Modern Nobility in Galway and Roscommon

The following have been the noble families in Galway and Roscommon since the reign of King James the First:—

In Galway: De Burg or Burke, earls and marquises of Clanrickard; Bourke, viscounts of Galway, and barons of Brittas; Bermingham, barons of Athenry; Butler and Gore, earls of Arran; De Massue and Moncton, viscounts of Galway; Le Poer Trench, earls of Clancarty, viscounts Dunloe, and barons of Kilconnell; Vereker, viscounts of Gort; Dillon, barons of Clonbrock; French, barons French; Browne, barons of Oranmore; Blake, barons of Wallscourt; Trench, barons of Ashtown.

In Roscommon: Dillon, earls of Roscommon; Wilmot and De Ginkle, earls of Athlone; King, viscounts Lorton; Coote, barons of Castlecoote; Crofton, barons Crofton; Mahon, barons Hartland; and Sandford, barons of Mountsandford.

In the reign of Elizabeth, the Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sydney, A.D. 1565, formed Galway into a county; which took its name from the chief town, called in Irish Gaillimh [Galliv], anglicised "Galway." And in the same reign the same Lord Deputy formed Roscommon into a county, which took its name from the town of Roscommon, which in Irish is Ros-Comain (signifying the Wood of Coman), and was so called from St. Coman, who founded an abbey there in the sixth century.

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