The Fultons of Lisburne American Connections

In 1630 John Winthrop named the town of Boston, Massachusetts after his hometown in Lincolnshire, England. In 1624 the Dutch founded New Amsterdam and named it after the city many of them came from in Holland. In 1688 thousands of French Huguenot refugees from religious persecution in France began settling a track of land just north of New York City naming the local town New Rochelle after the city in France where many of them had come from. When the first Europeans settled an area in America, the local residents usually picked location names. Sometimes they picked the name of the County and very often they picked the name of smaller areas such as townships and villages. They might name the area after a locally used Indian name, a prominent geographic feature, or perhaps after some famous person. However, It was also extremely common for these first residents to select local names after places most of the residents had come from. This is often true of not only the first settlers in an area from Europe, but as branches of local families continued to migrate west, they often repeated local names for the new areas based on named in the areas they just arrived from. This can often provide strong clues to the origins of many if not most of the original settlers in an area.

Genealogical Origin Clues in Early Pennsylvania Place Names

Below is a township map of Lancast County, Pennsylvania. The area under the black line drawn in the southern part of the county originally was a part of the origin Township of Drumore. Later sections of Drumore were made into Little Brittain Township, birthplace of Steamboat Robert Fulton as well as Colerain Township. Much later Little Brittain Township was divided and Fulton Township was created named in honor of Steamboat Robert Fulton. Drumore is how an American would spell the name Dromore as pronounced by an Ulster Scot. Dromore is the name of the Diocese in which is located the town and parish of Lisburn, County Down, Northern Ireland. The first large group of Fulton families settled in southern Chester County, PA. mostly in Nottingham Township, bordering Maryland. That township was already named before the large immigration from Ireland to Pennslyvania began in 1718. Lancaster County, PA., was created in 1729 after many Scots-Irish had already arrived in the area and they named it Drumore, undoubtedly after the location in County Down, Northern Ireland where many if not most of them had come from. So Steamboat Robert Fulton's Family lived in a area most likely settled heavily by Scot-Irish was Dromore Diocese in Ireland, the home of Lisburn, providing another connection clue.

Below is a list of the early townships of Lancaster County, PA. and the origin of their names. Townships on map above and not listed below were created later by subdividing earlier townships:

Bart: Unknown. Tradition says it was an abreviation for Baronet, the title on an early Governor of PA, Sir Wm. Keith.

Brecknock: From a county and town in South Wales.

Carnarvon: From a place in Wales, part of the area settled by Welsh. A search of early tax lists for this and the other Townships named after places in Wales confirm the names are mostly Welsh.

Cocalico: An Indian name thought to mean "serpents den"

Colerain: From Parish and City of Coleraine in Northern Ireland, located on the north coast bordering between Counties Antrim and Londonderry. This was not an original township, but carved out of Drumore in 1788.

Conestoga: An Indian name thought to mean "the great magic land".

Donegal: In the far NW corner of the county, named after the County in the far NW corner of Northern Ireland. It is in Donegal that we find an early Fulton settler, Samuel Fulton in 1722. He appears to be the only Fulton settled in this area, while most of the many Fulton in SE PA originally settled in the far southern townships of Nottingham in Chester County and Drumore in Lancaster County. Samuel Fulton of Donegal Township, Lancaster County, PA died leaving a will proved on April 1, 1760, naming three sons; James, John, and Samuel. It is certainly possible that this Fulton Family is also connected to Lisburn and the family of Steamboat Robert, but the assumption here is that it is not considering the name of the original township they settled in and the distance from the other Fultons farther south in Chester, Lancaster, and York Counties.

Drumore: From Dromore a Diocese covering about half of County Down and small parts of County Antrim and County Armagh in Northern Ireland. It is also the name of a Parish in the same Diocese located just a couple of miles from Lisburn which is located in Dromore Diocese.

Earl: Settled mostly by Germans and said to be named after an early settler Hans Graaf, whose name Graaf in English means Earl.

Elizabeth: Thought to be named after Queen Elizabeth I.

Ephrata: A Biblical name meaning "fertility".

Hempfield: Hemp from an important crop from which rope was made and was grown commonly throughout Europe and America.

Lampeter: From a place in South Wales.

Leacock: Uncertain, but thought to be named after a place no longer of that name in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Manheim: After the city in Germany, settled by German immigrants.

Martic: From Martock a place in Somerset, England.

Mt. Joy: A couple of possibilities, one centering on the County and City of Londonderry in Northern Ireland, and the other in the County of Tyrone. Mt. Joy was the name of prectinct in County Tyrone listed in a survey of Scottish Undertakers in 1619. Undertaker was the term used for the Nobles and wealthy men who signed up to settle Scots in Ireland during the Plantation. It could just as likely have been named after the name of the supply ship that broke through the boom and relieved the besiedged and suffering city of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, which had been surrounded by the Catholic army of James II and nearly starved into submission in 1689.

Paradise: Thought to be Biblical.

Providence: Thought to be Biblical

Rapho: After the name of the Diocese covering most of County Donegal and parts of County Londonderry in Northern Ireland.

Salisbury: From a place in England.

Sadsbury: Unknown origin. It is also the name of the neighboring township in Chester County.

Strasburg: Named after a city in Germany.

Most of the above comes from an paper titled "The Names Of The Townships", by Jos. H. Dubbs, D.D., read at the Lancaster County Historical Society meeting of June 5, 1896.