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Don’t be confused by the spelling of Ennis, Ennes, Hennesey and Angus and similar words. All are derived from the Irish name Aonghus, meaning “unique choice”.
 

 

Gaelic pronunciation goes very soft on what in other languages are hard vowels so that the Englishman in trying to copy the delicate sound made by a Gaelic speaker saying “6 h Aonghus” (descendant of Aonghus) comes up with “Hennesey.” Ennes and Ennis has come about by a similar process. Ennis, a town in County Clare, Republic of Eire is the results of an Englishman trying to pronounce Gaelic—this time the word “inis” meaning island.
 

 

It was said that the surname Ennis sprang up and spread out from the borders of Meath and Lough north of Dublin until it was common throughout Ireland and Scotland.
 

 

Irish history tells that in Donnegal in the fifteenth century, more than half of the entire population were Ennis or their kin.
 

 

        Heraldry experts say that the name Ennis is “armigerous”—ie: there is or was in Ireland or Scotland a landed gentry family with a coat of arms.
 

 

        Frances Jane Ennes, who died in 1835 in Scotland, left to her heirs in America the “ten million dollar estate.” She may have been a kin of that class. It was said that William Ennes, her uncle who lived in Marblestown, N.Y. was one of her heirs. The estate was seized by the Crown. It is not likely that many other Ennis’s mentioned in this book are close relatives of hers.
 

 

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