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the Quigley surname and its variants
1 Quigley background 2 Quigley variants 3 How the change happened
4 Tweedley background 5 Tweedley variants 6 Why some and not others?
1
The name known in English as Quigley is a rendering of the Irish name Ui Coigligh or Coighligh. This was the name of one of the old Irish families dispossessed by the penal laws outlawing the political power of Roman Catholicism.
Their Gaelic culture and language came under threat from English culture, and although many families continued to have influence in their own areas, and even to be quite wealthy, English and Scots language, religion and politics sounded the death knell in many areas of Ireland for native Irish speech.
The surname was found in many of the counties of the north of Ireland, and arrived on mainland Britain, in Scotland and the north of England from the time of the 1798 Rebellion on. Since it is an old name, however, it can be found all over Britain over several centuries in varying numbers, and in many other parts of the world where Irish people have travelled.
In 1 Henry IV by William Shakespeare, the character, Mistress Quickly, a tavern keeper in Eastcheap, is undoubtedly a holder of this surname.
2
Here are just some of the variants of Quigley to be found in references and records in English from the 1780s on: Cogley Coigley Coigly Huigly Huygly Kegley O'Coigley
O'Coigly O'Quagley Quagly Queggley Quegley Queegly Quighley
Quick Quickley Quicley Quig Quigeley Quigg Quiggely
Quiggley Quiggly Quighley Quiglay Quigley Quiglie Quigly (28) Only the variations WITHOUT 'T' as a starting consonant are listed her.
3 how did quigley come to be tweedley?
All surnames, like language of all kinds, are subject to the forces of change from many directions. Some are historical, some geographical, some sociological. We track the changes more easily when we look back, than we do when we are alongside them.
Here are some of the influences that caused some Quigley families to become Tweedley or one of its variants:
a] in Ireland and Scotland, especially in western and south western Scotland, the languages that were spoken in the late 18th century were Scots, English, and a local form of Gaelic. Some of the later 19th century census forms still provided a column to indicate whether the person being recorded was a Gaelic speaker or not
b] names like Quigley were spoken in the Gaelic form: Coigligh. Some eccentricities in the written form of the name in English arise from the hearer's efforts to put into English spelling what was essentially a Gaelic sound - Tweedley is what Coigligh may have sounded like to an English speaker. Roughly transcribed: 'Co' would sound like the English 'wh', the 'i's would have the English sound 'ee', and the 'g' or 'gh' would sound like the 'gh' in the Scottish pronunciation of 'loch'. It may in fact have sounded to the Irish person whose name it was, or to their descendants, MORE like the Gaelic name than Quigley did.
c] early 19th century English-speaking registrars and clerks spread variations of the spelling of Coigligh that was basically unfamiliar and foreign to them; many who carried the unusual names were of an oral culture and did not influence these 'official spellings' except by their pronunciation of their own name
d] the individual or the family holding the name, especially if they were immigrants, wanted to be absorbed readily into their new country and to find an anglicised version of their name that would be easily recognisable and acceptable locally - Quigly or Quigley was a version based probably on the look of Coighligh; the variants of Tweedley were versions based on the Gaelic sound of the name
e] written records favoured certain variants in particular areas of the country, and at particular historical periods. Not everyone could read; there were no radios or TVs, so regional differences were favoured. Once it became obligatory in Britain in 1855 to record all births, marriages and deaths, family versions of the names became much more regularised
f] as the level of literacy rose among immigrant families and their descendants, the spellings found in their family documents produced under the conditions outlined above began to become the norm, and other cultural factors played their part before the particular name for a particular family became fixed
4
Tweedley, or some variant of it, seems to have been an anglicised form of Quigley, itself an English version of the Gaelic name of Ui Coighligh. The switch from the 'Quigley' form to a 'Tweedley' form is almost certainly connected with the sound of the name spoken in the Gaelic way. In English pronunciation, Tweedley and variants represent most closely how native Gaelic speakers said their own name. 'Quigley' and variants represent how English speakers spoke aloud the written name.
Some Irish emigrants to Scotland, and perhaps to mainland Britain generally, began adopting this as a surname just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It is unusual to find it before 1815, although Scots and English names that are similar, like Tweddle, Twaddle, Tweedie, are found, and may have influenced the choice of Tweedley as a surname in Scotland. Later documents also sometimes 'backdated' its use in referring to parents, or even grandparents. That is, those recorded as Quigly at an earlier date might be referred to later as Tweedly.
In some cases individuals or families allowed both forms - the Quigley and the Tweedley or their variants - to be used, and they answered to both, retaining a preference for one or the other. Sometimes Quigley or variant was used by parents in the early part of a child's life, but in the adult married life of the same children, a switch to some form of Tweedley took place. Before the statutory regulations of 1855 in Britain came into force, spelling of names, like much spelling generally, was typically idiosyncratic, even erratic. After 1855, when the written form of vital details predominated, one spelling was chosen and became the 'family name'.
5
Here are some of the variants of Quigley to be found in references and records in English from the 1800s on:
Sweedley Taredly Teadley Tedley Tiadley Twedely Twedily
(24) Only the variations WITHOUT 'O' or 'Q' as a starting consonant are listed her.
6 Why the switch from Quigley to Tweedley ?
There is much evidence of names being changed from a Gaelic form to one or more English versions. In family mythology the change is often explained as a 'falling out' of brothers, or a feud. No doubt there were feuds, but this simplistic explanation does not account for the large numbers who did change, nor for those who did not.
The issue was more complex than a simple feud between brothers.
a] some immigrant speakers would have been more skilled in Gaelic than others
b] some immigrant individuals or families would have felt more loyalty and greater attachment to the Gaelic form of their name as part of their sense of identity
c] politically it may have been safer people to use one particular form of surname: many Irish immigrants to Scotland from 1790 on were political refugees; later many were members of proscribed societies
e] socially many immigrants might have found it easier to 'blend in' to their new society: a locally familiar-sounding surname helped the bearer to be less of a stranger
f] there was strong anti-Irish and anti-Catholic feeling in different decades of 19th century Scotland which may have put increased pressure on immigrants to disguise, or lessen the threat of, their religion or national provenance. In 19th century Presbyterian Scotland the Non-Catholic Irish immigrants were considerably more acceptable and more easily assimilated than Catholic Irish, and surnames indicated identity.
g] changing surname helped many incomers to leave their past behind and start afresh
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