Hannon

© Donal G. Burke 2014

The lands of the O Hannon family in east Galway lay for the most part in that part of the parish of Abbeygormacan situated in the barony of Longford, within the ancestral territory of the O Maddens and about the Augustinian monastery of St. Mary also known as Via Nova, in that parish. To their west in the late medieval period, within the greater territory of the Burkes of Clanricarde, lay the lands of the Wall family about Kilreekill, gaelicized descendants of the Anglo-Norman de Valles, to their north the lands of the O Donnellans and to their south and east the wider territory of the O Maddens.

The Anglo-Normans maintained a presence from an early stage in this area following their conquest of Connacht about 1235. By the end of the thirteenth century or beginning of the fourteenth century, one Gilbert de Valle appears to have held lands in the vicinity. Richard son of Gilbert de Valle sued the prior of Abbeygormacan ‘for fifty-four acres of land with their appertenances in Fynoughta, of which Dermod O Feigher, the former abbot, had unjustly disseized his father’. This Richard de Valle appears to have flourished about the early years of the fourteenth century as the same Dermod O Feigher was said to be abbot of Abbeygormacan about 1309, in which year ‘William son of William Hackett, sued the abbot for five acres of pasture and forty of turbery in Corbellynegall.’[i] The name Corbellynegall or ‘Corbally of the foreigners’ suggests an Anglo-Norman presence there at one time and appears to be a reference to Corballymore in the early modern parish of Abbeygormacan. In the 1407 Episcopal Rentals of the Diocese of Clonfert this denomination is given as ‘Corballimore nangall’ and listed alongside a number of others about the parish of Abbeygormacan in the hands of the de Valles.[ii]

Map showing the location of that part of the parish of Abbeygormacan (in green) that lies within the mid nineteenth century barony of Longford (in yellow) in the east of County Galway. Modern towns and villages shown in red.

Athenry

Although the family would be closely associated with the area about Abbeygormacan in the late medieval and early modern period, a comfortable family of the name Hannyn was established in the town of Galway in the mid to late fourteenth century. John son of Philip Hannyn held the position of a burgess of the town of Galway and held property at the towns of Galway and Athenry and lands about Clare (the later village of Claregalway, in close proximity to Galway). His position as a burgess would suggest that he was a merchant of that town. He was dead by 1394, in which year his daughter and heiress, Katyng or Katherine Hannyn, granted all her lands and tenements in all three locations to John son of Walter Blake, burgess of Athenry.[iii] The deed was witnessed by some of the most prominent members of the town of Athenry and others and sealed with the seals of the municipality of Athenry and that of Katherine. The same family appear to have had a close connection with Athenry at this time, with one Walter Hannyn buried in a prominent location ‘between the two altars in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin’ in the church of the Dominican friary there.[iv]

Ecclesiasts

The O Hannons, like many of the families of Gaelic and Anglo-Norman origin of the territory down the centuries, provided ecclesiasts to the diocese of Clonfert and surrounding dioceses.

It was common in the medieval and late medieval period for parishes often to have had their priests or clerics appointed from those families whose ancestral lands lay within or in close proximity to that parish, individuals from the family group thereby deriving the income from the benefices of that office.

The parish church of Kilreekill was attached to the Augustinian monastery of St. Mary or Via Nova in the mid fifteenth century.[v] One Thomas Ohanyn, clerk, of the diocese of Clonfert, was involved in a dispute with one Willaim O Fahy, priest, each claiming an entitlement to a canonry of Clonfert and the prebend of ‘Deochte,’ (Droughta) in the parish of Kilreekill. The same parish lay within the ancestral lands of the Wall family but adjacent to those of the O Hannons. Both men illegally agreed to divide the revenues of the prebend between them, but both were deprived of the same when brought to the attention of Rome about 1459.[vi]

Donatus (or Donagh) Ohathnyn held the prebend of Fyndiur (Finnure) about Abbeygormacan in the mid fifteenth century and about 1460 was accused of illegally making a bargain with one John O Cormican, who aspired to a canonry of the diocese of Clonfert and the same prebend, by which O Hannon, in return for a payment from O Cormican, resigned his canonry and prebend in favour of O Cormican.[vii] It is unclear if this is the same man or another of the name who, as Donatus Ohanyn, was a canon of Clonfert and held the prebendary of ‘Ciullcuban’ at about this time. The illegitimate son of an Augustinian abbot and an unmarried woman, he received a dispensation from Rome to be appointed to holy orders, to which the nature of his birth would otherwise have provided an obstacle.[viii] When the archdeacon of Clonfert, James O Brogay died, this Donatus Ohanyn was appointed Archdeacon of Clonfert by Pope Pius II in or immediately before 1464. Having previously offered to resign his canonry and prebend if appointed to the archdeaconry, the authorities in Rome ordained that his successor in the canonry and prebend be one David Condun of the diocese of Killala and who would later serve as abbot of Abbeygormacan.[ix]

Donatus, however, encountered opposition to his appointment when the Pope died before Ohanyn could occupy the post and one Eugene (or Owen) O Donnellan, a clerk of the diocese, cast aspersions on the validity of the previous Pope’s letters. O Donnellan pressed the case, which resulted in O Donnellan being appointed to the archdeaconry in place of Ohanyn and upon the latter a sentence of ‘perpetual silence’ was imposed. Ohanyn appealed his sentence to Rome and the new Pope ordered the prior of St, Mary’s monastery at Clontuskert Omane to investigate and if neither man had a greater entitlement to the post, the post be given to Ohanyn.[x]

Donatus appears to have been successful in his appeal as he held the archdeaconry of Clonfert in 1465. He accused one Edmund Burke, canon of Tuam who also held the rectory of the parish church of Loughrea at that time, of various offences, from that of cultivating his hair and growing a long beard to being present and assisting ‘at many homicides and mutilations of men’s limbs.’ The accused man was to be tried and, if found guilty, Ohanyn was to be granted his canonry of Tuam and the prebend he held at Kilmeen in that diocese.[xi]

It is unclear if this is the same man as one Donatus Ohanyn who served as abbot of the monastery at Abbeygormacan in the mid fifteenth century. (The Donatus who served as archdeacon, however, was not referred to at any time as abbot up to 1465.) Donatus Ohanyn resigned his abbacy ‘on account of old age, bodily weakness and loss of sight’ immediately prior to 1466, but did so without informing or having the approval of the Papal Court. The Church authorities in Rome wrote in the autumn of 1466 to Thomas Ohanyn (O Hannon), canon of Clonfert, to summon Donatus and those others involved and, if the resignation was found to be lawful, David Condun, canon of Clonfert, was to be appointed in his to the abbacy and to the parish church of Kilreekill, annexed to the monastery.[xii]

The abbey at Abbeygormacan was suppressed by the officials of King Henry VIII early in the sixteenth century when the King broke with Rome. When Ulick na gceann Burke, chieftain of the territory of Clanricarde, was created 1^st Earl of Clanricarde in July of 1543 by the King, Ulick and his heirs were granted the monastery at Abbeygormacan and its associated lands.[xiii]

In the early years of the Protestant Church in the diocese of Clonfert, one Maurice Hanyn was listed as a reading minister at the time of the Royal Visitation of the dioceses of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh in 1615. He held at that time the prebendary of Finnure in Abbeygormacan.[xiv]

Early seventeenth century landholders

Although the O Hannon lands lay in Sil Anmchadha, the territory of the O Maddens, they do not appear to have been among the families who owed services or dues to the O Madden chieftain in the late sixteenth century.

John O Hannyn of Monester O Gormegan (recte: Abbeygormacan), Mortagh O Hanyn of Monester O Gormegan and Nicholas O Hanyn of Monester O Gormegan were among the many individuals of the barony of Longford in east Galway issued a pardon by the Crown in May of 1603, the first year of the reign of King James I.[xv]

About 1618 Nicholas O Hanin of Castleheyny in Galway County, gentleman, was confirmed in possession of the castle of Castleheyny, a half quarter of Garranecarta, half quarter of Liscuoill, half quarter of Sunnagh, half quarter of Cuilin, one quarter of a cartron of Koillebegg, one cartron of Carowmagoige, one parcel of Gortimacranoiggy, one quarter of Iskerboy, one cartron or what was identified as one eighth of Adragule, a half cartron of Derry (recte: Derrew), a half quarter of Clownepraisky, one cartron of Corbane, a half quarter of Killihan, five sixteenths of the quarter of Lurgan and one cartron of Clownedulus, all in the barony of Longford.[xvi] At the same time one Donogh O Hanin ‘of Manistir in Galway co, gentleman,’ held one quarter of Sunnagh, one cartron of Gortmoragh, three cartrons of Ballyvaghin, one quarter of Cappaghvortyn and a half quarter of Gorownesillagh, all in the barony of Longford.

This Nicholas of Castleheyney appears to have been the senior-most member of the name. From a comparison of the lands he held in 1618 with those held by members of the family in the late 1630s, it is apparent that he is Nicholas, the son of John son of Donagh O Hannon, the latter of whom may have flourished about the end of the sixteenth century or thereabout.  Nicholas held an even larger estate in the late 1630s than that ascribed to him about fifteen or twenty years earlier, comprising large tracts of land in the parish of Abbeygormacan and parcels in the parishes of Kiltormer, Killimorbologue and Tynagh, all within the barony of Longford in east Galway.

The principal family of the name was sufficiently wealthy at an earlier period to have constructed a tower-house or castle upon their lands and, while it did not survive into the modern period, it appears to have been situated within the denomination known in the mid seventeenth century as ‘In Cormacke Oge alias Castle Towne’ in the parish of Abbeygormacan.[xvii] The structure itself was referred to as ‘Castleheyney’ and may have been an anglicised corruption of ‘caisleán Uí hAinnine’ or ‘the castle of O Hannon.’

While Nicholas was described as in possession of the castle about 1618, the castle had been acquired by Robert fitz Walter Blake (ie. Robert son of Walter Blake) prior to 1615. The Patent Rolls of the reign of King James I show a small number of individuals of long-established families from Galway town or Athenry, such as the Blakes, Bodkins, French or Browne, having acquired tracts of estates in the heart of what were formerly Gaelic or Gaelicized territories across County Galway by the early years of the seventeenth century. Robert fitzWalter Blake, a wealthy merchant of Galway, had held mortgages and rent-charges over a large number of landholders of old families across County Galway and had acquired considerable property in the county in his lifetime.[xviii] This Robert Blake died in 1615 and left all his property that lay in the barony of Longford in east Galway, including the castle he acquired at Castletown in Abbeygormacan, to his fifth son John.[xix] This John was proprietor of the entire quarter of Castletown and other lands in the parish of Abbeygormacan in the late 1630s.[xx] It is possible, however, given the description of Nicholas Hanin as ‘of Castleheyney’ about 1656 that he may have leased the same from Blake.[xxi]

The exact location of the castle is uncertain. Given the alternative name of ‘In Cormack Oge’ for ‘Castle Towne,’ it would appear that the modern townland of Castletown in Abbeygormacan at that time formed part of the same denomination as the adjacent modern townland of Cormick, half of which lay in the parish of Abbeygormican and half in Duniry, beside other O Hannon lands in Cloonprask. Nicholas Hanyne was described as ‘of Culdecashell’ when he was listed first among a number of prominent east Galway landholders who served as the jury at an inquisition taken at Loughrea in 1629 into the extent of the property of one Nicholas Caddell alias Blake.[xxii] While this would appear to suggest the possibility that the townland of Coolagh in Abbeygormacan, adjacent to Cormick, may also have formed part of Castletown it is unlikely as the quarter of ‘Cullagha,’ although the property of the same Nicholas in the late 1630s, was given separately from Castletown and Cormick in the mid seventeenth century and ‘Culdecashell’ may be a corruption of ‘Oldcastle’, given later elsewhere as the residence of Nicholas and his son.[xxiii]

John’s cousin Richard, son of Martin son of Walter Blake, by the first half of the seventeenth century also acquired property in the barony of Longford and was seated at Kilquain in the parish of the same name (a parish later also known as Quansborough) in the heart of the ancestral lands of the O Maddens.[xxiv]

Nicholas Hannin, Wentworth and the Galway Jury 1635

While the landholders of County Galway had surrendered their lands to the Crown in the second decade of the century during the reign of King I and received grants for the same from that king, the patents had not been enrolled in Chancery. This failure caused a great deal of uncertainty concerning the landholder’s legal title. It was feared that their lands could be subject to confiscation and given to new settlers in a plantation scheme. In 1632 Sir Thomas Wentworth arrived in Ireland as Lord Deputy and as a prelude to a plantation, proceeded to establish the King’s legal title to the lands of Connacht, based in part on the lordships of Ulster and Connacht having been inherited by the Crown from the de Burghs through various marriages over the centuries. Wentworth intimidated juries established in the counties of Roscommon, Mayo and Sligo into finding in favour of the king in those counties but encountered strong opposition in County Galway. In that county he held the inquisition into the King’s property rights in Portumna in 1635. He was opposed by Richard Burke, 4^th Earl of Clanricarde, a descendant of the de Burghs and a favourite of the King and by the Galway jury, who refused to find for the king.

Nicholas Hannin was one of the twelve chosen to form the Galway jury, all significant landholders of the county. Given the social prominence of each of the jurors, such as Sir Ulick Burke of Glinsk, Bermingham Baron of Athenry, John Donnellan, Melaghlin, Teige and Edmund Kelly and John Lawrence, it would appear that this Nicholas Hannin was the senior-most representative of his family. In retaliation for their intransigence, Wentworth had each of the jurors imprisoned, heavily fined and their estates seized. Their stance retarded Wentworth’s plans for the plantation of part of Connacht and while Wentworth eventually fell from grace and was later executed, the jurors were required to pay the greater part of their fines until King Charles I later remitted the remaining amount. (Decades later, under King Charles II, an attempt was made to have the juror’s heirs pay the outstanding sums but in 1662 Charles II decreed that the fines should remain remitted.)

Hannin tomb at Abbeygormacan

In the early seventeenth century Nicholas Hannin had erected an arched wall tomb in the gable wall of the north transept in the remains of the abbey at Abbeygormacan. The design of the tomb, an altar tomb with a rounded arch with keystone over, was similar in style to that erected at Kilnalahan in South East Galway by the Burkes of Pallas, a family with whom the Hannins were intimately connected at that time. The tomb was inscribed with the words ‘Orimvret mori mur Hoc monvmentvm erigi fecervnt D: Nicholavs Hanyn et Ranyneta Maddyn ipsivs vxor pro se: svis qve prosteris Anno Domini Jan 1637.’ Designed as the tomb of the most prominent member of the family, this Nicholas is in all likelihood that Nicholas son of John son of Donagh O Hannon.

The tomb of Nicholavs Hanyn and his wife Ranyneta Maddyn at Abbeygormacan.

Nicholas had at least one son. ‘John Hanyne of Oldcastle in the County of Gallway, gent., eldest son of Nicholas Hanyne of the same, gent.,’ married Una, daughter of Thomas Burke of Pallas and had by her one son and two daughters; Nicholas, Mary and Ranitt, all of whom were unmarried when their father died at Abbeygormacan in March of 1638. John was buried at Abbeygormacan and his brother-in-law, Jonacke Burke, provided the Office of the Ulster King of Arms with details of his obituary for Ulster’s records. (N.L.I., Dublin, G.O., Funeral Entries Vol. 17, p. 78)

Cromwellian Period

Nicholas, son of John Hanyne and Una Burke, according to a pedigree of the senior-most branch of the name recorded in the office of the Ulster King of Arms (N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 205 Will Pedigrees, Vol. 3, p. 283), had at least two sons; Nicholas and Hugh Hanyne, the latter described as ‘of Iskerboy.’ Hugh would appear to have also been identified as Hugh ‘of Sunnagh.’

Nicholas Hanin and Hugh Hanin were among the landholders of County Galway whose lands were confiscated in whole or in part as a result of the Cromwellian confiscations and transplantations in the mid seventeenth century. Nicholas Hanin of Castleheyney, by a decree of May 1656, was allocated by the Cromwellian authorities lands amounting to approximately one thousand two hundred profitable Irish acres within the parish of Abbeygormacan within the immediate vicinity of his original address.[xxv] In the same year Hugh Hannin of Sunnagh was allocated lands of between one hundred and sixty-nine profitable Irish acres and three hundred and thirty four acres within the parishes of Abbeygormacan and Kiltormer.[xxvi]

Restoration of the monarchy and the Act of Settlement

Following the turmoil of that period and the restoration of the monarchy in the person of King Charles II in 1660, an Act of Settlement was passed in Parliament, in an attempt to address the complaints of those whose lands had been taken or divided by the Cromwellians and to placate those who had acquired lands at that time. The two principal landholders of the name at that time were still ‘Hugh Hannin of Abygormikan’ who was given as head of his own immediate family and ‘Nicholas Hannin of Abygormikan,’ given separately as head of his own family among the dispossessed landowners in 1664 whose lands was confiscated by the Cromwellian authorities and whose names were submitted to the Lord Lieutenant in that year for consideration for restitution.[xxvii]

It would appear from the lands allocated to each both by the Cromwellians and later under the Act of Settlement that Nicholas was the senior, which would correspond to the details given in the pedigree later compiled by the Ulster King of Arms. Under the Act of Settlement Nicholas Hanyn was confirmed in possession of part of the former lands of his wider family. His lands under the Act comprised the quarter of ‘In Cormacke Oge alias Castle Towne’, Coolemnye, Sunnagh, Ceappanaghtan, the half quarters of Killbegg and Liscoyle, the cartron of Corbane alias Carrowbane and parcels of land in Lorga and Dromlisnepislye, all within the parish of Abbeygormacan.[xxviii]

According to the Hannin pedigree, Nicholas Hanyn or Hannin, by his wife Dorothy, had an only daughter and heiress, Cecily. Nicholas’ brother Hugh was given in the same pedigree as having two sons; James of Iskerboy and Murtagh of Sunnagh. No mention was made therein to a possible son named Nicholas who became a friar. James, the elder son of Hugh, married his cousin Cecily, daughter of his uncle Nicholas Hannin, while Murtagh married one Mary Madden.

It would appear that the family of Hugh Hannin remained connected with the nearby Franciscan friary at Meelick at this period. In March 1669 Nicholas Hanyne, aged sixteen years, son of Hugh Hanyne and Nina Callanan of ‘Monkgormocane’ (apparently a corruption of ‘Abbeygormacan’) received the probationary habit of the Franciscans in the friary of Meelick.[xxix] This Hugh was in all likelihood the same Hugh of Sunnagh. In addition, fifteen years later, Hugh Hannin, aged twenty years, son of Murtagh (‘Moriarty’) Hannin and Mary Madden, received the probationary habit of the Franciscan friars at Meelick in 1684 and a year later made his profession in the same friary.[xxx]

Murtagh Hanyn, under the Act of Settlement, was confirmed as proprietor of the quarter of Eskerboy in the parish of Abbeygormacan and thirty-nine profitable Irish acres in Garrymore in the parish of Kiltormer.[xxxi] As such this same Murtagh appears to have been the son of Hugh Hannin of Sunnagh.

In March of 1686 Murtagh Hannin entered into a legal agreement with Fergus Madden of Lismore, parish of Clonfert, whereby Hannin’s half part of the quarter of Sunnagh in the parish of Abbeygormacan was mortgaged for 60l. Following the Williamite defeat of the followers of the Roman Catholic King James II in the late seventeenth century and the subsequent forfeiture of certain Jacobite estates, Richard Burke, who married the widow of Fergus Madden, petitioned the Trustees for the Sale of Forfeited Estates about 1700 on behalf of himself and his wife Catherine, seeking to have his interest in the 60l. mortgage saved from forfeiture.[xxxii] His concern in relation to the possible forfeiture of his leases appears to have arisen from the fact that the premises concerned had by that time been acquired by the Burke Earls of Clanricarde and been settled in remainder upon a younger brother of the 8^th Earl of Clanricarde; John Burke, Lord Bophin, who was attainted and outlawed by the new Williamite monarchy for the leading role he had played in the province in support of the deposed King James II.[xxxiii]

An earlier mortgage on a half quarter of Sunnagh was perfected between Murtagh and one Francis Blake, of the same wider family as that John Blake who formerly owned Castletown. By a deed of May 1679, Francis Blake extended monies to Murtagh Hannin of Corballymore, parish of Abbeygormacan, gentleman, who in turn mortgaged a half quarter of land of Sunnagh in the same parish to Blake for forty pounds, subject to redemption.[xxxiv] Francis Blake appears to have settled at some time at Sunnagh but removed, or was removed, from there later, as he was described as ‘late of Sunnagh, Co. Galway, gentleman,’ when he also presented his petition the Trustees for the Sale of Forfeited Estates about 1700. He feared that the lands of Sunnagh, ‘by reason of the attainder of some person deriving any benefit from the same, may have been forfeited’ and requested that his mortgage might be preserved from forfeiture. Blake’s claim was dismissed.

Murtagh Hannin died prior to 1700 as Mary Hanyn alias Madden, Murtagh Hannin’s widow also petitioned the Trustees for the Sale of Forfeited Estates at that same time. She presented her case before the Trustees, claiming the lands of Sunnagh as her dower, while the guardians of one Francis Cuffe, a minor, also petitioned the Trustees on behalf of their charge in relation to a mortgage of 40l. on lands of Iskerboy and other lands, formerly owned by Murtagh Hannin or his son, citing a deed of 1674 made between the late Murtagh Hannin and the minor’s grandfather Sir James Cuffe.

Murtagh Hannin and Mary Madden had at least four children; Dennis, Hugh, Michael and Margaret. When his elder brother and the senior-most member of the name, James Hannin of Iskerboy, died without issue in 1712, the senior-most line became the offspring of Murtagh Hannin and Mary Madden. James Hannin’s will, dated 6th April 1712, notes of which survive among Betham’s Genealogical Abstracts, made mention of his niece Margaret Hannin, brother Cornelius Horan, mother-in-law Dorothy Kelly and nephew Miachael Hannin.

Pedigree of the senior-most Hannin or Hannon family of Oldcastle, parish of Abbeygormacan after that given in N.L.I., Dublin, G.O. Ms. 205, Will Pedigrees, Vol. 3, p. 283. While this pedigree gives Nicholas son of John as that Nicholas who was restored to his estates in 1677, it would appear more likely that the Nicholas restored in 1677 was the son of Nicholas son of John. The pedigree was not exhaustive and made no mention of Nicholas, son of Hugh Hannin and Nina Callanan, nor of Catherine, wife of Captain Cornelius Horan nor of Gerard Hanyne of Dublin, the last of whom was living in 1713.

Not long after the death of James, a deed was contracted in May of 1713 relating to lands in Iskerboy, Lurga and elsewhere, formerly occupied by the late James Hanyne or Hannin. Among those recorded in the deed as having an interest in these lands were Redmund son of Nicholas Archdekin (or Arcedeckne) with his siblings, who held a mortgage on five hundred acres of those lands in that year. Richard Burke (also known as Colonel Richard Burke) also appears to have managed to retain his interest in lands there as in that same deed his son William Burke of Dublin City undertook to influence his father to release to one James Horan of Dublin City lands at Iskerboy and Lurga and elsewhere. Two members of the Hanyne family, Hugh and Michael Hanyne undertook to join in releasing the same lands to Horan and one Gerard Hanyne of Dublin City served in that year as a witness to the deed.

Both Hugh and Michael Hanyne were the sons of Murtagh Hannin, and if Ulster’s pedigree is correct, Hugh, the Franciscan friar, was at this time the senior-most male member of the family as his elder brother Dennis died in 1703. Dennis was married to Eleanor, to whom the pedigree refers as a daughter of one O Mara. Denis and Eleanor did have one child, a daughter, born in France, named Mary, who married Mathias or Matthew, son of Nicholas Arcedeckne, whose family had been transplanted by the Cromwellians to the parish of Clontuskert and who held a mortgage on part of the Hannin lands.

Lands of Nicholas Hannin and the Horans of Abbeygormacan

With regard to the estate in Abbeygormacan confirmed in the possession of Nicholas Hannin under the Act of Settlement in the 1670s, much of the lands associated with Nicholas would later be associated with a senior family of O Horans. No Horan appears to have been confirmed in possession of lands under the Act in Abbeygormacan but immediately subsequent to the upheaval in land ownership in the Cromwellian period, one of the most senior, if not the senior-most line, of the Horans appears to have been located about the parish of Abbeygormacan.

Only two Horans appear to have been allocated lands under the Act; John and Roger, the former with lands of 235 profitable Irish acres in the parishes of Aughrim and Clontuskert, and Roger, with lands of 48 acres in Ahascragh and Killoran.[xxxv] By the early 1690s the two senior-most Horans appear to have been Captain Cornelius and Roger Horan, both of Abbeygormacan and both officers in the Jacobite army of King James II.  While the original connection with Abbeygormacan is uncertain it may have been through the marriage of Cornelius to Catherine Hannin.[xxxvi] Catherine Hannin, however, did not receive a mention in Ulster’s Hannin pedigree but James Hannin of Iskerboy, Co. Galway, Esq., who died without issue, made mention in his will dated 6th April 1712 of his brother Cornelius Horan.[xxxvii] (The term ‘brother’ in this case is evidently more correctly that of ‘brother-in-law’ and James Dillon of Rath, Kings County, in his will of 1711 described his brother-in-law James Horan as his ‘dear brother’.)

Following the defeat of the Jacobite interest, Roger Horan of Abbeygormacan, gentleman, was among those Irish Jacobites outlawed and prosecuted ‘for high treason beyond the seas’ against the new Protestant King and Queen.[xxxviii] Captain Cornelius Horan of Abbeygormacan remained in Ireland but was one of the few whose application to the new authorities to be rehabilitated under the Articles of Galway was rejected in December 1698.[xxxix Despite the outlawry of Roger Horan and the rejection of Cornelius Horan’s claim under the articles, this Horan family still retained an interest in lands in Abbeygormacan, as James Horan of the City of Dublin, gentleman, transferred property in ‘Eskerboy, Ballymahin, Cappaghtan, Lorga’ and ‘Gortmore’ in that parish to John Burke, of the Inner Temple, London, gentleman, in 1730. In 1720 he was involved in the leasing of 140 acres of land at Cappanaghlin (recte: modern townland of Cappanaghtan) and 50 acres at Kilknane, both in the barony of Longford and in 1728 was mentioned in the lease of lands at ‘Culiny otherwise Cooloony otherwise Castletown, Liscoyle otherwise Liskele, Killbegg and lands at Gorteen as part of Drum and in Corbane and at Knockanicorragh, all, with the possible exception of Corbane in the parish of Abbeygormacan in east Galway.[xl] Lands in almost all of these denominations were confirmed in the possession of Nicholas Hannin back in the 1670s under the Act of Settlement and this James Horan was son of Captain Cornelius Horan and Catherine Hannin and may have inherited an interest in the property of Nicholas Hannin through that marriage.

The family of Colonel Richard Burke retained an interest in the former lands of Nicholas Hannin also, with Richard Burke of Dublin City, eldest son of William (who died in 1732) and Mary Burke of Dublin City leasing to Redmond Dolphin of Cappasallagh the lands in Cooloony otherwise Castletown, Liscoyle, Kilbegg, Gorteen as part of Drum, Corbane and Knockanicorragh in 1754.

Conversions to Protestantism

A number of Hannins conformed to Protestantism early in the eighteenth century, certain of whom, however, were then resident in or about Dublin. Of those resident about east Galway, Margaret Hannin of Eskerboy, spinster, converted to Protestantism in 1712.[xli] Given her conversion in the same year as the death without issue of her uncle James, it is likely that her conversion may have been related to a claim to family lands. Her niece Mary Hannin, wife of Mathew Arcedeckne, converted with her husband between 1719 and 1725.[xlii]

The name did not occur among the landed gentry resident in County Galway in the nineteenth century.