Person Page - 10

     Sarah was born on 9 August 1772 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ She was the daughter of Joseph Crocker and Mary Hinckley. Sarah died in 1805.¹

     Joseph died. Joseph was born in August 1774 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Joseph Crocker and Mary Hinckley.

     Luther died. Luther was born on 3 September 1776 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Joseph Crocker and Mary Hinckley.

     Samuel was born on 25 August 1778 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Joseph Crocker and Mary Hinckley.

     Ezekiel was born in September 1781 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Joseph Crocker and Mary Hinckley.

     Susanna was born on 29 May 1786 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ She was the daughter of Joseph Crocker and Mary Hinckley.

     Elisha was born on 10 April 1789 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Joseph Crocker and Mary Hinckley.

     Enoch was born on 26 January 1791 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ She was the daughter of Joseph Crocker and Mary Hinckley.

     Benjamin was born on 20 March 1720/21 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.^2,3 He was the son of William Crocker and Mary Crocker. He married Bethsheba [Barshua] Hall on 13 April 1747 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.³ Benjamin died on 27 February 1785 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts, at age 63.⁴

     Bethsheba was born on 5 July 1719 at Yarmouth, Barnstable County, Massachusetts.¹ She was the daughter of Deacon Joseph Hall and Mary Faunce. She married Benjamin Crocker on 13 April 1747 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ Bethsheba died on 4 July 1808 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts, at age 88.²

     Edmund was born on 30 January 1720 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.^1,2 He was the son of Benjamin Hinckley and Abigail Jenkins. He married Sarah Howland on 6 December 1744. Edmund died on 11 October 1783 at age 63.³

     Sarah was born on 23 July 1722 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.^1,2 She was the daughter of Isaac Howland and Mary Crocker. She married Edmund Hinckley on 6 December 1744. Sarah died on 14 November 1802 at age 80.³

     Ebenezer was born on 13 August 1761 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Ebenezer Scudder and Rose Delap. Ebenezer died in 1847.

     Josiah was born on 30 November 1775 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Ebenezer Scudder and Rose Delap. Josiah died in 1851.

     Issiah was born on 8 January 1768 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Ebenezer Scudder and Rose Delap. Issiah died in 1852.

     Asa was born on 25 July 1771 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ She was the daughter of Ebenezer Scudder and Rose Delap. Asa died in 1822.

     James was born on 14 March 1764 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ She was the daughter of Ebenezer Scudder and Rose Delap. James died in 1778.

     Thomas was born on 10 September 1766 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Ebenezer Scudder and Rose Delap. Thomas died in 1778.

     Rose Scudder died at died young. Rose was born on 24 April 1784 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ She was the daughter of Ebenezer Scudder and Rose Delap.

     Ebenezer was born on 26 April 1696 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.^1,2 He was the son of John Scudder and Elizabeth Hamlin. He married Lydia Cobb on 2 April 1725 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.^3,4 Ebenezer died on 6 April 1737 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts, at age 40.⁵

     Lydia was born in December 1699 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.¹ She was the daughter of Samuel Cobb and Elizabeth Taylor. She married Ebenezer Scudder on 2 April 1725 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.^2,3

     James was born at Cavan, Ireland.¹
     
     
      In 1688, when William and Mary ascended the throne of England, manufacturing industry had given wealth and prosperity to Ireland. In the first year of their reign the royal assent was given to laws passed by both Houses of Parliament, to discourage the manufactures of Ireland which competed with those of England. Lord Fitzwilliam says that by this inviduous policy 100,000 operatives were driven out of Ireland. Many of the Protestants to Germany, some of the Catholics to spain, and multitudes of all classes to America. Dobbe, on Irish trade, printed in Dublin in 1729, estimated that 3000 males left Ulster yearly for the colonies.
     
      The tolerant policy of William Penn, induced many to settle in Pennsylvania. The arrivals at the port of Philadelphia, of Irish emigrants, for the year ending December 1729, was 5655. The satiriol Dean Swift reproached the aristocracy for their suicical impolicy "in cultivating cattle and banishing men."
     
      The Irish emigrants who came over at the close of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries, were a very different class from those who latter thronged to our shores. Very few could claim a purely Celtic ancestry. Those from the north of Ireland were descendants of Scots who had settled there and were known as Scotch Irish. Many were descendants of English parents, and of the Huguenots who found an asylum in Ireland after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantz. A large proportion of them were tradesmen, artisans, and manufacturers. Many settled in the Southern States. Londonderry, in New Hampshire, was settled in by the Scotch Irish, and several towns in Maine. Many settled in various towns in New England, and not a few of the most noted men in our country trace their descent from these Irish refugees. Among these are some families of the name of Allison, Butler, Cathern, Carroll, Clinton, Fulton, Jascson, Knox, McDonouah, Ramsey, Read, Sullivan, Walsh, Wayne, and many others distinguished in the annals of our country. Of the fifty-six who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine were Irish, or of Irish origin.
     
      Among the first settlers in this Barnstable several Irish names occur.
Higgins is a Longford name. The Kelley's descended from the O'Kelley's, a noted clan resident near Dublin. In latter times, several of the Scotch-Irish settled in Barnstable, namely: William Belford, James Delap, John Cullio, John Esterbrooks, and Matthew Wood.
     
      Charles Clinton, the ancestor of the Clintons in New York, was born in Longford, Ireland, in the year 1690. His grandfather William was an adherent of Charles I, and took refuge in the north of Ireland. His father James married Elizabeth Smith a daughter of one of the Captains in Cromwell's army. He was a man of wealth and influence, and induced many of his friends and neighbors to emigrate with him to America. He chartered the ship George and Ann, Capt. Rymer, to transport them and their effects from Dublin to Philadelphia. The whole number of passengers, including men, women, and children, was one hundred and fourteen. Among the papers of Mr. Charles Clinton is a document showing that he paid the passage money for ninety-four.
     
      Mr. Clinton was unfortunate in his selection of a ship; but more unfortunate in his selection of a captain. Rymer was a cold blooded tyrant, of whom his officers and sailors were in constant fear, and as base a villian as ever trod the deck of a Slave-Ship. The George and Ann sailed on the 20th of May, 1729, from the port of Dublin for Philadelphia, poorly supplied with stores for a voyage of the ordinary length, but protracted by the infamy of the master to one hundred and thirty-five days. The passengers were not isolated individuals who had casually met on ship-board, they consisted of families who had converted their estates, excepting such portion as they could conveniently take with them, into gold, to purchase lands in Pennsylvania, and build a town where they could enjoy the civil and religious privileges denied to them in their native land. They had selected the mild season of the year for their passage, and expected to arrive in Philadelphia in July, in season to select their palace of residence, and put up dwellings before winter. Such were the anticipations. They did not dream that half of their number would find watery graves before reaching the shores of America.
     
      Among the passengers in this ill-fated ship were the father and mother of James Delap, and his sisters Rose Jean, and Sarah. Traditions says there was another child whose name is not preserved. The Delap family were from Cavan, a county adjoining Longford, the former home of nearly all the other passengers. There were two on board who Capt. Delap in his narrative, call "Methodists" (Methodist was a nick name then applied to men who were very exact in the performance of their religious duties whether Catholic or Protestant).
     
      Several besides Mr. Clinton had considerable sums in gold and silver coins. This was known to the captain, and excited his cupidity, and he resolved to prolong the voyage, and to keep his ship at sea until his provisions were exhausted, and his passengers had died of famine and disease, and then seize and appropriate their goods to his own use. Such was the diabolical plan of Capt. Rymer.
     
      The ship had not long been at sea before the passengers began to mistrust that the captain had evil designs. He was tyrannical in the exercise of his authority, and his officers and men were in constant fear of him. The ship was making slow progress towards her port of destination, the passengers had been put on short allowance, and some had already died of disease engendered by the small quantity and bad quality of provisions served out. Starvation and death seemed inevitable if no change could be effected, and the passengers, after consultation, resolved to assume the command if a change could not otherwise be made. The two call "Methodists," having some knowledge of the theory and proctice of invigation, were appointed to watch night and day all the movements of Capt. Rymer. One night soon afterwards, they discovered that though the wind was fair, the ship was sailing in an opposite direction from her true course. They inquired of the helmsman why he so steered; his reply was, "tht is the captain's order."
     
      This fact was communicated to the other passenges. Several had then died of starvation, and many had become so weak and emaciated by want of food and nourishment that they could scarcely stand. Though weak and geeble they resolved to make an effort to compet the captain to keep his ship on her true course, both by night as well as by day. One of the passengers had a brace of pistols. These were loaded and put into the hands of the "Methodists," and all the passengers who had sufficient strength remaining followed them to the cabin of the ship. With the loaded pistols in their hands they charged the captain with treachery, with protracting the voyage, with the design of keeping the ship at sea till all the passengers had perished of disease or famine, and then seize on their goods. He said in reply that the voyage had been prolonged by head winds, and not by any fault or connivance of himself or his officers. They then charged him with having kept his ship off her course in the night, thus deceiving the passengers, who were mostly landsmen, and unable in dark weather to judge whether or not the ship was on her true course; with issuing fuller rations to his crew than to the passengers that he might be able to navigate his ship. Seeing the resolute and determined manner of the passengers, he made fair promises; but he made them only that he migh break them.
     
      The Capes of Virginia was the first land made, but no date is fiven, from whence, according to the pretence of the captain, he was driven by stress of weather to Cape Cod, making the land on the 4th of October 1729.
     
      This was only pretence, and though his surviving passengers earnestly persuaded him to land them, according to contract, at Philadelphia, or at New York, or at any port he could make, he refused to accede to their requests, and obstinately kept his vessel at sea, though his passengers were daily perishing for want of food. Every sailor know that the gale which would drive a vessel from the Capes of Virginia to Cape Cod, would enable a captain of very moderate attainments to have made a harbor either in the Chespeake or in Delaware Bay, or to have reached the Port of New York. Like many other villains, he did not see the goal to which his base conduct inevitably led. When off the Capes of Virginia he had wit enough to perceive the difficulty in which he was involved. If he listened to his passengers, and made for the port of Philadelphia, he would have been immediately arrested on his arrival, and his only alternative was to keep his ship at sea, avoid speaking any vessel, and persist in his diabolical purpose.
     
      The New England Weekly Journal, printed at Boston 10 November 1729, contains the following notice of the arrival of the George and Ann:
      "We hear from Martha's Vineyard that some time last month Capt. Lothrop, in his passage from this place (Boston) to that island, off of Monomoy espied a vessel which put out a signal of distress to them. He making up to her went aboard; found her to be a vessel from Ireland, bound for Philadelphia, (as they said) who had been from thence 20 weeks and brought out 190 passengers, 30 of who were children, being distitute of provision, (having then but 15 biscuit on board) 100 of them were starved to death, among which were all the children except one, and the remainder of the passengers looked very ghastfully. They craved hard for water, of which one drank to that degree that he soon after died; and two more died while Capt. Lothrop was aboard. Only three of the sailors were alive (besides the master and mate) and they sick. They entreated him to pilot them into the first harbor they could get into, but the master was for bringing them to Boston. They told him if he would not let the pilot carry them into what place he should think fit, they would throw him overboard; upon which Capt. Lothrop having brought the vessel off of Sandy Point, told them there was but one house near, and spoke of going somewhere else, but they were all urgent to put them ashore anywhere, if it were but land. Accordingly he carried them in and left them there, with provisions; tis thought many are since dead. Notwithstanding their extremity, and the sad spectacles of death before their eyes, and a near prospect of their own, twas astonishing to behold their impenitence, and to hear their profane speeches."
     
      The renowned Capt. John Smith, and other early navigators speak of Isle Nauset, which in ancient times extende from the entrance to Nauset harbor, south about four miles. Deep navigable waters now occupy its location. The loose sands of which it was composed have been carried southward by the currents, or blown inward, covering up the meadows, whichfor many years have been seen croping out on the eastern side of the beach, which has passed entirely over them, and united with Pochet islands. The harbor between the latter and Nauset Isle is now entirely filled up. Since 1729 Monomoy Point, in Chatham, has extended south several miles. The point which Capt. Lothrop calls Sandy, was then about four miles north of Monomoy Point. A vessel then entering Chatham harbor could sail eight miles in a northerly direction within the islands up to the present town of Eastham. It is certain that Capt. Rymer landed his passergers at Nauset, and in that part of the territory, now called Orleans.
     
      When Captain Lothrop boarded the George and Ann, Monomoy Point was the nearest land; a barren, desolate region, where neither shelter nor provisions could be procured. The point which he called Sandy point was on the north of the entrance to Chatham, probably then separated by a channel from Isle Nauset. This was also barren, desolate region, with only one house. The settlement at Chatham was the nearest, but at that time there were only a few inhabitants scattered over a large territory. Capt. Lothrop judged it better to proceed futher up the harbor to Nauset, or Eastham, an older settlement, where an abundance of supplies could be procured. The passengers were probably landed near the head of Potamomacut Harbor, in the easterly part of the present town of Orleans. Tradition says they were landed on Nauset Beach; but it was equally as convenient to set them ashore on the main land, and not on a desert island.
     
      Of the one hundred ninty who embarked at Dublin, less than one-half were then living. All the rest had been committed to the watery deep. Of the Delap family the father, Rose, Jane, Sarah, and another, had been buried in the ocean. The mother was living when Capt. Lothrop When food was distributed she took a biscuit, and in attempting to swallow it a piece loged in her throat, and before relief could be obtained, expired. Her body was taken on shore, and buried at Nauset. James, when taken from the boat was so weak that he could not stand, and crawled from the boat to the beach. After landing the surviving passengers and some of their goods, Capt. Rymer proceeded on his voyage to Philadelphia. After his arrival 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 England 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 detail of individual suffering are given. The fact that more than one-half of all on board perished of starvation, is a suggestive one. James 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 to protector but "the father of the fatherless."
     
      Little is known of his orphanage. From Eastham he came to Barnstable, and 5 November 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 of 14.4 pounds by George Lewis, James Cobb, and John Scudder Jr.. The "Goods and Chattles" 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.
     
      After completing the term of his apprenticeship, he bought the estate of Jeremiah Bacon Jr., bounded south by the county road, the present land to the Common Field is on the west of his land, north by Mill Creek, and east by a small run of water, containing three and one-half acres, with the two story single house thereon. His shop stood on the road, east of the run of water. The hill on the east of his shop is yet know as Delap's Hill.
     
      In the summer season he sailed in the Barnstable and Boston packet, at first with Capt. Solomon Otis, and afterwards as master. In the winter he was employed in his blacksmith's shop.
     
      Capt. James Delap removed from Barnstable to Granville, Nova Scotia, in the spring of the year 1775, and resided on a farm which he inherited from his son Thomas, who died young. All his family removed with him excepting his daughters Rose and Catherine. His health began to fail before he removed from Barnstable, and he died in Granville in 1789, of apoplexy, aged about 74.
     
      He is spoken of as a "very friendly, civil man, hospitable to strangers, kind to all, and very liberal in his efforts to educate his children." His letters to his children indicate that he was a very affectionate parent, and took a lively interest in their welfare. "In person he was short, thick set, stout built, with a short neck, a form which physiologists say predisposes to apoplexy of which he had three shocks, two before he removed from Barnstable. In politics, he was a staunch loyalist, a fact that seems inconsistent with the history of his family. Though his widow was sixty-nine years of age at his death, she married John Hall Esq., of Granville, who she survived. She died June 4, 1804, aged 84 years. She was an exemplary and consistent Christian; an active energetic woman; and an excellent wife and mother.
     
      Capt. James Delap had ten children all born in Barnstable, all lived to mature age, and all excepting Thomas married and had families. The eight daughters of James Delap were all robust and healthy; women of good sense, sound judgement, and good business capacity, most of them lived more than seventy years and had numerous descendants.
     
     

He was the son of NN---- Delap. He married Mary O'kelly on 22 June 1738 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts. Captain James Delap was present at James Delap's christening on 18 November 1759 at Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts.² James died in 1789 at Granville, Nova Scotia, Canada.³