In 1893, Patrick married Mary Anges Connolly (1860-1944), who was born in Galway. She had come to Newport in her teens, presumably to work as a domestic in the mansions that were springing up there.

The newlyweds settled in Jamestown. They rented a house at the corner of Clinton Avenue and High Street. They bought the house in 1919 and lived there with their growing family for the rest of their lives.

The house was just up the street from the Roman Catholic Chapel by-the-Sea, the first Catholic congregation in Jamestown. The chapel had been established in 1891 as a mission of St. Mary’s in Newport. The same year the Drurys arrived, a church building was started on donated land at 43 Clinton Ave. The church became the independent parish of St. Mark in 1909. Mary Agnes, a devout Roman Catholic, was a lifelong supporter of the new parish.

During the next 23 years, Mary Agnes gave birth to 11 children, 10 of whom — five boys and five girls — grew to adulthood. Most of the Drury children retained strong ties to Jamestown and contributed to its growth throughout the 20th century. Their descendants still live on the island.

Four of the boys made their livings on the sea. Joseph (1894-1971) followed directly in his father’s footsteps and, after serving as a chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy in World War I, became a chief engineer for the Jamestown & Newport Ferry Company. His wife, Madeline, taught in the local schools.

Peter Francis (1897-1972) worked most of his life at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport. Starting as a machinist, he later became a planner for the Central Torpedo Office at Coddington Cove.

He chaired the Jamestown Housing Authority in the 1960s during the design and building of the Pemberton Apartments. His wife, Violet, taught kindergarten in Jamestown for more than 30 years.

The most well-known of the Drury children, Rear Adm. Martin Drury (1901-81), kept few ties to Jamestown, although the locals retained interest and pride in his career.

A 1925 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Drury is remembered as the man who turned a battered light cruiser into a “ghost ship” that haunted the Japanese during World War II. Twice the Marblehead under Drury’s command was listed as sunk by the Japanese and twice Drury’s leadership in damage control allowed the ship to find safe harbor and be repaired.

Drury was awarded the Navy Cross for his efforts. As rear admiral, he went on to serve on ships ranging from destroyers to battleships and won several decorations, including the Bronze Star.

After the war, he was assigned as commanding officer of the Navy’s Damage Control School in Philadelphia.

William Patrick (1908-59) was a machinist at the Quonset Point Naval Air Station. Only the youngest son, James Edward (1916-86) did not work in a sea-related trade. After working at Lyons market on Narragansett Avenue until after his mother’s death in 1944, he and his wife, Louise, moved to Pawcatuck, Conn., where he lived for the rest of life.

Some of the Drury daughters retained strong ties to their hometown. The eldest, Helen (1893-1983), known as Nellie, married Jamestown postmaster John Joseph Ahern, and went with him to his new job in Webster, Mass.

The family visited Jamestown often and her daughter, Mary Elizabeth, married Jamestown resident Louis A. Kaiser, Jr., a Navy veteran of World War II who later worked at the Quonset Point Naval Air Station.

Two of the sisters, Marguerite (1903-90) and Mary Aniceta, known as Anne, (1911-88) became schoolteachers. Marguerite married Francis Murphy and taught for a while in Newport. After her husband’s death, she returned to Jamestown and taught eighth grade at the Clarke School for many years.

Anne, who never married and lived most of her life in Jamestown, began her career teaching Americanization classes in Jamestown in the 1930s. She then became a home economics teacher at Newport’s Thompson Junior High School and Rogers High School.

Both Marguerite and Anne were interviewed for Rhode Island’s oral history project sponsored by the Jamestown and Rhode Island historical societies in 1985-86. Their conversation about everything from schools and transportation to summer jobs added to our understanding of mid-20th century Jamestown.

The two other sisters seem to have been less involved in Jamestown after their marriages. Catherine (1906-93) married twice, first to Kenneth Russell and then to James Callahan. She trained as a nurse and practiced at Vassar College. Grace (1913-88) married Phillip Sullivan in 1936. The couple lived in Newport.