Extracted from a mail received.
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Disputed Origins
Updated Jan 1 2022
I am sorry to say the story of Mathew 'The Rebel;' Rhea is 100% incorrect. Its very simple to prove and i have highlighted this to Dr Foley and Fahan Presbyterian Church.
First off anyone with an ancestry dna account or similar i can show you the family line.
The family name is Reagh. It is spelt this way on all later Irish records for the family that remianed in Ireland and were the last full family by that name on the 1901 & 1911 Irish census still on the original farm at Magheradrummond at the bottom of the Fanad Penninsula in Donegal. This is not Fahan, That is across the bay and it may have been possible to see across to Magheradrummond from near the Church where Joseph Reagh served as Presbyterian Minister.
DNA ties the Rhea's to Donegal before the 1685 Duke of Monmouth rebellion by 60 years.
If Mathew 'the Rebel' Rhea/Reagh had been a Campbell then his Ydna would be Campbell. The Campbell Clan have confirmed in their database there is not a single one with the name Reagh or Rhea which you would expect to be the case if he was actually a Campbell. You would all be Campbell's you are not.
Perhaps more telling the Campbell Clan state their Mathew Campbell connected to the Duke of Argyle was not born until 1672, therefore did not take part in the Monmouth rebellion of 1685, did not flee from King James and did not change his name to Reagh.
They say they have notified people of this previously.
Also no Monmouth rebellion prisoners were kept on the Isle of Man as per the Rhea story.
Mathew Reagh who fought in the Siege of Londonderry 1689 was highly probably the Reagh connected to both the Reagh and Rhea families. His marriage to Janet was in the Protestant Cathedral in the City. He is not Mathew Campbell Reagh.