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MacDonough Family Genealogy
The following is a brief history of the MacDonough Family (Bangor, ME), who came originally from Co. Sligo, Ireland. The principal branches of this family include the following names: MacDONOUGH, O'ROURKE, BURNS, (Mc)MULLEN, McKECHNIE, KEIR, and WILSON. It appears that they all came originally from Ireland. More details on the history of the MacDonough family in Ireland can be found on the hyperlink (MacDonough: Sligo) shown below.
COUNTY OF ORIGIN. Our branch of the MacDonough Family (spelled locally MacDonagh) originated in Co. Sligo, Ireland. Official documents note my great grandfather and his brother were born to Peter (a farmer) and Ann or Anna McDonough (her maiden name.) In addition, both Frank and James Edward, faithful to Irish custom, named their first-born sons after their father. (One of these sons was my grandfather, Peter John.) Pursuing the family line through the Co. Sligo Heritage & Genealogy Society, I discovered only one Peter-Ann combination (including a maiden name confirmation) in the right time-frame in County Sligo. I have since turned up no other consistent candidate. This Peter is on record as the father of two sons: Michael (b. 1841) and Patrick (b. 1845). He lived in the area of Dromard & Skreen, southwest of Sligo town, in the foothills of the Ox Mountains. Other corroborative evidence is a death record of a Peter in 1864 (at 64 years of age), living in Carroward in Skreen, this reported by his son, Patrick. (It may be of significance that James Edward named his second son Francis Patrick.) Griffith’s VALUATION (taxable land records) also notes a Peter living in Carroward in 1858, a tenant farmer on land owned by Sir Malby Crofton.
FAMILY PAST IN SLIGO. Although the Crofton name had considerable historic significance in Sligo history, the name of MacDonagh had no less in pre-Cromwellian days. Terence O’Rourke shows the armorial bearings of "Sligo Chiefs," listing McDonough and O’Rorke among the six names. They originally descended from the Clan MacDermot, being descendants of Donogh, son of Tomultach McDermot. Thus they were called Mac (son of) Donogh. The MacDermots, in turn, descended from the Clan Mulrony. The MacDonoughs became the Lords of Tirerrill and Corran in southeastern Co. Sligo and built a number of castles. John C. McTernan, one of the outstanding contemporary Sligo historians, notes that Oliver Cromwell confiscated land in County Sligo for his troops in lieu of wages: "About 1653, large tracts of the best land in Co. Sligo …were divided amongst the disbanded Cromwellian officers and soldiers…. Within a few years the old Sligo families, the O’Connors, O’Harts, O’Dowds, O’Garas, McDonaghs and some of the O’Haras were dispossessed. Their places were taken by the settlers, the Coopers, Woods, Percevals, Wynnes, Irwins, Ormsbys, Croftons and Gores whose descendants have figured prominently in the affairs of the county." (Mary O'Dowd, POWER, POLITICS, & LAND ...)
The MacDonough family was not an insignificant one in medieval Sligo. According to James C. McDonough (d. 1960), the family historian, the line is supposed to go back to Federach "the Just," King of Ireland about 75 A.D. Dermot MacDermot in THE MACDERMOTS OF MOYLURG traces the line, through the MacDermots, back to Eochaidh Mugmedon in the 4th century and beyond him to the 2nd century A.D. To use the Gaelic names, rather than the anglicized version I have noted above, the family name comes from Donnchadh (or Donagh), who died in 1232. He was the son of Tomaltach-na-cairge, the King of Moylurg. Thereafter, the sons of Donagh bore the name MacDonagh, meaning "son of Donagh." By the 13th century they had split off from the MacDermots and formed a separate sept or clan. Dermot MacDermot notes, "The heads of all these families continued to be recorded as chiefs in the province [of Connacht] until the last pages of Gaelic history were written in the 17th century." Edward MacLysaght gives many details about some of our more noteworthy forebears, including Counselor Terrence MacDonogh (d. 1713), a famous and respected lawyer (the only Catholic lawyer admitted to the bar in his time) and a member of King James’ Irish Parliament in 1689. They built or supported a number of convents, and provided quite a few members of the clergy: priests, monks, abbots, and probably a couple of bishops. Ballymote Abbey was built by the sept of MacDonaghs for the Third Order Franciscans, as well as Ballindoon Abbey on Lough Arrow. MacDonaghs have been buried on the grounds of the latter right into our own times. The famous Sligo Abbey was rebuilt by the Dominican Friar Bryan MacDonagh in 1416.
Then there was the "other side" of the MacDonoughs. Dermot MacDermot notes, "The MacDonaghs were a warlike sept. They fought against O’Rourkes, O’Donnells, O’Conors and the MacDermots of Moylurg, and most of all amongst themselves." Terrence O’Rorke speaks of "the characteristic courage of the McDonoghs." This is reflected in the motto on their coat of arms: "Virtutis gloria merces" ("Glory is the Reward of Valor"). A noteworthy exemplar of this motto was the Brian MacDonogh alluded to above, who, O’Rorke reports, against the Cromwellians, having been wounded in several places, "fought furiously, moving about on his knees, after the lower limbs were broken with the pikes" until he was finally dispatched with cold steel. Other "fighters" descended from the Sligo MacDonoughs (it is said, not without dissent) include Commodore Thomas MacDonough, the hero of the Battle of Lake Champlain.
The clan, in its latter days, was more preoccupied with battling starvation than foreign enemies. Perhaps ahead of his time was the McDonagh reported as having sold to the O’Donnells in 1522 one of the most precious manuscripts in the county (THE BOOK OF BALLYMOTE - see link below) for "140 milch cows"; and in 1598 they sold the castle of Ballymote to the English for 300 pounds and more "milch cows." So maybe the mortgage payments were getting to be more than they could handle! Effectively subdued by Cromwell in the 1640s, the clan was even more vulnerable to the ravages of the Great Potato Famine, which reached its height around 1847. Some of them joined the thousands of Irishmen who sailed or steamed out of the port of Sligo, with destinations in America, for those who could afford it, or to Glasgow and other English-speaking ports, for those who could not. Their goal was to escape starvation and get to the Promised Land, although many died on the "coffin ships."
EMIGRATION. One who escaped was James Edward McDonough, our great uncle, who went to the U.S. and ended up in Maine; I’m still not sure why he chose Maine. There were MacDonoughs already living in the area, one of them producing a son who became a sea captain in Winterport. There was another family in Hampden, and several in the Bangor area. It appears that these descended from a Thomas McDonough who came from Co. Cork, and thus not of our family. There were certainly other emigrants from Co. Sligo in the Bangor area. Moreover, a number of Irish immigrants landed in St. John, N.B., and came into Maine from there. Uncle Jim arrived, according to family tradition, via a ship bearing a brother (the same tradition says it was Michael), who died at sea, and perhaps his future wife, Ellen Leonard, who was headed for Louisiana. It might be noted that Leonard is a very common name in Sligo and is found in the Carroward area. Perhaps this is what brought them together. Moreover, the famous John McDonough who championed the cause of the slaves in Louisiana was a name perhaps known to her, maybe even a relative, although, born in Baltimore, he seems to have come from Co. Fermanagh stock.
IN SCOTLAND. Frank, the father of Peter J. and our great-grandfather, eventually joined his daughter, Bridget (Delia), and his younger brother James in Maine around 1890. However, in 1856 he appears in Glasgow, where he married Catherine Mullin (daughter of Dennis, a farmer, and Ann McKechnie) on April 28. In the 1871 census she is said to come from Co. Sligo. However, there is a vague family tradition that "someone" hailed from Co. Down. In fact, the name Dennis (Mc)Mullin appears there, as do McKechnies (a rare Scottish name in Ireland). No record of her parents' marriage is found in either county. Her husband Frank lived at 76 Main Street in Hutchesontown, a district of Glasgow. At the same address there lived a Brian McDonough according to the 1851 census; might this be a brother or relative? Frank set to work in the iron mills as a puddler and raised ten children. He was obviously not afraid to change addresses. He moved to England, and between 1860 and 1866 I was able to locate the family at four different addresses in Yorkshire and Durham. In 1862 they had moved to Davison’s Yard in Middlesbrough near Newcastle, which is the address on my grandfather's birth certificate. They were back in Scotland by 1871, for in that year they appear in the Bothwell census residing at Mossend. In 1881 they are on the same street, although in a different house. Grandpa’s wife, "Annie" (O’)Rourke also appears in the 1881 census, in the same town, with her father, stepmother, and siblings. Six years after this, Peter and Annie were married . They had two children there: Mary and Frank. Again, note the honoring of the Irish custom to name the first son after his grandfather. By 1890, Peter's father, uncle, and sister, Delia, were already in Maine. In 1890-91, Peter, having apparently saved enough money to pursue "the American Dream," felt the urge to leave Scotland with wife, and two chldren and set sail from Liverpool for the U.S. His mother, brother James, and sister Ann also came over around this time to join Frank, James, and Delia. James appears in 1865 in the Bangor, ME, records at his marriage. He also appears in the directory of that city, certainly by 1873, as a "hostler." By the 1888 directory, he is shown as a partner in Dugan, McDonough & Co., a boarding stable. He and Peter raised a considerable progeny, as did his nephew James, who married Hattie Bradley in 1918 and has numerous descendants in New York.
THE O’ROURKE FAMILY. It appears that they immigrated into Scotland from Co. Fermanagh. Jim Boswell, a cousin in the U.K., has family records which indicate that Patrick (a farmer/miner) was from Shanmullagh, Co. Fermanagh (apparently in Cleenish parish) and that Philip and, supposedly, his brother John were born in Knocknashangan (Devenish) in Co. Fermanagh. Philip, who was the godparent of John and Isabella's first child, followed in his father's footsteps and became a coal miner, settling in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, SCT. I believe that his father and mother (Mary Burns) both came to SCT and that they died there. Mary outlived her husband and remarried to Bernard Short in 1854. She died in 1866, and her death record notes that her parents were John Burns and Mary Burns (m.s.). There are numerous descendants of Patrick and Mary now living in the Coatbridge area and elsewhere. The census of 1881 finds John in Mossend, together with his second wife, Bridget Dinnan (or Dinyan, according to one birth record) and children, including Ann, my grandmother, as noted above. It says only that he came from "Ireland," where he was born c. 1841. This family sometimes gave its name as Rourke; but it also appears as O'Rourke, the original form. The O’Rourke clan was one of the great clans or septs of Ireland and generally hailed from Breffny, which included Leitrim and Cavan counties, and parts of Sligo and Fermanagh. In fact, Edward MacLysaght maintains, "In medieval times the O’Rourkes were one of the great princely families of Ireland, being Lords of Breffny and providing more than one King of Connacht in the period of the Norman Invasion." The name (one of the earliest Irish family names) derived from the common ancestor, Ruarc, who was a 9th-century King of Breffny. The family provided more than one churchman too, including Bishop Thaddeus O’Rourke (d. 1734), the bishop of Killala (the diocese of Peter McDonough). It also even provided a potentially canonized saint, Fr. Cornelius (Conn) O’Rourke, who was executed by the English for maintaining fidelity to the Roman Catholic Church in 1579. The O’Rourkes also built the famous Abbey of Creevelea and, of course, several castles. They likewise patronized the arts.
John O’Rourke, my great-grandfather, was more mundane. He was a bricklayer, a semi-skilled job carried on by his son and grandson in Ohio. This skill is unusual in our family and probably gave John a little advantage over his contemporary fellow-immigrants. As his father was a farmer/coal miner, his choice of jobs may have led to his meeting his future bride, Isabella Wilson, the daughter of William John Wilson, a "bricklayer's laborer" in 1863-64. Her line has given me more trouble than all the others combined. She appears with her widowed father, aunt (Jane Hayes), and cousin (Ann McAloly) in the 1861 census of Calton, Glasgow. William John is listed as 35, born in Ireland, and a "labourer," as well as a handicapped (blind in one eye), and a "Chelsea pensioner." This was the clue that he had served in the British army. Further research revealed that he had enlisted in January, 1847, when almost 18, in the 36th Foot Regiment. He was assigned to the Ionian Islands and the West Indies, returning to England in 1857, when he was discharged and pensioned for serious eye problems. He settled in Glasgow and remarried to Catherine Morrison in 1863. His marriage record identifies him as a widower and his parents as David Wilson (farmer) and Mary McAleely. Isabella, also born in Ireland, was 15 on the 1861 census and already a "power loom weaver," an occupation noted on her marriage certificate to John O'Rourke in 1864. Her mother is listed as Margaret Keir Wilson, deceased. She herself died at age 24 in 1871. Mysteriously, her mother’s name on her death certificate is given as Jane Johnston Wilson. I believe that Isabella's survivors were mistaken. Recently I discovered a marriage bond issued in the Irish diocese of Down/Dromore/Connor in 1844 between a William John Wilson and a Margaret Carr (a variation of Keir), the names of her parents and thus, possibly, their bond. This diocese would include the town of Ballywillin, near Portrush, in Co. Antrim, where William was born in February, 1829, per the army record. The death of his aunt, Jane Hayes in 1864 shows she was the sister of his mother, and the daughter of William McAllely and Janet Dunn, our fourth great grandparents, all inhabitants, one presumes, of Co. Antrim. The name "McAleely" (several variants) is very rare in Ireland, but I have fround it, as well as Kerr (variant of Carr), in the region of Ballywillin, Antrim. William died in 1883 in Stirlingshire. His second wife, Catherine Morrison, outlived him at length, dying in 1901 at 79 years old.
Book of Ballymote
Conn O'Rourke
Creevelea Abbey
O'Rourke WWW pages
MacDonoughs of Sligo
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