ch began the
United States Government and father of the policy of protection to
American industries; Matthew Carey from Dublin, the famous political
economist; and many others who were prominent as nation-builders in
the early days of the "Keystone State."

* * * * *

While the historians usually give all the credit to England and to
Englishmen for the early colonization of New England, whose results
have been attended with such important consequences to America and
the civilized world, Ireland and her sons can also claim a large part
in the development of this territory, as is evidenced by the town,
land, church, and other colonial records, and the names of the
pioneers, as well as the names given to several of the early
settlements. That the Irish had been coming to New England almost
from the beginning of the English colonization is indicated by an
"Order" entered in the Massachusetts record under date of September
25, 1634, granting liberty to "the Scottishe and Irishe gentlemen who
intend to come hither, to sitt down in any place upp Merimacke
river." This, doubtless, referred to a Scotch and Irish company
which, about that time, had announced its intention of founding a
settlement on the Merrimac. It comprised in all 140 passengers, who
embarked in the _Eagle Wing_, from Carrickfergus in September, 1636,
bringing with them a considerable quantity of equipment and
merchandise to meet the exigencies of their settlement in the new
country. The vessel, however, never reached its destination and was
obliged to return to Ireland on account of the Atlantic storms, and
there is no record of a renewal of the attempt. In the Massachusetts
records of the year 1640 (vol. I, p. 295) is another entry relating
to "the persons come from Ireland," and in the Town Books of Boston
may be seen references to Irishmen who were residents of the town in
that year.

From local histories, which in many cases are but verbatim copies of
the original entries in the Town Books, we get occasional glimpses of
the Irish who were in the colony of Massachusetts Bay between this
period and the end of the century. For example, between 1640 and
1660, such names as O'Neill, Sexton, Gibbons, Lynch, Keeney, Kelly,
and Hogan appear on the Town records of Hartford, and one of the
first schoolmasters who taught the children of the Puritans in New
Haven was an Irishman named William Collins, who, in the year 1640,
came the