Clan Rising

Casement

also Caismeint

The Ulster Anglo-Norman line, and the humanitarian who became a republican.

Origin
Ulster, Ireland
Famous bearer
Sir Roger Casement (1864–1916), human-rights investigator, Irish republican, executed at Pentonville
Register
Irish family
Territory of Casement

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Casement

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Casement community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Casement has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Casement clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

Help rebuild the Casement clan →

What does the Casement name mean?

Locative, from Old French casement (a small house, a hut), via Norman bureaucratic usage. The Casement family of Ulster trace to a Anglo-Norman line settled in Antrim by the late mediaeval period, principally around the small townland of Casement in the Glens of Antrim. The surname is moderately uncommon in modern Ireland and largely concentrated in north-east Ulster.

The history of Casement

The Casements of Antrim were a Protestant landed family of the Glens, with the chiefly seat at Magherintemple near Ballycastle held by the family from the eighteenth century. The most famous bearer is Sir Roger Casement (1864–1916), born at Sandycove in Dublin to an Antrim-Casement father (Captain Roger Casement of the Light Dragoons) and a Dublin-Catholic mother, raised at Magherintemple after his parents' early deaths.

Casement was a British consular officer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, posted to West Africa (where his 1903 report on Belgian Congo atrocities precipitated the international campaign against King Leopold II's personal rule of the Congo Free State) and to Putumayo in the upper Amazon (where his 1910 report on Peruvian Amazon Company atrocities won him a knighthood). He retired in 1913 and turned to Irish nationalism, joining the Irish Volunteers and conducting unsuccessful negotiations with Imperial Germany in 1914–16 for German arms and an Irish Brigade among prisoners of war.

He was arrested at McKenna's Fort near Banna Strand in north Kerry on Good Friday, the twenty-first of April 1916, three days before the Easter Rising, having been landed from a German U-boat with arms that were never offloaded. He was tried for high treason in London in June, convicted on the twenty-ninth of June, stripped of his knighthood, and hanged at Pentonville Prison on the third of August 1916. His remains were returned to Ireland by Harold Wilson's British government in 1965 and re-interred with state honours in Glasnevin Cemetery on the first of March 1965.

Champions of the Casement name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Explore With Your Ancestors · Beta

Chat with your Casement ancestorsWalk in →

Pick any year from 500 to 1945 and any place on earth — the Casement country, or a shore no Casement ever reached. The chronicler sets the scene; the deeds are yours.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Casement name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Step Into History · New

Walk Dunluce Castle in 1600Enter →

The MacDonnell stronghold on its Antrim sea-stack, whole and inhabited — Clan Donald astride the North Channel.

Step Into History · New

Walk Dublin in 1756Enter →

Georgian Dublin in the year of Rocque's great map — College Green, the Liberties' weavers, the Liffey quays and Christ Church.

Notable bearers of the Casement name

  • Sir Roger Casement (1864–1916), human-rights investigator, Irish republican, executed at Pentonville

Stories of Casement

Frequently asked

What does the surname Casement mean?

Locative, from Old French casement (a small house, a hut), via Norman bureaucratic usage. The Casement family of Ulster trace to a Anglo-Norman line settled in Antrim by the late mediaeval period, principally around the small townland of Casement in the Glens of Antrim. The surname is moderately uncommon in modern Ireland and largely concentrated in north-east Ulster. The Casements of Antrim were a Protestant landed family of the Glens, with the chiefly seat at Magherintemple near Ballycastle held by the family from the eighteenth century.

Where does the Casement family come from?

The Casement family is rooted in Ulster, in Ireland. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Antrim. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Casement family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Casement name has been concentrated in Dublin and Down. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Casement a Ireland surname?

Yes, Casement is a Ireland surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is Ireland, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Casement surname?

The Casements of Antrim were a Protestant landed family of the Glens, with the chiefly seat at Magherintemple near Ballycastle held by the family from the eighteenth century. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Casement name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Casement family known for?

The Ulster Anglo-Norman line, and the humanitarian who became a republican. The Casements of Antrim were a Protestant landed family of the Glens, with the chiefly seat at Magherintemple near Ballycastle held by the family from the eighteenth century.

Who is the most famous Casement?

The best-known bearer of the Casement name is Sir Roger Casement (1864–1916), human-rights investigator, Irish republican, executed at Pentonville. Their life and connection to the family are profiled in full on the dedicated champion page.

What stories are told about the Casement family?

The Casement family is associated with Casement on Banna Strand. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Casement on Banna Strand?

On the early morning of Good Friday, the twenty-first of April 1916, on the long flat sand of Banna Strand on the western coast of County Kerry, three days before the planned Easter Rising in Dublin, Sir Roger Casement, fifty-one years old, former British consular officer, knight of the realm for his humanitarian work on the Belgian Congo and the Putumayo, presently a Captain in the Imperial German service, was put ashore from the dinghy of the German U-boat U-19 with two companions (Robert Monteith and Daniel Bailey) at three in the morning. The U-boat had been escorting the German freighter Aud, which carried twenty thousand rifles, one million rounds of ammunition, and ten machine guns for the Irish Volunteers, on the long passage from Lübeck. The event is dated to 1916.

Is Caismeint the same family as Casement?

Yes. Caismeint is a historical spelling variant of the Casement name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Where is the Casement surname found today?

Ireland is the primary historical home of the Casement surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same Ireland origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Casement family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Casement family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of Ireland so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Casement family today?

The seat for the head of the Casement family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.

Neighbouring clans