In 1732 the Exchequer bill Dawson v McLaughlin and Staples initiated a lawsuit concerning the lands granted to Domhnall mcBrian oge in the Plantation of Ulster. The bill was answered but did not progress to the issue of a decree. The bill recites the following descents from Domhnall [1]. Names have been standardised.
Domhnall mcBrian oge | Eoghan |________________ | | Donncha Domhnall | died 1711 |________ |_______________ | | | | | Annraoi Brian Eoghan 2 sons Seoirse
Donncha can be identified among those appointed burgesses of Londonderry borough corporation during a brief period in the late seventeenth century when Catholics were not disabled from holding civil office [2]. Local tradition records that Domhnall and his brother Peter were sent to the continent to train as Catholic priests. After being shipwrecked off the English coast an English nobleman offered to have them educated at an English university if they would change their religion. Domhnall conformed, anglicised his name to Daniel and attended the English university while Peter continued on his journey. Eventually Daniel returned to Inishowen to become the Anglican rector of Clonmany only to find his brother Peter installed there as the Catholic parish priest [3]. This tradition finds support in the record which shows Daniel as Anglican rector of Clonmany from 1672 to 1711 [4] and Peter as Catholic parish priest of Clonmany in 1660 [5]. A secondary source cites an incomplete account of the lawsuit Cary v Young in support of the following genealogy [6]. The rather ugly anglicised spellings have been retained rather than standardised.
Bryan oge alive 1609 | Donald mcBryan oge | Owen died before his father |_________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | Donaghy buy Daniel Phelimy Peter Turlough Shane died 1697 died 1711 alive 1732 alive 1732 crone |______ |____________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | Henry Bryan George Owen Elizabeth Ann Mary Charity Daniel died died died 1709 1713 1736
No account of the lawsuit Cary v Young has been found in the author's working papers [7] or during an extensive search of transcripts of Chancery and Exchequer bills and no lawsuit of that name appears in the indexes of Chancery and Exchequer decrees. The only item in the author's papers to support this genealogy is an account, literary rather than historical, in which the characters of Phelimy, Peter, Turlough and George hold a conversation in which they decide to will the lands inherited from Domhnall mcBrian oge to an ancestor of the author [8]. Needless to say, until an independent account of Cary v Young is located the genealogy given in this secondary source should be treated with caution.
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