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Mary Ewing (Diagley), married James Ewing, either in Donegal or in County Derry, and they raised a large family in Blacks Miltown, Donegal, quite near modern Convoy, and all of them were baptized Presbyterian. Later, they all emigrated piecemeal to Philadelphia.
However, there is very little evidence of the name Diagley anywhere in Ireland, other than a few immigration records into the United States. Scotland might have been a possibility but no records appear there either. So Mary's origins were a complete mystery for a long while.
I did eventually stumble upon the idea that this might be a Huguenot name. And indeed, with some effort, I chased down a Huguenot with the surname de l'Aigle who fought in the Battle of the Boyne. His name was given in an 1878 book listing Huguenot refugees in England and Ireland, and I was further able to find out that he'd died in Bristol, England, and left a will there. A marriage record for a son also was found, and a baptism record for a grandson, after which time it was clear that the de l'Aigles had returned to County Waterford, from which they'd come. Here is Captain Isaac de l'Aigle's profile:
Captain Isaac de Montmayeur de l'Aigle, Huguenot
Confirmation that Mary Diagley's great-great grandfather was likely a Huguenot made me curious about another unexplained question. In at least two of Mary's grandchildren, the middle name "Moyer" was used. I had assumed that this was a surname related to Mary Diagley - perhaps her mother's? - but searches for "Moyer" in Ireland had also been disappointing. There is a very ancient and rare Moyer surname that it could be - but I simply cannot find any such Moyer family that wasn't Roman Catholic. So I began to wonder whether perhaps this was another Huguenot name.
My list of Huguenot immigrants did not include "Moyer", but it did include "Moynier". In French pronunciation these would be similar - "Moyieh" vs. "Moynieh". So I figured this was worth a look, and I researched Captain Pierre Moynier, who was also a Battle of the Boyne veteran, who before the battle had married Esther Mercier in 1683 in County Cork. Here is his profile:
Captain Pierre Moynier, Huguenot
I'm not entirely satisfied with this as an explanation for the "Moyer" middle name. For one thing, I'm told there really is a "Moyer" French surname, as well as several villages in France named "Moyer", so it would be quite possible that there really was a Huguenot of that name, who we just don't know anything about. Alternatively, perhaps there was an ancient Irish Moyer that converted.
This project is about filling in the gaps in Mary's ancestry.