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SEATOWN WINDMILL FAMILIES
Part III - The Callan Windmill
Caroline McCall, MGSI
This article was originally printed in the Journal of the Genealogical Society of Ireland
in 2006, Volume 7 No. 1.
The Callan Surname in Dundalk
The surname Callan or O’Cathaláin comes from a mainly Oriel Sept in the counties of Armagh, Monaghan, and parts of south Down, Louth and Fermanagh. ‘A Census of Ireland circa 1659’ indicates that the Callan surname was well established in County Louth at this time. The surname can be found in the Baronies of Lowth (sic), Dundalk, Farrard and Drogheda. In the Hearth Money Rolls of 1664 the surname is similarly widespread. It appears as Callan or Callon in the ‘Towne of Dundalk’ and as Ilchallan in Cooley. Following the Cromwellian and Restoration Settlements in Dundalk of 1654, one Hugh O’Calan was one of three men who sought a discharge from Dundalk gaol on grounds that they had been committed there ‘upon the malicious information of several persons’. In a lease dated 22 May 1716, John Callan rented land from Henry Crawley in the middle ward of Dundalk. A John Callan also appears more than a century later in the 1820 list of Registered Freeholders.
The Callans are also found in the 18th Century Corn Census of County Louth, ‘An Account of the Corn in the possession of the Inhabitants in the County of Louth, shewing to whom belonging, in what Barony, Parish & Town, as Likewise the number of barrel of each grain according to an Estimate made thereof, in the Several Haggards, Barns & Storehouses’. According to the survey, which was conducted between the years 1739 and 1741, John Callan and Hen. Callan grew Meslin and Oates in the parish of Tullyallen situated in the Barony of Ferrard. John and Thomas Callan appear in the parish of Philipstown in the same Barony. In the ‘upper half Barony of Dundalk’, one Ter. (sic) Callan had twenty barrels of Oates and ten barrels of Barley.
The surname was very extensive in Dundalk in the early 1800’s and family relationships are sometimes difficult to ascertain. Patrick Callan, Dundalk baker, is mentioned in the inventory and correspondence relating to the will of Denis Callan of Dromiskin, Co. Louth (proved in 1815) as owing £61 7s 5d to his estate. The Callans of Dromiskin had extensive landholdings and had an interest in the mills at Lurgan Green.
Patrick Callan had been involved in the operation of the Seatown Windmill during the Napoleonic Wars. Following James Kieran’s retirement from business, the windmill continued to be operated by the Callan family. Deeds of the current owners of the windmill indicate that a Patrick Callan was ‘seized of and entitled to’ the windmill prior to 1822.
Patrick Callan married Susanna Brankard or Brank. They had at least six children, John Patrick born September 1795 and Anne born June 1797, Patrick, Thomas and Susanna and Rosetta, dates of birth unknown. Unfortunately, the records for baptisms in Dundalk between the years 1802 and 1817 are no longer in existence.
This surname Brankard is relatively rare in Dundalk and, indeed, in the County of Louth. A perusal of the surrounding counties reveals a variant, Brunkard, in the Parishes of Aghabog and Currin in the Barony of Dartree in the County of Monaghan c. 1827, at the time of the Monaghan Tithe Applotment. The surnames Brancard, Brancart, Branquard, Branquart originate in the areas of Normandie and Picardie. Susanna may have been descended from one of a colony of French cambric weavers who came to Dundalk in the 1730’s. They were employed by the de Joncourt brothers who ran the cambric-weaving factory, established in 1737.
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