Sutton family genealogy

Of Ballykeerogue, County Wexford[1]

Arms: Or, a lion ramp. double queued gu. standing on a lizard vert. Another: Gu. a double tailed lion trampling on a crocodile vert. Crest: Out of a ducal coronet or, a lion’s head az. langued gu.

Siward, who came to England with William the Conqueror, and appears on the Roll of Battle Abbey, was the founder of the English and Irish Suttons.

The Suttons of Wexford descend from Roger de Sutton, who landed in Ireland 1169.

Gilbert de Sutton was one of the great barons summoned by Edward I. to aid him in the Scottish wars. Gilbert was murdered in Courtstown Castle in 1306.

— Sutton was killed at Faughart, county Louth, fighting against Edward Bruce.

Early in the 15th century, Redmond and Mary Sutton are mentioned as living at Ballykeerogue[2] Castle. Morrogh MacGerald Sutton (described as a chief warrior of the nation of the Kavenaghs) made, along with Art Boy McMurrough, William Tallon of Argha, and other chiefs, a treaty to cease molesting English merchants, going through the Pass of Poulmounty. (See Papers Kilkenny Arch. Society.) Leonard Sutton was living at Ballykeerogue at close of 16th century. His daughter, Anstace, married Richard Stafford, of Ballyconnor; their tomb, with arms of both families, and dated 1620, is in St. Selskar’s, Wexford.

1. John Sutton (see p. 266, of our Irish Landed Gentry when Cromwell came to Ireland) was the last of the family in possession of Ballykeeroge Castle. He was attainted in 1642.

2. John Sutton: his son; moved to the co. Kilkenny.

3. Peter[3] Sutton: his son; rescued Johanna Den, the daughter of Richard Den, of Ballyhomuck, from a troop of British cavalry, and married her. She was so beautiful that she is handed down in a rustic Irish ballad of the district as the Rosheen Bawn.

The issue of this marriage was John, Peter, Mary, and Patrick. The first two had no male issue, Mary m. Robert Walsh, the direct descendant of John MacWalter Walsh, of Ballyhale.

4. Patrick: third son of Peter; married Alice Hogan, of Thomastown, and had John, Peter, and Nancy. Peter’s family still live at Rahard. This Patrick (4) was a man of great stature; and wore his hair long on his shoulders; he was known as Paudrig fada an coulfionn (or, “Long Patrick of the fair hair”).

5. John: the elder son; married twice; by his first wife he had eight sons who are all dead, and left no issue. His second wife was Catherine Dalton, of Knoctopher, by whom he had two sons: John and Michael.

6. Michael: second son of John; was a merchant in Waterford for many years, senior partner of the firm of “Sutton and Ivory,” Corn Merchants. Owing to misfortunes, he emigrated to Canada, and received an appointment in the Union Bank of Lower Canada, which position he held till his death in 1874. His first wife was Mary Anne, dau. of Thomas O’Shaughnessy, of Clonmel, a well-known butter merchant of that town, and sister of Edward O’Shaughnessy, who, in O’Connell’s time, possessed considerable local influence, and was an enthusiastic “Repealer.”

The issue of this marriage, now living, are John-Patrick, and Edward-Aloysius. His second wife was Kate-Mary Fitzpatrick, widow of Edward O’Shaughnessy, and dau. of John Fitzpatrick, of Waterford, a man of great local reputation for patriotism and eloquence in the struggle for “Emancipation.” The surviving issue of this marriage is Ellen; the only boy was Michael-James, who was Purser of the steamship “Bahama,” and was lost with that ill-fated vessel in mid-Atlantic. Edward-Aloysius, the second son of the first marriage was, in 1884, a clerk in the Crownlands Department of Quebec, and unmarried; he was the author of some pretty poetical pieces, notably “A Little Gift from Ireland,” “The Famished Child’s Appeal,” and “Do I Remember Ireland.”

7. John Patrick: the eldest son; m. in 1872, Mary, dau. of Richard Clancy, of Quebec, and by her had living issue, in 1884: Georgina, Michael, John, and Richard.

Notes

[1] Sutton: There was a “Sutton” family in Ireland at the period of the English invasion, descended from Suthan (“suth;” Irish, soot, juice, sap; or “Suthan,” a dunce, etc.), who is No. 109, p. 259, Vol. I.

[2] Ballykeerogue: This place is situated in “Sutton’s parish,” now the union of Whitechurch and Kilmokea, co. Wexford. This family of Sutton has a branch settled in Spain, which may therefore be reckoned among the “Wild Geese;” and the Counts de Clonard, in France, were also of the Sutton family.

[3] Peter: This Peter Sutton was the last of this branch of the family who was buried in the burial-ground of Ballykeerogue, adjacent to the Castle. He wished to be buried at Rathpatrick, county Kilkenny, with his wife; and the Dens and Walshes were about to comply with his desire, when the Suttons of Wexford and their friends crossed the Barrow, and demanded that Peter’s bones should be laid with his ancestors. The Dens and Walshes refused, whereupon a fight took place in which the Suttons were victorious, and bore Peter’s remains across the river.