Re: McQuown Origins - Scottish or Irish
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In reply to:
Re: McQuown Origins - Scottish or Irish
Linda Spiker 11/30/01
In a book called Clans and Families of Ireland, by John Grenham, on page 183 under the surname Woods, Mac Giolla Chomghain (MacElhone)meaning son of the follower of St. Comgan in Roscommon County, Ireland.The Mac Giolla Chomghain Irish name has exactly the same meaning of Mac Gille Chomghain Scottish name.I have read that St. Chomghain was an Irish prince who lost a political battle and fled to Scotland along with his sister and presumably other retainers and supporters.There he became a missionary of some renown along the west coast of Scotland from Argyll to at least Glengarry.It is possible that there were two St. Chomghains but I have assumed that there was one.The sister also became a saint and died in a convent on an island in Loch Lomond.In a book called Ulster Surnames, by Robert Bell he tells states that Cowan and MacCowan are modern forms of the old Co. Armagh name MacCone or Coan or Cohen.The MacCowan spelling was largely absorbed into the more common McKeown.He also lists a MacIlhone variant in Co. Tyrone.This is very bad news because the MacCowans who aren't supposed to be MacEwens have been supplanted in Armagh by McKeown as a spelling meaning that you can't tell a son of the follower of St. Comgan from a son of John in that vicinity.I believe the McKeown spelling in this case was adopted by a Hebridean Gallowglas named Bissett who moved to Ulster and became a member of the Irish peerage.I didn't really answer the question but the answer appears to be that MacCowan/McQuown are both Irish and Scottish inso far as they are derived from St. Comgan.I don't know for a fact that the McQuown or McCown spellings occured in Ireland other than by Scots moving to Ireland.