Farley Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Farley Family History

Farley Family History

The family history of the ancient name Farley was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. The Irish name Farley is derived from the Gaelic O'Faircheallaigh and O'Fearghaile septs that were located in Counties Cavan, Meath and Longford.

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.

This name has a number of variants including Farelly, Farlie and Farely. Their leading family were erenaghs of Drumlane, County Cavan, and were also coarbs of St. Mogue until the suppression of the monasteries in the sixteenth century. The Gaelic poet Feardorcha O'Farrelly, who died in the year 1746, was born in County Cavan. Another sept that was originally located at Knockainy in County Limerick were mentioned by O'Heerin in his fourteenth century 'Topographical Poem' but are no longer to be found in Limerick. Some bearers of the name Farley may in fact be of the O'Fearghail sept, whose name was more often anglicized as Farrell.The Farley 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 Farley descendants.