| Hassan may have an eastern look but in Ireland it is the
anglicized form of Ó hOsáin. It is to be distinguished from Ó hOisín and Ó
hOiseáin (see Hession and Hishon). In Co. Derry, where it is numerous, it is
spelt Hassan, Hasssen and Hasson. In the Monaghan Hearth Money Rolls of 1663 it
appears as O'Hessan. There was a Hasson of Wexford among the "principal
gentlemen" of that county in 1598, but that family was no doubt of non-Gaelic
stock and a John Hassane was an influential merchant in Wexford fifty years
earlier.
GLOSSARY
| Clan |
From the Gaelic clann which means literally
'children'. |
| Mac- |
From the Gaelic mac, meaning 'son' |
| O' |
From the Gaelic Ó, meaning 'grandson',
'grandchild' or 'descendant'; Ní is the femine form of Ó, meaning 'daughter' or
'descendant' |
| Plantation (Ulster) |
The redistribution of escheated lands after the
defeat of the Ulster Gaelic lords and the 'Flight of the Earls' in 1607. Only
counties Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh and Cavan were actually
'planted', portions of land there being distributed to English and Scottish
families on their lands and for the building of bawns. |
| Sept |
A family group of shared ancestry living in the
same locality |
| Undertakers |
Powerful English or Scottish landowners who
undertook the plantation of British settlers on the lands they were granted. |
| Gaelic |
This word in Ireland has no relation to
Scotland. As a noun it is used to denote the Irish language, as an adjective
to denote native Irish as opposed to Norman or English origin. |
| Erenagh |
From the Irish Gaelic airchinneach, meaning
'hereditary steward of church lands'. A family would hold the ecclesiastical
office and the right to the church or monastery lands, the incumbent at any one
time being the erenagh. |
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