Callison Family Page

The majority of Callisons found in the United Kingdom IGI come from Scotland and the North of England. However there are outcrops of the family in the Midlands, London and even some in Cornwall. These Southern Callisons most likely migrated from the North or just possibly came from entirely different origins, perhaps derived from the Callis Family of which early records date back in the Norman Conquest

The Callison family can be traced back to Armagh in Ireland in the early 1700s, before this time they most likely came from the Quaker communities in the North of England. William, Luke and Ann Callison were included as a list of freeholders and as attendants at the Quaker marriage of Anthony Callison and Abagail Wethereld. It was likely that they originally came from England as Armagh received many settlers from England and relatively few from Scotland during the Plantation period. The first English planters in the area were Episcopalian.

We cannot discount the possibility, however that the Callisons were a Scottish family and there were many reasons why the Scots would have migrated to Armagh. On the basis that the settlers would have mainly come from the estates of the undertakers the origin of Scottish settlers in the Fews Barony of Armagh would most likely be East Lothian, and Midlothian. Coincidentally this area is close to where the oldest Callison record in the IGI was found, in Dalkeith, Mid Lothian.

The Fews area of south Armagh, was described as a fastness of forest and remote hills, which remained for many years a centre of disaffection, with rapparees, or highwaymen, making life difficult for the civil and military authorities.

From Armagh many Callisons went west to the US and other migrated back to England mostly settling in the Manchester area.

There are now many family members in the US who can trace their roots to James Callison, Anthony's son who settled in Virginia. A descendents of James, William Henry Callison, was a confederate soldier in 'Stonewall' Jackson's Brigade, 27th Virginia Infantry Company 'E' and died on the battlefield at Manassas on July 21, 1861.

My Scottish Callisons in fact originated from Manchester who in turn had come over from Ireland during the potato famine. My grandmother was Mary Callison, born 29 May 1898 in Hamilton.