1665 - 1700

The next time McCorkell appears in Donegal is 1663 where we find Andrew McCorckle appear in the Hearth Money Tax list for the townland of Ballenhasky in the Parish of Taughboyne, Donegal

http://www.ulsterancestry.com/ShowFreePage.php?id=227, trust me the name is in this list but it is not the easiest document to read!

I have wondered is this the same Andrew who appears in the Muster rolls for Raphoe in 1630, it may be, the Parish of Taughboyne is in the Barony of Raphoe although I cannot locate the townland of Ballenhasky. Again like the Muster rolls very little detail is given in these documents all I can tell is that he had a single hearth in his house so he was not of the middle or upper classes. A James McCorckle also appears in the same document for the same townland and Parish.

Two other McCorkells appear in these lists William McCorckle Raymochy Parish again near Raphoe and an Archibald McCorkle who appears in Templemore Parish which took in parts of the border region between Donegal and Londonderry.

The last reference I find to McCorkell in the 17th century is the most important to me as it is the first direct reference to a McCorkell in Inishowen where my particular family roots lay.

The name is Da. M'Corkle which appears in the book 'In the days of the laggan Presbytery' written by Alexander Lecky in 1908, it appears amonst a list of Elders and commissioners

of the Presbyterian church for the Parish of Inishowen. I will reprint the details here:

"The following are the names of the men who attended the meetings of
the Laggan Presbytery between the years of 1672 and 1700 as ruling
Elders or as commissioners, together with the names of the
congregations which they represented. they were doubtless the leading
men in the districts in which they lived, and their names deserve to
be held in remembrance on account of the part which they took in
laying foundations of Presbyterianism in the Laggan, and for the
services which they so cheerfully rendered, without fee or reward,
amid much persecution and many difficulties, in maintaining a preached
gospel in troublous times. In all of these congregations there are
still to be found families bearing these honoured names, and in many
cases they are no doubt the descendants of these good men - a fact of
which they have no reason to be ashamed and good reason to be proud."

Innishowen (Donagh, Moville, Culdaf, Redcastle)
Hugh Moor	John Wallace	John Parker	John McKaules
Willaim Moore	John Baird	John Cadercorn	William Fulton
Da. McCorkle	Robert Riddle	William McKee	Michael Johnston
John Campbell	Andrew McCoule	William Lindsay	James Colhoun

What is interesting about this document that he is the only McCorkell who appears anywhere among the lists for donegal in the book, could the family have migrated to Inishowen from the Raphoe area towards the end of the 17th century?

I don't know, what I do know is the Planter population throughout these early years suffered great hardships largely abandoned by those who had been charged with protecting them many died or returned to their native lands amongst the turmoil of the 1640 Irish rebellion and the wars of the revolution 1688-90. All I can tell is that Da. (possibly Daniel) McCorkle was an Elder of the church in Inishowen between 1672 and 1700.