DNA Refutes
  Professor's
Kingly Claim

MARTIN CROFTON McLAUGHLIN, MA, FRHistS (1900-81) wore tails, a wing collar and spats when he attended his sister Rosemary's wedding in 1927. The author of a history textbook Newest Europe (London: 1931), Martin was senior History Master at Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, and later a professor at Rollins College, Florida.

He was appointed one of His Majesty's Inspectors of Schools in 1939, the year Crofton, his father, died, making Martin the senior McLaughlin late of the Lydiates. Later he owned a school in Doune, Perthshire, but it failed because he had become an alcoholic.

Ulster King of Arms Sir William Betham had declared that our family descended from the Kings of Aileach (now counties Tyrone, Tirconell and Derry), entitling us to the coat of arms of the McLaughlins of Tirconnell sept, shown below in the bookplate engraved for various members of the family. The McLaughlins of Tirconnell are the Northern Sept of descendants from Uí Néill, the High King of Ireland about 400AD, also called Nial of the Nine Hostages.

However Martin's research led him to believe that our family belonged to the Southern Sept of Uí Néill's descendants. These were the Ó Maoilseachlainns (progeny of Malachy II, monarch of all Ireland) who remained Kings of Meath into the 16th century. Ó Maoilseachlainn (meaning devotee of Saint Patrick's nephew Saint Sechnall) was anglicised to O'Melaghlin before changing to McLaughlin.

The ancestry of Martin's grandmother Frederica includes Edward Crofton (1566-1627) and his wife Elizabeth, née Mostyn, whose maternal grandfather was Phelim O'Melaghlin, King of Meath. This inspired Martin to write to all members of our family suggesting that they call themselves O'Melaghlin and use the sept's armorial bearings, displayed at the top of this page. The response was a resounding silence.

Now genetic testing has shown that Martin and Bentham were both wrong. My cousin David P.C. McLaughlin's DNA does not match the Y-chromosome markers which geneticists at Trinity College Dublin have identified as indicative of descent from Ui Neill. So my family cannot boast of Irish in addition to our British royal blood. In fact the family's male haplogroup is R1b, the most common among European populations. People belonging to that haplogroup are believed to have expanded throughout Europe when humans re-colonized the continent after the last ice age about 11,000 years ago.

Cousin David's family archive includes a sketch of a seal bearing the O'Neill arms with a note stating that the seal was used on 8th July 1799 by Patrick McLaughlin who died later that year, just after being elected Sheriff of Dublin. The seal was used on documents recording his daughter Elizabeth's marriage to Bartholomew Lloyd, Provost of Trinity College Dublin. It is puzzling that someone named McLaughlin would use the arms of the O'Neills, especially as David's DNA shows that Patrick was not a member of that dynasty.

Compounding the puzzle are the facts that Patrick was the son of William McLaughlin, a woolen draper of Francis Street, Dublin, according to two pedigrees recorded by successive Ulster Kings of Arms in Dublin Castle Genealogical Office, Ms.178 pp. 229-32 & 257-60 — but a note added in 1908 states "Wm McL had no son Patrick / see Will Book XVII p 159 and 161." Perhaps Patrick was our last common ancestor and he was adopted...

© 2006 G. Harry McLaughlin.
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