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From your chosen spelling I would speculate your McAlilly connection is either the Mississippi branch (or possibly and less likely a branch of the Illinois/Indiana ones, or some one unknown to me).
No aspersions are meant on the category of those who are referred to as a "gentleman" in general but I suspect your particular gentleman had a booth selling coats of arms and family surname histories. Since he was at a Scottish fair, the Scottish names were the ones used, some perhaps indiscriminantly other than the need for such name had occurred in the past and now was met.
Find me this MacIlilly or similar form used in 16th or 17th or 18th (or 19th or 20th or even 21st century) Scotland (or McIlilly anywhere) and then I will discuss it further.
Coats of arms are for the nobility and royalty, with knights and those landed families primarily with some other families permitted to create and to display one. The rest of us have none and must create our own or be sold one by some commercial creator, derived from nobles with similar name or from history, standard items and their creativity.
I doubt if you bought the product, presuming I am correct as to what that gentleman dealt in, that you would find any clear documentable basis for this McIlilly connection. In fact McIlilly just does not Google up much at all. However my ancestor was once recorded as McElully so anything is possible.
However see this part of the prior post just before yours, but five years ago, recording some of what I collected in actual documentable items on the only such provable origin for McAliley/McAlilley/McAlilly/McLilly...
=====================
This work was done, compiled and authored by an American Mac Ailghile Scribe at
oftheMacAilghiles@Yahoo.com and now at
of.the.mac.ailghiles at the Google mail site of gmail.com
and this Scribe retains all copyright privileges although this may be used in non-commercial writings so long as credit is properly given to this author and this location of its first public "publishing", on today's date.
All genealogical work is derivative so the sources as mentioned, and those omitted without intention, should be respected and the ones included retained.
==============================================
==============================================
==============================================
INTRODUCTION TO...
History of MacAilghile Descendants
from Ireland
to throughout
America
Introduction
Origin of the MacAilghiles in Ireland
The American surname McAliley [and McAlily, McAlilly, McAllilly, McAlilley, McAlilhe, McAlilie, McAlillie, McClley, McLilly, McLilley, McLealey, MacLellie, MacLelley, McLally and other similar sounding or somewhat similar sounding variants as well as misspellings whose pronunciation could not be "MACK' - ("uh" or "ay" or "said so fast as to appear to be omitted") - lil - lee" which have been used through the centuries by American scriveners] quite possibly derived from the Gaelic surname MacAilghile. This Gaelic name, as a surname, came into use some generations after the death of Ghaillghile [1280-1340], a younger son of Donn Mor mac Guire, the first MacGuire ruler of County Fermanagh in northern Ireland. This surname adoption was done by the descendants or others, in all probability in order to distinguish members of this cadet branch from the more important senior lines of MacGuires whose numbers were substantial throughout the region. In this region many of the cadet lines of various Mac Guire leaders ultimately became known as the sons of that Mac Guire younger son including (Mac) Murphy Mac Murchadha (MacMurphy and Murphy from Murchadha, a younger brother of Donn Mor Mac Guire), MacMaghnusa (MacManus), Mac Braoin (MacBryan which is a sept from the MacManus sept of MacGuire!), MacGafraidh (MacCaffrey), MacAmhlaimh (MacAuley) and many others. However unlike the sub-clan MacAilghiles (or so it almost seems as there is no absolute certainty of a second separate MacAilghile derivation), these surnames often have multiple original derivations and share the name with clans or septs, unrelated to those emanating from a line of the Clan MacGuire. As yet no such multiple original derivations for MacAilghile has been found, but it remains reasonable to believe that there are some which may come to light and some that will remain in the darkness of missing history.
As a result of this probable descent, the MacAilghiles are recognized as a sept or branch of the clan MacGuire of County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland where the MacGuires remain the leading clan. This fact is exhibited in the genealogical works, The Book of Ballymote and the MacFirbis manuscripts of genealogical histories written several centuries ago. The Rev. Patrick Woulfe in his seminal work on Irish patronyms, Irish Names and Surnames, first published about a century ago and republished in 1969 by the Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore, Maryland, gives this short summary of the Gaelic name which, in the Gaelic alphabetic script used by Rev. Woulfe for each family name, looks like "MacAilgile" [presumably the strange-looking Gaelic "g", for which I have found no Gaelic-like script to match, transforms to "gh" in English]:
M a c A i l g i l e--IV--M'Alylly, MacAlilly, Callily, Lilly; 'son of A i l g i l';
the name of a branch of the Maguires in Co. Fermanagh."
From MacLysaght's The Surnames of Ireland, which is still in print, but this is from an edition available about two decades ago at page 106:
"LILLY, MacAlilly
"The sept of Mac Ailghile, formerly anglicized MacAlilly, but now usually Lilly, Lilley or Lillie, is
a branch of the MacGuires of Fermanagh, and its members to-day are mainly located in its original
homeland around Enniskillen, though families of the name are found in other counties bordering on
Fermanagh. Its origin is dealt with in several of the old genealogical works such as the Book of Ballymote
and Mac Firbis. The surname Lilley (akin to Lely) is well known in England where it is indigenous;
but, though at least four appear in the army list of the Cromwellian and Restoration period, very few
of that stock settled in Ireland and it may be assumed that Irish Lilleys are MacAlillys, especially if their
families belong to central Ulster."
The author of this work is believed still living and adding and improving to each of his synopsis of the origin of the name. Editions of this book are usually available at any store with a Irish heritage section. It refers to the two genealogical works where Gailghile is shown but does not mention his name explicit nor does it mention from which line the MacAilghiles's descend.
James Michael Maguire of Nevada, USA has the best web-site on the origins of the Maguire name which includes the information on the origins of the sept Mac Ailghile. His site adds a third book as to the origins of Irish names by Peadar Livingstone, The Fermanagh Story, which, according to the Jim Maguire site provides the missing reference to the actual source of the patronym:
(p. 431)
"Lilly (Mac Ghailghile) : also Lally. The Lillys descended from Gailghile, son of Donn Mor Maguire.
They lived in Muintir Pheodachain. In 1796 Brian Lilly is mentioned at Killesher; Denis and Patrick Lilly at Cleenish;
and James Lally at Cleenish. There are 35 Lilly-Lally voters in Fermanagh today."
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