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FIVE OF THE KILKENNY BUTLERS WERE OFFICERS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE.

Richard Butler was Lieutenant-Colonel of Morgan's celebrated Rifle Corps and distinguished himself greatly at Saratoga. He was Colonel successively of the Fifth and Ninth Regiments of the Line and rose to the rank of Major-General. He was second in command to General St. Clair and fell in battle on November 4, 1791. His four brothers were noted officers of the Pennsylvania Line. They were: Colonel William Butler, Major Thomas Butler, Captain Edward Butler and Lieutenant Percival Butler. The story of the careers of these five brothers makes a thrilling chapter of American history, a truly Irish chapter. They were of the Butlers of Kilkenny, a family whose members have distinguished themselves in many lands. Richard was born in Dublin, William, Thomas and Edward in Kilkenny and Percival in Pennsylvania. Lafayette's toast to the Butlers is historic: "To the Butlers. When I wanted a thing well done, I always chose a Butler"!

ACCOUNT OF AN ELEGANT ENTERTAINMENT TO GENERAL

WASHINGTON AND HIS SUITE.

The New York Packet of June 20, 1776, and the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury of June 24, 1776, published an account of "an elegant entertainment which was given laft Tuefday by our Provincial Congress to his Excellency General Wafhington and his Suite, the General and Staff Officers and the Commanding Officers of the different Regiments in and near this City, when the following Toafts were drank." Then followed a list of thirty-one toasts, the sixth of which was: "The President of South Carolina" and the seventh was: "Mr. Edmund Burke." The twenty-third toast was: "May the generous Sons of Saint Patrick expel all the venomous reptiles of Britain," and the thirtieth toast was: "The memory of the brave Montgomery." The President of South Carolina was John Rutledge, a native of Ireland; Burke and Montgomery were also natives of Ireland, and it is a significant fact that the editors and proprietors of the two newspapers referred to, Samuel Loudon and Hugh Gaine, were Irishmen.

MARQUIS DE CHASTELLUX'S TRIBUTE TO THE IRISH IN THE REVOLUTION.

Marquis de Chastellux, Major-General of Rochambeau's army, made a tour through America in the years 1780-1782, and in his "Travels" published at Paris in 1786, he said, in referring to a traveller whom he and his companions overtook on their journey through the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia: "He was an Irishman, who though but lately arrived in America, had made several campaigns and received a considerable wound in his thigh by a musquet ball, which, though it could not be extracted, had not in the least affected his health or gayety." This incident gave rise to the following observations upon the Irish in general:

"An Irishman, the instant he sets foot on American ground, becomes ipso facto, an American; this was uniformly the case during the whole of the late war. Whilst Englishmen and Scotsmen were regarded with jealousy and distrust, even with the best recommendation of zeal and attachment to their cause, a native of Ireland stood in need of no other certificate than his dialect; his sincerity was never called into question, he was supposed to have a sympathy of suffering and every voice decided, as if it were intuitively, in his favour. Indeed, their conduct in the late Revolution amply justified this favourable impression; for whilst the Irish emigrants were fighting the battles of America by sea and land, the Irish merchants, particularly at CharlesTown, Baltimore and Philadelphia, laboured with indefatigable zeal, and at all hazards, to promote the spirit of enterprise, to increase the wealth and maintain the credit of the country; their purses were always open and their persons devoted to the common cause. On more than one imminent occasion, Congress owed their existence, and America possibly her preservation, to the fidelity and firmness of the Irish"-(Voyages de M. Le Marquis de Chastellux, Dans L'Amèrique, Septentrionale, Dans les Annees, 1780, 1781 et 1782; Vol. 2, p. 36; Paris, 1786, and London, 1787).

THE IRISH WILL ENLIST IN CROWDS.

Edmund Pendleton, a Virginia member of the Continental Congress, writing to General Henry Lee on May 24, 1776, in reference to the difficulties in raising recruits in certain parts of Virginia, said: "I do not believe that many of the native Vir

ginians will offer themselves; the Irish, I am persuaded, will enlist in crowds"-(Lee Papers, in Collections of the New York Historical Society; Volume for 1872, p. 38).

NONE OF THE York or Chester (S. C.) Irish Were Tories.

"In the Chester District of South Carolina, Lacey organized companies and battalions as the fortunes of war demanded and after the manner of partisan leaders, with which he annoyed the Tories greatly, taking many of them prisoners. Of these there were a few in his neighborhood, but not among the Irish. To their eternal honor, be it said, none of the York or Chester Irish were Tories and but few of them took British protection"-(Moore's Life of General Edward Lacey of South Carolina). General Lacey is described as "one of the most resolute and sturdy patriots of South Carolina," and one of his most noted officers was Captain John McClure, the story of whose gallantry at the battle of Rocky Mount, S. C., in 1780 is still handed down in the old families in that part of the State. Lossing thus refers to McClure: "He was one of the master spirits of South Carolina. He was a native of the Chester District and his men were known as the Chester Rocky Creek Irish"-(Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, Vol. II, p. 663).

HERCULES MULLIGAN SAVED GENERAL WASHINGTON FROM

CAPTURE.

During the Revolution several attempts were made to capture Washington, and John C. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, in referring to an attempt in the month of January, 1779, to seize Governor Livingston of New Jersey, relates the following incident:

"A similar design was formed on the person of Washington. He had appointed to meet some officers at a designated place. Information was given by a female in the tory interest and the necessary arrangements were made to seize him, but timely intelligence frustrated the attempt. A partisan officer, a native of New York, called at the shop of Mulligan late in the evening to obtain a watch coat. The late hour awakened curiosity, and after some enquiries, the officer vauntingly boasted that before another day they would have his rebel General in their hands.

This staunch patriot, as soon as the officer left him, hastened unobserved to the wharf and despatched a billet by a negro, giving information of the design"—(History of the Republic of the United States of America, as traced in the writings of Alexander Hamilton, by John C. Hamilton; Vol. I, p. 527; Phila. 1864). Winthrop Sargent, in his Life of Major John Andre (p. 441), also states that Hercules Mulligan "saved Washington's life."

CORNELIUS MERRY AND MATTHEW CLESSON, PIONEER IRISHMEN OF NORTHAMPTON, MASS.

BY MICHAEL J. O'BRIEN.

In the "Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England," Savage mentions "Cornelius Merry, an Irishman," who received a grant of land at Northampton, Mass., in the year 1663, and "Matthew Clesson, an Irish servant of one of the early inhabitants of Northampton." The only other data relative to these pioneer American Irishmen furnished by Savage are the names of their children and the years and places of their birth. Doubtless, they were not considered of sufficient importance to warrant further search on the part of the eminent New England genealogist, but it appears certain, from other information I have gathered regarding them, that they came to America as poor "redemptioners" or bond-servants to New England planters. Yet, notwithstanding the fact that they were of a race proscribed by the Puritanical element and for several years were held in subjection by their "masters," the little of their history that is obtainable proves that in time they rose above their lowly surroundings, for soon after their terms of service had expired, we find them mentioned among the "prosperous owners of land" and active participants in the conflicts between their white neighbors and the redmen.

That these Irish redemptioners, poor and lowly though they were, must have been men of indomitable energy and unyielding will and that they proved in time a valuable acquisition to the country of their adoption we can judge from even the meagre accounts that are obtainable from the records of the time. Cornelius Merry evidently had no love for English law, for it is probable that in his native country he had been subjected to its rigors and hardships, and in the records of the General Court of Massachusetts of the year 1666, there is an entry showing that the Court ordered "Cornelius Merry to be whipt twenty stripes for abusing the authority in this country of the English by seditious speeches." However, it appears that before the order was executed "a portion of this penalty was remitted." It may seem like making a "pun" on his name to say that Cornelius

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