Dowd History

O'Dowd Irish Clan / Sept

The Clan/Sept History

The family name Doody was first recorded in county Mayo where they had been seated from very ancient times. The family can be traced back to the ancient King Niall of the Nine Hostages, who in turn could be traced back to the Heremon Kings.

Several spelling variations of the name were found in the archives and mainly these variations were the result of families translating the name from the Gaelic into English. Recorded versions of the name Doody included Dowd, Duddy, Doody, O'Dowd, Dowdy, Dowdie, Doudy, Doudie, Doudd, Doodie, Dowde, and many more. Frequently a name was spelt several different ways during the lifetime of the same person, when he or she was born, married and died.

The great Gaelic family of Doody emerged in later years in Mayo. King Niall, brother of Fiachra and descended from Daithi, was one of the last pagan Kings of Ireland. For centuries they were the leading sept of northern Ui Fiachrach. Their territory embraced the baronies of Erris and Tirawley in the county of Mayo and Tireagh in Sligo. The family was called to arms during the Anglo-Norman incursion into their properties in the twelfth century. The long battles to follow lasted until 1354 when Sen-Bhrian O'Dowd succeeded in driving all the Anglo-Norman settlers out of Tireagh. Two branches of the clann established themselves in other parts of Ireland at this time. One group settled in the southern county of Kerry in the province of Munster. This sept called itself Doody and maintained strong ties with the heads of the family in the north. The other sept held a barony in Derry in the far north where survivors of this clan were usually called Duddy. Several O'Dowds were bishops of the parish of Killala. Father John O'Duada who died in 1579 was one of many Irish Franciscan martyrs. The family is noteworthy, in that, great height is a common feature of the family.

Source:
http://www.rowandisplays.com/acatalog/O-Dowd-irish-clan.html

Somerville Family Name History

Somerville

This surname is French in origin and comes from the town near Caen in Normandy; the name means Sumer's estate. 

The first of this name in Scotland was one William de Somerville, who came in the train of David I and received lands in Lanarkshire. There were five Williams in succession, the last dying in 1282. They appeared as witnesses to the charters to the religious houses of Melrose, Kelso, Coldingham, Glasgow, Newbattle and Paisley during the reigns of David I, Malcolm IV and William the Lion. During the reign of William the Lion, William de Somerville slew a monstrous animal or serpent which was terrorising the district of Linton, Roxburghshire. In 1174 he was rewarded with the lands of Linton. 

Robert de Sumeruilla witnessed a charter by Duncan, Earl of Fife, to the Nuns of North Berwick c.1177. Ralph de Sumervilla, acolyte, was promoted to the church of Linton in 1255. William Somerwele of the Plane, was a charter witness in Edinburgh in 1492 and John Semrell was a tenant under the Abbey of Kelso in 1567. In 1430 the title Lord Somerville was conferred on Sir Thomas Somerville. In December 1423 he was given a safe conduct to England to meet James I and he was one of the guarantees of the treaty for his release in December 1424. 

John, third Lord Somerville, was wounded at the battle of Sark against the English in 1448. He had a son, Sir John Somerville of Cambusnethan, who was killed at Flodden in 1513. John, thirteenth Lord Somerville, built the elegant house of Drum where he died in 1765. The peerage ceased in 1870 on the death of the seventeenth Lord.

Source:  
http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/stoz/somervi2.html

Somerville Family History

According to Sir James Somerville, an earlier family historian (who wrote an abridged edition of William Somerville's, "A Memorie of the Somervilles"—circa late 1600's), the Somervilles were divided into three houses according to the country in which they were very influential.

• The English House
was influential in England from the time of William the Conqueror until the signing of the Magna Carta (about 200 years later). King John didn't like the Somerville influence in that event and the Scottish House eclipsed that of their southern cousins.

• The Scottish House
was born of myth and legend as the founder of that house was rewarded a whole shire for killing a dragon (this same dragon appears atop the shield of Lord Somerville). This house flourished for over 500 years and collapsed through a series of "over indulgences" by one Gilbert Somerville and others.

• The Irish House
came about through the canny management of one or two families who survived the exile of the Jacobites and became businessmen and land holders. Edith Somerville wrote of Irish life in this period through her book, "One Being Irish". The fortunes of this house rises and falls and sends Somervilles far and wide.

Source:
http://www.clansomerville.net/house_info.php

Ireland History in Maps

Ireland History in Maps


circa 1200: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlkik/ihm/ire1200.htm
Lesser Sept: Ua Dubda - O'Dowd (Sligo)

circa 1300: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlkik/ihm/ire1300.htm
O'Dowda

Old Irish Surnames:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlkik/ihm/irenames.htm
Ó Dubhda - (O) Dowd - Co Mayo and West Sligo - Uí Fiachrach Muaide

Dowd Surname History

Dowd

At the end of the nineteenth century, the vast majority of bearers of this surname, by a proportion of four to one, were "Dowd" rather than "O'Dowd". Since then, a large-scale resumption of the "O" has reversed the proportions, with "O'Dowd" now by far the most popular. The original Irish name was Ó Dubhda, from dubh, meaning "black". In the traditional genealogies, the family is one of the Uí Fiachraigh , a large tribal grouping tracing its origin back to Fiachra, brother of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the fifth century monarch supposedly responsible for kidnapping St. Patrick to Ireland. The O'Dowds were the most powerful in this group, and for centuries their territory including large parts of north-west Mayo and west Sligo, in particular the baronies of Erris and Tirawley in Mayo and Tireragh in Sligo. The Norman invasion of the 13th century curtailed their power, but they retained many of their possessions and much of their influence down to the seventeenth century, as witnessed by the number of O’Dowd bishops of Killalla from the 14th to the 16th centuries. As late as the eighteenth century, a common toast in the Ballina area of Mayo was "Súil Uí Dhubhda le Árd na Rioch!", a reference to the O’Dowd’s hopes of regaining their ancestral possession of Ardnaree. The last traditional chief of the family was killed at the battle of the Boyne in 1690, and is said to have been almost 7 feet tall, great stature having always been a feature of the O’Dowds. The name is still most numerous today in the Sligo/Mayo district. The surname also appears to have arisen separately in two other areas of the country, in Munster, where the anglicisations "Doody" and "Duddy" are quite frequent in the Kerry area, and in Derry, where the anglicisation is almost invariably "Duddy". .Dan O’Dowd (1903-1989) was a Dublin uilleann piper and pipe-maker, best remembered for his role in keeping the spirit of traditional music alive in the capital.
 
Source: IrishTimes
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?Surname=dowd&fuseaction=Go.