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1610 1618 1641 1652 1654 1655 1657 1659 1661
1610 MacMurrough Land Confiscation
In 1610 there was a small plantation of the county in which part of the land of the McMurroughs in the northern part of the county was confiscated and given to English settlers. As a result of local protests over this plantation, many local families were transported to Virginia.
Note some MacMurroughs must have remained because a MacMurrough married an O'Brien (see 1657 &)
Heralds Visitation of County Wexford (GO 8 NL Pos. 97)
Book of Survey and Distribution (NL Ms 975)
Source: Whelan (Daniel Gahan) p. 204, 1987
The O'Brien land owners were:
1. Hugh, 2. Gerald, 3. Callagh, 4. Bart, 4. Lisagh, 4. Lewis, & 5. Ed MacDaniel (The numbers mark their holdings on map above right).
1641 Rebellion (Court Records)
Following has been provided by Dan MacGonigle:
"...Furthermore the names of those involved in the 1641
Rebellion were listed in the records of the Court of the Upper
Bench, Michealmas 1642 and of the Grand Jury of County Wexford
1643. These documents implicated some 750 names as having been
involved in the rebellion. The evidence was obtained by such
sources as depositions by individuals passionately opposed to the
rebellion. They had been stored in the Public Record Office in
Dublin. Fortuitously, Philip Hore transcribed this information
and published it in 1912. The originals were destroyed in Public
Record office fire within a few years. The following O'Briens
along their locales are listed in the publication and these are
as follows:
585. Garrett M'Teige O'Brien of Tomegarrow, gent(p. Ballycarney,
b. Scarawalsh)
Tomgarrow(Ordnance Survey Map 68) is just west of the River
Slaney and a little over two miles up river from the Scarawalsh
bridge.
586. Hugh Oge M'Art O'Brien of Tombrick, gent(p.Ballycarney,
b.Scarawalsh)
Tombrick(OSM 68) West side of River Slaney and some two and
one-half miles upriver from Tomgarrow.
587. Callough M'William O'Brien of Moyedy, gent(Moyeady, p.St
Mary's, Bunclody, b.Scarawalsh.
Moyeady(OSM 68)is also located on the west side of the Slaney and
about one-half mile upriver from Tombrick.
589. Sisagh M'Murtagh O'Brien of Ballytorner,
gent(Ballinturner, p. Ballycarney, b.Scarawalsh;
CS(Civil Survey):Lisagh McMorogho Breine)
Ballinturner(OSM 68) west side of River Slaney and one mile
upriver from Tomgarrow.
591. Garrott M'Callough O'Brien of Moedy, gent(Moyeady, p.St Mary's, Bunclody, b.Scarawalsh)
592.Edmund M'William O'Brien of Ballydonoughreogh,
gent(Ballyphilip, p.St Mary's, Bunclody, b. Scarawalsh)
Ballyphilip (OSM 68) is about two miles WNS of Moyeady.
**593. Morrish M'Daniel Owre (O'Brien) of Tomegarrow, gentTomgarrow, p.Ballycarney, b.Scarawalsh)
594. Brien M'Donnell Owre(O'Brien) of Tomegarrow, gent
All of the above listed individuals all live within a few miles of each other and are listed as land owners (Whalen, The Past, 1990, p24-54)."
Dan McGonigle tells us:
"As did nearly all of the Irish, the O'Briens of Wexford
fared very poorly when they dared fight against Cromwell. Grattan
Flood in his chapter, 'Enniscorthy under the Puritan Regime',
notes the plight of many "Papist dissidents" who lost
their land as a consequence of the Cromwellian Conquest. In 1652
the list of those who were "transplanted" to Connaught
from the district around Enniscorthy include Donagh O'Brien and
Art Oge O'Brien." (see 1657 for continued thread).
1654-56
Civil Survey. Vol. 9. (NL 6551 Dublin)
"Census" of Ireland. Edited by S. Fender. Dublin: Stationery Office, 1939;
SLC film 924648; some baronies in The Past, vols. 4 and 5.
Catholic Clerics were the particular focus of the Roundheads and were shown only torture and death by Cromwell. A Daniel O'Brien, "The venerable Dean of Ferns was martyred on Holy Saturday, April 13, 1655 (Flood, History of Enniscorthy, 1855, p81) "
Dan McGonigle tells us:
"Then in the Commonwealth Records for the year 1657 fortytwo forfeiting propieters are listed from the Barony of Scarwalsh in which Enniscorthy is situated. Among these fortytwo names are MacMurrough O'Brien and Colla MacWilliam O'Brien (Flood, 1898, p81-83). Later in the same text a list of the forfeited lands shows Donagh O'Brien's property to encompass St. John's Priory which is about a mile and one-half from Enniscorthy (Flood, 1898, p. 192). Hore in his 1911 History of County Wexford says that Donagh O'Bryen also lost 200 Acres of land in Ballynlaghill as well as the property of St Joanes (Hore, 1911, p502-504)."
Pender's Census (NL Ir 31041 c4)
| The Prinicapal Names of County Wexford in 1659 | Surnames | |
| Bryan, O'Bryan & McBryan | O'Breene | |
| Forth | ||
| Bargy | 12 | |
| Schelmaliere | 15 | 9 |
| Shelburne | 8 | |
| Bantry | ||
| Ballaghkeene | 13 | |
| Gorey | ||
| Scarawalsh | ||
| Total: | 48 | 9 |
Brien et al forthcoming
1661 Iron-Works Settlers in Enniscorthy
In 1661 many hundreds of English families were brought into Enniscorthy to man the iron-works which were growing rapidly in that town.
(Above & earlier documentation, we) believe, supports an
argument for a continual presence of the O'Brien surname in
Wexford dating back at least to the Norman Invasion. And I would
expect that more extensive investigation would only fortify this
opinion. ...(we should) explore what happened to this surname
after the Cromwellian conquest. For the surname seems to
disappear during the ensuing years and only surfacing sometime
again in the nineteenth century. I say this recognizing that
variations in spelling occurred some of which were a direct
result of the hammer of the English penal laws and some of which
occurred more innocently with uninformed and uninterested English
officials with probably little patience attemping to deal with
Gaellic surnames.
During the late medievel centuries the North of Wexford County
had continued to have been largely occupied and controlled by
native Gaellic people right up until the last decades of the
Sixteenth Century. The Anglo Normans and the Viking settlements
had mostly involved the southern portion of the County and these
people had shown less interested and resolve in the Northern
portion of Wexford, notably Scarawalsh.. Then Towards the end of
the Sixteenth Century with the Elizabethan battles a New English
presence occurred in Northern Wexford and with the result that
many of the the Gaellic Irish lost their lands. The motivation
for this New English interest in this portion of the County was
to exploit the huge rich oak forests of the Duffry. Among the
arrivals was Henry Wallop who proceeded to export enormous
quantities of pipestaves and hogshead boards to the Madeiras,
Canaries, and Bordeaux. He produced brewing vessels in
Enniscorthy. Most importantly, he secured a contract with the
English Navy to supply timber (Goff, 1990). Referring to the Down
Survey and the Civil Survey land holding in North Wexford in 1640
reveal the native Gaellic possessed only 15,291(25.9%) acres out
of a total of 59,110 Acres. The O'Briens still retained some
7,021 Acreage at that time (Goff 1990 & Whalen 1987).
William H. Grattan Flood, History of Enniscorthy. (Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland, 1898)
Henry A. Goff, N.T., M.A.,H.D.E. Land Settlements in County Wexford, 1640-1710. (A PhD Dissertation. National University of Ireland, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. January 1990
Philip Herbert Hore, History of the Town and county of Wexford.(Elliot Stock, London, 1911)
Kevin Whalen, A List of those from County Wexford Implicated in the 1641 Rebellion.(The PAST, No. 17, 1990, p24-54)
Kevin Whelan, Wexford History and Society.(Geography Publications, Dublin, 1987)