The UTICA KERNANS DESCENDANTS OF BRYAN KERNAN GENTLEMAN OF THE TOWNLAND OF NED IN THE PARISH OF KILLESHANDRA BARONY OF TULLYHUNCO COUNTY OF CAVAN PROVINCE OF ULSTER KINGDOM OF IRELAND 1969 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-58952 Printed in the United States of America The note reproduced above was pencilled by Theodore Roosevelt, while Governor of New York, on the back of his place card at a dinner given in I 899 in honor of the Harvard Varsity Crew. It was addressed to John Devereux Kernan (5-5), a member of that Crew. The Mr. William Kernan referred to was William Kernan (3-6). The note now belongs to Brigid Devereux Kernan, granddaughter of John Devereux Kernan (5-5). CONTENTS PAGE Illustrations. 1x Foreword. x1 Explanation of numbering system...... xn Bryan Kernan and Mac Tigearnain of the Brefny. 1 First Generation. 11 Second Generation................... 13 Third Generation. 21 Fourth Generation.. 27 Fifth Generation. 33 Sixth Generation...... 43 Seventh Generation... 65 Eighth and Ninth Generations. 81 Appendix A-Some Descendants of Bryan Kernan through Bartholomew and -- (Kernan) Taylor.................................... 83 Appendix B-The Stubbs Family...................................... 85 Index of Kernan Descendants. 87 Index of Spouses, in-laws, and others.. 93 Addenda............. 103 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A Note from Theodore Roosevelt ..................................... The Coat of Arms confirmed to the descendants of William Kernan by the Chief Herald of Ireland... m Memorial of the 1747 Lease of Ned.. 4 Memorial of the 1763 Lease of Ned. 5 Map showing Ned, Cornaclea, and Killeshandra. 9 William Kernan (2 - 8). 17 The Eight younger children of William and Rosanna Maria (Stubbs) Kernan 22 FOREWORD The compilation and publication of this, the third edition of the Kernan Genealogy* derived its impetus from Frank Kernan's wedding in Camden, South Carolina, to Katherine Sheffield, for that delightful occasion brought home to those of us who gathered there that we had indeed become a scattered family where many members are quite unknown to others and are not in fact any longer "Utica" Kernans. The publication enables me to introduce Bryan Kernan, Gentleman, quite definitely as an ancestor, a fact that was considered to be only "quite probable" when the second edition was published in 1949. This results from 1954 researches in Dublin coupled with the uncovering by Neva Hecker of an 18 53 letter from a Dublin cousin to a member of the family in New York. It also enables authoritative display of the coat of arms that has been recognized by the Chief Herald of Ireland as rightfully belonging to the descendants of William Kernan and hence, subject to proper heraldic rule, to the Utica Kernans. Following a suggestion of the Chief Herald, I chose the canting motto COR NON CAPUT REGAT that may be freely translated "Have a Heart!" However, the motto is a personal matter and each one is free to chose his own. As a universal family motto, we might all agree on MAC TIGEARNAfN GO BUAIG, which is corrupted into "Mac Kernan Aboo!" and translated into "Kernan to Victory!" On behalf of all the family, I thank Isabel Lewis Crowder, Warnick Joseph Kernan, Francis Kernan Kernan, Clifford Lewis 3rd, Jesse Slingluff, Walter Avery Kernan, Walter Newberry Kernan and Philip Avery Kernan, whose donations and financial help made possible the publication and modest price of this book. J. D. K. *There is a 1942 typewritten edition, copy of which is in the New York Public Library in New York and in the New York State Library at Albany. It contains some information that is not in either of the later ones. EXPLANATION OF THE NUMBERING SYSTEM The Kernan member of each family unit is given a double number, the first digit of which identifies his generation from Bryan Kernan; the second identifies him within his own generation. The double number to the right is the number of his Kernan parent. All spouses, their parents, unmarried children and married children with no descendants will be found grouped with their Kernan spouse or parent. Married children who have descendants will be found once with their parents and a second time with others of their generation as heads of their own families, with their own spouses, in-laws and children. This system makes every Kernan descendant appear to be the head of his family unit. It may result in some inaccuracies but I will leave it to others to make any necessary corrections. There are two exceptions to the double listings: Bryan's children and grand­ children are all listed, married or not and children or not, and so are newly married members of the later generations who may become heads of their own family units. "Married Maidens" are listed and indexed only under their maiden names. BRYAN KERNAN and MdC TIGE.dRNdfN of the BREFNY The first identifiable Kernan ancestor of the Utica Kernans is Bryan Kernan, Gentleman, of Ned, in the Parish of Killeshandra, Barony of Tullyhunco, County of Cavan, Province of Ulster and Kingdom of Ireland. Deducing from the leases referred to hereinafter that Bryan's oldest son, John, was of age by 1763, Bryan must have been born by the early 172o's-possibly at Ned but surely at some place in the County of Cavan. Inasmuch as it is recorded that John's wife, nee Jane Brady, was over seventy in 1809 or 1810, the dates for Bryan should probably be given as: Born 1710-1715; married 1730-1735; died 1766. Bryan Kernan was a scion of the Ulster family Mac Tigearnafn of the Brefny (1). This name, corrupted, as the Irish say, into Mac or Mc Tiernan, - Teman, - Kiernan, - Kernan, - Kearnan, often without Mac or Mc, and anglicized into Masterson, derives from Tigearnain, the name of one of its mediaeval chieftains. Tigearnafn in turn derives from tigearna, meaning "lord" or "master (hence Master­ son), plus the diminutive "fn" (2). The seat of the family for many hundreds of years, Cruacan rhic Tigearnain (3), is the place where the O'Rourke was inaugurated Prince of the Brefny. Now called "Croaghan", it lies six furlongs northerly of the village of Killeshandra and but three or four miles from Ned. Sometime before 1622, the family had lost owner­ ship of this property, probably supplanted by Scotsmen in James the First's Planta­ tion of Ulster. But, nonetheless, at the time of his death in that year, the Mac Kernan, (i.e. the head of the clan) who was called "Brien bane"-Blond Brien­ was still in possession by demise from James Craig who had been granted it by James Auchmuty (4). By 1641, however, the family had even lost possession, for, in that year, John mac Kernan (sic) was one of the gentlemen who led the rebels in a siege of Croaghan then occupied by Sir James Hamilton (5). The stories of its loss in the intervening years were referred to in 1836 as having "not even a sem­ blance of probability" and were left unrecorded. See Second Edition at page 7. The Mac Tigearnafn arms are blazoned thus (6): Arms-Ermine, two lions passan t gules. Crest-A griffin statant gules, wings erect vert. Motto-Serviendo guberno 2 THE UTICA KERNANS These armorial bearings were confirmed, with a difference to distinguish them as those of the American branch of the family, to the descendants of William Kernan, Bryan's grandson, in a document prepared by the Chief Herald of Ireland and dated May 1, 1954. The arms as confirmed are blazoned thus: Arms-Ermine, two lions passant gules, on a chief of the last three mullets argent. Crest-A griffin statant gules, wings erect vert, the dexter claw resting on a mullet argent. Motto---Cor non caput regat. There are at least three pedigrees tracing the descent of the family from Adam and Eve to the early sixteenth century. Differing one from the other in small particulars, they may be found in Ms. No. 146, Linea Antiqua, vol. II, at page 41, in the Genealogical Office of Dublin Castle (7); in Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the Counties of Cavan and Leitrim (Breifny) Collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survery in £836, reproduced under the direction of Reverend M. O'Flanagan, Bray, 1929; and in Irish Pedigrees or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, O'Hart, Dublin, 1881. Parts of all three pedigrees are printed in the earlier editions of this genealogy. There are also printed there excerpts from the Annals of Ulster and the Annals of the Four Masters recording exploits of the family from the thirteenth into the late sixteenth century-one hundred and twenty-five years before Bryan Kernan was born. It is written, for instance, in the Annals of Ulster, of "Brian, son of Matthew Mac Tigearnafn, chieftain of Tellac Duncada (8), the most famous man of the Breifnians" who died in 1365: Brian Mac Tigearnafn of the Conflicts- Wi th his hospitality comparison was not just. He followed generosity without hatred; Heaven was the end of his battle career. As noted in the Annals of the Four Masters, he was designated thus by O'Dugan, historian of the O'Kellys: Mac Tigearnafn, the valiant man, The true protector of warlike chieftains, The patron of clerics and their friend, Rules over the powerful Tullyhunco. In 1936 among people living near Ned, there were still memories of a Brian Roe - Red Bryan - as the aristocrat of the clan with a great horse who had lived a hundred or more years before. In the heroic tradition of the Annals, could this possibly be our Bryan Kernan, Gentleman, of Ned? Our knowledge of Bryan Kernan and his immediate descendants comes from three memorials, i.e., summaries, made for record purposes of three documents dated 1747, 1763 and 1772; from three wills dated 1763, 1795, and 1795; and from a letter dated Dublin, November 10, I 8 53, addressed by Christopher Eustace, Bryan's great grandson, to John Mc Keon, another great grandson, in New York.