The Doughty family

In England placenames or descriptive adjectives are the origin of many surnames, whereas in Ireland, the Irish were concerned only with to whom you were related. Doughty is a nickname, and it means 'resolute' or 'strong'. In Ireland, it is associated mainly with Dublin, and the area in counties Cavan and Meath surrounding Virginia, in county Cavan.

There are indications of a connection with Lincoln in England, and there is a Doughty street in London. On March 25, 1837, Charles Dickens moved into 48 Doughty Street, London, on which he had a three-year lease at £80 a year, and that house, 48 Doughty Street, is the address of The Dickens House Museum.

The earliest record for Ireland is of a Thomas Doughtie, a cleric, whose Intestacy was recorded in 1638, in Dublin diocese.

A marriage licence was issued in Dublin in 1643, to John Doughtie and Elizabeth Barlow.

Samuel Doughty, a 'Forty-Nine' Officer, who had served on the royalist side against Cromwell's Commonwealth Army in 1649, was to have a portion of his confiscated lands restored in 1660. There is no record of where his land was located, but a marriage licence was issued in 1661 to Samuel Doughty and Mary Smith in Dublin diocese, which extended well outside the area of county Dublin.

In the Decrees of Innocents for the Commonwealth, there are listed James Dowdy and Laughlin Dowdy, but later James Dowdy of Tennesholy, county Kilkenny, was recorded as transplanted to Connaught.

Pender's Census from 1659, records that there was a Christopher Doughtie, gent, living at Canne Court, Barony of Naas, Kildare.

There are also connections with Dublin in will records; 1667 John Doughty, St Mary's Abbey, Ostmanstown, Dublin, Innkeeper (Index to Prerogative wills); 1703 John Doughty, Dublin, Merchant; and 1679 William Doughty, gent. (The Genealogical Office).

And then a connection with co Cavan, when in 1664 a John Doughty was recorded as having two hearths in his house, in the newly built town of Virginia, and thereby liable for hearth-tax. His was one of only six households in the village, and the only one with two hearths, so that he was comparatively wealthy. His will was dated 1697.
The prerogative will of Charles Doughty, of Virginia, probably a son of John, was dated 1746, and Nicolla Doughty, widow of Charles, entered a contract regarding his property in a deed in 1756. (Reg Deed 181/321/120827)

These Doughty marriages were proposed;

1700 John Lee and Hester Doughty [Index to Prerogative Grants]

1716 Elizabeth Doubty and William Kemp [Kilmore Marriage Licence Bonds].

1786 Robert Doughty and Sarah Charles [Meath Marriage Licences]

1826 John Doughty and Emilia Medicoate [Meath Marriage Licences]

The IGI has these marriages:

Joseph Doughty, born about 1706 Lurgan, Cavan, spouse: Isabella Rismayden 29 MAY 1731 St Catherine's, Dublin
Richard Doughty, born about 1643 Dublin, spouse: Elizabeth Hughes 20 OCT 1668 Dublin

Doughty wills in Kilmore diocese are:

1697 - 1698 John Doughty no residence

1776 - 1777 John Doughty, Rockfield, (Corgreagh, Castlerahan);

1707 - 1707 (also as 1787) Clements Doughty, Cormeen, (Larah);

1788 William Doughty (also as William Doughty of Corfad, Gent 1700 - 1701); and

1839 Geo Doughty, Longfield, (Larah), administrator P. Aughley, Mullagh.

Freeholders in 1825 - 1826 for Castleraghan

Joseph Doughty landlord lands worth £50, of Quilca with land at Arlow

John Doughty a holding worth 40 shillings, for the lives of John and Joseph Doughty

Charles Doughty a holding worth 40 shillings, for the life of Young Parr

Graughla Lower, otherwise Greaghclaugh townland in the parish of Killinkere has in the Tithe Applottment records from 1823-1827, a man whose name is Young Parr. The townland of Kilmore, in the same parish, had both John Douty, and Charles Douty. It was common to have the period of a lease based on the duration of the longest living of three lives and ideally, some of them would be young, but in this case, it is a proper name.

In the Griffith's Valuation of Ireland, 1848-1864, these properties were recorded:

Clement Doughty, Cavan, Mullagh, Corfad

John Doughty, Dublin, St. James, in The Phoenix Park

Joseph Doughty, Cavan, Killinkere, Kilmore and also Mullagh, Corfad

Margaret Doughty, Cavan, Killinkere, Burnew and at Killinkere, Kilmore, and at Meath, Dulane, Ballynamona and Dulane, Moat

Robert Doughty, Cavan, Mullagh, Cuilcagh,

Doughy, Charles, Tyrone, Ardstraw, Pubble

There was a Douty household in Larah, in Cavan, and one in Oldcastle, in Meath.

Clement Doughty, Corfad, had 24 acres, and 19 acres bog; Joseph Doughty, Corfad, 49 acres, and 12 acres bog; and Robert Doughty, Crossreagh, 116 acres, and 10 acres bog.

Robert Doughty of Quilcagh entered into a transaction, which was recorded in a deed 241/535/160766 and another with his wife Elinore 241/634/161558.

The family we are concerned with lived at Cuilcagh, or Quilca, as the Anglo-Irish spelled it.

There is a family vault at old Mullagh ‘Teampull Ceallaigh’ cemetery. Engraved on the table-tomb was the family motto; 'Palma non sine pulvere' (The palm not without wrestling for it); and the coat of arms, a cubit arm erect, according to Dr P O’Connell (The Topography of the Lough Ramor Region, II, Breifne, Vol III, page 462), although nothing of the engraving which Dr O'Connell dates at 1815, remains.

The family motto and coat of arms are the same as used by the English branches of the family.

Also engraved on the capstone is the following:

Here lie the remains of Robert Doughty late of Quilcagh who died 1 August AD 1816 aged 80 years, also Sarah his wife, who died 16 June 1823 aged 50. This frail memorial is inscribed by their son Joseph Doughty, here also interred. Annie Keating daughter of Robert and Sarah who died 13 Sept AD 1816 aged 20 years also daughter Julia who died 6 February AD 1823 aged 21 years also their son the above Joseph died 11 August 1810 Psalm 37V Joseph 21 June 1818 aged 19 years.

Robert and Sarah (nee Charles) are probably those mentioned in the 1786 Meath Marriage Licences.

In 1852, when Joseph Le Fanu Sheridan, of the Brindsley Sheridans of theatrical fame, owned Quilca, his tenant was a Mr Doughty, who was reputedly a relative.

In Griffiths Valuation, Margaret Doughty, of Moate near Kells, was the widow of the landlord to 49 families in Kilmore and Burnew townlands in Kilinkere. Doughty demanded between 25 and 30 shillings per acre, and by the time the Folklore Commission collected local stories in 1938, the rent was down to 10 shillings per acre - an indication of the totally uneconomical demands of the landlord.

Doughty of Drumrath

In about 1880, Richard Doughty came into possession of 28 acres and five perches of land and 4 acres, 1 rood and 16 perches of bog in Drumrat(h). He died sometime between 1893 and 1901. This holding was recorded as in the possession of his widow, Ellen, in 1914. Richard had died of an asthmatic attack some years previously, as in 1901, the family living at Drumrath consisted of Ellen, 37, a widow, Mary Anne, 18, Joseph, 16, Michael, 14, Charles, 12, Catherine, 10, Ellen, 8, and a brother of Ellen (the mother), Michael Reilly, 25.

Some births recorded from 1864 to 1873

Child name: Religion: Year: County: Parish: Father: Mother

Local history

Sometime after 1641, with the assistance of Rev William Bedell, the Sheridan family was granted lands at Cuilcagh, in Mullagh. In 1664, James Sheridan, son of Denis Sheridan from Togher, in Kilmore, took possession of the land.

As the Sheridans were loyal to James Stuart, King James II, they were deprived of the lands in 1691, and a Charles McFadden, who had two hearths in Ballaghanea in 1664, and who was a Commissioner for county Cavan charged with implementing the Hearth Money Tax in 1660, and was a supporter of William of Orange, was given the property. (Dr Philip O'Connell; The Topography of the Lough Ramor Region, II, Breifne, Vol III, page 463)

McFadden sold some lands to Robert Saunderson in 1709, and in 1710, made over the lands at 'Quilkagh and Drumratt' as a dowry, to Dr Thomas Sheridan, on his marriage to Elizabeth McFadden, the new owner's daughter.

Thus, the Sheridans came to own the same place again.

Dr Thomas Sheridan bought additional farms and lands at Raffony and Finternagh, Mullagh parish, from the McFadden family in 1718.

Rev Dr Thomas Sheridan was Headmaster of the Royal School, Cavan town, and was grandfather of the playwright Richard Brindsley Sheridan (who was born in Dublin, and lived at Cuilcagh until he was eight, and was then educated in England). Among the mutual friends of Sheridan and Swift was Henry Grattan, who lived at Garryross, near Lough Ramor. Henry was grandfather to his namesake, the famous orator and parliamentarian.

Dean Jonathan Swift often stayed at Cuilcagh House. He did not like the house much, and, while staying there in 1725, he wrote his work:

"The Blunders, Deficiencies, Distresses and Misfortunes of Quilcagh";

Let me thy properties explain;

A rotten cabin, dripping rain,

Chimneys with scorn rejecting smoke,

Stools, tables, chairs, and bedsteads broke,

Here elements have lost their uses,

Air ripens not, nor earth produces:

In vain we make poor Sheelah toil,

Fire will not roast, nor water boil.

Through all the valleys, hills, and plains,

The goddess Want in triumph reigns;

And her chief officers of state,

Sloth, Dirt, and theft around her wait.

(Sheelah was probably a nurse or housemaid.)

Swift was reputedly inspired by a local farmer, 'Big Doughty', when describing the Brobdingnagian giant in his book, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World [but according to a version by V R Wyse Jackson, in Swift And His Circle, 1945, Dublin, this Doughty was the prototype for Lemuel Gulliver]. Doughty was so large that he could hide a man being sought by a process server, under his coat, and he had once rescued a widow's cow from the pound by lifting the animal over the wall. He had given Swift a demonstration of his strength by lifting a pony across a fence into another field. More usually known as Gulliver's Travels, the book was published in 1726, and as it is known to have taken more than six years to write, we can conclude that some of the Doughty family lived at Cuilcagh in 1720.

Quilcagh or Cuilcagh is Cailceach; chalky

The Sheridans seem to have always lived beyond their means, and their circumstances disimproved, and they began to sell off land from about 1730, and eventually things got so bad that their furniture was auctioned to pay off creditors, in 1758.

When the dramatist Richard Brindsley Sheridan died in 1816, the place was taken over by his in-laws, the Le Fanu brothers, who had married two of his sisters.