manded by his cousin Captain Robert O'Brien, who afterwards came to this country an Admiral, and lived at Woodstook and at Tollendal, near Barrie. Captain O'Brien obtained his promotion by his skill in taking a merchantman off the Goodwin Sands. The peace with America put an end to the long naval contest and an end also to any speedy advancement in the navy. O'Brien, therefore, joined the army. He was given a commission in the 2nd Dragoons, but finding this corps d'elite, in all senses, too expensive, he exchanged into the 58th Regiment, then under orders for service in the West Indies. Here his health failing he retired on half pay.

Now his mind returned to its first love. He went into the merchant service and made several voyages to the East. His reputation for seamanship and general capacity brought him an offer of one of the fine East Indian passenger ships of that day. As he was about to take command he was attacked by a severe illness which compelled him to give up the sea for ever.

His restless activity, however, would not permit him to settle down to a quiet life in the Old Country. He determined to seek his fortune in the backwoods of Canada. With a number of other half-pay officers he settled on the North Shore of Lake Simcoe, taking up his grant in the Township of Oro. Sir John Colborne had put him in charge of the settlement. Here he built the house where he ended his days. A beautiful picture of this house has been painted by his son, Mr. Lucius O'Brien, whose name as that of the foremost artist in Canada will again come up. Mr. O'Brien was the only settler on the shore of Lake Simcoe who retained his grant to the end.

Here with his newly married wife and a family growing up about them-all the children survive-he entered on the toils and hardships of the backwoods. He and his wife did all that kind hearts and fertile brains and ready hands, far from empty, could do to promote the happiness of all around them. They visited and succoured the sick and needy. He filled many offices of trust. He became Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, Commissioner of the Court of Requests, and Colonel in the Militia. As a Justice of the Peace he was fearless and active, and some thought severe. But in those days there were many turbulent characters in the

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Simcoe District who required a firm hand. In the suppression of the rebellion he took an active part, and was for some time engaged at Lloydtown, a hotbed of disaffection, in the discharge of magisterial duties.

Shortly after the establishment of the County of Simcoe as a municipality Mr. O'Brien left "The Woods" and removed to Toronto where he lived for many years. With his accustomed energy he threw himself into various business schemes. He was one of the moving spirits in the first projected railway from Toronto to Lake Huron, with a terminus at Sarnia, and was secretary of a company formed to promote it. He was opposed to having a terminus at Collingwood. He was the organizer and first manager of the Provincial Insurance Company. He was also connected with the press, and at one time owned the old Patriot and the Colonist. A staunch loyalist and a strong Conservative he took an active part in the politics of the day.

His chief public interest like that of Mr. Dixon's was the welfare and prosperity of the Church. His first care on settling at Lake Simcoe was to set apart a portion of his land for a church and glebe. On this one of the first missions north of Toronto was established, and through his exertions the church was built. To the little church-yard of this church over the bright fields, one day in the summer of 1875, the brave old man's remains were carried by his sons and old friends.

He hated whatever was false and mean. early training, his manner was dictatorial.

79 66

Owing, perhaps, to his

He had strong views
He used to hesitate

on men and things which he fully expressed. or rather stutter but could not bear to be helped out of his difficulty. On one occasion he was saying-" It is not worth a si-sisi-." "Sixpence," suggested some one. "No, sir," replied O'Brien, not worth a shilling." If there was a blemish in his character it was of the most superficial nature, while his sterling qualities were such that no one ever knew him without loving him.

Dr. Lucius O'Brien, the Colonel's brother, who was surgeon to the troops engaged in the suppression of the rebellion in Jamaica, in 1831, soon after left the army, and hearing glowing accounts of Canada from the Colonel, came here and settled fourteen miles.

north of Toronto, at Thornhill, where he had for some years a large practice.

At that time, the indulgence in whiskey-drinking was carried to unhappy lengths among the rural population. Dr. O'Brien, though hitherto a wine drinker, determined to become a teetotaler. He established a temperance society of which he was President, until he removed to Toronto in 1838. In 1837-8, he was appointed chief military surgeon at Toronto, where, when the troops were disbanded, he settled down to practice. He held several important public positions in connection with his profession. A religious man, he took a deep interest in the Bible Society, of which he was Vice-President for many years before he died. In 1845, he was appointed to the chair of Medical Jurisprudence at King's College, and lectured until 1853, when the school was done away with. A strong Conservative, he became editor of the Toronto Patriot, which he continued to edit for eight years. If he was responsible for all the articles in that paper during Lord Elgin's time, his editorial labours are not so creditable as his medical. Having lost money through injudicious speculations, he accepted the office of Secretary to the Hon. Wm. Cayley. He subsequently received an appointment in the Finance Department. He died at Ottawa, in 1870, at the advanced age of seventy-five.

We now return for a moment to the County of Simcoe. In 1822, the McConkey family emigrated to Canada from Tyrone, where Thomas David McConkey was born in 1815. The family first settled in the Niagara district, but in 1825 removed to the County of Simcoe. Thomas was educated at a common school, and when he came to man's estate he opened a general store in Barrie, immediately after the new district was set apart and proSuccess beyond his expectation followed, and a few years ago he retired from business.

claimed.

Like most of his countrymen, he had a capacity for public employment, and was elected a member of the first Town Council of Barrie, where he rendered the county great service. He held the position of Reeve of the town for nine years. In 1860, he was elected Warden of the County of Simcoe, an office he held for two

years.

A strong reformer, he in 1861 unsuccessfully contested North

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Simcoe with Mr. Angus Morrison. He again opposed Morrison in 1863, when he was elected a member of the old Canadian parliament. He supported Confederation, and at the general election of 1867, he was elected unanimously for the first House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada. He declined a nomination in 1872. In 1875, he was nominated to contest West Simcoe, but was defeated. For nearly twenty years up to his appointment in 1875 to the Shrievalty of the county, he was a justice of the peace. is a good speaker and a man of convictions and integrity.

The greater part of a township near Streetsville, County of Peel, is settled by emigrants from "gallant Tipperary." They used to be called some years ago the "Town-line blazers." The names all smack of Ireland-the Cooks', the Cantlans', the Millers,' the Coles,' the Waits,' the Orrs.' They were accustomed to come down to town with their guns, a practice which I hope they have discontinued. "One old boy," writes a correspondent, "would come down, and when he took a glass too much he would say: 'Do you think you could box a Cole or a Cantlan? No! nor by could you box old Rowley himself.""

John Hammond and his wife came out early to Canada. He died at Lachine, of cholera, and his wife with her son William Hammond (now of Yonge Street), went on as far as Brampton. All the relatives of this lady have done well. A brother of Mr. Hammond farms two hundred acres of land at Owen Sound, and is doing" first-rate," whilst an uncle farms 300 acres at Brampton, and is very prosperous. In the neighbourhood of Brampton, the Whiteheads, the Arnots, the Willis's, and a score of other families attest at once the energy of Irishmen, and the scope of Canada for industry.

Already it has been shown that Ireland has sent to Canada remarkable men, and furnished interesting incidents for the historian of emigration. But the story is not half told, as will be seen by the following chapter.

CHAPTER VIII.

SOME of the most striking facts connected with the early Irish emigration will now be laid before the reader.

In 1832 the Messrs. Edward and Dominick Blake, with some connections and friends, left Ireland for Canada to seek a kinder fortune beneath colder skies. Nothing was to be despaired of with such leaders. It was hard to leave a country where the family had made for itself a name and place. But necessity was severe as the father of Teucer, and there was nothing for it but to bedew the shamrock with wine and on the morrow sail the boundless main.

The Blakes of Castlegrove, County of Galway, held a good place among the country gentry. Dominick Edward Blake, of Castlegrove, married first the Honourable Miss Netterville, a daughter of Lord Netterville, of Drogheda, by whom he had three sons, Edward, Andrew, and John Netterville. He afterwards married a daughter of Sir Joseph Hoare, Baronet, of Annabella, in the County of Cork, by whom he had four sons, one of whom was Dominick Edward Blake, who chose the Church as his profession. He married Anne Margaret Hume, eldest daughter of William Hume, of Humewood, County Wicklow. His wife survived him as did his three daughters, and the two sons Dominick Edward and William Hume, both of whom were educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Dominick Edward, the eldest, was ordained as a clergyman of the Church of England, while his brother studied surgery under Surgeon-General Sir Philip Crampton.

The Rev. D. E. Blake soon married, the lady being a Miss Jones, the eldest daughter of a man who was connected in a passing way with Canada, and whose conversation respecting the country had no small influence on the mind of his son-in-law. Major Jones was a retired officer who had held commissions in the 37th, 49th, and 60th regiments. He had served throughout the Peninsular War and in Canada during the war of 1812. He took part in the battles of Lundy's Lane and Queenston Heights.