Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

HIO GKNEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAKNSTABLK FAMILIES.
delphia. After his ai-rival the sailors, relieved from the terror in
which they had been held, entered a complaint against their
Captain. He was arrested, a preliminary examination was had,
and he was sent in irons to P^nglaud for trial. The charges of
cruelty to his passengers and crew, of extortion, and of an
attempt to embezzle the goods of the passengers, were proved,
and he was condemned to be hung and quartered, and this just
sentence was duly executed in Dublin.*
Such is the short and sad narrative of the passage of James
Delap to this country. No details of Individual suffering are
given. The fact that more than one-half of all on board perished
of starvation, is a suggestive one. He was then fourteen years of
age; young, but the incidents of such a- passage would make a<
deep impression, not soon to be forgotten. So far as known, he
was the sole survivor of the family—an orphan boy, weak and
emaciated—a stranger in a strange land, without money, without
any friend or protector but "the father of the fatherless."
Little is known of his orphanage. From Eastham he came
to Barnstable, and Nov. 5, 1729, he chose John Bacon, Jr.,
saddler, for his guardian, with whom he resided during his minority,
as an apprentice to learn the trade of a blacksmith.
He had a guardian appointed early that he might, as stated in
the record, have an agent who had legal authority to secure the
small "estate of his Honored father, deceased." A small portion
was recovered, and on the 26th of the following January apprised'
at £16, 4s by Geo. Lewis, James Cobb, and John Scudder, Jr.
The "Goods and Chatties" saved consisted of articles of men and
women's apparel, bedding, table linen, woolen yarns, and a gun.
Capt. Delap always spoke kindly of his "Master Bacon."
He was treated as a member of the family. The children
regarded him as a brother, and for three successive generations
the relation between the families was most intimate.
* Respecting the Toj'agc and its lermination, there are some discrepencies. Iloosack.
in his life of Clinton, says tlie ship sailed from Dublin in May, 1729, and after a voyage of 21
weeks and 3 days arrived at Cape Cod, in the fall, where Mr. Clinton and his surviving
friends remained till the following spring, when they took passage for New Winsor, Orange
Co., New York. As the ship had been insured in Dublin the captain contrived to let her
slip her moorings on a stormy night, in which she was lost. The^accouat in Hoosack says
that the captain kept his passengers at sea until he extorted a sum of money from them to
land them; that Clinton wanted.the officers oi the ship to seize the Captain and ship but
they refused.
Eager, in his history of Orange County, N. Y., says the Captain was seized, put in irons
by the passengers, and the command given to the mate, who brought the vessel in, in a
few days.
Among the passengers were three of the name of Armstrong, all of whom died on the
passage, Charles Clinton and wife, Alexander Dennison, and John Young, who survived.
[For the information in this note, I am indebted to E. B. O'Callagan, Esq., of Albany. I
am also indebted to Hon. .John G. Palfrey, and Rev. Henry M. Dexter, of Boston, and J. R.
Bordhead, Esq., author of the history of New York, for assistance in compiling this
article.]
t John Bacon, -Jr., was the father of the late Capt. Isaac Bacon, Sen'r, and own^d the
house in which the latter lived, a large two story gambrel roofed honse, that stood next east
of the ancient Bacon mansion. .John Bacon, Jr., is called a saddler, lie was also a blacksmith
and a sailor. His blacksmith's shop stood on the west of his house, near the row of
ancient cherry trees, and there James learned his trade.