McAdoo ONS Origins

Date: Jan 2023
Surnames/tags: McAdoo McAdow

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Contents 1 McAdoo Origins 1.1 Earliest Known McAdoo in Ulster 1.1.1 Prelude to the Plantation 1.1.2 Ulster Sources 1.2 Earliest Known McAdoo in Scotland

McAdoo Origins

McAdoo name and persons origins studies may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

1. origin and meaning of the name McAdoo, there are theories, but nobody yet knows for sure,
2. research into documented McAdoo affiliation with any tribes, septs, or clans in Scotland or Ireland,
3. identifying any heraldry devices, tartans, and similar badges specific to a specific McAdoo or to the McAdoo surname,
4. research any McAdoo participation in the Plantation of Ulster 1610-1680, including as tenants to which undertakers and the counties in Ulster that most McAdoo's were planted in,
5. attempt to locate a common geographic origin or generally identified area that may be the ancestral homeland of the first McAdoo population most likely in Scotland or Ireland, and
6. participation in any mass migration of McAdoo's in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries to any destination.

Earliest Known McAdoo in Ulster

James McAdowe is recorded on original page 262 of the 1630 Muster Roll in the service of The Lady Conningham Widdow of Sr James Conningham knt. undertaker of 2000 Acres her Men & Armes. James McAdowe is listed in possession of personal weapons including a "sword" and a "snaphance" an early version of a flintlock musket with a flashpan.

The fact that James McAdow is recorded in the service of the Undertaker Sir James Conningham (or 'Cunningham' the Laird of Glengarnock in North Ayrshire) (see also James Cuninghame (1580-1623)) is compelling evidence that James McAdowe was likely a tenant farmer on the North Ayrshire estate of Sir James Cunningham and his wife Catherine Cunninghame (abt.1580-) of Glencairn and was enticed to migrate to his Laird's new estates in the Barony of Raphoe, County Donegal, Ulster Province.

Prelude to the Plantation

Until the beginning of the seventeenth century, the vast region now embraced by county Donegal was known as Tyrconnell, and in very early Irish history, as Cinel-Conail, or, the country of the descendants of Conall Gulban. At the beginning of the reign of King James I (1603-1625), English authority was scarcely recognized in the north of Ireland. There were no towns of consequence and the people obeyed their native chiefs. After confiscating the Ulster Lands, in the counties of Londonderry, Donegal, Tyrone, Cavan, Armagh, and Fermanagh, King James set aside the finest portions for British colonists and assigned the native Irish to the poorer and more remote districts.

Large grants of these lands were then made to Scotch and English adventurers. "James seems to have seen that parts of Scotland nearest Ireland, and which had most intercourse with it, were most likely to yield proper colonists," and grants were made to the Duke of Lennox, who had great power in Dumbartonshire; the Earl of Abercorn, who represented the power of the Hamiltons in Renfrewshire; Sir Thomas Boyd; the Cunninghams and the Crawfords of Ayrshire. The greatest number of grants were made to the men of Galloway.

Every person receiving two thousand acres of land agreed to bring forty-eight men, of English or Scotch birth; who should receive leases for portions of the land and be supplied with muskets and hand weapons. The settlers began to arrive in Ireland in 1610; some were from England; but the majority were Scotch.

Among the Scots who received grants for lands in county Donegal in 1610, were:

1. Ludovic Stuart, Duke of Lennox;
   
2. Sir Walter Stewart, Laird of Minto, Roxburyshire;
   
3. Alexander McAula of Durlin, Dumbartonshire;
   
4. James Cunningham, Laird of Glangarnocke {Glengarnock} in Ayrshire;
   
5. John Cunningham of Crafueld {Crawfield} in Ayrshire; Son of James
   
6. William Stewart, Laird of Dunduff, of Maybole in Ayrshire;
   
7. Sir Robert Maclellan, Laird of Bomby, Kirkcudbrightshire;
   
8. George Murray of Wigtonshire;
   
9. Sir Patrick Mackee of Wigtonshire;
   
10. James McCullough of Wigton;
    
11. Alexander Dunbar of Wigton;
    
12. Patrick Vaus.
    

Ulster Sources

Click Here to go to Jim McKane's official website of the CoTyroneIreland.com Mailing List for Counties Tyrone, Donegal, Londonderry & Fermanagh Ireland Genealogy Research.

Click Here to go to "The Scotch Settlers in Raphoe, Co. Donegal, Ireland 1630-1700: Containing The Muster Rolls for the Barony of Raphoe c1630; Raphoe Hearth Money Roll 1665; Ruling Elders of Raphoe Congregation 1672-1700." Extracted from the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XXXVI, No. 3 (1912). By William Mervine.

Click Here to go to the Donegal Genealogy Resources website.

Click Here to go to the Donegal in the Ulster Plantation website.

Geni.Com Profile. Sir James Cunningham of Glengarnock. 1579 to 1623, Died in County Donegal. Husband of Lady Catherine Cunningham of Glencairn.

Hill, George. 1877. An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster at the Commencement of the Seventeenth Century, 1608-1620, M'Caw, Stevenson & Orr, Belfast, 650p. Download PDF Here

Earliest Known McAdoo in Scotland

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