Knight

There are a number of Knight families spread through the counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.

To view the distribution according to the 1901 census, click on the map below. If you then click on the location you will see who the inhabitants were on census day.

Speculation as to the origins of the Knights in Connacht:

Cromwell sent an army under General George Monk with the overt design to secure Ireland under Parliamentary control. The underlying mission of the Parliamentary army was to wreak vengeance on the Irish Catholics who had started the rebellion, and who, it was believed, had murdered all the Protestants in Ireland. When Monk failed to subdue the Royalist sympathizers, including the Scots in Ulster, Cromwell himself led a force to the island in 1650. Cromwell's expedition to Ireland had three purposes. First and foremost was the subjugation of the Catholics and Presbyterians who had rallied behind the Royalist banner. The second purpose was to remove anyone associated with the Irish rebellion. The third objective was to convert all of Ireland to the Puritan faith. The rebellion was not put down due to the outbreak of civil war in England and Scotland - the Wars of the Three Kingdoms until the 1650 Irish Confederate Wars.

An estimate has been given that approximately 616,000 people died during the course of the campaign, some from famine and plague incidental to the actual warfare. The majority of those deaths, though, were native Irish. In addition to the casualties of war, Cromwell had many of the survivors, primarily native Irish, but also some English and Scot Royalists, deported to the West Indies. He made many allowances to the Presbyterian Scots in Ulster which enabled them to flourish as part of the Protectorate Commonwealth.

A large number of the residents of the Ulster settlement were slated to be deported, but Cromwell relented and allowed them to stay in Ireland. Many of their estates were confiscated and they were forced to move to the province of Connacht to the west of the Shannon River. Through sheer force, Oliver Cromwell brought an end to the Irish rebellion begun in 1641, and the Scots in Ulster experienced peace for the first time in a decade.