William James MacNeven
William James MacNeven (also sometimes rendered as MacNevin or McNevin) (21 March 1763 Ballinahown, near
Aughrim,
County Galway, Ireland – 12 July 1841
New York City) was an Irish physician forced, as a result of his involvement with insurgent
United Irishmen, into exile in the United States where he became a champion of religious and civil liberty and the reputed "father of American chemistry". One of the oldest obelisks in New York City is dedicated to him to the right facing
St. Paul's Chapel on Broadway; while to the left stands another obelisk, dedicated to
Thomas Emmet, a fellow United Irishman, and Attorney General of New York. MacNeven's monument features a lengthy inscription in Irish, one of the oldest existent dedications of this kind in the Americas.
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