Early Dowley History

The four Masters refer to O’Dooley as O’Dubhlaoich, describing their chiefs in the eleventh and twelfth centuries as Lords of Fertullagh, which is in the south-eastern end of Co. Westmeath. They were driven out by the O’Melaghlins and Tyrells and migrated to the Ely O’Carroll country which consisted of most of Offaly and some of north-west Tipperary. While the 1901 census would confirm a large number of Dooleys in this area, there is not a single Dowley. This would strongly suggest that Dowley was a separate name from Dooley even though the pronunciation was normally the same.

A very old treatise on Irish family names asserts that the name Dowley is an anglicization of the French D’Owlais. It appears that a French Huguenot of that name, a miller, fled with very many of his religious compatriots from Brittany circa 1570 to avoid the massacres being inflicted on his co-religionists. The emigrants sought refuge both in England and in Ireland and it is to be noted that many millers were among the refugees¹¹.

It is suggested that the first D’Owlais came to the townsland of Tinvane near Carrick-on-Suir and purchased or were awarded some lands and built the first water powered flour mill on the Lingaun river, a tributary of the Suir¹¹.

This is not consistent with the fact that there were Dowleys recorded in Carrick as early as 1551¹ and earlier in the Waterford area⁴. Some of the confusion may arise from the variation in spelling which was common at that time.

Patrick C. Powers book on Carrick-on-Suir and its people states that there were Dowleys in Carrick as early as the sixteenth century¹. In 1551, one William Dowley was on the list of “Jurors of Carrick” and as such must have been a person of some substance. It is not possible at this stage to establish which family line he belonged to, but it is possible that he was one of the progenitors of some or all the Dowley lines in the Carrick area.

From the Hearth Money Rolls there was a Richard “Dowly” who was a land owner in Carrick in 1664. There was also a Teigh Dowley of Figlassy (Figlash) which is only about 3 miles from Tinvane as the crow flies.

The Dowley Name

The earliest reference to the Dowley name according to Hubert Galway of Faithlegge, Woodstown, Co. Waterford (near Dunmore East) is in an old law book referring to a law case in the 1100’s between a Dowley and the Duke of Leinster¹¹. The name also appears in a list of financial contributors towards the building of St. John’s Infirmary in Waterford City in the thirteenth century⁴. It appears that the Dowleys were an Irish Catholic tribe in Co. Waterford who were known as Na Dubhlaoich (The Black Warriors) and centred somewhere around the Comeragh mountains in County Waterford⁴. These facts cannot be confirmed at present, but the Irish spelling of O’Dubhlaoich is now in widespread use for Dowley, Dooley and Dowling. The first known reference of a Dowley in Carrick-on-Suir is for the above William Dowley in 1551¹.

The spelling of names prior to the middle of the nineteenth century did not have the same significance that it has now. This resulted in several variations of the name such as Dovley, Dovlly, Dowley, Dowly, Dooly, Dooley and Dowling. Around the Carrick-on-Suir area as late as the mid-twentieth century the name Dowley was invariably pronounced “Dooley” irrespective of the spelling. The pronunciation as “Dowley” seemed to be reserved for the many branches of the Tinvane Dowley family and then only used by their family members and friends.

Information from Niall Quirk (M. JO’N Quirk, Solicitors, Carrick-on-Suir) would confirm that in the 1700’s and 1800’s there were variant spellings of the name such as Dooly, Dowly, Dooley and Dowley even when referring to the same person in the same document.

Family folklore suggests that in the tribal days the “Dowleys” controlled a vast tract of land east of the Comeragh Mountains including Curraghmore. They lost most of this in the 12^th century and were forced back towards the Comeraghs again⁴. This again cannot be verified.

The Dowley Centre of Origin

By the beginning of the third millennium there were Dowleys living in many parts of Ireland as well as the UK, Europe, Australia, Africa, and the United States of America. However, in Ireland, up to the middle of the twentieth century, the name was largely confined to the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, which includes parts of south Tipperary. Dowleys could also be found in parts of south Kilkenny. The main town in this area of north Waterford and south Tipperary is Carrick-on-Suir and this is where most of the Dowleys involved in agriculture and trade were located. It can be seen from the map, that most of the Dowleys were located near to the river Suir, which was probably the single most important natural resource in the area.

The national census identifies the residency of all 118 Dowleys present in Ireland on the night of Sunday, March 31^st, 1901 and all 104 Dowleys present in Ireland on the night of Sunday, April 2^nd, 1911². It can be seen from chart below that over 90% of all Dowleys were in the three counties of Kilkenny, Tipperary and Waterford. The vast majority of these (>80%) were within a 10 mile radius of Carrick-on-Suir. The people in religious orders and boarding schools have been repatriated for this purpose.

It is interesting to note that most of the Ballyknock Dowleys resided south of the river Suir while most of the Tinvane Dowleys resided north of the river. The remainder lived in Carrick-on-Suir or Carrick-beg.

Despite the suggestions of Fr. Michael Dowley³ that the family originated around Killworth in Co. Cork, the 1901 and 1911 census figures strongly suggest that the Dowley family originated somewhere in the south Tipperary or north Waterford area. This would be supported by the fact that at the time of each census there were no Dowleys residing in Co. Cork or West Waterford.

Comparison of the 1901 and 1911 census would confirm that there are a number of errors in these records especially in relation to the ages of individuals. This may be explained by the fact that the Pensions Act was introduced in 1908 and apparently many of the older males increased their age in order to avail of the pension. It is also evident that there was a considerable level of migration between years, with whole families appearing and disappearing. One could assume that most of this migration was back and forth between the UK, but some familes disappeared through death of males and marriage of females.

During this ten year period the families in Whitestown, Killerguile, Castlecomer and Danesford disappeared while the Westmeath Dowleys appeared for the first time in 1911.

The main families in the Carrick area were located in Ballyknock, Tinvane, Waterford Rd., Mothel Rd., New Lane, Coolnamuck Rd., Mill St., Clareen St. and Carrick-beg.

The Different Carrick-on-Suir Dowley Families

There are currently at least seven distinct Dowley families based around Carrick-on-Suir. These include the Ballyknock Dowleys, the Baker Dowleys, the Boatmen Dowleys, the Coolnamuck Rd. Dowleys the Mothel Rd. Dowleys, the Seskin Dowleys, and the Tinvane Dowleys. No relationship is currently claimed between these different branches of the Dowley family or can be confirmed by any of the research to-date. However, the fact that the name was nearly exclusive to the Carrick-on-Suir area would suggest that some relationship must have existed, at least in the distant past.

According to the Ancestry.com web-site, the most common names for the male Dowleys were Michael, John, Patrick and Thomas while the most common names for the females were Mary, Bridget, Margaret, Johannah and Ellen.

A summary of the 1901 and 1911 census returns for all Dowley families in Ireland is given in Appendix 1.

In 1899, when the first Urban District Council (UDC) was elected in Carrick-on-Suir, it contained two members of the Quirk family as well as Edward Dowley (Tinvane), Kyran Dowley (Castle St. and Ballyknock) and J. Ernest Grubb.

THE UK DOWLEYS

Main population areas of UK Dowleys

According to the Ancestry.co.uk web-site there were 843 Dowley deaths in the UK between 1786 and 1991 and during the same period there were some 1,200 births. While Dowley families could be found in most geographical areas of the UK they were very much concentrated into five distinct areas. These were London and the surrounding counties, the Shropshire/Staffordshire area (especially Shewsbury), Tyneside in the North East, the Liverpool/Manchester area and the Portsmouth/Southampton area in Hampshire. The Tinvane and Coolnamuck Rd. Dowleys seemed to rank high in terms of UK births although other families must also be involved.

EMIGRATION

Emigration and immigration would have been a regular fact of life for the people of Carrick-on-Suir during the 1800’s. The Dowleys were no exception to this phenomenon which would have been made easier by virtue of the proximity of ports such as Waterford and Cork.

Statistics for those entering the UK are not easy to acquire as Ireland was at that stage part of the British Isles and passenger lists between Ireland and the UK are not available. However, statistics for emigrants entering the US and Canada are more accessible if not complete.

The main Dowley exodus to the US and Canada was during the Great Famine and for the decades following the famine. Thereafter the numbers reduced to about one per year. Unfortunately, the data rarely records the exact place of birth which makes it difficult to trace the individuals to a particular family in Ireland.

Leslie J. Dowley
lesdowley@eircom.net