| This name is rare in Ireland outside Ulster, where it is most
common in counties Tyrone and Antrim. It is an English toponymic and can derive
from several places called Rolleston or Rowlston in Leicestershire,
Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire or Yorkshire. All these placenames
were originally spelt Rolvestun, meaning 'Rolf's farm'. Most in Ulster descend
from the Staffordshire Rollestons, R. Rollestone of that shire being one of the
English undertakers of the Plantation. He was granted 1000 acres in
Teemore in the barony of Oneilland West in Co. Armagh. The name is also
found as Rollstone and Rowlston.
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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