But, a word about genealogy. If you are a Magner and have purchased a copy of the "Magner coat of arms," treat it with a good deal of skepticism. As Dr. Edward MacLysaght, formerly Chief Herald of Ireland, has warned, American genealogists are prone to error when dealing with Irish families. If you are a Magner whose ancestors came from a European country, you face a difficult, perhaps insoluble, problem in probing back more than a few generations. If you are a Magner whose ancestors came from Ireland, your problem is much simpler, because all Irish Magners stem originally from County Cork; travelling some 35 miles northwest from the city of Cork will bring you to the "Mecca" of Irish Magnerdom, the ruins of the Magner Castle in the hamlet still called Castlemagner.
My research has been reasonably serious but spasmodic, carried on over a period of about 15 years in my spare time. My recent retirement and the need to do something about a file drawer full of notes and jottings on the "Magner" mystery have impelled me to summarize my findings. Over the years many people have been helpful, and l would like to express my gratitude to a few of them: Major General Jeremiah J. Magner of Dublin, Dr. Edward MacLysaght of Dublin, Mr. Edmond O'Donoghue of Castlemagner, and Mr. C. J. F. McCarthy of the city of Cork.
As what follows is intended to be an informal essay and not a research paper, I shall be sparing of bibliographical detail. Should any reader wish to dig deeper, a letter or card to me (see address at back) will be duly answered.
The Magner Name in Europe
It will come as a surprise to one who assumes that Magner is a peculiarly Irish surname to discover that there are Magners in various European countries. l have found the name in phone books for Stockholm, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. Friends have reported a Magner in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and one in Bjelovar, Yugoslavia.2 A Russian book published in the Soviet Union identifies the author as Leonid Mironovich Magner; he is, in fact, the author of three books on naval construction. Access to directories and phone books for other European countries would undoubtedly uncover more Magners.
I have written, in the appropriate language, to all these Magners, inquiring about their family background and what they know about their name. My letters of inquiry have resulted in replies only from two individuals in Stockholm and one in Paris. Foreign inquiries about name and background may well have seemed unimportant, bizarre or even suspicious to the non-responding Magners.
My Stockholm correspondent, Bertil Magner, explained his surname as follows: "My father, Olaf, and his two brothers, Edward and Nils, were born around 1900 with the family name Olsson. This, as you know, is a very common name in Sweden. About 1910 the boys were asked in school to change their family name. They considered many suggestions from the Svensk namnbok and chose their name from this list. They wanted an internationally suited name and also the connection to the name Magnus. When they received the name, it was also given to a second family (by mistake I understand) but taken from the same list of suggestions. Other families in Stockholm have the name Magnér but this is not in any way connected in origin or by family connections." It may seem strange to an American to picture a schoolroom scene with the teacher and pupils seriously creating new family names but it is a fact that, because of the plethora of -son names(Eriksson, Andersson, Johansson and the like), name-changing has been encouraged in Sweden. Professor Folke Hedblom of Uppsala informs me that he has found the name Magnerus in a Swedish document of 1336 but he considers Magner and its variants(Magnert, Magnergård) to be "modern" Swedish surnames.
Monsieur Jean Magner of Paris writes as follows about his last name. "My father didn't know his parents, not even the exact origin of their birthplace. He had chosen the French nationality, but his perfect knowledge of Dutch and German would suggest a Germanic-Flemish origin but with the greatest reservation. I can nonetheless assure you that the Magners, at least in its present spelling, are extremely rare in France."
Possible name origins
Every Magner sooner or later comes across the Latin adjective magnus, "great," and is charmed by the possible association; after all, four out of six letters seems convincing. And, as we have seen in the case of one Stockholm family, the creation of a name reminiscent of magnus was deliberate.
It is, in fact, true that magnus became a personal name in imitation of its use in the title of Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus, "Charles the Great"), King of the Franks and Roman Emperor (800-814 AD). According to Gillian F. Jensen, "the name became very common in Norway and Iceland after the reign of Magnus the Good (d. 1047), who was named after the Frankish emperor Charlemagne... It spread to the Danish and Swedish royal houses and became very popular in East Scandinavia." Given the Scandinavian practice of using patronymics (i.e., surname based on the father's first name), Magnus also became a surname, e.g., Magnus Magnusson. The Norwegian king, Magnus Barelegs, invaded Ireland in 1098 but did not leave his name in that form; Jensen points out that "Macus is the form which Magnus took in Old Irish sources.."
But even before Charlemagne there was a Frank with a Magner-like name: Magnerich or, in the Latinized form, Magnericus, the first native-born bishop of the Franks. Magnerich (canonized as Saint Magnericus; his feastday on the calendar of saints is July 25th) lived in the sixth century in Trèves (now Trier in West Germany). His name is transparently Germanic: magan/magne, "power, strength," plus –ric, "rich in". It is possible that the name Magnericus or a form thereof could have been adopted or bestowed out of admiration for the saint; the most common surname in France today is Martin reflecting that country's devotion to Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours (about 315-399).
There is another possible explanation for the appearance in Europe of the Magner name and that involves one of the most unusual episodes in Irish (and European) history: the Flight of the Wild Geese in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Wild Geese were those Irish patriots and soldiers who fled English oppression in Ireland and took up service in the armies of Europe. Seumas MacManus in his The Story of the Irish Race cites figures showing that almost a half a million Irish died for France in a 75-year period! That figure seems incredible but the numbers of Irish forced to flee were indeed large: in 1691 the Irish hero, Patrick Sarsfield, sailed from Limerick after its surrender with ten thousand troops. We are concerned here with one possible result of this mass exodus to Europe: the planting of Irish names on European soil. Many Irish names no doubt disappeared or adopted a local phonetic shape; thus, in German Nolan and O'Dowd became Neulau and Ottowart respectively; in French O'Dwyer turned into Audoyer, while Shea became Chaix. It may well be that the Yugoslav surnames Rejli and Rejlic´ (the j has the sound of a y) hide an earlier Reilly. But many of the names remain Irish-looking to this day, particularly in Spain where there were at one time three Irish regiments. And any student of French history will easily discern the Irish in the name of the Marshal and President of France (1873-1879), Count Marie Edme Patrice Maurice MacMahon.
During these two centuries the Wild Geese served
and settled in almost every country of Europe. Prague was the
favorite city of the Irish in the Austrian service; the House of the Irish
Franciscans was located in the "Street of the Irish" near the Powder Tower.
In Russia one could find Nugents, O'Rourkes and de Lacys.
Count Peter de Lacy from Limerick rose in the service of Czar Peter the
Great, became a Russian general and later the governor of the Russian
Baltic province of Livonia. What is being
suggested here is the possibility of the Magner name being
implanted on foreign soil along with the names of the MacMahons,
the O'Higgins and the Kavanaghs von Ballybrack. Other changes
may have to be assumed in particular cases since, for example, the few
American Magners from Russia and, later, the Soviet Union are reported
to be Jewish.
Irish surnames
In a broad sense Irish surnames fall into three categories: indigenous Gaelic names; Anglo-Norman names; and Anglo-Irish names. The invasions of Ireland by the Vikings in the 9th and 10th centuries affected place names more than family names; Ireland itself is a Norse name. Otherwise, up until the Norman invasion of the 12th century, the native name patterns prevailed. Though not all native Irish names have the prefixes Mac-/Mc- or O' (Kavanagh is an example), still such prefixation is characteristic of the early Irish surnames. It is a patronymic system, that is, Mac-/Mc-, "son of," or 0', "grandson of, descendant of" could be added to the father's first name. Thus, a man with the name MacElroy would in the early centuries be the "son of the red-haired man." Later, as the need for stable surnames developed, these name combinations became "frozen" and thus a name like MacElroy would simply designate a son or daughter of another MacElroy.
Every schoolchild knows about the Norman invasion of 1066 when William the Conqueror and his Norman army crossed over from Normandy and conquered England. Few schoolchildren or adults know that about a century latter (1169-1172 AD) there was a Norman invasion of Ireland, at that time a land of feuding chiefs loosely called "kings." The Normans who participated in this invasion were for the most part the descendants of William's followers, accompanied by smaller numbers of Flemings (mercenaries from Flanders), some Welshmen, and some English.
The preeminent leader of this invasion was Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, but better known to his men and to history as Strongbow. Later (1171) his sovereign, the English king Henry II, crossed over to regularize the division of land among himself and his chiefs. The Normans, having vanquished most of Ireland, established castles and keeps in the conquered territories (they were in Cork by 1169) and at a rather rapid rate began to blend in with the native Irish population, becoming more "Hibernian than the Hibernians." Norman names quickly became Irish names and thus most Americans will be surprised to learn that some quintessentially Irish names were originally 12th century Norman names; thus, Burke (originally de Burgos), FitzGerald (Norman French fitz = French fils, "son"; thus, "Son of Gerald"), Lacy (de Lacy), Nagle (de Angulos), Roche (de la Roche), Tobin (St. d'Aubyn). And it turns out that Magner (in the earlier form Magnel) was also a Norman name.
Ireland was under the domination of England until
the first part of the 20th century and during the centuries English names
made their way into Ireland. The integration of such English names
into the Irish name stock was stimulated by oppressive laws
which encouraged (often compelled) the Irish to
either adopt English names or to translate
their Gaelic surnames into English equivalents.
The English king, Edward IV, issued a decree in
1465 that every Irishman should "take to him an English surname,
of one town as Sutton, Chester, Trym, Skryne, Crok, Kinsale;
or color as whyte, black, brown; or art of science,
as smith or carpenter; of office, as cook, butler and that he and issue
shall use this name." Thus, a MacGowan ("son of a smith") might render
his name into Smith, and indeed Smith is now a very common Irish surname.
A Dennis Smith or a Maureen Smith in America is more likely to be of Irish
descent than English.
Magnels and Magners in Cork
The Reverend Patrick Woulfe has this entry in his book, Irish Names and Surnames: " MAINGNEIR - Magnel, Magnell, Mangner, Magner, Magnier, etc.; probably 'son of Magnel' (Nor. diminuitive of Magnus). Castlemagner, Co. Cork, was formerly known as Magnelstown, from William Magnel. The family is an old one in Co. Cork; now numerous also in Co. Limerick." Though Woulfe is noncommittal about the change from Magnel to Magner other than suggesting that it was a type of patronymic (i.e., Magner, "son of Magnel"), he seems confident about the origin of Magnel as a Norman diminutive of Magnus, thus returning for our consideration the European Magnus. Woulfe's reasoning can be gleaned from statements in another part of his work on names. He notes that the "Anglo-Normans had several diminutive suffixes, viz., -el, -et, -ot. These were generally added to the shortened or 'pet' form of the name, as: Martel, dim. of Martin; Benet, dim. of Benedict; Adamot, dim. of Adam, ..." Thus, the change from Magnus to Magnel would be analogous to that of Martin to Martel. Though there is no evidence of another change from –us to –el, his positing of a change from Magnus to Magnel is quite reasonable. But where did the Normans get Magnus?
Actually, the Normans had a rather diverse name stock. Woulfe writes: "The names borne by the Normans and by them introduced into Ireland were of three kinds: (1) names of Scandinavian origin which their ancestors had carried with them to Normandy; (2) names of Germanic origin which the Frankish conquerors had brought across the Rhine and which had ousted the old Celtic and Latin names from France; and (3) Biblical names and Latin and Greek names of saints, which the Normans began to adopt about the beginning of the eleventh century. Together with these a few Celtic names came in from Brittany, some Danish and Norse names from England, and one or two British or Welsh names." The name Magnus then could have traveled west with the Franks or south with invaders from Scandinavia to Normandy or to Britain. As far as we can tell, the name, whether derived from Magnus or not, was Magnel when it was brought into Ireland by the Norman invaders.
Dr. Edward MacLysaght has more historical detail in his Supplement to Irish Families: "MAGNER. This was originally Magnel. Castlemagner in Co. Cork was originally Magnelstown. Many Magnels were in Co. Cork in the thirteenth century, as we know from the Justiciary Rolls and similar records; and it is with that county families of the name have been associated ever since. It had become Magner by the sixteenth century and is numerous in the Tudor Fiants. In the next century we find it listed in the 'census' of 1659 as a principal Irish name in the Co. Cork barony of Kilmore and Orrery; and three years earlier two of the name were transplanted as Papists from Co. Cork to Connacht."
Major General Magner of Dublin (his wife's maiden name was also Magner; both were born in Cork) sought out MacLysaght for additional information. In his letter to me General Magner wrote: "During an interview with Dr. MacLysaght he considered that the Magnel family were Cambrian [from Wales – TFM] Normans who had arrived in Waterford/Youghal about 1170 plus 100 years and migrated up the Blackwater river to County Cork. He considered it to be a 'quirk' of the Irish pronunciation of MAGNEL and so the name became MAINGNEIR in Irish, later to be anglicized to the present name MAGNER." 3 An incidental note: on page 5 Woulfe is quoted to the effect that Magnelstown was named for William Magnel; the name William (Irish Liam) had been brought into England by William the Conqueror and a century later into Ireland by other Normans. Thus, William Magnel was a Norman name in both its constituents.
From Magnel to Magner
My correspondent in Cork, C.J.F. MacCarthy, reports an early instance of a name similar to Magnel in the Register of the Abbey of St. Thomas: "one document called Carta Reimundi Mangunel records the gift of a church to the abbey. The church was on Spike island, in Cork Harbor, and remained in monastic hands until the Reformation (it drew its tithes in oysters!). A number of other charters in the Register is witnessed by Reimundus Mangunel; the period was circa 1180 AD." MacCarthy also informs me that "according to a Justiciary Roll for 1295 AD suit of peace was granted for Fyngola Ynynethe (Finola O'Hea), wife of Nicholas Magnel, in the sum of twenty shillings." He adds that "the O'Heas were of the most ancient local stock and were hereditary chiefs of West Cork until 1200 AD."
The Pipe Roll of Cloyne (Rotus Pipae Clonensis) is a roll of skins about 18 feet long and 7 inches wide in which are registered land holdings in the diocese of Cloyne (a city a few miles east of the city of Cork). The roll, which was begun in the year 1363, has this entry (translated from Latin) for January 10, 1481: " David Magnel acknowledges that he holds of the lordship in Soboltre, and Clonmyn, 5 carucates of land, of the lord of Clonmyn, by service of homage, fealty, and suit of court at the castle of Kylmaclenyn and also by the service of two marks at the usual terms, and he did homage to the lord and acknowledged the aforesaid services." At various places in the roll other Magnel names appear, those of Jacob, John, Matthew, Philip, Robert, Thomas and Walter.
On September 9, 1588 in an inquisition held at Shandon Castle in Cork fifty-seven men were found "to be concerned in the Earl of Desmond's rebellion and were attainted by Act of Parliament." Among those convicted was "Richard Magner, of Castle-Magner." Thereafter the Magner name appears frequently in the records of the times. In 1591 Edmund Magner is listed as the vicar of the church in Castlemagner. In 1599 a grant of pardon is issued for Philip and Thomas Magner. A fiant (decree) of 1600 records the pardon of James and Philip Magner. In 1618 there is recorded a grant "from the King to William Magner, of Castle Magner, Co. Cork, gent, the castle, town and lands of Castle Magner, otherwise Magner's Castle. ... The premises are created the manor of Castlemagner, with 200 acres, country measure in demense; power to create tenures; to hold courts leet and baron, and to enjoy all waifs and strays." In 1653 Anthony Magner's cattle were seized by a band of Tories. According to the Book of Survey and Distribution for 1654-66 Robert Magner, junior, forfeited 772 acres of Castlemagner to Roger Bretridge. In 1665 a Thomas Magner marries Catherine Hall. In 1694 the church of St. Bridgets at Castlemagner was repaired after the late war (1690-91) And in 1695 Queen Mary, wife of James II, writes to the Bishop of Treguier, recommending to his charity Miss Magner, neice of Colonel Lacy, ... who is in the Convent of Ursulines at Morlaix (France).
It is obvious from the fiants, rolls and other early
records that the Magnels and the Magners were members of the same family
since they held the same position (i.e., local gentry) and
the same lands from the 13th century on. What would be interesting
(and time-consuming) would be a close study of documents of the 15th and
16th centuries in order to determine when exactly the Magnel name disappeared
and was replaced by Magner.
Castlemagner
I use the term Castlemagner to designate the settlement and Castle Magner or Magner Castle for the castle itself. In various sources the terms are sometimes used indiscriminately; a variant Castle-Magner has also been used. Here follows a description by Charles Smith in his 1749 work, The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Cork (reprinted Cork, 1893): "Castle Magner. About two miles to the north of Clonmene is Castle Magner, which, though in the circuit of this barony, is reckoned to be in Orrery. In the rebellion of 1641 this castle belonged to Richard Magner, agent for the Irish inhabitants of Orrery and Kilmore. When Cromwell was at Clonmel he went to pay his court to him, but being represented as a very troublesome person, and one who had been very active in the rebellion, Cromwell sent him with a letter to Colonel Phaire, then governor of Cork, in which was an order to execute the bearer. Magner, who suspected foul play, had scarce left Clonmel when he opened the letter, read the contents, and sealing it up, instead of proceeding toward Cork, turned off at Mallow, and delivered it to the officer who commanded there, telling him Cromwell had ordered him to carry it to Colonel Phaire. This officer had often preyed upon Magner's lands, for which he was resolved to be revenged. The officer, suspecting no deceit, went with the letter, which greatly amazed the governor of Cork, who knew him to be an honest man, and immediately sent an express to Cromwell for further instructions. Cromwell, being extremely chagrined to be so served, sent orders to let the officer have his liberty, and to apprehend Magner, who took care to get out of his reach. This castle and lands were granted to the family of Bretridge for forty-nine arrears; it is now the estate of Sir Standish Hartstonge."
Actually, the Magner whom Smith was describing was Robert, not Richard, as land records of the time show. This story of Magner tricking Oliver Cromwell, "the most odious Englishman of all," has been enlarged in the telling and one will find the following bit of Irish verbal embroidery in later sources: "When Cromwell and Magner were walking through the churchyard of Castlemagner, Cromwell asked Magner who was buried there. 'My father, grandfather and grand-uncles,' replied Magner. Cromwell, moralizing, said, 'I suppose they were great men in their day but now l am able to walk over them.' Magner, taking it as an insult, replied, 'It is easy for a living dog to walk over dead lions.'"
Here is a description of Castlemagner, as reported in Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (2nd ed., London, 1849): "Castle-Magner, a parish, in the union of Kanturk, partly in the barony of Orrery and Kilmore, but chiefly in that of Duhallow, county of Cork, and province of Munster, 3½ miles (E. by N.) from Canturk; containing 3007 inhabitants. It derives its name from the family of Magner, to whom this part of the country formerly belonged, and who erected a castle here, which was forfeited during the protectorate. This castle and lands were granted to the family of Bretridge, from whom they passed to the Hartstonges; the remains now form part of a farmer's residence." In the 1840's one Michael Pyne describes the castle in this fashion: "Castle Magner, 4 miles to the east of Kanturk, which was the property of Richard Magner, an agent to the Irish inhabitants of Kilmore. The castle is 56 feet high, flanked with one round tower, with a battery, and a dwelling house built on a rock over a stream of water. Magner lost his estate in the wars of 1650; he was the only man who tricked Cromwell."
My wife Irma and l visited Castlemagner in 1976.
By my reckoning it is located some 35 miles northwest of the city of Cork,
12 miles west of Mallow and 6 miles east of Kanturk. It is
a hamlet with a few stores, a church and, of course, the ruins of the castle.
In one store, The Castle Bar (a bar with groceries),
we met with Mr. Edmond O'Donoghue, the "publican"
of the establishment and the unofficial historian
of Castlemagner. Mr. O'Donoghue kindly gave us
a tour of the castle and its surroundings. The castle
is boarded up and in a rather dilapidated condition, though
the tower, seemingly the oldest part of the structure, is still impressive.
In its "heyday" the Magner Castle was not as large and ornate as Blarney
Castle or Cashel; a more appropriate term for it would have been a keep
or a fortified structure. Today it belongs to a
local farmer, Timothy Barry (another Norman surname!).
The only sign of life is provided by cows grazing placidly around
the Norman tower. Today there are
no Magners either in Castlemagner or the surrounding
area.
Summary
It seems to be beyond dispute that the surname under discussion was Magnel and that it was brought into Ireland during the 12th century Norman invasion or at sometime during the century following. Its first bearer or bearers could have been Norman, Flemish, Welsh, English or a combination thereof; most likely the bearer was Norman French. We cannot even be certain that Magnel was the form in which the name first appeared on Irish soil, though it was definitely the form in which it was first recorded in Cork. One can speculate about the precursor of Magnel (was it Magnus?) but there is not much hope for establishing a convincing etymology.
The name was, as MacLysaght pointed out, Magner in the 16th century. How can we explain the change from Magnel to Magner, from final -el to final -er? Such changes occur though it seems not to be common in Irish Gaelic. The place name, Ballysakeery in County Mayo, was originally Ballysakeely, indicating an -l- to –r- change, though not in final position. A major problem here is that the languages involved (Norman French, English, Irish Gaelic, Latin [the language of record]) were not at that time standardized in the modern sense; we are dealing with local dialects of the three spoken languages and our knowledge of their characteristics for the l2th-l6th centuries is scanty indeed.
There is always the possibility of transcription error. In an age when literacy was limited mostly to clerks, simple transcription errors could take on a life of their own. Such slapdash recording of Irish names has produced a Mucklebreed for MacGiollaBride and Gerty for MagOireachtaigh. In Centre County, Pennsylvania, the very German name of Schanzenbach moved through 19th century church and local records to become the English-appearing Johnsonbaugh; and that change took place in about fifty years.
And so a few puzzles remain in the story of the Magnel/Magner
surname, but for their solution we shall have to await the efforts
of someone from the next generation of Magners. In any case a bearer
of the Magner surname can be assured that the name has a fascinating history:
somewhat mysterious for the Magners of European descent, rather exciting
for the Magners of Irish descent. For the latter the Magner Castle
in the Cork countryside stands today as a monument to their adventurous
Norman and Irish forebears.
Footnotes:
1. This essay was published
in 1985 in a small number of copies for interested Magners. It was
republished by the
Mallow Field Club Journal
(No. 14, pp. 83-92) in 1996. The current version differs only in
minor details from the original.
2. Now Prague, the Czech Republic, and Bjelovar, Croatia.
3. Rather it would seem that the process was from Mangnel to Magner and then the Irish variants appeared. Irish is an Indo-European language related to English, French, Russian, etc., (e.g., do, "two"; deich "ten"; Fear {Latin vir}, "man"), but changes in the language over the centuries obscure that relationship. The name Magner also includes the variants: Magnier, Magnir, Magnor, Magnar, Maingneir, Mangner, Magnel, etc.
******************
About the author. One of six children of the late
William and Mary [Carney] Magner, Thomas F. Magner received a B.A. degree
from Niagara University and an M.A. in classical languages from Fordham
University. After almost four years in the airborne artillery during World
War 11, he returned to graduate school, and received a doctorate in linguistics
from Yale University in 1950. His university career includes nine years
at the University of Minnesota where he served as Chairman of the Department
of Slavic and Oriental languages, and the twenty-four years at the Pennsylvania
State University, where he served as Professor of Slavic Languages, Head
of the Department of Slavic Languages and, subsequently as Associate Dean
of Research. He is the author of many books and articles in the field of
Slavic linguistics. Now retired, he lives with his wife Irma at 280 Osmond
Street, State College, PA 16801; his e-mail address is tfm3@psu.edu.
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