Was it the name of a book, or the name of a film? Perhaps it was neither. Or the name of a pub? Whichever, "The Admirable Crichton" rattles around in the head, stored away from God knows where or when. This sobriquet was conferred on James Crichton (1560-82), Scottish scholar and soldier, and when one notes that he had achieved a reputation in two vocations, though he was but 22 when he died, one cannot but concede that he must have deserved to be acclaimed "admirable".
Crichton, or Creighton, is a Scottish territorial name, prominent in Ulster (sometimes as a synonym of Creaghan and Crehan), meaning "border/boundary place". It derives from the Scots Gaelic crioch and the Old English tun, now town, meaning "an enclosed place or piece of ground, and enclosure; a field, garden, yard, court".
The telephone directory of Northern Ireland lists 150 Creightons, 10 Crichtons, and a single Crighton. South of the Border, there are more than 90 listings of Creighton, mainly in north Leinster and in Connacht, and nine of Crichton. The progenitor of the Crichton family in Fermanagh was John, laird of Brunston,
Edinburgh, who lived around 1610. Some time later, Thomas Crichton bought the estate of Aghalane in the parish of Kinawley, Co Fermanagh, and thus began the Aghalane branch of the family.
Thomas was succeeded by his nephew, John, who was in occupation during the Williamite wars. His son, John, built Killynick House, which estate passed through marriage into the hands of the Crichtons of Crom.
In an effort to demonstrate the "diabolic cruelty" of the Irish to the Scots in 1641, Ramsey Colles, in his The History of Ulster, claimed that the Scots had been subjected to modes of torture that made the "inventions of the Inquisition and the methods of the Red Indians or the mandarin" sink into insignificance. However, all was not bad. He relates that the Rev George Crichton, vicar of Lurgan, had been assured by Tirlogh MacShane Mac Philip O'Reilly that the Irish would harm no Scot. "Crichton, who lived at Virginia, lodged refugees in his home, and provided many with food and clothing." (The Fermanagh Story: Peadar Livingstone.)
Abraham Crichton was created Lord Erne in 1768, and is shown at Crum Castle on Taylor and Skinner's 1778 Maps of the Roads of Ireland. In 1789, Abraham Creighton, Crumcastle, Co Fermanagh, was created Viscount and Baron Erne. He died in 1828, and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th died respectively in 1842, 1885, 1914 and 1940.
Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) shows Creighton/Crighton/ Crichton holdings in Counties Wexford (five acres), Down (nine acres), Fermanagh (70), Kildare (598), Tyrone (515) and Sligo (738 and 2,826).
The latter holding was the property of Alexander Crichton, of Dirk Lodge, Dromard, where he had an additional 4,021 acres. The Earl of Erne, Crom Castle, had 31,389 acres there as well as 2,184 acres in Co Mayo. It was on the Mayo holding that the famous Captain Boycott incident occurred during the Land War. The Crichtons were Conservative in outlook, took a leading part against Home Rule, patronised the Orange Order, and were anti-Catholic, but Livingstone relates that they were "held in high esteem" by their tenants.
When it came to estimation of length and area, our ancestors never had a problem in forgetting their "rulers". A foot measure was troig, the length of a person's foot; a yard was the length of a stride. For smaller measure, there was croma, a middle finger length, two nails, or the eighth part of a yard (ocht gcroma, slat, eight finger-lengths make a yard). An Chrom Chonaill was the name of a plague that afflicted Ireland in the reign of Diarmaid Mac Fearghusa Ceirrbheoil, and Crom was the name of an ancient Irish idol having a habitat in Magh Sleacht.
More commonly, crom is taken to mean "bent, bowed, curved, crouching, drooping". Croom, in Co Limerick (in earlier times occasionally rendered Crom) is Cromadh, the meaning of which is unclear - "Ni leir bri an ainm," according to Contae Luimnigh Imleabhair: 1 de Logainmneacha na hEireann. In other places where crom is the first element of a name, it is taken to mean "crooked". Crum is also a townland in the Co Fermanagh parish of Galloon.