“Whereas, there are severall out plantations in this Colony, which are not included in any towneship, and they being as lyable or rather more lyable to danger and invasion than where there is more strengh; and the Councill seeing it incumbent on them to provide for their safety, doe heerby order that the Conservators of the Peace at Pettaquomscut, Narragansett or Acquidneesitt or Block Island, and such persons as the Councill shall appoint on the Island Quononicutt, [Conanicut], doe assemble the inhabitants of each of those places and consider among themselves what may bee most suitable for their defence and preservation against any mission or insurrection of the Indians, and forthwith to put it in execution; and that a copie of this order bee sent to the first Conservator of the Peace in each respective place, and the persons appointed for Quononicutt.” Two days later the following entry appears in the records: “The persons appointed to execute the Councill’s order of the 26th inst., for the Island of Quononicut, are John Homes, John Remington and Michaell Kelly.” The fact that Kelly was one of those selected indicates that he must have been a man of considerable influence at the time. In the will of ex-Governor Brenton, probated in 1674, mention is made of “Michael Kaly,” who was no doubt the same individual here described. The following extracts are taken from the will: “To daughter Sarah Brenton, a farm in Conanicut, in possession of Michael Kaly with house, etc.... To Michael Kaly, 100 acres on Merrimack.... To Michael Kaly, ⅔ and to his wife, ⅓ of £15 due from land granted him at Pattacomscott.” In 1680, Kelly was taxed £5, 18s. 7½d. He died in that year. It is not known that he left any descendants. THOMAS CASEY, A PIONEER OF NEWPORT, R. I. Thomas Casey, a Rhode Island settler, was born about 1636, and died in 1719. That Ireland was his native land is generally conceded. A suggestion has been set up in some quarters, however, that he was of English parentage. To support this idea, a “tradition” is produced. Yet Casey as a family name is Irish of the Irish. For centuries it has been prominent in the east and south of Ireland. It derives from O’Cathasaigh which has been anglicized O’Casey, Cahasy, Casey, Casie, and Case. Those intent on making out an English, rather than an Irish, parentage for Thomas Casey, the immigrant, declare that “By tradition, he was a son of one of the English planting families in Ulster county, Ireland. His father and mother and all his family were destroyed in the Irish massacre [1641], he, a child, being saved by his uncle and carried to his relatives in Gloucestershire. It is further asserted that he sailed for America from Plymouth, England.”