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The Early *********
Long before they lived in the hinterlands of America, the ******** family lived in another backwood, the remote region of England called Northumberland. Ours is an old family. The earliest mention of ********* is when two knights, Harold and Athel ******** of the Green Chase, Northumberland, were given manor and land by King Alfred the Great [reigned 870-899 AD] for "heroic gallantry in the Norfolk Campaign against the Danes". The English at this time referred to all Vikings as Danes, regardless of their country of origin. The manor and grounds given to the ********* was in Balsal Heath, Warwickshire.
Military events are one of the most commonly recorded during these early
times, and evidently the ********* lived there without seeing much
action until Henry V's reign [1413-22]. At this time, the French were ruled
by an insane king, and seeing the shambles France was falling into, Henry
V did not resist invading. During the attack of the walled city of Harfleur,
The Knight of the Royal Guard, "Guilliaume ********," who, while leading
a storming party to the breach at Harfleur, seeing his Standard Bearer
killed and the Standard lost, plucked up a young Oak plant, called upon
his troops to follow a ******** and that plant to victory. Whence his soldiers
cheered forward to the breach [in the wall] which was gallantly captured,
but within the bastion sorrowfully found their brave commander dying of
his wounds, with his last words begging his men to bury him on the Fortress
Glacis with the sprig of Oak, which had served for their standard, to be
planted over his grave; which command the soldiers piously obeyed. On the
return of King Henry at the close of the campaign, his Majesty seeing the
young oak flourishing over the green mound, where lay the valorous ********,
ordered the mound to be carefully turfed and fenced, and a slab built thereon
bearing the name ********.
The Irish *********, as well as the ********* of Edgebastion, Warwickshire,
were then entitled by King Henry V to have their Coat of Arms be topped
by a green mound and plant of Oak as "a glorious memorial" to Guilliaume
********.
The ********* continued to live at Warwickshire "in opulence and high respect" up to the time of Queen Elizabeth [reigned 1558-1603], when "...they were granted estates near the city of Limerick, Ireland, thereon to establish an Armory and Fabricque for small arms and Culverin Cannon" . Here the ******** family split into three branches: those remaining in Warwickshire, those living in Ireland, and another branch which moved to Scotland.
It should be noted that the ********* were dissenters, meaning they did not belong to the Church of England. This is one of the reasons the Queen moved them to Ireland. The Crown was following two policies at once, of trying to colonize Catholic Ireland with protestants, and of booting dissenting protestants out of England. According to O'Lauhlin's Irish Family Names, the area of Ireland settled by the ******** family is Armagh-Down, Union of Newry, District of Poyntzpass, although there were certainly other areas.
Once removed from England, the ********* were soon finding reason to emigrate again. As soon the Colonists in Ireland (Ulstermen) began to be successful enough to compete with the Home Isle, Parliament began to be very unsympathetic with them. Between 1655 and 1699 Parliament passed a series of acts prohibiting the Ulstermen from exporting their products to England and Scotland. Then, at the same time it tithed them for support of the Church of England, the government put these Presbyterians under severe disabilities. The Act of 1704 imposed final indignities: Presbyterians were forbidden to hold any civil or military office, keep schools, and their clergymen were forbidden to celebrate marriages. These actions taught many of the Ulstermen a deep dislike for the English Government.
Things turned from bad to worse. King James II came to the throne, a
Catholic despot [1685-88]. He was so intolerable to the Protestant English,
that Parliament finally invited a foreign prince, William of Orange, to
invade England. There was no battle, for no one stood by the king. James
II fled to Catholic France. In 1690, however, with the aid of Louis XIV
of France, James attempted to take back the crown. The Catholic Irish sided
with them, and the worst of the war was in Ireland. Although King William
and the English won the war, the Irish sacked and burned the *********'
hall and armory works." Being greatly reduced in fortune, the ********
family began imigrating to America.
