In the poll for the election of burgesses for the several Virginia counties in 1741 are the following, among other names: Morgan Donnell, Daily Callahan, Edward Barry, John Carfey (Coffey), Simon Carnel, Dennis Connors, Edward Fagin, John Murphy, Patrick Hamericka, Michael Dermond (Dermott), James Cullen, William Butler, Michael Scanlan, Gabriel Murphy, James Dulaney, William Hogan, Henry Murphy, John Madden, Dennis McCarty, Thomas Carney, William Buckley, William Reardon and Philip Nolan. The greater part of the names here given are in appearance Irish of the Irish, of Gaelic, or of old Norman origin. An examination of the early Virginia records will show, from 1619 to 1790, the entry of some of the most ancient of the Gaelic names peculiar to Ireland, like O’Neil, O’Donnell, O’Brien, O’Connor, accompanied by McMahon, McCarthy, McClanahan, McGuire, etc. In an address delivered by the venerable Dr. Thomas Dunn English to the members of the American-Irish Historical Society, at one of its annual gatherings in New York several years ago, he stated that when a young man, over half a century before, he practised his profession in western Virginia. He noticed while there the manners, customs, and phrases of the mountaineers, and in later life, when he removed to New York, he was surprised to see the similarity between them and the newly-arrived Irish from the south, east, and west of Ireland. This for the first time caused him to change his opinion as to the nationality of the ancestors of the people in Virginia who had been classed as “Scotch-Irish,” for in every respect they appeared more like the southern Irish whom he had met later in New York. Enough has been written to show what a large proportion of the people of the Old Dominion before the year 1800 were of Irish descent. The mention of any more names would simply be a tiresome proceeding. While many of these people were distinguished in Virginia, the greater part of their descendants were more eminent in the territories and states to which they migrated. A distinguished Virginian, although not a native of the state, was Major-General Benjamin F. Kelly of the Union army. He was a native of New Hampshire, but went to West Virginia when a youth. He was the grandson of Darby Kelly, who served three years in the old French War in northern New York under Sir William Johnson. Darby was a soldier, a schoolmaster, and a farmer, and his New Hampshire descendants are, and have been, among the most useful citizens of the old Granite state. Gen. Kelly is credited with raising the first Union regiment and winning the first victory for the Union south of Mason and Dixon’s line during the Civil War. His nephew, Capt. Warren Michael Kelly, commanded a company in the Tenth New Hampshire Infantry, commanded by Col. Michael T. Donohoe, and it is claimed that he led the first white troops into Richmond after its evacuation.