Captain C.H.E. Judkins

A brusque and forthright figure, Captain C.H.E. Judkins was one of the Cunard Line’s longest-serving commanders and a well-known face to generations of transatlantic passengers. He would tell the American writer Margaret Fuller that he took pride in the New York Herald labelling him ‘the nigger captain’. His defence of Douglass, however, may not have … Read more

The Irish military tradition

Irishmen soldiered abroad in the armies of continental Europe from at least 1587, when Irish regiments were formed in Spain, and this tradition continued well into the early nineteenth century. Many were forced to seek fame and fortune abroad after failed rebellions and religious discrimination at home. Following defeat in the Williamite War (1689–91), the … Read more

What’s in a name?

The O’Molony surname and its more modern variants (Moloney, Maloney and Mullowney) all derive from the Gaelic Ó Maoldomnaig, meaning ‘descendant of a servant of Sunday’. The ‘e’ was inserted in the Molony surname in the eighteenth century to distinguish Catholic Molonys from their Protestant brethren. Omallun is another variant seen in the Petworth Archives … Read more

Family life

In family life Dermot was also active and had issue. His seven offspring were named Albert, Francis, Anne-Marie, Maria, Elizabeth, Jeanne and Isabella. By 1631 Albert is being referred to as ‘Dermot’s only son’, so it seems that Francis died between 1622 and 1631, as both had received letters of denizenship in 1622. Albert’s son, … Read more