Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

306 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
and fourteen. Among the papers of Mr. Charles Clinton is a
document showing that he paid the passage money for ninetyfour.
Mr. Clinton was unfortunate in his selection of a ship
but more unfortunate in his selection of a captain. Rymer
was a cold blooded tyrant, of whom his officers and sailors
were in constant fear, and as base a villian as ever trod the deck
of a slave-ship. The George and Ann sailed on the 20th of May,
1729, from the port of Dublin for Philadelphia, poorly supplied
with stores for a voyage of the ordinary length, but protracted by
the infamy of the master to one hundred and ttiirty-five days.
The passengers were not isolated individuals who had casually met
on ship-board, they consisted of families who had converted
their estates, excepting such portion as they could conveniently
take with them, into gold, to purchase lands in
Pennsylvania, and build a town where they could enjoy the
civil apd religious privileges denied to them in their native
land. They had selected the mild season of the year for their
passage, and expected to arrive in Philadelphia in July, in season
to select their place of residence, and put up dwellings before
winter. Such were their anticipations. They did not dream that
half of their number would find watery graves before reaching
the shores of America.
Among the passengers in this ill-fated ship were the father
and mother of James Delap, and his sisters Rose, Jean, and
Sarah. Tradition says there was another child whose name is not
preserved. The Delap family were from Cavan, a county
adjoining Longford, the former home of nearly all the other
passengers. There were two on board whom Capt. Delap in his
narrative, calls "Methodists."*
Several besides Mr. Clinton had considerable sums in gold
and silver coins. This was known to the captain, and excited his
cupidity, and he resolved to prolong the voyage, and to keep his
ship at sea until his provisions were exhausted, and his passengers
had died of famine and disease, and then seize and appropriate
their goods to his own use.
Rymer.
Such was the diabolical plan of Capt.
The ship had not long been at sea before the passengers
began to mistrust that the captain had evil designs. He was
tyrannical in the exercise of
men were in constant fear of
his authority, and his officers and
him. The ship was making slow
progress towards her port of . destination, the passengers had been
put on short allowance, and some had already died of disease
engendered by the small quantity and bad quality of the provisions
*No Methodist preachers came oyer as early as 1729. "MethodiBt" was a nick-name
then applied to men who were very, exact in the performance of their religious duties,
whether Catholic or Protestant. The converts of the Wesle3''8' were called "Methodist,"
and they adopted the name, as the converts of Fox did that of Qualter.