James McHenry was born in Larne and published poetry in order to pay for his education at Glasgow. He emigrated to America in 1817, where he traded, edited the American Monthly Magazine and practised medicine. He published many novels, including O'Halloran, the Insurgent Chief; The Hearts of Steel (1825); The Wilderness and Meredith. Edgar Allan Poe praised his poem 'The Antedeluvians'. He was American consul in Derry from 1842 to 1845.

Born:	20 December 1785
Died:	21 July 1845