The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-16


 He could teach what he knew, and he did teach it, giving scant praise to the Nation that had enacted the Penal Laws. From Caesar and Virgil, from Herodotus and Homer, from the 'Tain,'' the "Iliad of the Irish Race D he drew lessons of love of freedom with which to compare England and her Penal Laws. The early records of every Colony in America shows traces of his presence, and, most of the early Colonial newspapers display advertise ments of his wares.
 In New England, the Irish Catholic Schoolmasters'' were not generally welcomed in the settlements; but the Puritans were willing enough to have these lighting Irish' on their frontiers ito keep away the Indians. Sometimes for good reasons, they were even in vited to the towns, as when, on Sep tember 30, 1714, the town of Long Meadow, Mass, voted, in language showing how great was its need: gro Gitt or have a Schoolmaster, to teach or learn our children to read and rite" ,"
 They dfd "Gitt',. one, and his name was James Fitzgerald, ain Irishman. The Irish SchooImaster
 In New England.
 On December 8, of the same year, Birmingham. Mass, adopted a sini- lar resolution, thus securing the ser vices of the jolly John Gleason.
 In I71S, the Irish Presbyterian, Rev. Edward Fitzgerald, came with a body of Irish immigrants to Worcester County, Mass, where he established d and taught a school for the children of the settlements. And the records of the Scituate, Mass, speak of Richard Fitzgerald a veteran Latin School master, who taught there in .1729. Among his pupils prepared for liar yard by, his school was the later cele- brated Justice William Gushing.
 The records of Middle Patten, Conn, show that Robert Murphy, ancestor of .ex-Governor, Franklin Murphy, of New Jersey, was the teacher there in 1756 :; and those of Maine and New Hamp- shire speak of John Sullivan, a, Lime rick Schoo1naster, as the great educa- tiona1 force of those wilderness plan tations, able to converse voIub1y in French, Latin and English<at the ripe age of one hundred and still, doubtless, writing Latin verses to Limerick, his birthplace.
 His application for teaching posi- ton in Maine, 'twas written in seven languages to show that he was fully competent to teach.' And the emil hence achieved by his two sons, Gen. John Sullivan of the Revolutionary Ar my, and Gov. James Sullivan, of Mas sachusetts, prove that he knew how to be an ancestor as well as a descend ant Upon his voyage to America, in 1723, he met a young woman of Cork, whom he persuaded to go with him to his Castle in the Air'' in New Hampshire. And she was the mother of these gallant ColoniaIs.
 Daniel Webster's Irish SchooImaster.
 Daniel Webster's first tutor was Ed ward Evans, native of Sligo, an Irish Schoolmaster'' with a "snnell of powder about him, as he had aban- doned his school to join the patriot ar my at the opening of the Revolution. Many other eminent men of Colonial and Revolutionary days were trained by these Irish Schoolmasters'' of New England, the most famous of whom was Dean of Derry, better known as Bishop Berkeley, founder of the school of Philosophy which bears his name
 He was born in Kilkenny, although often accredited to Ulster. He con- ferred valuable benefits upon Amer ca,- as his mission here was both phil anthropic and educational He came to found a college for the Indians, and l it was at Newport, R. l., that he wrote "A1ciphron or the Minute PhiIoso- pher." Before he left our shores, he gave the then young college of Yale his fine collection of books, the finest that had ever entered our ports. New York, despite the predominant Dutch influence of early days, shows also her clear traces of the Irish Schoolmaster." In 1702, Thomas Flynn opened 8 school on Cortlandt street, expressing the hope that his patrons might not find it ''too. far uptown"
 The Irish Schoolmaster in New York, l Rev. Thomas Colgan. an Irsih Pro- testant, taught the Trinity Church Charity School from 1726 to 1731. and pr. Cochran, an Irishman, was the stu- 9or of the eccentric and brilliant states man, John Randolph. In the New York Director of 1871 appear at least thirty-two Irish names of school teachers; and that is a far more sig nif1cant statement than at first aD- T.ears, for n.any of the Irish who came to this country in the early days came with new ra1nes, the English law pro- v5ding that all Irishmen Ego appareIed like Englisi ihmen ana wear their boards after the English manner. swear ale glance, and take English sirnames which sirnames shall be of one town as Sutton, Chester, Trim, etc., or colors as White, Black. Brown, or Art, or Sciences, as Smith, CT Carpenter or office, as Cook. Butler ,etc.. and 1t is enacted thar he and his issue shall use this name under pain of fort citing o1 his goods, etc.
 Thus it is tbat we find to-day in this
 t~AlIA S' tiA11ity e1 A1ie"'A' "1io IN red1Iy en- titled by heredfty to an "O'' or a Me going through life disguised as Brown Smith, Cook or Butler.
 | In Pennsylvania, the Irish School master entered 'ton the ground floor Penn's Charter antidated the Pena Laws by only a few years, and his new Colony offered a good sphere of influ. ence for the vctim's of that wicked l legislation.
 In the Province of William Penn. | In 1686, the Irish SchooImaster Thomas Dongan, opened his school a Lower Dublin, near the present site O, | Philadelphia, and began to inocuIatt l the peaceful Quaker atmosphere witt the virus of his anti-English militancy l The Irish were somewhat distrusteo