Errors of Edmund Spenser: Irish Surnames

Ulster Archaeological Society

Errors of Edmund Spenser: Irish SurnamesAuthor(s): John O'DonovanSource: Ulster Journal of Archaeology, First Series, Vol. 6 (1858), pp. 135-144Published by: Ulster Archaeological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20608864 .

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thousand acres, and hath made a piece of a Bawne, which is five feet high, and hath been so for a long time. He bath made no estates to his tenants, and all of them do plow after the Irish manner."

In the Co. of A-rmagh, the English aud Scottish unidertakers built castles and Bawnes of the usual materials end dimensions; but the only native Irishmen Henry facShane O'Neale, who had one thousand acres, built nothing;-"Ihe being lately dead, his proportio-n came unto the possession of Sir

Toby Caul-ield."

In the Co. Londonderry, the undertakers built great castles, houses, and Bawnes, but the native Irish were allowed no proportion.

It would appea from Piynar's Survey of the preceding Counties in Ulster, that the few ILish who were granted estates at " the plantation," wished to adhere to theix old system of building and hus bandry. They were no douibt very poor and totally unable to vie with the new underta;kers, witi the exception of Sir Mulmurry MacSwiney Doe, who had a pension of seven shillings a day allowed him for life. The native Irish built very Bite Bawns of lime and stone in other parts of Irelancd, long before this period; one of the finest pecimens of which, now remaining almost perfect, is the castle of IBallintober, the ancient seat of O'Conor Don, in the Co. of Roscommon.

What! ". ploughing by the tail" aetually means, none of our writers have as yet cleared up.

The Irish yoked six horses to the plough, and hence the team is called seisreacA; buat I hold it im possible that they could drag the plough through the land, if yoked to their tails only. I am aware that the opposite opinion has been maintained, but the subject has not received that degree of his torice and scientific investigation which it deserves. Jomr O'DoKovArN.

ERRORS OE EDMIKND SPENSER:-11ISH SURNAMES,

This distinguished poet was born in London, about the year 1630, and became a student of the

university of Cambridge, where he made a great progress in his studies, but ie never attainaed to

any high collegiate degree or profession. He came to Ireland in the year 1585, as secretary to

Arthur Lord Grey, Baron of Wilton, Lord Deputy of Ireland; and in 1588, he obtained a grant of

tliree thousand acres of land around leColnan, in the couinty of Cork, on which he settled with his

family, but he was expelleld fom thence by the Irish rebels. Ile died verypoor in Londonin I599,

aud;l was, according to his own desire, buried there in St. Peter's Chiunch, near Chaucer, at the ex

pense of Robert, Earl of Essex. lie was considered the prince of the English poets of his time.

Ilis principal poetical work was his Faery Queen, wllich he wrote from his retreat " on Mula's

banks,"7 ad which he had presented to the Earl of Ormonc, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.



136

Ie also wrote in prose, A View of the State of Ireland, written Diaogue-wise, between Eudoxus and Irenmeus. This work lay in MS., in Archbishop Ussher's Library, and was printed and pub lished by Sir James Ware, in folio, Dublin, 1633, and dedicated to Lord Wentworth, then Lord

Deputy of Ireland. The scope and intention of this work, was to forward the reformation of the abuses and evil cus

toms of Ireland, and to reduce them to the standard of English civilitie." Some subjects in this work are very ably handled and well written, particularly those which relate to politics, such as the reduction of the disaffected " wilde Irishrie" to due obedience to the Crown of England; but in the history and antiquities of the country he is often mistaken, and seems rather to have indulged the fancy and licence of a poet, than the judgment and research of a historian.

A few of his more glaring and barefaced mistakes will be pointed out in the present short paper. We shall perhaps make his other errors the subject of future articles.

Haxris, in his Edition of Ware's Writers, p. 327, states that Spenser promised to write a par

ticular treatise on the antiquities of Ireland, buLt that it is probable he never performed the task, being prevented by death. Ben Johnson, in his Letter to Drummond of Hawthornden, states that he died " for lack of bread," but this is scarcely credible; for he had a pension of ?60 per annum,

which was, at that period, more than the highest literary pension of the present day. His deseen dants were in possession of Kilcolman when Ware edited his View of the State>of treland.

Spenser has attempted to shew that many distinguished families having Irish surnames in his time, and accounted as of Irish origin, were really of English descent. In his View of the State of Ire

land, written in the shape of a dialogue between Eudoxs and Ireenous, he writes as follows of the

Byrnes, Tooles, and Kavanaghs of Leinster:

Eud,oxus.-" There now remaineth the East parts towards England, which I would be glad to understand, from whence you do think them peopled."

Irenas.-" Marry, I thiinke of the Brittaines themselves; of which though there be little footing now remaining, by reason that the Saxons afterwards, and lhitly the English, driving out the in

habitants thereof, did possesse and people it themselves. Yet amongst the Tooles, the Birns or ]lrins, the Cavanaghs, and other nations in Leinster, there is some memory of the Britans remay ning. As the Tooles are called of the old British word Tot, that is, a hill country; the Brins of

the British word Brin, that is, woods; and the Cavenaghs of the word Caune, that is, strong; so that, in these three people, the very denonmination of the old Britons doe still remain."-[[Dub. Edit. p. 74.]

" The people of the Biines and Tooles (as before I showed unto you in my conjecture) descended

from the ancient Brittains, which first inhabited all those easterne parts of Ireland, as their namnes

doe betoken; for Brin, in the Brittish language, signifieth woody, and Toole hilly, which names it seems they tooke of the countryes which they inhabited, which is all very mountainous and woody." -[Dub. Ed. p. 184, 185.]

Again, speaking of the English families who changed their namaes, he says:

Eudox.-" But can you count us any of this kind ?"



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_rne.-" I cannot but by report of the Irish themselves, who report that the Mae-maheor, in the nort;h, wore anciently E nglish, to wit, desce:nded from the Fitz-Ursulas,n which was a noble family in England, -and that tho samie appeareth by the signification of their Irish ntanes: likewise that the Mlac-swynes, nowY in U1ster, were anciently of the Teres in England, b-ut that they themnselves, for hatred, "so disguoised their names."

_uidox-_" Could they ever conceive any suchi dislike of their own natuiral counfryes, as that they would be ashamed of their name, and byte at the dagge from which they suckedcl life?"

Them. -" 1 Bwoteo well there slhould be none; but proud hearts do oftentimes (like wanton colts) kickce at tleir mnothers; as we read Alcibiades end Themistocles did, who, being banished out of Athens, fled unto the kings of Asia, and there stirred thie up to warre against their country, in. which wanres tleJy themselves were chiefhains. So they say did these Mlac-swines and Mac-mahons, or rather Veresand Fitz-Ursulaes, for plivate despight, trne themselves against England. For at suel time as Robert Yere, Earl of Oxford, was in the Barons' wvarres against Kind,, Richard the Second, through the malice of the Pecres, baeished the realmie and proscribed, he, with his kinsman iitzk-Ursnla, fled into Ireland; whlere beinrg prosecuted, and afterwards in England ptut to de.afth, his

kIinsman there remaininig beiind in Ireland, rebelled, and conspiring with the Irish, did quite cast off botlh their Eng-lish name and alleagianec, since whlich time they have so remained still, anid have since1 beCn cotuInted linomre Irish. The very like is also reported of the 3fac-swinos, Mac-mahones, and Mac-shehies of Monster, how they likewise were aneicietly English, and old followers to thle Earl of Desmond, untill the maigne of King Edward thc F[ourth: at which time the Earl of IDes mond t-hat then was, called Thomas, being through false suLibornation (as they say) of the Queene for some o lon:e by her against him conceived, brought to his death at Tredagh most unjustly, not

withstanding that he was a very good a-nd sounLd sutbject to the King: Thereupon all his ksemen of the Geraldines, which then was a mighty family in MoLinster, in revenge for that huge wrong, rose into atmes against the King, and utterly renounced and forsooke all obedience to the Crowne of Englaud, to wh,om the said Mae-Swines, Mac-Sholhies and _Mac-Mafahones, being then servants and followers, did the like, and have ever sithence so continued. And with them (they say) all the people of Mounster went out, and many other of them, which were meere nglishi, thenceforth joyned th the Irish against the King, and termed themselves very Irish, taking on them Irish habits and custoomes, whlichl could never since be cleane wypeda ay buLt the contagion hath re

m,ained still amongst their posterityos. Of which sort they say be most of the surnames wllich end in a2,

b aS Ilernan, Shinan, Muingan, &c.; the which now account themselves natural Irish. Other great houses there bee of the English in Ireland, which tlhorough licentious conversing with the Irish, or matyiflg or fostering with tiem, or lack of meete muatue, or other such unhappy occasions, have degendredi from their ancient dignmities,' and are now growne as Iizsh as O'hanlan's

* Campion also gives this absurd story in his Bistorie of

Ireland, written in the year 1571. In his list of Engjiah gentlemen of longest continuance in Ulster, he mentions **

the Savages, Jordans, Pitz-Symonds, Chamberlains, Bussel?, Bensons, Audleyes, Whites; and Fitz-Ursulyes, now degenerate, and called in Irish, MacMahon, the Beare's Sonn/V?[i?p, ?0 ? Which End in An. Spenser here mistakes what the Irish had told him, viz,, that all those surnames ending in an among the Irish- are of-English origin, as Suttun,

Hug?n, JDalatun? Bar?n, Masun; i e.? Sutton, lluggon, Dalton, Baron, Mason.

0 The great houses he had in view were, according to some M!3. copies of his work, those of l>e Burgo of the Co. of Mayo, the Birminghams of Atheriry and Garbury,

and the Do Courceys of ICinsale : some MS. copies also mention the great Mortimer, but this was MacNamara ofThomond.

? Degendred from their ancient dignities?The writer of a tract on the 0'Madden family, preserved in thy

Book of Hy-many, asserts, that the descendants of the English settlers in Ireland had, before the arriva\ of Bruce in 1315, improved very much by their connection with the Irish- He savs that "they had exchanged their savageness for a fine mind, their surliness for good man ners, their stubbornness for sweet mildness, and their pervei'seness for hospitality-5'?[See Tribes and Customs qfHy-Many^lZ^I e On the idea entertained in Ireland, concerning the gentility of the different members of a tribe in the reign



1,33

breech, as the proverb there is."-[Db. Ed. p. 107 to 110.] Again, in p. 23, he calls the country of the Mac-Namaras, lying between the river Fergus and the river Shannon, by the name of " Mor timer's land," by which appellation it is also called on some old maps of Munster, made in the reign of James I.

" In the reign of King Edward the Fourth, things remained yet in the same state that they were after the late breaking out of the Irish, which I spake of; and that noble Prince began to cast an eye unto Ireland, ad to mninde the reformatiou of things there runne amisse: for he sent over his brother, the worthy Duke of Clarence, who, having maried the heire of the Earle of Ulster, and by her having l the Earledome of Ulster, .and much in Heath and in Mounster, very carefully went about the redressing of all those late evills; and though he could not beate out the Irish againe, by reason of his short continuance, yet hee did shut them up within those narrow comers and glennes under the mountaines foote, in which they lurked, and so kept them from breaking any farther, by building strong holdes upon every border, and fortifying all passages. Amongst the which hee re paired the castle of Clare in Thomond, of which countrey he had the inheritance, and of Mor timer's [i.e., Mac-Namara's] lands adjoining, which is now (by the Irish) called XiiUaloe. But the times of that good King growing also troublesome, did lett [i.e., prevent] the thorough reformation of all things. And thereunto soone after was added another fatall mischiefe, which wrought a greater calamity then all the former. For the said Duke of Clarence, then Lord Lieutenant of Ire land, was, by practice of evill persons about the King, his brother, called thence away: and soone after, by sinister means, was clean made away. Presently after whose death, all the North revolt

ing, did set up Oneale for their Captaine, being before but of small power and regard: and there arose in that part of Thomond one of the O'3riens called Mlurragh-en-Ranagh, that is Morrice of the Ferne, or waste wilde places, who gathering unto him all the reliques of the discontented Irish, eftsoones surprised the sad castle of Clare, burnt and spoyled all the English there dwelling, and in short space posseswd al that countrey beyond the river Shannon, and neere adjoining."-[Dubl.

Ed. pp. 23, 24.3

The assertions and conjectures of the poet Spenser, have been already partinly exposed by Dr. Keating, in his preface to his History of Ireland, [IHaliday's Edition, p. xxxix,] and by Roderic O'Flaherty, who has devoted a whole chapter of his Oyygia [part III., c. 77] to prove that Spenser, though a distinguished poet, can have no claim to credit as a historian. The celebrity of his name, however, has imposed upon some learned foreign writers such as Thierry and others, and it becomes our duty here to point out his errors on this subject at fal length. And first, as to his historical errors.

First, with respect to Robert De Yere, Earl of Oxford, and his cousin Fitz-lJrsula, there is not the slightest evidence to show that either of them ever was in Ireland. Robert de Vere was, ap

of Elizabeth, Spenser writes as follows :?" You must know that all the Irish almost boast themselves to be genttemen, no less than the Welsh ; for if he can derive himself from the head of any sept, (as most of them can, they are so expert by their Bardes,) then nee holdeth himself a gentleman, and thereupon scorneth to tcorke or use any hard labour, which he saith is the life of a pea eant or churle."?[Dubl. Ed. pp. 227, 228. ] " Those of the lowest rank among a great Irish tribe, traced and retained the whole line of their descent with

the same care which in other nations was peculiar to the rich and great ; for it was from his own genealogy each man of the tribe, poor as well as rich, held the charter of his civil state, his right of property in the cantred in which he was born, the soil of which was oc cupied by one family or clan, and in which no one law fully possessed any portion of the soil if he was not of the same race with the chief."?[See the Miscellany of the Celtic Society, p. 144, and Cambria: Descriptio, cc i., and xvii.



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pointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, on the lst of September, 1385,; bitt he ac ver came over, [see Harris's Waxe, vol. II., p. 106,] nor was he pat to death, but died at Louvain, li 1392. And secondly, with respect to Sponsor's asserion, that Edward the Fourth, King of England, sent his

brother, the Dike of Clarence, over to Irelad, where he maaried the Earl of Ulster's daulghter, and being Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was called thenec away, and soon after plit to death; it involves such a tissue of errors, as drew from the honest O'Flaherty the severest censure.-" FnHe im prce senti sufflcinmt ad omnem fidem historicam Spencero denegandum.a-[ Ogygia, part III., o. 77.]

The brother of Edward IV, (George, Duke of Clarence,) was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ire land in 1478; he never came over, however, but discharged that office by different deputies, fti he

was sentenced by his brother to be put to death. ZEe was not the Duke of Clarence who married the heiress of the Earl of Ulster; for the Eaxldon of Ulster had passed into the royal family of

Englanld, five generations earlier; namely, in the time of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, who was Lord Lieutentmt of Ireland in 1361, and who maned the Lady Elizabeth De Burgo, the sole heiress of

William De Burgo, ird Earl of Ulster, So much for Spenser's knowledge of English history! Ead he studied the works of the truly leaxned Camden more closely, he would never have allen into such egregious mistakes.

"En igitur poeti in domestiois peritiae I En politici in ]iistoris pueritiame!"

Let us next consider his Irish traditionis and etymological argulents, which have been received as conclusive by Sir Charles Coote, and even by the ingenious Thierry. The families which he at tempts to prove to be of British Origin, though then bearing Irish surnames, are the following

I. The O'Byr-nes of Leinster. 2. The O'Tooles of Leinster.

3. The Cavanaghs of Leinster.

4. The MacMahons of Ulster. 5. The MacMahons of Munster. 6. The MacSwynes of Ulster. 7. The MacSwynes of Mumster. 8. The MacSheehies of Munster. 9. The MaceNmaras of Thomond.

Now, with respect to the two suamnes placed first in this list, it will bo remembered that Spenser conclndes that, as the word Brin, in the British languLage, signifleth woody, and Tol hily, the O'Byrnes and the O'Tooles were of Welsh origin, and derived their names from the woods and hills of the present county of Wicklow. But it muList be here remarked, that this conjecture is not even ingenious, because Irish family naames are not derived from localities, and even granting, for

the sake of argument, that they were, it would not hold good in the two instances under considera-.



140

tion, tecause the O'Byrnes and O'TuolSs wvere not originally seated almnong the woods ttaid hills (f

t{he present county of Wieldlov, buit in tho plains of tho county of Kildare; awlld their real n1aLmes.

aoe not B3rin ancd Toole, uIs Spo0nl,so>r tioght, but thLe oneo is p)lop(eplyr O'l3tin-e., dsesendatnt of

Bran, a aixm's name, signifying a rayon; and l th othe O (? 'Tnathai, i.. (isCe(OlVhlt of Tuathul, a

manl's naeic, Signifying pYnICeeCl or lordly, tmdi havBing nio miore rolationship to ti. Welsh (1vi, at hill,

thcan it has with tho English " tool." Wo know, m1oreover, 'frOm tieo authIllict Iish a1n1nL tllals, 'w ho

these two progenitors were; and 'Sponlsor mi.glht have learned the atrnie from11 muanIy of the Irish

poets whom hli consulted, if h1is obj ect, had bc1 l een. 1the ilnestig-ation of trothl , an.d niot political'ii -nentsW.

Bran, thie progenitor of the ifamily of O' Brtin, wast killgr of 1,C3einter. loe Wa1s depi Wed Of 1118 OeY eiglt by Sitrie, son of Amlttf, king of the TAmos of Dublin, ito the year 1017; after which he, lhit

Ireland, and retired intto the Irishi monastery at; Cologne, whore hlo died atit andvaced agein tiil

year 1062. I-lis :fatler, Maclhnora, who was also king of Leinster, was slitn in thei battle of Cloio tad?, of wvlich hle waLs the chief iustigf tor.-Taathal, tlhe prognitor of thw,e filllfly;o (:)T Ltllathil, now 0 oole, was also kling of Lonsto, toand dlied in the year 956. This s,on v as slain at (itars tI in 1014, fighting on thleo side of thoe Dimes.

3. To prove that the surnamo (Javanugh is of W(lsh origin, ho a,;ssertsH thitr (Clmre) in Wllhl1l si-Ili

fies strong in Engl ish. This mxiay be trtue; lint whlat h1as theo signiideatio-ni of the. We,8ls1 word Iecatue

to cdo with the cognomen oaom/dnae4, whiclh was first applied to Il)ombiinal (1)mnneli, the bastardl

son 0f Dermot Mae iurrough, king of Leinster), whlo waRs sltii ia 1176, tand Who hl d litiselll Cre

Ceived this cognomen from his hEwing been fostered by tho Coarb of St. Claolhan or Cavies, atl (.11l

Chaeminain, now' Kilcaivan, near Corey, m the county of Wexford. This Don ell beetsoaio th

mnost powerfil of thle Mae XMuroughes of Linster, an.d attempted to become Ioing of tfiat provino,e ;

'buit his sister Aofio, or Eva, the wife of the Earl Strongbow, ha?ving proeed his illegititnacy, lie never was able to attain to that dignity. [See lfEibrn/a 1]xpuga4q, lib. L, e . 2, 10, 17; atnd

A49nd of /als .obur .JThstfers At.D. 1175, not-e]] Theo doscendatss of this Dlonnell alone toolk the

natime of Kavanaghi, ardi tlhe n1anio is n1ot older in this falllily thitnT llhis tihiac; nor Was the natm%e

M9;ae Mulrrourlh wh-1olly rejected till titter thle reigngl. ot Qiteen Elizabeth.

'li'e 0'Caueiahains of i-Fiaehraheli, in Northl Connaughlit, who now illnnorsetly anIghic.4ise ltheir nameio Kavanagh, in imitationi. of thle iert respectable, royal fisdly of Ltsinsstcr, (iti0 'thaflitt inante

froin Cacmnhan (at mnLil's ntinice, sini'f ing comiely or liunalsoLtao, i.e, near/h ,oa/[email protected] dila/a,-is'diny,)

wYho was Soin of Coninnshach, tand4 g'randson of' Dotincaffii, kigo (lOF nog ha U teYealr 08. [S1e

Onesalowies, 4`., of LE-ildaelerork, pp. 10)9, 110, 188.] hecea(,) ill 1, ci avt iser tt caeit/han ais reihanat/an/ is in no way cogntLeo withl the WeSlshW r Wod1 Con, sXtrog; tIloll hi)t 11Spne' s tLrgUlllat is, nlot borno

out by histeo, or by anadogy of any kind. 4. The Maee MeLons of Ulster tao said, On the report of soine iainalmed Ilrih liersons, to be thie

doseendts of the itz-lTrsula of Englad To corroborte thi', Spenser ys that Ma M on is



141

synonymuous with Fitz-'Ursula, i.e., son of the rear; but granting that the names are synonymous -for we find that Mathghamnlan, a man's name, is explained nUns in a MIS. Glossary in Trinity

Colloge, Dulblin, [III. 2, 13.]-it does not thence follow that the one is derived from the other; as we have stronger reasons to urge than etymological conjecture to prove the utter futility of this assumption: first, that the Fitz-lJrsulas never settled in Ireand; andl secondly7 that we have the teotimony of the anthentic Irish pedigrees and annals to prove that the MNIae Aahons of Ulster had

been settled in the territory of Oirghialla, or Oriel, and had borne the name of Mao Mathghamhna,

or Mao Mahons (Gens MatthieoruLim, as Colgan calls them in Latin) long before the E:nglish inva sion. They derive the name of Mac Afathghamhna, i.e., Titz-Alahon, or Fitz-Eatthew, fronm

Mathglhalain or MaLhon (son of Laidhgnen, son of Ccarbhall), lord of Earney, who was slain at Clones in the ,yetr 1022. [Ad7na. Ult.] This Mahon nmay have been, in cha-racter, a bear, as his name denotes, but lie certainly was not the same Ursula, or bear, frcom whom the ]r'itz-Ursulas of England cleived their name adl ldescent [See Shirley's Account of Parney, p. 148; and ?Annals of thle Four ifasters, A.D. 1022.] It may not be out of place here to remark, that Dr. lianmer, who was Spenlser's contemporary, introduces Sir John Do Com'ey so early as the year 1178 (a long time, cortainily, bpfcre 1385) as fighting against the rebel Mae Mahon in Farney; but in this Dr. Eanmner is nearly as incorrect as Spenser, for Sir John De Courey fought no battle against Mae

Malhon. B3otli stories were invented to turm them to account against the Mae Alahons of Fanner and Oriol, who were very troublesom-e to the government in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; the one to hold them up as objects of hatred to the Irish and English people, as being descendled from the

murderer of St. Tlhomas 'a Beeket; anid the othcr to show that tlhey were " irreclaiumable savages, the

readiest of all the Irish to kieko ancl spurne at English government." [See Alnnals of M7ze Fou(r Masters, AD. 1178, noto d, anid Sir Charles Coote's Statistical Aecount of fonalteian.1

5. The1 AlCe Alahons of Mlunster.-That these are not Fitz-Ursulas, but a family of the highest Irislh de esnt, canl be proved from, their pedigree anld conisectutive history, which is as certain as that of any royal or noble family in EuLrope. They derive their name and descent froom Matihghamhain, or Maion, son of 3Alitough O'Brien, monarch of Irelald, who died in the year 1119; who was son

of TLurlouLgh O'Brien, king of Ireland, who died in 1086; wvho was the son of Teige, the only son

of Brian 13orunha who left issue. This fact Spenser might harVe learned from many of the Irish

baxds or " shaacehis" of Thionond. After the battle of Kinsale in 1602, the great Earl of Tho

mond, thlrouLgh whose aid that battle was won by the forces of Queen Elizabeth, thought proper to

put on record, for the use of posterity, the doscents of the chief families of Munster. This task he

executed by the aicd of the most learned of the genealogists of Thon cld, and the work is new pre served in a folio MS. at Lambeth. [C'arose Collection, No. 599.] It contains a pedigree of Mae

Malahn, of Corca-vaskil, in Tlhomoncl, whicl is traced to the stock of tkh Earl's own pedigree; Mac Mahelno descending from Murtougl O'Brien, Iking of Ireland, commonly called " the sonior,"

VoL. Vy.



142'

who died in 1119, as already stated, aind thle Ea irl of Tlhomond froin Dormot O'Brien, a youiv ger brother of the said Murtongh. Tlhis M1S. affordIs th1e lhighlest cvid'len0ee0 to sh1ow w11t the tradlitioln in Ireland of the descont of the Maoc Mahons of Tihomoenid really was in Sponsor's t-ime.

6. Tlhe Mae Swynes or Mac Sweenys of lIster are, ticeording to Spensor, of the Englishi famtiit ly

of Sweyne; biat wlhere is the proof of this ? Tlhe Irish form of the nanto is Mao Sbiulno, and

accordiiig to tle pudigree of the flmiily, tley deseen4 from Suibhlnc (or Suiyva(), soni of Rtonan, son of Flatherty O'Neill, king of hileach, wlho died in the yeatr 1036. Trlis Dlutily emigratedl to Seetland in the eleventh cenitury; but thliy returnedl to Irelandil)e about thle middle of thoe th irte-enth, and becamo hereditay leaders of "1gallowglasses" to thie O'Conuors of CoInnaghtlt, s wellI as to

O'Donnell, and severaI other Irish chlieftainis. Thlie first niotiec of this foullily to be Sound in the

Irish annals occurs in the year 1267.

7. Tho Mae Swynes of M unsteor.-Tliese are ani off-set from the Mao Swynes, or Mtac S woenys, of

Mlster, who became hereditary gtllowiglasses to thle Earl of D)eseond, and to othier powoerful families of Munster in t1e fiftecntlh centiury.

8. The Mac Shleehlys of Munister arer of the sameo race as the Aflc Donnells of Scotland, binig descended from Sitheach1, son of Eachdoin, son of Alisto, son of Domhnall, who was the commion

ancestor of tio Mao Donnells of Sotlanid(l. They and the Mae Siveenys would appear to have

oneigrated from Scot1land at- the5 1s0ai period; bati no niotico of the I ao thelO1hsy cocus hin the Iritsh

anns previouLsly to e year 1367, when Williain Mae hlieehy tiad thie two AMae Sweenys are ro forred to as gallowglass leaders i Connaught. At tlhe yeu 1397, John Ma Shoehy is aneationed in conocetion with Marueus Mae Donnell and Dugald hk soni, as a leltder of g Ilowgii sea Ri Lower

Connaught. A branchll of tlemra settled in Mumster ia thi year 1420, where thoy wore hereditary loaders of gallowglasso s to the Earl of Desmond. Their ch-wef rc'sideonoo was the ea stle of Lisna mIli (or Woodferd), situated in thi )anrish of Cloonagh, batrony of Lowuer Conniolle, and1 coulnty of Linoe rilch. From vatrioius notices of these families i o the Irisl anls, and tot their pcdb 'ecs given in Irishl If SS., it would typear th1at thel1A Mao Sweonys, Mfao Shoehys, ti2an se Mareo Done lls Gail 0oglogh, Mrwho wero the c11hf leaders of O'Neill's gollowgIlassos, emigrated together fromI Sotlad

abotut tle; year 1250, at thl ilnvitatitoln of O'Neill, O"'i)olnehll, and O.Conor; and thatt their deseindants, afterwards SeAtlilng ill vTaIrIioS patWtS Of Je al,l rrixa tithet rtaition of tias emtigration with theom

d it is quite evidenlt thaltt it wast froml a ga report>)o of thiis tradition that Spvaser drow his atecouint- of thllir bebil'g onginally froniaglioul.

9. Thei Mac Namaras of T'1homond.-llow this la1lily ca1meo to ho eosierod f ortimlers by e3

English literati in Ireland, in ia thie reign ot a C zabohe tt Jamiies, who hattvo maipped fte terxitosT

l1ing between tlho Forgus and) thio Shantnon as "M timRoA er's CountTy," I

it is difiecult to determine;

for i.t appears fromn the Crfdthroin 2JbrdtLaab1matq1m, ortWr o }urlo n i t th a a

the ieac Nniian s, whlo boe thio tribe-naI e of Ui-C na ad 01 -Choile =, were tho most



143

powerful sept in Thomond in aiding the race of Turlough O'Brien to drive De Clare (son of the Ei arl of Gloucester) out of Thomond. They were originaly seated in the cantred of the Fi-Caisin, the extent of which is preserved in the modemn ecclesiastical division called the Deanery of

Ogashin; but, after the defeat and slaughter of the De Clares in 1318, the family of Mac Namar got possession of nearly the entire of that part of the county of Clare lying to the east of the river

Bow the idea originated that thiEs territory had belonged to the fimily of Maortimer, it is difficult to comprehend. Sir Thomas De Glare, son of the Earl of Gloucester, obtained possession of all that tract of laud extending from Limerick to Ath-solus, in the teiitorty of Tradry, in which lie erected the castle of Bunratty, in the year 1277; but his family was expelled from this territory in the ycar 1318, and there is no evidence to show that the family of Mortimer cver had any pretension to property in Thomond, even by fiction of law; so that it is very MUCh to be suspected that this notion owes its origin to the mere similarity between the names IMortimer and Mae Namara: but we know now that there exists no more relationship between them than between Muircheaxtaech and Mortiner, as proper names of men. The fatily name liac Namara is properly Mac Con-mara, i.e., descendant of Gu-rmara [literally Dog of the Sea], wvho flouxished about 1060, for his grandfather

Mleanma, clhief of the Daloassian tribe of fliCaisin, died in the year 1014, and his grandson Cum =a Mac Gonmara was slain in 1135 Buta the first of the family of Mortimer who came to Ireland was Sir Roger Mortimer, afterwards Earl of March, who was appointed Lord Justice of Ireland in the year 1317, and again in 1319. In 1380 EEdward, or Edmund Mortimer, Elarl of

March adnclof Ulster, was Lord Lietienant of lrelmnd, and he died in 1381. In 1395, JTul 4, Roger Mortimor, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, is styled in HIarris's List of the Chief Governors of Ireland, "I Earl of March and Ulster, and Lord of Wigmore, Trim, Glare, and GConnauglit." IHe was slain

at Cill-losnada, nolw Keliston, in the county of Carlow, in 1398, in a battle with O'Byrne, O'Kolan, and their adherents. fHow he came to be called Lord of Clare, or what that title exactly meant, is not easy to understand; but, if I be allowed to indulge in conjecture, I woulA venture to offer the

opinion that it was merely grounded on the assumption that, as Clare was a pm t of Connauglht and

as he was the heir of Ezabeoth de Burgo, the gTeat heiress of Ulster qnd Gonnaught, he was the

lord of Glare aso-that is, of the town of Clare (for ithre was no county of Clare till 1585),-and of

that paxt of tho teoTitory of Triadry, which had been given in 1277 by Brian Roe O'Brien to Sir

Thomas De Clare. But how Sir Roger Mortimer could have been considered the heir of Sir Thomas De Clare, nothing remains to clear up. It is more than probable that this is afiction of the writers

of the reign of Elizabeth, and that he never was styled Lord of Glare in his own life-time. Claims to obsolete titles in Ireland were set up by E ngish families at various periods. In the reign of

Edward III., Thomas De Carew set up a claim, as heir of Fitz-Stephen, to all his ancient estates

in the kingdom of Cork; but this claim was rejected, as it was fotmd that Fitz-Stephen was a bas



144

tard, and died without heir of his body. However, the claim was again set up in 1568 by Sir

Peter Carew, who bro-ught his cause before the Lords of the Council, and came to Ireland fuly

resolved to prosecute the recovery of this ancient estate. Sir Peter laid claim to the barony of Idrone, in the county of Carlow, then in possession of the Kavanaghs, and to half the kingdom of Cork. This claim was allowed by the government, and Sir Peter was granted a yearly rent out of

the lands supposed to have belonged to his ancestor, Fitz-Stephen. He died in 1575, appointing as his heir, by his will, Peter Carew, junior, and, in default of issue in him, mentioning, as his

next heirs, George Carew (afterwards President of Minster and Earl Totness), and fifteen others in England, whom he appoints in remainder. But Sir Peter, junior, was killed by the O'Byrnes, at Glenmalure, in 1580, leaving no isse; and as the government evidently saw the illegal nature of the claim, the further prosecution of it ended in nothing. [See Annals of Ireland, by Thady Dowling, A.-). 1366, 1575; and Cox's ifibernia Anglcana, A.D. 1.575.]

Finaly, Spenser's assertion that he was informed by certain Irishmen that most of the surnames which end in an were of English origin, as Herean, Shinan, Mungan, &c., is a most glaring error; for the termination an long is unquestionably Irish, and it is most likely that Spenser did not exactly understand what these Irishmen had told him. It is much more probable that what they told him was, that all those surnames which ended in un (pronounced oon), among " the meere Iih," were of English origin, for this would be the fact; as Hugoon, Suttoon, Dalatoon, Dantoon, Baroon, Masoon, &c. This holds good not only in English surnames hibermicized, but also in all English words of this termination taken into Irish, such as naisiun, nation; patrun, patron; butun, bwrdn, reasi&n.

I have now done with Spenser's fiction about Irish surames. The delusion will, it is hoped, stop here; and will never again be supported by a great historian like Thierry, or by any writer

worth naming. Joni O'DooxovA.



Documents

Errors of Edmund Spenser: Irish Surnames