A Submission from James Norman
Date:    07 Aug 2004
Update: 12 Dec 2004
Area:     Ireland, County Meath 

I am the son of Florence Higgins who was the daughter of Patrick (PJ) Higgins whose family lived in Summerhill up to 1940's. I am attaching a full account of the Higgins family of Summerhill which is based on my own research which included talking to old people who still live in Summerhill and who remember my family living there.

Higgins is an Irish Gaelic name which should normally have been O'Higgins in English, the Irish form being O hUigin. The name, according to modern scholarship, is derived from the old Gaelic word uiging, meaning Viking. The original Uigin from whom they claim descent was a grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the 4th century High King who founded the powerful tribal grouping the Ui Neill or Ó Neill in the midlands (not to be confused with the O’Neill’s of Ulster), and they are therefore traditionally regarded as a sept of that Clan. Niall, whose reign began in AD 379 formed an alliance with the Picts and sent ships to plunder England, Scotland, Wales, and France. These raids did much to weaken the power of Rome in Britain and France. Niall reigned for twenty-seven years before being killed by the arrow of a rival, Eochaida, the deposed King of Leinster.

The O’ Higgins sept originally spread westwards as far as Co. Sligo where they eventually held large estates. They were still extensive landowners in 1878 having estates in nearly all the western counties. As a family the O’ Higgins are remarkable because of the number of distinguished poets they produced over period of three centuries, beginning with Tadhg Mor OhUigin who died in 1315 to Tadhg Dall (d. 1617).

Another Tadhg, called Og, flourished in the first half of the fifteenth century. The sixteenth century saw five more poets of the name, one of whom, Maol Mhuire (d. 1591), was also Archbishop of Tuam. A poem by one of these, Pilib Bocht O Huigin, was the first to be printed in the Irish language. 

With the destruction of the Gaelic order in the seventeenth century the O' Higgins’ lost their pre-eminence in the literary sphere, but not their prominence in the world of affairs. John Higgins (1676-1729) of Limerick was a famous physician in Spain. Don Ambrosio O'Higgins (1721-1801), Viceroy, of Peru, was created Baron de Ballinary by the King of Spain in 1788 and Marquis de Osorno in 1792. Ambrosio's son Bernardo O'Higgins (1780-1846) is known as the Liberator of Chile, in which country a province is called O'Higgins in memory of these men. Four of the name were martyred for the faith during the Cromwellian regime. William Higgins (1763-1825) was a Chemist of international fame. In our own time one family of the name has produced three Irish cabinet ministers including Kevin O'Higgins (1892-1927), whose brilliant career was cut short by assassination. As a slight set off against this galaxy of distinguished men we may mention the notorious Francis Higgins (1746-1802), commonly known as the "Sham Squire", and another Francis Higgins (1669-1728), a notorious and somewhat disreputable Protestant preacher. 

Though not necessarily relevant it is perhaps of interest to mention that Sir Hercules Langford of Summerhill, Co. Meath, acquired much land in north Connaught in the seventeenth century as the Mayo Book of Survey & Distribution testifies. His name does not appear, however, in the S. & D. Books for Sligo and Roscommon. Ballinary is on the Roscommon border of Co. Sligo. However, this does illustrate that there may have been some movement of people between these counties.
 
There is no doubt that a branch of the O' Higgins family of Connaught was established at Kilbeg, Co. Westmeath, at least as early as 1550, as we know from a Funeral Entry of 1638. Their connection with the midland counties in the sixteenth century is corroborated by the Fiants (formal records of royal letters); and in the next century Petty's "census" of 1659 lists the name Higgins as numerous in both in Co. Offaly and Co. Laois.

Sometime around 1720 a branch of the O’ Higgins family left Ballinary in Co. Sligo and re-located in the Parish of Summerhill, Co. Meath. According to Griffith’s Valuation by 1854 there were 24 registered households in County Meath with the name Higgins. Most of these seem to have been related to each other and were found mainly in the parishes of Summerhill, Agher, Athboy and Kilskyre. My own branch lived in the townland of Ardrums on the southern border of Summerhill parish on the banks of the Royal Canal in a place known as the ‘canal bog’, which was part of the Ardrums Estate. The exact postal address was ‘Old Bog Road, Enfield, Co. Meath’. My older aunts and uncles remember the family spending summers at the Higgins home on the canal bog in the 1930s and early 1940s with their aunt Brigid Higgins and her husband Joseph Purcell. This couple did not have any children of their own and while Brigid was a housewife, Joseph worked as a labourer on the Ardrums Estate as many of these Higgins had before him. 

The name remained in Summerhill until the last of this Brigid; the last to hold the name Higgins in Summerhill died around 1943 on the Ardrums Estate.
Brigid was buried in Agher Cemetery in the Higgins Family grave. Today, descendents of this line of Higgins do still live in Trim, Co. Meath and Ashbourne Co. Meath while most of the family now live in Dublin in Drimnagh, Palmerstown, Navan Road, Finglas, Ballygall, Clonsilla, as well as Dundrum, Rathfarnham, Clontarf and Templeogue. 

I have managed to trace the ancestry of this family back to the 1720s in Co. Meath and from here I am relying on my line linking in with that of Charles and Margaret Higgins of Ballinary, Co. Sligo. As I know that they lived in Summerhill, Co. Meath from about 1720 onwards and had a number of children there (including Ambrose Ó Higgins, who became Vice-Roy of Peru) whose dates would coincide with that of my ancestor Charles Higgins. It is reasonable to presume that this Charles Higgins (b. 1725 Summerhill) is a child or at least a nephew of Charles (b.1694) and Margaret (b. 1698) as the Higgins family have been living in Summerhill Parish since that time and there would not have been a huge population then, let alone many unrelated Higgins families in the one small parish. The exact relationship between my ancestors and Don Ambrosio Ó Higgins, Baron of Ballinary, Marquis of Osorno and Vice-Roy of Peru is not known, however, as outlined above, it would be harder to prove he was not related than to prove otherwise. 

You can explore the full family tree from the current generation today back to the 1600s on the Higgins family tree homepage: http://www.ohigginsclan.com NEW 19 Jul 2005 

The above information is as accurate as I have been able to gather through research using oral history from family and residents of Summerhill as well as manuscripts and documents from the National Archives,the National Library, and the Meath Heritage Centre. However, if you have more information that will improve the accuracy of the above report or the family tree I would be very grateful if you would contact me at james.norman@dcu.ie  .

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