Genelach Dáil Cuinn Project™ Forum

Since I can't help but to constantly uncover evidence shattering my latest working theory and making my head explode, a recent thread about the Campbell McAilins/McCailins/McCaileans made me examine the presence of other surnames around my "medieval farming cluster" of McClanes. I'd known the name McCallen was present when unearthing fiants, but because my working theory was the surname "MacCeallachain" where the "CH" was muted, I thought for sure McCallen could be McCalaghen anglicized. But I also (within my cluster of confirmed relatives in the Ranaghan-Drumcree area) found McLeon and Kelleon and had just figured them for mis-transcriptions of McLean and McKellean, but thinking about the McCallion variant of this said family really made me analyze other variants of this Campbell branch, including Campbell itself. What is really tenuous though is the original given-name of the people who anglicized McCailin, McAilin, McCailean, McAilean, Killen, Kellen, Callen, Allen, etc. As you can see once again, the scholars couldn't really figure it out...

Mac AILEÁIN—IV—M'Elean, M'Elane, M'Ilean, M'Ellen, M'Kilan, MacAlean, MacClean, MacLean, MacKellan, MacKellen, MacKillen, etc.; 'son of Aileán'; a variant of Mac Ailín, which see; a scattered surname in Ulster and Connacht. The following entry in the Fiants of Elizabeth throws some light on its origin: A.D. 1602—Pardon to Elin M'Elane, kern, (in Co. Armagh). The family is probably an offshoot of the MacDonnells or Campbells. See also Mac Coileáin and Mac Coilín.

Mac AILÍN—IV—M'Aline, M'Alline, MacAllion, MacAllen, MacAllon, MacEllin, MacEllen, etc.; 'son of Ailín'; the name of a branch of the Campbells of Scotland, some of whom were brought over by the O'Donnells as fighting-men, about the middle of the 16th century, and settled in Tirconnell. This surname easily got confused with Mac Cailín, which see.

Mac CAILÍN—IV—M'Calline, MacCallion, MacCallan, MacCallen, [Campbell]; 'son of Cailín' (the Scottish Colin); also Mac Coilín, which see. The family of fighting-men brought over from Scotland by the O'Donnells of Tirconnell in the 15th century, were sometimes called Mac Cailín, sometimes Mac Ailín (which see), and it is impossible to say which form is correct.

Mac COILÍN—IV—M'Colline, M'Culline, M'Kellyn, MacCullion, MacCullen, MacKillen, MacKellen, MacQuillin, MacQuillian, MacQuillion, MacQuillan, Collen, Cullin, Cullian, Cullen, Quillen, Quillan, Collins, &c.; 'son of Coilín'; a variant of Mac Cailín, which see. This form of the surname was very common in Tyrconnell, and in Down and Antrim, at the end of the 16th century.
The "war-like branch of Clann Caimbeul" that went by these many variants however, may have been referencing the Campbell eponym Cailean Caimbeul, Lord of Loch Awe and it being specifically a Scottish variant, may have been pronounced differently in different areas of Ireland.

CAILEAN, genitive -ein, Colin; a Scottish-Gaelic form of the Irish Coileán, which see; more of less peculiar to the Campbell family. Latin — Colinus.

COILEÁN, genitive -áin, Colin; also written Cuileán; an old Irish personal name meaning 'whelp,' the same as the Scottish Cailean or Colin among the Campbells; rather rare and in later times almost peculiar to the family of O'Dempsey. Latin — Culanus, Culenus.

COILÍN, genitive — id. (the same), Colin; a variant of Coileán, which see. Coilín was also in use among Anglo-Irish families as a 'pet' form of Nicol or Nicholas. Latin — Colinus.

I recently read "The Laggan Redshanks" by Barry McCain of the Ulster Heritage DNA project to get some more insight into the movement of this family, and although he specifically concentrated on the Donegal kindreds serving in Ulster, he stated that thousands of these "Redshanks" came into Lough Foyle c.1545-1550 from the Clan Campbell, as the Lord of Loch Awe's daughter married the O'Domhnaill and she herself became a massive force to reckon with within the Laggan area, these redshanks (Campbell, Crawford, McAllen, McAlane) making a permanent settlement. The other thing that interested me was that the redshanks were not so much a rigid military kindred as the galloglass, and that the ones who tired of a soldier's life quickly turned to farming or a trade (the Teige M'Kelane "husbandman in Balruntagh Co. Meath" pardoned 1558 comes to mind)

Some interesting things to note about the area where all these families overlapped, was that by 1550 it was all under control of different branches of the Nugents, who were originally Barons of Delvin but slowly became proprietors up to Lough Sheelin on the Cavan border and into the barony of Granard in Longford; they also were granted to abbey and manor lands of Fore after Henry VIII's dissolution of the Abbeys.
-The western-most McClean tenancy mapped, is Coolamber in the parish of Streete. In the Down Survey the proprietor is a James Nugent. Although this parish has other landowners (O'Farrell, Murtagh), the Campbells in the parish are also tenants of Nugent
-The townland Fearann Caillin (land of Caillin), in the parish of Taghmon which adjoins the barony of Fore, is also under James Nugent, in fact the only townland he retains in Taghmon. There are Allens here through Griffiths Valuation.
-The three "MacKalen" fiants, who may even be the same man pardoned three different times, noted both as a kern and as a gentleman farmer is indicative of a Redshank mercenary and supports the MacCailin/MacCaileans being this far south within a decade of the bulk of them arriving in Ulster.
-What I'm not sure of is: did redshanks absorb native Irish like the gallowglass did?
-The circa-1550 timeframe for an influx of these surnames into this area, largely under control of the Lords of Delvin (Nugent) would jive with the massive amounts of Redshanks into Ireland from these families. The bulk of the lands they appear on in Westmeath/Longford would in circa1550 had the same family as proprietors.

In 1542, the Master of the Ordnance John Travers wrote "where as a company of Irishe Scottes otherwise called Redshankes daily cometh into the Northe partes of Ireland and purchaseth castels and piles upon the seecoste there so as it is thought that there be at this present above the nombre of 2 or 3 thousande of them within this Realme..."
In April 1571, Lord Justice FitzWilliam wrote to the Privy Council: "The Scots in the North build, manure the ground, and settle, as they should never be removed." This definitely seems to me that they were people more intent of being part of Ireland permanently as opposed to the ebb and flow during the fighting seasons.
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Chris,

Now if you can only get the right men to test...

Hopefully some potential testers will pop up via public trees or matches on A5902 members dashboards. This really seems like either multiple families became indistinguishable or one family looks like several. I also found that Mac Gilla Eain and Mac Cailin/MacAilin have all mostly the same variants, noted to also be Mac AILEAIN.
Jeez this is really bringing me full-circle Although I do think those names in Drumgoon could be MacCuilleann which was a Monaghan family.

Oh, the joys of Anglicization and regional dialects...

Well I think I finally figured it out, and it's not MacCailean/MacAilin, MacGilleain, or MacCealla(ch)ain. In fact it's a name I had totally discounted. Caolain (dim. of "Slender lad"), but Woulfe writes it popularly as:

Ó CAOLÁIN -- O'Kayllain, O'Kellan, O'Keallain, Keelan, Kellan, Keelin; A Meath surname. Which on the face of it looks correct, as the most numerous anglicization, KEELAN, is northern Meath near the Monaghan & Louth borders. But also, O'Ceilachain, a sept in Oriel, also anglicized "Keelan", so it's tenous to tell who these people really are on the Meath/Monaghan border.

However, doing a search of this given name on logainm.ie revealed four placenames within in "Greater Breifne" aka the pre-Norman borders of Breifne. One referenced a "Mac" prefixed surname, and another fell dead into the middle of my surname cluster between Fore, Co. Westmeath and Athboy, Co. Meath. It turns out that the "Mc Kealane" variants in southeastern Cavan in the 1641 dispositions were all around Crossmakeelan (Crois Mhic Caoláin), especially Ralaghan, which adjoins Crossmakeelan. Something else interesting is that the Mac Gothraith cluster is very close to here and a M'Gorrie is listed in the dispositions. ("Maa mc Callane and Patrick m'Gorrie, of Ralaghane"). So now I now there was a branch of O'Caolain with a Mac prefix in Breifne, OR the entire family had been conflated with O'Ceilichan and never had a O-prefix to begin with.
Digging up some information on Kilkeelan Co. Meath (Coill Chaoláin: Chaolain's wood), which is just two townlands away from where I find Teige M'Kelane pardoned in 1558), I found a hit in the Gormanstown Register concerning a property dispute in 1418

Memorandum of the varyans at was betwene Sir Symon Londyr, lorde of Athboy & Crwyce, lorde of Rathmore as towching the bog of Balmartene. The merys was tryet by one Wyllam O'Cwyllane of Kylchewlane ( plus 5 others named on this jury decided the issue), men of fyw score yere hold & more sware & deposyd that ye Bogg was Londrys. This was tret in ye tyme of kyng Henry the fifte, the fowrth yere of his Regn.

This is one of the the most promising things I've found so far. William Ó Chaoláin of Coill Chaoláin seems to have been a longterm tenant or freeholder on ancestral land bearing his surname. Whether the name here was originally O'Chaoláin and turned to a Mac prefix, or this said William just happened to describe himself in Irish as a descendant of Chaoláin to make connection with the land he was on isn't of much consequence.
It seems there absolutely was a MacCaoláin surname in southeastern Breifne and most or all of these people that didn't anglicize "Keelan" were conflated with the surname MacGilleEain who were in the Carrigallen-Killeshandra area, and probably overlapped in their migrations, it becoming impossible to tell them apart.

Again, great work, Chris. And if I may, the original Gaelic surname was probably Mac Cáeláin, from a diminutive of Cáel, meaning " thin, slender, narrow "; and Cáel is pronounced as "keel".

Thanks David! much appreciate the info

There was a glitch with the Forum that caused the loss of some recent posts from Monday, 2022-May-16 to Thursday, 2022-May-19. Apologies for any inconvenience.

I had actually JUST read your reply on that thread on my way to work tuesday but didn't get to say thanks your explanation of "archena" makes perfect sense, thank you once again for the knowledge David

Chris,

My pleasure, although you and I are probably the only 2 people who know what those posts were.

In terms of including images in posts from now on, it will be best to use something like DropBox or a similar service that lets you upload image files and gives you a direct URL link to them. Then you can use the BBCode to include them in your post.

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If you don't have access to any such service, then email me the image files and I will upload them to a special directory on the DCG website and send you the links back by email. This is a last resort kind of thing, though.