Origin of O'Hearn's - Chapter IV

At the outset of the 18th Century, the historical focus of the Ua

hEchtigern sept shifts from France to Spain. In the year 1715, Don Patricio

Aghearne is listed as a Sub-Lieutenant in the Spanish Army, in the

Regimento de Hibernia. In the year 1759, Don Bernardo Hearne was a Cadet in

the Spanish Army, in the Regimento de Ultonia. Many Irish families served in

the French, Spanish, and other European military forces, and were known as

"Wild Geese", having left Ireland after the Protestant ascendancy in Great

Britain. One distinguished Irishman serving the Spanish Crown was

Juan O’Donoju, the last Spanish governor of New Spain in the Americas, and a

descendant of the O’Donohue family of Cork and Kerry. This family is closely

related to the O’Mahoney family of Cork descending from Mathgabhuin (Mahon),

who was the son of Cian, son of Molloy of the Eoganachta of County Cork, and

Sabh, a daughter of Brian Boru and niece of Echtigern.

Back in Ireland, John Aheron was the author of the first book on

architecture printed in Ireland in 1754. Burke’s General Armory states that

Simon O’Haugherne, son of William O’Haugherne, Esq. of Carrigarry, was

allowed a coat of arms by Hawkins in the year 1775. The shield and crest are

the same as the O’Herons of Kerry mentioned in Chapter II, except that the

three herons on the shield and the pelican on the crest are the color of or

(gold), while the nest remains "proper". The motto also remains the same:

Per Ardua Surgo. As this coat of arms clearly indicates a distinguished

family, it may not be presumptuous to speculate that this Simon

O’Haugherne was a descendant, perhaps a grandson, of Symon O’Hougherne

who served under King James II in 1690, as appears in the last Chapter.

Those of King James’ men who submitted to King William were allowed to keep

their land holdings in Ireland. Toward the beginning of the 19th Century,

the most notable of the Ua hEchtigern sept in Ireland was a physician named

John Aherne of County Cork who was born c.1769, became a captain in

Napoleon’s Irish Legion in 1803, and was killed at Metz in 1806. He also

became a United Irishman and friend of Theobald Wolfe Tone, and

was therefore instrumental in the Irish uprising of 1798 in which the French

supplied a military contingent.

As stated in the aforementioned book by Ida Grehan regarding the

surname Ahearne: "Today there is no clan chief and no family seat. However,

one place that has the family name and has many historical resonances is

Hearn’s hotel in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. Ireland’s first ever public

transport system, started here in 1815, the Bianconi mail coach services."

In Cashel, County Tipperary, Venerable Daniel Hearn, M.A., was

Archdeacon, apparently of the Anglican Church of Ireland, from 1726 to 1766.

His grandson Daniel James Hearn, Esq., of Correa, County Westmeath, served

as a lieutenant in the 43rd Regiment of the British Army. His son Robert

Thomas Hearn, Esq., was a Major in the 76th Regiment. According to Burke’s

General Armory (Supplement, 1884), the family coat of arms was confirmed to

his two sons, Rev. Daniel James Hearn, Rector, (apparently Roman Catholic),

of Kilmurry, County Cork; and Charles Richard Mont Orgueuil Hearn

of Dublin, and of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in the North. This Irish

Hearn family appears to be of Norman-English origin, as the shield and crest

of the coat of arms and motto Ardua petit ardea, translated "The heron seeks

high places", is similar to or identical with the coats of arms of several

families named Heron, etc., apparently from Northumberland, England.

As one of these English coats of arms for a family called Heron (extinct

1801) contains on the shield the bearing of a heron holding in its mouth a banner

with the word Hastings, apparently commerating the battle of that name in

which William the Conqueror was victor in the year 1066, the progenitor of

this family may originally have been from France, and of Norman stock. They

may also be related to the families of Hearne and Hearn who settled in

southern Lienster in the 13th century, as mentioned in Chapter II. Be this

as it may, the Hearns of Northumberland and West Somersetshire in England

were also thought to be of Gypsie origin, although the Gypsies, originally

from northern India, did not arrive in Western Europe until the 15th century.

Among these families is probably the Protestant Hearn family of Dublin, from

which came the famous author of Irish and Greek descent Lafcadio Hearn, who,

after traveling to the United States, was sent to Japan where he married a

Japanese woman and died there in 1893.

Also from County Cork, Thomas McGrath of Ardagh, near Youghal, who

was of the northern McGraths known as Clanaboy, married Ellen from a family

of Aherns of Shanakill, County Waterford. Their two sons were Parson Denis

M’Grath and Thomas McGrath of Kilcalf, County Waterford. Parson Denis

married a daughter of General O’Neill. Two sons from this marriage became

active in the British East India Company. One son Thomas McGrath married

the daughter of Judge Lefroy. The other son James McGrath acquired a large

estate near Liverpool, England where he was living in 1836.

Daniel McGrath of Lismore, County Waterford, who was of the southern

McGraths known as Clanabawn, married Ellen, a daughter of the

afore-mentioned Thomas and Ellen McGrath. Two of their sons traveled to

America where their descendants lived in Montreal, Quebec, and New York

State. The Clanabawn McGraths of Munster claimed through a pedigree to

have been descended from the Eoganachta and to be related to the

Vera-O’Sullivans, who had occupied in ancient times a territory in County

Tipperary but were forced to migrate into West Kerry as the MacCarthy’s

became more powerful in Desmond or South Munster.

Another family of MacGraths were of Ballynagilty, County Waterford,

and of this line Philip was Chief of the Clan of Sleveguor down to

the 17th Century, of whom a daughter married into the Butler family. In one

of the O’Rourke pedigrees, mention is made of the town of Innismagrath in

County Leitrim in southeast Connaught. The McGrath’s of Oxnard, in Ventura

County, California, of whom is Judge Charles McGrath, descend from Dominick

McGrath who left County Longford in northwest Leinster and arrived in America

around the year 1848, and came to San Francisco around 1849.

In County Waterford (Port Lairge), Father Francis Hearne (1747-1801)

was an Irish priest who went to Louvian, Belgium where he was a

learned professor who spoke the Flemish language, as well as English, French,

Italian, Irish, Spanish, German, Arabic and Russian. He returned to

Waterford in 1799, during the French Revolution, and was a teacher

of Daniel O’Connell. He was appointed by Bishop Thomas Hussey to be

parish priest of St. Patrick’s Church, Waterford. Dr. Hussy also

encouraged and aided Edmund Ignatius Rice, founder of the Christian

Brothers, whose cause for canonization is now in progress. Also in 1799,

Edmund Power and another Francis Hearne were both condemned to death for

being organizers of the rebels, according to Canon P. Power scrap-book

preserved in City Library. In 1809, James Hearn of Knockboy was shot

and killed, apparently for informing against a gang called the Caravats

opposed to the Act of Union. In 1810, Nicholas and William Hearn of Tower

(Towergate), Butlerstown, were robbed of their pistols and swords near

Waterford City, apparently by the Caravats.

In 1849, John D.C. Hearn of Shanakill, Rathgormack, wrote a letter to

the lord lieutenant on the anniversary of a barrack-attack in Portlaw in which

Thomas Francis Meagher took part. Another William Hearn was detained in

1868 on suspicion of being connected with Fenianism, and was eventually

discharged. In more recent times, the proprietorship of John Hearn, Ironmonger,

has been a distributor of agricultural equipment in Waterford City and Carrick-on-Suir

(Carraig na Siuire), County Waterford, just across the river from County

Kilkenny in Leinster. The author purchased a traveling bag there in 1984.

In the Irish Land Records for the year 1876, there is mention of a

landowner named Michael Hearn in the town of Callan, County Kilkenny. There

are also listed landowners by the names of Ahern, Ahearn, Hearne, Hearn,

Heron, etc. for the Counties of Limerick, Kerry, Cork, and Waterford. R.E.

Matheson published the Special Report on Surnames in Ireland, in which he

included from the Office of the Registrar-General’s birth indexes for 1890,

households of family surnames with five or more entries for that year. Of

these there were Ahern (92), Aherne (15), and Ahearn (9) for a total of

122 in Ireland distributed by province as follows: 4 in Leinster, 117 in

Munster, 1 in Ulster, and none in Connaught. Of these nearly all were in

Cork and Limerick Counties. There were also households named Hearne (6) and

Hearn (5) for a total of 11 in Ireland, distributed by province as follows:

2 in Leinster, 8 in Munster, 1 in Ulster and none in Connaught. Of these, 8

were in Waterford County.