West of the Connecticut river the territory was divided up into towns soon after the settlement of the boundary line between Connecticut and Massachusetts, which took place in 1713, when the present town of Suffield, formerly in Massachusetts, was thrown into Connecticut, and in 1632 the owners of the tract of land in that territory were given an equivalent tract of six miles square by the Massachusetts legislature, and this territory is included in the present town of Blandford, Mass., one of the first towns almost entirely settled by people from Ireland who arrived in this country in considerable numbers about that time. These people were Irish Presbyterians who came from Ireland about the year 1718. Francis Brimley, A. M. Collins, Samuel Knox and Patrick Boies came up from Hartford, Conn., and purchased land of Christopher Lawton and Francis Wells, to whom the legislature had conveyed undivided parts of the township. The first clergyman was Rev. Mr. McClenathan, an Irishman, who received £135 a year for his services. He did not give satisfaction and remained only two years, when he became a chaplain in the army. Rev. James Morton, also an Irishman, was installed as pastor in August, 1748, and preached to the people for twenty years. He retired June 2, 1767, and lived in Blandford, Mass., until his death, which occurred in October, 1793, at the age of 80 years. Many of the representatives of the town to the legislature for nearly a hundred years after its settlement were native born Irishmen or the sons of Irishmen, among whom were Reuben Boies, William Knox, Timothy Blair, John Ferguson, Daniel Boies, Patrick Boies, Samuel Knox, Daniel Collins, and David Boies. The following are the names among the early families: McClinton, Reed, Brown, Taggart, Blair, Wells, Montgomery, Stewart, Campbell, Ferguson, Boies, Sennett, Wilson, Gibbs, Knox, Young, Carr, Black, Anderson and Hamilton. Hon. Patrick Boies, a descendant of the Boies family who settled in Blandford, Mass., was the first lawyer admitted to the Hampden county bar, in 1812, and one of the first sheriffs of Hampden county. A daughter of Patrick Boies was the organist in St. Mary’s church, Westfield, Mass., for several years. The first clergyman of the Congregational church of Blandford, was, as stated, an Irishman named McClenathan, one of the petitioners to Governor Shute.