.... and,
having ‘acquired’ the Cistercian monks' lands and property he advertised for
Protestants and Dissenters (Presbyterians etc), of practically any moral character whatever, to come
and settle on his new domain of Newry and Mourne. They would, of course, displace the Gaelic clans on their own land!
His
son and heir Henry – who like him was appointed Marshall of the Royal forces in
Ireland, but who perished at the Battle of the Yellow Ford - followed in his
father’s footsteps, as did his [seventeenth century] heirs, though none other were to be so
honoured with government position.
But
long-term settlement in Ireland has always had its effects on the Old English
and by the time of the Civil War, the Cromwellian settlement and the
Restoration, in the middle of the following century, a number of the Bagenals
had changed sides (both politically and religiously!) and backed what turned
out to be the losing side in that long-running conflict.
And
since history is always written by the victors, these unfortunates have been
simply written out of the record. Till
now, that is!
Officially
we learn that the Bagenal line died out and the succession went to the Needhams.
This
is not quite so, we now know, for indeed we have Bagenals resident in Newry
today. It is unlikely that they are an
entirely separate line.
Anyway,
we know from Philip H Bagenal’s work, The Vicissitudes of an Anglo-Irish Family
(Ingleby 1925) that there were other lines who were banished as ‘perverts to
Catholicism’ to Connaught as part of the English policy of “To Hell! Or Connaught!”
And
now, through the good auspices of the Newry Journal, your editor has been
contacted by a descendant of the original Newry Bagenals.
Gabriel
Sheridan practices as an attorney in the Oregon
and Washington States
of the United States and
contacts me to inform me of his genealogical lineage.
We,
writes Gabriel, are a Catholic family, courtesy of my great-great grandmother
Jane (Sargint?)/ Sargeant who was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary
and who - married into the Bagenal line - converted to Catholicism.
The
children of George Bagenal, Gabriel continues, were banished to County Galway
in punishment for their support for King James II and the Catholic cause at the
time of the English Civil War. Through
the intercession of Ann Matthews, a Catholic niece, members of the family
settled near Chair, County
Tipperary.
Jane
Sargint’s own grandmother was Mary Bagenal, who married Richard Sargint on May
1771 at Ardfinan Church of Ireland. By
this line she was a direct descendant of the Nicholas Bagenal who settled in
Newry in 1550.
Those
members of the aforementioned George Bagenal’s family banished to Galway included Thomas and his wife and an invalid
brother Nicholas. Another brother Dudley
fled to France
while yet another, Walter by name, was hanged!
Gabriel’s
own family evolved through one of the five sons of this Thomas Bagenal.
And now for the greatest irony of
all!
Today,
Gabriel’s sister Margaret Mary is the Mother General of the Sisters of Mercy of
Alma, Michigan.
Her
name now is Mother Mary Quentin Sheridan R.S.M.
It
was in Michigan
that Gabriel too was born and raised.
Gabriel
has closely researched his roots and found that, over the generations he has
ties with many Irish family names including ..
O’Brien,
Toohey, Coumans, Harmon, O’Shea – and, on the Sheridan
side, Sherade MacGiolla Padraig (more commonly known as Fitzpatrick) – and also
Butler (of the
Earls of Ormonde) Cavanaugh, and many others.
It
is only recently he has discovered the Bagenal connection!
I love this genealogical research. It always
throws up surprises like that!
Gabriel: would you kindly request your sister Mother
Mary to say a few novenas to expiate the sins of her early ancestors in Ireland, who
displaced our good monks!
And
who – God bless us all - the Newry & Mourne Council have seen fit to edify
into the third Christian Millennium, at the cost of those same monks whose former
home is now perversely referred to as ‘Bagenal’s Castle’ !!!
Lol!
History 
