A Short History of the Devlin Name
The
name Devlin is of Irish and Scottish origin.
It is the Anglicized form of the Gaelic
O' Dobh(a)ilein (meaning the Descendant of Dobhailean, a personal name of uncertain origin,
probably from a diminutive of dobhail (unlucky) (unfortunate) with a common
translation from the Gaelic being
"Descendant of the loud, or boisterous one". Variations are O'Doibhlin and
O'Devlin.
In 1211 The Annals of Loch Ce'
record the death of O'Devlin, Bishop of Kells, in Meath. Since there was at that time a Sept of
O'Devlin among the Desians in Sligo, which, if not extinct, is probably not now
represented by any bearing the Anglicized form of the surname assumed by the
O'Devlins of Tyrone. According to The
Surnames of Ireland by Edward MacLysaght, "There was also a distinct
Sept in Co. Sligo, but their name has strangely often become Dolan."1
The first unmistakable reference to the
O'Devlins of Tyrone occurs in the mid-thirteenth century. After the Battle of Downpatrick (1260), MacNamee,
Hereditary Poet to O'Neil, composed a poem called the Lament for
O'Neil, in which he mourns the death of his king and of the many nobles of
his race who were slain with him. Among
the latter was The O'Devlin, Chief of Muintirevlin, of whom the poet sings:
"Alas deep grief overspread the country
To anticipate the death of O'Devlin
Gofraidh, our grief unto the Judgement Day
Generous of his banquet (?) was the youth"2
That Gofraidh was the Chief of the People
of Devlin is shown by the position of his surname, which precedes the Christian
name, since according to the Irish custom O'Devlin, like O'Neil, was in itself
a title. From 1260 to 1495, the next
year when we hear of the O'Devlins of Tyrone, is two hundred and thirty-five
years. It was in that year that both
The Annals of the Four Masters and The Annals of Ulster record the
death of Tiernan O'Devlin.
Nothing more is said of him, so that the only inference that we can draw
is that he was at least of sufficient importance to make his death worthy of
record. In 1532, in both The Annals
of the Four Masters and The Annals of Ulster it is recorded that
Felim the Devlinite, or Devlinian (in Irish Doibhlinech), son of Art,
son of Conn O'Neill, took part in a raid on the Maguires, a Clan Colla Sept
that, since their rise to be the chief family of Fermanagh in the latter part
of the thirteenth century, had been vassals of the O'Donnells. The Annals of Loch Ce', which were compiled at the end of the
sixteenth century for Mac Dermott, Chief of Moylurg, in Connaught,
record the death of Domnal Oge O'Devlin in 1584, forty-four years after the
last entry in The Annals of Ulster.
Oge means "junior", so that this may very well have been the
son of Domnall O'Devlin who was hanged by the Maguires in 1540. Since the Maguires were adherents of the
O'Donnells, and the O'Devlins were followers of the O'Neills, they were engaged
in the centuries of intermittent warfare between their respective leaders. During this period the O'Devlins seem to
have retained, if not increased, their standing, since even as late as 1608,
when the clan system was abolished, we find them classed by the English as one
of the principal septs of the Clan Owen.
Later a Patrick O'Develin is listed as one
of the leading figures of the rebel movement in the Portadown area in 1641. The
name Devlin does not appear in the "census" taken in 1659, since the
returns for County Tyrone are missing from that report. It should also be noted
that a smaller sept of this name was established in Sligo, holding lands in the
barony of Corran there. One of the members, Gillananaev O'Devlin, was granted
the coveted position of standard bearer to the chief of the O'Connors. He was
slain in battle in 1316. Descendants of this family have since dispersed and
this name is no longer found in any numbers in that county. Another notable
bearer of this name was Anne Devlin (1778-1851). the faithful servant of Robert
Emmet, who would not betray him to the authorities despite imprisonment and
torture.
As mentioned previously, the Devlins were
followers of the O'Neills. As a matter
of fact the Devlins, The MacCawells and the Mac Murroughs were the true kerns
of the O'Neils. A kern was a standard
bearer of sorts, but even more so a trusted agent of the leading family who was
responsible for seizing prisoners and keeping them in custody, among other duties.
It is not know whether the O'Devlins had a
coat of arms during the clan days. At
the time of his pardon by the English in 1601, The O'Devlin and others of his
Sept are described as gentlemen, a term ordinarily confined to those having a
coat of arms, at least in England. If
they did have arms at that period it is unlikely that they were the same now
used by their descendants, which apparently date from the nineteenth
century. The coat of arms consists of a
representation of the Cross of Ardboe on a blue field surrounded by three stars
in a triangular pattern. Under the
shield is the Devlin motto "Crux Mea Stella". The actual Cross of Ardboe is eighteen feet
high and stands on a double-graduated pedestal. On the front center is a representation of the crucifixion,
accompanied by the other panels containing elaborately carved Biblical
scenes, One of the upper circular
quarter-bands of the crossed arms is broken; otherwise the cross is in good
condition. This cross probably inspired
the Devlin motto - Crux mea stella.
In fact the O'Devlins may very well have erected this cross, since such
crosses were constructed about the time that they, or their immediate
ancestors, first occupied Muintirevlin, and the O'Devlins would have been in
those days the leading Sept in that vicinity, and probably the principal
patrons of the abbey and afterwards of the church, at Ardboe.
The following is an edited excerpt from
the book Muintirevlin Remembers, The History of the People Around the Old
Cross, a publication of Muintirevlin Historical Society researched and
edited by Pat Grimes:
'Muintirevlin is the old name for the
lands on the western shores of Lough Neagh, south of the Ballinderry
river. In Irish it was Muintir Doibhlin
- the people of Devlin, or the land
where the O'Devlins lived.
It seems fairly certain that at some time
in the middle of the 11th century, the ancestors of the O Devlins first
occupied the territory later known as Muintirevlin. There genealogical line has been traced back to the famous king,
Niall of the Nine Hostages, who ruled from Aileach in the Inishowen
peninsula. The ancestors of the O
Devlins in earlier times occupied Drumleene, which is just north of Lifford.
With the expansion of the O'Neill clan
from its original territory in Inishowen, new lands were occupied throughout
Tyrone, and the lands around Lough
Neagh were given to the forefathers of the O'Devlins. Incidentally, the use of surnames only came into being around
this time (the 11th century) and it has been possible to pinpoint the first
Devlin with a fair degree of accuracy.
Father Eamon Devlin writes:
"The man from whom the surname O'Doibhlin came
was the great great great grandson of Domhnall Dabhaill who died in 915. He was also the great great grandfather of
Gilla Mac Liag O Donnghaile who was killed in battle in 1177. From it we can conclude that Domailen (the
original Devlin) lived about the middle of the 11th century."
From earliest times until the break-up of
the Gaelic clan system at the beginning
of the 17th century, the O'Devlins were, with their kinsmen the O'Donnellys,
the real fighting force of the O'Neills
This was in fact a very important function - the O'Devlins and O'Donnellys
after all came from a line of kings. At
this time battles were fought only by people of this kind.
Can we define with any accuracy the
boundaries of Muintirevlin, over the period of almost 600 years when The
O'Devlin ruled it? It was bounded, of
course, by Lough Neagh to the east, by the Ballinderry river to the north,
running to the west as far as Coagh, south towards Stewartstown, and east again
to the lough shore. It was in fact a
much larger territory than the present electoral ward of Muintirevlin, which
corresponds with the ancient monastic lands of Ardboe. These monastic lands were governed, not by
the O'Devlin, but by the church.'
No Irish map of the O'Devlins' ancestral
possessions, dating from the clan days, has come down to us, but an English map
of territories confiscated to form the Ulster Plantation was issued in 1610
after preparation in the preceding years.
On this map Muintirevlin is represented as containing more than 14,000
acres, or in excess of twenty-two square miles. The larger part, by about 2000 acres, lay in the northern
portion, Revelin Yetra. The souther
part was known as Revelin Outra the two being corruptions respectively of Irish
words meaning The Lower and Upper People of Devlin (i.e. Muinter Dhoibhil'en
I'ochtarach and Muinter Dhoibhil'en Uachtarach. This terminology has confused some people,
as the Upper territory lies to the south and the Lower to the north, but there
is a simple and logical explanation for these terms. Those who live adjacent to Lough Neagh regard it not as a fixed
body of water, but as the central part of the Bann drainage system, with the
water, even in Lough Neagh, perpetually flowing northwards to the sea. It follows that any land nearer the source
of the water is "up", and the land further downstream is
"down" or "low", hence Muintirevlin "Lower". Indeed the same terminology is used in the
area to the present time, with the northern part of Ardboe parish (Moortown)
being known as lower Ardboe. These
designations may refer to a prior division, during the clan days, made for
convenience of administration, although there was only one chief for the whole
territory, as may be seen by reference to the pardon granted to The O'Devlin
and his followers in 1601.'
On the other hand it is possible that
these divisions in Muintirevlin may refer to an original occupation of this
territory by two branches of Devlin descendants. Mr. James E. McGuire suggests that this division may date from a
period when the O'Devlins and the O'Donnellys occupied Muintirevlin
jointly, "People of Devlin"
would have been equally descriptive of either Sept. Later, at a time for reasons unknown, one branch of Devlin's
descendants may have acquired the territory of Ballydonnelly and have adopted
Devlin's father, Donnelly, as their eponym.
At any rate there seems to have been no territory known as Muinter
Dhonnghaile, but only Baile U'i Dhonnghaile (Ballydonnelly), which
means "town of the O'Donnellys", and is a geographical rather than
genealogical designation.
Joseph Chubb Develin, writing in 1951,
suggests that the seat of the O'Devlin was probably at An Chraobh (Crew), near
the present-day Stewartstown. He wrote:
"The seat of the O'Devlin, chief of
his sept, was probably at An Chraobh, (Irish for "the Mansion"), and
the original name of the townland inwhichit was located seems to have been
Gaigh. It was at An Chraobh that Andrew
Stewart, Lord Ochiltree, built a castle when the Muintirevlin was assigned to
him as "undertaker" by King James I at the time of the confiscations
in 1610. In fact a contemporary
document speaks of Irish houses, later occupied by British tenants, as located
near the new castle. Such a settlement
was likely to have accumulated in proximity to The Devlin's residence. The fortified mansions of the former chiefs,
ar at least the defensive earthworks and stockades attached to them, were often
taken over by the new settlers, as they were ordinarily well located for the
purposes of defence. Arounf this castle
of the new owner grew what is now the village of Stewartstown."
Most present day Devlins in Ireland still
live near their ancestral home on the western shores of Loch Neagh. Mr. John Devlin said that, since about 1926
the land in the electoral division of Muintirevlin has been purchased from the
landlord and is now owned by the former tenants. On this land, and in its vicinity, there are so many Devlins that
in order to distinguish families and additional nickname is added to the
surname as: Devlin-Bans (White) (Mr.
John Devlin says that they are hereditarily blond among the Devlin-Bans to the
present day); Devlin-Dhu (Black); Devlin-Gaes (Wee); Devlin-Gabba (pronounced
Go and meaning "blacksmith" in Irish); Devlin-Mor (Big); etc. Mr. John Devlins family are known as the
Devlins of the Old Cross.3
Writing of the modern electoral division
of Muintirevlin, Dr. J.G. Devlin says:
"The land of Devlins is certainly well known to me for I was born
there and until over the age of twenty spent nearly all my time in it. The land is extremely flat, bogs abound,
fields are small and the people are generally poor. Along the shore of the Lough the people earn their living by
fishing (eels in the summer, trout and Pollan in the winter.) About a half a mile to a mile inland, most
of the inhabitants are farmer, owning small thatched two-roomed or three-roomed
dwellings which usually abut on the roadway, and a few acres of land, on the
average about ten to twelve acres per farmer.
The crops raised are potatoes, corn, to a less extent wheat, flax,
turnips, etc. Barley I have never seen
growing in Ardboe, though in County Antrim I have seen it often. The Devlins are most plentiful in those town
lands bordering Lough Neagh on its western side ( Kinturk, Aneterbeg,
Anetermore, Ardain, Moortown, Kinrush, Sessiagh, and Farsnagh, although they
have of course permeated peripherally..."4
At an
undetermined date after the clan days (post 1608), but not later than the
eighteenth century, some of the family moved to the parish of Clonmany on the
Inishowen peninsula in the county of Donegal, north of the city of Derry. Although there were no Devlins listed in the
1659 Census of Inishowen or the 1665 Hearth Money Role of Clonmany; the Irish
Linen Board's Flax Growers Bounty List of 1796, which listed individuals who
had received awards for planting a specified acreage of flax, included three
Devlins from Clonmany who were eligible for a planting award, they were: John Devlin, Michael Devlin and Owen Devlin. By the middle of the 19th century 45 of the
79 Devlins in Donegal were concentrated in the parish of Clonmany.
The story passed down through the
generations of Devlins in Clonmany, as told by a local farmer, is that the
Devlins there were dispossessed of their land in Ardboe by the English or
Scottish and had to leave. It is quite
possible, even probable, based on the apparent timeframe and the history passed
down through the generations, that the migration of Devlins from Ardboe to
Clonmany occurred after the Battle of the Boyne (1690), during the Penal
Laws.
The Penal laws accentuated the differences
between the Irish establishment and its opponents. Having established an exclusively Protestant legislature in 1692,
a comprehensive series of coercive acts against Catholics were implemented
during the 1690s. Catholics where
excluded from the armed forces, the judiciary and the legal profession as well
as from parliament; they were forbidden to carry arms or to own a horse worth
more than 5 pounds; Catholic bishops and clergy were banished in 1697;
Catholics could not hold long leases on land or buy land from a Protestant;
when Catholcs made their wills. property had to be divided equally among
children, unless the eldest conformed to the Anglican Faith; they were
forbidden to run schools or to send their children abroad to school. By 1703, only 14% of the land in Ireland
remained in the hands of the Catholic Irish, in Ulster the figure was 5%.
The Plantation of Ulster, which had begun
years earlier in 1610 but continued through the early 1700s, attempted to
attract not only British gentry but colonists of all classes. The colonists were Protestant and
represented a culture alien to Ulster.
This policy of comprehensive colonization was a result of the advice of
the Solicitor General to King James I, and was an attempt to replace on entire
community with another. The Catholic
Irish remained in conditions, which emphasized their suppression. They were relegated to a state below servility,
because the Planters were not allowed to employ native Irish as servants in the
new Plantation towns, which they built.
The towns were fortresses against the armed resentment of the
Irish. In rural Ireland, they were
banished from the land they hadd owned and worked and were settled on inferior,
boggy land usually in mountainous regions.5 This is exactly the type of land that exists
in and around Clonmany.
Clonmany is
about fifty miles to the northwest of Muintirevlin, consequently this migration
did not entail much of a journey for the pioneers among the Devlins who started
this settlement. They carried with them
to their new environment the custom of adding cognomens to their surnames, in
the same manner as now used in Muintirevlin.
This was territory that had been taken
from the Clan Owen in the thirteenth century and occupied by the O'Dohertys of
the Clan Conall, under whose rule it remained until the Confiscations of the
seventeenth century. While they
retained sovereignty in Inishowen it seems unlikely that the O'Dohertys would
have welcomed members of the Clan Owen to their territory, considering the
enmity that they must have felt towards them as a result of centuries of
warfare, and this is substantiated by an Elizabethan Fiant, in which no
O'Devlins appear among several hundreds of his followers in The O'Doherty's
pardon, granted by the English after the Nine Years War. Further negative evidence of the
comparatively recent arrival of Devlins in Clonmany is found in the absence of
their name from any lists of Inishowen septs in the clad days, and from a
census taken in Inishowen in the middle of the seventeenth century. Of course when it is considered that Owen,
the founder of the clan, which bore his name, occupied Inishowen in the fifth
century, that this peninsula continued to be the headquarters of the
descendants for many centuries after the time, the Devlins living in the
Clonmany parish may be regarded as having returned to their ancestors' earliest
habitation in Ulster.
Twenty one
methods of spelling Devlin in Irish have been discovered, and more than thirty
variations in English.
Footnotes:
1 MacLysaght,
Edward, The Surnames of Ireland, sixth edition, (Irish Academic Press
Limited, Blackrock, Co.
Dublin: 1991), p. 81
2 Develin,
Joseph Chubb, The History of an Irish Sept - The O'Devlins of Tyrone,
(7017 McCallum St., Philadelphia:
June 1951). Call number CS499.036D4
1951
3 Develin
4 Develin
5 www.Irelandseye.com,
"Background to the Irish Conflict"