QUIGLEY, David

   Other names for David were QUIGLY, David, TWEEDLEY, David ³ and TWEEDLIE, David.

  General Notes:

A local directory for the years 1830-1837 had entries for David Quigley as follows
'David Quigley, grocer and quarrier, Arthurlie. Shown in Barrhead'.

His son, David's death certificate in 1880 recorded him as deceased, and as having been a gardener. ⁴

  Research Notes:

QUIGLEY AND VARIANTS

David Quigley and Fanny Watson's children all retained their surname Quigley, even if it was at times varied. With their son David, however, the family surname underwent a transformation. All of David Quigley and Margaret Stuart's grandchildren have Tweedley, or its spelling variant, as a surname.

As with any surname it is not unusual, along the centuries, to find a variant form of Quigley, in spelling or sound. However, the permanent change from Quigley or a Quigley variant to Tweedley or a Tweedley variant seems to have had more to it than slight spelling differences.

BACKGROUND
In both Ireland and Scotland, especially western Scotland, two languages were spoken at the turn of the 18th to 19th centuries: English and a local form of Gaelic. Some of the 19th century census forms provide room to indicate whether the person being recorded is a Gaelic speaker or not. Names too were used in the Gaelic form.

NAME CHANGES GENERALLY
There is much evidence of the alteration of names from a Gaelic form to an English one. Many factors ontributed to whether or not the bearer of the name saw fit to change it or to answer to a changed form of it. Some of these factors would be:

1 Some speakers would have been more skilled in one language rather than another
2 Some would have loyalty and emotional associations to one form of the name
3 Politically it may have been safer to use one particular form, not merely in a general way, but because many irish immigrants to Scotland from 1790 on were political refugees; later many were members of proscribed societies
4 It possibly helped some immigrants to 'blend in' if a form of name was chosen that sounded familiar to the locals and helped the bearer not to be too much of a stranger; there was strong anti-Irish and anti-Catholic feeling in 19th century Scotland
5 There may have been religious as well as political implications in using one form; protestant Irish were considerably more acceptable that Catholic Irish in presbyterian Scotland. In the case of this family, since they were already Protestant, it is unlikely that the religious reasons for change would have operating.

QUIGLEY AND TWEEDLEY (& spelling variants)
Tweedley seems to have been an anglicised form of the Gaelic name of Quigley that some Irish emigrants began adopting just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It is unusual to find it before 1815, although Scots and English names that appear similar, like Tweddle, Twaddle, Tweedie, may be found.

In some cases individuals or families allow both forms to be used and answer to both, but retain a preference for one or the other. In the lives of certain individuals, Quigley or variant is used by parents and in the early life of the individual, but in their adult and married life, a switch to some form of Tweedley takes place. Before the statutory regulations of 1855 in Britain, the spelling is typically erratic, but after 1855, when the written form of vital details takes over, one spelling is opted for and becomes the 'family name'.

David married Margaret STUART, daughter of STEWART and STEWART MS UNKNOWN, on 31 July 1819 in Neilston, Renfrewshire, Scotland.¹ (Margaret STUART was born about 1798 in Ireland ⁵ and died on 24 July 1870 in Barrhead, Renfrewshire, Scotland ⁶.)