Tombstone Tuesday ~ The last White Knight ~ Kilmallock Abbey Limerick

 In the center of the Choir lies Edmund Fitzgibbon the last White Knight who died in 1608. Edmund was married to Ellen Burgat daughter of Jenetta ffant and John Burgat of Fantstown Limerick.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Castle built by the Fant family in the 1300s ~ Fantstown Limerick

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Kilmallock Abbey Limerick

                                             

Lost their lives at Liscarroll Cork September 3rd, 1642 and the following epitaph is engraved on the wall at Kilmallock Abbey, St. Saviour's Church where they were inurned.
                            1642 
 Sept 3rd what year those figures tell, 
 Saw three youths inurned, untimely dead,
... Brothers and kinsmen pledged,in just war fell,
 King, Country God, approve wherefore they fell.
 Youth’s virgin purity, true martyr blood,
 Mark out their corpses from the mangled heap
 As lilies struggling amidst the ensanguined flood,
 Three deserved well- Three names thou marble keep
George, Edward Burgat   Brothers and
Alexander Burgat Nephew
                                           

Military Monday - Gallowglass and Kern in the Desmond Wars

Reading  a book about Eleanor Countess of Desmond I see that their Galloglass were the McSheehys. Roric McSheehy held a vill and land at Ballycullane near Limerick under the Earl so James Ffant who murdered Patrick Ffant at the Glassie Gate in Kilmallock was on the Fitzgerald /Desmond side of the struggle.. the Gaelic side and not the Ormond Butler side..It may have been part of this struggle..

2nd thing I learned was that the Galloglass wore heavy armor and mail and fought with swords an...d lances and that the Irish who fought were the Kerns..they fought barefoot or lightly shod in clothing that was adapted to the climate and terrain and used swords, darts( throwing knives) axes and bows and were very effective.. Many Fants were Kerns, probably in charge of others.. They were quick and fast..

There were Butlers and Fitzgeralds on both sides of this struggle.So very likely that Fants were also.Eleanor Countess of Desmond was a Butler as had been Garret ( Gerald) Fitzgerald's first wife and the mother of Black Tom who was the Earl of Desmond.

There was a pardon granted to John Faunte, kern, of Ballyderonty Limerick in 1567, and there was a pardon granted to John Faunt, horseman, of Fantstowne in 1584. James & John Fant of Clangibbon are also mentioned in pardons at this time. That tells us that others in the family survived these struggles.

 Any battle at Fantstown would have involved all kinsman fighting with the landholder at the castle itself but that Castle passed into the hands of Thomas Burgat by 1585 and then to his son and heir John who was married to Genet Ffant who was very likely his ward.

It was at this time that some Fants were in Tipperary. Were they allied with the Butler family, the  Earldom of Ormond? It is very possible. James and John Fant of Clangibbon would have been affiliated with the "White Knight" Fitzgibbon who at that point was also attainted and linked with the Desmond faction. We know that Ellen Burgat,Genetta Fant Burgat's daughter marries Maurice Fitzgibbon the last "White Knight" but one.

The Fant family  has redrawn their territory at this time. One Patrick Fant hold lands both in Limerick and Kildare in the 1550s so he is likely the man who was murdered or of his line. We know we have the family who are in  Fermoy and are linked to the Roche and  Fitzgibbon families. My own family is in Bansha, Fethard ,Cordangen and Fethard in the 1600s, also in Ballyporeen and Mitchelstown Cork until they exit  Ireland or move down  to Cork City . They were survivors and did what they needed to.

Census Sunday ~ Limerick Civil Survey 1655 and the Fante family

In the Civil Survey of Limerick in 1655, Patrick Fante of Galbally was one of the Jurors charged to "return a survey of the Barony" of Costlea. The parishes thus surveyed were Galbally, Ballingarry and Larhagly, Doone and Long, Atheneasy, Kilbridy Major and other small places.

This was a record of land ownership so that the English government could carry out their policy of land distributorship.

Itemized in this area was John Burgat of Fantstowne, an Irish Proprietor. John Burgat also held land in the"Towne and Liberties of Kilmallock", specifically the Parish of St.s Peter & Paul, as did Nicholas Fante.

Also itemized under "Denomination of  Lands and thire metes and Bounds" are family names Nicholas Fante in Kilmallock, and Ellen Burgatt, Daughter in law of  Genettta Fant Burgat and Ellen FitzGibbon, widow Genetta's daughter in Coshlea.

Ellen Fitzgibbon, daughter of Genetta Fant Burgat was married to Maurice "Oge" FitzGibbon, the "White Knight" son of Maurice Fitzgibbon and Sheela Burke. His widow, she was to be transported to Connaught in 1661 but apparently never was.

In 1666, also, Fantstowne was confirmed to H. Posonby and Lord Colloony in the Acts of Settlement after having been held by J. and Ellen Burgatt in 1657.

Wordless Wednesday ~ William Adlai Faunt and Cousin Edward Faunt Sr.

Church Records and Census Sunday ~ The Faunts of Louth and Kildare

I happened upon a  military census today while doing my habitual searching for Faunts. William Faunt of Louth served in the10th Foot and was stationed in Chelsea in 1811. He was 5'9" (he grew an inch after enlistment) and had fair skin, grey eyes,brown hair and a long visage. I know there are Flaxgrowers in Louth in a census and I thought to figure out the family.


In  or around January 1384 one of the Walter L'enfants dies leaving a widow Elena and son and heir Thomas. This Walter held lands in Kildare and Louth and held in chief in Ardee. Thomas was surely young as we then find him claiming the manor of Ardee in September 1403 which he  and his heirs would hold of the King. In 1406 he pays to have any fines removed from his lands in Kilkenny.

In 1394 Nicholas Faunt is mayor of Drogheda and a William Faunt is Vicar of Drogheda in the late 1370s. We can assume that Thomas son of Walter had cousins and uncles, although they were not the lords of Ardee. The book Crisis and Survival in Late Medieval Ireland: The English of Louth and their Neighbors, 1330-1450  indicates the Faunts were the Lords of Ardee until after 1430.

This line of the Lords of Ardee died out sometime after this but the descendants of some of these people lived on through the 19th century apparently as we can see here with William  the soldier. Living there also were James of Tallenstown and Thomas of Phillipstown and Patt and others like James in Edmonstown as well.in the late 18th century.

We know that at least two lines go extinct for titles of persons descending from one or another Walter L'enfant. The Peerage held by Walter the Justice becomes extinct by 1374, as does the Lordship of Ardee after 1450.The lineage of this family, carries on in their descendants although without the lands and titles.

The Y DNA lines have proven this as a fact and we continue to gather records and tell their story. There are few now who live in Ireland but they left their imprint on the land for these 700+ years since they came to it.

                                                      Medieval Gate- Drogheda Louth

Wordless Wednesday - Gulielmus ( William ) Maher ~ Requiescat in pace my cousins

Gulielmus ( William Maher ) born  on  7 May 1858  in Wolverhampton, Stafford, England  to Jeremiah Maher  and Margaritae( Margaret ) Fant and died in Bolton  December 5, 1932.

Cousins of mine who went from Tipperary, to Staffordshire, to Cork and some then died in Liverpool. William ( baptized Gulielmus)  dies in Bolton Manchester, interestingly his parents married Church of Ireland but the children were raised Catholic.

Friday Faces From the Past - Mercenaries and Made Men

                                                    Shrewsbury, Shropshire ~ and Sicily?

Shrewsbury is within  the winding course of the Severn, which is crossed by two bridges, called English and Welsh bridges.From Debrett's Peerage, we find  that in  1222 Robert I' Enfant was Provost of Shrewsbury.

Also in Shropshire we find  William L'enfant  as Bailiff of Munslow under William Bagod's Shrievalty  (sort of sheriff) but this is later in that century.William  is son of John, who was also may also be father to Walter and Adam, knights in Kildare.

What we see here on the Welsh Marches and the wilds of Ireland is a family who were, perhaps, landless in  the Midi Pyrenees region of their probable origin. Did they come into the British Isles with the Conquerer or was it actually the rulers of Aquitaine,Gascony a c. Warfare and specifically siege warfare was very sophisticated in the Midi and these fighting men sold their swords and indeed became made men.

A book entitled  "Mercenaries and Paid Men" discusses Robert L'Enfant as Justiciar of Sicily about 1272.
So were they "paid men" or  " made men" and where was their allegiance prior to this time?

Mystery Monday ~ Sardinian DNA matches

So if, indeed, we do find in a week or so that we match 40% of Sardinian-Americans or current Sardinians what will that mean? Surely it will matter as to how close they are to us ancestrally and how long their family lived there. Could there have been men going to and fro from Sardinia in the period of the Norman Conquest?  Even taking it one step beyond, could our men/man have been recruited from Sardinia to work for the Norman Kings?

One of the daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine married the King of Sicily. Wasn't there a 
L'enfant who was an official in Sicily?  Wondering. How would someone like Georami Pigna, if he was I2a1a connect to us..Food for thought..

Mystery Monday ~ Was Sir Adam L'enfant of Kildare the progenitor of the Galway line?

                                                               Athenry  Castle, Galway


Thanks for this mystery go to Luke Fant who reminded me today to look for the 14 Families of Galway while doing my research. I felt I had laid that to rest some time ago, but his reminder stirred  a memory for me, as I mentioned Adam Fonte of Galway in my response to him. Oh wow, won't my cousin Francis Faunt will be happy about this also! Yes, Fran, I know I have a tendency to dismiss theories I do not ascribe to. 
Major ancient research has indicated that the Galway lot are  "of the Kilmallock line" so there I was with that thought.

I just wrote about Adam L'enfant before Christmas when I learned he was brother to Sir Walter and son of John. How did I forget that John McDermot told me this? "Walter Lenfaunt was paid £20 p.a. as the Keeper of Kildare Castle from 1299 on. The money was paid to his brother Adam Lenfaunt that year. In 1302, Walter handed the castle over to Albert de Kenley on the king’s instructions. Though he is mentioned in relation to the castle 1300-4." I don't know, but I did. Perhaps that is why I share this information with all my close and distant cousins.

Luke and Fran, Let's  take a look at this. Maybe Patty and I will go to Galway, it's not so far from Shannon.

 Kildare Castle, County Kildare

Friday's Faces From The Past ~ Fant Family of the East Midlands

Attempting in 2014 to prove or disprove the Fant, Faunt,L'enfant family as a single origin family, I am getting a huge amount of families in my assorted databases. I find families in Lincolnshire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire,Derbyshire and a bit of Staffordshire pretty far back in time.

The family which Ernest Albert Fant originated in first comes to my attention in Lincolnshire. Robert Fant, father of Ernest, is apparently born to a single mother in Spalding, Lincolnshire. This Martha Fant born in Gosberton also has sons John Thomas and William Laycock Fant. Was there a William Laycock who she married before she marries William Burwell in 1859? If so I cannot find him although it is surely  possible. Her father was Thomas Fant  from Upwell Cambridgeshire and her mother Elizabeth Carteron. She has a brother Thomas who in 1849 goes to jail for larceny for 2 months and seems to die without issue.

So Ernest Albert Fant and his progeny who eventually are found in Nottinghamshire and perhaps even in Hull. Perhaps they would not be DNA matches as their  male line seems to be handed down differently than the Fant surname.

There is also a group from Yorkshire and Westmorland but that may be for another day, although the areas sort of drift into one another.