women for obvious reasons caused trouble between the men.

These hardy fishermen, whose manly virtues, despite their human failings, find a staunch advocate in Jenness, “were not very deeply moved by questions of government, or statutes, or courts.” A considerable proportion of criminal complaints against them were for resisting, assaulting, and reviling the officers of the law, and treating with contempt the awe-inspiring badge of his office.

However, this feeling of contempt for the minions of the law was not confined to the inhabitants of the rocky isles, for it is on record that Maj. William Vaughan of Portsmouth, N. H., seized the truncheon of the king’s officer who was on the point of serving a writ upon him, and beat him over the head with it. And as well, that Andrew Wiggin of Stratham, N. H., threw Lieut.-Gov. Walter Barefoote on the blazing coals in his own fireplace, and, in addition, sat on him, breaking some of his ribs, knocking out some of his teeth, and partially roasting his body.

So, for a similar reason, on the Shoals, Abraham Kelly and others were arrested for reviling a constable and attempting to assault him, and even Roger himself, the ancient magistrate and taverner, “was presented in Court for selling without due license to a party of fishermen, while playing nine-pins on Hog Island, twelve gallons of wine which they drank in one day.” An appetite for liquids like this in our day, and with our population, would surely create a famine in that line.

Still, strange as it may seem now, in those good old times, and for a century later, the great man of the town, as a rule, was the tavern-keeper, and Roger was not an exception. His name headed many weighty petitions in favor of, or protesting against, every measure respectively beneficial or injurious to his fellow-citizens of the rocky island. That he was an educated man is apparent from the positions he held, as well as the location of his name at the head of other signers on petitions.

In 1689 he was one of many petitioners to the Massachusetts General Court for the appointment of a suitable person to command the militia.

This fact is on record in the Provincial papers, and Jenness wrote that in 1690, during the King William War, the Massachusetts authorities appointed Roger Kelly “Captain of the Isles.” A company of militia under command of Captain Wiley was sent to the Shoals from Massachusetts, and this was the occasion of some trouble. The fishermen were opposed, it is said, to all manner of government rates and taxes unless the moneys received therefrom were expended on the Shoals. They, therefore, resented the billetting of the soldiers on them and even refused to pay for their subsistence, and Roger Kelly was the leader of the protestants.

There is a record in the Provincial papers of payment to Roger for services as a soldier. The date of the death of Roger Kelly cannot be given here, neither can his descendants be traced without trouble; but undoubtedly they, as well as those of his brothers, are scattered all over the United States, for as Kelly, or Kelley, the name is now one of the most common among Americans. Clarke has immortalized the name in his poem, “The Fighting Race,” and it is well to remark here that “Kelly and Burke and Shea” were here in New Hampshire long before 1700 in the persons of Roger Kelly, James O’Shea and John Burke, whose names appear in the Provincial records.

According to Coffin, the historian of Newbury, Mass., John Kelly of that town was of English as well as of Irish descent. His father, as tradition has it, was an Irishman who went from his native country to Newbury, England. While in the service of a gentleman there he was successful in defending the house from an attack by robbers. He secured the gentleman’s daughter for his wife. The immigrant, John Kelly, was the offspring of this union. He came to Newbury in 1635.

In the allotment of land to settlers he was dissatisfied with his assignment and selected his land so far away from the rest that the people of the town were fearful that he would be destroyed either by the Indians or by wild beasts, and in consequence the town voted “that if the said John Kelly or any of his family are killed by the Indians or wild beasts their blood” should be on their own heads.

However, this did not trouble John Kelly. In time, he was looked upon as one of the most enterprising and courageous men in the settlement, and fearless to an extreme degree. He had five sons and five daughters. His descendants are numerous in New England, and especially in New Hampshire. They were thrifty, prosperous and leading citizens in the towns in which they settled.

Before the Revolution, not a few schoolmasters, natives of Ireland, were teaching the young ideas how to shoot in New Hampshire. They were well thought of in those days, and spoken of, as a rule, in the highest terms by the people with whom they came in contact.

Such men as John Sullivan, father of the general, in Dover; Edward Evans of Northfield, who was General Sullivan’s secretary, and adjutant of one of the three Continental regiments; Henry Parkinson, whose grave is in Canterbury Center cemetery; Edward Donovan of Sandwich; William Donovan of Weare; Patrick Quinlan of Concord; Richard Dowling of Stratham; Darby Kelly of Exeter and Hercules Mooney of Somersworth, were some of these schoolmasters.

Few of New Hampshire’s early settlers have left more useful descendants than Darby Kelly, whose name appears in the Province wills in 1728. The exact time of his arrival, or the section of Ireland from which he came, is unknown. Kelly is one of the most ancient names in Connaught, the western province of Ireland. It is an Anglicization of the Gaelic Ceallaigh. It would not, therefore, be surprising if he emigrated from that part of the country. In the Reminiscences of New Hampton, which were written by one of his descendants, the Hon. F. H. Kelly, ex-mayor of Worcester, Mass., it is stated that he settled in Exeter, N. H., in the early part of the 18th century, and that little is known of him except by tradition. He was reputed to have taught school before leaving home, and “is said to have been a bright, quick-witted Irishman.”

Contrary to rule, this much was said of him by the writer quoted, who had not followed the usual course in calling his ancestor a “Scotch-Irishman.” However that may have been, the record shows that he was a useful, thrifty citizen, possessed of the traits which distinguished so many of his descendants. There is another tradition that he taught school in New Hampshire. If so, the inscription, in part, on the headstone of Capt. Henry Parkinson, Stark’s quartermaster, who died in 1829, would also apply to Darby Kelly. “Hibernia begot me. Columbia nurtured me, ... I have fought, I have taught, and I have labored with my hands,” etc. For if Darby had taught, which is likely, he had also labored with his hands, and fought as well.

The Provincial papers show that when his services as a soldier were required, he shouldered his musket and fought against the common foe, the French and the Indians; so in this way we find his name enrolled as one of the company commanded by Capt. Moses Foster, on scouting duty in 1748; again, serving in Capt. Elijah Sweet’s company, Col. Peter Gilman’s regiment, in New York, 1755; again, in Capt. Elisha Winslow’s company, Col. Nathaniel Meserve’s regiment, in the Crown Point expedition, 1756; and as Sergt. Darby Kelly he is found again in Capt. Richard Emery’s company, Col. Nathaniel Meserve’s regiment, in the second Crown Point expedition, 1757. One battalion of this regiment suffered severely in the massacre at Fort William Henry. Out of 200 men engaged 80 were killed or captured. His final enlistment was in Capt. Somerbee Gilman’s company, of Col. John Hart’s regiment, in 1758. Here is a military record his descendants may well point to with pride, for it enables them to gain admission to all the patriotic Colonial War societies thus far organized.

That he was an active business man is clearly evident, for there are on the records, especially in the Province wills in the New Hampshire State House, entries of deeds of land to or from him from Dec. 11, 1728, to March 31, 1770,—one in Exeter, four in Kingston, and ten in Brentwood. His name appears on a petition from Exeter for parish privileges in 1741, and on another from Brentwood in 1742, and he is recorded as a ratepayer in that town. His name is signed to a receipt for 100 pounds, old tenor, paid to him in 1769 for services as a soldier.

He married Sarah, the daughter of Philip Huntoon of Kingston, N. H. The date and year of his marriage cannot be given here, but it was before 1729. That he had won the good will and the esteem of his wife’s father is clear from the inspection of a deed of land conveyed to him and to his wife, dated July 25, 1729, and recorded in the Province deeds, Vol. 19. It reads in part, stripped of the phraseology of the times, as follows:

“To all people to whom these presents shall come, greeting: Know ye that I, Philip Huntoon, Sr., of the town of Kingstown, in the Province of New Hampshire, in New England, husbandman, Know ye that I, the aforesaid Philip Huntoon, for and in consideration of the natural love and affection which I have and do bear toward and to my beloved daughter and son-in-law, Sarah Kelly and Darby Kelly, of ye said town of Kingstown, county and province aforesaid, and for other good causes and considerations, have given, granted made over and confirmed,” etc.

This is a loving tribute to a son-in-law. It would be of interest to know, were it possible, how he stood with his mother-in-law, but on this point the records are dumb. As a rule, the women were silent in those days. From the language of this deed it is to be taken for granted that he and his wife were residents of the town at the time the deed was made. In the sketch of the family printed in the Reminiscences of New Hampton, it is said that Samuel Kelly, the oldest son of Darby, was born in Exeter in 1733, and died in New Hampton, N. H., on June 28, 1813, aged 80 years. We will now leave Darby to his well-merited rest, and look up the records of some of his descendants.

Samuel Kelly mentioned, married Elizabeth Bowdoin. Here, then, we find a union of three nationalities thus early in the history of the province. Kelly, Huntoon and Bowdoin, respectively, Irish, English and French,—not a bad combination, for each of the three peoples represented have cut quite a figure in the world’s history for the past three centuries. Mrs. Kelly was born in 1740, and died in 1816, outliving her husband three years. Both were buried in the family lot on Kelly Hill, New Hampton.

The family went from Brentwood, N. H., to New Hampton in 1775. Samuel Kelly was a carpenter by trade, and at this time was 42 years old. He is credited with being a man of courage, ability and energy, and at the end of a few years found himself in possession of a considerable part of what is now New Hampton, and this was entirely due to his great perseverance and hard work, aided largely by an iron constitution. He had nine children, six of whom were sons. It is said that his aim was to provide a farm for each. One of his daughters, Sally, died in Machias, Me., in 1840. Another who was married, as the first-named was, moved to Steubenville, O., Two of his sons, John and Dudley, removed to Youngstown, Pa.

Samuel Kelly planned and built the first meeting-house in town. He was a worthy son of Darby Kelly and Sarah Huntoon. He can well be credited as the leading pioneer settler of New Hampton. That his venerable father accompanied him to New Hampton in 1775 is evident from a letter written by Elder Ebenezer Fisk of Jackson, Mich., printed in the Reminiscences mentioned. For, in describing the location of the several families in the town, he wrote, “Next was Darby Kelly whose honored wife died at the advanced age of 103 years.”

Samuel Kelly, son of Samuel, and grandson of Darby Kelly, was born in Brentwood in 1759, and died in New Hampton in 1832. His widow survived him 14 years, dying in 1846, aged 84. He had seven children, four of whom were sons. Of these sons, Michael B. and Jonathan F. Kelly inherited the farm settled on and cleared by their grandfather, the first Samuel Kelly. At the present time, and for a number of years past, it has been owned by the Hon. Joseph H. Walker of Worcester, Mass., who married Hannah M. C. Kelly, youngest child of Michael B. Kelly, and the sister of the late Capt. Warren M. Kelly of Hooksett, and the late Frank H. Kelly, ex-mayor of Worcester.

A Samuel Kelly of New Hampton was on the roster of Col. Hercules Mooney’s regiment in the battle of Rhode Island under Gen. John Sullivan. Later, the name of Lieut. Samuel Kelly of New Hampton is on the roster of the same regiment, and another Samuel Kelly of Meredith was enrolled in a company raised for service at Ticonderoga in 1777.

These were undoubtedly descendants of Darby Kelly. Their residence in one instance is given as at Meredith, and in two as of New Hampton. The evidence for these facts will be found on the pages of the Revolutionary rolls. It is possible that the Lieut. Samuel Kelly may either have been the son or grandson of Darby.

Maj. Nathaniel Kelly, the third son of Samuel, second, and grandson of Darby, moved to Akron, O., before 1835. His son, bearing the same name, with his family followed later. No doubt they are the ancestors of many western Kellys.

Col. William B. Kelly, the fourth son of Samuel, and grandson of Darby, was born in Exeter in 1769. He came to New Hampshire with his father when he was six years old. He had 11 children, of whom six were sons. He was the first postmaster of New Hampton. The mails were distributed from his house before 1800. He was a member of the state Legislature, and one of the two founders of the New Hampton Academy, which was first opened in 1822. It is written of him that “he inherited the military spirit of his ancestors, and transmitted it to his posterity,” as will be seen by the prominent part taken by some of them in the Civil War. His children became widely separated, their descendants now dwelling in almost every state in the Union.

Maj.-Gen. Benjamin F. Kelly, son of Col. William S. Kelly, and great-grandson of Darby Kelly, was born in New Hampton in 1807. When a young man he moved to West Virginia, and was residing there when the first gun was fired on Sumter. It is claimed for him that he raised the first Union regiment and won the first Union victory south of Mason and Dixon’s line. He was commissioned colonel of his regiment on May 25, 1861. His first service was under General McClellan, in West Virginia, and under his direction Colonel Kelly assumed command of all the troops then in that part of the state. He won his first victory at Grafton, where he defeated a Confederate force under command of Colonel Porterfield. On this occasion, in addition to his own regiment, he had command of the Sixteenth Ohio and the Ninth Indiana regiments. The enemy was completely routed and large quantities of arms and ammunition fell into Colonel Kelly’s hands. Kelly was badly wounded. At first it was supposed mortally. For his conduct here he was congratulated by Generals Morris and McClellan. Both complimented him for his brilliant and efficient service. McClellan recommended him for promotion to the rank of brigadier-general. The request was complied with. He was also complimented for his valor and skill at Romney in October, 1861, by President Lincoln, General Scott, and Gen. E. D. Townsend, the assistant adjutant-general of the United States army. Thus were honors showered unlimited on the head of the grandson of the modest colonial Crown Point soldier, Darby Kelly, who was with Sir William Johnson at Fort William Henry a little more than a century before.

Later, General Kelly was assigned to the command of the department at Harper’s Ferry and Cumberland. On the organization of the Department of West Virginia, in 1863, he was assigned to that command. His services from the beginning to the end of the war are too well known to repeat them here. During the invasion of Pennsylvania, in 1862, his conduct brought to him the thanks of General Wright, and for his successful defence of Cumberland, Md., in 1864, he received from the president the rank of major-general by brevet, and from the people of Cumberland, their heartfelt thanks for the skill and courage displayed by him and his officers, and the bravery exhibited by his soldiers in their successful resistance to the capture of the city. General Kelly had six children, four of whom were sons, all of whom served in the United States army.

Capt. Warren Michael Kelly was the son of Michael B. Kelly, the nephew of Gen. B. F. Kelly, and the great-great-grandson of Darby Kelly. He was born in New Hampton in 1821. He was residing in Manchester when the Civil War broke out. In August, 1862, he raised a company which was attached to the Tenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, commanded by the late Gen. Michael T. Donohoe. He remained in the service until the close of the war. He was wounded once. His first fight was at Fredericksburg, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, on Dec. 13, 1862. It is claimed for him that he commanded the first organized body of white troops that entered Richmond, after the surrender of Lee. Captain Kelly was as modest as he was brave. He was 41 years old when he went to the front with his regiment in 1862, but none in his command rendered more efficient service during the three years following.

There was no opportunity for promotion in his regiment, as there was no change in the colonel or the lieutenant-colonel from 1862 to 1865, neither of them being killed, neither did they resign, for both Gen. M. T. Donohoe and General Coughlin were among the bravest of the brave. Captain Kelly, as the ranking captain, had command of his regiment on several occasions during the first quarter of 1865, and was in command of the skirmish line when the Union troops entered Richmond on April 3d of the same year. It is quite a coincidence, and worthy of mention, that Captain Kelly should serve in a regiment whose field officers and a large proportion of the rank and file were composed of men of the same nationality as his great-great-grandfather, Darby Kelly.

Of the sons of Gen. B. F. Kelly, John G., the eldest, was colonel of the Seventh Virginia Infantry. William B. was a captain on his father’s staff. Frank was a quartermaster in the United States army and died in Texas in 1870. Wright Kelly, a captain of cavalry, was wounded and died from the effects of his wounds in 1869.

Hon. Frank H. Kelly was a brother of Capt. Warren M. Kelly. He was born in New Hampton, Sept. 9, 1827. He was a physician, studying and practising in various places until 1851, when he located in Worcester, Mass. He followed his profession actively 32 years. He joined the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1875. He was the first president of the board of trustees of the City Hospital in 1870, serving in that capacity 13 years. As a member of the school board, of the common council, of the board of aldermen, he served his adopted city long and faithfully.

He wrote the Reminiscences of New Hampton, from which a goodly portion of this paper, or rather the material for it, has been culled. Therein he styled his great-great-grandfather, Darby Kelly, “a bright, quick-witted Irishman.” Here we will leave the emigrant Darby Kelly and his American descendants. It is said that regardless of the number born in New Hampton, none of the name resides there. They are scattered all over the country, but wherever located, it will be found that they are keeping up the record made by their New Hampshire fathers. The Kelly blood runs in the veins of some of the best people within and without the state of New Hampshire, and in at least one instance it returned across the Atlantic by the marriage of one of Darby’s descendants to M. Clemenceau, the celebrated Parisian writer and statesman. But few of Darby’s descendants are here mentioned. They are too numerous. But judging from the record of those given, the emigration of Darby to New Hampshire was quite an accession to the people of the province and state.

Referring again to John Kelly who came to Newbury, Mass., in 1635, many of his descendants must have come to New Hampshire. Among them undoubtedly was Abial Kelly of Methuen, Mass., originally, whose name occurs several times in the Provincial papers in connection with the settlement of the boundary line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in 1745. It also occurs in the Province wills, 1728, 1740, and 1743.

Capt. Richard Kelly, another descendant of the Newbury immigrant, was an officer in the Sixth Regiment of militia, in 1744. The same name appears on a petition from Londonderry, N. H., for the release of Stephen Holland, the Tory, in 1777. The names of Hugh Kelly and Peter Kelly are on the same petition. Richard Kelly, Jr., evidently the son of Captain Kelly, served in the company commanded by Captain Nesmith in Canada in 1776.

A Richard Kelly was a grantee and one of the first settlers of Contoocook, now Boscawen, in 1748. As Boscawen’s first settlers were from Newbury, Mass., it is reasonable to think he was also a descendant of John Kelly. A Richard Kelly was at Winter Hill, near Boston, Mass., in 1775, in the company of Capt. Jacob Webster, which was one of the companies raised at the request of General Sullivan to take the place of Connecticut troops, during the siege of Boston, who had refused to serve after their term had expired.

This interesting episode of New Hampshire history cannot be repeated too often. On Dec. 1, 1775, Sullivan sent up word by express of the defection of the Connecticut men, and made an urgent request for volunteers to take their places. In response to this, 31 companies, numbering 2,058 men, were enlisted for six weeks, and marched to Winter Hill. New Hampshire had at this time, in addition, three full regiments in the field, thus making the total number of New Hampshire men at the siege of Boston in 1775 over five thousand. This is evidence of the character of the men of the old Granite State in those stirring times.

Capt. Richard Kelly was authorized by Gov. Benning Wentworth to call the first town meeting in Salem, N. H., in May, 1750.

William Kelly was a taxpayer in Newcastle, N. H., in 1727. Doubtless he was a descendant of Roger or John Kelly mentioned.

A William Kelly appears on a petition in 1737. Another was one of the company commanded by Captain Eastman on scouting duty in Penacook, now Concord, N. H., in 1747.

Still another William Kelly served at Crown Point, in 1755, in Captain Goff’s company, and another was one of the grantees in the town of Salem, N. H., in 1750; a William Kelly was also on the alarm list of the town of Warner, N. H., in 1741. William P. Kelly was in Northwood, and another William Kelly in Salisbury, respectively, in 1735 and 1813.

A William Kelly was enrolled in Captain Page’s company, Senter’s regiment, in 1777. Sergt. William Kelly was in Captain Libby’s company, Col. Stephen Evans’ regiment, at Saratoga in 1777. Corp. William Kelly served in the battle of Rhode Island in the regiment of Colonel Hercules Mooney in 1779. He was from Epping, N. H.

Rev. William Kelly was the first settled minister in Warner, Feb. 6, 1772. He was born in Newbury, Mass., 1744, and was undoubtedly a descendant of John Kelly who landed there a little over a century before. His pastorate closed in 1801. He made the opening prayer at the first town meeting held in Warner.

Hon. John Kelly was his son. He was born in Warner. He was an attorney, editor and author. He was the first Warner man to take a degree from Dartmouth. His permanent home was in Exeter, N. H. He was register of probate for Rockingham County.

Abner B. Kelly was his brother. He was Warner’s town clerk in 1820. He was representative to the state Legislature, postmaster of Warner for six years, state treasurer of New Hampshire for six years, a clerk in one of the departments at Washington, D. C., a director of the Concord Mechanics Bank of Concord, and of the company incorporated for the manufacture of silk. He is credited as being a fine penman. “His handwriting was faultless.”

William Kelly, “an Irish tailor,” was in Barnstead, N. H., in 1814. The historian of that town wrote that he was the first Irishman in Barnstead. Regardless of that statement, however, Thomas, John and Stephen Pendergast were among its first settlers. This name is not quite as Irish as Murphy, but comes very near it. It came from France to Ireland in 1170.

George W. Kelly, a brother of Rev. William Kelly, was deputy sheriff in Warner in 1808. Caleb Kelly came to Warner from Newbury, the nursery of the Kellys. Kelly Hill takes its name from him. His family removed to Wisconsin. J. R. B. Kelly is recorded as a graduate of Francestown Academy, and Frank H. Kelly was one of the directors of the Francestown Soapstone Company.

Dudley Kelly was serving at West Point in 1789. He was from Brentwood.

Zachariah Kelly was also at West Point in 1781, and an entry in the records reads, that he had received a ration of half a pint of rum and a pound of sugar with the other members of his company.

Israel W. Kelly of Boscawen was a lieutenant in Captain Green’s company in 1797, when there seemed to be a prospect of a war with France.

In December, 1776, James Kelly was paid for services in apprehending Daniel Meserve and others for counterfeiting Provincial bills.

Another James Kelly appeared on a petition in 1732 for the laying out of a new town along Lake Winnepesaukee. The names of John and James Kelly appear on the roll of ratepayers in the parish of Cocheco in 1753. Another James Kelly appears on a petition from Northwood in connection with some town dispute. James Kelly served in Captain Drew’s company in the expedition to Canada in 1776 and 1777, and a man of the same name from Exeter enlisted for three years in the Fourth regiment of militia.

A James Kelly was one of the proprietors of Wakefield in 1749, and another James Kelly was one of the grantees of Peterborough in 1750. Still another of the same name was engaged in the defence of Piscataqua Harbor in 1791. James Kelly was a British prisoner of war in 1781, who, with others, was consigned for safe keeping to New Hampshire.

James Kelly was one of the soldiers who were indebted to the sutler for supplies in 1761. This kind of a creditor was not infrequent in 1861, a hundred years later. He served in Captain Gerrish’s company.

James Kelly was one of the grantees of Holderness, N. H., in 1751. Among those who were with him were John Cavanaugh, John McElroy, William Curry, Hercules Mooney, Bryan McSweeney and Michael Dwyer.

John Kelly was one of the selectmen of Dover, N. H., who aided in taking the census in October, 1775. He served in the state Legislature four years, and from the records seemed to have been an active, public-spirited citizen. John Kelly was a ratepayer in Plaistow and Atkinson in 1786.

A John Kelly in Salem appears on a petition for the formation of one or more counties in 1769. Samuel Kelly was one of his associates. John Kelly renders an account of individual losses which he met at Ticonderoga. John Kelly of Dover, in 1782, furnished an affidavit in relation to the identity of a soldier. John Kelly of Deerfield was a recruit for the Continental army in 1780. John Kelly was one of the selectmen of Salem in 1775.

John E. Kelly was one of Warner’s selectmen in 1801. John Kelly of North Hampton was one of Captain Parsons’ company, Colonel Runnells’ regiment, at Charleston, in 1781.

John Kelly of New York was granted 69,100 acres of land in Lamoiville, Vt., in 1787. In 1791 he was given 30,000 acres more. In both cases the grants were made by the legislature of Vermont. This John Kelly must have been one of the “Royal Order of Patroons.” Kellyburg, Kellyvale, and Kelly Grant marked his progress in the Green Mountain state. John Kelly, a native of Plaistow, graduated from Amherst College in 1825. He lived in Chester in 1833. The history of the town speaks of him in the highest terms.

Ezekiel Kelly, a native of Newbury, Mass., was in Chester, N. H., in 1784. Col. Israel W. Kelly resided there in 1810, and Ephraim Kelly was one of the selectmen in 1825.

Rev. John Kelly of Hampstead was of the sixth generation of John Kelly of Newbury, Mass., who came over in 1635. He had five sons and seven daughters. He died in Hampstead in 1848. Three of his sons were college graduates. He wrote a history of Hampstead. He was pastor of the church in that town from 1792 to his death in 1848, fifty-six years.

The ways of the Kellys were not always smooth, for Brewster’s Rambles Around Portsmouth says, that in July, 1686, John Kelly and his family were ordered to give security or leave town, a survival of the custom in vogue in Boston and probably introduced to New Hampshire when the Province came under the control of Massachusetts Bay.

John Kelly was a Revolutionary soldier and died in Raymond. A John Kelly was one of Windham’s first settlers, and a type of the late historian Morrison’s so-called “pure-blooded Scotch Irishman.”

John Kelly was a member of the governor’s council in 1846. John Kelly was register of probate for Hillsborough County, N. H., 1831 to 1837. John Kelly was register of deeds in Rockingham County from 1832 to 1837.

Joseph Kelly was one of the selectmen of Sunbudy in 1757. Joseph Kelly was a prisoner in Amherst jail in 1774. The occasion for it was an assault he made on John Holman. It seems clear that the cause of the trouble was political, for the Provincial papers contain several petitions from some of the towns of Hillsborough County asking for his release. He was a Nottingham man, and from the records seemed to be in hot water a good part of the time. He raised a company in June, 1775, but his men refused to allow Major Hobart to muster them into the service. His troubles extended to 1787.

Col. Moses Kelly, on the authority of Dearborn, historian of Salisbury, was born in Newbury, Mass. He was living in Goffstown, N. H., before the outbreak of the Revolution. He represented that town in the Fourth Provincial Congress held in May, 1775, and again in the Fifth Provincial Congress in December, 1775.

He represented Goffstown and Derryfield in the Legislature of 1776. Although not serving in the Continental army, he was, from the State records, one of the most active men in the state. It is written of him that he owned mills in Goffstown at the place now known as Kelly’s Falls upon the Piscataquog River. He was a zealous patriot, and kept a public house upon the Mast road. Many of the forays against the Tories of that neighborhood were concocted at Colonel Kelly’s.

He was appointed major of the Ninth regiment of militia on Dec. 21, 1775, and promoted to colonel of the same regiment in 1779. New Hampshire possessed an efficient force of militia during the Revolution and from its ranks were drafted men for three Continental regiments as occasion required. Some of these militia regiments distinguished themselves at Bennington, under Stark, and at Rhode Island, under Sullivan.

It is doubtful if any one man had more to do with affairs at home than Colonel Kelly, and his special forte was in furnishing recruits for the veteran regiments at the front. In the reorganization of the state militia under General Sullivan, in 1784, he was reappointed colonel of his old command, the Ninth New Hampshire.

Like Sullivan, he was continually in the service of the state in one capacity or another. As late as 1807, he read the Declaration of Independence from the top of a large boulder in Amherst, N. H. His son, bearing the same name, was coroner of Hillsborough County in 1789. Another son, Hon. Israel Kelly, removed to Salisbury, in 1803. In 1843 he removed to East Concord, where he made his home until his death in 1857.

He was the sheriff of Hillsborough County, a judge of the Court of Sessions, and United States marshal under President Taylor. His wife was a sister of Grace Fletcher, who was the wife of Daniel Webster. Her mother and grandmother, bore the time-honored name of Bridget, denoting an affinity of some sort with the natives of the Emerald Isle.

Joshua Kelly was one of the proprietors of Conway, N. H., and on its list of rate payers in 1773. He was one of the active men of the town, and had seen military service. Samuel Kelly was one of the coroners of Strafford County in 1776. One of the same name was a member of the House of Representatives in 1776. It appears again on a petition from Madbury in 1786. Lieut. Samuel Kelly was one of the special force raised by Sullivan in December, 1775. A Samuel Kelly served in Captain Barron’s company from Pembroke in 1776, and a Samuel Kelly was in Captain Moore’s company in Stark’s regiment in the same year.

Samuel Kelly of New Hampton, undoubtedly one of Darby’s descendants, served in Col. Hercules Mooney’s regiment in Rhode Island in 1779.

Another Samuel Kelly of Meredith, saw service at Ticonderoga. Rev. Samuel Kelly, according to Bouton’s History of Concord, N. H., was the first settled pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Concord. He was chaplain of the state prison in 1730. The name of Samuel Kelly of Brentwood is mentioned four times in the Provincial deeds, and once again in Derryfield in 1768. He was undoubtedly the oldest son of Darby Kelly and one of the first settlers of New Hampton.

Daniel Kelly was in Sanbornton, N. H., in 1748, and another Daniel Kelly was recorded as a deserter from a British vessel in Boston Harbor in 1770. He probably found the change from the forecastle of a ship to the picturesque hills of New Hampshire desirable.