What it says
The ship Encrease, Captain Philip Poplestone, brought Irish passengers from Youghal, County Cork, to Maryland early in 1679. Two lists record the people whose passage earned "headrights" — claims to land given to whoever paid for a person's transport — and who the captain sold those rights to.
- List 1 (19 March 1679): 20 persons. Poplestone "craves rights to one thousand acres of land" for bringing them, and the rights went to John Stevens of Dorchester County. It includes Cornelius Shehane.
- List 2 (28 March 1679): 46 persons, the rights sold to William Sharpe of Talbot County. It includes Thomas Shehawne.
The lists
List 1 — William Newmarch, Marriah Keally, Timothy Connor, Adam Merritt, Thomas White, Joan English, Habia Loftus, John Legge, Thomas Gelliburne, James Smyth, Dennis Nurane, Edmond Goremond, John Haghieren, Thomas Henery, Honor Mulrean, Thomas Bullen, Robert Hawkins, Cornelius Shehane, John Brendevill, Katherine Londry.
List 2 — John Coverane, Morris Magrath, Morgan Connell, Edward Bourke, Thomas Smith, Patrick Lacey, Patrick Freeman, David Dolly, David Mulreau, Morish Dulen, Rich Ashwood, Davis Brothers, Cornel Driskole, Dan Gallahoe, John Jones, John Feahine, Thomas Nanury, Patrick Cahane, Mortagh Murphey, Tim Hartagane, Thomas Shehawne, William Harge, Peter Mub, John Condon, John Rye, Morris Fitzgerald, John Miunhane, Cather Magrath, her young daughter, Alice Green, Margaret West, Alice Quaine, Cather Haloorane, Cather Kennedy, Mary Ireland, Cath Ahagh, Eliz. Fostor, Mary Corohane, Honora Neale, Mary Bowen, Margt Corrane, Cath Hennesy, Helena Mulreau, Margt Gerrald, Joan Pully, John Coughlane.
These names come from a transcription of William G. Hills's 1939 notes, the same notes Two Roads from Munster cites, posted online in 2011. They have not yet been checked against the original land records, so some spellings may be copying errors. That transcription dates List 2 "March 8"; the book gives 28 March.
Why it matters
These lists put two men with the Sheehan surname on Maryland's Eastern Shore in 1679 — the same year Daniel Shahan died in Barbados. They travelled on the same ship and were assigned to landowners in neighbouring counties, and with so unusual a surname they were very likely kin.
They are the fixed point for the "Maryland path" in Two Roads from Munster. The lists do not name Darby, and he most likely was not aboard. The likelier picture is that he came later, in the 1680s or 1690s, as a boy joining kin already settled in Maryland — if these two men were his kin.
The second list also shows how children could cross without their own entry: "Cather Magrath" is followed only by "her young daughter", with no name given.