McELROY, John, clergyman, born in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Ireland, 11 May, 1782; died in Frederick, Maryland, 12 September, 1877. Owing to the penal laws, he received a very limited education in his native country, and about the beginning of this century he emigrated to the United States and settled at Georgetown, D. C., where he engaged in mercantile business. He afterward became bookkeeper at Georgetown college, and, wishing to improve himself, employed his leisure hours in the study of Latin, assisted by one of the students of the college. In 1806 he entered the Society of Jesus as a lay brother, but after a brief experience in that capacity he was recommended to the general of the order as a suitable person for the priesthood by one of his superiors, who had heard him explain very logically a lesson in catechism. He was ordained in May, 1817, by Archbishop Neale, of Baltimore, and for several years stationed at Trinity church, Georgetown, but in 1822, at the request of Roger B. Taney, was transferred to " Frederick, Maryland Here he began to display that practical ability that made him ever afterward one of the most useful members of the Society of Jesus in the United States. He built St. John's church, a college, an academy, an orphan asylum, and the first free school in Frederick. After twenty-three years of work there he was transferred to Trinity church, Georgetown, but the following year, President Polk having requested the council of bishops in Baltimore to select chaplains for the Roman Catholic soldiers in the Mexican war, Father McElroy was one of the two priests that were chosen for that duty. Notwithstanding his advanced age, he accepted the office, and was so faithful in the discharge of his duties that he was frequently mentioned in the highest terms in the despatches from the seat of war. At the close of hostilities he was made pastor of St. Mary's church, Boston, Massachusetts, where he paid special attention to the subject of education, building Boston college and the Church of the immaculate conception. Father McElroy continued in the active performance of his priestly duties until he was past eighty years old. When fourscore and ten he became blind, and retired to Frederick, Maryland, in his last years. When he died he was the oldest Jesuit in the world.