p493  Appendix

The Barry-Hayes Family

John Barry's ancestral tree has been twisted awry with much manhandling. How ineffectual and confusing have been the efforts to establish his parentage, birth and relation­ships can be summarized in the following potpourri of misinformation.

He was born in 1745. He was born in 1746. He was born in 1739.

He was born in the townland of Ballysampson and lived his boyhood in the townland of Rostoonstown. He lived in Ballahaley along Lake Tacumshin. He was born in Wexford.

The house where he lived is still standing in Rostoonstown. The house where he lived is still standing in Ballahaley. The house where he lived was burned during the Irish disturbances.

His father was a farmer in Ballysampson. His father was a clerk in a malt house in Wexford. His father was a "snug farmer" in the Parish of Tacumshin.

His father's name was John. His father's name was James.

His mother's name was Catharine. His mother's name was Ellen Cullen.

His mother was a descendant of John Stafford of Wexford Castle. His mother married three times, and her second husband was William Henry Stafford, a descendant of John Stafford of Wexford Castle. His mother died in Ireland. His mother accompanied him to America when he first left home.

He had two brothers, Peter and Thomas, and one sister, Catharine, who married a Mr. Meyler. He had one sister, Margaret. He had a twin-sister, Marianna. He had one sister, Jane.

He had a half-brother, Patrick (or Philip) Stafford, and a half-sister, Margaret Stafford. His half-brother, Patrick (or Philip) married Brigetta Daverness, of Wexford. His half-brother was Captain Stafford, of Baltimore. His half-sister, Margaret, married, first, Philip Bennet, and, second, Lawrence Furlong. His half-sister, Margaret, married a Mr. Howlin.

 p494  That's the record as it was written by Martin I. J. Griffin, in his "Commodore John Barry," in 1903 — a glorious mélange, collected by him at various times from Thomas D'Arcy McGee; Edmund Hore, editor of the Wexford Independent; P. J. Barry, of Muscatine, Iowa; Miss Sarah Stafford, of Trenton, New Jersey, and Michael Browne, of Bridgetown, County Wexford, Ireland.

From the Irish letters in the Hepburn collection, it is evident there is scarcely a word of truth in any of these Griffin gleanings. Miss Stafford, who died in 1880, firmly believed her ancestor to be the second husband of Barry's mother. Apparently she had her Barry families confused.

Even worse confusion, however, came with Michael Browne's production of a photograph of the birth record, in 1739, of "John Barry and Marianna twins," the son and daughter of James Barry and Ellen Cullen at Ballysampson. Here, too, is a mistake as to families. Browne's evidence merely establishes John Barry's birth, and those who have read the preceding pages will already have discovered four John Barrys crossing the Commodore's path — the sergeant of marines on the Lexington, the seaman on the United States, the young sea‑captain who took to drink, and the merchant skipper, who was Barry's friend for many years. John Barry was no uncommon name in Ireland.

From the Hepburn papers, aided by some stray items in the Barnes collection, it is apparent that John Barry's mother was a Kelly, that she died before her husband, that both of them were buried in the Churchyard at Roslare just south of Wexford, that John Barry had neither half-brothers nor a half-sister, and that his real brothers and sisters were five in number — Jane, Patrick, Eleanor, Margaret and Thomas.

Moreover, there is the best possible corroborative evidence that Barry's birth year was 1745,⁠a as stated in the original sketch of his life in The Port Folio in 1813, and inscribed on his tombstone from the text by Dr. Benjamin Rush. It is the entry in the family Bible kept by Elizabeth Keen Hayes, to wit, that "Commodore John Barry departed this Life Septbr 13th 1803 aged 58 years."

While meagre in some respects, the following chart, with its source notes, will give a clear picture of Barry's generation, and the descendants of his nephew and adopted son, Patrick Hayes.

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Thayer's Note:

a Strictly speaking of course, the evidence points to 1745 — or 1744.

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