| There are a considerable number of families called English belonging to Munster and Ulster, which are provinces in Ireland. The name English is located mainly in counties Tipperary and Limerick. Of English extraction going back to the twelfth century, but are as completely hibernicized as their Norman comrades of the invasion - and may well have been themselves of Norman origin. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the name is found as L'Englys, L'Angleys, Lenglais etc. There were landowners so called in counties Dublin and Louth and also in several counties of Munster. References to the name in Leinster continue to be fairly frequent up to the middle of the seventeenth century: mainly scanty information such as the plundering in 1428 of the convent of Fore, of which William Englonde was prior; the outlawry of James English, Co. Wicklow, 1450; Elizabethan pardons; or the appointment of John Englishe alias Ynglysshe as Abbot of Bective at the date of the suppression of the monastery in 1536. By then they were much more closely identified with Munster, as they are today. There was already an Englishtown in Co. Limerick, also called Ballyengland, showing that it was formed from the surname. England is a rare synonym of English. The majority of the many references to the name in the sixteenth century Fiants are to people living in Munster. The Carew calendar names English of Cloghemenecode and English of Rahine among the principal gentlemen of Co. Tipperary in 1600. In medieval times the name appeared less frequently in Ulster, as English. There English is a mistranslation of the Irish surname Mac an Gallóglaigh (son of the galloglass) is also properly anglicized as MacGallogly or Gallogly, also as Ingoldsby and Golightly. This is a sept of Co. Donegal origin. The three forms English, lngoldsby and Gallogly are all to be found today in Co. Monaghan. In 1458 a MacGillogly appeared as one of the older residents of Balmartin, Co. Meath. Distinguished people of the name English or England: Father William English (d. 1778), a Limerick man associated with Co. Cork, was one of the best of the eighteenth century Gaelic poets. Rev. Thomas England P.P. (1790-1847), the biographer, and his brother Dr. John England (1786-1842), one of America's most illustrious bishops, were born in Cork; while Richard England (1750-1812) and his son Sir Richard England, both notable soldiers, were Claremen. The Inglis family, two of whom were Protestant bishops of Nova Scotia, and one, Sir John Inglis, the defender of Lucknow, were from Co. Donegal. |
| The History of the Surname English |
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| Your Name You got it from your father. 'Twas the best he had to give. And right gladly he bestowed it. It's yours, the while you live. You may lose the watch he gave you -- and another you may claim. But remember, when your tempted, to be careful of his name. It was fair the day you got it, and a worthy name to bear. When he took it from his father, there was no dishonor there; Through the years he proudly wore it, to his father he was true, And that name was clean and spotless when he passed it on to you. Oh, there is much that he has given that he values not at all. He has watched you break your playthings in the days when you were small. You have lost the knife he gave you and you've scattered many a game. But you'll never hurt your father if you're carefull with his name. It is yours to wear forever, yours to wear the while you live. Yours, perhaps, some distant morning, to another boy to give. And you'll smile as did your father -- with a smile that all can share--- If a clean name and a good name you are giving him to wear. by: Edgar A. Guest |
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