The Crown of Leinster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_LeinsterHere's some interesting facts. The most common name in Ireland is Kavanagh. Everyone with the name Kavanagh in their family tree is related to the Kings of Ireland, and specifically one man. Domhnall Caomhánach mac Murchada, 1171–1175 – first MacMurrough-Kavanagh. He was the first Caomhanach or Kavanagh. He was also one of the many kings of Leinster..  For a list of all the kings of Leinster go here...Kings of Leinster.. Well you say thats cool but what does that have to do with the Cheek's.I'm gonna tell ya...

Leinster was a kingdom in Ireland. Here's a map of Ireland about 900 AD. No family in Ireland can point to a more ancient pedigree than the Kavanaghs. They can trace it back to the dawn of Irish history. Tradition, indeed, carries it far beyond that limit – to the legendary Feniusa of Scythia, coeval with the Tower of Babel, whose descendants, having wandered into Egypt, found their way back again to Scthia, and thence to Spain, from which country Heber and Heremon, the 2 sons of Gallamhy or Milesius, crossed over to Ireland, reduced it to subjection and divided it between them. From them sprang lines of Kings ruling over the 5 monarchies into which the island was split up.

                                                                 Ireland 900 AD

Grandmother Alma Wilkersons father was Calvin Walter Wilkerson 1863,1930. Calvin's father was Robert Wesley Wilkerson 1823, 1882. Roberts father was Townsend Wilkenson 1804,1854. Townsend was married to Francis D Sheppard 1806, unk. Francis's father was Benjamin Sheppard 1772,1850. Benjamin s father was Robert Sheppard 1732,1797. Now Roberts father was Samuel Sheppard 1695, 1751. Samuel's wife was Mary KAVANAUGH born 1705 in Virginia. Now thats great but there are so many Kavanaughs you say.. Lets keep going.. Mary Kavanaugh's father was Michael Kavanaugh  born 1675 in Virginia. Michael's father was James Kavanaugh born 1645 in Ireland. James was married to Delores De Campomanes from Campomanes Spain, a little village in Northern Spain near the Basque country...Why was he in Spain? Visiting relatives.. James father was Sir Charles Kavanaugh 1620 to 1691, who died on a prison ship explosion off of Kinsale Ireland...Charles father was Morgan or Moroch Kavanaugh. 1631,1696 who along with his son Charles were involved in the Confederation War in Ireland.. Morgans father was

Domhnall Spainneach Mac Murrough Caomhánach (died 1632) was the last King of Leinster.

A descendant of Diarmait Mac Murchada (died 1171), Domhnall was the eldest of the two sons of Donnchadh Caomhánach, lord of the Art Buihde Caomhánach sept, who were reckoned the least powerful of the dynasty. Their lands lay north of Enniscorthy in the Blackstairs Mountains. It appears that at Donnchadh's death, Domhnall was taken into the care of the seneschal of Wexford, Thomas Stukeley. When Stukeley left for Spain in 1568 Domhnall went with him, which explains the origin of his nickname, Spainneach.
He returned to Ireland in the mid-1570s and became a leading member of his sept. He became a firm ally of Fiach McHugh O'Byrne with whom he intrigued until the latter's death in 1597. After O'Byrne's death, he intrigued with Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. When the Nine Years' War (Ireland) ended in 1603, Domhnall submitted and was awarded a pension, as well as recognition of title to his lands.
Domhnall was married to Elizabeth O'Byrne (died in or after 1608), and Eleanor Kavanagh (died in, or after, 1633), and had a total of six children. He successfully conveyed his property to his son, Sir Morgan Kavanagh . His only known brother was Cathaoir.

The Confederation War broke out in Kilkenny in 1641, as the Irish attempted to throw out the English yet again, something that seem to happen at least once every generation. Sir Morgan Cavanaugh of Clonmullen, one of the leaders, was killed during a battle in 1646, and his two sons, Daniel and Charles (later Colonel Charles) continued with the struggle until the uprising was crushed by Cromwell in 1649. It is recorded that Daniel and other Carlow Kavanaghs exiled themselves to Spain, where their descendants are still found today, concentrated in the northwestern corner of that country. Young Charles, who married Mary Kavanagh, daughter of Brian Kavanagh of Borris, was either exiled to Nantes, France, or transported to Barbados… or both. Although we haven’t found a record of him in a military life in France, it is known that the crown of Leinster and other regal paraphernalia associated with the Kingship of Leinster was brought to France, where it was on display in Bordeaux, just south of Nantes, until the French Revolution in 1794. As Daniel and Charles were the heirs to the Leinster kings..

So we see here that the British stole our kingdom and killed our ancestors.. Also when you hear of the conflicts in Northern Ireland between the Catholics and the Protestants, that's still about the issues our ancestors fought for back in 15 and 16 hundreds.

Domhnall Spainneach Mac Murrough Caomhánach last King of Leinster was my 11th Great Grandfather.

Borris House Ancestral Home of the Kings of Leinster

 http://www.borrishouse.com/about-us/

Art Mor MacMurrough Kavanaugh and The Earl of Gloucester

            

     Art Mór Mac Murchadha Caomhánach (anglicized Art mac Art MacMurrough-Kavanagh; died 1416/17) is generally regarded as the most formidable of the later Kings of Leinster. He revived not only the royal family’s prerogatives but their lands and power. During the length of his forty-two year reign he fully lived up to his title, dominating the Anglo-Norman settlers of Leinster.

His dominance of the province and its inhabitants – both Gaelic and Hiberno-Norman – was deemed sufficiently detrimental to the colony that Richard II spent much of the years 1394-1395 sparring with him. While Art did indeed submit to Richard, he renounced this fealty on Richard’s departure and made much of his kingdom a death-trap for any invading English or Anglo-Irish forces. He was very much cut of the same cloth as his ancestors Diarmait mac Mail na mBo and Diarmaid Mac Murchadha.

                   

Eileen Aroon

In the 1640’s, Sir Morgan Kavanagh’s daughter, Eleanor Kavanagh, eloped with her lover, Cormac O’Daly. Such at least, is the legend, which gave rise to the song Eleanor (or Eileen) Aroon, better known in Scotland as Robin Adair, after a later proponent of the tune. Its fame even reached France, where Francois Boieldieu used it in the final act of his masterpiece, the opera La Dame Blanche in 182

 

 

 

Cokundiawatha

War Chief of the Mohawks, Robert Griffing

The Grave on the Hill

In Defiance Ohio, on the side of the North Side Hill, formerly Scalp Level, there is a Grave Marker. The Marker, a large Granite rock, says, Cokundiawtha Mohawk Chief 1790. That's all.. There is much more to the story.

 Cokundiawatha was a war chief of the Mohawk nation and fought with his tribe and the British against the Americans. As his tribe and the British were defeated, Cokundiawatha and his family moved west to the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize Rivers. There they joined with Chief Blue Jacket and the Shawnee...

Cokundiawatha's family consisted of his Wife Cooh-Coo-Cheeh, a princess of the Wolf Clan, their sons. White Loon,  Black Loon, Wawpunno, and a daughter Quatsy. They were not the only non Shawnee at "The Glaize" in the year 1790. There were Chicamauga Cherokee, Delaware, Seneca, Cayuga, and Mohawk referred to collectively as Mingo spread amongst several towns near the Confluence, of the Miami of the Lake, Bean Creek, and The Auglaize.
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In October of 1790 Colonel Josiah Harner and his 400 militia and  Major Wyllys and his 60 regulars marched north from Cincinnati, seeking the Miami town of Kikionga. Which was where present day Ft. Wayne Indiana is today. On October 22 the American army entered Kikionga destroying everything they could find, harvested food, houses and anything that would be useful to the Natives.. Thinking the Indians had fled in fear they pursued the combined army of Miami Shawnee, Mingo and others. There were two battles that day, both defeats for the Americans.. In the second battle the Indians stopped their retreat and faced their pursuers in the swamp to which they had been led. Throwing down their guns the Natives attacked the Americans with tomahawks. It was while in the process of tomahawking an American soldier that Cokundiawatha received a fatal wound from a bayonet. The Natives call this the Battle of the Pumpkins for the scalped heads of the 187 dead Americans resembled pumpkins, steaming in the cold autumn air...

Cokundiawatha died on his return trip to the Glaize and was buried some 20 miles up the Maumee from home.When hearing the news Cooh-Coo-Cheeh and her sons went and retrieved her husband and returned to bury him next to the old war trail on the north side of the Maumee. She then built a cabin there, directly across the trail from her husbands Grave. It was that cabin that White Loon and Black Loon brought Oliver Spencer,  two years later.
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Cokundiawatha was buried sitting up, looking west, for that was where the Happy hunting ground lay, with his rifle, tomahawk and everything he would need in his next life by his side..Over his grave there was a pole placed with the face of a man, painted red and marks on the pole for each of the warriors scalps. On special occasions there was a long pole erected hanging over the grave of Cokundiawatha, with 19 scalps of all colors hanging from it.as reported by Oliver Spencer and William Wells.

So the next time you're driving out 424 to Pontiac Park and Independance Dam, just imagine Cokundiawatha sitting there looking west. With his warpaint on and his weapons by his side, and his scalp pole with 19 scalps of all colors flying in the wind... and wonder why did they misspell his name on the stone, I think they just ran out of room and fudged it.. John C Cheek

Sources: The Captivity of Oliver Spencer by Oliver Spencer
Black Snakes Path: William Heath