ng the early years of the eighteenth century. The Town Books of
Georgetown, Kirtery, and Kennebunkport, of the period 1740 to 1775,
are especially rich in Irish names, and in the Saco Valley numerous
settlements were made by Irish immigrants, not a few of whom are
referred to by local historians as "men of wealth and social
standing." In the marriage and other records of Limerick, Me., as
published by the Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder, in the
marriage registers of the First Congregational Church of Scarborough,
and in other similarly unquestionable records, I find a surprisingly
large number of Irish names at various periods during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. In fact, there is not one town in the
Province that did not have its quota of Irish people, who came either
direct from Ireland or migrated from other sections of New England.

* * * * *

The records of New Hampshire and Rhode Island are also a fruitful
source of information on this subject, and the Provincial papers
indicate an almost unbroken tide of Irish immigration to this
section, beginning as early as the year 1640. One of the most noted
of Exeter's pioneer settlers was an Irishman named Darby Field, who
came to that place in 1631 and who has been credited by Governor
Winthrop as "the first European who witnessed the White Mountains."
He is also recorded as "an Irish soldier for discovery," and I find
his name in the annals of Exeter as one of the grantees of an Indian
deed dated April 3, 1638, as well as several other Irish names down
to the year 1664. In examining the town registers, gazeteers, and
genealogies, as well as the local histories of New Hampshire, in
which are embodied copies of the original entries made by the Town
Clerks, I find numerous references to the Irish pioneers, and in many
instances they are written down, among others, as "the first
settlers." Some are mentioned as selectmen, town clerks,
representatives, or colonial soldiers, and it is indeed remarkable
that there is not one of these authorities that I have examined, out
of more than two hundred, that does not contain Irish names. From
these Irish pioneers sprang many men who attained prominence in New
Hampshire, in the legislature, the professions, the military, the
arts and crafts, and in all departments of civil life, down to the
present time. In the marriage registers of Portsmouth, Boscawen, New
Boston, Antrim, London