A NOTE ABOUT THE ESSAY ON THE HISTORY OF THE PURCELLS APPEARING ON THIS WEBSITE
A MESSAGE FROM BRIEN PURCELL HORAN, WHO WROTE THE HISTORY OF THE PURCELL FAMILY ATTACHED TO THIS WEBSITE: Unfortunately, the long saga of the Purcells is not very well known. I am very pleased to place on this website [CLICK ABOVE ON ‘SCHOLARLY MONOGRAPH’] a history of the Purcell family which I completed in 2020. It is in PDF format and can be easily downloaded. I have tried my best to present the topic as an unfolding narrative, showing the family’s ups and downs from about 1100 to about 1750, by which time most of the Purcells had lost their lands and position in Ireland. This was because in the late 1600s the principal branches of the Purcell family were Roman Catholic and largely supportive of the Jacobite cause in the 1689-1691 Jacobite war. The heads of some branches of the Purcell family lost their lands outright after the Jacobite defeat of 1691. The heads of various other branches received pardons after the Jacobite defeat and were able to retain their lands, but they had impoverished themselves during the 1689-1691 war to such an extent that in the end they were unable to make ends meet. Several junior branches which had conformed to the established Church of Ireland, however, did manage to retain their lands.
This history thus traces the saga of the Purcells until the mid-18th century and then explains what happened to various lines of the family thereafter. I hope that readers will find it of interest. The advantage to publishing this history on-line is that, when errors are identified or new information obtained, the text can be easily corrected and updated. I would be delighted if this history might serve as a platform which perhaps younger researchers in the future will be able to build upon. I should add that the current version still needs some finishing touches: it lacks a formal bibliography and some of the footnotes, which are repetitious, need to be revised. But in view of the notion that this history might spark an interest in people who would then consider attending an eventual gathering in Ireland, it was thought expedient to put the text on the internet as soon as possible. Anybody who wishes to communicate with me about the essay can do so at this e-mail address: bp.horan@post.harvard.edu.
Some people have asked me who the current head of the Purcell family would be today. That is very difficult to answer. To the extent that the ancient feudal title of Baron of Loughmoe, used by the head of the family, could survive at all apart from ownership of the old Loughmoe properties, especially of Loughmoe Castle, it would pass by male primogeniture. Colonel Nicholas Purcell (d. 1722), the last Baron of Loughmoe, had no Purcell brothers and no surviving son. It is known that his grandfather Theobald Purcell, Baron of Loughmoe, had at least one younger brother and that his great-grandfather Richard Purcell, Baron of Loughmoe, had at least two younger brothers. The succession to the headship of the family would pass to the senior one of their living descendants. Unfortunately, due to the absence of records, it is not known today who these descendants are, if indeed they exist. Peerage families had to keep very careful records of junior lines in the 17th and 18th centuries, because succession to the peerage brought with it a seat in the House of Lords. Because the title of Baron of Loughmoe was a feudal designation and not a peerage, careful records of junior lines were not kept. The short answer is that it is likely impossible to determine who the senior Purcell descendant today is, unless some long missing records should miraculously surface.