Patrick Roach (1824)

Born 1824 in Parish of Tubber-Kilkeedy, County Clare, Ireland

Descendants

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Biography

Emigrated to US in 1848, Worked for Brooks Brothers in NYC Came to Granville in 1854 Became a citizen in 1856. Worked as a tailor for Benjamin Ottarson making Civil War uniforms. Married Bridget Rearton of The Rower, County Kilkenny, and was the father of 8 children. (Could be Bridget Brereton) He owned and leased quarries in the Granville - South Poultney area- descendents own rights in the South Poultney Slate company

According to family folklore Patrick arrived in Castle Gardens in 1848. Patrick did work at Brooks Brothers as a tailor to save enough money to go to VT where he knew of a group of Irish immigrants in and around Fair Haven. Most of them (including the Fogarty’s ) were from North Tipperary. Since Patrick was from Clare I am not sure how he knew or knew of the Tipp folks but he clearly did. In Ireland he was a tailor and a steeplechase jockey (that was how he got his leg injury). Both tailors and jockeys in Ireland were often itinerant and Daniel Fogarty (who emigrated with his family to VT) was a tailor also and also itinerant. When Patrick first came to VT he looked up the Fogarty’s and stayed with them briefly while he shopped around for property to buy (with his Brooks Brothers’ earnings). Supposedly there was once a Brooks Brothers museum that had a pair of his scissors on display. I have never been able to confirm that but it makes for a good story. Years later his daughter Elizabeth married Dennis Fogarty, my grandfather. The families were in the same close knit Irish community in the Fair Haven/Poultney/Granville area. There was a saying about him that referenced both his limp and his acumen; “Patsy Roach was king of the town, with one leg up and one leg down”. He definitely owned quarry rights that he passed down to his descendants. The Slate Museum in Granville has material on him. He also continued working as a tailor. It was said that every Irishman in the area was either married or buried in one of his suits. Souce - family member.

Sources

• South Poultney Slate museum