First found in Tirconnell in northern Ireland where they held a family seat from very ancient times.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, thousands of Irish families fled an Ireland that was forcibly held through by England through its imperialistic policies. A large portion of these families crossed the Atlantic to the shores of North America. The fate of these families depended on when they immigrated and the political allegiances they showed after they arrived. Settlers that arrived before the American War of Independence may have moved north to Canada at the war's conclusion as United Empire Loyalists. Such Loyalists were granted land along the St. Lawrence River and the Niagara Peninsula. Those that fought for the revolution occasionally gained the land that the fleeing Loyalist vacated. After this period, free land and an agrarian lifestyle were not so easy to come by in the East. So when seemingly innumerable Irish immigrants arrived during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s, free land for all was out of the question. These settlers were instead put to work building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. Whenever they came, Irish settlers made an inestimable contribution to the building of the New World. Early North American immigration records have revealed a number of people bearing the Irish name Cannon or a variant listed above, including: Edward and Ann Cannon who settled in Virginia in 1646; John Cannon settled in the Barbados in 1660; another John settled in Jamaica in 1716; Alexander, Andrew, Anthony, Barney, Bernard, Bridget, Charles, Cornelius, Daniel Dennis, Edward, Ennis, George, Hugh, James, John, Mannis, Michael, Neal, Owen, Patrick, Philip, Thomas and William Cannon all settled in Philadelphia Pa. between 1772 and 1866.

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