Even so, I prefer to believe that it was lingering memory of Thurot and Flobert and fighting on the same side as the English against the French. The reliance of the United Irishmen on French support may have cost them this part of the coast. We don't know the views of Samuel Baxter except that, with two children at the time, he may have held prudence as the best course. After a few rounds in the public house, those children also cause him to say goodbye. Samuel must get home or the family will worry.
Home is a one storey, three room, stone house with a slate roof.
The windows are leaded. Only the better off have sash windows and the average farmer with only 25 acres didn't rank in that class. Samuel can't afford floor boards and his kitchen and two bedrooms have have dirt floors. He is not fastidious in keeping the house looking neat and clean though he gives the exterior stonework a coat of whitewash every second year. He proceeds by custom and not calculation.