Preface

This Volume is the Supplement of Volume I.; or, rather, one is the Complement of the other. The two Volumes contain all the Irish Genealogies and any other interesting matter bearing on ancient Irish history which we have met with in our life-long research.

In Vol. I. are given the “Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation,” and, so far as we could collect them, the genealogies of the respective Races of Heber, Ithe, Ir, and Heremon, which branched from that ancient Stem: together with Chapters bearing on the Creation; on the Irish Lineal Descent of the present Royal Family of England; on the Pedigrees of St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, and of St. Brigid, the Patron Saint of Ireland; the Roll of the Irish Monarchs since the Milesian Conquest of Ireland, down to the English Invasion in the twelfth century; the English Invasion of Ireland; the Territories possessed by the ancient Irish families at that period; and the Cromwellian Devastation of our unhappy country in the seventeenth century; etc.

For the matter contained in this Volume see the “Contents,” p. xxi, infra.

In collecting the materials for this Edition we found that from time to time many families of Belgian, Spanish, and French origin settled in Ireland: among them the Huguenots, who were Protestant Refugees from France, before and during the reign of Louis XIV.; and the Palatines, who as “Protestant Lutherans” were, A.D. 1709, driven from their homes in the Palatinate, by the French, under that Monarch. We have inserted in this Volume the family names of those Refugees, to assist their respective representatives in Ireland in tracing their family pedigrees.

From Hill’s elaborate Work on the “Ulster Plantation” we have collected the names of all the Undertakers who (see pp. 501-523, infra,) received grants of land in the five Ulster counties then escheated to make room for the Plantation of Ulster, temp. King James I. But we have not met with the names of the dependents or retainers who accompanied those several Undertakers to Ulster; because their names are not mentioned in the Records of that Plantation. But many of the descendants of those retainers are probably still in Ireland.

In the reign of James I. an attempt was made by clumsy translations to get rid of Gaelic sirnames. For example: As gabhan is the Irish for “a black-smith,” then Mac-an-Gabhain (MacGowan or the Smith’s son) became “Smith,” “Smyth,” “Smythe,” and “Smeethe;” MacEoghain became “MacOwen,” “MacKeown,” “MacKeon,” “McEwen,” “McCune,” “Ewing,” “Owenson,” “Johnson,” etc.; Murtagh O’Neill was transformed into “Mortimer Nelson;” MacAodha was anglicised “MacKay,” “Mackay,” “Mackey,” “McKee,” “Magee,” “Hodson,” “Hudson,” “Odson,” etc.;

O’Ceallaigh was twisted into “Kalloch,” and “Kellogg.” From Saggart came “MacTaggart,” “Taggart,” “Priestman,” “Priestly,” etc.

After the great body of the Irish people had been made completely illiterate, being unable to read or write either Gaelic or English, their names were curiously mutilated by the newly arrived proprietors to whom the confiscated estates of the Irish Landed Gentry had been conveyed, or by the agents of those proprietors, who had no other guide to write them in English than the owner’s pronunciation of his name, which was entered accordingly on the new landlord’s rent-roll; and the same old Irish sirname was therefore differently spelled in different localities: thus accounting for the several anglicised forms of many of the old Irish sirnames. Hence, it was not strange that the fine old Irish name of Toirdhealbhach Mac Giolla Mochoda, rolling smoothly from its owner’s tongue, should have been recorded on the new landlord’s rent-roll as “Turlogh MacGillicuddy,” or even as “Terence Mac Elligott.”[1] The broad Gaelic guttural sound has thus almost disappeared from Gaelic sirnames as pronounced to-day. The true Irish form of “O’Connor” is, for instance, O’Conchobhair, meaning “the descendant of the war-hound of help” or “the helping warrior;” while O’Gallchobhair is the correct Irish of “O’Gallagher.” In Scotland, the name Callaghan is rendered “Colquhoun” and “Colhoun;” while Farrar has become “Farquhar.”

Again, for Gaelic names have been substituted names of Hebrew, or classical origin. These changes were due to ecclesiastical or classical pedantry in the days when the Gaelic language was becoming unfashionable. Thus, Alastair (meaning “swan-bearer”) has become “Alexander;” Ainé has been transformed into “Hannah,” “Anna,” and even “Anastatia;” Conn has become “Constantine,” and “Cornelius;” Diarmaid (or Dermot) has been translated into “Jeremiah,” and “Jeremy;” and Donoch is transformed into “Donat,” “Dionysius,” and “Denis.” Lorcan gives place to the Latin “Laurence;” and Sighile or Sheela (meaning “fairy like”) appears in the forms of “Celia,” “Julia,” “Judy,” and “Sibby.” Tadg, another ancient Irish name, has become “Thaddeus,” and “Teddy;” while Una has become “Winney,” and even the Saxon “Winifred.”

In Appendix No. II. of this Vol. we give the pedigrees of the pre-Milesian Irish people; and an additional interesting paper on the Round Towers of Ireland. In this Vol. also is given a General Index of its contents, as well as a General Index of Vol. I.; in both of which Indexes are brought to view the more important historic names and events mentioned in this Edition.

We have (see p. v., ante,) Dedicated this Volume to the Benevolent American Citizen, Mr. George William Childs, of Philadelphia, the eminent Publisher, and worthy Proprietor of the Public Ledger Newspaper, of that City: as a poor Tribute of our great respect for him as one of Ireland’s Best Friends, and one who has ever been pre-eminently ready with his Purse, and in the columns of his influential Journal, to befriend the Irish race; and of our lasting Gratitude for his spontaneous solicitude respecting a suitable provision for ourself in our old age, in testimony of his high and disinterested appreciation of our humble labours in the field of Irish Archaeology, of which our Irish Pedigrees and Irish Landed Gentry when Cromwell came to Ireland are the modest outcome. May God bless him!

But this is only one of the many instances in which, in his own quiet way, “without letting his left hand know what his right hand doeth,” Mr. Childs dispenses the great wealth which he has so worthily amassed. Having, himself, steadily ascended from the lowest to the topmost round of the social ladder and attained that exalted position, it would seem that the purpose nearest to his heart is, by example, by counsel, by generous and well-timed help, to place others as near as may be beside him. To do good, because it is good; to be humane, compassionate, and charitable now while opportunity is within his reach, is the pole-star of his being. And whatever advantages health, wealth, talents, accomplishments, and social influence afford him are consecrated with rare singleness of eye to the welfare of his fellow-men regardless of their creed, their politics, or their nationality. Of him Mr. S. C. Hall well says:

When, several years ago, Mr. Hall desired to place a simple monument over the unmarked grave of Leigh Hunt, in Kensal Green, Mr. Childs proposed to pay the whole cost of its erection; but, while the generosity of the offer was thankfully acknowledged, a liberal subscription only was accepted from him for that purpose. Mr. Childs was also the largest subscriber to the fund for placing in the church at Bronham, England, a window in memory of the immortal Irish bard, Thomas Moore. And the stained-glass window erected by Mr. Childs in Westminster Abbey, in commemoration of the eminent English poets, George Herbert and William Cowper, is another instance of his princely benevolence.

Appreciative notices of Mr. Childs have appeared in Lippincott’s Biographical Dictionary, in Johnson’s Encyclopedia, in the Biographie des Contemporains, in Men of the Times, in various brochures in different languages, and in Newspapers without number.

In the Printer’s Circular of June 1879, we read:

To quote the language of the late (American) Chief Justice Ellis Lewis:

Voltaire, we are told, declined to edit an edition of the works of Racine, for the reason that his annotations of those works would consist simply of elaborate commendation. Our readers may, perhaps, think that for a similar reason the portraiture which we have here drawn of the Good Mr. Childs should have been withheld. To those, however, who do not know him the language we employ may be regarded as undiscerning eulogy; but to those who know him it is but faint praise.

For information bearing on some of the genealogies contained in this Volume we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. C. J. Hubbard, United States, America; William J. Simpson, Esq., Belfast; Thomas O’Gorman, Esq., Sandymount, Dublin; and to the eminent Authorities mentioned in our “references,” p. xx. And to Sir Charles Cameron, Dublin, Author of History of the Irish Royal College of Surgeons; Rev. A. W. C. Hallen, M. A., Editor of Northern Notes and Queries (Edinburgh); Alfred Webb, Esq., Dublin, Author of Compendium of Irish Biography; Rev. David C. A.

Agnew, of Edinburgh; Author of Protestant Exiles from France, in the Reign of Louis XIV.; Samuel Smiles, Esq., London, Author of The Huguenots: Their Settlements, Churches, and Industries England and Ireland; Rev. George Hill, Belfast, Author of The Plantation of Ulster, we have to express our acknowledgments for the permission which each of these worthy Authors has kindly given us to utilize in any way we thought proper any information contained in their respective valuable Works.

As our Irish Pedigrees and Irish Landed Gentry when Cromwell came to Ireland subserve no sect or party, we hopefully confide them to the Irish and Anglo-Irish race of every class and creed all over the world.

JOHN O’HART.

Ringsend School, Ringsend,

Dublin, November, 1888.

Notes

[1] Mac Elligott: See pp. 141 and 146 of Vol. I., for the “MacElligott” and “MacGillicuddy” pedigrees, respectively.