THE McNAUGHTONS OF IRELAND
McNaughtons of Ireland alphabetical (pdf)
I have just launched this website to share my 4 years’ work on the genealogy of McNaughtons in Ireland. Unfortunately I seem unable to paste it here so can only make the original pdf available to you for the time being. Very sorry.
If you click on the pdf link above you will find my 240 page database of all the references I have found to male McNaughtons/McNaghtens/McNattens etc who were alive pre c.1840 and had a stated link to Ireland. It is in alphabetical order – and approximate chronological order within that. However, scroll up and down through a name to check that an individual doesn’t reappear later. If anyone discovers any more, please use the comments section and I shall update the table over the years.
Some females are found at the end.
Notes:
Mc implies Scottish roots, and is hence more prevalent in Ulster. This database is hence heavily skewed to families in Ulster, and particularly County Antrim.
Marriage between Catholics and Protestants was always common. Catholics frequently ‘renounced Papism’ to further themselves in Society – particularly in order to inherit land.
Note that when someone was married in an Anglican church, I erroneously put their religion down as C o I (Church of Ireland) when in fact they could have been any religion but were only allowed to marry in the Parish Church (which was the Anglican Established Church).
I feel that, in the 18th C, “McNaghten” and particularly “McNatten” imply longer Irish domicile than McNaughton. However, some of the East Antrim coast McNaughtons had been resident there -possibly for hundreds of years – in what was basically a Scotch community, the Glyns.
There is some evidence that McNaghton was pronounced McNaten/McNeighton. McNaughton was often recorded in England as MacNorton.
Most McNaghten families had changed their name to McNaughton by 1860 (and the Clan chief ones to Macnaghten).
The ones below are the Macs, Macks, Mcs, M’s and Ms : Naghtans, Naghtens, Naghtins, Naghtons, Nattans, Nattens, Nattons, Nautons, Nottens, Northens, Nortons, Naughtans, Naughtens, Naughtons, Naightons, Neightons, Naughtins, Knightons, Nuttons and Nachtans. (On many search engines [PRONI, UHF], only the precise spelling is searched for; and Ancestry won’t bring up Mc Norton in a search for McNorton!) Some are transcribed as McNangthon, McNutton and even just plain Nafton! Often, the best way to search is for M*cN**t*n. Don’t forget to check for M’Naghtens etc. (often by typing MNaghten). Adobe Acrobat requires exact spellings.
Websites I have checked include:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&Surname=McNaughton&UserID=
http://www.proni.gov.uk/ (Public Records Office, Northern Ireland)
http://www.ancestryireland.com (Ulster Historical Foundation)
http://www.ireland.anglican.org/about/105 www.ballymoneyancestry.com
www. colerainefhs.org.uk
http://www.billmacafee.com/index.htm
http://www.eneclann.ie/acatalog/Archive_CD_Books_Ireland.html
http://www.ballymoneyancestry.com/
mid-antrimgenealogy@yahoogroups.com
In the table are basically the male McNaughtons known to have been born in Ireland pre 1840. (Sorry the numbering is so crazy) It won’t actually help you get any further back than the records you have (though it might have done!!) but it will alert you to just how many individuals with the same name were about at the same time. It will help avoid jumping to conclusions. There are evidently mistakes in here (and not all are my own.)The sources are rarely stated and you’ll have to use websites to find the actual record, but at least you can see what is and what isn’t out there.
Any names of spouses and parents, linking of entries etc. etc. that anyone can add, would be very much appreciated.
I am slowly building Family Trees for various McNaughton families on Ancestry.com:
Davis/McNaughton/MacNorton/Tracy/Treacy/Stacey/Pain
(My one- with several Napoleonic British soldiers in it if you click on Margaret McNaughton’s siblings) http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/69604131/family
McNaghten of Ballyreagh and Liverpool Family Tree
(Minor gentry of the Cloghs area) http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/79370546/family
McNaghten of Coleraine, Ballyboggy and Beardiville Family Tree
(A landed and influential family including the Clan Chiefs but ignore pre 1600 info since it is probably faulty. The Atticur/Kiltimurry branch is yet to be added) http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/78153455/family
McNaughtens of Ballyrashane Family Tree.
(A humble Presbyterian family from the Coleraine and Ballymoney area with the same name as their landlords at Ballyboggy) http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/79952754/family
McNaughtons of Cloughs, Layde & Cushendall Family Tree
(Predominantly Catholic farmers of the Glyns, but beware that some of the landed Ballyboggy family lived there too). http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/77849459/family
McNaughton’s of Dungannon Family Tree (farmers at Mullycrunnet especially) http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/81501815/family
Also look at the Glenravel Historical Society Tree for all the poor Catholic McNaughtons of the Clogh and Skerry area http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/19522790/family
Any information on the ones in bold would be very much appreciated. (The reason the whole table came about is that I was trying to find the ancestry of my 5 X Gt grandmother Margaret McNaughton (ref no.85 – now listed immediately after her brother Bartholomew)) born Nr BallyCastle, Antrim c.1783. Even after all of this, I still can’t decide whether she was the daughter of a visiting soldier, from an Antrim blacksmith’s family or from an illegitimate line of the local gentry !!
I can however now presume that she was the sister of a soldier Bartholomew McNaughton/McNaghten (ref no.76) born in BallyMoney in 1785.
He married Ann in Ealing (London) in 1807 and had Sarah in 1808 and George in 1818 BUT, in June 1809 the regiment says his wife was Mary who had three children with her at the time!! I have found no trace of Bartholomew after his discharge in 1821 and I think he may have started another family elsewhere (probably Ireland – but possibly Scotland or even Canada [he’s on a ship there in 1827]!)
Hence any information on early 19thC Bartholomew McNaughton’s round the world would be fantastic.
Also, any Mcnaughtons etc spotted in the newly released Roman Catholic registers, which are not transcribed, would be much appreciated. http://registers.nli.ie/
Many Thanks
Jon
Jon.lee63 AT googlemail.com