Lynah family history

Back to Grandson James' letter:(3) "By birth he was a native of Dublin, Ireland,(4) where he received his collegiate education and received his diploma of M.D. (5) He was married and commissioned a surgeon in the British Service.(6) While cruising off the West India Islands in a frigate, the vessel was wrecked when many of the crew and some officers perished before being rescued. The survivors were taken into Kingston nearly naked My grandfather, having made himself known to a Masonic lodge in that town, was instantly taken in their care.

Hearing from them that there was a good opening for professional men on the "Plantations" as the Carolinas and Georgia were then designated, he left the British Service and received an outfit of surgical instruments and 50 guineas. He sailed for and landed in Charleston, somewhere about the year 1765 or 1766.

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(4) No record of his birth or ever having been in Dublin has yet been discovered. But this is not surprising; at the time of his birth the penal barrior against Catholics was in full force and Catholics kept no records of baptisms or marriages, lest they be used as evidence of their proscribed faith.

(3) For continuity certain omissions have been made to be covered later.

(5) Not listed: Dublin Almanach 1764. Physicians and Surgeons Graduates Trinity Colleges, Dublin

(6) Not in Registry of either Army or Navy Surgeons (index to Surgeons, British 1742-1815) Neither Lynah nor O'Neil.