Ellen Cullen

In letters written early in 1877 by Miss Sarah Smith Stafford, an aged lady of Trenton N. J., to Capt. John S. Barnes, whose wife is the grandniece of Commodore John Barry, it is stated that Catharine Barry, the mother of the Commodore was married three times. First to John Barry, a clerk in a malt house in Wexford. The issue of this marriage was three sons, John, Peter, and Thomas, and one daughter Catharine. John is the subject of this memoir. Thomas came to America after the Revolution, settled in Wilmington, married a Swede and died without issue. Of Peter nothing is known. Catharine married in Ireland a Mr. Meyler and had three sons, John, Robert and James.
The second husband of the mother of Commodore Barry was John Howard Stafford. The issue of this marriage was Patrick (or Philip) and Margaret. Margaret married first Philip Bennet, secondly Lawrence Furlong. Patrick (or Philip) married at Wexford, Brigetta Davemess, daughter of Walter Davemess, merchant of Wexford.
The third marriage of Commodore Barry's mother was to a Mr. Roche. No issue resulted from this marriage.
Miss Stafford's brother Samuel Bayard Stafford, in 1891, when living "near Lanham's, Prince George County, Maryland," wrote me: "My grandfather Col. William Howard Stafford, after the death of his wife, married the widow Catharine Barry, of Wexford, in Ireland, mother of Captain Barry."
Mr. Stafford was then in feeble health but promised information concerning the Barry ancestors which, in manuscript, was at his former home in Trenton, New Jersey. This never was received, though I had been in correspondence seeking it from early in 1888. No verification of these statements of Mr. Stafford and sister has been found.
On the contrary, besides the doubt because of the thrice marrying, Mr. Michael Browne, of Bridgetown, County Wexford, writes It is said here that his mother accompanied him to America when first leaving.'*

Full text of "Commodore John Barry, "the father of the American navy"; the record of his services for our country .."