This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the grew.' 'Grew, a greyhound. North' (Halliwell). It is worth noticing, however, that my instances are from Yorkshire. Henry III in 1350 spent his Christmas at York. In the expenditure for that visit appears the provision of '7000 fowls, 1750 partridges, 125 swans, 115 'grues' (an unknown bird), 125 peacocks, 290 pheasants,' &c.; v. Miss Holt's paper in Christmas number of The Fireside, 1887. As every other bird in the list is a familiar surname to-day, there is no reason why the 'grue' should not be the same.

Johannes Grewe, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Johanna Grewe, 1379: ibid.

Agnes Grewe, 1379: ibid.

An earlier anglicized form of this, O'Mulcreevy, is a fair phonetic approximation of the original Irish Ó Maolchraoibhe. Mulcreevy, * however, is now extremely rare, if not extinct, having become Mulgrew in its original habitat, Co. Tyrone. This is no recent change, for O'Mulgrew and O'Mulgrue both occur in the Tyrone hearth money rolls (1664) in the barony of Dungannon, in which document the more usual form O'Mulcrieve also appears. The almost contemporary Petty “census” lists Mulcreevy as a “principal Irish name” in the barony of Dundalk and O'Mulcreve in nearby Orior, Co.

Armagh. The intermediate form O'Mulcrew not only occurs in the Elizabethan Antrim Fiants, but as early as 1428 we find one Rory O'Mulcrew in trouble with the Bishop of Dromore. Early seventeenth century documents relating to the Plantation of Ulster have both Mulcreeve and Mulcrew among the “meer Irish”.

At the present time Mulgrew is quite a numerous name in several counties of north-east Ulster.

Grew, which I take to be an abbreviation of Mulgrew, is not very numerous but is well-known in Co.

Armagh. Father Seosamh Ó Dufaigh in the Clogher Record (1959 p. 399) confidently suggests that Grue, which he says is common in the Clones district, is an anglicized form of Mac Riabhaigh; but surely Mulgrue is a more likely origin for Grue and Grew. It is also hard to accept Fr. O'Gallachair's suggestion that MacGrue is an intermediate form of the Tyrone name. MacGrew and MacGreo appear six times in Elizabethan Fiants, four of these being in the west of Ireland and the other two in south-east Leinster: not one is in Ulster. An isolated case in Ulster two centuries later does occur in the Derry wills (Drumrath, 1774). It should also be added that there is a surname Grew derived from the Old-French griu, a crane, but I have found no evidence that any of these settled in Ireland.

*It has also curiously been made Rice, see Irish Families, p. 250.

(Anglo-French-Latin) a nickname or sign-name from the Crane [Frenchgrue, Latin grus, gruis, a crane] (English) a Northern Dialectal variant of Grey, q.v. Grew is a Northern word for ‘grey­hound,’ which is pron. (in Lancashire,for example) grewnt or gruant— Why, yoad’n be os gaunt os o grewnt, on welly fammisht.—J. Collier, Works, p. 59.

The earlier anglicization, O’Mulcreevy, is nearer to original Irish Ó Maolcraoibhe. Mulgrew is numerous in north-east Ulster and the rarer abbreviation Grew is found in Co. Armagh. There is also an English surname Grew, derived from Old-French griu (a crane). SIF 117

The earlier anglicization, O’Mulcreevy, is nearer to original Irish Ó Maolcraoibhe. Mulgrew is numerous in north-east Ulster and the rarer abbreviation Grew is found in Co. Armagh. There is also an English surname Grew, derived from Old-French griu (a crane). SIF 117

1. A greyhound. North. (Old people in Sussex say grewhound.) 2. An old Scotticism for grove is greue. Jamieson.

From grew, a crane. compare Killigrew, Pettigrew.

(Br. and Welsh.) A crane.

(English), Greek; also Greyhound.

From the French, Grieu, Grout; in the Domesday Book, Greue; from the Old Norse, Gro; from the Swedish ,from the Danish, Groh; a personal name.