He was not brought up, as you might expect, with some of his father's connections.

Whether the family were so scattered that there was no one to whom he could safely entrust the child, I know not, but, in point of fact, he sent him to one of the last houses where a loyal gentleman would wish his son to be brought up.

We all know by name and reputation--I and your majors knew him personally--the gallant James O'Carroll, who died, fighting bravely, at the siege of Limerick.

He was succeeded in his estate by his brother John, one of the few Irishmen of good family who turned traitor to his king, and who secured the succession to his brother's possessions by becoming an ardent supporter of the usurper, and by changing his religion.
"Why Murroch Kennedy should have chosen such a man as the guardian of his son is a mystery.

Whether they had been great friends in earlier times, when John O'Carroll professed as warm an attachment to the Stuart cause as did his brother James, or whether Kennedy possessed such knowledge of O'Carroll's traitorous dealings with the Dutchman as would, if generally known, have rendered him so hateful to all loyal men that he could no longer have remained in the country, and so had a hold over him, Mr.Kennedy can tell us nothing.