The 103 surnames listed in Hilary Murphy's Families of Co Wexford include the native Gaelic; the Norse; the Cambro-Norman/Flemish/Anglo-Norman, or Old English, and the New English or 17thcentury planters.
Among the first Norman settlers in Wexford were the Devereuxs, who have been the most prominent in the life of the county ever since.
This family took its name from Evreux, Normandy, France. At first it was de Evreux, then D'Evreux and finally Devereux. And like the Norman French name Molyneaux in Kerry, the X is sometimes pronounced.
The first of them travelled to England with William the Conqueror in 1066, and from there to Ireland with Strongbow in 1170. In 1260-1 the manor and lands of Ballymagir, Co Wexford, became the principal seat of this family. "There were several other important branches of the Devereux family, notably those of Sallytown, Battlestown, Adamstown, Taghmon, Coolhull, Carrigmannon, the Deeps, Ballyshannon and Tomhaggard."
Taylor & Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland (1778) show Devereux Esq at Carrickmannon, and the 1814 Directory lists three Co Wexford Devereux residences - Bree, Davidstown and Ballyrankin. The latter is Ballyrankin House in 1876 where John Daly Devereux had 3,312 acres, as shown on Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards. This was the largest of eight Devereux holdings in Co Wexford, indeed the largest in Ireland.
The only others in the country were three Co Kilkenny holdings, a single acre, 217 and 239 acres. Current telephone directories list about 160 entries of this name, half of which are in the 05 south Leinster area.
The name has also been rendered Devery, and of the 53 entries more than half are in the Westmeath-Offaly area.
Older readers may remember an essay on the English Leaving Cert course entitled Mrs Battle's Opinions on Whist. This surname is not to be found in The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames and though Mrs Battle may have been fictitious, the surname clearly then existed.
The above Battlestown in the Co Wexford parish of St James & Dunbrody, location of a branch of the Battles, appears to be "the town of the Battles". It was rendered Battayleston in fiants of 1548 and 1553, noting the "pardon" of Stephen Deworox. In 1570 Nicholas White was granted the site of the monastery of Dunbrody, the grange of Dunbrody, as well as other lands, among which was Batayleston, "late in the occupation of Stephen Deverex".
A fiant of 1602 concerning a grant of land mentions John Devereux of Batelston. The Co Wexford book of the Civil Survey (1654) renders this Battalestowne, and the 1659 "census" has it as Battles towne.
A fiant of 1552 concerns a lease of land to John Wakeley "of the Novan, Co Meath, gent of a house and other buildings within the site of the abbey of Novan, three water mills and a salmon weir there, Horling park and other the demesne lands of the abbey, 18 houses in the town of the Novan, with the customs of the same, cottages lately built without the walls of the town in Canon Rowe, land of Angevyleston, Trymmes land in the same, 10s. chief rent out of Richard White's land, 4s. 1d. out of Battell's lands."
The Co Dublin Calendar of Inquisitions notes a 1556 hearing before the Barons of the Exchequer, wherein Richard White and his wife Catherine Battell were seised in right of the latter of 1m, 20a. in Angevyleston held from King Henry VIII as of his manor of Trym by knight service.
Telephone directories list 21 entries of this surname, of which 12 are in the 09 area (Cos Donegal and Sligo). There are 11 Battles entries, of which seven are in the 07 area (mainly Connacht).
Co Sligo, central to these two areas, was the location of the indigenous Irish sept Mac Con Catha (cu genitive con, cath, battle). This family had been living at the end of the 16th century in Coolaney. This had formerly been anglicised Mac Encaha, and in a fiant of 1585 it was listed among the "pardoned" as MacConchaa. Apart from the form Concagh extant in Co Galway (there are four Concagh telephone entries in the Glenamaddy area), descendants of McConcatha now bear the name Battle. Mac Lysaght's Irish Families gives Duncahy as another "English" form.
In his History of Sligo Town and County, Archdeacon O'Rorke noted that Mr David Battle, a leading merchant in the town of Thorold in Canada, was still well remembered and deeply respected in his native county of Sligo.