Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 232, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1910 — A Comer in Ancestors [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Comer in Ancestors

By ELEANOR LEXINGTON

Shannon Family (Copyright by McClure Syndicate)

O’Seancbain is said to have been the first form (Of the surname Shannon. From O’Seanchain to Shanahan, Shanason, is considered an easy feat to accomplish by those who are skilled in such matters. Then from Shranahan to Shanon or Shannon is as easy as rolling off the proverbial log. Seanchain or Seanchah is composed of two Celtic words, “seancha,” meaning an antiquarian or genealogist, and “an,” one who. Seanchan is, then, one who is an antiquarian. So renowned was one in this line that in time his friends and neighbors called him “Mr. Seanchan” and possibly some light-headed ones added, “the crank.” His son or grandson was O’Seanchan, O showing descent. Is it not a cause for gratitude that

the name now appears as the easily spelled and pronounced one of Shannon? Old records frequently give the name as Shanon, or with one “n.” The O’Seanchains have a£jong pedigree, belonging, as they do, to that branch i of the Celtic race which alone of all European races of the period antedating the Christian era has maintained its identity to the present time. From Ireland the clan went to Scotland and we find among ancestors of the race such pleasing names as Taidlig, Flarthbeartach and Donchadh Dubh. Real aristocrats, without doubt! Aodh, a chieftain of Ulster, was of this line. Perhaps it will con-

fuse us to mention that Shan, or Shann, is an ancient word meaning a mountain range. Shannan is one fofm of the name and Schanning another. In Scotland the orthography is usually Shannan. “The king of the Irish commons” was Henry Boyle, earl of Shannon, ,born 1682, at Castlemartyr, Ireland. From the north of Ireland (the ancient Scotland, if the historians say true) the Scots went in 503. To the north of Ireland • many returned in 1612-20; and to America their descendants began to emigrate in 1719 and earlier. They constituted three-fourths or more of the patriots who foqght for American liberty. The immigrant, or pilgrim father, Nathaniel Shannon, born 1655, in Londonderry, was of Scottish ancestry. When 32 years old he came to this country and made his home at Boston, where in 1701 he was a member of the Old South church. Twenty-two years later he died and the stone marking his grave in the old Granary burying ground, Tremont street, Boston, is still standing. Nathaniel’s brother, Robert, was mayor of Londonderry 1689 and Nathaniel was also a man of affairs, holding many town offices. He was the first naval officer of the port of Boston and a merchant of prominence. The papers now preserved in the Massachusetts state archives show that he was a man of good education. His wife was Elizabeth and their children were Nathaniel, Jr., Robert, who is supposed to have died unmarried, and Samuel, who married Ann Miller. Nathaniel the second married Abigail Vaughan, whose father was one of the royal councillors and also chief justice of New Hampshire. Nathaniel and Abigail had two sons, Nathaniel and Cutts. The four children of Nathaniel were his namesake and George, Margaret and Abigail. Nathaniel and his wife, Abigail Vaughan, lived at Portsmouth, N. H., where he was a ship merchant. He also lived at Ipswich. The coat of arms illustrated is blazoned, gules, a bend, or. Crest, a demi-talbot, sable. Arms for the earl of Shannon is per bend, crenellee, argent and gules. Crest, out of a ducal coronet, or a lion’s head, erased, per pale, crenellee, argent and gules. Supporters, two lions, per pale, crenellee; the dexter lion gules and argent; the sinister, argent and gules. Two mottoes are given: Vivlt Post Funera Virtue Virtue lives after death; and Spectemur Agendo—Let us be judged by our actions.