Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 305
six who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine were Irish,
or of Irish origin.
The influence of this class of imigrants has not been sufficiently
appreciated. The acts of the British Parliament which
brought ruin to Ireland, gave prosperity to America. Wherever
the Irish refugees settled, there mechanical and manufacturing
industry was developed, giving a diversity of employment to the
people, adding to their wealth, and making them prosperous and
less dependent on the mother country. The introduction of steam
power, the construction of canals and many great public enter-
prises, originate'd with, or were promoted, and brought to a successful
issue, by the descendants of these settlers. In the
Revolutionary army many of the most efficient officers were Irish,
or sons of Irishmen. In civil life many were eminent. Gov.
James Sullivan of Mass., w.sis the son' of a Limerick school
master, who with other Irish families settled in Belfast, Maine, in
1723. Gen. Andrew Jackson, President of the United States,
was the son of an Irish refugee.
Among them were men. distinguished in literature, George
Berkluy, Dean of Derry, came in 1729. His "Theory of Vision"
has made his name familiar in Europe. His object was to estab-
lish a college for the conversion of the red race. He settled at
Newport where he had a farm of ninety acres. Failing in his
purposes in 1732, he gave his farm and the finest collection of
books which had then come over at one time, to Yale College. In
Newport his "Minute Phylosopher" was composed, and the following
beautiful lines so poetical in conception, and known to -every
school boy to "this day :
"Westward the Star of Empire takes its way,
Tlie tliree first acts already past;
The fourth shall close it with the closing day,
Earth's noblest Empire is the last."
Among the first settlers in this County several Irish names
occur. Higgins is a Longford name. The Kelley's descended
from the O'Kelley's, a noted clan resident near Dublin. In latter
fimes, several of the Scotch-Irish settled in Barnstable, namely
William Belford, James Delap, John Cullio, John Easterbrooks,
and Matthew Wood.
Charles Clinton, the ancestor of the Clintons in New York,
was born in Longford, Ireland, in the year 1690. His, grandfather
William was an adherent of Charles T, and took refuge in
the north of Ireland. His father James married Elizabeth Smith,
a daughter of one of the Captains in Cromwell's army. He was
a man of wealth and influence, and induced many of his friends
and neighbors to emigrate with him to America. He chartered
the ship George and Ann, Capt. Ryper, to transport them and
their effects from Dublin to Philadelphia. The whole number of
passengers, including men, women, and children, was one hundred