RootsChat.Com
Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Waterford => Topic started by: ChrisMcLain on Monday 24 November 25 14:51 GMT (UK)
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Good morning rootschat,
My name is Chris McLain and I'm descended of a James Quarry who was orphaned in the Dublin Liberties in the early 18th c and taken in by maternal relatives named McClane. I'm also the admin for the Cenel Brenainn DNA group, https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/mc-govern/activity-feed which pertains to the larger Ui Briuin kindred to which the Mac Guaire (Gorry/Gurry/Gorey/Quarry) surname belongs. I am looking for any man of the QUARRY variant surname who has a papertrail to Waterford that is interested in Y-DNA research, the cost of which would be completely on me. I am willing to purchase a BigY700 test and send him the kit.
The Quarry surname is commonly confused with the Scottish MacQuarries from Ulva. However, it has become evident that not only a "Mac" prefix existed in the Irish O'Guaire surname but also a rare "Mac Ui" prefix ("son of the descendant of"), both of which would have created the "Quarry" anglicization. The Ui Guaire are Ui Briuin Breifne, confirmed by genealogies and DNA. Our descent survives in the 1390 Book of Ballymote i.e., "from Guaire mac Dubhdacrich mac Brenaind, are the Ui Guairi... . This family likely migrated down the Shannon in the dense ecclesiastical traffic of the high medieval period, to one or more religious houses, and crossed into other kingdoms. My latest research on my specific line is tending to line up with a family that anglicized to Quarry who were whitesmiths, glaziers, and slaymakers that had a maritime migration to Dublin from Waterford (Dungarvan?). Specifically, the name Isaac Quarry has come up in this family in early 18th century parish registers in Dublin city which can be none other than descendants of the Isaac Quarry, a pewterer (aka whitesmith) from Cappoquin who gave several 1641 depositions (his home and farm at Affane, Co. Waterford were destroyed). I believe Isaac Quarry came to the area as a tenant of the First Earl of Cork Richard Boyle, who was recruiting craftsmen from major Butler towns (Clonmel, Carrick, Cahir, Kilkenny, Waterford etc) for his industrious estate of Lismore after he set up an iron foundry, glass house and several large settlements including Cappoquin. It's very likely that Isaac's line came from Irishtown in Kilkenny. In 1574 a Thomas Quarry, master smith of Irishtown, was pardoned among the merchants, burgesses and craftsmen of the town when Elizabeth I granted a charter to Kilkenny city (Irishtown and Hightown merged, and the upper echelon of the town's populace were given a pardon to absolve them of any suspected disloyalties). The Quarrys in East Cork very likely also stem from this circa 1620 migration to the Earl of Cork's estate. It may be that all of the Quarrys in the region descend from the Thomas who was pardoned in 1574.
Below is our 6-member kin-group's BigY700 results tree from FamilyTree DNA. Notice the Fraher surname change as well (this is a S. Tipperary-Waterford name).
(https://i.postimg.cc/PJQws1bz/FT130287.jpg)
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It seems several branches of the family took on "Mac" or "Mac Ui" Guaire. There were several Ua Guaire abbots of Tuamgreine who are likely our people. The location of Tuamgreine across Lough Derg fits the most likely migration model of this family, and would also explain the population density of the name in W. Tipperary 1667 Hearth Rolls where all of the variants O'Gowry, M'Ghoory, Quary, Cowry, M'Gora, M'Gorigh, Goory, Gurrey, Corey, appear in a cluster very close to the "O'Fearchair" heartland of Templeneiry, which would explain the Fraher surname among us. It's more than likely that as O'Fearchair is a young surname, that there may have been a Fearchair O'Guaire in the 14th or 15th centuries that spawned a new surname which is distictly S. Tipperary/Waterford.
It was only recently after a lot of research that I was able to determine that this family has two distinct branches. One in N. Leinster, originally seated at Kildare and the other in S. Leinster/Ossory The area around Kells priory and Thomas town seems to have been a hub of the latter population. There is substantial evidence that the MacGuaire/Ui Guaire family were erenaghs, that is, hereditary stewards of monastic lands. It was erenagh families who typically transitioned to craftsmanship as a method of surival in the dissolution-era. All 6 testers descend from one Ui Guaire man who lived approximately in the mid 10th century which also lines up with an entry in the Annals of the Four Masters:
962: Cairbre Ua Guaire, head of the hospitality of Leinster, died.
This is a high-status lay-ecclesiastic office connected to Saint Brigid's monastery at Kildare. His death was the result of a Norse raid on Kildare at the end of 961 where much of the monastic community was carried off and held for ransom, many of them being killed.
Early records in the southeast which at the time was the Earldom of Ormond, show the surname already spread out. In 1338, a "John McGuydy" witnessed a land deed concerning Ballyanne Co. Wexford on the Barrow. In 1364 a "Robert McUre" was fined 6s. and forfeited goods by the Sheriff of the Liberty of Tipperary. In a 1507 episcopal deed concerning property of Kells priory, one "Donaldus O Gowre" (Domhnaill Ua Guaire) and "Phillipus O Gowre" (Pilib Ui Guaire) were "testi antiqui", that is community elders who farmed the Grange of Kells (Kellsgrange, Co. Kilkenny) who testified that they had memory of the curtain walls and towerhouses of Kells priory being built (this occurred in the 1460s/70s). Three townlands in Leinster are connected to this kindred:
Clongorey, Co. Kildare, Tullygorey, Co. Kildare, and Ballygorey, Co. Kilkenny. All three have ruins of small medieval chapels and two of the three have holy wells. Clongorey itself was property of St. Brigid's monastery until the dissolution. All these facts spell out erenagh behavior and settlement.
I would very much like to connect the Waterford Quarry family to the rest of us and not only see where they fall on our tree, which would put more puzzle-pieces together of this larger family. If any of you have Quarry relatives from the area who would be interested, you can reply to this post or sent me a private message. Also, although I'm not specifically looking for Gorry/Gurry/Gorey participants as it pertains to my own specific line, all of these variants would be kin to the greater MacGuaire family. If any Goreys are interested in joining the group and getting started with Y-DNA research, please contact me as well, I'll tell you how to get started and I'd love to have you aboard.
Thank you,
Chris McLain
(https://i.postimg.cc/434PyN2j/Migration-Model-A.jpg)