ANENT THE SHANNON FAMILY.
Eleanor Lexington, in the Buffalo Sunday News, states that Nathaniel Shannon, who was born in Ireland 1655, came to this country when he was thirty-two years old and made his home in Boston, where in 1701 he was a member of the Old South Church. Twenty-two years later he died, and the stone marking his grave in the Old Granary Burying Ground in Boston is still standing. Nathaniel’s brother, Robert, was mayor of Derry in 1689, and Nathaniel was also a man of affairs, holding many town offices. He was the first naval officer of the port of Boston and a merchant of prominence.
The papers now preserved in the Massachusetts State Archives show that he was a man of good education. His wife was Elizabeth, and their children were Nathaniel J., Robert, who is supposed to have died unmarried, and Samuel, who married Ann Miller. Nathaniel the second married Abigail Vaughan, whose father was one of the royal councillors and also chief justice of New Hampshire. Nathaniel and Abigail had two sons, Nathaniel and Cutts. The four children of Nathaniel were his namesake, and George, Margaret and Abigail. Nathaniel and his wife, Abigail Vaughan, lived in Portsmouth, N. H., where he was a ship merchant. He also lived in Ipswich. Among other records of this generation, still extant, is that of a deed conveying land to Jonathan Belcher, 1720. Nathaniel was a slave owner, and, by will, left negroes to his sons.
We find that Dover, N. H., was another stronghold of the Shannons, and Thomas, who married Lilias Watson, held many town offices. In 1785 he was captain of the New Hampshire militia. “He was a zealous supporter of the Revolution and active in recruiting its armies.” He died in 1800, aged about fifty years. Heitman’s Officers of the American Revolution names William Shannon of Virginia, ensign and lieutenant. O’Seanchain is said to have been the first form of the surname, Shannon. From O’Seanchain to Shanahan, Shanason, is considered an easy feat to accomplish by those who are skilled in such matters. Then from Shanahan to Shanon or Shannon is as easy as rolling off the proverbial log. Seanchain or Seanchan is composed of two Celtic words, “seancha,” meaning an antiquarian or genealogist, and “an,” one who. Seanchan is, then, one who is an antiquarian. Old records frequently give the name as Shanon, or with one “n.” The O’Sheanchains have a long pedigree, belonging, as they do, to that branch of the Celtic race which alone of all European races of the period antedating the Christian era has maintained its identity to the present time.
MR. THOMAS J. LYNCH.
Augusta, Me.
MR. GEORGE W. McCARTHY.
Portsmouth, N. H.
MR. ROGER G. SULLIVAN.
Manchester, N. H.
THREE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY.