1631-1663

It is almost certain that the McCorkell family came to Donegal as part of the Plantation Of Ulster in the early 1600's, evidence of this migration is now all but lost but some small fragments still remain. The earliest records I have so far been able to find come from the Muster rolls of Donegal which date from the 1630's.

The Muster Rolls were the names of the able-bodied men whom the landlords of Donegal could assemble to fight for his lands and for the Crown should the need arise. The majority of men were likely, therefore, to be of English or Scots origin rather than indigenous Irish.

In these times the spelling of surnames varied quite a bit largely due to the fact that few could read and write and those that could often spelled names phonetically so the spelling of surnames varied considerably, for instance among the Muster rolls and other documents dating from the 17th and 18th centuries McCorkell can be found spelt as McCorkill, McCorkhill, McCorkle and McCorckle often the small "c" in the name can be seen written as an apostrophe especially in 19th century records.

2 McCorkills appear in the Muster Rolls for the Barony of Raphoe in Donegal, click on link above to view the list, they were Andrew and John McCorkill who served on Lady Cunningham, they did not it appears carry any arms, small clues like this lead me to believe that they were from the lower end of Planter society at the time, they could be brothers or father and son, with so few details it is almost impossible to tell. The probable facts that can be gathered are scarce but important.

1. They were almost certainly 2 of the original planters brought over from mainland Britain
2. Given the area where they settled they would have been Presbyterian
3. Their religion along with their name suggests they came from Scotland.

The names appear on this list and are gone again into the ether, I may or may not be related to them given their position in society it is very unlikely that they left any other trace of their existence so it is impossible to say, however given the relative obscurity of the name at this time there is a good chance I may be a direct or indirect descendant.

One other name appeared in the Muster rolls which caught my attention this time for the Barony of Inishowen, I was particularly interested in this as my family has direct links to this region of Donegal. The name is Aghey McCorkey, now i realise this name is not McCorkell but it is identical apart from the last letter. This name has been transcribed from an original hand written 17th century document 2 joint letter ll's may well appear like a y in the script, as I have never seen the original I cannot tell. The information on Agney is as scarce as that for Andrew and John, he does however at least own a sword to defend himself!