Seventeen of Ireland's townlands start with Priests and 32 with Bishops. It may reasonably be presumed it is clergymen that are in question.
Bishopsfurze is Aiteann an Easpaig, Bishopsknock in Cnoc an Easpaig, and Bishopsmeadows is Moinear an Easpaig. In the case of Bishopshall, which has Cill an Ghaill as its Irish, the Bishop is not a churchman, but the bearer of the English surname Bishop.
George Bishopp Esq and Anthony Bishopp, gent, were tituladoes in Gaules Kill & Lickettstowne in Co Kilkenny, as noted in The Census of Ireland 1659. Gaules Kill is the anglicised form of the above Cill an Ghaill.
The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames informs "Bishop (Occupational) `bishop' OE; not, we hope, the son of a celibate medieval prelate, but one who worked in his household. Or nickname from appearance or bearing, or from taking part in a play, or from being a boy-bishop in that absurd ceremony". The Phone Book of Northern Ireland lists 28 Bishop entries, while directories south of the Border contain 90. Outside of the 01 Dublin area these latter are strong in the province of Leinster and in the Cork 02 area.
In 1600, Thomas Busshoppe of Dublin, gent, was granted the wardship of the marriage of John Usher, late of Dublin, merchant, and custody of his lands during minority, "with clause for education in Trinity College".
Three of the named are mentioned in Dublin documents of the first half of the 17th century, one being "old Thomas Bushopp", mentioned in the 1637 will of Walter Usher. Ephraim Bishop, an adventurer for land in Ireland (1642-46), was granted land in Co Tipperary in the area east of Clonmel and just north of the River Suir.
The 1814 Directory shows Mr John Bishop at Glen-ahoglasha (Glennahaglish, Gleann na hEaglaise, "the glen of the church"), Co Limerick. Owners of land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) lists but five Bishop holdings - nine acres in Co Meath, 10 and 11 acres in Co Wexford, and 11 and 281 in Co Cork.
Apart from that branch of the O'Sullivans who were called Bishop, the name was used as the English for Mac an Easpaig, and Mac Giolla Easpaig. The latter derived from the first-name Giolla Easpaig, "servant of the bishop".
This may well have been an abbreviation of Giolla Easpaig Eoghan, servant of Bishop Eoghan, the well-known saint of Ardstraw. This name was extremely popular in the north of Ireland and in Scotland, "where it is strangely anglicised as Archibald".
Giolla Easpaig, bishop of Limerick, presided over the 1110 synod or national council at Rath Breasail. Clasby is another "English" form, there being five telephone entries of this in Co Galway.
Annala Rioghachta Eireann/The Annals of the Four Masters, notes the slaying in 1165 of Eachmarcach mac Gilla Epscoip, in 1171. Gilla Aenghusa Mac Gillaepscoip, ruler of Manaigh or Cath Monaigh, was involved in the killing at Downpatrick of Maghnus Mac Duinnsleibhe Ua hEochadha, and the following year Mac Gilla Epscoip, chief of Clann Aeilabhra, was slain.
Clann Aeilabhra is what later became the Co Down barony of Iveagh, and Onomasticon Goedelicum informs that Cath Monaigh indicates the people of Co Fermanagh. In the latter medieval period the Gillespies were erenaghs of Kilrean and of Kilcar, in the baronies of Boylagh and Banagh respectively.
Fiant No 4731 in The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns lists a Co Sligo group pardoned in 1585, among whom was Dowaltogh M'Gillenaspuke, while Feragh M'Gillaspick was among the pardoned persons of Co Galway/Roscommon in 1591.
This surname, spelt McGilaspie and McGillaspick, is numbered in the 1659 Census among the principal Irish names in the Co Antrim baronies of Dunluce, Cary and Kilcoursey, and in the Co Donegal baronies of Boylagh and Banagh. In the mid-19th century, concentrations of Gillespies were noted in the Co Down parishes of Aghaderg and Annahilt.
The 1814 Directory lists Ham Gillespey at Monellan, Castlefin, Co Donegal. The 15 Gillespie holdings listed in Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) were in all Ulster counties except Fermanagh and Tyrone. All were in double figures, except the 126 Co Cavan acres.
Elizabeth Gillespie and her husband George Graham, labourer, of the parish of Clogher, Co Tyrone, fleeing the 1847 Famine in Ireland, saw their son Joseph, three years and nine months, die on board the bark Lord Seaton while lying off the Quarantine Station at Grosse Isle, Canada. Two-year-old George, a second son, died 12 days later.