What's in a name? Or 'The art of interpreting the science of Y-DNA'

Y-DNA testing offers researchers a tantalising window into the past without the transitory limitations of autosomal testing. Y-DNA opens up the possibility of tracing your direct male lineal descent as far back as chromosomal Adam. (1) Y-DNA also has decided advantages over the mitochondrial testing (MT-DNA), the female equivalent: unlike MT-DNA, Y-DNA material provides regular mutation rates allowing more accurate dating estimates. (2) Combined with forensic archaeology it is possible to trace your direct male lines migratory history helping to fill out the ancient narrative. (3) Again, in this article I'm going to be using my own results to illustrate my points for reasons of both convenience and familiarity.

World migration path of Y-DNA haplogroup R-BY109442 prepared by Colin Mallett

Map: Aristocat123, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Data: Big Y Testing at FTDNA (i)

A haplogroup is a genetic population that share a common ancestor with a specific Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism mutation (SNP). The most common sub-set lineage among Europeans is the haplogroup R1b1a2 or R-M269. (4) My own terminal (most recent) haplogroup is R1b-BY109442 and its trail of polymorphisms descending from R-M269 is comprised of: R-L23, R-L51, R-P310, R-P312, R-Z290, R-L21, R-S552, R-DF13, R-ZZ10_1, R-CTS3386, R-S19268, R-FGC13300, R-S9793, R-S9797, R-FT1617, R-BY42759, R-BY43560, R-BY72189, BY109442. (5) The technology has a second trick up its sleeve: Short Tandem Repeat (STR) marker testing is used to fill in the gaps between SNPs and is more suited to interpreting more ‘recent’ ancestry within the last several hundred years. The more remote the Most Recent Common Ancestor between two kits, the more markers in common are dropped. (6) 

A simplified migration path map for Haplogrpoups R-L21 to R-BY1094422 prepared by Colin Mallett

Map: Paasikivi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Data: Big-Y testing at FTDNA (ii)

Using my SNP results we can extrapolate that direct male ancestor, a ‘proto-Celt’ from the Atlantic coast of the continent, belonging to either the haplogroup R-DF13 or its immediate downstream successor R-ZZ10_1, arrived in what would later be known as England around 2500 BCE (Before Common Era). Over the next thousand years his direct descendants moved steadily Northwards before a male - likely of the haplogroup R-CTS3386 - migrated to what we know now as Ireland around 1400 BCE. Four bodies interred in the burial ground at The Bishop’s Seat, Kilteasheen, County Roscommon, Connacht Province, which was in use between 600 to 1300 CE (Common Era), descend from the R-ZZ10_1 line; this indicates a shared ancestor born around 2500 BCE. However, another body, ‘Kilteasheen34’ belongs to haplogroup BY42759 and therefore shares a much more recent common ancestor born around 200 CE. Additionally drawing on STR matching, (out of a total database of approximately 600, 000) I matched only one kit at the 111 marker level and he also shares the surname MALLETT. It seems our lines diverged around 1450 CE when my own terminal haplogroup branched off from R-BY42759. (7) Merging this genetic evidence with the archival therefore may allow a more complete, however speculative, historical narrative to be constructed.

In a sense, a haplogroup is a 'genetic surname' for men, one that evades the vagaries of fate. I would argue that we can fill out more of the wider 'family' story through analysis of the etymology and geographical association of the surnames held by those tested. Although extant surnames are only the endpoint of any specific line of descent, it could be argued that they do represent a kind of cultural barometer. Two celtic surnames ednemic to descendants downstream of the Irish founder haplogroup R-CTS3386, are CARROLL and FERGUSON. These two surnames are also still evident among the descendants of R-BY42759. (8) 

Family plot of the CARROLL family, Knockbridge, County Louth, Leinster Province, Ireland.

The Carroll Family Plot at the old Catholic burial ground at Knockbride by Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (iii)

The surname CARROLL was first associated with the Kingdom of Oriel (situated within the modern counties of Louth and Monaghan) and later became common in County Offaly. In fact CARROLL is one of the twenty five most common surname in Ireland (9) 

'Ferguson' by R. R. McIan from James Logan's The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, 1845.

Robert Ronald McIan (1803-1856)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (iv)

Meanwhile, the FERGUSON clan is closely associated with Ayrshire, Scotland. (10) From the Third Century CE, the 'Scoti' migrated from Ireland to 'Caledonia'. By approximately 500 CE, they were well established in Dalriada (comprising of Argyllshire and the islands of Jura, Islay and Iona). Clan FERGUS(S)ON claims descent from King Fergus mor McErc who it is believed established the Scottish monarchy. (11) 

Border Rievers at Glinnockie Tower by George Cattermole

G Cattermole, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (v)

Extant surnames among those descending from subclade R-BY43560 may reflect some kind of cultural shift beginning around the middle of the first millenium. While many of those descended upstream of R-BY42759 have retained surnames reflecting their celtic heritage, those descending through R-BY43560, appear to have largely adopted Anglo-Norman surnames, among them ROBBINS, VANCE and MILBURN. This would suggest a downstream exposure, over successive generations, to Norman influences perhaps as a result of their invasion of Ireland from 1169 CE or migration to 'Normanised' England or Scotland. As discussed in a previous article, MALLETT (originally MALET) is either a Norman or Norman inspired surname. (12) ROBBINS is derived from the personal name Robert introduced by the Normans. (13) The surname VANCE is thought to be a modernised version of the Norman de VAUX. (14) MILBURN is in fact a notorious Border Reiver surname. (15) It is known that some members of the haplogroup R-S11304 (sibling to R-BY43560), took the surnames THOMPSON and CLARK, which are also classed as being Norman in origin. (16)  All these clues point to several lines from around 700 CE sharing common experiences of either assimilation with and/or migration into the 'Anglosphere'. 

In conclusion, Y-DNA is a happy accident of evolution. It's a technology that opens a unique, inadvertent window into the past. Like all DNA technologies, Y-DNA testing requires careful interpretation of results but its generally more revealing than studies of MT-DNA thanks to a faster mutation rate. Attention to endpoint surnames, specifically their etymology and geographical associations I think can be a valuable technique to help develop a richer, more expansive narrative. My own ancestral patrilenial migration story may vary from that suggested in figure ii and perhaps resemble those of my sibling lines, the FERGUS(S)ON clan and the MILBURN family which both had a subsequent association with Ayrshire. I now speculate that the specific journey of my own line, over many generations, may have also involved a geographic reversal of direction from Ireland, back through Scotland, then gradually southwards through the English midlands (wherein one line of the MALLETT family established themselves in Warwickshire) and then westwards to eventually settle in Cornwall.

-  Colin Mallett, 14 February 2025 (updated due to my new terminal haplogroup being assigned on 9 October 2025).

Endnotes

(1) Until recently, Chromosonal Adam was considered to be the most recent common male ancestor of all modern humans, Y-DNA in the form of a Y-Chromosome being passed down from fathers to sons, mutating at a fairly constant rate of around every 125 years or perhaps around 3-4 generations. Chromosomal Eve is the female equivalent but her MT-DNA is passed on to both male and female children. Its unlikely they coexisted but were both members of larger populations. See: Ewen Callaway, 'Genetic Adam and Eve did not live too far apart in time', nature website, 6 August 2013, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2013.13478 , accessed 13 February 2025.

(2) MT-DNA haplogroup mutation rate is thought to be 4.6 times slower than that found in Y-DNA. This can make it difficult to estimate if a MRCA shared by two kits sits within a useful genealogical timeframe. It is useful though in establishing if two people do or do not share a direct maternal line of descent. See: Charles F. Kerchner jnr, 'An Example of How to Use TMRCA Calculators for mtDNA Results', Kerchner's DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy Information and Resources Page, 7 November 2006, http://www.kerchner.com/mtdnatmrcacalculations.htm , accessed 13 February 2025. 

(3) Archaeogenetics has allowed ancient human migration to be better understood by combining archaeology and genetics. This can be equally applied to an individual. See: George Bushby, 'Here's how genetics helped crack the history of human migration', the Conversation, 14 January 2016,  https://theconversation.com/heres-how-genetics-helped-crack-the-history-of-human-migration-52918 , accessed 13 February 2025.

(4) G.C. Binod, 'Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs): Origin, Significance and Detection strategies', 11 May 2023, https://thesciencenotes.com/single-nucleotide-polymorphisms-snps-origin-significance-detection/ , accessed 13 February 2025. 

(5) Colin Mallett, Mallett Research Folder 0, Unpublished Y-DNA research project, F0000 MALLETT Folder (0) , accessed 11 February 2025. 

(6) Tushar Chauhan, 'What are Short Tandem Repeats (STRs)? Why do we use it?', Genetic Education, 3 July 2019, https://geneticeducation.co.in/what-are-short-tandem-repeats-strs-why-do-we-use-it/ , accessed 13 February 2025. For an overview of the SNP and STR marker research within the R1b-CTS3386 haplogroup project please see: R1b-CTS3386 and Subclades Project, 'Y-DNA SNP', Family Tree DNA Website, n.d., https://www.familytreedna.com/public/R1b-CTS3386?iframe=yresults, accessed 13 February 2025 & R1b-CTS3386 and Subclades Project, 'Y-DNA Classic Chart', Family Tree DNA Website, n.d.,  https://www.familytreedna.com/public/R1b-CTS3386/default.aspx?section=ysnp , accessed 13 February 2025.

(7) Colin Mallett, Mallett Research Folder 0.

(8)  According to tradition, both of these families were meant to descend from the two sons of King Milesius who landed in Ireland around 1699 BCE: the CARROLLs descending from the eldest son Heber and the FERGUSONs (the Anglicised version of McFERGUS) descending from the younger son Heremon. In the case of the men descending from BY42759 this clearly can't be the case as according to the said chart all these CARROLLs and FERGUSONs share an ancestor who lived as recently as around 1000 CE. See: Author Unknown, 'Ancient Origins of Ireland', House of Names, n.d., https://www.houseofnames.com/blogs/Ancient-Origins-of-Ireland , accessed 13 February 2025; John Rooney, 'The Carroll Family' (from A Genealogical History of Irish Families with their Crests and Armorial Bearings, 1895), Library Ireland, n.d., https://www.libraryireland.com/irish-families/carroll.php , accessed 13 February 2025; John Rooney, 'The McFergus or Ferguson Family' (from A Genealogical History of Irish Families with their Crests and Armorial Bearings, 1895), Library Ireland, n.d.,  https://www.libraryireland.com/irish-families/mcfergus.php , accessed 13 February 2025.

(9)  Author Unknown, 'Carroll: family name history', Irish History, n.d., https://www.irishhistory.com/genealogy/irish-surnames/carroll-family-name-history/ , accessed 13 February 2025; John Grenham, 'Carroll Surname History', johngrenham.com, n.d., https://www.johngrenham.com/surnamescode/surnamehistory.php?surname=Carroll&search_type=full , accessed 13 February 2025. 

(10) Author Unknown, 'The Famous Places of Clan Ferguson', Scotland Shop, n.d., https://www.scotlandshop.com/tartanblog/famous-places-clan-ferguson , accessed 13 February 2025.

(11) Author Unknown, 'A Brief History of the Fergussons', Clan Fergusson Society of North America, n.d., https://cfsna.net/about-2/clan-fergusson-society-of-north-america-3/history-of-the-society/fergussons-in-scotland-2 , accessed 13 February 2025.

(12) Colin Mallett, 'From Natives to Normans to Protestants: Irish surnames from the Ninth Century to the present day', The Write Side of History blog, 16 January 2025, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2025/01/from-natives-to-normans-to-protestants.html , accessed 13 February 2025. Please note: while the order of descent of haplogroups tends to remain static, the dating of the haplogroup mutations are constantly being refined; as of October 2025, haplogroup R-BY42759 has now been estimated to have emerged around 400 CE, R-BY43560 around 700 CE, R-BY72189 around 1450 CE and R-BY109442 approx. 1500 CE.

(13) ROBBINS is an English name based on the personal name Robert which was introduced by the Normans. See: Author Unknown, 'Robbins', Heraldry's Institute of Rome, n.d., https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/en/cognomi/Robbins/idc/600565/?srsltid=AfmBOorowR21xBiU5gnflk-aqw_cNejH3i5wVzxaEB_9PiEy1tl9C8_9 , accessed 13 February 2025.

(14) The surname VANCE is strongly associated with Ireland and Scotland. It is thought to be an Anglicised version of the Norman surname, de VAUX, originally meaning 'of the valleys'. See: Author Unknown, 'A Short History of the Vance Surname', Vance History Online blog, n.d., https://vancehistoryonline.blogspot.com/p/short-history-of-vance-surname.html , accessed on 13 February 2025. 

(15) Author Unknown, 'Milburn Surname', England's North East, n.d., https://englandsnortheast.co.uk/guide-to-north-east-surnames-m/ , accessed 13 February 2025.

(16) This is drawn from private Y-DNA group project work through the FTDNA site. Similar to the FERGUS(S)ON lines, there also seems to be a distant association between these MILBURN descendants with Ayrshire, Scotland.   

Figures and Illustrations

(i)  Colin Mallett, prepared with data from Big Y Testing at FTDNA with map sourced from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_World_Without_a_Background.png, accessed 13 February 2025.

(ii) Colin Mallett, prepared with data from Big Y Testing at FTDNA with map sourced from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Location_map_of_British_Isles.png, accessed 13 February 2025.

(iii) Eric Jones, 'The Carroll family plot at the old Catholic burial ground at Knockbride', 2013, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Carroll_Family_Plot_at_the_old_Catholic_burial_ground_at_Knockbride_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3827558.jpg, accessed 13 February 2025.

(iv) R. R. McClan, 'Ferguson', from James Logan's The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, 1845, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ferguson_(R._R._McIan).jpg, accessed 13 February 2025.

(v) G. Cattermole, 'Reivers raid on Gilnockie Tower', date unknown, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reivers_raid_on_Gilnockie_Tower.jpg, accessed 13 February 2025.

Bibliography

Author Unknown, 'Ancient Origins of Ireland', House of Names, n.d., https://www.houseofnames.com/blogs/Ancient-Origins-of-Ireland , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'Carroll: family name history', Irish History, n.d., https://www.irishhistory.com/genealogy/irish-surnames/carroll-family-name-history/ , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'The Famous Places of Clan Ferguson', Scotland Shop, n.d., https://www.scotlandshop.com/tartanblog/famous-places-clan-ferguson , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'A Brief History of the Fergussons', Clan Fergusson Society of North America, n.d., https://cfsna.net/about-2/clan-fergusson-society-of-north-america-3/history-of-the-society/fergussons-in-scotland-2 , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'Robbins', Heraldry's Institute of Rome, n.d., https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/en/cognomi/Robbins/idc/600565/?srsltid=AfmBOorowR21xBiU5gnflk-aqw_cNejH3i5wVzxaEB_9PiEy1tl9C8_9 , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'Milburn Surname', England's North East, n.d., https://englandsnortheast.co.uk/guide-to-north-east-surnames-m/ , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'A Short History of the Vance Surname', Vance History Online blog, n.d., https://vancehistoryonline.blogspot.com/p/short-history-of-vance-surname.html , accessed on 13 February 2025. 

Binod, G. C., 'Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs): Origin, Significance and Detection strategies', 11 May 2023, https://thesciencenotes.com/single-nucleotide-polymorphisms-snps-origin-significance-detection/ , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Bushby, George. 'Here's how genetics helped crack the history of human migration', the Conversation, 14 January 2016,  https://theconversation.com/heres-how-genetics-helped-crack-the-history-of-human-migration-52918 , accessed 13 February 2025.

Callaway, Ewen, 'Genetic Adam and Eve did not live too far apart in time', nature website, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2013.13478 , accessed 13 February 2025.

Chauhan, Tushar, 'What are Short Tandem Repeats (STRs)? Why do we use it?', Genetic Education, 3 July 2019, https://geneticeducation.co.in/what-are-short-tandem-repeats-strs-why-do-we-use-it/ , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Grenham, John. 'Carroll Surname History', johngrenham.com, n.d., https://www.johngrenham.com/surnamescode/surnamehistory.php?surname=Carroll&search_type=full , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Kerchner, Charles F. jnr,  'An Example of How to Use TMRCA Calculators for mtDNA Results', Kerchner's DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy Information and Resources Page, 7 November 2006, http://www.kerchner.com/mtdnatmrcacalculations.htm , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Rooney, John, 'The Carroll Family' (from A Genealogical History of Irish Families with their Crests and Armorial Bearings, 1895), Library Ireland, n.d., https://www.libraryireland.com/irish-families/carroll.php , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Rooney, John, 'The McFergus or Ferguson Family' (from A Genealogical History of Irish Families with their Crests and Armorial Bearings, 1895), Library Ireland, n.d.,  https://www.libraryireland.com/irish-families/mcfergus.php , accessed 13 February 2025.

Mallett, Colin, Mallett Research Folder 0, Unpublished Y-DNA research project, F0000 MALLETT Folder (0) , accessed 13 February 2025.

Mallett, Colin, 'From Natives to Normans to Protestants: Irish surnames from the Ninth Century to the present day', The Write Side of History blog, 16 January 2025, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2025/01/from-natives-to-normans-to-protestants.html , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, accessed 13 February 2025.

From natives to Normans to Protestants: Irish surnames from the ninth century to the present day

A Celtic cross at St. David's Church, Naas, County Kildare. 

Rectorstdavids, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (i)

I recently made a close study of the surnames of Ireland. The starting point of my enquiries was John O'Donovan's seminal series 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names' published in seven instalments in the Irish Penny Journal in 1841. Donovan (1806-1886) was an Irish literary scholar of great acclaim. I also consulted Irish Names and Surnames by Patrick Woulf (1872-1933) published in 1922. While sometimes contested by his successors, Father Woulfe's book remains a foundation stone of scholarship on the topic. Inevitably, I also turned to the voluminous works of Edward MacLysaght (1887-1986), a very famous Irish genealogist and scholar. While I undertook this work mostly to gain a better understanding of my own considerable Celtic heritage, there are specific research questions I sought to answer. How were Irish surnames formed? In what ways and why did they change over time? And lastly, using what I learned from my research to seek an answer to a personal enquiry: how did a Cornish family of Irish descent end up with a Norman surname (?!).

Ireland was in fact one of the earliest regions in the western world to develop a system of surnames. (1) There is a myth that surnames were established by King Brian Boru. (2) However, there is evidence of the use of surnames in what became Ireland by the later part of the first millennium, long before his reign. (3) These surnames were formed of course in the native language: Gaeilge. The earliest surnames were initially formed from the father's name prefixed with "Mc/Mac" (for father) or "O' " (for a patrilineal ancestor). (4) The rarer equivalent prefix for a specifically female descendant was "ni". (5) The words "giolla" and "maol" were eventually introduced as prefixes to denote a follower or servant, normally of a Saint. (6) Gradually surnames in Ireland expanded to incorporate occupations and personal characteristics. (7) It is rarer to encounter Gaelic Irish surnames based on a place of habitation. (8)

Most of these early Gaelic surnames were originally transitory, rather than hereditary, in nature. (9) Overtime though, the Irish, like the Welsh, adopted the practice of developing names that represented a 'veritable genealogy'. Maclysaght explained: 'John MacMahon MacWilliam MacOwen MacShane was, of course, John MacMahon whose father's Christian name was William and his great grandfather's was Shane.' I'm not exactly sure then what MacLysaght would have made of Donal McShane Mallacht O'Neill of Shagrom in the Parish of Dungannon, County Tyrone who was a native granted land in 1610. His son's subsequent full name was constituted as Eugene McDonal McShane Mallacht O'Neill - a title that includes a personal name, father's name, grandfather's name, nickname (?) and clan name (?!). This all seems to imply that the practice was flexible or more complex than MacLysaght argued—the custom possibly prone to regional variation. (10) Indeed, Donal is listed under the surname 'Mallett' in David Donson's The People of Ireland 1600-1699! (11) The 1659 census, a primary source relied on by scholars for studies in this period, likely suffered from misinterpretation of that practice. (12)

Vikings at Dublin, 841 CE 

James Ward (1851-1924), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (ii)

To understand the development of surnames in Ireland it is necessary to understand its history of invasions and immigration. Vikings settled in Ireland during the Ninth Century and built the first real city states of the region in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick. The Norse proved to be valued traders and an economic interdependence developed between their cities and the native Irish that helped to ensure their survival as much as the decline of the influence of the High Kingship. (13) The surname Doyle is thought to have derived from the Gaelic expression "dubh-ghall" meaning "dark foreigner". There is a strong belief that because O'Dubghaill cannot be found in the great Gaelic genealogies their eponymous ancestor was likely a Norseman. It is also mostly found in coastal counties where Norse settlements were located. (14) Many Norse given names were transformed into Irish surnames including O'Rourke or Groarke ("descendant of Rurarc") and O'Loughlin ("descendant of Lochlann"). (15)

A depiction of the marriage of Aoife and Strongbow at Waterford, 1170 CE 

Daniel Maclise , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (iii)

The first true upheaval affecting surnames in Ireland was inflicted by the Normans from the late 12th Century. The system of patrilineal prefixes had become firmly established for at least a century before the arrival of the Normans. (16) One of the lasting legacies of the Norman invasion of Ireland was a large sub-set of Hiberno-Norman surnames. (17) For instance, the Normans introduced the enduring prefix "Fitz" to Ireland. (18) The murder of William de Burge, the third Earl of Ulster, in 1333 led to a weakening of English control and an increase in this "Hibernicization" of surnames particularly in the Kingdoms of Connaught and Munster. As O'Donovan insists, it is misleading to refer to the invaders and their descendants as 'English' considering the fact that their ancestors had "dwelt scarcely a century in England." Typically for Normans, they appear to have assimilated rather than conformed outright with the native population. Instead of simply taking Gaelic or Norse names, the local Normans reacted by adding the prefix "Mac" to the name of a personal ancestor. (19) This was one aspect of the Normans becoming "Hiberniores Hibernicis ipsis" or "more Irish than the Irish themselves"! (20)

English initiatives designed to prevent the settlers from 'going native' arguably inadvertently impacted the nomenclature of Ireland. The Statutes of Kilkenny passed in 1367 were designed to define the "cultural, racial and political identity of the declining English colony in Ireland." (21) One of these statutes specifically made it illegal for the English settlers and their descendants to adopt Gaelic surnames. (22) This edict was limited to the Irish 'Irish of the Pale' which consisted of Dublin, Meath, Louth and Kildare. (23)

Map of Ireland and its counties taken from Edward Hyde Claredon's The History of the rebellion and civil wars in England published in 1717 

Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons (iv)

A subsequent law passed in 1465 made it mandatory for every Irishman in the Pale to adopt an 'English' surname. While the genteel classes resisted, the lower orders in Dublin and Leinster complied. (24) Together, these laws may have ensured that many Norman surnames persisted despite a high degree of assimilation. The perseverance of Norman surnames led to surnames such as Burke, FitzGerald and Keating becoming indistinguishable from those of more traditional Gaelic origin such as O'Connor. (25)

The second upheaval of Irish nomenclature was instigated by the English during the plantation period beginning in the mid-15th Century. The Elizabethan 'settlers' and their descendants were never 'Hibernicized' as the Normans had been. (26) Inversely, throughout the Seventeenth Century, the prefixes "Mc" or "Mac" and "O' " were abandoned by the native population, reflecting an inclination by many to bury their Irishness in the wake of the second conquest. (27) Therefore, many of the surnames of Ulster which possess the "Mc" and "Mac" prefixes are descended from Seventeenth Century Scottish planters. (28) Many Irish surnames over the centuries then were gradually anglicised. (29) MacLysaght somewhat sniffily asserts that the "mutilation and corruption of Irish surnames took place in the seventeenth and to a lesser extent the eighteenth centuries." (30) This corruption sometimes took the form of adopting an English pronunciation of a Gaelic name. (31) O'Donovan lamented that many Gaelic surnames were translated "erroneously" and on the basis of "fancied resemblance in the sounds of both" as opposed to shared meaning. (32) The more genteel native classes favoured a shift to French and Spanish surnames. (33) John O'Donovan in the sixth instalment of his aforementioned 1841 series, related how a descendant of the ancient O'Malley family of County Mayo changed his surname to de Maillet. He rather unkindly observed:

...though his friends condescend sometimes to call him by this name, they can scarcely refrain from laughter while pronouncing it, for they know very well that he descends from Owen O'Malley, the father of the famous heroine Grania Wael, and chief of Umaillia or the Owles, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
MacLysaght despaired of the inability to distinguish between identical names that are common in both Ireland and England such as Collins, Boyle and Smith. (40) While Mallett (and its variations Malet and Mallet) is a surname more common to England than Ireland, it is also found in both countries. Thankfully by combining DNA testing with archival research, it is now possible to be more certain of your 'deep ancestry', on the direct male line at any rate. Archaeogenetics has confirmed that my own patrilineal line may have arrived from what would be Scotland to Ireland around 1400 BCE and resided there as late as 1300 CE, perhaps even longer, before migrating to England. The most recent common ancestor shared with my highest-level Y-DNA match, who also incidentally shares my surname, was born around 1450 CE. Our most recently traced ancestors were respectively born in Cornwall and Warwickshire, both around 1800 CE. (41) Indeed, UK taxation records from 1440 reveal that an Irishman named Tago Malet was living in Newton Ferrers, Devonshire! For all we know he could have been our family's eponymous ancestor! (42) Therefore, assuming my surname was adopted by an ancetsor in Ireland and not some kind of cultural camouflage or inadvertent adoption post-migration to England, it may have been derived because of one of three basic scenarios:

1. By virtue of Normans invading Ireland from the late 12th Century.
2. Through subsequent anglicisation of specific Gaelic surnames.
3. As a result of later immigration, including the mass arrival of Huguenots after 1685.

There were likely many other instances of this kind of adaptation, however clusmy, across all classes. (34) This widespread aversion by the Irish to their Gaelic roots was not reversed until the later 19th Century through the work and encouragement of the Gaelic League. (35)

The revocation of the 'Edict of Nantes' accelerated Huguenot migration to Ireland. Even so, 'An Act to Encourage the Migration of Protestant Strangers' had already been passed more than twenty years earlier in 1662, reflecting their perceived value to the local economy as "merchants, manufacturers and bankers". (36) The great Huguenot migration of the Seventeenth Century introduced many new surnames. (37). The same was true with the migration of several hundred German Palatine families to Ireland in the early Eighteenth Century and the majority settled in County Limerick. (38) Regardless, the transplantation of surnames from England and elsewhere to Ireland was sometimes gentle and gradual. Many Anglo-Irish surnames for instance were likely introduced by small waves of migrants during the Medieval period. (39)

Old headstone in Errew graveyard overlooking Gulladoo Lough, County Mayo, Ireland, 2009 

Oliver Dixon / Old gravestone in Errew Graveyard (v)

The Norman surname Malet (and its subsequent variations) transplanted from Normandy and Brittany to the British Isels was Old French in origin and likely traced back to three separate Latin words. (43) John O'Hart in his Irish Pedigrees suggested that the surname Malet - in its primordial form and in Ireland - may have been one of the anglicised forms of the Gaelic surname O'Maoilraite. (44) The surname is listed in the poem titled "Many a branch of the race of Conn" by Giolla Iosa Mor MacFirbis written sometime before 1417. The poem references an O'Ma(o)ilraite whose lands were situated near Errew in the parish of Ballyhean, County Mayo. A long topographical poem, it lists all the land-owning families of Tir Fhiachrach and eulogises each clan head - although the spelling is erratic! (45) According to Father Woulfe, the prefix "Maol" originally meant "bald" or more specifically "tonsured" or shaven like a monk and took on the meaning of servant or devotee when connected with the name of a Saint; therefore "Maol Eoin" was a servant of John. But he also cautioned that it had become confused with the prefix "Mal" taken from the old Celtic word "Maglos" meaning a Chief. This was often used in a variety of ways with nouns, proper or not and even adjectives. Therefore "Maolcaoin" would translate as "Gentle Chief". (46) John O'Hart lists accompanying anglicisations of O'Maoilraite or O'Mailraite as Mulratty, Rattan and Raite. (47) I cannot ascertain the meaning of the Gaelic suffix "raite" but it could be a past participle of "abair" meaning to proclaim, declare or simply to disclose. (48) The poem refers to O'Ma(o)ilraite and his lands in the following manner:

Cul Daingin and Braenros ban,

Oiremh and the enture Imairi

Belong to O'Mailraite, hospitable to the man,

To Whom the literati and the feast were pleasing. (49)

It may be significant that the Scottish Gaelic word "rait" was used to refer to a hill fort and was derived from an earlier Picto-Celtic word "rath" which referred to a defensive structure. (50) The original meaning of O'Ma(o)ilraite is probably lost forever but it may be hidden in some combination of two of the four Gaelic words for 'servant'/'chief' and 'speaker'/'fort'. (51)

Malet is listed by O'Hart in his second volume of Irish Pedigrees as a Huguenot surname in Ireland - although it is noted that one arrived before the rule of Louis XIV began in 1643. (52). Following the mass Huguenot migration to Ireland, the surname Malet had become associated with the French Quarter of the city of Cork. (53) Furthermore, the family of the famous engineer and seismologist, Robert Mallet (1810-1881), began arriving as part of a chain migration from North Tawton, Devonshire to Dublin in the late Eighteenth Century. This family was descended from the illustrious Somerset family with links back to 1066 and all that. Furthermore, adding to the complexity, the first to arrive, Robert's Uncle and namesake, married a woman of alleged Huguenot ancestry making his descendants potentially both of Huguenot and Norman descent! (54)

While it is a more obscure, niche area of study, much has been written and published on the history of surnames in Ireland over the centuries. Following the initial innovation of the custom, the three greatest periods of adaption took place during the Norman Invasion, the Plantation period and the mass Protestant migrations of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The first period saw the introduction of a new set of surnames that persist to the current day. The second period saw an upsurge in English surnames and the subsequent anglicization of the surviving Gaelic ones. The third period by virtue of mass migration, saw an influx of both French and other European surnames. No mastery of Irish Gaelic is required to comprehend the basic linguistic mechanics of the practices determining surnames in Ireland from the Ninth Century; however, the erratic translation of Gaelic surnames to phonetically similar English and European surnames makes tracing their individual history a task best left to the professional linguist. On a personal level and despite my best efforts, it is not yet possible to be certain of the exact origin of my own surname or even to finally conclude that it was in fact adopted during the twilight of my ancestors' ten to twenty centuries in Ireland. But if it was, then it likely occurred because of one of the three scenarios outlined. 

-  Colin Mallett, 17 January 2025.

Huguenot graveyard, intersection of French Church Street and Carey's Lane, City of Cork, County Cork, Republic of Ireland, 2015. 

Slongy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, (vi)

Endnotes

(1) Edward MacLysaght, The Surnames of Ireland, 1st edn, Irish University, Shannon, 1969, p 9.
(2) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9.
(3) There are a couple of common fallacies held concerning these prefixes. The spelling of the prefixes Mc and Mac does not distinguish a surname to be of specifically Irish or Scottish origin. MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9 & Edward MacLysaght, Irish Families Their Name, Arms and Origins, Allen Figgis, Dublin, 1972, p 16 Nor is the prefix O' inherently more genteel than the others. See: John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Third Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(46), 15 May 1841, p 366. 
(4) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9 & MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 16.
(5) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Third Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(46), 15 May 1841, p 366
(6) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9. 
(7) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9. 
(8) MacLysaght, Irish Families,  p 19.
(9) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9. 
(10) Eamon O'Doibhlinn, 'Domhnach, More, Part III: The Plantation Era', Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, 3(1), 1958, pp 206, 220.
(11) David Dobson, The People of Ireland 1600-1699 Part 1, Clearfield, United States, 2009, p 57.
(12) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 20.
(13) J. C. Beckett, A Short History of Ireland, The Cresset Library, London, 1986, pp 13-5. Indeed the aforementioned prefix "Giolla" was derived from the Norse word "gisl" denoting a pledge or hostage. See: Patrick Woulfe, Irish Names and Surnames, M. H. Gill, Dublin, 1922., p 8. 
(14) MacLysaght, Irish Families, pp 128-9. 
(15) Mike Collins & Carina Collins, 'Do You Have a Viking Surname?', A Letter from Ireland website, https://www.aletterfromireland.com/irish-viking-surname/ , accessed 17 July 2024. 
(16) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 14. 
(17) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12. Hiberrnia being the traditional classical name for Ireland used by the Greeks and Romans.
(18) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12. 
(19) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fourth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(48), 29 May 1841, pp 382-3. 
(20) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 15. 
(21) Hand, G. S., 'The Forgotten Statutes of Kilkenny: A Brief Survey', Irish Jurist, 1(2), Winter 1966, p 299. 
(22) Beckett, Short History, p 27. 
(23) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 16.
(24) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fourth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(48), 29 May 1841, p , p 383.
(25) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 15. 
(26) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 15. However, Scottish settlers in Ulster were able to converse with the native population by virtue of a shared Gaelic heritage with both practical and evangelical motives. Inadvertently this process helped to perserve the native language in the long term. See: Caoimhghin O Murchadha, 'Presbyterians and the Irish Language (by) Roger Blaney', History Ireland, 5 (1), Spring 1997, pp. 54-55.
(27) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 16. 
(28) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 16. One of the other surnames in my own ancestry, Colgan, is likely an abbreviated form of MacColgan or the rarer O'Colgan. See: MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 83.
(29) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 23. 
(30) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 25.
(31) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 26. For instance, a disapproving MacLysaght cited a case of a Minogue of County Clare during his service in the First World War, adopting the pronounciation "minnow-gew" over "Minnog"! 
(32) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fifth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(50), 12 June 1841, p 398. Because many sounds in Gaelic cannot be properly captured in English, the subsequent translations were often distorted to the extent that it can be very difficult to identify the original source name. See: Aodan Mac Poilin, Studylib.net website, 'Gaelic Surnames in English', https://studylib.net/doc/7454542/gaelic-surnames-in-english--by-aod%C3%A1n-mac-p%C3%B3il%C3%ADn- , accessed 29 December 2024. In contrast, the translations of O'Heany or Mac Eneany to Bird are examples of erroneous attempts to translate on the basis of meaning despite there being no etymological connection between either surname; the mistranslations are solely based on their shared incorporation of the Gaelic word for 'Bird': ean. Please also refer to both: MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 30 & Edward MacLysaght, More Irish Families: A new revised and enlarged edition of More Irish Families, incorporating Supplement to Irish Families with an Essay on Irish Chieftainries, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1996, pp 124-5.
(33) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Sixth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(51), 19 June 1841, p 405. 
(34) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Sixth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(51), 19 June 1841, p 405. O'Donovan actually gave many other examples including O'Dorcy to D'Arcy and O'Dulaine to Delany.
(35) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 10. 
(36) Edward MacLysaght, Irish Life in the Seventeenth Century, Talbot Press, Dublin and Cork, 1939, pp 234-5.
(37) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12. 
(38) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12.
(39) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12.
(40) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 22. 
(41) Colin Mallett, Mallett Research Folder 0, Unpublished Y-DNA research project, F0000 MALLETT Folder (0) , accessed 01 January 2025. It may be significant that while descendants of my near ancestor subclade haplogroup R-BY42759 (estimated 400 CE) share predominately Celtic surnames such as Collins, Ferguson and Carroll, its descendants through divergent nodes, R-BY43560 and R-S11304, are characterised by Norman flavoured surnames: Robbins, Vance, Milburn, Thompson, Clark and Mallett. Although R-BY43560 and R-S11304 diverged from their predecessor as early as 700 CE, this shift in surnames could be evidence of a subsequent cultural and/or geographical upheaval among a specific subset of descendants of R-BY42579. 
(42) National Archives (UK), Tax Assessment, Assessment for Devon, 8 July 1440, E 175/95/100 as cited in Author Unknown, 'Tago Malet (59471)', England's Immigrants 1330-1550: Resident Aliens in the Late Middle Ages website, https://www.englandsimmigrants.com/person/59471 , accessed 17 July 2024.
(43) Basil Cottle, The Penquin Dictionary of Surnames (2nd Edition), Penquin, London, 1978.p 232-3. Cottle proposed four basic definitions, three being Old French and traced back to separate Latin words: a nickname derived from the latin word for curse, "maledictus"; a diminuitive nickname formed from the word for hammer, "malleus"; a diminutive nickname based on the name "Maclovius" (or Malo) a Sixth Century Saint. 
(44) John O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees: Or, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation - Volume 2, J. Duffy and Company, Ireland, 1892, p 570.
(45) MacFirbis, Giolla Iosa Mor, 'Imda gablan do chloind Chuind' as cited in 'John O'Donovan, The genealogies, tribes and customs of Hy-Fiachrach, commonly called O'Dowda's country, Irish Archaeological Society, Dublin, 1844, pp 196-7.
(46) Woulfe, Irish Names, p 8.
(47) O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees, p 570.
(48) Unknown Author, 'Abair', New English Irish Dictionary Website, https://www.teanglann.ie/en/gram/abair , accessed 17 July 2024.
(49) MacFirbis, 'Imda gablan do chloind Chuind', p 197.
(50) David Rait, 'The Raitt Name', The Raitt Stuff Website, https://www.raitt.org/rait-name-origins.html , accessed 17 July 2024. 
(51) My guess at a meaning would be 'Chief of the fort' although, as mentioned before, habitation names were rare in medieval Ireland. 'Mallett' was a name evident in that region of Mayo until at least the Eighteenth Century as a Michael Mallett of Ballinrobe was convicted at Castlebar (near Errew) and transported to the Australian colonies in 1829. Dying in a convent at Albury in 1876, he reputedly lived to be 107 years of age! At the time a brother, aged 84, owned a farm nearby. See: Mercury, 'Victoria', 10 May 1876, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page792695 , accessed 17 July 2024. 
(52) O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees, p 462.
(53) Unknown Author, 'Huguenot Graveyard', Ask About Ireland website, https://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/architecture/the-cork-camera-club-(pre/churches-and-cathedrals/huguenot-graveyard/index.xml , accessed 17 July 2024. 
(54) Michael J. Tutty, 'John and Robert Mallet 1780-1881', Dublin Historical Record, 29(2), March 1976, pp 43-4. Indeed, Robert Mallet senior was buried in the Huguenot burial ground on Merrion Row in Dublin. 


Figures and Illustrations

(i) Rectorsdavids, Photograph of a Celtic cross at St. David's Church, Nass, County Kildare, 12 November 2017., Wikimedia Commons, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Celtic_Cross_at_St._Davids_Church_Naas.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024.
(ii) James Ward, Vikings at Dublin, 841 CE, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vikings_841_at_Dublin.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024.
(iii) Daniel Maclise, Painting depicting marriage of Aoife and Strongbow, Waterford, 1170 CE, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarriageAoifeStrongbow.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024. 
(iv) Edward Hyde Clarendon, Map of Ireland and its counties taken from Edward Hyde Claredon's The History of the rebellion and civil wars in England published in 1717, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_history_of_the_rebellion_and_civil_wars_in_England,_begun_in_the_year_1641._With_the_precedent_passages,_and_actions,_that_contributed_thereunto,_and_the_happy_end,_and_conclusion_thereof_by_the_(14576287917).jpg, accessed 8 August 2024. 
(v) Oliver Dixon, Old headstone in Errew graveyard overlooking Gulladoo Lough, County Mayo, Ireland, 2009, Wikimedia Commons, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_gravestone_in_Errew_Graveyard_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1297638.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024. 
(vi) Slongy, Huguenot Graveyard, intersection of French Church Street and Carey's Lane, City of Cork, County Cork, Republic of Ireland, 2015, Wikimedia Commons,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Huguenot_Cemetery,_Cork.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024. 


Bibliography

Primary Sources

MacFirbis, Giolla Iosa Mor, 'Imda gablan do chloind Chuind' as cited in 'John O'Donovan, The genealogies, tribes and customs of Hy-Fiachrach, commonly called O'Dowda's country, Irish Archaeological Society, Dublin, 1844, pp 176-299.
Mercury (Hobart)
O'Donovan, John, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Third Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(46), 15 May 1841, pp 365-6. 
O'Donovan, John, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fourth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(48), 29 May 1841, pp 381-4.
O'Donovan, John, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fifth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(50), 12 June 1841, pp 396-8.
O'Donovan, John, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Family: Sixth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(51), 19 June 1841, pp 405-7.

Secondary Sources

Beckett, J. C., A Short History of Ireland, The Cresset Library, London, 1986.
Cottle, Basil, The Penquin Dictionary of Surnames (2nd Edition), Penquin, London, 1978.
Dobson, David, The People of Ireland 1600-1699 Part 1, Clearfield, United States, 2009.
Hand, G. S., 'The Forgotten Statutes of Kilkenny: A Brief Survey', Irish Jurist, 1(2), Winter 1966, pp 299-312.
MacLysaght, Edward, Irish Families Their Name, Arms and Origins, Allen Figgis, Dublin, 1972.
MacLysaght, Edward, Irish Life in the Seventeenth Century, Talbot Press, Dublin and Cork, 1939.
MacLysaght, Edward, More Irish Families: A new revised and enlarged editon of More Irish Families incorporating Supplement to Irish Families, with an essay on Irish cheiftainries, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1996. 
MacLysaght, Edward, The Surnames of Ireland (First Edition), Irish University Press, Shannon, Ireland, 1969.
O'Doibhlinn, Eamon, 'Domhnach, More, Part III: The Plantation Era', Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, 3(1), 1958, pp 190-222.
O'Hart, John. Irish Pedigrees: Or, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation - Volume 2, J. Duffy and Company, Ireland, 1892.
O Murchadha, C., 'Presbyterians and the Irish Language (by) Roger Blaney', History Ireland, 5 (1), Spring 1997, pp 54-56.
Reaney, P. H. & Wilson, G. M., A Dictionary of English Surnames, Taylor & Francis, London, 2006. 
Tutty, Michael J., 'John and Robert Mallet 1780-1881', Dublin Historical Record, 29(2), March 1976, pp 42-58.
Woulfe, Patrick, Irish Names and Surnames, M. H. Gill, Dublin, 1922.

Online Sources

Author Unknown, 'Abair', New English Irish Dictionary Website, https://www.teanglann.ie/en/gram/abair , accessed 17 July 2024. 
Author Unknown, 'Huguenot Graveyard', Ask About Ireland website, https://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/architecture/the-cork-camera-club-(pre/churches-and-cathedrals/huguenot-graveyard/index.xml , accessed 17 July 2024. 
Collins, Mike & Carina, 'Do You Have a Viking Surname?', A Letter from Ireland website, https://www.aletterfromireland.com/irish-viking-surname/ , accessed 17 July 2024. 
Mac Poilin, A., 'Gaelic Surnames in English', Studylib.net website, https://studylib.net/doc/7454542/gaelic-surnames-in-english--by-aod%C3%A1n-mac-p%C3%B3il%C3%ADn-, accessed 29 December 2024. 
Mallett, Colin, Mallett Research Folder 0, unpublished Y-DNA research project, F0000 MALLETT Folder (0) .
National Archives (UK), Tax Assessment, Assessment for Devon, 8 July 1440, E 175/95/100 as cited in Author Unknown, 'Tago Malet (59471)', England's Immigrants 1330-1550: Resident Aliens in the Late Middle Ages website, https://www.englandsimmigrants.com/person/59471 , accessed 17 July 2024.
Rait, David, 'The Raitt Name', The Raitt Stuff Website, https://www.raitt.org/rait-name-origins.html , accessed 17 July 2024. 
Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, accessed 8 August 2024.

The walking Dad: William Mallett (1862-????)

'He just went away one day and never came back,' a great aunt replied when I happened to ask what happened to her paternal grandfather: William James Mallett (1862-????). I've since spent decades trying to understand his desertion in 1885 as well as what became of him. The incident also raises some significant social questions relating to the period: How did people manage to divorce and remarry in colonial Australia? Did people separate for similar reasons they do today?

There was no easy avenue for divorce in colonial society in the Nineteenth Century. However, there was in fact a legal provision for remarriage under certain circumstances. An Act of British Parliament in 1828 expanded a principle first established in 1603 allowing remarriage if one party had been absent for seven years and the other was not aware of them to be living. This effectively allowed most convicts to remarry either with permission or after the expiry of their sentences. (1) The 'seven-year rule' acted as a means by the state to facilitate marriage in a society where defacto relationships were both common and open. While men were plentiful in the colonies, the sex imbalance in colonial Australia ensured that women were in demand. As James Boyce argued in his book Van Diemen's Land '...the gender imbalance at least gave women some degree of choice.' (2)

Mary or 'Granny' DUNN (with grandson Laurie PARRY) in 1930

Photograph of Mary Dunn (nee Mallett nee Colgan), 1930, original held by Colin Mallett, Launceston, Tasmania.

When Mary Mallett (1864-1954) subsequently remarried Patrick Dunn under the seven-year rule in 1898, she indicated that her previous husband had been desceased since 1885. (3) While perhaps a lie of convenience, she may have never really known her first husband's fate for certain. At any rate, Mary not only married again, but she had also engaged a defacto husband in the intervening years! Mary's subsequent brood was considerable although typical for the period. (4)

But why did this marriage fail? Relationships fail for any number of reasons but undoubtedly there are several core ones, the most prominent are lack of commitment, financial challenges and infidelity - none of which are specific to any era. (5) One of the primary reasons may have also been simply a lack of compatibility—something difficult to assess if cohabitation follows rather than precedes marriage. (6) Additionally, William and Mary married very young and were perhaps unprepared for married life. (7) In colonial Australia, the 1880s proved to be a decade of general prosperity, continuing the extended economic boom that lasted between 1870 and 1890. (8) Even so, William was turned down for a land grant around the same time as he deserted. Perhaps William felt a failure and afterwards could no longer face his family? (9)

Both William and Mary were descendants of a succession of failed relationships. William's mother, Sarah Bliss Johnson, was married to a man who on one occasion assaulted her own mother and step-father! (10) William's maternal grandparents had separated early and his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Berry (an emancipated convict), entered a defacto relationship producing several illegitimate children. His maternal grandfather Joseph Bliss alias Johnson (also an emancipated convict) suffered premature senility and wandered out from Sorell into the wilderness to perish in 1847. (11) The marriage of William's paternal grandparents failed in 1838 when his emancipated convict grandfather and namesake, was convicted of larceny a second time and sent to Port Arthur. His paternal grandmother, Jane Brickhill, who was also an emancipated convict as well as an infamous drunkard, soon after returned to prostitution. (12) His father, yet another William Mallett, afterwards spent several months in Queen's Orphanage aged seven while his younger brothers were taken into the employment and protection of the Henty family. Eventually, William's parents found each other and perhaps not unsurprisingly, reinvented themselves at the other end of the state under an assumed name. (13) 

Mary's own immediate ancestry was as equally unsettled. Her father, another former convict named Cornelius Colgan, had left behind a wife, Ann, and a small family in County Down. (14) When Cornelius married again under the seven-year rule, it was to the 14-year-old (and pregnant) daughter of two bounty immigrants from County Kilkenny, Bridget Doyle. (15) Perhaps understandably this marriage also failed and likewise Mary's mother Bridget undertook a long term defacto relationship producing several more illegitimate children. (16) Mary's grandfather, Michael Doyle, mentally declined after his wife's death to breast cancer in 1882 at Forth, eventually dying three days after slitting his own throat as a resident of the Launceston Invalid Depot in 1886. (17) None of these events were unusual for the time but the multiple layers of trauma must have had some influence on both William and Mary Mallett, and in some instances perhaps, directly on the outcome of their marriage.

It is possible that both William and Mary may have even inherited some degree of 'intergenerational trauma'. The field of epigenetics suggests that while trauma doesn't change our essential DNA, it may influence the manner in which that information is expressed. In that way it may act like a note in a margin of a book, guiding which genes are activated. Intergenerational trauma can manifest itself not only physically but emotionally contributing to mental health and also interpersonal issues. (18) It is perhaps significant to note that William and Mary's sole child together, William Thomas Mallett (1884-1956), experienced an unhappy marriage and eventually separated from his wife in the 1930s. (19) This was however forty years before the achievement of no-fault divorce in Australia and neither party remarried. (20) 

In summary, there was a mechanism in colonial Australia that facilitated remarriage without the requirement for divorce. This was arguably a convenient device that allowed authorities to curb the level of long term defacto relationships apparent in the community. Furthermore, marriages in this period likely failed for many of the same reasons they do today. The capricious realities of an age preceding the implementation of the welfare state would have likely exacerbated the challenges and conflicts that naturally emerge in intimate relationships. There is also an emerging understanding that intergenerational trauma can impact emotional health outcomes; as both William and Mary shared a genealogy of dysfunctional marriages, it's possible that given suitable adverse circumstances, this factor may have contributed to the specific failure of their own marriage. 

W. T. 'Bill' Mallett (holding axe) aged 19. Like father, like son?

Photograph of Wood Chopping at Druids Stonehenge Lodge Sports Lottah, 1903, Tasmanian Archives, NS1050/1/12, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/NS1050-1-12, accessed 7 December 2023. 

I am still left with one lingering question though: what happened to William? William appears to have settled near his father and stepmother in the Bullarto region. There is a listing for a 'Mr. W. Mallett' competing in the wood chopping event of the local annual sports carnival in 1895. (21) There is another indication that William was still alive as late as 1902 as he listed as being 39 years of age on his father's death registration. (22) It's possible he may have even reverted to his birth name, 'William James Woollcott', (23) but so far he can't be found under that name either. It appears he not only 'walked' but he also seemingly walked so far and faintly that there's virtually no trace left of him at all!

-  Colin Mallett, 8 December 2023.

Endnotes

(1) David Kent & Norma Townsend, 'Some Aspects of Colonial Marriage: A Case Study of Swing Protestors', Labour History, 1998, 74:40-53, p 42, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27516552 accessed 21 October 2023.

(2) James Boyce, Van Diemen's Land, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2009, pp 128-130.

(3) Marriage registration of Patrick and Mary Dunn, married 6 December 1898, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Marriage RGD37/1/60 904, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/925325, accessed 5 December 2023.

(4) Mary bore seven more children to Edward James McGuire and three to her seond legal husband Patrick Dunn. For details see: Death registration of Mary Dunn, 2 September 1954, Victorian Archives: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Melbourne District, 10123/1954.

(5) Hope Gillette, 'The Top 12 Reasons for Divorce', Psychcentral website, 25 October 2022, https://psychcentral.com/relationships/top-reasons-for-divorce#A-closer-look-at-the-reasons-for-divorce, accessed 5 December 2023.

(6) The birth date of their first and only child together implies that Mary was pregnant within two months of their wedding. We can probably safely infer then that cohabitation, let alone sexual relations were both initiated post-marriatge. See: Birth registration of William Thomas Mallett, born 29 July 1884, Victorian Archives: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Heywood District, 17498/1884.

(7) Marriage registration of William and Mary Mallett, married 24 September 1883, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Marriage RGD37/1/42 1069, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/898748, accessed 5 December 2023. At the time of their marriage William and Mary were aged 21 and 20. 

(8) Education Services Australia, 'Australia in the 1880s', My Place for Teachers website, n.d., https://myplace.edu.au/decades_timeline/decade/1880, accessed 6 December 2023. 

(9) 'Portland Local Land Board', Portland Guardian, 18 July 1884, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63343125, accessed 5 December 2023. The grant was to have been in the parish of Annya and was refused by the Portland Local Land Board.

(10) 'Assault - Grady v. Curtis', Colonial Times, 15 February 1855, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8779190, accessed on 5 December 2023. Sarah had married Robert Curtis in 1852 and they had two children together. See: Marriage registration of Robert Curtis and Sarah Bliss Johnson, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Marriages, RGD37/1/11 204,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/842209, accessed 5 December 2023.

(11) Joseph Bliss married Elizabeth Berry in 1826 and they had three children together. By 1839 she was having children to another ex-convict, Michael Grady. Refer to: Marriage registration of Joseph Bliss and Elizabeth Berry, married 9 January 1826, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Marriages, RGD36/1/1 961,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/817943, accessed 5 December 2023 & Baptism of Betsy Grady, 14 August 1842, Tasmanian Archives, Parish Registers, County of Buckingham, 1329/489,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1088665, accessed 5 December 2023 and three more over the next several years. Joseph's mental health seems to have declined around this time and he was incarcerated for a time in the New Norfolk Lunatic Asylum in 1846 suffering from 'chronic disease of the brain' despite not yet being fifty: Accounts and Papers Vol. XI: Convict Discipline, Great Britain, Parliament, House of Lords, Oxford University, 1849,  https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Accounts_and_Papers/ahBcAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0, accessed 5 December 2023. Joseph went missing in 1847 and human remains were found in the bush at Carlton, near Sorell, 15 years later. They were suspected to have belonged to him. See: 'Country Intelligence', Advertiser, 14 January 1862, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264620476, accessed 5 December 2023. 

(12) Colin Mallett, 'A Convict Cold Case: William Mallett (1797-1852)', The Write Side of History blog, 12 October 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-convict-cold-case-william-mallett.html, accessed 5 December 2023. 

(13) Colin Mallett, 'The Boy Who Lived: William Mallett (1830-1902)', The Write Side of History blog, 9 November 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-boy-who-lived-william-mallett-1830.html, accessed 5 December 2023. William's parents, William Mallett and Sarah Bliss Johnson lived in the Circular Head area as 'William and Ada Sarah Woollcott'. Part of the reason may have been because her legal husband Robert Curtis refused to "vanish".

(14) Convict indent of Cornelius Colgan, Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Indents of Male Convicts, CON14/1/40, pp 120-121,  https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-40$init=CON14-1-40P119, accessed 5 December 2023. Details of his first family are provided across two digitised pages. 

(15) Bridget was married at Northdown, Port Sorell in her parents' home and her age was given as 14; while Cornelius was listed as an 'Adult', he was actually around 40 years of age. See: Marriage registration of Cornelius Colgan and Bridget Doyle, married 29 June 1862, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Marriages, RGD37/1/21 587, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/867053, accessed 5 December 2023. Bridget's true age is calculated from that given on her family's immigration record (6 years old in 1854). See: Immigration record of Michael and Mary Doyle and family, Tasmanian Archives: Descriptive List of Immigrants, CB7/12/1/1,   https://stors.tas.gov.au/CB7-12-1-1P84J2K, accessed 5 December 2023. Their first son Michael Colgan was born less than four months after the marriage. See: Birth registration of Michael Colgan, born 23 September 1862, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Births, RGD33/1/40 1417,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1013667, accessed 5 December 2023.

(16) Bridget and James Jeremiah O'Keefe had several children together, begining with Helen Ann Lousie O'Keefe. See: Birth registration of Helen Ann Louisa O'Keefe, born 6 June 1880, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Births, RGD33/1/58 2549,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1034375 accessed on 5 December 2023. 

(17) Refer to: Death registration of Mary Doyle, died 9 September 1882, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Deaths, RGD35/1/10, 1246, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1230836, accessed 5 December 2023; Death registration of Michael Doyle, 22 March 1886, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Deaths, RGD35/1/55, 132,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1169232, accessed 5 December 2023.

(18) Sara Johnson, 'Understanding epigenetics: how trauma is passed on through our family members', Arkansas Advocate website, 5 July 2023, https://arkansasadvocate.com/2023/07/05/understanding-epigenetics-how-trauma-is-passed-on-through-our-family-members/#:~:text=Modern%20research%20suggests%20the%20trauma,and%20the%20effects%20of%20trauma, accessed 5 December 2023.

(19) William T. Mallett married Eleanor Bedelia Ann Parry at Lottah, Tasmania. See: Marriage of William and Bedelia Mallett, 24 June 1908, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Marriage 22/1126 1908. While initially listing one household, the Tasmanian Post Office records lists two residences for 'W. T. Mallett' at Lottah between 1923 and 1937. Afterwards his wife is listed as aliving in Launceston. Refer to: H. Wise and Co., The Tasmanian Post Office Director, Kelly and Co., London, 1891-1948, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Library/SD_ILS-981598, accessed 5 December 2023.

(20) While in 1959 the federal Matrimonial Causes Bill defined 14 grounds for divorce, it wasn't until the Family Law Act 1975 that 'no fault divorce' was introduced in Australia. Farz Edraki & Keri Phillips, 'How Australia introduced no fault divorce - and why our family law system is under review again', ABC News website, 11 February 2020,  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-11/history-no-fault-divorce-and-family-law-in-australia/11931556, accessed 5 December 2023.

(21) 'Bullarto Sports', Kyneton Observer, 21 March 1895, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240956760, accessed 5 December 2023. It's most likely the younger William, considering the event was wood chopping and and given the relative ages of father and son.

(22) Victorian Archives: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Bullarto District, 12891/1902. The current ages of WJM and his sisters are all listed otherwise they would be recorded as 'deceased'. 

(23) Birth registration of William James Woollcott, born 9 June 1862, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Births, RGD33/1/40 760,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1013013, accessed 5 December 2023.

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Accounts and Papers Vol. XI: Convict Discipline, Great Britain, Parliament, House of Lords, Oxford University, 1849, https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Accounts_and_Papers/ahBcAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Advertiser (Hobart, 1861-1865)

Colonial Times (Hobart, 1861-1865)

H. Wise and Co., Tasmanian Post Office Directory, Kelly & Co., London, 1891-1947.

Kyneton Observer (Victoria, 1856-1900)

Portland Guardian (Victoria, 1876-1953)

Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department, Indents of Male Convicts, CON14/1/40

Tasmanian Archives: Descriptive List of Immigrants, CB7/12/1/1

Tasmanian Archives: Parish Registers, County of Buckingam

Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Births

Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Deaths

Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Marriage

Victorian Archives: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages

Secondary Sources:

Boyce, James, Van Diemen's Land, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2009.

Kent, David & Townsend, Norma, 'Some Aspects of Colonial Marriage: A Case Study of Swing Protestors, Labour History, 1998, 74:40-53.

Online Sources:

Edraki, Farz & Phillips, Keri, 'How Australia introduced no fault divorce - and why our family law system is under review again', ABC News website, 11 February 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-11/history-no-fault-divorce-and-family-law-in-australia/11931556.

Education Services Australia, 'Australia in the 1880s', My Place for Teachers website, n.d., https://myplace.edu.au/decades_timeline/decade/1880

Johnson, Sara, 'Understanding epigenetics: how trauma is passed on through our family members', Arkansas Advocate website, 5 July 2023, https://arkansasadvocate.com/2023/07/05/understanding-epigenetics-how-trauma-is-passed-on-through-our-family-members/#:~:text=Modern%20research%20suggests%20the%20trauma,and%20the%20effects%20of%20trauma.

Mallett, Colin, 'A Convict Cold Case: William Mallett (1797-1852)', The Write Side of History blog, 12 October 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-convict-cold-case-william-mallett.html.

Mallett, Colin, 'The Boy Who Lived: William Mallett (1830-1902)', The Write Side of History blog, 9 November 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-boy-who-lived-william-mallett-1830.html.