Devlin Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Devlin Family History

Devlin Family History

The ancient origin of the name Devlin was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. The Irish name Devlin is derived from the Gaelic O'Doibhilin sept who were located in what is now the barony of Corran, County Sligo.

A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. It is also the case that many Irish septs or clans that are related often belong to a larger groups, sometimes called tribes. For example the 'Tribes of Galway' consisted of fourteen distinct families. The 'Tribes of Kilkenny' were ten families, etc.

The principal sept of the name however, was located in County Tyrone. Their chiefs were lords of the territory known as Munterdevlin on the Tyrone shore of Lough Neagh. The majority of present day Devlins are from Ulster, most of whom hail from Tyrone. The prefix O is seldom if ever used in modern times. The best known of the name were associated with Counties Wicklow and Tyrone. Anne Devlin, 1778-1851, was the faithful servant of Robert Emmet who, though imprisoned and tortured, would not give information against him.The Devlin family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Devlin descendants.