The Devereux of the Leap, County Wexford , & New York. America.

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Document ID 9310561
Date 01-01-1698
Document Type Periodical Extracts
Archive Queen's University, Belfast
Citation The Devereux of the Leap, County Wexford , & New York. America.;The Irish Genealogist, Vol.4, No.5, pp 450-46, November ,1972; CMSIED 9310561
47156
The Devereux of the Leap, County Wexford and of
Utica, New York.  By John Devereux Kernan.

     The article traces the descent of the Devereux family
of Utica from Nicholas Devereux, 17th century,
great-great-grandfather of the brothers who emigrated from
the neighbourhood of Enniscorthy, County Wexford, in the
late 18th and early 19th centuries, two of whom, John Corish
Devereux and Nicholas Devereux, settled in Utica where they
became eminent businessmen and bankers.
     The author gives some historical background on the
Devereux, an Anglo-Norman family prominent among the
County Wexford gentry and known locally as the "Proud
Devereux", mentioning various prominent men of the name
and the impact on the family of the upheavals of the
17th century.  He indicates that the Nicholas who was
ancestor of the Utica family might well be the Nicholas
of Ballybarna who died in 1698.
     Thomas Devereux of the Leap (died 1798/9) had nine
children by his second wife Catherine Corish (died about
1813).  Thomas and several of his sons took part in the
1798 Rebellion in which a son James is believed to have
died at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.  Four sons went to
the United States although one later returned to Ireland.
A daughter Catherine (c1788-1844), in religion Mother
de Sales of the Presentation Order, was foundress of
convents in Wexford and Enniscorthy.
     The sons who emigrated were John Corish (1744-1848) who
arrived in America in 1796 and was in Utica by 1802, where
he became a wealthy merchant and banker (founder of the
Utica Savings Bank), served as mayor and performed many
charitable works; Thomas who was in Utica in 1812 and 1813
where he had a distillery, but returned to Ireland in 1814
and fathered a son John Corish (1817-1861) who was sent to
the United States to be reared by his uncle of the same name
and practised as a lawyer in New York; Luke (c1789-1818) who
went to Utica c.1807 but later moved to Natchez, Mississippi,
where he died of yellow fever; and Nicholas (1791-1855) who
arrived in New York in 1806 and settled in Utica.  Nicholas
acquired very extensive business interests and his many
benefactions included the founding of the Utica Catholic
Academy and the giving of land and money for the Saint
Bonaventure College (now University) at Alleghany.  By his
wife, Mary Dolbeare Butler (1797-1881) of New York, he had
six children and numerous descendants (including the author
of the article, descended from his daughter Hannah Avery
Devereux wife of U.S. Senator Francis Kernan).