Isabella (possibly FORTUNE)

  Noted events in her life were:

• Land, 1761, Augusta County, VA. Individual: Isabella Gibson
Date: Feb 28, 1749
Location: Augusta County, Virginia
Record Type: Land
Record ID: 31296
Description: Mentioned
Book-Page: 2-562
Property: 347 acres in Beverley Manor on South River. Corner John Campbell in Manor line; Joseph Tees' line; McClure's land; Archibald Stuart's line.

Remarks: Delivered to Isabella Gibson Aug 1761.

[This land record was originally published in "Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, 1745-1800. Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County" ]

• Court, 1764, Augusta County, VA. AUGUST 22, 1764
(70) George Gibson, one other, and 195 acres added to tithables; 196 acres of Isabella Gibson added to tithables.

[Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, Volume I, AUGUSTA COUNTY COURT RECORDS. ORDER BOOK No. IX.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~chalkley/volume_1/or09_114.htm#page%20115]

• Land: 150,200 acres, 1768, Augusta County, VA. 17th November, 1768. George ( ) Gibson and Isabella ( ) to James Gilmore, Jr., ?150, 200 acres on North Branch of Collier's Creek. Teste: Moses Collyer, John Collier.

[Records of Augusta County, Virginia, 1745 - 1800]

• Related: History of the Fortune Surname. Below is a brief history, of the Fortune clan. The information was taken from various books such as, the book of Ossary, the national library of Ireland, the book of Wexford surnames and a couple of other books.

0900. In early Irish history (although 0900 is not early, in real terms Irish history goes back as far as 3-4000 B.C.) the society was of the warrior clan system. There is an account of when the MaCarty's of Cork was fighting their neighboring clan, the O'Flaherty's, the MaCarty's hired the Fortune's of Wexford to help them in their bid to be rid of the O'Flaherty's. The Fortunes dually obliged (for a small fee of course) and were seen as hero's of the battle. They are said to have fought so bravely that the MaCarty chieftain named his eldest son Fortune in honor of their bravery. We still have Fortunes in Cork to this day.

1175. O'Donavan in his edition of the Four Masters states that, O'Phoirtchearn was the leader of the Ossary men who slay the son of the king of Leinster in 1175, was of a family who's name was subsequently Anglicized to, Fortune, Foran, Forehan or Ford.

1253. According to Mac Lysaght, Fortune is one of the oldest Wexford surnames, and is rarely found outside the county. The name O'Phoirtchearn, meaning overlord is the original form not Fairshin. It appears in a letter from Henry the III in 1253 to the Irish judiciary, and was later anglicized to Fortune. In this connection it should be added that the Irish Fairshin has been made Fortune in the English. Both of these have been found in Co. Cork (which verifies the above 0900) .

All of this is open to debate which will benefit the people interested in the history of the Fortune family, let me know and I will put it up on the site. I have had a lot of debate with people, so far the majority seem to think it's Irish, but others have said it's Scot's, Welsh, or French, well tell me what you think, my own point of view fits in with what I know and Irish history, consider this around the turn of 1000 a lot of travel went on between the Celtic countries especially to Scotland which are of the same Celtic strain as the Irish, this would be the highlander's and not the lowlander's which were more English or Anglo Saxon. But trade and religion were big between Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany in Northern France. These countries are Celtic as well as Wales, Cornwall, Galicia in Spain.

Then we have the invasions of Viking's, Norman's, Danes. In Ireland these tribes were absorbed into Irish society and were relatively minor invasions, we kept our Celtic identity and the invaders became Irish as well. The U K and continental Celtic communities suffered more and eventually lost their Celtic heritage, but not all of it. So in short I think that the Fortunes settled in these countries, and at the time were Celtic, Druidic, both warriors and farmers.

I just want to end this by saying to the European Fortunes " get you finger out". Slan, frankie


(O) FORAN FORTUNE Ó Furtháin

Now Ó Fuaráin, first anglicized as O'Forhane etc., which was then contracted to Foran and sometimes changed to Ford. Ford or Forde is usually of different origin Forhan and Fourhane are still extant in the country between Millstreet (Co. Cork) and Killarney; Foran is fairly common in Limerick and Waterford. Waterford is where it appeared earliest, though it occurs occasionally in the sixteenth century in some parts of Leinster too. Most notable of this sept was Most Rev. Nicholas Foran who was Bishop of Waterford and Lismore from 1837 to 1855. Lawrence Foran was one of the eighteenth century Irish scribes in Co. Waterford. He compiled the Book of Portlaw in 1780. Ó Foirtchern is the original form of the well known Wexford surname Fortune. This appeared in 1253 in a letter from Henry III to the Irish Judiciary as Offorthiern and was later anglicized as O'Fortyn etc. It should be noted that the Irish Fairsing has been made Fortune in English as well as Farshin, both of these are found as synonyms of MacCarthy in the Dunmanway district. Fairsing is the Irish word for generous and is used as a rare surname of the epithet class. It is not connected with the Fortunes of Co. Wexford.

[http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=lesa&id=I02122]

Isabella married Robert GIBSON. (Robert GIBSON was born about 1700 in Cork County, IRELAND and died betw 22 Mar, 1760 - 21 May, 1760 in Augusta County, VA.)