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Ewing is quite a numerous surname in Ireland; in 1866 there
were 27 births registered for it. Including a few for the synonyms Ewings and
Ewin, while in 1890 the number was 24, in both cases almost entirely in Ulster.
In that province it has since the seventeenth century been especially associated
with the counties of Donegal, Derry, Tyrone and Antrim. Many Ewing wills are
recorded for the dioceses comprising these northern areas. The "census" of 1659
is one of the earliest Irish documents to include the name - in it Alexander
Ewing appears as one of the leading inhabitants of Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. A
few years later it appears frequently in the Hearth Money Rolls for that
county. It is probable that Dublin Ewings, such as the notable printing and
publishing family of the mid-eighteenth century, came to the capital from the
north.
The origin of the name is interesting. According to Reaney it
goes back to the Greek eugenes (well-born), cognate with the Gaelic Irish
eoghan. Mac GiollaDomhnaigh, too, states that Ewing, also found as
MacEwing, is a form of the well known Scottish name MacEwen, gaelice Mac
Eoghain, i.e. our Irish MacKeown.
GLOSSARY
| Clan |
From the Gaelic clann which means literally
'children'. |
| Mac- |
From the Gaelic mac, meaning 'son' |
| O' |
From the Gaelic Ó, meaning 'grandson',
'grandchild' or 'descendant'; Ní is the femine form of Ó, meaning 'daughter' or
'descendant' |
| Plantation (Ulster) |
The redistribution of escheated lands after the
defeat of the Ulster Gaelic lords and the 'Flight of the Earls' in 1607. Only
counties Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh and Cavan were actually
'planted', portions of land there being distributed to English and Scottish
families on their lands and for the building of bawns. |
| Sept |
A family group of shared ancestry living in the
same locality |
| Undertakers |
Powerful English or Scottish landowners who
undertook the plantation of British settlers on the lands they were granted. |
| Gaelic |
This word in Ireland has no relation to
Scotland. As a noun it is used to denote the Irish language, as an adjective
to denote native Irish as opposed to Norman or English origin. |
| Erenagh |
From the Irish Gaelic airchinneach, meaning
'hereditary steward of church lands'. A family would hold the ecclesiastical
office and the right to the church or monastery lands, the incumbent at any one
time being the erenagh. |
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