Cawley family genealogy

Of West Connaught

Arms: Sa. a chev, erm. betw. three swans' heads, erased at the neck ar.

THE family of O'Cadhla ("cadhla:" Irish, fair, beautiful, anglicised O'Cawley, MacCawley, and Cawley), derives its name and descent from Cadhla, a descendant of Conmac, son of Fergus Mór, who (see page 301) is No. 64 on the "Line of Ir." The O'Cawleys were Chiefs of Conmacne-Mara (now Connemara), in West Galway. They were a peaceful tribe, and took little or no part in any of the many disturbances which agitated Ireland since the Anglo-Norman invasion.

1. Cadhla, a quo O'Cadhla, anglicised O'Cawley.

2. Donoch Caoch: his son.

3. Donal: his son.

4. Iomhar Fionn: his son.

5. Gilla-na-Neev: his son.

6. Gilla-na-Neev (2): his son.

7. Doncha Mór: his son.

8. Doncha Oge: his son.

9. Aodh Dubh: his son.

10. Doncha (3): his son.

11. Cathal: his son.

12. John (or Owen): his son.

13. Muireadhagh: his son.

14. Muircheartagh: his son.

15. Flan: his son.

16. Muircheartagh (2): his son.

17. Flan (2): his son.

18. Malachy: his son.

19. Patrick: his son.

20. Melaghlin: his son.

21. Aodh (2): his son.

22. Muircheartagh (3): his son.

23. Muircheartagh Oge (4): his son.

24. Malachy O'Cawley: his son. This Malachy was a native of West Conacht; and in 1630 was appointed to the Archbishopric of Tuam-da-ghualan (now Tuam). This distinguished prelate was the last of a long line of illustrious chiefs, and the rightful owner of an extensive estate in the barony of Ballinahinch, in the county of Galway. He commanded a detachment of the Irish army in 1645, and was slain [1] near Sligo in that year, in an unsuccessful attempt to take the town from the Parliamentarians, who held it under Sir Charles Coote.

Notes

[1] Slain: Of the "Cawley" tribe was the man by whom Gerald Fitzjames Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond, was in 1583 mortally wounded in Gleanaguanta. That man was, as Cox states, a native Irishman, who had been bred by the English, and was serving as a kern under the English commandant of Castlemaigne, in 1583. On the 11th November, Fitzgerald was slain, his head sent to London, and his body hung in chains in Cork.—(See Ormonde's Letter, 15th Nov., 1583, in the State Paper Office.)

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