A Scottish family connection in Roscommon
Mather has a documented Irish history through the estate of Daniel Mather in County Roscommon. The University of Galway’s Landed Estates database identifies him as a principal lessor in Moore parish, in the barony of Moycarn, at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. It also records that he came from Hallrule on the Scottish borders. This is an Irish estate history with a Scottish connection, rather than evidence that the surname first arose in Ireland.
The Arres Mather succession
Daniel Mather died in 1869. The university account records that his nephew John Arres took the additional surname Mather, and that John and James Arres owned land in Roscommon in the 1870s. It places John Arris Mather in Moore parish again in 1906. The estate entry links Faltia House with the family and cites valuation, survey and parliamentary records. The changes between Arres, Arris and Mather make this a particularly useful example of following people through documents as well as searching a surname.
Research leads for a Mather family
For a line connected with this estate, note Moore, Moycarn and Faltia, then compare the source references in the university catalogue with your family documents. For another Irish Mather household, begin with its own address and relatives. Keep an additional surname distinct from a spelling variant: John Arres’s adoption of Mather is a recorded event in this family. That event should not turn unrelated Arres or Mather households into one genealogy. The Roscommon account gives the name a clear Irish historical setting and a focused route for further research.
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