150 HEREDITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



carried to the fight. And in later life we find the three older brothers active in the 

 Revolution, on sea or land, in some of the most hazardous occupations. 



Unfortunately nothing is known of the maternal side except that the mother's 

 father was a sea captain. The father was at the siege of Louisburg, but was 

 ordinarily a tailor and later a lumberman. 



Love of the sea was marked in this fraternity; the lads were taught to sail a 

 boat by their father. 



It is clear that Jeremiah O'Brien is a typical hyperkinetic. "Into whatever 

 undertaking he enlisted he threw his whole soul"; he was outspoken and fiercely 

 patriotic, of a high sense of honor, a man of "that temperament which is sus- 

 ceptible of high excitement, constitutional ardor, spirit, full of fire." 1 "By tem- 

 perament he was impulsive almost to the point of rashness and, in action, particu- 

 larly when thoroughly aroused, he was impetuous and irresistible as the raging 

 torrent exhibiting at such times a forcef ulness of character which under ordinary 

 circumstances was not apparent to the casual observer." "Outspoken he was 

 and fear of consequences was never, so far as the author has been able to gather, 

 allowed to bridle his tongue when once indignant feeling or great thought throbbed 

 in heart or brain and pressed for utterance, and individual and aggregate of indi- 

 viduals found the same when once Captain O'Brien felt his keen sense of justice 

 outraged." 



FAMILY HISTORY OF JEREMIAH O'BRIEN. 



I 1( M F), Keen, a sea captain 



sailing from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 

 I 2 (M M), died quite young. 



II 1 (F), Morris O'Brien (1715-99), 

 learned the tailor's trade, migrated from 

 Ireland to United States in 1738. In 1750 



he was in Scarboro, Maine; in 1765 he 



removed to Machias, where he started a _, /^VT~f Bw n| HrO H H () 



sawmill and became a prosperous lumber WLJ r T v -' V-/ 



man. He was present at the siege of 



Louisburg, 1745. When his sons went to 



attack the British vessel Margaretta he 



followed down the river in a rowboat with 



a surgeon. II 2 (M), Mary Keen. 



Fraternity of Propositus: III 1, Mary 

 O'Brien. Ill 3, Gideon O'Brien (born 



1746), one of the Unity crew (see text). Ill 4, John O'Brien (born Scarboro, Maine, 1750) (see 

 text). Ill 5, William O'Brien, (see text). Ill 6, Lydia Clarkson. Ill 7, Dennis O'Brien, one 

 of the Unity crew. Ill 8, Joseph O'Brien, at the age of 16 years was on the Unity (see text). 

 Ill 9, Martha O'Brien. Ill 10, Joana O'Brien. Ill 11, (Propositus), JEREMIAH O'BRIEN. 



III 12 (consort), Hannah Toppan. 



IV 1, Lydia O'Brien. IV 2, Hale. Children of Propositus: IV 3, Maria O'Brien. 



IV 4, Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, president of Waterville College, Maine. IV 5, John O'Brien 

 (1790-1866), was a captain of the marines in the War of 1812 and was confined for ten months 

 in an English prison. Later he became superintendent of the Dead Letter Office in Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



V 1, John Parker Hale (see text). 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



SHERMAN, A. 1902. Life of Captain Jeremiah O'Brien, Commander of the first American 



Naval Flying Squadron of the War of the Revolution. 

 SMITH, W. B. 1863. Historical Sketch in Memorial of the Centennial Anniversary of the 



Settlement of Machias (Maine). Machias: C. Fairbush. 



1 Sherman, 1902, p. 105. 



