Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick

Thomas Dongan, born in 1634 in Celbridge, County Kildare, became the seventh son of an old Gaelic Norman family and later governed New York from 1683 to 1688. He called the first representative legislature in the Province of New York and granted the colony's first charter of liberties. His negotiations and alliance with the Iroquois brought security from French and Indian attacks, shaping a fragile peace in a dangerous borderland.