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CODY, Archdeacon CODD

Originally all Codys were Archdeacons the patronymic Mac Oda assumed by that hibernicized Norman family in the course of time superseded it. now Cody is a numerous surname and Archdeacon rare. The name Cody,(in Irish Mac Ó Oda) derived from Odo le Ercedekne, whose family had settled in Co. Kilkenny at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Prominent in the history of that county until the final conquest of Ireland by England in the seventeenth century. The Omiond Deeds and the mediaeval ecclesiastical records have a many references to them as Lercedekne and later as Archdeken and Archdeacon. Archdeacon was often described as alias Mac0do, Mac Óde, MacCood, MacCoda or MacCody. Archdeacon survived quite extensively until the eighteenth century, even later some notable people have borne it: Nicholas Archdeacon was Bishop of Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora from 1800 to 1824, Mat~hew Archdeacon (c. 1800-1853) poet and novelist, and Joseph Archdeacon a leading Fenian and I.R.B. man in Liverpool in the 1860s. Archdeacon was the surname used by the families which settled in France after the Jacobite collapse: one became and remained leading merchants at Nantes, while the descendants of Edmond Archdeacon, who went to Dunkirk and attained high rank in the French navy, are still a family of importance there. In the 1659 Petty's "census" both Archdekin and Cody were listed among the principal Irish names, the former in the Co. Tipperary and the latter in the Baronies of Galmoy, Gowran, Iverk and Ida (Co. Kilkenny) and in the city of Kilkenny, and also in Co. Leix. The Tipperary Hearth Money Rolls name twenty-two families of Cody and three of Archdeacon. There were also twenty-two of Cuddihy, which is thought was a synonym of Cody though in modern Irish it is given as Ó Cuidighthigh: One of the name to attain fame was William Frederick Cody (184~-1917) known as Buffalo Bill was of Co. Tipperary origin. In the Elizabethan Fiants Codd as well as Cody and Coddy is used as a synonym of Archdekin. The Codds are a distinct family. The first in Ireland is said to have come over with Fitzstephen in 1169 and built Castletowncarne in the barony of Forth. Since, the Codds have long been closely associated with Co. Wexford: in the Elizabethan and Cromwellian wars they were on the English side but from the Williamite time on they have been Catholic and nationalist.