Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
 Broyles Coat of Arms / Broyles Family CrestDescendants of the Leinster sept O Broithe, whose territory was in County Leix, are still to be found mostly in mid-Leinster and southern Leinster, especially in County Carlow and County Kilkenny. The name is a corruption of BROPHY, and is also spelt BROYLE and BROY. The inland Leinster county of Kilkenny is bounded on the north by county Leix, on the east by the counties of Carlow and Wexford, on the south by county Waterford and on the west by county Tipperary. The city of Kilkenny with its splendid Gothic cathedral on the hill, built of Kilkenny limestone, and its great castle on the Butlers, overlooking the River Nore, is the chief town of the county and of the towns of Leinster, second only to Dublin. In the 14th century King Edward 111 convened a parliament at Kilkenny and in the 17th century the city briefly enjoyed political importance when the Catholic Confederation met there in 1642. In the first half of the 16th century the 8th Earl of Ormonde and his countess brought Flemish master-weavers to Kilkenny to introduce the manufacture of tapestry, carpets and fine diaper. This is yet another name where the prefix O' has been abandoned. Early records of the name mention Edward Brophy, documented in County Kilkenny in the year 1273. William Brophy was recorded in the year 1300. The tradition of surnames in Ireland developed spontaneously, as the population increased and the former practice, first of single names and then of ephemeral patronymics or agnomina of the nickname type proved insufficiently definitive. At first the surname was formed by prefixing 'Mac' to the father's Christian name or 'O 'to that of a grandfather or earlier ancestor. Ireland was one of the earliest countries to evolve a system of hereditary surnames: they came into being fairly generally in the eleventh century, and indeed a few were formed before the year 1000. Surnames as we know them today were first assumed in Europe from the 11th to the 15th Century. |
