KINGSTON 2000

HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE NAME KINGSTON

In a Book Entitled "Family Names of County Cork" by Diaimuid O'murchadha, published by Glendale Press
 
KINGSTON / CINNSEAMAN

This Surname at the time of its first appearance in Ireland in the 13th Century was written "de Kyngeston", indicating that it derived from a place called Kingston, but as there were many such places in England the name may well have had several distinct points of origin.

We have a record of one Thomas Kingeston in Ireland as early as 1277 and of a Richard de Kyngeston in Dublin twenty years later.  William de Kyngestoun in County Meath, while the first of the name recorded in County Cork was John Kingstoun who was appointed Chaplin of Holy Trinity (Christ Church) in Cork in 1381.  The name came into prominence in the city again in 1785 when the mayor of Cork was James Kingston.

But today Kingston is generally, and correctly, regarded as a West Cork family name, and we can trace its origin there to the aftermath of the Cromwellian plantations in the mid - 17 Century - though there was a Richard Kingston in Brandon in 1619.

The only one of the name to acquire confiscated lands in West Cork was Samuel Kingston who in company with James Draper got 118 plantation acres of Skeaf East in the parish of Kilmaloda, near Timolegue.  This town land which had a total population of 215 plantation acres (375 acres today) was prior to 1641, the property of Tedhg og O Crowley.

We know that the new owners settled there because the 1659 census listed as "Tituladoes" in East Skeaf the following: James Draper, Joseph his son, Samuel Kingstone, John Kingstone his son. The census also recorded that in the townland as a whole there were six English and nine Irish.  A marriage between John Kingston (son of Samuel) and Joane Dobson took place in 1666. (Between then and 1750 twenty-four Kingston marriages were recorded in the diocese of Cork and Ross).  A latter-day descendant, Dr Richard Kingston, in a recent article in the "Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society," has traced many modern branches of the family back to Samuel Kingston of Skeaf who must have lived to a ripe old age since his will was not registered until 1703.

A few miles to the North-West, in the townland of Cashel Beg (par Desertsenges), lived Paul Kingston whose will was registered in 1683.

A short account of the Kingston family in West Cork was published in a Cork diocesan magazine in 1893 and published in Armagh in 1929. It is mainly derived from the oral narrative of Paul Kingston of Lissangle as recorded by Rev. J. S. Reeves, rector of Caheragh from 1853 to 1890.  According to this source, the first family in Ireland was a Colonel James Kingston from the west of England who accompanied William of Orange to Ireland in 1690 a Colonel of horse, as did his two sons, James and Paul, who were captains of foot.
 
Although this information conflicts with the evidence from official sources as the first bearers of the name in West Cork, the account nevertheless, worth quoting as an authentic family tradition, much of which is undoubtly based on fact.

Besides Colonel Kingston, King William had two other colonels - namely Stawell and Honor.  With these he fought the famous battle of the Boyne, in which Colonel saved King William's life by giving him his horse when his own refused to take the water.

"After the battle was over and peace restored, King William gave his Colonels and Captains land for their services both at the battle of the Boyne and Aughrim. About which time, a little after the battle of Aughrim, one of Colonel Kingston's sons, Paul, died of fever in the camp at Dundalk, so that all the land of the three Kingston's - that is, of the father and two sons - came to Captain James Kingston.

Captain James Kingston had several sons and four daughters. The person who tells this only remembers the names of three of them.  One lived in Ballycotton House; another George, lived in Barryfield; another son lived in Skave.  The latter married first a miss Cooke, and then a miss Blood (Ballycotton is Ballycatten, par Rathclevin; Skave is Skeaf, already mentioned.  There is in fact, a record of a marriage between Samuel KIngston and Alice Blewgtt in 1721).  Jerry Kingston was the youngest and his own (ie Paul Kingston's) great grandfather.  His four daughters married - one a Mr Loughton, another a Mr Maylor, another a Mr Elbery and another Mr West Allen.

Jerry Kingston, the great grandfather of Mr Paul Kingston, who relates this, settled in a farm in the parish of Kilnagross, which he rented from one Stawels, who was then a great friend of his, on account of the two families coming over at the same time. This was in the year 1715, the year of the great snow.  His son  Paul and grandson Sam lived and died there and there he himself was born."

Generally the KIngstons began to establish themselves throughout many of the parishes of West Cork. James Kingston of Rathclarin Parish had a will registered in 1929.  We find Thomas Kingston in Lislee (Will, 1773) and William Kingston of Knockeebee in Drimoleague Parish (Will, 1778). It was in this latter parish that the family name proliferated to the greatest extent.  The family narrative already referred to claimed that at one period of the 19th century the sixty children on roll of Meenies, N.S. in Drimoleague parish  - and their Schoolmaster were all named KIngston, and even if the claim is overstated, it is not too much of an exaggeration.  So prevalent had the name become in the parish that it was necessary to affix such titles as "Richard Sally Sam" and "Richard Mary Sam" to distinguish various members, using the personal names of the parents and grandparents after the Irish fashion.

The Irish form Cinnseamdri was according to Fr Woulfe, sometimes used for Kingston, there are no townland - names derived from it; Kingston's fields in the Parish of Litter near Fermoy obviously takes its name from the Earls of Kingston (of Mitchelstown) whose family name was King.  Neither is there any connection with the Kingstones of Mosstown (near Kenegh, Longford) whose original name, MacCloch Ri, "King's stone"

Being of solid yeoman stock and concerntrating almost entirely on farming, the Kingstons found no difficulty in living in accord with their Catholic Neighbours, and never lost their original attachment to the lands. In 1875, of 33 prominent KIngstons listed in County Cork by Guy's Directory, no less than 19 were given as "landholders"
 

THE FOLLOWING COPIED JULY 1999 AT THE IRISH FESTIVAL HELD ON THE MIRAMICHI FROM BOOKS PROVIDED BY THE HOUSE OF TARA, A PLACE OF BUSINESS  IN SAINT JOHN, NB

The following was copied from a book entitled "More Irish Families Revised" by Edward MacLysaght, Published by Irish Academic Press.

Kingston, - MacCloughry

Kingston or Kingstone Synonymous with MacCloughry in County Galway, is a miss translation - Clough (stone) ri (King) - the Irish form MacClochaire is clearly from Clochaire, a worker in stone.  However, both MacCloughry and Kingston are rare in Connacht; and there is no evidence of their equation in West Cork, the only part of Ireland where the name Kingston is numerous. Modern birth statistics (1864 - 1890) show that approximately 90 percent of those registered for Kingston occur in County Cork.

Woulfe states that he found Mac Oinseamain as the Galic form of Kingston in West Cork, but one is left to suppose that this is merely a phonetic approximation to the English form.  The County Cork Kingstons indeed do not claim to be Irish in origin. One family historian states that they came to Ireland between 1625 and 1649 and that many of the Kingstons in England are of families which returned thither from Ireland; another says the first to visit Ireland was Col. James Kingston of William III's army. At any rate the seventeenth century they have been one of the Protestant families to be found in strength around Bandon and Drinoleague.  In the latter area they have been particularly numerous.  It has been stated that about the year 1885 the teacher and every one of the sixty pupils attending the National school of Meenies was a Kingston. The writer of the article referred to (in the magazine of the United diocese of Cork,. Cloyne and Ross) gives examples of the necessity for some Kingston children to be called by the Christian name of their grandmother as well as their father, example Richard Sally Sam Kingston and Richard Mary Sam Kingston.  The writer of the article in question bewailed the fact that some "interlopers" had recently crept into the Kingston stronghold.  Tempora Mutantur: some of the Kingston families in Munster are now Catholic. (A note by me George, a Catholic, What Is The World coming to, Kingston's becoming Catholicized Kingston's, however my blood line remained non catholic at emigration)

According to a family tradition recorded in the Genealogical Office, Dublin Castle, but unsupported by documentary evidence, the Kingston's of County Longford were originally MacCloughrys from Scotland, seventeenth century Presbyterian refugees who settled first in County Donegal, and after 1690 acquired the County Longford property of their relatives the Clinton's when the latter emigrated to America.