Donegal Bay and Enniskillener Families
Donegal Bay and Enniskillener
Families: The Plantation of Ulster took place under the auspices of the British crown in the period from 1607 to about 1750,
and was composed mostly of yeoman families who were re-settled to all of Ulster by various Planters who entered into contracts
with the crown to bring them into Ulster. The scheme of the Plantation, as originally conceived by King James I and VI when
he acceded to the English throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, was designed in part to suppress the Reiver families
which had terrorized the Anglo-Scottish border for the preceding 600 years, and in part to subdue the native gaelic Irish
already resident in Ulster, by planting the Reiver Families on lands confiscated from the former Irish landlords.The
area from Enniskillen to Donegal Bay in Ulster acquired a unique identity over many years, in part occasioned by the coordinated
defense of Enniskillen (Co.Fermanagh) & Ballyshannon (on Donegal Bay) by the Anglo-Scots families on behalf of King William
of Orange against King James II during the English Revolution of 1688-91. A famous British Regiment, the Royal Irish Fusilliers,
or the 27th Regiment of Foot, was originally raised during the 1688-91 period,[See: http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/inf/027-689.htm]
and gave the name Inniskilleners to all of the residents of the area described. Most of the Anglo-Scots families involved
were yeoman planter families originally transplanted from the area of the Anglo-Scots border; and most of the families have
descendants who reside in the same area presently, or who emigrated from the area to locations around the world during the
past 300 years. Many descendants know only that their families came from Inniskillen (or Enniskillen), without realizing the
fact that the term Inniskillen applied to the entire area stretching from Enniskillen to Donegal Bay.