JOHN MCQUILLEN post master Comber

[mkftandc]

Hi ,

 Although I can't help with information for your John McQuillen , I wanted to add this in case there might be a connection .

I have an Ellen/Eleanor McQuillan who was married to a Charles Collins in Lower Killeavy , Co. Armagh .

Eleanor McQuillan Collins gave birth to a daughter on 8 Jan 1850 in Lower Killeavy , Co. Armagh . The daughter is Mary Ann Collins .

Unfortunately , this is all I have on the McQuillan name . I had never heard of the name before finding this record .

This Eleanor McQuillan Collins would be my 3rd great grandmother .

If you come to find out she fits with your McQuillans please let me know , and I will do the same with your John .

Thanks,
Megan

[dotmcq]

Thanks for that Megan.  Will keep an eye out for the name for you.

Dot McQ

[BallyaltikilliganG]

Dot, I am getting old and overlooked www.ancestryireland.com.   It's a membership or fee  paying for look ups website , however you are going to be a busy bee for a few months. I spotted near enough 1k of births and stopped. Here’s a summarise of their resources for you
McQuillan spelling
Database  No. of Records 
that are Freely available to Visitors
Birth records for Antrim and Down - Sign posting Index  946     
Marriage records for Antrim and Down - Sign posting Index  819     
Death records for Antrim and Down - Sign posting Index  69     
Irish ancestors being researched (members interests)  13     
Distribution of Surnames in Ulster ( 9 counties) in the mid-19th century -- Mathesons Database  33     
only available to members
Co. Londonderry Wills, Derry Diocese, 1612-1857 2     
Drummaul Householders 1848 2     
Guild Members' Interests, 2000 3     
Guild Members' Interests, 2001 1     
Guild Members' Interests, 2002 2     
Index to 1796 Flaxgrowers Bounty List (giving parish locations)  6     
Index to Printed Irish Will Calendars 1878-1900 (covering every county) 35     
Irish Gravestone Inscription Surname-Firstname Index  22     
List of Household Heads in Larne Town in 1901  2     
Post Offices in Ireland 0     
Spirit Grocers in Ireland 1     
Subscribers to Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary  1     
Ulster Gravestone Inscription Surname-Firstname Index  22     
McQuillen spelling
that are Freely available to Visitors
Birth records for Antrim and Down - Sign posting Index  31     
Marriage records for Antrim and Down - Sign posting Index  31     
Death records for Antrim and Down - Sign posting Index  2     
Irish ancestors being researched (members interests)  1     
Below is a list of results for databases that are
available to Members Only.  
Co. Londonderry Wills, Derry Diocese, 1612-1857 1     
Illiterate voters in Irish boroughs in 1837  3     
Index to Printed Irish Will Calendars 1878-1900 (covering every county) 5     
Irish Gravestone Inscription Surname-Firstname Index  1     
Merchants and Traders of Belfast 1865 1     
Post Offices in Ireland 0     
Ulster Gravestone Inscription Surname-Firstname Index  1   
sorry!, good luck, Jim   

[rittrock]

Good day

Just checking about the McQuillans of Comber as they appear in the Belfast News-letter.

John McQuillan the postmaster dies in September 1829 in his 71st year.

James McQuillan dies 11 June 1835 in his 74th year; “one of the last of an ancient and once noble family, being lineally descended from McQuillan, Lord of Dunluce”.

His sister Ann McQuillan dies 23 May 1835 in her 55th year.

George McQuillan dies 25 June 1837; “the last male branch of a family lineally decended from the once great, but much wronged McQuillans, Earls of Dunluce. To the restoration of their hereditary estates the family still look with strong hope.”

Three questions...

1. Is this Ann the celebrated spinner? She is about the right age.

2. The father of Ann the spinner was Charles - a name that recurs in the Dunluce histories; what happened to him? He was already elderly in 1809.

3. Are these statements "one of the last.." and then "the last male branch..." accepted nowadays? That is, how do these Comber McQuillans join with the Wexford branch of McQuillans, if they do?

best wishes

[TheWhuttle]

Thought some educated research on the origins of the MacQUILLAN surname would be of interest to this topic ....

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MacQuillan is found in Leinster and Connaught but is common only in Ulster, especially in counties Antrim and Monaghan.

The Welsh Norman family of de Mandeville came to north Antrim in the late twelfth century and wrested the territory known as the Route and its main stronghold, Dunluce Castle, from the O’Kanes.

They rapidly became ‘hibernicised’ and a recognised Irish sept, prominent in the area until they, in turn, were ousted by the MacDonnells.

The progenitor of the sept was Hugelin de Mandeville and from his family name the family took the Gaelic name Mac Uighilin, which was later anglicised as MacQuillan.
 

The de Mandevilles also took the barony of Dufferin in Co. Down, and these MacQuillans were for a long time in close alliance with the Savages of the Ards peninsula.
 

In Co, Monaghan, one of the centres of the name, MacQuillan can be of the de Mandeville origin, but it can equally be an anglicisation of Mac Cuilinn (from cuileann, ‘holly’), a name also made MacCollin and MacCullen (see Collins and Cullen).  The form Quillan is sometimes used as a synonym of Holly.

Lastly, some Monaghan MacQuillans will be originally Campbell gallowglasses (see MacCallion).

MacQuillan has also become confused with MacWilliam and MacWilliams (see MacWilliams).

--------

Reference:
P.181
The book of ULSTER SURNAMES
Robert Bell
The Blackstaff Press  1988
ISBN 0-85640-405-5  (ppb 285pps)

[A great wee book!  A MUST for all serious Ulster genealogical searchers.]

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Alternative source 1:  McQuillan.org

====

Alternative source 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McQuillan

----
McQuillan and MacQuillan are surnames of Irish and Scottish origin. There are several unrelated origins of the surnames McQuillan and MacQuillan.

The Ulster variant of the surname was claimed to be an anglicisation of the Gaelic Mac Uighilín (son of Hugelin), the name allegedly adopted by the family of Hugelin de Mandeville. The de Mandevilles were a Cambro-Norman family and had conquered an area of north Antrim.[1]

In reality the de Mandevilles sold their estates in northern Antrim to the McQuillans by the 1460s.[2] The McQuillans had originally come to Ulster from southwestern Scotland to aid the earls of Ulster as mercenaries.
----

Page 45.
A History of Ulster
Bardon, Jonathan
The Black Staff Press, 2005.
ISBN 0-85640-764-X

[pps 67-68 in my 1992 version  ISBN 0-85640-476-4  ppb (914 pps)
 JB says there that the McQUILLANs had been driven out of Co. Down.]