This name is found in all the provinces
of Ireland but is common only in Ulster, where it is
strongest in counties Down, Derry and Antrim. It is
also well known in Dublin. It has been recorded in
Ireland since early medieval times but its current
prevalence in Ulster probably stems from post-Plantation
Scottish settlers.
The name is Norman, originally le
Mareschal. It stems from the Old French mareschal,
meaning a 'farrier'.) Although the position of
marshall became one of great dignity, it is though that,
in Scotland at least, the majority of Marshalls derive
their name from the more humble occupational name.
A particular concentration of the name was noted north of
Newry in Co. Down in the late nineteenth century.
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.
