Tombstone Tuesday - Mary ( May) Fant Westenskow - Immigrant daughter of Patrick Fant of Durham and Cork

My chasing of DNA cousins quite often results in English or Welsh  cousins and I sharing an Irish ancestor. This is easily explained by the fairly high percentage of Irish in my genome and that most of my ancestors came to the US after 1850.

I believe Mary "May" Fant and I share 4th great grandparents, James Fant and Bridget who lived around Brigown Cork. She marries a man born in Utah of Danish ancestry and names a son Parley Faunt Westenskow.

Motivation Monday - Nearest Place That Wasn't Ireland- Fants from Ireland into UK

With 23andme back to almost full speed and AncestryDNA closing in at over 1.5 million testers and FTDNA's Family Finder with 300,000 maybe
 I am increasingly aware of DNA cousin matches who are in England who definitely go back to a shared Irish ancestor.

This means of course that I am skeptical of any large Fant presence in England that did not originate in Ireland.
 Why is that?

Because around the later 1500s they began to lose their Irish lands.. 1580s for sure..
 Many many men who are in Ireland in the late 1790s in Brigown Cork which is quite close to Tipperary and Limerick both are in certain areas of England by 1841 when census records begin.

Marriage records even sooner..Which places? Derbyshire.. Thos Fant Burial May 24 1712 Wirksworth Derbyshire..
 Durham..William Faint Gentleman's Servant and Rachel Wharton marriage St.Giles in the Field London..the family of Patrick Fant.. 
 Actually the families of 3 separate Patrick Fants and extended families, the families of 3 Jeremiah Mahers and 2 Jeremiah Fants.. these men were born in Brigown Cork ( rural Mitchelstown) before 1780..

Did they just flock off to an unknown place? Surely not.. Occasional records have always been popping up which lead us to believe they were always there but I think that since written records began in the 1550s in UK they were going to these places.

It has been called "The Nearest Place That Wasn't Ireland"

Motivation Monday- My extensive Donegal DNA matches

Looking and looking through the now online Parish records for Ireland..Doohan/Dugan/McClafferty/McFadden DNA matches are all intertwined..

81 % of people living where my Mary Doohan/Dugan Faunt was born ( the records are in Gortahork or Ray) are still Irish speakers ..


 It is said that this Colmcille ringed Celtic Cross is the tallest and oldest in Ireland..

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.