The surname McDermott is an anglicized spelling of Mac Dermot, one of the oldest in the province of Connacht and modern day County Roscommon, Ireland. Surviving fragments of a family journal record Bernard McDermott and Susan Connor marrying in 1782. Two sons were born, Hugh in 1783 and John in 1798. Those years were troubled for the family as well as the area. The Townland of Ballykilcline was a disputed area by 1784 when Alexander O'Connor of Cloonalis collected a mob of 400 family retainers and seized the former O'Connor Don castle and estate in Balintobber. The insurrection was dispersed and the title to the land eventually was included in the 600 acres of Ballykilcline under the lease of Lord Hartland. It is not known if Bernard took part in the open violence of 1783, but his son Hugh would become part of another dispute over the area in 1834.
Hugh McDermott and Elizabeth Kelly lived as tenant farmers on the Crown Estate of Ballykilcline. Hugh was the long time tenant of record on a large farm with pastureland, cows, a horse, ten sheep, and a shebeen along the Old Road. They were married in 1820 and had ten children.
From 1834 to 1844 Hugh and his son Barnard were part of the micro-elite that lead the Ballykilcline Rebellion refusing to pay rent to the Crown. The claim was that the land was not even subject to rents because his ancestors never swore allegiance to the Crown when the O'Connor lands were confiscated. The entire McDermott family disappears from the rent rolls after 1844. But it is unlikely they strayed very far. The entire McDermott family was on board the packet ship "Roscius" leaving Liverpool on 19 September 1847. Hugh was well over the required maximum age of 50 and lied about his age to board. The family all arrived in New York on 21 October 1847. James Hugh and Bridget Catherine Moran, also from Ballykilcline, married in Richland, Ohio in January 1854. The couple moved to Clinton County Pennsylvania to buy land and farm in the spring of the same year. The family was blessed with the following children: Michael, 1854-1854, Thomas, born June 1855, Honor, born 1857. Mary, born 1858, Eliza and Ellen, 1860-1860, Henry, born 1861.
Thomas McDermott married Margaret McMullen in 1880. He worked in the local tannery in Lock Haven, PA and Margaret taught music at home. Four children were born to them:
Carl Henry McDermott was Maureen McDermott's Grandfather. She continues to research the remaining children of the McDermott line to share the history of the townland Ballykilcline.
For more information contact Maureen McDermott Humphreys section of this website.