The Agnews - Family History

Lisnadrumbard on Down Survey Map, Killochter, 1656. Copryright: Trinity College Dublin, https://downsurvey.tchpc.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php#bm=Glenarne&c=Antrim&p=Killogher

1. Introduction
2. The Poets 
3. 1600s - A poetic Time
4. 1200s - The Anglo-Normans
5. 1300s - Bruce
6. 1400s & 1500s - Gaelicisation
7. The Sheriffs of Lochnaw
8. The Family History Mystery
Appendix 1: Language & Family History
Appendix 2: Example of Scots communication

Introduction

Over the last four years, and in between various other projects, I have been researching the Agnew clan, an exploration that shaped my latest novel The Secret Diary of Stephanie Agnew. Stephanie reports on daily life in Northern Ireland in 1995, but she is intrigued to learn about her town’s Gaelic poetic heritage and finds herself on an accidental genealogical journey. (I should state from the beginning that the history in the novel is light).  My protagonist is entirely fictional, but we were both on similar research paths. Unlike my protagonist, however, I’m not an Agnew!
 
What could possibly lead someone with no Agnew credentials into such a research labyrinth? The Agnews were celebrated hereditary master poets writing in Irish in Larne in the 1500s and 1600s, and that was enough for me — in the beginning! That they shared time and space and a surname with Scots settlers who wrote letters in Scots was interesting too. Here I had the chance to explore identity, mingle with Presbyterians with Gaelic names who wrote in Scots and meet landowning Irish-language bards who were loyal to the crown.
 
It should have ended there, but I was curious about whether all these Agnew septs were related. Their English and Irish names were interchangeable, after all. I’ll give away the ending of this blog right now and tell you that the mystery is still open, so this is an invitation to join in a conversation as I leave my Agnew magnifying glass behind. This blog covers the insights that I’ve had since my article was published in Familia last year. The fine detail, a bibliography and citations can be found in Familia and in the relevant PhD thesis chapter. (NB. The PhD is in English, not history. This was only meant to be a small part of it!). You'll also find some information on other writers at the end.

 
 
Section 2. The Poets
 
In the early 1600s, three main families of Agnews lived in the Larne area and owned most of the land. They were poets, who wrote in Irish; sheriffs, who were based in Scotland; and landowners whose kin would go on to own Kilwaughter Castle. All these families were placed here by Randal MacDonnell, whose father, Sorley Boy, took over the Route and Glynns in the 1500s. Via Marjorie Bisset, their ancestors were also the main landowners in the area from the late 1200s.
 
The name of the poets in Irish is Ó Gnímh (Ogneeve). The Ó Gnímh clan saw their language, culture and personal circumstances decline as a result of the plantation, the reformation and change as the foundations of the British empire were laid. Eoín Ó Gnímh, whose address was Larne, sold the family manuscripts in 1700, not long after the Williamite wars. The family had lost its profession and traditions.

My protagonist is excited by the notion that swathes of Larne were once poetic land, but it’s useful to start from the premise that the Agnew story is not just one of poets. There were landowners, soldiers, militiamen, sea captains, churchmen and tenant farmers. There were also a few women!

​The women are often hard to find, but once located they help us locate ancestors in an era when cousins married cousins. The Agnew story of the 1300s to 1600s is not just about Latharna. Far from it! It has as its backdrop the original superhighway, taking in old east Ulster, old Galloway, and the Western Isles.

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Quotation from Richard Dobbs in his account of the Antrim Coast written in 1683. Copryright of photograph: Author's own.

Image of Edward Lluyd with his words about meeting Eoin Angiw in Larne. Copyright of image: TBC.

According to their own genealogy, thought to be written by poet Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh in the early 1600s, the Ogneeves were part of the MacDonnell clan. 
 
Brían, whose name is recorded from about 1574 until 1602, was patronised primarily by the MacDonnells, but he also wrote at least one poem for the Clann Aodha Buí (Clandeboy) O’Neills. Brían also wrote for English patrons.

Fear Flatha’s poetry, written in the first half of the 1600s was commissioned by the MacDonnells of the Glynns and the Clandeboy O’Neills. The Clandeboy O’Neill area of influence in the 1400s and 1500s covered most of present-day counties Antrim and Down and even went as far as Monaghan, but by the time Fear Flatha was writing for them, they were no longer overlords of such a vast territory.
 
The O’Neills, who derived from the same clan as the Tyrone O’Neills, formed partnerships through marriage with other clans, among them the MacDonnells, their cousins going back many generations. It would not be surprising, therefore, if the Ó Gnímh poets also married into the O’Neill family. The MacDonnells would finally assert themselves over the O’Neills in the era of the famed Somhairle Buidhe Mac Domhnaill (Sorley Boy MacDonnell). Subsequent warring and devastation ensued throughout the late 1500s and early 1600s. Add British colonial expansion into the mix, and the story becomes dramatic and bloody.
 
Fear Flatha famously wrote about the downfall of the Gael and the loss of poetry as a Gaelic profession, but, like his father, he was an opportunistic person, who was rewarded for his loyalty to the English crown and to the MacDonnells. His poetry indicates that the family continued to practise the Catholic faith in the 1600s. When seeking descendants of the bards, religion is not a full-proof consideration, but for those interested in their own family history, it wouldn’t be surprising if Catholic Agnews from the Larne area descended from the bards. The picture is more difficult to discern regarding Protestants, who may have changed religion to secure land or office. If Fear Flatha was living in Kilwaughter in 1622, he would have had to travel to Glenwhirry or Ballygowan to hear mass. The church in Kilwaughter had been destroyed at some point before this.
 
Hector MacLean, in 1884, suggested that Shane, son of Angus More MacDonald/ Aonghus Mór mac Domhnaill (d. 1293) of Islay and Kintyre, was the first to have the name Gníomh. Shane was a brother of Angus Og, who fought at Bannockburn in 1314 when Robert Bruce took on the English forces. Shane — also Eoín or Iain — appears to have been a constable/sheriff of the MacDonnell clan, who earned the epithet Gnímhach, pointing to bravery. Shawbridge believes he was the same person as Iain Sprangach MacDonald of Ardnamurchcan. Hector MacDonnell proposes an alternative theory, that Eoín was an hereditary Gallowglass soldier descended from Godfrey, son of Alastair Mór, who was the brother of Angus Mór. All theories point to MacDonnell patrimony.
 
There is much conflicting information available on genealogy websites and a general mix up between Alastair, brother of Angus Mór, and Alastair, son of Angus Mór. In Hector MacDonnell’s article, Alastair is the brother of Angus Mór. His family is associated with Kintyre, Arran and Bute, according to The Clan Donald Genealogy, and he had five sons, Donald, Godfrey, Duncan, John and Hector. (These names will be different in their original Gaelic form, e.g. Domnaill, Gofraigh, Séann/Iain, Eachaigh).

Hector was apparently the head of the MacSichies (McSheehys) of Munster, while McVurich suggests that the Clan Domrmuill, Henna and the MacWilliams of Connaught were descended from Alastair Mór too. If there is any truth in this, it demonstrates the spread of Scottish people in Ireland well before the plantation. From the same source, Godfrey settled in the Carrick district of Old Galloway (now Ayrshire). In 1314 and 1315, the Rotuli Scotiae (Scottish rolls) record Godfrey being invited to join the English crown against the Bruce campaign, but there is apparently no evidence that he agreed to do so.
 
Several writers, including Fiona MacDonald, discuss the Scottish influences within the poetry of Brían Ó Gnímh. Three of his poems have Scottish connections, one of which cites the Norse heritage of the MacDonnells. Another written in 1585/6 discusses the shared heritage of the families. Angus Mór is included, as is a Gofraigh, though not necessarily the one referred to above.

A poem featuring Larne as an apparent homeplace or refuge for Brían narrates his distress after witnessing the massacre of Scots at Moy in Connaught in 1586, when 2,000 Scots were killed by the English. The tally apparently included 1,000 in a camp of men, women and children. The Battle of Ardnaree was between the English and the Irish, using Scots mercenaries, who appear to have travelled as communities. Brían was clearly travelling in the MacDonnell entourage.
 
The name Í Gníomha, as Ó Cuív points out, is first mentioned in Ireland alongside the name Ó hAnnadha in the 1200s in Fermoy, County Cork, Munster. Hector MacDonnell suggests this could be a separate bloodline, which is the most convenient explanation since the bardic tree has the formation of the name in the 1300s. However, in order to keep all avenues of investigation open and provide an alternative theory for the background of the Lochnaw Agnews, if one is needed, I’ll mention briefly that the Ahannay/Hannay and Agnew families are together frequently in Scotland, e.g., During a period of illness from 1498-99 (when his son was out of the country — possibly in Ireland?) Quentin Agnew called upon Robert Hannay to act as sheriff of Wigtown. The Hannas are also found in Larne in the 1660s — Hanna’s Loanen is in Ballyhampton, where the home of Jane Agnew, daughter of Patrick Agnew was located in the early 1700s. 
 
Information on the Ó Gnímh poetic family is missing from the 1400s. We have sight of them from the time of Brían’s flourit in the late 1500s in Larne, and we have sight of them in a reference to Séann of Dunfane in the 1300s. Hector McDonnell believes this is the Dunfane fort near Ballymena. We have seen already that the Scots can be found right across Ireland, so the next step is to have a look at the census to see where the Agnews are located.

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Screenshot from Barry Griffen Maps. Copyright Barry Griffen: https://www.barrygriffin.com/surname-maps/irish/AGNEW/

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Screenshot from Barry Griffen Maps. Copyright Barry Griffen: https://www.barrygriffin.com/surname-maps/irish/AGNEW/

 
In the 1901 census, there is a large number of Agnews in Monaghan. As in Kilwaughter, they are both Catholic and Protestant. This may hint at a pre and post plantation story, but the Agnews don’t feature on the 1663 and 1665 Hearth Money Rolls or the 1669 anti-Dominican petition, so they all may have arrived during a later plantation period. In his 1879 book, Evelyn Philip Shirley recorded a family of Protestant Agnews in Donaghmoyne, including Patrick Agnew, born in the late 1600s. The Agnews of Donaghmoyne were buried with a replica of the Lochnaw Agnew crest on their grave — the same one which was carved over the main door of Kilwaughter Castle in 1803 and which features items relevant to MacDonnell and Bruce heraldry. A Catholic family with head of household Francis Agnew, aged 78, was in the same townland of Donaghmoyne in 1901. Francis is a name relevant to Kilwaughter, but as a popular name, this may be coincidence.
 
Monaghan saw an ‘unofficial’ plantation in the same period as Antrim and Down. What is more interesting, though, is how the area is described in the 1300s, when Gallowglass commanders were active. One of them, Somhairle MacDonnell —not to be mixed up with Sorley Boy MacDonnell of the 1500s — was the Gallowglass constable of Ulster. This Sorley was the son of Owen Duv MacDonnell (Eoín Dubh MacDonnell), and he was drowned by the MacMahons in 1365 after he tried to force a MacMahon to marry a MacDonnell and divorce an O’Reilly. The MacDonnells of Ulster were then said to be pursued and slain.  All of this may have occurred in time of Séann Ó Gnímh of Dunfane, one of Fear Flatha’s ancestors. It is also worth pausing to think about the women in this Monaghan tale: women had to marry and divorce according to the will of their masters and may well have found themselves in autonomous relationships, and this should be remembered, along with the absence of primogeniture and frequency of divorce and re-marriage when analysing DNA.  This applies to the Lochnaw family of Agnews too.
 
The Monaghan story also demonstrates the power of the Gallowglass as elite commanders, who built forts and emerged as septs to match the power of their overlords. We are looking for an Eoín Ghímh, not Duv, but the period is relevant, and the Monaghan story gives us a glimpse of life on the ground for the Gallowglass. Women clearly featured in the Gallowglass communities, so we might expect children to be born where they were stationed.
 
While there was a MacDonnell presence right across Ireland, Donald Schlegel tells us that Eoín Dubh MacDonnell, who was also killed by the MacMahon in 1349, was the first of the clan to live permanently in Ireland, in the period of 1318 to the late 1320s, possibly migrating from Connaught to Monaghan. Eoín Dubh was apparently the son of Alastair Durrach MacDonnell, who was the son of Angus Mor, so this is not the Alastair that Hector MacDonnell proposes as an Agnew ancestor — the Agnew ancestor, according to his theory, was an uncle of Alastair Durrach.
 
If we follow Hector MacDonnells Gofraigh roots theory, we can start to build the following picture:
 
Alastair Mor MacDonnell and Angus Mor are brothers.
Alastair Durrach MacDonnell and Gofraigh MacDonnell are cousins.
Eoín Dubh MacDonnell & Eoín Gníomh MacDonnell are second cousins.
​Sorley MacDonnell and Maol Muíre (Mac Gnímh) MacDonnell are third cousins.
 
The inference in Donald Shlegel’s article is that there was no permanent MacDonnell presence in Ulster before the 1320s. He also points out that there was no recorded reference to MacDonnells in Ulster from 1368 to 1425, with the exception of Eoín Mor, who married Margery Bissett of Glenarm. Either there is no written record of Séann of Dunfane, who comes after Maol Muíre, or he is elsewhere. It is possible that Séann O’Gnímh, who might also be known as Eoín MacDonnell, was born in a temporary Gallowglass camp in Dunfane in the 1350s and then moved to Scotland. The latinised variant of his name for the purposes of documentation, would be something like John Gnev. If he is in Galloway, an A might be recorded — John A Gnev. There are several mentions of long-term connections with Larne; for example, much has been made of an oral report that the bards were restored to former lands in the early 1600s, but it is possible that they only settled in Larne in a first wave of MacDonnell migration from mid 1500s onwards.  Perhaps the land grants can tell us more.
 

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Section 3: 1600s - A Poetic Time
 
The ollamh or ‘master poets’ of Larne were active from around 1576 until 1700; although 1700 isn’t an endpoint to the Agnew story in the town. The placename that ties the bards to Kilwaughter is Lisnadrumabard, and I think we can say with confidence that this name relates to the Agnew bards.
 
Lisnadrumbard may form part of lands known as the Five Quarters or Five Quarterlands of Kilwaughter, which were cited in 1600s land documents as either the Agnew Quarterlands or Ogneeve Quarterlands. Whilst most Gaelic names are around 1000 years old, it is feasible that Lisnadrumabard, a name active in Kilwaughter from around 1620 to 1660, possibly formed at the end of the 1500s, was a temporary placename. It was a portion of the townland of Altscale, which crosses Hightown and Mooredyke today: the rath in Hightown is likely to be Lisnadrumbard.
 
Altscale was owned by Maol Muíre Ó Gnímh/ Mulmoro Agnew, who signed his name ‘Tagdh’ (poet) in good Irish script, according to Hector McDonnell. Maol Muíre may have been a son or nephew of Fear Flatha. Douglas Shawbridge has Altscale as High School in his recent book, the inference being that Fear Flatha ran a school there. My novel, The Secret Diary of Stephanie Agnew, also goes with this theory, as it fits the romance of the scene and there are architectural remains dating to our period of the early 1600s, which Shawbridge has brought to life in an illustration. However, an Irish language expert recently advised me that the scale may denote bog, a less romantic but fitting theory for a location close to Agnew’s Hill!
 

A grant was also made to Fardorragh Mac Mulmorro Ogneeve and Daniel Ogneeve for part of Mullachboy and for Tobbermore in the 1620s. (NB, I don’t know who had the other part of Mullachboy — presumably John Ogneeve). Elsewhere, these townland names have been translated Ballytober and Ballymullock, and I carried this over into my novel. However, I now believe that Mullachboy was at the heart of Kilwaughter and the quarters. In fact, in the Hearth Money Rolls, Mullachboy is translated as Rory’s Glen, which fits this hypothesis.

In Mullaghboy, land associated with bardic names, we find Patrick and Thomas Steward, likely to be from Galloway. If Ballykeel is connected to the castle owners, it might also be worth mentioning that the names there are also clearly of Galloway origin: Jo. McCannell, Jo. MacCarron, Pat. McCaghy. Two conclusions can be made by looking at the Hearth Money Rolls: the bards and the castle owners are surrounded by Gaelic names, and the the bards and the castle owners are surrounded by Galloway names.

As in the case of Mullachboy, Tobermore (great well) probably refers to Kilwaughter and not Ballytober. Tobermore appears to be on today's Lowtown, once part of the five quarters, as it has an important holy well, which is close to Deer Park Road. The tradition of tying rags to the tree and dropping pins in the well was recorded in the late 1800s by O’Laverty. It makes more sense that the Agnew Five Quarterlands would be together rather than extending out to Cairncastle parish, which came under the influence of the Shaws in the early 1620s.

 
Charles McIlroy wrote an article in the Larne Times in 1926 relaying that the Agnews of the Kilwaughter Castle considered themselves to be the same race as their tenants. The tenants of Kilwaughter, as per the Hearth Money Rolls of 1668, were from Galloway. McIlroy suggests the Agnews left Ireland for Galloway with the Bruce in 1318, a popular theory, though I’d imagine they were here only temporarily in the first place. Also, we don’t know for sure how old Eoín was at the time of the Bruce invasion — we only know that his purported father, Gofraigh, was invited to support the English. Eoín Dubh MacDonnell was killed in 1349, and he is on the same generation line as Eoín Gníomh, the eponymous Gnev/Gnew/Gnímh
 
From his local vantage point, McIlroy makes the observation that Lisnadrumbard was in a good state of preservation in 1926, but I think he referring to the Lowtown fort on the road to Belfast, which is clearly visible from the A8. While the Lowtown fort is likely to be on the Agnew Quarters, I do not believe that this is Lisnadrumbard, as it is not near the Inver River on the Down Survey Map in 1656. Lisnadrumbard is higher up Shanes Hill Road towards Ballyboley Forest, making sense of the name ridge of the fort of the bard. (A good friend with tracing paper worked this out for me when I was trying to do it in a more digital way!)
 
McIlroy mentions Shruen-na-bhaird ‘the bard's stream.’ I would like to know if he took the English name and translated it into Irish, or if there was some document or tradition in Kilwaughter about this stream. I can’t find mention of it elsewhere. He explains that that the stream meets the Ollarbha (Larne/Inver River), and he calls this junction Sron-shruen-na-bhaird. I assume this is at the junction with Glen Burn. Again, please comment if you’ve come across it in English or Irish. McIlroy’s theory on the origin of Ballygelly is that it is derived from Baile-gfhleadh — keep of Fhileadh (poet), but Balgeithelauche was a placename in 1224 before Eoín Gnímhach MacDonnell was born.
 
Regardless of the details, we have good reason to believe that Kilwaughter is poetic land. In fact, there are Agnews right across counties Antrim and Down in the 1600s. Art Hughes focuses on the Ards peninsula, where he identifies Listyagnew. This is an alias for the townland Tullycarnan in Ballyphilip parish and was recorded as Listyagnew in 1623 and Listiagnewe in 1625. The ‘Lis’ denotes a fort or enclosure. Hughes ties the name Andrew Agnew to this location and presumes the function of the fort to have been to provide poetic services to the Savage family. However, the name Andrew is closely associated with the Lochnaw Agnews. If there is some poetic service being offered here, we can link the Rhins of Galloway to hereditary poets, but from what I can determine, there are no poems patronised by the Savages. The Agnews might have been present in a plantation capacity. In a separate paper on placenames Hughes discusses the continual gaelicisation throughout the 1600s, so this placename may have appeared during this ‘unofficial’ plantation, and it may be relevant to a family from Galloway who spoke Gaelic. Hughes points out that Tulycarnan was on a list of townlands granted to Patrick Savage in 1571: the alias names may have come in from that time.
 
There is also a placename of note in Ballymartin near Templepatrick. It is currently in the townland database as Toberagnee, but O’Laverty’s Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, written in 1884, has it as Toberagnew, which today is close to the Park & Ride, where the A57 from Ballynure meets the M2 from Belfast. Ballymartin parish, where there are several ancient monuments, including a pre-Norman church and, according to O’Laverty, a spring with miraculous virtues, could well be associated with the many Agnews in 1600s east Ulster. O’Laverty tells us that the area of the Valley of Six Mile Water was O’Flynn territory before the Norman invasion and that the O’Flynns continued to live there afterwards. Some townland names developed at the time of Anglo-Normans, and we will see some parallels with Kilwaughter, 13 miles away, e.g., Ballymartin after Martin de Mandeville and Ballywalter, formerly Ville de Walter de Logan. Nearby is the townland of Carnanee and John and Andrew Agnew are located there in 1668. Knocker Agnew gives some information in the 1641 depositions that points to a number of Catholics in the Templepatrick area being murdered. He gave his deposition in Newry, so some of the Catholic Agnews may have migrated southwards around this time. A 1605 inquisition document reveals that the land around the Six Mile Water was ravaged by war in the late 1500s, e.g. in reference to Ballinowre (Ballynure?), not far from Kilwaughter, it says, ‘on account of the devastation and destruction of the inhabitants the names of the townlands cannot be ascertained.’
 
There are also around twenty male Agnew heads of families in the 1668 Hearth Money Rolls across counties Antrim and Down. If they are mostly ‘planters’ from Galloway, then the absentee landlord model of Patrick Agnew, 8th Sheriff of Lochnaw, is unique. Many more men by the name Patrick Agnew and Andrew Agnew lived in Ireland. To give one example, Patricke and Andrew Agnew are listed in Ballyutoag up over the hills of West Belfast. Some of those listed on the Hearth Money Rolls have typically Lochnaw names, whilst others have names of saints, poets and scholars. They are found in the parishes of Dunluce, Carnteel, Ballymoney, Shilvodan Grange, Drummaul, Ahoghill, Connor, Nilteen Grange, Kilwaughter, Larne, Shankill, Templepatrick, Carrickfergus, Glynn, Ballymartin, Killead, Camlin, Tullyrusk and Ballinderry. The forenames are: Doun, Robert, Ninian, Toole, Teige, Alexander, William, Thomas, John, Martin, Peter, Donaghy, Patrick, Edmund Grom, John, Gilbert, George, Patrick, John, Andrew, Patrick, John, Andrew, John, John, Andrew, Patrick, George, Gilder (Gilbert), Alexander and Andrew.
 
In the parish of Kilwaughter, we find Donaghy, Patrick, Edmund Grom and another Patrick in the townland of Headwood, which is likely to be part of the Agnew Five Quarterlands, so we can assume the Catholic Agnews were returned to their lands, possibly as tenants, after 1654. There is also a John at Ballyhampton.
 
The name Nevin may have something to do with the Ogneeve family. The stem Gnev or Gneeve or Gnive could easily lose its G at an intersection of Irish, English and Scots, just as the K in Kn becomes silent in Modern English. There are Nevins in the Carrick area of Scotland where we are looking for Goffrey’s descendants and these are probably the Nevins who populated the Ards peninsula in the 1600s, but there are also names of interest in County Antrim in the 1600s: Patrick Nevin of Nilteen Range, Patrick Neevin of Nilteen Range, Gilbert Nevin of Cary, Hugh Newin of Ballymoney etc. 
 
There is also a placename in Ballycarry which is deemed to have an association with the Agnews since Brían, either the poet or his son, was a juror there in 1603 — temporarily, as he was back in Larne in 1605. I mentioned this my Familia article, and I have since found the source of this to be Ballynacree, written in English in the 1605 Inquisition. I will discuss the R at the end. There are no Agnews in the Hearth Money Rolls in Ballycarry, but there are some in Carrickfergus, so it’s feasible they moved on.
 
As can be seen, the Agnew families are numerous in the 1600s. We can also perhaps detect a division in the names with John, Gilbert, Andrew and Patrick lending themselves to a Lochnaw descendancy, the other sporadic names like Teige, Fear Flatha, Donaghy somehow belonging to the bardic line. If this is the case, then the bardic line looks quite small compared to what appears to be a Galloway influx. However, there are some names that cross over, e.g. Thomas McDonnel O’Gnyw in Greyabbey in the Ards peninsula in 1617. If the bards are native Irish and of a separate clan, they must have been small in number or much diminished by war.
 
The Secret Diary of Stephanie Agnew costs £12.00 and be found in the best bookshops and online here.

I have also written an imagined history of the story of the last Agnew manuscript, available for FREE here.

Manuscript of Fear Flatha O'Gnímh, The Book of the O'Conor Don. Copyright: Irish Script On Screen: https://www.isos.dias.ie/CLON/CLON_The_Book_of_the_O_Conor_Don.html

Examination of Knogher Agnew, 6/5/1653, 1641 Depositions, Trinity College Dublin, MS 838, fols 138r-138v, http://1641.tcd.ie/index.php/deposition/?depID=838138r197.

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Section 4: 1200s - Anglo-Normans 
 
While there is no information on the bards before the late 1500s, other than what is in Fear Flatha’s family tree, building a picture of the parishes of Kilwaughter, Larne, and Cairncastle in the barony of Upper Glenarm i.e. the Lower Glynns, from the 1200s, may allow us a window into the 1300s and 1400s in order to assess if the poets’ ancestors were in Larne or nearby during this time.
 
Many of the placenames around Larne, which have a mix of Gaelic, Scandinavian and Anglo-Norman language influences, were established by the 1200s, though some appear to have been re-gaelicised with the addition of a ‘baile’. There is the odd ‘Bally’ prefix side-by-side with a Norse or Anglo-Irish ‘town/ton’ suffix. Drumnadonaghy is a townland name worth exploring on account of its proximity to the Kilwaughter Castle, which was built in the Scottish style around 1620 and now sits in ruins. But who was Donaghy? Or Duncan, as the case may be? When Hugh de Lacy was temporarily expelled by King John in 1205, various new grants were made, including to three members of the Galloway family: Thomas, who built a castle at Coleraine and held Mount Sandel and Antrim Castle; Alan who held lands in the same area, and Duncan, who controlled and settled the country between Larne and Ballygalley. Duncan Galloway (d. 1250) was also known as Duncan Fitzgilbert (Son of Gille Brigt), and it has been suggested locally that Ballygilbert, a townland near Cairncastle, owes its name to him. This is useful as it gives us an idea of the timing of development of placenames close to Ballygally. However, we need to determine if there was connection between Duncan Galloway and Kilwaughter.
 
In 1313, Thomas de Mandeville cited documents stating that his lands had belonged to Duncan Galloway, and as discussed below, the de Mandeville family does have a Kilwaughter connection. In terms of the bardic family, there is a Donaghy Agnew at Headwood on the Hearth Money rolls in 1668, so we won’t rule out the idea that Drumnadonaghy could have been a name attached to the Agnew family. As it was granted to the Sheriff of Lochnaw in 1613, it must have been a name that existed before that time.
 
An article by Daniel Brown — and I’m grateful to Jacqueline Agnew for pointing me in its direction — reveals that Kilwaughter had several factions fighting over its control in the 1200s. Adam Bisset had a fort in Kilwaughter from at least 1272, which was burnt down by raiding party in 1282, but we know that the family prevailed in the area. The Bissets came to Ireland from Scotland, and, according to Hector MacDonnell, had been major Scottish magnates implicated in a murderous scandal. They were considered legally English. This was a concern in 1200s Ireland when Scots and Scandinavian Irish had access to English courts. The Bissets were close associates of De Lacy and also intermarried with the Galloway family. The Bisset clan, according to Hector MacDonnell, was still ruling the Glynns area until at least 1522, and name is associated with Larne in 1532, with some members of the clan involved in the order of St. Francis. The tower at Ballygally that gave me a starting point for the location of my novel, was probably under Bisset control. It would be interesting to know if Brían Ogneeve’s father Feardorcha or great great grandfather Séann, had some relationship with the Bissets.
 
In 1272 Henry de Mandeville was a tenant of Adam Bisset in Craiganboy. This is on the south side of the Glynn. De Mandeville then went on to claim the townland as his own. (He may have lived there). Daniel Brown reveals that there was a dispute over some land at Kilwaughter between the de Mandevilles and Fitzwarins, two of the main Anglo-Norman families of Ulster. In 1300, Alan II Fitzwarin asked the King to reverse his decision on lands allocated to the de Mandevilles. Thomas Fitzrichard was a guarantor for the de Mandevilles in 1282, and Ballyrickard is thought to be named after this Richard.
 
The Norman name Pe de Lu or Pedlowe was also active in Larne in the Anglo-Norman period. In 1245 Grenelowe/Greenlaw, a name thought to be of Scandinavian origin, was associated with Pe de Lu, while Tom McNeill points to a 1333 lease by the Earl of Ulster for Nicholas Pedelowe in relation to Drumalis and comprising three carcucates, a mill and a court. A mill at Kilwaughter was also owned by the Earl of Ulster.
 
All in all, the picture is Anglo-Norman, with some Galloway family presence. When the Bruces came to Ireland in 1314, a reference was made to local Norman families speaking the English tongue, and so we have an idea that Middle English was spoken in Larne in this period.

​As for the kings of the isles, their kin will appear in Larne with Bruce, and it might also be worth noting that Maria de Ergadia of Clan MacDubgaill, sister of the Lord of Argyll, married William Fitzwarin (her fourth husband), an example of the interlocking interests of the Isles and Ulster and a reminder of the political nature of marriage. William Fitzwarin died in London in 1299 after a period at Stirling Castle. There is no suggestion that he lived in Larne, though Ballyverstown, an example of a bilingual townland name with both Irish and Germanic conventions, may be associated with Alan Fitzwarin, who is thought to have courted both sides during the Bruce invasions of 1315-8. Ballyverstown borders Ballyrickard Beg.
 
In summary, there is no sign of the relevant Agnew ancestors in 1200s Larne, either according to the Alastair Mór or Angus Mór theory.

Agnew's Hill from the Starbog Road. Copyright: Author's Own.

Section 5: 1300s - Bruce
 
The arrival of the Bruce with thousands of soldiers at Olderfleet in 1315 and the Battle of Connor, only ten miles from Kilwaughter, must have been one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the Larne area. Alan Fitzwarin, son of William Fitzwarin, was among the Normans who fought Bruce at Connor. Others included Richard, John and Henry de Mandeville; William Sandal; William and Henry Logan; and John Bisset. 
 
Writers Robin Frame and Hector MacDonnell give a more complex history regarding the Bisset-Bruce relationship: the families were at times on amicable terms. In 1338, Hugh Bisset was recorded as the cousin of John de Insulus (John MacDonnell of the Isles). The marriage between Margery Bisset and Eoín MacDonnell in 1399 was then a consolidating link between the families. The Bisset name was gaelicised MacEoín/ McKeown.
 
Another name of importance to the Kilwaughter area is Rory. Agnew’s Hill was described as Ben Maol Ruairi in the late 1500s, and Paul Tempan conjectured in The Glynnes journal that this might have something to do with a Rory from the McQuillan clan, hence why I chose the name McQuillan for the character Rosie. The name Rory is associated with the McQuillan family, who could have had a presence in the Larne area in the 1500s, but the McQuillans were more active in north Antrim. I could find no reference to Clan Ruaidhrí (from Somerled) in the area and have never come across a Rory Agnew, but something tells me that Rory was important. 
 
There is a contested theory that one sept of the de Mandeville family became gaelicised in 1275 and took the name McQuillan, the name being derived from Mac Uighlin, son of Hugh. The idea was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and Edmund Curtis later made a convincing case for this connection. I would not attempt to untangle this in the midst of the Agnew mystery, and any Agnew family history enthusiast will know to watch out for those Norman roots theories, but if the Kilwaughter de Mandeville lands of the 1300s ended up as McQuillan lands, then Somhairle Boy MacDonnell’s ascendancy over his former McQuillan allies in 1583 may have freed up some land for his loyal followers, the Ó Gnímh bards. The problem is that there is no evidence that the McQuillans were present in Kilwaughter in the 1500s, other than the name Rory. There is even less evidence that the Agnews were on the land before the mid-1500s.
 
This is all I have for now on 1300s Larne. Maybe the Bruce invasion is enough! We can imagine a country recovering from war in the 1320s onwards. If one ‘Gnev’ proved his worth at Connor, we’ll have our man on Ulster soil.

Sallagh Brae, near Cairncastle. Caption from Brían Ó'Gnímh's poem about the Battle of Ardnaree. Copyright of photograph: Author's Own.

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Section 5: 1400s and 1500s - Gaelicisation
 
Felix McKillop tells us that before Henry VIII seized the church lands, Inver was a monastery, housing friars of the 3rd Order of St. Francis, with Gerald Missett (Bisset) as the last provost. In both 1515 and 1540, the Tudors described the Bisset clan as Anglo-Normans, who followed the Irish order. They were also designated as English rebels and captains, implying they had sovereignty over their territory. The Bissets were active proponents of the Franciscans and had established the friary, so this brings to life at least one aspect of life in 1400s Larne. In fact, there is reason to believe that religion was a defining feature of the town and wider area.
 
The English King Henry VIII seized Inver house in 1532, and according to an inquisition document from 1605, the remaining friars died at Olderfleet on 1 Nov 1602. The crown also seized the following church lands: Ballyshagg (Ballysnod?), Barnudod (Browndod), Garrimore (Gardenmore) & Ballygrenlawy (Greenland). We also know that Ballyhampton, near Kilwaughter, was its own independent parish, which was paying tax in the 1300s and possibly took its ‘ton’ suffix from the Anglo-Normans. Likewise, there were ecclesiastical centres at Glynn and Killyglen. McKillop also makes a note of the parishes Inverbeg and Invermore combining in the 1600s, explaining that Inverbeg parish covered Antiville, Ballyboley and Ballycraigy. Presumably the church controlled these lands, renting out farms and mills to tenants. (Antiville looks immediately like a French name that might relate to the Anglo-Norman presence described above, but it is An Tigh Bhile in the townland database — house of the old tree).
 
The fact that so many of these former church lands were granted to John Ogneeve/Agnew of Ballyhampton in the early 1600s — he was in the parish of Ballyhampton and given Ballynacreage (Ballycraigy) and Ballycrinlaw (Greenland?) in 1625 and later the two quarterlands of Kilwaughter — is perhaps telling. John Ogneeve, Gilbert Ogneeve and Patrick Ogneeve were militiamen for MacDonnell in 1631. It is possible that John had some military and protective control over them on the side of the crown and Catholic leaseholder Randal MacDonnell. The same explanation might be given for Gilbert regarding Inver and the first owner of the two quarterlands being assigned the old church of Kilwaughter in the early 1600s.

 
Ireland was declared a kingdom under English rule in 1542. The east Ulster Clanndeboy estate was broken up and divided into shires of Antrim & Down in the late 1570s. By the 1580s, Brían Ó Gnímh was referring to Latharna in a way that is suggestive of a homeland. He may even have been the poet who lived in Ballygally in olden times, as per the Richard Dobbs of Carrickfergus reference to a poet’s castle in 1683; though I noted in the Glynns republication of the original notes that the poet isn’t named Agnew. (Agnew is mentioned in Rev. George Hill’s MacDonnells of Antrim). In 1555 Shane O’Neill invaded the Glynns and destroyed all the Scottish settlements. The tower at Ballygally may have been destroyed at this time — Hector MacDonnell suggests it was in ruins when Shaw’s Castle was underway.
 
We can start to build a picture of the bards in the early 1500s from what we know about Brían in the late 1500s, when he wrote a poem for the O’Neills — maybe an act of diplomacy as Hector MacDonnell proposes. Brían fell out of favour with the MacDonnells for a short time, as described in a poem. In between, he seems to have courted the English. Ultimately, he and the MacDonnells signed up for crown loyalty in 1586 — at least Fear Flatha did alongside a John. (Brían is not on the list of followers of MacDonnells, which is filled with Highland names). Fear Flatha and Brían are both on a 1602 list of pardons as loyal crown citizens. A son call Brían/Bernard is with them.
 
One point of note is that Fear Flatha translated his name from Ó Gnímh to O Gniuu. If the name Gníomh was formed in the late 1200s when English, French, Norse and Irish were jostling for position linguistically, it might be relevant that until 1300 the letter wynn (ƿ) represented UU, which in the 1400s started to be seen in print as W, but ƿ was sometimes also written U or V. We can see on at least one seal of the Agnews that the Lochnaw name was written V — Gnev. We need to look to the Agnews of Galloway to find out if the profession of Irish ollamh would have any relevancy.
 
The Secret Diary of Stephanie Agnew costs £12.00 and be found in the best bookshops and online here.

I have also written an imagined history of the story of the last Agnew manuscript, available for FREE here.

List of Agnew's on Hearth Money Rolls, 1668, From North Ulster spreadsheet. Copyright: Bill McAfee's Website: https://www.billmacafee.com/17centurydatabases.htm

Inquisition at Carrickfergus, 1603, featuring Teige Ognive de Glynnes and Brian Ognive de Ballycarry among a list of McDonnell's followers. NB, they are in the same circles as the likes of the McGills, Magees, McCauleys etc. Copyright: Inquisition at Carrickfergus in 1603. by Crone, John S., Ulster journal of archaeology, Ser. 2, Vol. XII, pp. 166-168, October, 1906

Kilwaughter, from Inver River to Agnew's Hill, though it was not known as such at the time. Down Survey Map, Killochter, 1656. Copryright: Trinity College Dublin, https://downsurvey.tchpc.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php#bm=Glenarne&c=Antrim&p=Killogher

Galloway 1654, Copyright National Gallery of Scotland

Section 7: The Sheriffs
 
The name Agnew is first seen in print near Stranraer in 1426, when Andrew Agnew becomes Constable of Lochnaw. The profession of constable is a good starting point if the sheriffs, like the bards, are kin of the MacDonnells, but already, things look a little different from the Irish bardic family.

The name Andrew is new, and while it could be an attempt at Christianisation, it may simply be a mark of patriotism, with St. Andrew becoming the patron saint of Scotland in 1320, the year the Declaration of Arbroath asserted, ‘As long as a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be subjected to the lordship of the English. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself’.
 
We have already encountered the Galloways of the House of Fergus in Larne in the 1200s. We are now in their heartland. The Lordship of Galloway lasted from the early 1130s until 1234, and the House of Fergus had influence until 1455, when Galloway came under the Scottish Crown. At first glance, the Agnew family looks like it is descended from the Galloway (also Uchtred) family. Names like Uchtred and Gilbert (Gille Brigte) stand out, though Gille Brigte is also relevant to Somerled, and the two clans seem to have worked together on an Irish mission in 1211. The Irish Annals record: ‘Thomas, son of Uchtrach and the sons of Raghnall, son of Somhairlidh came to Derry Colum Cille with seventy-seven ships, and the town was greatly injured by them; O Donnell and they went together to Inishaven, and they completely destroyed the country.’ The eponymous MacDonnell may have been on one of these ships with Uchtred (Galloway). The name Uchtred appears among both the Galloway Agnews and Galloway MacDoughalls/McDowells. The MacDoughalls also descend from Somerled. (One of the 1400s marriages of this new Galloway family is with the MacDougalls/McDowells, that of Andrew Agnew, the 2nd sheriff and Helen Agnes MacDowell).
 
Images below of Lochnaw Castle. Copyright, Author's Own. 

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Seal of Quentin Agnew 1487. Reads Quentenacz Gnev. A either missing or name Latinised. See also above initials AG for Andrew Agnew. See shield on Kilwaughter Castle door. Copryight: National Library of Scotland, Agnew, A., The Agnews of Lochnaw, 1864, https://deriv.nls.uk/dcn23/9489/94898125.23.pdf

Seal of Patrick Agnew, 1575. Both A and W very clear.

Sheriff's Land: 2 i/2 townes of Dronique (Donaghy), Donnigillilia, Dromneho, E'derowen. Arable and Moory Pasture. Next to 1/2 Towne of Ballihanepton. Down Survey Map, Killochter, 1656. Copryright: Trinity College Dublin, https://downsurvey.tchpc.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php#bm=Glenarne&c=Antrim&p=Killogher

Gofraigh’s kin, as suggested in the Clan Donald book, settle in Carrick (Ayrshire), some sons keeping the Alexander, others creating new septs. Carrick is part of Old Galloway, and Majorie of Carrick, a descendant of Duncan Galloway, is Countess of Carrick from 1256 to 1292. She is also the mother of future King Robert the Bruce. The first marriage that we witness within the Lochnaw Agnew family is that Andrew Agnew to Lady Mary Kennedy of Carrick in 1426.
 
Lady Mary Kennedy of Carrick (b. 1406) is the daughter of Sir James Kennedy of Dunure (1385-1408). James is the third of four husbands of Princess Mary of Scotland, daughter of King Robert III (Steward). Princess Mary and Sir James have three children: Lady Mary Kennedy, who would marry the first constable, Andrew Agnew; James Kennedy (1408-1465), Bishop of St. Andrews and an important figure at court; and Gilbert Kennedy (1405-1489), one of the regents during the minority reign of James III. If all this information is in order, then Andrew Agnew, the second sheriff, is descended from Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland; Somerled, King of the Isles; Ragnhild, daughter of King Olaf of Man; Fergus of Galloway and Fergus’ wife, who was purported to be the daughter of Henry I of England.
 
Walter Kennedy (c.1455 – c.1508), a celebrated poet whose only extant work is in Scots, was a cousin of the Agnew sheriffs. He may have been a contemporary of Séann Ó Gnímh from the bardic family tree, though whether they were acquainted, is impossible to know. Walter’s first language, Irish, was mocked in the poetic sparring with William Dunbar in ‘The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie,’ but half of Scotland still spoke Irish, so the Irish language of the Ó Gnímh poet ancestors, if they were in Scotland, had its place.
 
Hector MacDonnell mentions a document in which Fear Flatha traces the family of a Padraíg Ó Gnímh back to a common great great grandfather — if this person was Padraíg Ó Gnímh the poet, we can assume the poetry goes back a few generations, possibly to Séann (born c. 1465). If the Agnew family members of Lochnaw were indeed cousins of the Ó Gnímh poets, they had an impressive record of Scots-language and Irish-language poets within their circle.
 
The two Agnew lines look different on paper on account of linguistic difference, court relationships, education, and religion; the bardic Agnews recording their own family history in Irish, the Agnews communicating in the language of court, the Agnews of Lochnaw being students of St. Andrews in the 1400s, the bards seemingly educated in traditional bardic schools. Then, by the early 1600s, one line is Protestant, the other Catholic. But it must be remembered that Scotland was a bilingual country: the Gaelic language still held sway and was, no doubt, useful in certain diplomatic situations. It is hard to imagine the Agnews of Lochnaw living in Galloway without at least speaking it.
 
Although there is only one record of a Lochnaw sheriff coming to Ireland (1460) on a mission for the Scottish crown, the seas and the princes of the seas, the MacDonnells, could not have been at a distance socially from Lochnaw. In 1399, Margery Bisset of Glenarm married Eoín Mór MacDonnell, whose descendant Randal MacDonnell would grant land to the Agnews of Lochnaw and the Agnews poets in the early 1600s, bringing two supposed lines of one clan together that may have been apart for generations. Eoín Mór’s father was John of the Isles (1336-1386). His mother was Margaret Stewart, daughter of the king of Scotland, Robert II. As discussed above, the second sheriff Andrew Agnew’s maternal grandmother was Princess Mary of Scotland, daughter of Robert III. Eoín Mór of the Glynns was a cousin of the Lochnaw Agnews through the families’ maternal lines. 
 
The Agnew-Kennedy marriage occurs in 1426, the same year that Andrew becomes the constable of Lochnaw. The forenames of the children are Andrew, Gilbert and Patrick, and these names will run right through the family history in Scotland and on to Ireland in the 1600s, where they will be repeated across counties Monaghan, Antrim and Down for the next three hundred years and more; albeit Robert comes to prevail over Gilbert. The children’s names might be explained as follows: Andrew, a mark of national allegiance; Gilbert, after the Kennedy family; Patrick, after who? Andrew’s father, Patrick?
 
In the 1440s, Gilbert and Nigel Agnew were monks at Glenluce, a Cistercian monastery 15 miles from Lochnaw. Séann of Dunfane is presumed to have been the first Agnew to take the ‘O’ for grandson, but he could have had brothers, and by the 1440s a generation of grandchildren in Carrick, the Rhins of Galloway or elsewhere. The name Gille Pagdraig (Patrick) is on the bardic family tree around this time. Hector MacDonnell proposes Patrick could be the common ancestor of the sheriffs and bards. Five miles from Glenluce is the wood of Dervaird, which is thought to have the word bard at its root. The Agnew poets may have had nothing to do with it, but the placename provides precedence for a lost Gaelic Galloway bardic tradition.
 
In 1451, the Agnew family received the hereditary title of sheriff of Wigtown from the King of Scotland. The Agnews were hereditary sheriffs until 1747. Their relationship with Larne, which apparently began in 1613, ended for the Lochnaw direct male line in 1707. It was not easy for the absentee landlord Patrick Agnew, the 8th Sheriff of Lochnaw (d. 1661), to collect rents in war-torn Ireland. Sir Patrick filled the land with his own tenants, including Alexr. Dinlape, John Cnockes, John Mitchell, Thomas MacCae, William Con, Hew Peebles, Wm. Jamison, John Lilburne, Thomas Boyd, John Trumbille, Archibald Adam, John Donaldson, John Mure, Alex Dinlape, Gavin Mure, John Weir and William Allisone. The lands he held in Kilwaughter parish were: Drumahoe, Drumnadonaghy, Lealies and Balliaderdawn (now Ballyedward in Kilwaughter, though none of the other phonetic transcriptions of the name seem approximate to Edward or ward for bard).
 
The Agnews of Lochnaw intermarried with other plantation families of Ulster. The Shaws, Agnews, Montgomerys and Savages of the Ards were all connected: for example, Elizabeth Shaw, sister of Ballygally’s James Shaw, was the mother of Sir James Montgomery, and her daughter, Jean, married Patrick Savage in 1623. The Shaws also married the Kilwaughter Castle Agnews. The Shaws were in the Ards peninsula before Ballygally, and there is good reason to believe that the Kilwaughter Agnews were with them. The Kilwaughter Castle and Ballygally Castle families intermarried over several generations. The Lochnaw Castle family and Ballygally Castle family also intermarried.
 
Have we found our poets in 1400s Galloway? No, but we’ve established that the MacDonnells, Agnews, Shaws and sheriffs and bards are all part the plantation web of speculators. If the Agnews, as we suspect from their heraldry and circumstances, are descended from the MacDonnells, then it makes perfect sense that the MacDonnells would place Agnews across their territory and areas of interest from the 1570s. This may also have been an opportune time for some of those Agnews who held onto their Catholic faith to migrate from Galloway. 
 
We can also surmise that Gaelic Galloway must have had some of the trappings of Gaelic culture, like poetry. We now need to figure out if the Agnews of Lochnaw had anything to do with the castle in Kilwaughter. This will contribute towards understanding if the bards and sheriffs were from one clan.

Section 8: The Family History Mystery
 
Patrick Agnew, a Galloway gentleman of note, is given land by Randal MacDonnell and asked to build a fortified house. He must provide militiamen to protect the land and agree to provide McDonnell with a certain annual income in kind. Patrick is descended from the Lochnaw family, but he is independent of the current sheriff, his cousin, and has made his own way through trade. He has been back and forth to Ireland his whole life. The Irish call him Ogneeve. He has seen the devastation following years of war, but Kilwaughter has hardly been touched, except for the old church that was destroyed in the time of Henry VIII. To appease the crown, he must provide protection for former church lands. The land in Kilwaughter is still forested and will need to be cleared. Randal has promised a road from Glenarm directly to the quarters. Patrick’s friend Shaw, has agreed to partner with Patrick on the Irish project. If Shaw takes Cairncastle, Patrick will be protected all the way to Glenarm. And then there is Fear Flatha Ogneeve, son of Brían, an Agnew of Galloway stock. Patrick has spoken to Fear Flatha, and if he is unhappy about the lands he has been assigned, he has hidden it well. There are seven quarters in all among the Ogneeve lands in Rory's Glen. There is also talk of cousin Sheriff Patrick taking some land in the coming months in neighbouring townlands.
 
This is an hypothesis of what might have happened before 1613.
 
Now for some facts. There is a Patrick in Kilwaughter, who is specifically described as a ‘gentleman’ in a primary document. He is a landowner who has sub-leased Ballykeel (a portion of Drumnadonaghy) from the Lochnaw Agnews in 1622. As discussed previously, Ballykeel has Galloway tenants with Gaelic names in 1668. If Patrick already has the two quarterlands (the demesne), his requirement for Ballykeel is maybe to do with access to a stream or a well or the quarry. Patrick of Ballykeel is also an agent of the absentee Lochnaw Agnews. He also apparently has a son called Patrick. It is possible that he has three sons —  three Agnew militiamen working for MacDonnell in 1631, John, Patrick and Gilbert, who are good candidates for Patrick the younger of Ballykeel, John of Ballyhampton and Gilbert of Inver. John will go on to marry Eleanor Shaw and inherit the two quarterlands and the castle. Hector MacDonnell notes that Randal MacDonnell paid John's inheritance tax in 1637, so the death of Patrick was perhaps premature. John and Eleanor had sons called Patrick, Henry and Francis. Henry and Francis are the names of Eleanor’s brothers.

 
Before continuing, we need to figure out if Kilwaughter Castle could have been owned by Fear Flatha Ogneeve’s family. The Ó Gnímh bardic family was beset by financial insecurity in the late 1500s and considered their patrons, the MacDonnells miserly; though this issue was resolved, and they were granted the quarters in Kilwaughter. Barbara Miers cites a land document from 1641 concerning Lisnadrumbard, which is signed by Shane, Milmore and Henry O’Gneiv. This could be evidence that John Ogneeve of Ballyhampton was closely related to Milmore on the bardic line.
 
There are some issues with the idea that John Ogneeve is from Fear Flatha’s line, besides the financial aspect — a planter would be expected to have some personal wealth. Firstly, Patrick, coupled with the name Gilbert, is typical of various branches of the Lochnaw family, and runs through subsequent generations in Kilwaughter. Secondly, the ornate stone coat of arms over the Kilwaughter Castle door on the new 1803 extension is the same as that of the Lochnaw Agnews — a chevron between two cinquefoils in chief, and a cross saltier in base crest, and eagle issuant grasping a sword. Edward Jones Agnew could have mistakenly assumed this to be his crest, but the same crest is on the grave of James Agnew III of County Down, who was born in 1711 and died in Pennsylvania. It is also on the eighteenth-century Monaghan grave in Donaghmoyne. Finally, there is religion. The first owner would probably have had to be Protestant at the time he took over church lands, so perhaps a generation before any of Fear Flatha's family made this change — that's if they made it at all. The easiest explanation for John appearing on a land document with Milmore (Maol Muíre) is that John, Milmore and all the other people at Rory’s Glen are somehow related — Galloway Gaels from Lochnaw, like their tenants. 
 
In a 1654 letter Patrick, the 8th Sheriff, warned his son, Andrew, about a neighbouring landlord called John Agnew. This was regarding an historic disagreement over land, and the letter, copied at the end of this blog, contains a note of disdain: ‘do quhat ye will to him or any of his.’ Placenames include a border with Ballykeel, and there is also mention of a well in this location. The Ballykeel part of the dispute would lead us to imagine that John Ogneeve of Ballyhampton is the person in the letter.
 
The land dispute also concerned Mullochbuie, which is Rory’s Glen. Patrick of Lochnaw suggests that John must provide evidence that he is entitled to these quarters. It’s hard to unravel what is going on here. We know that Fardorragh Mac Mulmorra signed for part of Mullaghboy in 1624, so it may be that the other part is contested between John Ogneeve and the sheriff’s son. If John of Ballyhampton is the former agent for Lochnaw, it is surprising to see that this dispute is historic. 

In 1654, the situation of the families in Rory’s Glen was not much improved from the war-torn 1640s. John Blair, agent of Patrick Agnew, the 8th sheriff, wrote about Kilwaughter, where hardly a plough was yoked in all the land. Of Rory’s Glen, he said, ‘there be many removed — the five quarter land is lyk to be the worst.’ Blair appeals for help for the tenants. The Blair family is associated with the Kilwaughter Castle family, and they also represent the Lochnaw Castle interests. 
 
Patrick Agnew appears to have lost this dispute, and it was perhaps a sign of things to come. John of Ballyhampton’s family and Patrick 8th of Lochnaw’s family may have shared the same crest, but one prevailed over the other in matters of land at Kilwaughter. The Kilwaughter quarterlands were also subsumed into the demesne and the Kilwaughter estate grew extensively throughout the 1700s and early 1800s.

Eóin, a poet, sold the family manuscripts in 1700 and made it clear that the family had been much reduced in circumstance and had taken to the plough. Eoín does not appear to be someone whose father was closely related to the main landowner of Kilwaughter Castle, but then neither does he appear to be someone whose family had such important roles within the MacDonnell family. As one of Fear Flatha’s poems suggests, there was a new order at play. There is also the issue of religion. Catholics could no longer serve as jurors, which was part of the family profession.
 
Is this one clan? I’m sorry to say that it’s still a mystery. My guess is that the majority of Agnews in the Hearth Money Rolls derive from one Galloway clan of Norse Gaelic Scots. They spoke Scots as well as Irish and came to Ireland and took whatever land was offered after years of war and devastation. There were no doubt various degrees of wealth and a variety of trades and professions and had a range of experiences of success, failure and even religious persecution in Ireland. Captain Andrew Agnew, for example, took part in the failed Eagle Wing crossing to America in 1636, a ship full of Presbyterians who did not live the dream in Ulster. He apparently climbed town, fixed the rudder after a storm and saved the lives of most of the passengers passengers, a gníomach undertaking for a man who may have had the seas in his blood.

The story of the master poets has perhaps less drama, but it is a poignant one, which I have tried to depict in an imagined history. By some miracle, the manuscripts were saved. 

The last Agnew manuscript, available for FREE here. 

Otherwise please check out The Secret Diary of Stephanie Agnew, which costs £12.00 and be found in the best bookshops and online here.




 

Pictures of Kilwaughter Castle. Black and White pictures Copyright, University of Delaware Library, curtesy of Kilwaughter Castle archive. Arial photographs from video footage by Peter Steele. NB. The crest on the door of the castle.

Agnew Coat of Arms from Andrew Agnew, as above.

As I said at the start, my sources are too extensive to include in a blog, so I’ll point to some headlines. Regarding Irish literature in the Irish language, I learned from the academic work of Katharine Simms, Art Hughes, Bernadette Cunningham, Raymond Gillespie, Caoimhín Breatnach, Brían Ó Cuív and Fiona MacDonald. I think that anyone about to explore the Agnews should start with the work of Brían Ó Cuív in order to understand the linguistic challenges, which I touch on below. On Galloway history I benefited from the writings of Richard Oram, among others cited in the thesis. On family history, I explored the work of Hector MacDonnell in the Glynns journal (1993). He promoted the idea that the Agnew bards of Kilwaughter in County Antrim and Agnew sheriffs of Lochnaw in Galloway have had a shared history. A useful illustrated book was also independently published by Douglas Shawbridge a few years ago, bringing the Larne area to life with some great illustrations. He associates the bards with Cairncastle. Barbara Miers also wrote on the Agnews for Familia, focussing on the O’Neill connections and proposing that the Agnews of Kilwaughter Castle were from the bardic line and that the Galloway Agnews were in Larne only temporarily. I made my own contribution in Familia last year, demonstrating how the Agnew story allows us to challenge identity prejudice. Since then, I’ve continued the conversation with Jacqueline Agnew, a County Antrim Agnew who has written for Familia on a later period of Agnew history, and Linda Hooke, who has a wealth of knowledge about Kilwaughter history, has written on the Gingles and has a great way with maps. I am grateful to them and to Cairán Ó Maitiú, who helped me with the Irish language aspects of this research. His work on the Ó Gnímh master poets is soon to be published in the Glynns journal. Acknowledgements for the original project are contained in my thesis., e.g. Ryan Greer and the Anderson family, who allowed me to visit their castles!

Appendix 1: Language & Family History
 
The Agnew family history journey is a linguistic quest of Norse, French, Latin, Middle Irish, Scots and Early Modern English. Language is an important consideration for anyone trying to crack the Agnew story — understanding how Middle English and Early Modern English appear in print, for example, how the E at the end of English words becomes silent so that Latharna and Larne are both pronounced the same way, how the V moves to U or the W develops from UU — or the W overlaps with V.  Then there is Irish with changes in the genitive and rules on aspiration, so that Mh becomes V or W. C can travel to Scotland one century and travel back to Ireland as K the next — Galloway’s Gille Brigte can be Gilbert or Kilbride, while Gille Padraíg can be Kilpatrick. The Latinisation or Christianisation of names in the Agnew story is common. Alastair becomes Alexander. Séann and Eoín might be Iain in Scotland or John on paper. Somhairle goes to Sorley and sometimes comes out Samuel. The Gn becomes N. Then there is the way that Mac ‘son of’ runs into the son and takes a G, as in Magee for Mac Aodh, which by some trick becomes Hugh. Most important of all is understanding the Galloway A names. These are assumed to be O names that have been taken from Ireland and adapted, but there are so many A names in the Rhins of Galloway, e.g., Elisaeus Adougan, that it might just be a Galloway feature.
 
As discussed, placenames that were Scandinavian or Anglo-Norman with a ‘town/ton’ suffix were given a Bally prefix during a period of Gaelicisation and then translated into Scots. A Kilwaughter area became Heidwood, while Tobermore became Meikle Well for a time, but the influx of Galloway folk may not have immediately given Kilwaughter the broad Scots that can still be heard today. From what I have seen through placenames, land documents and letters, Larne had Gaelic speaking incomers from Galloway in the first half of the 1600s and Scots speaking farmers in the second half of the century. The Presbyterian Minute book of 1654 is revealing in terms of language.
 
I’m not convinced by the theory that people moved from Ogneeve to Agnew to disguise their Irishness: the 1669 Hearth Money Rolls are filled with Irish names. Spelling hadn’t yet settled, and besides, Agnew sounds as Irish as Ogneeve. In Kilwaughter, where the Scots tongue prevailed, Irish speakers may have moved directly from Irish to Scots rather than Irish to English —and this might well apply throughout the Glens. It is clear from the English speech of people today that the Irish sounds are still on the tongues of the Glens from Larne right up to Ballycastle.
 
The language story of County Antrim fascinates my young Presbtyerian protagonist, Stephanie, and she is particularly enamoured by the names of the poets’ family tree. Presumed to be written by Fear Flatha in 1618, the following gives a flavour of Gaelic history and relates some Norse-Gaelic credentials — the male line descends from Somerled and his marriage to Ragnhild, daughter of King Olaf of Man:
 
Fear Flatha, son of Brían, son of An Fear Doirche, son of Seaán, son of Cormac, son of Maol Mitnigh Óg, son of Maol Mithigh Mór, son of Gille Pádraig, son of Séann of Dun Fiodháin, son of Maol Muire, son of Eóin Gníomh [Progenitor], son of Aonghus Mor [d. circa.1292], son of Alasdair, son of Domhnall, son of Ragnall.
 
The spellings by O’Hart in 1876, who incidentally mixes Fear Flatha’s flourit up with that of Brían, may be of use to anyone wishing to take this search further: Eoin, Maolmuire, John MacGnieve, Patrick, Mulbiadh, Mulbiadh Oge, Cormac, John Ferdorach, Brian Fearflatha.
 
I have tried to assess if the names tell us something about where the Ó Gnímh poets lived in the 1400s and the 1500s. Why Séann of Dun Fiodháin would have been a constable just outside Ballymena in the second half of the fourteenth century, I do not know, but Hector MacDonnell ruled out the Dufane in the Isle of Arran. The next few names have religious connotations. Gille Pádraig, devotee of Patrick, is followed by a devotee of Mitnigh, which is an older medieval name. In The Annals of Four Masters Congalach, High King of Ireland, is the son of Maelmithih, who plunders Ui-Meith and Fearnmhagh (in Monaghan) in the 900s. There was a perhaps a desire among these MacDonnell descendants to assert their own Irish credentials in the 1400s, or there was a Gaelic revival at play. Regardless, this could have happened in Galloway or Ulster. The generations of Cormac, Seaán, An Fear Doirche and Brían may have been influenced by names within the O’Neill dynasty, which places us in Ireland; though a scan of the names of the 1586 followers of MacDonnells suggests they are typical of the period in the isles too. The Clandeboye O’Neills were overlords of the main areas associated with the Agnew name, an area covering modern-day counties Antrim, Down and Monaghan.
 
Seeking the name Ogneeve on any register after 1901 is tricky because the name was written as Agnew from the mid -1600s, so the appearance of Ogneeve might relate to the Gaelic revival of the 1890s. I have not found any documentation using OgReiff — Fear Flatha translated his own name Ogniuu. I have checked the word gnímh in the placename database and it doesn’t seem to become greeve until the late 1600s or early 1700s elsewhere in Ireland. Agnew is, by all accounts, the received pronunciation in the local dialect in Larne in counties Antrim and Down. However, there is a townland Down Survey Map which is at the heart of Kilwaughter and in or near today’s Rory’s Glen, which is labelled ‘Tovin, Griffin.’ There could be an alternative story behind the Griffin, but it is worth noting. There certainly seems to be movement of placenames in Kilwaughter in the 1650s.
 
The Lochnaw names, meanwhile, are Latinised and Anglicised, so they are easier to follow. If Andrew 9th Sheriff had done a family tree through the progenitor line, it might have looked like this:
 
Andrew, son of Patrick, son of Andrew, son of Patrick, son of Patrick, son of Quentin, son of Andrew, son of Andrew.
 
Immediately this looks different from the tree of the Agnew/Ogneeve poets, but what if some of these names began in Gaelic? Quentin’s seal in the 1487 says Quentinacȝ Gnev. (The yogh may denote a Gaelic ch sound). Seals in the 1500s are marked Agnew.
 
The Secret Diary of Stephanie Agnew costs £12.00 and be found in the best bookshops and online here.

I have also written an imagined history of the story of the last Agnew manuscript, available for FREE here.
 

Example of spelling Ogneeve for Captain John, who is also Agnew and Agneave. NB. "What was the news with him." Copyright: 1641 Depositions, Trinity College Dublin. https://1641.tcd.ie/.

Copyright: TBC. 1637 Inheritance Tax paid by the Earl of Antrim for John AGNEAVE.

Appendix 2: Example of Scots Communication
Lochnaw, the  19  May  1654.
 
Luffing son, I ressavit your letter, percaives the cans of your stay. As to your particulars with Johne Agnew, I perceive ye are in trysting, bot gife ye be advised be me, ye sail nevr tryt with him till he produces his lese; and I assure myself thar is no indifferent friends that can think bott his lese or any other writs he has of me must be his ground, for otherwayes he has nothing to say, and quhen he produces his rycht your compt is sone calculatt.
 
Concerning the moor, his Ballicoll [Ballykeel?] has no part of the moor but cuts at the cross dyke abuve Toberhua [well—?], quhich is the march betwixt Ballicoll and Lagnegollen [Hollow—?], and goes along to the round knoll at Knocketonau [hill—?]. Neither of them has to do with the top.  As to the quarters of Mullochbuie and Stronsie, gif he have gud rycht to them, he will get according to his rycht. Bot the toleration he had of me to the mure was in my  tenants' own  default, for they thocht nothing of it, and wont gife no rent, but they sent word after, and then gladlie gave payment. There is neither mure nor dark there that any man has them of me bot he has his writ for it.
 
These to you, that ye may eschew the experience I had with him, quhen I had procedure in law against him, quhilk processe was sone endit, he keeping the ground. I, with his fare words, being content to refer to my son Seuchane and Mr. James Blair concerning the acht hundred marks and three terms payment that rested. They decerned me to quit the acht hundred merks, and for the land it  was waste, quhile he had the profit of pasture and hey without tak or stroke of pen.
 
So, sone, lett my counsell, occasioned of experience, be an advertisement to you. Ye sail never have the make or good word behind your back, do quhat ye will to him or any of his.
 
Ye saw that old Achneil (Mure) has bene in Aresay till the 9th of May.  I perceive his friend Auchindrain (Mure) [words  illegible] desyres ye wald gar Andro or William get the band and put it in Carlton (Catlicart) his hands  till your home cumming.
 
I can wrett no more for the present; but as ye have occasionen be not slaw to writ. The Lord give you prosperity and happie success in all your endevours, — Your luffing Father,
 
Patrick  Agnew.
 
I entreat you bring me ane saddell, and let it be of the same lysene of  the  last,  bott not prodigall, nor so high of the ends before.

​The Secret Diary of Stephanie Agnew costs £12.00 and be found in the best bookshops and online here.

I have also written an imagined history of the story of the last Agnew manuscript, available for FREE here.
 
 

 

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Examination of Owen Magee, 7/5/1653, 1641 Depositions, Trinity College Dublin, MS 838, fols 255r-255v, http://1641.tcd.ie/index.php/deposition/?depID=838255r297

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Copyright: Trinity College Dublin. Examination of Katherine Magee, 30/4/1653, 1641 Depositions, Trinity College Dublin, MS 838, fols 268r-268v, http://1641.tcd.ie/index.php/deposition/?depID=838268r306

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