was from 1661 to 1688. Under the last two Stuarts the acts of oppression in Scotland were so severe and so continued that to escape them many sought a refuge with their countrymen, who had colonized Ireland in peaceful times. Crossing the channel in open boats, exposed to the greatest danger, they reached the friendly shores of Ireland and found a hearty welcome and homes free for a little while from the oppression that made them exiles.
In Boswell's "Tour through the Highlands," he mentions under date of October 16, 1773, meeting at the house of The Mac Quarrie, "Chief of Ulva's Isle," a Capt. McClure, of Londonderry, master of the Bonnetta sailing vessel. He says: "Capt. McClure was of Scottish extraction, and properly a MacLeod, being descended from some of the MacLeods who went with Sir Norman MacLeod, of Bernesa, to the Battle of Worcester, and after the defeat of the Royalists, fled to Ireland, and to conceal themselves took a different name. He told me there were a great number of them about Londonderry, some of good property."
We have another native of Londonderry in the person of Captain Robert McClure, born about 1775, "an officer in the old 89th Foot and served abroad." He saved the life of a fellow-officer, General le Mesurier, a gentleman of considerable property and a native of Guernsey, who afterwards became guardian to his son. Capt. McClure, while stationed at Wexford with his regiment, married in 1807 Jane, d. of Archdeacon Elgee. His son, Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure (1807-1873) was the discoverer of the North-west Passage, for which he received a large grant of money, the thanks of Parliament and knighthood.
A distinguished soldier died recently in Dublin in the person of William McClure-Miller, formerly of Ochiltree, Ayrshire. On his retirement from the service, he was appointed Governor of H. M. Prison at Arbour Hill, Dublin. He served in a regiment of Lancers and passed through no less than twenty-eight engagements on the foreign field, some of them the most important and decisive in the his-
