the Dál gCais sept that lived in the area of Ireland called Thomond. Dalcassians Dynasty

The Dalcassians were a Gaelic Irish tribe, generally accepted by contemporary scholarship as being a branch of the Déisi Muman, that became a powerful group in Ireland during the 10th century.

Ancestry: Déisi Muman Historic seat: Dromoland Castle Region: Thomond Ethnicity: Gaelic Irish For many centuries – Ireland was a tribal society (and some would argue it remains fundamentally so today).

The Dalcassians were a Gaelic Irish tribe who rose to prominence specially in the 10th century. They get their name from Cormac Cas of the 3rd century.

Brian Bóru is perhaps the best known king from this tribe – who eventually became High King of Ireland and died in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf. Following this their fortunes dimished somewhat. Through the 12th–16th centuries, the Dál gCais fell back to their stronghold of the Kingdom of Thomond.

In the 16th century they surrendered their lands – which they then had regranted. Their realm within Thomond was renamed the modern County Clare.

The Dalcassian Tribe provided us with many of the surnames we know today (many of which you will still find in County Clare and Tipperary in great numbers. Names like: Ahearn, Boland, Casey, Clancy, Considine, Coombe, Crotty, Curry, Durkin, Flattery, Hannon, Hartigan, Heffernan, Hickey, Hogan, Kearney, Kelleher, Kennedy, Kielty, Kileen, Lonergan, MacArthur, MacMahon, MacNamara, MacLysaght, Neylon, Noonan, O’Dea, O’Brien, O’Grady, O’Hehir, O’Meara, O’Reagan, Perkin, Quinn, Shanahan, Sheehan, Tubridy and Twomey.

Gaelic Kingdom of Thomond 1118–1543

Not until the 1540s did the ruling O'Brien dynasty accommodate with English rule.

In the Gaelic nobility, Lord Inchiquin is The O'Brien, Chief of the Name, Prince of Thomond.

R1b is the branch of the human family tree marked by the mutation M343+. This includes all R-M269 people

De Brienne and Bryan, O' Bryan ( Irish, English, Celtic, Norman, French origins)

Norman invasion of England.

Norman invasion of Ireland.

O'Brien,O’Bryan, Brien surname: Bryan Family surname (any variations of name is welcome) Bryan households in Kilkenny, Ireland in Griffith's Valuation, Bryan households by parish in Kilkenny in 1849-50 Bryan: 168, Breen: 50, Breene: 8, Brien: 60, O'Brien: 9 https://www.johngrenham.com/c_parish/c_parish.php?county=Kilkenny&s...

De Brienne and Bryan

The earliest reference to a representative of the de Brienne family in England is Guy de Brienne of
Brienne-le-Chateau, Champagne, France, styled Sir Guy de Bryen I of England, who settled in South Wales on the Bay of Carmarthen in the 13th century. http://knightsdebryan.freeservers.com/kilkenny/kilkenny.htm Guy was a lackland knight adventurer who took land in Whales (Laugharne) likely by the Lord marcher's conquest feudal system of the French Kingdom and became a prominent English Knight of Walwyn's Castle and was granted a yearly fair by Henry III to hold a market fair for Autumn Harvest in Laugharne on around September 28th.

Variations of the Name: de Brian, de Bryan, Brian, Bryan, Bryant

Although the name is of Norman origins some O'Briens to survive persecution changed names to this name. We don't know if this was the case in county Wexford. Some families originally called Bryne or Bryon added the O' prefix to gaelicize their name. Common variant spellings of the name include O'Brian, O'Bryne and O'Bryan.

The Bryan clann web site (See The Anglo-Irish Sept of the Knight de Bryan ) states "The counts de Brienne of Brienne-le-Chateau were one of the more distinguished families of medieval France, producing statesmen, diplomats and crusaders, including a regent of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Jean de Brienne. Guy de Brienne I of Norman England, a l2th century scion of the family, founded a six-generation line of knights, of which the first-born son was always named Guy de Brian. The 'Bryans of Kilkenny' descending from this line established themselves in Ireland in the l3th century and are accepted as a co-equal branch of the Sept of the Knight de Bryan".

...it may be interest to note that the descendants of Morgan Bryan are of baronial and Garter, as well as royal ancestry, and as such are eligible to membership in many societies of an hereditary nature. Among them may be mentioned the Baronial Order of Magna Charta, Americans of Royal Descent, and the Society of Descendants of Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. ===Kentucky Historical Society===

The data concerning the ancestry of Sir Francis Bryan is based on research done by The Society of Genealogists, London. Much of this material is also contained in "The Dictionary of National Biography" and "The Complete Peerage."

For the line showing the descent of Morgan Bryan from Sir Francis, the writer is indebted to the late Gordon M. Ash, Esq. of Frederick, MD, a Bryan descendant, and lately genealogist to the Society of Descendants of Knights of the Garter. It has also been published in Carter R. Bryan's, "The Bryan Family," Armstrong's "Notable Southern Families, " J. W. Shearer's, "The Shearer-Akers Family," and various articles on the ancestry of Morgan's brother, William.

The first individual clearly to use O'Brien as a genuinely hereditary surname was Donogh Cairbre O'Brien, son of the king of Munster, Donal Mor. His descendants spilt into a number of branches, including the O'Briens of Aherlow, the O'Briens of Waterford, the O'Briens of Arra in north Tipperary, and the O'Briens of Limerick, where the surname is perpetuated in the name of the barony of Pubblebrien. Today the name is the sixth most numerous in Ireland, widely scattered throughout the country, with particular concentrations in the above areas, as well as in the original homeland of Clare. https://www.johngrenham.com/surnamescode/surnamehistory.php?surname...

BRIAN m Irish, English, Ancient Irish The meaning of this name is not known for certain but it is possibly related to the old Celtic element bre meaning "hill", or by extension "high, noble". It was borne by the semi-legendary Irish king Brian Boru, who thwarted Viking attempts to conquer Ireland in the 11th century. He was slain in the Battle of Clontarf, though his forces were decisively victorious.

It came into use in England in the Middle Ages, introduced by Breton settlers. It subsequently became rare, but was revived in the 20th century. https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/ancient-celtic One origin of the name is from an Anglo-Norman name, de Brionne, derived from either of two places called Brionne in the north of France—one is Brionne, in Eure; the other is Brionne in Creuse. Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. Brought to England by the Breton companions of William the Conqueror. The hypotheses of of either the Bryan line is from Brionne or Brienne is discussed here: http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/bryan/972/ proposing two theories and possible genealogies.

More on Geni: Bryan https://www.geni.com/surnames/bryan O'Bryan https://www.geni.com/surnames/o-bryan

More: http://knightsdebryan.freeservers.com

Heraldry

What is interesting to note, is that the ancient arms were not lost but transferred to become the crest. The only difference was the addition of clouds. These clouds allude to the arms Gaelic motto: “Lamh Láídir an Uchtar (the strong hand uppermost).” At this same time the O’Brien arms became quartered with three piles. Author Ivar O’Brien believes that this may be an earlier symbol (it first appears in 1543 as the 2nd and 3rd quarters with the lions to Murrough O’Brien, Baron Inchiquin),14 possibly belonging to the O’Briens of Arra in northwest County Tipparary. However, there are strong circumstantial evidence that this was adopted with a difference from the Anglo-Norman family of Devonshire and Pembrokeshire, Wales. This family’s surname is de Bryan, founded by a knight named Guy de Bryan (a name that continued in the family for generations). The de Bryan’s had a branch of the family stationed in Ireland and in time they became the Marshal of Ireland (Francis Bryan I).

de Bryan arms and Murrough O'Brien arms

1543.

Later the de Bryan descendants settled around Dublin and heavily in County Kilkenny, and a few in County Clare.

After the passing of Sir Guy de Bryan, K.G. 1390 A.D. It is speculated by Ivar O’Brien that possibly King Brian Catha Ua Briain, King of Thomond, upon his arrival at Dublin to swear fealty to King Richard II, assumed the de Bryan arms because of name similarity.

The de Bryan arms are, “Or three piles meeting in base Azure.”

The O’Brien quarter is differenced as, “Argent three piles meeting in base Gules.” In the third quarter is “Or a pheon (arrow head) Azure.”

Turlogh Don O'Brien, King of Thomond
Turlogh Donn O'Brien, Lord of Thomond

Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Thomond Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Thomond

Dermod O'Brien, 5th Baron of Inchiquin Dermod Ruadh O’Brien, 5th Baron of Inchiquin

Lt.-Gen. Murchadh na d'Toitean Mac Dermod Ó Briain, 1st Earl of Inchiquin Lt.-Gen. Murrough na dTóiteán O'Brien, 1st Baron O'Brien, 6th Baron & 1st Earl of Inchiquin

Pioneering Bryans

Joseph H. Bryan was the first born son of Morgan Bryan and Martha Strode and the first Bryan to be born in Colonial America. He was born June 1, 1720 in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  In Jospeph Bryan’s will, he names his youngest son John who inherits farm tools and one slave named Jack.  Joseph Bryan was the father-in-law of Daniel Boone.  Joseph participated in his brother William’s Kentucky land venture during the Revolution. 1773 — Boone’s and Bryans. James Boone dies on the first attempt to settle Kentucky. 1775 — Founding of Boonesborough. Wilderness Trail Blazed through Cumberland Gap. 1776- 1777- 1778- Siege of Boonesborough September 7, 1778 – September 18, 1778 1779 — Reclaiming of Bryan Station  1780 — death of Col. William Christopher Bryan, May 7, 1780 (47)  1782 — Seige of Bryan Staton and the Battle of Blue Licks  William Bryan planned to return to Kentucky in the spring of 1778. He did not go. Perhaps he was dissuaded when Rebecca Bryan Boone and her children, left Boonesborough, following the capture of Daniel Boone by the Shawnees under Blackfish. In the spring of 1779, however, Col. William Bryan returned to Bryan’s Station in the company of his brothers Joseph, Morgan, Jr., and James and several of their sons. They built more cabins and began a stockade to enclose an area about thirty yards square. William’s eldest son, Samuel, and his brother-in-law, William Grant, brought their wives and children to the station that spring, and others of the Bryan-Boone clans arrived in Boonesborough. After planting crops, William and his brothers returned to the Yadkin to ready their families for the trip. In the fall, Bryan led a caravan of several hundred people along Boone’s Wilderness Road into Kentucky. A participant later described the scene as “like an army camping out,” with wagons strung out over half a mile along the narrow trace. They were unable to draw together at night for protection and unable to build fires for fear of attracting Indians. It was the largest single migration into Kentucky at that time. Upon arrival, the party dispersed to various stations. At Bryan’s, the men continued to enlarge the stockade and add more cabins. Many of them were two-family houses facing the center of the enclosed area with their thick rear walls an integral part of the palisaded perimeter.  The stockade did not completely enclose the houses within for nearly a year and the two-story corner blockhouses were not completed for some time. Bryan and his cofounders all had two-acre lots at the station. In October 1779, four land commissioners arrived in Kentucky from Williamsburg and began making the rounds of the several stations and small forts to process land claims. They arrived at Bryan’s Station in January 1780. To add to the discomfort of short rations and the snow and ice of an unusually severe winter, William and his brothers learned that most of the land they had claimed lay within a royal survey completed a year earlier on behalf of Virginia land speculators. When spring came, the Shawnees took the warpath in greater numbers than ever to avenge raids on their villages conducted the previous fall. Several settlers were killed in scattered Indian raids, including sixteen-year-old William Bryan, Jr. A few weeks after his son’s death, the intrepid Billy Bryan was mortally wounded when his hunting party was ambushed. He died shortly after making a will dated 23 May 1780. Disheartened, by the deaths, the Bryans began the long trek back to the Forks of the Yadkin in early autumn, returning, as Daniel Bryan later put it, “from the troubles of Kentucky to the troubles of North Carolina.” Daniel also recalled that his arrival in Rowan County with his widowed mother found the man who had bought their Yadkin farm but had not yet paid for it “anxious to give it up, that he might get rid of the difficulties of the British and Tories and return to Virginia. We traded to him the pack horses that we had returned to Carolina on for the truck and corn. . . .” Mary Boone Bryan stayed on the old Yadkin Bryan Settlements farm until the fall of 1785. With her son Daniel and his family, she moved back to Kentucky to occupy her brother Daniel Boone’s farm on Marble Creek, Fayette County. She died in Kentucky in 1819. Daniel Boone’s surverying business in Kentucky employed his nephews  Joseph H. Bryan, father of Rebecca Bryan Boone, and his son John Bryan left Bryan Station with Mary Bryan Boone widow of Col. William Christopher Bryan in 1780 and returned to remain in the Bryan Settlements in Rowan County North Carolina.  Josephs brother Samuel served the British cause and his other brothers with the American revolution.  Joseph died in Kentucky in 1804 or 1805. Charles Hinkle Bryan is born in 1807.  “The family most closely associated with the redoubtable Daniel Boone, and that one whose exploits most nearly parallel those of the picturesque explorer, was the family of Morgan and Martha Strode Bryan. So much has been written concerning the kindly and nomadic Boone, that his neighbors and kinsmen, the Bryans, might well be forgotten men, but for some scores of prideful descendants who, from generation to generation, continue to recount the adventures of their forefathers, and recall the role they played in the westward march of empire.Colleagues in the difficult and dangerous enterprise of settling Kentucky, the lives and fortunes of the two families are so inextricably interwoven that some genealogists have, for the sake of convenience, treated them as one.” — Edward Bryan. Bryan, A Pioneer Family.

Wilderness Trail Migration 1775, 1779

Brigham Young Company Migration 1848

Pioneer Families of Missouri Bryan, William Smith. https://archive.org/details/historyofpioneer00bryauoft

Notable Southern Families Armstrong, Zella. 1918. Chattanooga, Lookout Pub. Co. https://archive.org/details/notablesouthern00unkngoog

The data concerning the ancestry of Sir Francis Bryan is based on research done by The Society of Genealogists, London. Much of this material is also contained in "The Dictionary of National Biography" and "The Complete Peerage."

For the line showing the descent of Morgan Bryan from Sir Francis, the writer is indebted to the late Gordon M. Ash, Esq. of Frederick, MD, a Bryan descendant, and lately genealogist to the Society of Descendants of Knights of the Garter. It has also been published in Carter R. Bryan's, "The Bryan Family," Armstrong's "Notable Southern Families, " J. W. Shearer's, "The Shearer-Akers Family," and various articles on the ancestry of Morgan's brother, William.

Nathaniel Boone in War of 1812

Book Resource: Available at Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort, Kentucky. Subject: Morgan Bryan (1671-1763), a Danish-born "Irish Immigrant": And Some of His Descendants and Antecedents.

In Search of a Bryan Tradition

Key Take Aways:

- Francis Bryan speaks of his son "his poor boy" in his dyeing wishes.

- Francis II is taken from his mother, Joan Duchess of Ormond, at a young age and raised in England. Taken to a life of sea faring under the likes of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Capt. John Smith Original Jamestown Planter, 1st and 2nd Relief Voyages, employer: Edward Maria Wingfield.

- William Smith Bryan surrendered at the Siege of Clonmel. His son Francis III was present. The town surrenders to Cromwell's New Model Army.

- Francis Bryan III and Morgan Bryan both fought at the Battle of the Boyne.

- Siege of Limerick (Morgan saves Francis after he is injured by a saber thrust)

Military Command

Colonels, Captains, Soldiers, Militia,

Government Offices

shared resources:

https://m.facebook.com/OBrienIrishClan/

http://www.royal-obrienclan-uk.org/10-interesting-information.html

http://houseofbrianboru.blogspot.com/p/obrien-clan-heraldry.html?m=1

http://www.notrca.com/obrienclan/genealogy/tartans/tartan1.html

http://www.theirishrose.com/name-histories-coat-of-arms/obrien-name...

http://www.obrienirishclan.com/history/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Brien_dynasty

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/obrien/about/background

http://irishamerica.com/2012/12/roots-the-bold-obriens/

https://hackerscreek.com/norman/O'BRIEN/CORNELIUS.htm

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bGIXcC8KoRA

see also:

Laugharne Castle

Chancery College_ Collegiate Tower of St. Mary in Slapton

Haselbury Bryan, St. Mary and St. James Church

Bryansford, Ireland

Torbryan, England

Brienne Le Chateau, France