This name is rare in Ireland outside
Ulster, where it is most common in counties Tyrone and
Antrim. It is an English toponymic and can derive
from several places called Rolleston or Rowlston in
Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire
or Yorkshire. All these placenames were originally
spelt Rolvestun, meaning 'Rolf's farm'.
Most in Ulster
descend from the Staffordshire Rollestons, R. Rollestone
of that shire being one of the English undertakers of the
Plantation. He was granted 1000 acres in Teemore in
the barony of Oneilland West in Co. Armagh. The
name is also found as Rollstone and Rowlston.
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.
