Irish Settlers in America p472-473

p472-473

Robert Harper, who was born in Ireland in 1733 and who came to New York in 1761, was engaged as a professor in King’s College (now Columbia) soon after his arrival and continued teaching for fifteen years. Professor Harper was very prominent in the social life of New York, and with other citizens he became interested in the development of lands in this State, and was instrumental in bringing into the Province a large number of his countrymen, who settled in Broome and Chemung Counties and along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. .. (see Petition of Tobert Harper)… Harper seems to have abandoned teaching to enter politics. He was a member of the Convention which formed the first Constitution of the State of New York, and in 1780 he was appointed Deputy Secretary of State, which office he held until 1795.