History of Killultagh (pt4)

SOME EXTRACTS
FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE
MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --

Edited by JAMES CARSON.

-- -- -- --

XCVIII.

-- -- -- --

HISTORY OF KILLULTAGH.

Rev. W. H. Dundas, B.D.

"Lisburn Standard,"
January 28, 1916.

(Continued.)

Ecclesiastical.

I have not yet found the name of the rector or vicar when the church was built, put Alex. Forbisson is said to have been rector in 1628. At the Royal Visitation of 1633 Chambers is given as curate (probably William, who was appointed vicar of Magheragall in 1635), and in 1637 James Hamilton was made rector. He lived in the troubled times when the Covenant was being forced on the people; and, according to Adair, a Presbyterian writer of the time, he with another "gave the greatest trouble to the Presbytery, as they obstinately adhered to their former courses and denied the Covenant and the authority of the Presbytery. Upon which these hirelings were suspended and thereafter restrained from the exercise of the ministry." The Cathedral register bears Silent testimony to this fact. It contains no entries of baptisms from December, 1646, to 1664. Hamilton was described in 1647 as "deprived by the Presbytery and lurking where he can be entertained" (List of Clergy of the Province of Armagh, Carte Papers). Rawdon said in 1657 that "Mr. Hamilton, who was presented to Blaris, is still alive, but doth not much look after it. I do not know what he may do."

In 1651 the Parliamentary Commissioners sent one Andrew Wyke, an Anabaptist, to preach the Gospel in the North. Adair, who with other Presbyterian ministers had a controversy with him at Antrim, describes him as void of human learning, never educated that way, but a tradesman and imprudent. However, he seems to have made a good impression in Lisnagarvy at first. "The Commissioners,"
writes Rawdon, "have sent us a rare minister, one Mr. Wyke, a most powerful preacher, so that the congregation at Lisnagarvy is very great and look upon it as a great mercy and providence." Wyke was a prime favourite with the Government, which looked after his interests well. When he first came the Privy Council wrote that he was to have a piece of land so that he could keep a horse and some cows, as an encouragement to other ministers and a provision for his family in case of death. Nest year he got £200 to build a house and 100 acres for a dairy and to provide corn for his family. In 1654 he obtained a portion of the lands of Dromore, not exceeding 100 acres, with a lease for seven years. In 1657 he was in receipt of a salary of £150 and the tithes of Blaris, Lambeg, and Derriaghy, and he had the tithes of Magheragall from 1651 to 1655. This was no bad provision for "a man of meek spirit," as the Commissioners described him. However, Mistress Dorothy Rawdon took a strong dislike to him. She wrote to her brother soon after her marriage in 1654 -- "We are arrived (at Hillsborough) anxious to get to our final destination at Lisnegarvy, which is not yet finished. We shall have to live in one end of it until it is finished. There is nothing I dislike here but Mr. Wilkes, whom I never can like. You would very much oblige me if you sent a good minister here, as it is hard to live by such a one as he." Her first impression may not have been far wrong, for Rawdon says neat year -- "Unless Mr. Wyke will do punctual duties besides preaching I do not see how he could be called by the people and presented by the patron." I fear there was no improvement, because in 1658 Rawdon kept the tithes of Lisnegarvy from him, and petitioned that they might go towards building a free school in the town. "Wkye went up with the Lord Chief Baron, but prevailed not, and now does not much account he can stay at Lisnegarvy." In 1658 he was moved to the united parishes of Donaghcloney and Tullylish, but next year the English inhabitants of Magheralin parish petitioned that he might be appointed their minister. We catch a last glimpse of Andrew Wyke in 1663 under changed circumstances; he with other Independent and Presbyterian ministers was put under guard at Carrickfergus for supposed complicity in Blood's Plot; and there we must leave him.

In 1662 Charles II. raised the church to the dignity of the Cathedral Church of Down and Connor, as a recognition of their loyalty. A letter from Rawdon to Conway in 1664 refers to difficulties which had arisen in this connection -- "It will, I think, be very hard to effect this Cathedral work, for I have received a letter last post from my Lord Primate, who says he finds this is not an age to build cathedrals since it is so hard a matter to get one removed; that the judges upon second consideration were of the opinion that the doing of it by bill was a diminution of the King's prerogative, and what they cannot do may be done by a short bill after. Lord Massereene, moreover, is in hopes if the bill passes of having something inserted for his benefit, he being tenant from the Bishop for the lands on which the ruinous walls stand. I think your lordship will not be very sedulous to undertake the work till further consideration."

At this time there was a tax called Hearth Money of 2s for every hearth or fireplace. The lists of those who paid it in 1666 and 1669 are in the Record Office, Dublin, and are most valuable as giving the names of the inhabitants at that time. In Magheragall parish there are 91 names, and only one was the happy possessor of two fireplaces -- Mr. Edward Breare, who, no doubt, lived in the principal house at Brookhill. I did not fully copy the list for Lisburn through  want of time, but I noticed that Lord Conway had 23 hearths; Wm. Clee, Captain Roma, Roger Jackson, and Wm. A. Hoole had four each.

In 1689 Killultagh was in the hands of James' army for several months. But the arrival of Schomberg in August soon changed the state of affairs. During the following winter he fixed his headquarters at Lisburn; his army encamped at a place known as "The Trench," about a mile from Drumbeg. It was surrounded by a high ditch and a deep fosse several  miles extent, which encircled the present properties of Trench House and Belvidere House. The horse and artillery encamped at Brookhill. The ground there was pallisaded, without a trench, and the stakes remained for a long time afterwards. A portion of the ground was eventually converted into a farmyard by "Commodore" Watson. The "Park" adjoining the camp lay in a direct line between Brookhill and the Trench, and was surrounded by a wall. It is still called the Park (U.J.A., vol. iv., Old Series).

In July following was won the Battle of the Boyne, which is noted in the Cathedral Register (in the section for marriages) as follows:-- "God Allm: fought for King W: and gave him a remarkable victory over ye Irish at the Boyne near Tradathye 1: day of July, in 4 days after Tradath and Dublin did yield without blood." (Tradath, Drogheda.)

Bishop Taylor's connection with Lisburn cannot be gone fully into here. He lived at Portmore, Hillsborough, and for some time in a house off the Magheraleave Road, on the left-hand side, part of which is still occupied and part is in ruins. He also resided in a house in Castle Street, where he died in 1667.

(To be Continued.)



(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 30 August 1918 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week for several years. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

History of Killultagh (pt3)

SOME EXTRACTS
FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE
MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --

Edited by JAMES CARSON.

-- -- -- --

XCVII.

-- -- -- --

HISTORY OF KILLULTAGH.

Rev. W. H. Dundas, B.D.

"Lisburn Standard,"
January 28, 1916.

(Continued.)

Sir George Rawdon -- Battle of Lisburn.

The most influential man in Killultagh in the 17th century was undoubtedly Sir George Rawdon. He was born at Rawdon Hall, near Leeds, and held office under the first Viscount Conway, who was Secretary of State. After his death Major Rawdon came to Ulster and took up the management of the estate. He was a prominent man in the confused politics of his time, an officer of the British Army in Ulster, and M.P. for Belfast in 1639. Although he was a Royalist at heart, he nevertheless was able to work with the Republicans and Cromwellians when they were in power. Probably some would cal him a trimmer, but trimmers may be useful in times of upheaval and ever-changing fortunes of parties. In 1639 he was employed as a Commissioner for administering the "Black Oath" to all the Scotchmen and women in the province, and says "he was never in so troublesome a business in his life." This was an oath of obedience and loyalty to Charles I., and was intended to defeat the National Covenant. In 1640 he got a lease from Conway of certain manors and lands which must have included Brookhill; it is said to have received its name from Sir Francis Brooke a colonel in Elizabeth's army. In the following year, on October 23rd, the great Rebellion began. There was much fighting in Killultagh, but having examined the Depositions in Trinity College Library I do not think there were many massacres; by this time the English were too strong in the district. Lisnegarvy became a plane of refuge for the flying Protestants, and on Sunday, November 28th, the Irish made a fierce attack upon it because it barred their way to Carrickfergus. Sir George Rawdon was in London on October 23rd, and at once left on hearing the news. The roads were almost impassable in many English shires, and it was three weeks before he reached a Scotch port. He landed at Bangor on November 26th, and got to Lisnegarvy late next evening, where he found the men drawn up in the market place expecting the rebels. There is a most interesting account of the affair in the Cathedral Vestry-book. The Irish leaders, Sir Phelemy O'Neill, Sir Conn Magennis, and Major-General Plunkett, met at Brookhill, where they seized a brick house of Mr. Rawdon's. They had eight or nine thousand men drawn from Armagh, Tyrone, Antrim and Down, and other counties in Ulster, with two field pieces and plenty of ammunition, having seised 50 barrels of powder in the castle at Newry, which they surprised the first night of the Rebellion. The defenders of Lisnegarvy consisted of five companies newly raised, "poor stript mea that had made their escape from the rebels." Lord Conway's troop of horse, a squadron of Lord Grandison's troop (the rest of them having been murdered at their quarters in Tanrogee), and about 40 of a country troop newly raised, and two small field pieces taken out of Lord Conway's house (State Papers). During the fight they, received some reinforcements, consisting of the Earl of Donegal's troop and a company of foot commanded by Captain Boyd, and also powder sent by post in mails in horseback and after the other from Carrickfergus. Scouts sent out discovered the enemy at Mass, but Immediately they quit their devotions and beat drums and marched directly to Lisnegarvy, "and before ten o'clock appeared drawn up on the warren and sent out two divisions of 6 or 7 hundreds apiece to compass the town, and pieced their field pieces on the highway to it before their body, and with them and their long fowling pieces killed and wounded several of our men as they stood in their ranks in the market place, and some of our musketeers were placed in windows to make the like return of shot to the enemy. A squadron of horse with some musketeers was commanded to face the division that was marching on the north side and keep them at a distance as long as they could, which was so well performed that the other division which marched by the river on the south side come in before the other, time enough to be well beaten by the horse, and more than 200 of them were slain in Bridge Street and in their retreat. By this time the enemy had forced in our small party on the north and was marching down Castle Street, which our horse (so) well charged there that at least 300 of the rebels were slain in the street and in the meadows behind the houses, whereby they were so much discouraged that for almost two hours their officers could not get any more parties to adventure a second assault upon us. About one o'clock fresh parties were issued out and beaten back as before, and so till night, when they fired all the town, which was in few hours turned to ashes, making a fresh assault in the confusion and heat of the fire." Captain Boyd and 25 or 26 men were slain; Sir George Rawdon was wounded and had his horse shot under him; also Captain St. John and Captain Burley and about 30 men. The slain of the enemy were found to be more than thrice the number of the defenders. About 10 or 11 o'clock their two generals quit their station and marched away in the dark, their two field pieces were thrown into the river, or in some moss-pit, and could never be found. In their retreat they burned Brookhill House, in which were Lord Conway's library and other goods to the value of £5,000 or £6,000, and they carried off or destroyed some 1,000 ozs. of ancient plate which has been placed there for safety (Young's Town Book of Belfast). The Cathedral record adds -- "It is to be remembered with much regret yt ye loss and overthrow did so enrage ye rebels yt for sevl days and weeks after they murder'd many hundreds of Protestants whom they had kept prisoners in ye Counties of Armagh, Tyrone, and other parts of Ulster."

The following Depositions referring to the 1641 Massacre bear on this subject:--

Margett Erwin, living at Brookhill, in Co. Antrim, aged 30 years or thereabouts, deposed -- "At he beginning of the Rebellion the Lord of Aghadowey, in the Co. of Antrim, with one Mr. Houghton and her master, being fearful of the enemy, left her with his children and went to Lisnegarvy, and most of his fears was of Cullo M'Nogher, because there was some falling out between them formerly. She heard Cullo M'Nogher, who made his braggs and boasted, and swore that if he had Mr. Houghton there he would do the like to him, and that he did not care for the killing of any Englishman -- whelps, and said that he had been at Lisnegarvy with Sir Phel., and that he mist his brother, but if his brother was lost he would kill Mr. Houghton's children and dash their heads against the stones; but one James M'Gilmurry answered him and said he should not kill the poor innocent children, but he said he would for they were of the English blood. This examinee further saith that a little after the defeat the enemy got at Lisnegarvy that there came to the house the said Cullo M'Nogher, Edm. M'Gilmurry, and others, and the said Edmund took this examinee out of doors and told her that they had been killing five women and two boys between Ballinderry and Glenavy by their own houses, who said he was sorry for a gritty youth who was there killed with flaxen hair; he made such a pitiful cry and the youth ran away, but the they followed him and knocked him down and killed him, and hanged the women, one being Jane Carudders and (?) Ed. Hogg's wife Margarett Cassee, Ed. Hogg's -----, and Jennett Bell, and further saith not."

Turlogh Marchy, of Ballinderry, deposed -- "John Carudders and Edw. Hogg, two of his neighbours, told him that their two wives were killed and two women more the first winter in the Rebellion at Ballyelwash, in the parish of Ballinderry, and that Owen M'Irelany and Nellie M'Irelany and two of the Davyes and others were actors in the said murders." (I cannot identify this place; it appears as "Ewaysh," and was part of Sir Fulke Conway's property, at an Inquisition held at Carrickfergus in 1625.)

In 1646 we find Major Rawdon buying horses in England for Colonel Hill's cavalry in Ulster; he paid £7 10s apiece, and was allowed 30s apiece for taking them from London to Liverpool. In 1649 He got a new lease of Brookhill, now rebuilt, for sixty years, from Lord Conway, in return for his services, with the six townlands of Ballymoney, alias Kilcorig, Ballynadolly, Ballyeloughy, Ballycarrickmaddy, Ballycloughmelough, and Ballymeoner (Ballymave), also 50 acres of Aghenahogh and Knocknedawney lying outside the park pale, and 80 acres of the townland of Magheragall, together with the water mill or millstead, and free liberty to build up a watermill or windmill upon some or any of them. Rent to be 52s (an acre) a year; after the death of George Rawdon to be raised to £80. He does not appear to have lived much there, as in 1654 he was getting a house built in Lisburn, having married in that year as his second wife Dorothy Conway, sister of the second Viscount.

In 1657 Lady Conway was in ill-health, and was in search of a very curious remedy which was to be made from the moss which grew on dead men's skulls. Rawdon was asked to procure it for her, and in June he wrote -- "I have sent almost all Ulster over for moss of slain men's skull and have got none yet but two. I expect better accounts shortly of the matter from others. There is enough in churchyards, but these are not valued as to our Lady's purpose by our chirurgeons" (surgeons). Next month, however, he had got a good proportion of most. Dobbs says (1683) that in a churchyard on an island in Lough Begg (near Toome) may be had stores of moss that grows on dead men's skulls, useful in staunching blood and said to be a great ingredient in making sympathetic powder.

In the same year he acted on a Commission appointed by the Cromwellians for rearranging parish boundaries, so that each minister might have £100 or at least £80 a year, and yet not so large that any part should be above three miles from the church. The Presbyterians, however, were suspicious of Rawdon and esteemed him "one of the horns against the Kirk." The effect of the recommendations of these Commissioners would have been to add a part of Magheragall to Lisburn, a part of Ballinderry to Glenavy, and to make a new church and parish called Lackey (near Megaberry) for the remainder of Magheragall, Ballinderry, Aghalee, Aghagallon, and the Chapellry of Magherameske; but the restoration of Charles II. in 1660 saved these parishes from extinction. Rawdon was then summoned to London, and for his services he secured a grant of several thousand acres in the territory of Moira which had belonged to the O'Laverys. He was elected M.P. for Carrickfergus, and was made a baronet with the title of Sir John Rawdon of Moyra House.

(To be Continued.)


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 23 August 1918 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week for several years. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

History of Killultagh (pt2)

SOME EXTRACTS
FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE
MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --

Edited by JAMES CARSON.

-- -- -- --

XCVI.

-- -- -- --

HISTORY OF KILLULTAGH.

Rev. W. H. Dundas, B.D.

"Lisburn Standard,"
January 28, 1916.

(Continued.)

The Irish in Killultagh.

Before passing to the British settlers I shall give from the State Papers a list (about 1640) of the Irish in Killultagh -- Neale Galt O'Neale, formerly Lord, who married first a daughter of M'Quinlin, Lord of the Route, second, O'Neale's daughter, Una ny Neale; third, the Lord of Iveagh's daughter, Rose ny Magennis. The following, except that they paid a token of rent, had freedom of Killultagh: -- The Magillmuryes, MacRories, Hamels, McTrealawnies, Heaghians, Greemes, Hillins, MacVeaghs, Macavagans. Lists follow (1) of the true inhabitants of Killultagh: -- The Magillreawies, McShanes, Lawries, O'Mulhallons, McQuaids, McRobins, and others (sic). (2) A note of those that are but strangers of other countries dwelling in this country of Irish: -- McCaines, Magrues, Magowrans, McStranogs, Makeaghrakes, O'Doones, Makeaghalies, O'Deenans, O'Quins, McGeeans, O'Mildownes, O'Kanes, Tallons, Gribins, O'Mullcrewy, with their strange, followers -- the O'Closes, O'Lorkans, O'Forfyes, O'Connorys, O'Conwaeles, O'Monans, Mageralls, McRories, O'Mulveanies, O'Prontyes, Marlies, McVoloonyes (?), McDonnells, Hinneries, MoQooicks, Flannegans, Maghagans.

Killultagh was a territory by itself and belonged neither to Antrim nor Down until 1605. At first it was proposed to joint it to Down and then divide the latter into two counties, butt on account of the Lagan separating it from Down it was afterwards felt that the Sheriff of Antrim could more conveniently look after the interests of the inhabitants, and in that year it was joined to Antrim. At this time it is said that there was no bridge over the Lagan, though one is shown, on a map about twenty years later. The parishes of Killultagh were often reckoned in the Diocese of Down until even a later date.

Sir Foulke Conway's

family belonged originally to Flintshire, in Wales. His father had purchased the Manor of Ragley, in Warwickshire, about the end of Elizabeth's reign, and it is supposed that most of the settlers, came from those parts, sailing from Bristol. There was a tradition among the people that their fathers came from the "apple counties," and certainly the love of orchards is much more marked in the districts settled by English than in those planted by the Scotch. There were also some settlers from Wales, and many came from Yorkshire at a later period with George Rawdon. A letter written in 1697 says:-- "There is in the North of Ireland an estate which was formerly Lord Conway's. It was first purchased by Sir Foulke Conway for about £500. The rent roll is now about £5,000 a year. The land does not lie upon the sea, the ground is very indifferent, 'twas altogether a wood, as the name denotes; and yet in the memory of men now living has been thus improved by a colony of Yorkshire people and others brought over and settled by Lord Conway and managed by Sir George Rawdon" (Ulster Journal of Archæology, vol. iii., old series).

Ulster at the Plantation was what Canada is at present -- a country which emigrants were invited to enter and clear and make productive. There were pamphlets, too, setting out its attractions, though in rather different terms from those of to-day, as the following extract from Blennehassett's pamphlet (1610) shows:-- "Art thou a gentleman that taketh pleasure in hunt? The fox, the wolf, and the woodkerne (i.e., the wild Irish) do expect thy coming."

Sir Foulke took a prominent part in the affairs of the country. In the absence of Lord Chichester he acted as Governor of Carrickfergus and a great part of Antrim and Down, and as Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet on Lough Neagh, or Lough Sidney as it was also called. There is a good story told by Dobbs of how Sir Moses Hill entertained him on one occasion at Chichester Castle, the ruins of which can be seen at Whitehead. Hill having invited the Governor of Carrickfergus (Sir Foulke) to the country, "ordered his butler the night before that he should, when they came to hard drinking, have some bottles of water in readiness for him, and ply the Governor with wine. The butler (being an Irish boy), instead of observing his master's commands, when the hard time came gave His master wine and the water to the Governor, so as Sir Moses could not rise out of his chair when the Governor took leave of him, and thanked him for his meat more than his drink, which put Sir Moses into a great passion, not apprehending then how he bad been served; but next morning, examining his boy, he was sensible that he drank wine and the Governor water. And threatening to have the butler hanged, he received no other answer from the latter but an oath, and that he knew no reason why he that had paid for the wine should drink water, and the Governor drink wine that had paid nothing for it. Which answer it seemed served the boy's turn, for I myself have seen him, a little odd but brisk man, and lived eight or ten years after the breaking out of the Rebellion of 1641."

Sir Foulke Conway died in 1624, having seen the Church of St. Thomas, now the Cathedral of Christ Church, Lisburn, opened for divine service in 1623. He was succeeded by his brother Sir Edward, Baron Conway of Ragley, who got the title of Viscount of Killultagh in 1637 and built the Castle of which the remains still exist in the Castle Gardens. His son Edward, the second Viscount, succeeded in 1630 and died in 1655; and his son, also named Edward, who built the castle at Portmore, died in 1683. The property then passed by his will to Popham Seymour, who took the name of Conway, and was attainted by the Irish Parliament in 1689; and afterwards to his brother Francis, the ancestor of the Marquises of Hertford.

Bishop Taylor and Philip Tandy.

The first Viscount also established a school at Lisnegarvy. Writing to this son in 1629 he says:-- "The school is not yet too full of scholars for one man to manage, even though he does the work-of the church also. If God prosper it, I will see that it is given the whole time of one man." His advice to his son was very concise and to the point:-- "Be just in all matters of the Church, and endeavour to increase my revenue as best you can." In another letter the same year he says:-- "With regard to the parson of Blaris' claim for tithe within Killultagh, take advice of counsel on it at any cost. I want to provide you with a Bible and a bell." There are many references in the Calendars of State Papers to disputes with various clergy about the tithes, and an examination of the originals in London might reveal many interesting particulars.

The schoolmaster referred to above may have been Philip Tandy, who held the position in 1635. He had charge also of Lord Conway's valuable library, as a letter to Rawdon shows (1635):-- "I am setting Lord Conway's books in alphabetical order, and give all the time to them that I can spare from my school. I classify them also by volumes and sciences. In the Christmas holidays I unchested the chested books and put them in the drawing-room, where they are often aired by good fires. I lately tried to have an usher (assistant teacher), but my school is not large enough to maintain one." Possibly he may have been curate as well. In 1637 he was appointed vicar of Magheragall in succession to William Chambers, and vicar of Glenavy in 1638. He probably held both together, for in 1633 Meredict Gwilliams was vicar of Magheragall, Ballinderry, and Glenavy -- surely a sufficiently large area for one man! The incomes were very small; that of Magheragall amounted to £10 a year. In the Commonwealth Papers he is noted as receiving a salary of £60 a year from 1658 as schoolmaster in Lisnagarvy, in addition to his tithe. The mention of the; tithe shows that he was still in charge of some parish, though it could hardly be Magheragall, where the Inquisition held at Antrim 1557 found that Mr. Andrew Weeke received the tithes from 1650 "until these last two years that Mr. Gellis, a preaching minister, supplied the cure thereof and received the vicarial tithes. Of late Mr. Moore, a preaching minister in Sallary, hath supplied the cure."

Thomas Haslem was also schoolmaster in 1655, and in receipt of £40 salary; he held the position as well as the curacy of the Cathedral for many years after the Restoration.

William Chambers, writing in 1655, has this mysterious sentence in a postscript: "Mr. Tandy's flame is quenched." What is the meaning of it? We meet him again in 1658, when a Mr. Hyrne writes: "I do not quite like Mr. Tandy, and hope you will get Dr. Taylor's opinion on him before you grant him what I hear he desired in his letter." Major Rawdon, writing from Hillsborough, says: "Dr. Taylor preached excellently this morning. Mr. Tandy is also considered a rare preacher and is liked in the parish." Dr. Taylor was the famous Jeremy Taylor, afterwards Bishop of Down and Connor; and in connection with him Tandy made the great mistake of his life. He joined in a charge against Dr. Taylor of having christened Mr. Breare's child with the sign of the Cross -- i.e., of having used the baptismal service appointed in the Prayerbook. It was a serious accusation in those days, as is shown by the fact that a Bishop of Durham was imprisoned for six months about the same time for using this same service. A warrant for his arrest was issued to the Governor of Carrickfergus, and he was sent to Dublin for trial, but his powerful friends appear to have been able to save him. Mr. Breare, here mentioned, lived, I believe, at Brookhill. Dr. Taylor's own reference to this affair is as follows:-- "I fear my time in Ireland is likely to be short, for a Presbyterian and a madman have informed against me as a dangerous man to their religion and for using the sign of the Cross in baptism. The worst event of the information which fear is my return into England." Evidently there were two accusers, and It is open to debate whether Tandy was the Presbyterian or the madman. Probably he was the Presbyterian, for Lord Conway writes that "Mr. Tandy may have enough of these (Anabaptists and Quakers) to set himself against without troubling his peaceable and best neighbours." Conway felt the charge as if it were a personal injury. "I hope when you come over you will take him (Tandy) off from persecuting me, since none knows better than yourself whether I deserve the same at his hands. The quarrel is, it seems, because he thinks Dr. Taylor is more welcome at Hillsborough than himself." Conway, however, treated him very generously afterwards, and the State Papers show that the Viscount employed him as an agent till his death, and he even made provision for his wife and children. Tandy mentioned later that he had a "poor little £30 a year for two small agencies," and delicately hints to Lord Conway that he occasionally spent a little money in the transaction of his affairs. Some of us find a difficulty at times in bringing a letter to a neat conclusion, but I think the following could hardly be surpassed:-- "'Tis now midnight, and (forgive me, my Lord) I am weary, but not of being your Lordship's most humble servant." He died between 1664 and 1666.

(To be Continued.)


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 16 August 1918 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week for several years. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

History of Killultagh

SOME EXTRACTS
FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE
MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --

Edited by JAMES CARSON.

-- -- -- --

XCV.

-- -- -- --

HISTORY OF KILLULTAGH.

Rev. W. H. Dundas, B.D.

"Lisburn Standard," January 28, 1916.

The name Killultagh is used in three senses. First, it is the name of a townland in the parish of Ballinderry containing less than 700 acres, the fuller form of which is Derrykillultagh. Secondly, there was the territory of Killultagh, an old term which is found long before the division into baronies and counties. It may be defined as the district lying between the River Lagan and Lough Neagh; it contained the parishes of Magheragall, Ballinderry, Aghagallon, Magheramesk, and the portion of Blaris north of the Lagan (Reeves). Sir Foulke Conway received a grant of this territory about 1608 A.D.; And the lands of Derrievolgie, with other portions, were afterwards added to the Conway property, so that it included most of the adjoining parishes of Derriaghy, Lambeg, Glenavy, Camlin, and Tullyrusk. This property was called the Manor of Killultagh, afterwards known as the Hertford estate. It corresponds roughly to the Barony of Upper Massereene, of which name various explanations have been given. Sir Phelim O'Neill's chaplain writes it "Massereghna," which is said to mean the "Queens Hill;" Dobbs (Description of County Antrim, 1683) says: "It is Irish Base O Reen, some Irish kings daughter or princess being drowned in that river;" yet again Massereene is said to mean "the beautiful portion" (Dubourdieu's County Antrim).

Killultagh is in Irish Coill Ultagh, the forest or wood of Ulster; Ulster being here used in its narrower sense as corresponding to the counties of Antrim and dying. There is ample evidence that it deserved its name. Sir G. Carew describes it as "a safe boggy and woody country upon Lough Eaugh" (Neagh); and Sir Henry Bagenall speaks of it as "a very fast countrey full of wood and bogg" (1586). There was a note on the corner of an old map of Down (1590) which reads: "Alonge this river (the Lagan) be ye space of 26 myles groweth much woodes, as well hokes (oaks) for tymber as hother woode, which may be brought in the bale of Cragfergus (Carrickfergus) with bote or drage" (Ulster Journal of archæology, vol. iii., old series). South of the Lagan lay a similar district called the territory of Killwarlin, which included the parish of Hillsborough and the neighbouring part of Blaris, Moira, Dromore, Dromara, and Annahilt. Kilwarlin belonged to a branch of the Magennis family called the MacRories. In 1575 Ever MacRory made a surrender of it to Queen Elizabeth and took out a patent for the same, which was in the possession of George Stephenson, Esq., of Lisburn, in 1847, whose maternal ancestors were of this race (Hills MacDonnall's of Antrim).

The O'Neills.

Killultagh belonged to a branch of the O'Neills, the descendants of Hugh Boye O'Neill. It contained three forts -- Inisloughin (near Trummery House, which, by the way, was built by Captain Spencer about 1652); Portmore, besides Lough Neagh; and one on a mound above the Lagan close to Lisnagarvy. There is a very interesting account of the march of Shane O'Neill against the MacDonnell's of N. Antrim in 1565, part of which I shall quote:-- "He kept his Easter at Fedan (now Fews in the South of County Armagh), when he took his journey Tuesday in said Easter week towards the Skotts, which day he rode xvi. miles and camped that night at Dromemoer (Dromore). The next morning he cut all the Passes or Woods that lay in his way from thence (called Kyllewarline of the M'Cuilin's and Kylultagh of Claneboye, which was xii. mile long) that 10 men may go in a rank, till he came within Claneboye a mile beyond the Pass and camped that night at my Moynnimrock. The morrow being Thursday, he rode towards Gallantry, a mile from Edenduffcarrig (Shane's Castle), where he camped the night" (MacDonnell's of Antrim).

Killultagh in the 16th century was the scene of continual warfare between the Irish and English. In 1515 a proposal was made that fresh English colonists should be sent to Ulster "in order that all the noble issue of Hugh Boye O'Neill be avoided clere and expelled from the Green Castell (opposite Greenore) to the Bann, and be assyneyd and sufferyd to have their habytation and dwelling in the great forest Kylultagh and the Phewx, which habytation and places they hathe and dwellyth often before nowe by compulsion." At a later period the English Government tried to arrange terms, but the O'Neills were very slippery to handle. In 1592 Cormock O'Neyll McBryan was the Captain or Chief of Killultagh, and was desirous of surrendering his estate to Queen Elizabeth and receiving it again to hold in the English fashion. But in 1593 Mr. Solicitor Wilbraham, then newly returned with the Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas from the Ulster Circuit, writes:-- "We find less obedience and appearance than was the last year. Cormock MacNeill, Captain of Killultagh; Neale McBrian Fertagh, Captain of the Ardes; and McCartan possess their several countries by tnistry and seek no letters patent so long as they may ravin at their pleasure upon the tenants; in no place in this country are the tenants permitted to depart from their lords but at the lord's pleasure, and so thralled in misery. . . . In all our Assizes we endeavoured to manifest to the rude people the merciful proceedings of her Majesty in trials of life for their offences by indifferent jurors which they seemed to admire and embrace." The same year there is a report of "a great prey taken from the Captain of Killultagh." In 1596 Sir Ed. Moore and other Commissioners were at Newry, to draw in the woodmen of Killultagh and Kilwarlin, but none of the woodmen came in to them. It appears from a document of 1597 that some of the chiefs were quite willing to surrender their lands and take them again to hold under Elizabeth, but they were in very difficult position. The English officers and governors did not desire any such settlement, because they used to receive 40, 50, or 200 cows in one place, from the Irish, apparently as a kind of blackmail. Neither did the supreme lord of the Irish, O'Neill Earl of Tyrone, wish it, for it would overthrow his power and make the inferior chiefs depending on her Majesty alone; "he hath feared this course, and hath therefore suppressed all them who attempted the same. He murdered for this matter the Lord of Killultagh" (Cal. State papers). Cormock, who met this fate, was succeeded by his son, Bryan McArt. The latter joined his uncle, Hugh O'Neill, in his rebellion, but was defeated by Sir A. Chichester, and in 1602 the fort of Inisloughin was taken. That was the end of power of the O'Neills in these parts.

In 1605 Conn O'Neill agreed to surrender one-third of his lands to Sir Hugh Montgomery and one-third to Sir James Hamilton in return for their assistance in securing for him the King's pardone. Killultagh was included in Hamilton's portion, and soon after it was transferred to Sir Foulke Conway, who was in possession in 1608. The outlawed Irish, however -- the woodkerne or tories, as they were called -- lurked in the forests and bogs, and naturally tried to hold or get back some of what had been their own. About 1605 it was reported that "Killultagh by reason of strength of bogs and woods was the shelter and lurking place of most of the idle men, thieves, murderers, lawless kerne (with entrance of Bande, i.e., the Bann), which at present are not free of them." In 1610 Killultagh and Braslowe (i.e., Clanbrassil, the district about the mouth of the Upper Bann were it enters Lough Neagh) are described as "a strong fortress, a den of rebels, and as thievish a country as any in Ulster." And two years after the British settlers in County Armagh complained of the robberies daily committed by the kernes of Killultagh and the other wooded countries around.

In this forest there were wild deer in abundance, and also wolves. There are many references to the latter in the Conway Correspondence. On one occasion (1657) George Rawdon, Viscount Conway's agent, was forwarding some dogs to Chester, "which," he says, "it is a pity to send them out of the country. They have been above the Collen and about Mr. Dynes and had some courses with wolves which exceedingly infest the country." I believe there is a place called the Wolf-Bog in the neighbourhood of Colin or the White Mountain, probably because it was a haunt of these animals. Rawdon writes a little later: "I have two more that are kept to hunt the wolf upon every occasion when he commits spoil, and then the people come still to borrow them out." In 1665 they were troublesome and other place -- "the keeper and gunmen are watching the wolves that haunt the Tunny Park almost every night." It would be interesting to know when the last wolf was killed in Killultagh. An old parishioner of Magheragall told me a quaint story concerning one: I give it exactly as I recorded it at the time. "J. H.'s mother lived at Horner's Hill. A wolf once came limping and holding up its paw. She took a thorn out of its foot. Next morning a fine heifer was on the street. No one ever claimed it. Some people said that the wolf brought it." It reminded me of Androcles and the lion.

A memorandum on the Cess of Killultagh (1659) gives the total area as 29,984 acres, of which less than half (14,166 acres) was arable land. The rest consisted of great mosses by the lough side (2,038 acres), other mosses on mountains (1,922 acres), unprofitable land on mountains not 6d per acre (4,320 acres), other mountainous land under 12d (3,120 acres), woodland by lough side set at same rate (4,417 acres).

(To be Continued.)


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 9 August 1918 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week for several years. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

Bishop Jeremy Taylor

SOME EXTRACTS
FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE

MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

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Edited by JAMES CARSON.

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XCIV.

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BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR.

"Belfast News-Letter,"
Sept. 14, 1871.

The name of Jeremy Taylor, son of a Cambridge hairdresser, will live with the language in which was written that brilliant series of Divinity he left to the world, but little, however, is known of the inner life of the famous Bishop of Down and Connor. More than a century and a half after his death, the celebrated divine, Reginald Heber, wrote a sketch of his life, which was much read, and though superior in style to any previous work on the on the same subject, and abounding in passages of high eloquence, it is very abscure in those points of Bishop Taylor's history in which his admirers feel so much interest. Of his early career we have still to learn some details connected with his doings while private chaplain to Archbishop Laud; and how little is known of his persecution in the days of the Protectorate!

But strongest of all is the barrenness of that chapter of Taylor's history that professes to tell of his life and labours during the years he performed the duties of lecturer to the loyalists on Lord Conway's estate at Killultagh. That appointment he received through the influence of his friend, the famous John Evelyn, and his equally attached patron, Lord Edward Conway. About the close of June, 1658, Dr. Taylor left London with his wife and family, and, after various perils by sea and land, he arrived at Portmore, where in the wing of the ancient fortress erected there by O'Nial, and which for more than one hundred years had stood sentinel on the borders of Lough Neagh, a suite of apartments had been prepared far him by Lord Conway's agent. Nothing could have exceeded the romantic beauty of Taylor's residence, and there it was that, comparatively humble as was his position, he spent some of the happiest days of his life. From that period until January, 1661, when he was raised to the Episcopal Bench as Bishop of Down and Connor, we find hardly any record of his movement beyond the mere fact that he visited Lisburn every week, and delivered a lecture there in the church where the Cromwellian soldiers were wont to attend worship. But that was the busiest time of his ministerial existence. He preached every Sunday to the loyalists in the ruins of the sacred edifice from which Kill-ul-Tagh took its name: he lectured in Ballinderry, Soldierstown, and Derriaghy once a fortnight; and during his spare time toiled hard in the composition of his works on Divinity. The absence of lengthened details in the biography of Bishop Taylor is the more to be regretted when such abundant material for that purpose was to be found in the public records of the day. And besides those documents, there is the highly interesting work, entitled "The Rawdon Papers," published many years ago, abounding in passages relating to Taylor. There is also "Evelyn's Diary," a book that reads like one of Scott's novels, and in which are graphic sketches of a most exciting period of national history, many of these especially referring to the greatest divine of the seventeenth century. But so little use have his biographers made of such sources of information, that we are told little more of him that if his diocese had been seated in Timbuctoo.

We have said that Dr. Taylor was appointed Bishop of Down and Connor in January, 1661, and soon afterwards he left Portmore and went to reside at a handsome cottage which his patron, Lord Conway, had erected for him in one of the most picturesque spots that could well be conceived. Bishop Taylor's country house is still standing in Magheralave, and the little study, with its oak wainscoting and handsome windows, as shown to us some years ago, are in themselves sufficient to call forth many recollections of the great man who has been rightly called the Shakespeare of Theology. Besides this cottage, the bishop had a town house, situated in Castle Street, Lisburn, nearly opposite the entrance to the Cathedral. His favourite son died in a few months after he got settled at Magheralave, and was buried in the ground attached to Lisburn Church, but no stone marks the spot where moulder the ashes of the favourite child. This event gave a sad shock to the already weakened constitution of the bishop; still he entered on his enlarged sphere of duty determined to do the work effectually. Lord Conway had then commenced to build a castle at Portmore, and on the site of the ancient stronghold already alluded to. This magnificent pile was more like a fortress than a nobleman's mansion. The stables alone occupied a range of one hundred and fifty feet. These were two stories high. Storage to contain provisions for one year's consumption of two troops of horse was amply provided for, as well as accommodation for all the soldiers. At present not one stone of the castle is to be seen. Some portion of the stables remains and part of the garden wall, but the deerpark, with its two thousand acres of land, has long since been turned to better purposes than feeding an antlered herd. In the vicinity of the castle, and close by the shores of Ireland's splendid lake, a summer residence was erected for Bishop Taylor, and there, during the remaining years of his life, he spent a part of each season. Lord Conway and his lady resided at the castle for a great portion of each autumn. And during these times it was usual for them to visit all parts of the estate. His lordship took great delight in marking the progress of improving tenants, and never failed to encourage by something more than mere laudation every work of agricultural advancement. Bishop Taylor occupied a farm of forty Plantation acres, and while his friends remained at Portmore he was always a favoured guest at Lord Conway's table. From this time he continued to labour diligently in his diocese; he visited every parish, and occasionally preached in some of the churches; but how few of these are standing at this day! The ancient Temple of Down exhibits no assaults of time; Lisburn Cathedral yet rears its head in lusty strength; but the old Corporation Church of Belfast, with its high-peaked, straw-covered roof, and castellated gables, is only known in history.

The income of the Bishop of Down and Connor was large, and his household outlay moderate, and all his savings were invested either in works of improvement or deeds of charity. He had the Cathedral of Down completely remodelled, he spent large sums on that of Lisburn, and the other places of worship under his control were not forgotten. The See of Dromore was then one of the least valuable in point of income in Ireland. Its venerable church had fallen into decay, and although that See had no immediate claim on him, he undertook to repair the sacred edifice, and had all the work done at his own private cost. But, unfortunately for the Church of which he was so bright an ornament, his end rapidly approached. On the 24th of July, 1667, he caught fever while attending one of his town parishioners, and in his own study in Castle Street, Lisburn, expired after a few days' illness. His last words were, "Bury me in Dromore," and, in accordance with that desire, his remains were, interred there on the 6th of August, 1667. None of his sons survived him; but his widow and daughters lived long afterwards. Edward Harrison, of Magheralave, who sat for Lisburn in two Parliaments, was his grandson; and William Todd Jones, who represented the same borough from 1783 to 1971 [sic], was also a descendant of the famous bishop.

Edmund Gosse, in his Life of Jeremy Taylor (1904), introduces some new matter, and disposes of several ancient fictions regarding the history of his family.

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ANNALS OF ULSTER -- 1790-1798,
by Samuel M'Skimin.
Edited by E. J. M'Crum -- 1906.

This work was first published in 1849 under the title "Annuls of Ulster, or Ireland Fifty Years Ago." It again appeared in 1853 as "A History of the Irish Rebellion." The present edition, 404 closely-printed pages, contains an introduction, notes, and appendix by Mr. M'Crum, and a biographical sketch of M'Skimin.

Samuel M'Skimin was the well-known historian of Carrickfergus. He was born in the year 1775, and died in 1843. Being 23 years of age when the Rebellion broke out, and having had personal knowledge of much that he describes, he must be regarded as an original authority.

The volume only deals with the Rebellion in so far as it relates to Ulster, and in its pages will be found a vivid and minute account of the rise and doings of the United Irishmen in the North, chiefly in the County of Antrim, and the events that led up to the disastrous year of '98.

From the abrupt manner in which the Annals terminate it is evident that Mr. M'Skimin had not completed his narrative at the time of his death. The Battle of Ballynahinch, and Henry Monro, of Lisburn, are merely mentioned, and no particulars whatever given regarding them.

Referring to Lisburn and the events connected with the Rebellion, it is stated:

In the towns of Belfast, Lisburn, and Carrickfergus the disaffected were awed into submission by their numerous garrisons, yet several zealous adherents from these towns passed into the country and were actively engaged in the insurgent ranks.

(Next weak: History of Killultagh, by Rev. Mr. Dundas, B.D.)


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 2 August 1918 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week for several years. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)