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Archiver > IRL-SLIGO > 2000-08 > 0965912573


From: "Kevin J. Crean" <>
Subject: Re: [IRL-SLIGO] O'Crean
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 09:02:53 -0400




Colin:

Attached is one of the more informative e:mails regarding the Crean name that
you may have missed.
And "thank you" to Jim McDonald. I have been reading your numerous responses to
questions posed by other listers and am always impressed by the breadth and
depth of your knowledge and ready access to sources.


---------------------- Forwarded by Kevin J. Crean/CPD/NYN/HUD on 08/10/2000
09:09 AM ---------------------------


"Jim McDonald" <> on 08/04/2000 09:52:43 PM

Please respond to "Jim McDonald" <>

To:
cc: (bcc: Kevin J. Crean/CPD/NYN/HUD)
Subject: Re: [IRL-SLIGO] O'Crean



Paul,
A few years ago a namesake of yours was commissioned to research and publish
a history of enterprises in Sligo. I don't know what's happened to it but
hopefully it will emerge and throw some light on the subject. The question
you pose is an interesting one and it is strange that there is so little on
this family and only a few of the name in Sligo. I count 3 in the phone book
although there are 42 in neighbouring counties. There are also 14 CREANES
and 59 CREHANS, again almost all in other counties.

O'Rorke (1889) from whom I quoted gives an account of the CREAN family but
doesn't make us any the wiser on what happened to them as merchants.
Originally from Tirconnell they settled in Sligo at the end of the fifteenth
century. The first recorded is Cormac O'CRAIAN d1506, buried with his wife
Nanangasa. The Four Masters record, under the year 1572, the death of Henry
O'CREAN. O'Rorke says the "O'CREANS were not long in Sligo when they began
to invest money in land... Andrew O'CREAN (d1641) ...possessed not only
Hazelwood and much of the parishes of Carbury and St. John... but
considerable stretches of land in Leyney, Tireagh, and Coolavin, as well as
the abbey of Ballindoon, in the barony of Tirerrill." Andrew CREAN, prior of
Sligo became Bishop of Elphin while John CREAN survived the attempt to
charge him with the "massacre of 1641". Writing on the parish of Kilmacteige
O'Rorke says, "under the Cromwellian Settlement, the O'HARAS, the O'HIGGINS,
the O'CREANS, and the MacSWYNES disappeared.

This is probably well known to you and CREAN searchers but thought I would
post it for general interest. The CREAN presence in Mayo, Roscommon and
Galway does suggest a movement southwards for the main group of the family.
This doesn't answer the question of course.

Jim McDonald



----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Burns" <>
To: "Jim McDonald" <>
Cc: <>
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 3:00 PM
Subject: Re: [IRL-SLIGO] O'Crean


> Jim,
> As you undoubtedly know, Wood-Martin has surprising little to say
about the
> Crean family other than that they were the merchant princes of Sligo for
several
> centuries. Mary O'Dowd provides much more info on them in her "Power
Politics &
> Land: Sligo 1568-1688." She said Roger Jones, the Protestant, gained
from the
> marriage of Elicia Jones (whom she said was probably his niece) to Roebuck
> Crean, calling the match "profitable and shrewd" and "a wise move to ally
with
> them rather than try to establish a rival business" of importing and
exporting.
> What happened to the merchant family of Creans? It seemed to have
survived
> the Cromwellian confiscations. Could it have been one of Sligo's many
plagues or
> lack of male heirs?
> Paul Burns
>





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