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.