Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/211

200 LIEUT-GEN. R. BRERETON Was an intrepid officer in his majesty's service for upwards of fifty years. He served in the last two cam- paigns of the American war of 1775; in the West Indies, and in the Mediterranean for five years. He was con- stantly employed in active service, during which periods he conducted himself with courage cool and determined. He was present at most of the battles since the year 1793, and particularly distinguished himself at Toulon, in Corsica, and in Holland. He returned to the West Indies in 1803, and was at the last reduetion of St. Lucia, where he continued commandant till 1807, when he obtained permission to revisit his native country for the recovery of his health, he being seriously affected by a liver com- plaint, which was contracted by a residence of thirteen years in tropical climates, and which terminated his exist- ence on the 1st of July, 1816, at New Abbey, Kildare. , ST. BRIGIT Sr. BRIGIT, or Bridget, and by contraction Bride, Abbess, and a Saint of the Romish church, and the patroness of Ireland, flourished in the beginning of the sixth century, and is named in the martyrology of Bede, and in all others since that age. She was bora at Fochard in Ulster, soon after Ireland was converted to the christian faith. She recived the religious veil, at au early age, from the hands of St. Niel, nephew of St. Patrick. She built her- self a cell under a large oak, thence called Kill-dara, or the cell of the oak; living, it may be presumed, from the veneration with which her name has been handed down to posterity, in the exercise of every virtue. Her fame soon spread, and several of her own sex, having resorted to her, they formed themselves into a religious community, which in time branched out into several other nunneries