The family of James McDonough, an Irish immigrant who purchased land here in 1748, is buried at this site. James and his wife Lydia raised seven children here, including their eldest son Thomas McDonough, a prominent local physician. In March 1776, Thomas was chosen as a major in Delaware’s Continental Regiment, and with senior officers absent he commanded the regiment at the Battle of Long Island in August 1776. Assigned to protect the retreating Americans, the Delaware Regiment and their Maryland comrades helped prevent the capture of the army and a defeat that may have ended the Revolution. After returning home following the Battle of White Plains, he was commissioned a colonel in the Delaware Militia. He was also active in civil affairs, serving on the state Privy Council from 1777 to 1779, then in the General Assembly’s upper house, the Legislative Council, after his election in 1780, and later for two terms as its speaker. Appointed in 1788 as Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Orphan’s Court, he remained in the judiciary until his death in 1795. Thomas and Mary McDonough had ten children, including a son, Thomas, who later became well known as an officer in the United States Navy and was buried in Connecticut.