Halpin family of Wicklow - Part 1

[kenneth cooke]

Thanks Bill & Diane,
So the name Paget Halpen stretches from 1682 to 1906 ! This is an important discovery and I'm really grateful.
It seems to confirm my suspicion about the names of the parents of Elizabeth Halpen who married Eugene Sweny in 1777. Their sons had the middle names Halpen and Paget, but there is no real proof that  Eliz.'s mother was Mary Paget, wife of Mark Halpen.
I have found other examples of dubious research in Pedigrees held by the old Office of Arms and even the  Society of Genealogists, London.
Now it looks like Paget was a first name from as far back as the latter 17th century. It could have been from a surname, but further back than we thought.
I have no problem with the variants 'Halpenny' or 'Pagitt'.  I know that 'pen' stands for 'pensioner' meaning a student who pays his own fees & lodging.
I wonder who Dr Hinton was, perhaps his teacher, or the one who referred him.  If 'generosus' refers to Nicholas, perhaps he was known as a generous man in the community. Looks like we're all descended from, or related to, a 'Nicholas'.
This is valuable information even if it poses more questions.
Regards,
Ken

[BillW]

Ken, you would have come across this sometime but I was very pleased to be the bearer.  As you say, this is a very important, a defining, discovery.

Diane will be providing a list, to me I think, of the meanings of terms such as generosus, and  I propose to try to contribute a spreadsheet of the information she has gleaned when I have it altogether, but I couldn't wait to send you your news.

Generosus, by the way, I am confident will be shown to mean "gentleman".  I believe the essence of the term gentleman is that, whatever he did do, he was not obliged to work for a living.  In other words, he had independent means.  In days of no income or estate taxes, if a man was prudent, such status could be passed indefinitely down generations.  We had the term gentleman farmer, which in effect meant that he had so much land that he could employ workers or receive rents - or both.  Such a man could even be a tenant himself but of such proportion that he could sublet.


Glad your researches are coming together. 
Bill

[Shanachai]

     Full marks for all of the recent discoveries.  They really can't be bettered.  The discovery of Halpenny is significant - a phonetic spelling of the gaelic hAlpine.  There were leaders of the Picts (a Celtic tribe that appeared to straddle the north east of Eire and the adjacent coastal lands of the UK around the time of the Roman invasion) who bore that name.  In my study of old Wicklow documents many of the Halpin names vanish and are replaced by Halpennys (moving backwards through time).  So it seems Halpenny became Halpin at some stage, which would vindicate the geneologists over here, who've maintained that claim for years.  I think the switch from hAlpine ('people of the hills'?) to Halpenny probably took place between the departure of Cromwell and the Williamite wars.  But theses are musings, on what are vital discoveries.  Excellent work.

[kenneth cooke]

Ray,
I beg to disagree about the name.
When you google in Halpen or Halpin, you often get 'Halpern'. That is a Jewish name, from 'Heilbrunn' (holy well) from the Jewish quarter of Wurtemberg. Some Jews of that name came to England and changed their names to
'Hallywell', meaning the same thing.
Halpenny comes from halfpenny, an English (anglo-Saxon) word. 
The third variation comes from the Celtic 'Alpin' (see Kenneth Mc Alpin) whatever it means.
I believe that the Irish Halpins/Halpens come from the English 'Halfpenny', and
that it gradually changed to 'Halpenny', then 'Halpen' etc.
Of course, some Alpins could have become Halpins, but so far, I have not seen any ambiguous examples in our Forum.
Ken

[Shanachai]

     Your point's well made, Ken, and a more convincing explanation of the derivation of the Halpin surname - at least in terms of our lines of inquiry.  Do you think the Halpins might have turned up in Eire as members of Cromwell's army, or as Williamite soldiers?  If they did, it would make sense of the Portarlington connection, since that town was settled by Williamite loyalists, including Huguenot allies fleeing Catholic persecution.  Would a check of the enlisted men in the Williamite armies turn up any Halpins? - a rhetorical question: I don't know if such a list exists.

[kenneth cooke]

Ray, I wouldn't like to speculate about how and when the Halpens came to Ireland. I looked up Halpen & Halfpenny on Family search (IGI) just now.
I see that there were Halpens in England from about 1757, but there were
Halfpennys from 1562 at least.
Mark was noted in the early 1700s as Halpin, Halpen, Halpenn, Halpenny, Halfpenn & Halfpenny. All these refer to the same person. It sounds as if the name was in transition, and also as if people knew that Halpen came from Halfpenny (like Smith and Smythe today).
Bill, I found "Generosus nascitur non fit" as someone's family motto. It means:
A gentleman is born, not made. (doesn't give the rest of us much hope !)
And, as Paget's descent from Mark is no longer probable, he loses some value (for me anyway), but Nicholas is now very interesting.
Regards to all,
Ken

[BillW]

There are more than a few Names sites on the web but I find attractive this one:  http://www.halpenny.net/

I haven't delved into it but Ken might report if he finds anything of interest.  But significantly, it differentiates the Halpennys from the Halfpennys, giving the opinion that the former come from an anglicised celtic origin and the latter have English origins related to the English currency.  On that score, I don't know of many Pennys or Pences, Schilling seems more germanic and perhaps Crown and Sovereign were too high to aim for as names.  What were other early English coins.  Wasn't there a Mark?  So, why only Halfpenny as a surviving name?

Bill

[kenneth cooke]

Bill,
I've had a quick look at that Halpenny site. If you click on the link you get a page called 'The house of Halpenny'. You then click on 'General information' and then on 'Origin of the name Halpenny'.
I think I've seen it before, and I'm afraid there's still a lot of speculation about the name Halpen/Halpin. One idea was that Halpenny referred to the tenants who paid 1/2d. rent on land.
Other coins were the florin (2 sh. or 2 bob), threepence (pron.in Aust. as throopens, thripens or thruppens. I don't think the guinea was actually a coin or note. Of course, we used to say hay-penny or haepnee about the 1/2 p.
Ken

[Diane Carruthers]

Hi,
A partial list of professions from Alumni Dublinenses:
Generosus - Gentleman
Clericus - Clergyman
Armiger - Esquire
Publicanus - Tax Collector
Centurio -  Officer
Miles - Soldier
Capitaneus - Captain

The name of the school or schoolmaster is given in parentheses, so Dr Hinton must be his schoolmaster.

Diane