MacCrory Coat of Arms / Rogers / MacRory Family History

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as evidenced by the Tudor Fiants, by the census of 1659 and other records, the name MacRory was both numerous and ubiquitous; now it is rare. This is no doubt partly due to the fact that in the southern half of the country it has been turned into the common English name Rodgers or Rogers; it can also be ascribed to the ephemeral nature, outside its own proper territory, to which reference will be made hereunder, of the surname MacRory, I.e Mac Ruaidhri, son of Rory. This like MacTeige and MacCormac, was, at least up to the middle of the seventeenth century, frequently used for one generation only. In Co. Clare, for example, many of the people who appear in the records as MacRory were O'Briens, MacNamaras and MacMahons. Later some resumed their real patronymic but a larger number became Rodgers, thus obscuring their Dalcassian origin. The true Gaelic sept of MacRory belongs properly to Co. Tyrone. A branch of this was established in Co. Derry where they became erenaghs of Ballynascreen in the barony of Loughlinsholin. Cardinal MacRory (1861-1945) was of this sept. MacRorys are still found in Counties Tyrone and in the Connacht county of Leitrim, while MacCrory and MacGrory are synonyms in parts of Ulster. In the fourteenth century some families of MacRory came to Ulster from Scotland as gallowglasses. If any descendants of these are left they are now indistinguishable from the native Ulster MacRorys.