characterized by historians as ‘an excellent and prudent magistrate’ (Winsor); ‘a man of integrity, moderation and genteel manners, who may be classed among the best of our governors’ (Smith); ‘his firm and judicious policy, his steadfast integrity and his pleasing and courteous address soon won the affections of the people and made him one of the most popular of the Royal governors’ (Booth); ‘of a noble, praiseworthy mind and spirit’ (Gov. Hinckley); ‘a ruler who for breadth of mind, wide sympathy and executive ability stands far in advance of his times and measured by the system of government which he inaugurated, is easily one of the most attractive and momentous personages in American Colonial History’ (Driscoll). It is significant that this great Irish pioneer should have been an office holder, a tradition which the race did not forget when its hour of opportunity arrived. It may be said at this time that three other royal governors of the colony were of Irish birth, the Earl of Bellomont, who served from 1698, and who was the son of Baron Coote of Colooney; William Cosby, who arrived August 1, 1732, and who was an Equerry of the Queen, Colonel of the Royal Irish Regiment and the tenth son of Alexander Cosby of Stradbally, Queens County; and Sir William Tryon, the last of the line. But no one of these ever identified himself with the colony or is to be reckoned with as a constructive force. “After Dongan departs from the scene, we again have a long period of silence upon Irishmen in New York. The meagerness of detail as to anything affecting their names, their activities or their achievements is disheartening. Much of it may be attributed to the lack of wealth or social standing upon the part of those who immigrated here in the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. Much may be charged to their desire to conceal themselves from persecution and worse. There must have been refugees here from Virginia, New England and the Barbadoes, where penal laws were savagely enforced. Maryland must have furnished its quota when religious liberty was abolished. But New York seems never to have been so favorite a resort for the persecuted as Pennsylvania. Then again many redemptioners must have come here, when their time of service had expired. These were the immigrants who were unable to pay their passage and who on arriving were sold for a specified time to those who would reimburse the ship captain for their carriage.