Recorded in many spelling forms including McGlynn, McGloin, and McGlone, as well as short forms without any prefix, this is an Irish surname. It derives from the pre 10th century Gaelic "Mag Fhloinn", from the elements "Mag" a variant form of Mac or Mc, and "flann", meaning ruddy, and probably given as a nickname to someone of a healthy reddish colour. The main sept of Mag Fhloinn originated in the the counties of Westmeath and Roscommon, from where it spread west of the Shannon, and even as far north as County Donegal. Glynn is also of Welsh origin, from "de Glin", but it is seldom the source of the name in Ireland. The Mac Glynns were well established in Counties Mayo and Galway in the 17th and 18th Centuries as recorded in the Book of Surrey and distribution and diocesan records. Several priests of the name are notable in the history of the diocese of Raphoe. Rev. Bonaventure Maglin was Franciscan vicar-provincial of Ireland in 1654, while Rev. Martin Glynn (1729 - 1794) became Superior of the Irish College at Bordeaux of which he was the last rector, and was guillotined during the French Revolution. Other recordings include: Catherine McGlone, aged twenty two, who was a "Famine emigrant" on the ship "Milicete of Liverpool", which left for New York on July 13th 1846, and Catherine McGloin, aged twenty, who on April 10th 1847 embarked from Belfast on the ship"Southern", also bound for New York. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of James Glynn, which was dated 1617, one of the Grand Jurors of County Tipperary, Ireland, during the reign of King James 1 of England and V1 of Scotland, 1603 - 1625. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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