Quite a number of these men were soldiers in the Revolution and also took an important part in Shay’s insurrection. The first settler of the town of Ashfield, Mass., was Richard Ellis, a native of Dublin, Ireland. He was soon followed by Thomas Phillips, whose sister he married. Phillips built a log house for himself and family almost a half mile north of Mr. Ellis. A family named Smith, which had settled in South Hadley, soon joined them and they were followed by other families from time to time so that in ten years they numbered about twenty families and over one hundred people. They labored as none but the pioneers of the forest know how to toil to obtain a comfortable support for their families. The town increased years later in population and prosperity and was incorporated in June, 1765, and ten years later they like thousands of their countrymen took an active part in the Revolution, when they drew up a preamble and resolutions signed by Ellis, Phillips, and sixty-five others, denouncing England. The settlers of Pelham, Mass., were Irish Presbyterians and in the agreement of the original committee with Col. John Stoddard, of whom the territory was purchased, occurs this passage: “It is agreed that families of good conversation be settled on the premises, who shall be such as the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Ireland or their descendants and none to be admitted but such as bring good and undeniable credentials or certificates of their being persons of good conversation and of the Presbyterian persuasion and confirm to the discipline thereof.” The Irishmen of Pelham were on the right side in the Revolution. They issued an address to their countrymen in Boston, Nov. 3, 1773, of which the following extract is an illustration: “We are not at present much intimidated with the pompous boasting on the other side of the water or the claim that Great Britain could blow America into atoms.” They unanimously voted their acquiescence in, and support of, a declaration of independence fourteen days before the Declaration of Independence was made at Philadelphia, and throughout the war they furnished from their slender means and resources more than their proportion of men and money for its prosecution.