The people of the area

FROM RUSHE, HIST. OF MONAGHAN FOR 200 YEARS

HEARTHMONEY ROLL

Taxpayers

Denomination                      1663                                       1665

Parish of Clontibret

Moy Itra (Meagh)                Nicholas Sheridan

Moy Otra (Meagh)              Thomas O Corrigan             William O Cleryan

Mullagarry                            Loughlin O Connellan       

                                                                                                Patrick Mc Shane

                                                                                                Hugh Mc Crahen

                                                                                                James Treanor

                                                                                                Patrick O Flanagan

Dromore                                Toole O Clerian

Anniebe                                 James O Duffy

Crossmore                             Bryan Oge O Duffy            Phelim Mc Goeugh

                                                Bryan O Mourigan              Bryan O Cleryan

                                                                                              Patrick O Flanagan

Glasdrumman East             Patrick mc Revoy

Ballinacrene                         Bryan Mc Mahon

Downs                                    Patrick Mc Nally                  Bryan Mc Adam

                                                                                              Bryan O Duffy

Carrickanure                        Loughlin O Mulligan          Art Mc Mahon

(Carrickamuck)                                                                 Donogh Mc Mahon

Letteragh                              Patrick O Brinan

Moysnaght                           Teige Mc Ilbreedy               Teage Mc Ilbreedy

                                                                                              Connor Kynan

                                                                                              Bryan Mc Mahon

Letterbane                            Patrick Mc Ilbreedy

Listror                                    Patrick O Connolly

Creeve                                   Manus O Clary                    Torlogh O Mulligan

                                                                                               Bryan Mc Neney

Ardlunty                                Cormack O Duffy

Avelbane                               Torlogh O Mulligan            Patrick Roe O Duffy

                                                                                              Gilmyall O Cleryan

                                                                                              Nicholas Flannigan

Avelreagh                              Neale O Mulligan

Kilcrone                                 Patrick O Duffy

Gallagh                                  Bryan O Duffy

                                                Nicholas O Duffy

Drumbeo                               Neale O Duffy

                                             Owen Mc Philipp

Shanmullagh                        Patrick mc Cabe

Crossaghy                            Hugh Gilmurry

Ballagh                                  Hugh O Duffie

Pullans                                   Brian O Duffy

Tonagh                                  Patrick Mc Murtagh

Ballygreeney                        Torlgh Oge O Duffy

Cleran                                   Cormack O Duffy               Cormack O Duffy

                                             Patrick O Boylan                Owen O Duffy

                                                                                               Patrick O Boylan

                                                                                               Owen Mc Kynian

Grenan   *                              Shane O Clerian

Tirmacmoe                           John Richards

Creeve                                   Owen Moder O Duffy        Torlogh O Mulligan

                                             Owen O Hugh                     Torlogh  O Connolly

Bryanlitter                                                                           Philip O Duffy

                                                                                             Torlogh Roe O Duffy

Cornahoe Lower                  Patk. Boy Flanigan              Hugh O Flanigan

(Mullenchorney)                                                                Brian O Carbery

                                                                                             James O Carbery

Cavancreevy                                                                     Teage O Mohan

                                                                                              Bryan O Lucheran

Feddans                                                                               Hugh O Kynan

                                                                                               Patrick Reagh O Duffy

Glennyhorn                                                                          Brynan O Morigan

                                                                                               Laughlin O Brynan

                                                                                               Laughlin O Flanigan

Carlagan N.                                                                          Loughlin O Conolan

                                                                                               Phelime Mc Geough

Killwolycrininy                                                                     Owen Mc Mahan

                                                                                               Patrick O Treanor

                                                                                               Patrick Mc Ardell

Bryanlitter                                                                             Hugh O Duffy

                                                                                               Ross Mc Cabe

                                                                                               Philip O Murtagh             

*Re GRENAN

Shirley in Lucas Pedigree has:Francis Lucas Esq. of Grenan will proved 2 May 1759. 2nd son of Edward who was MP for County in 1768. ,

HEARTHMONEY ROLL

BARONY OF MONAGHAN         PARISH OF MONAGHAN

1663                                                           1665

Castleshane                       Robert Moore 3

                                             Christopher  Hanlan

                                             Patrick Dogherty

                                            Tige Fearty

Tiravray                              Owen Mc Geoghan             Patrick Mc  Mahon

                                            Henry Mc Geoghan            Edmond O Connolly

                                                                                           Owen mc Geaghry

Cordufflisbane                 Bryan Gernon

                                           James Gernon

Listragheagny                 Coolagh Mc Ardle

Aughnaglough                Thomas Gernon                   Thomas Garvan

                                           Laurence Donnelan

Limagore                          Patrick Mc Coy

Aghlaverty                        Thomas Harrison 3              Thomas Harris

                                                                                           Owen Firegan

                                                                                          Gilernew Mc Kenny

Tirfinnog                            Bryan Connolly 5

Crosses                             Art O  Hugh 2

Corladargan (now Creeve) Patrick Mullan 2

Legnacreeve                   Owen mc Mahon 6             Patrick Moder O Murphy

Crosshugh (Crossbeg)  Bryan Mc Casey 2               Art Mc Ardle

Moyles (Namoyle)          Patrick Mc Genary 6            Art Mc Collin

Aghnagap                       Tirlog Mc Ardle 2                Torlogh O Hoone

                                                                                          Patrick O Duffy

                                                                                          Donogh Mc Mory

                                                                                          Patrick O Corr

                                                                                          James O Duffy

Ballycronag                                                                     Bryan Mc Gorke

                                                                                          Patrick Mc Swory

Carlust                                                                             Thomas Connegan

James Connegan

The declaration is attested to by “Jacobus Duffy, vicarious de Cluntybrida.”

The signatories were making representation to the church authorities not to permit  the Dominicans, or any other order, to come into the county as they had been deprived of their lands and were finding it very difficult to provide for the diocesan clergy and the Franciscans.

These lists from 1663 and 1665 (Hearthmoney Rolls) and 1669 (anti-Dominican petition)  coming a few years after the Lucas acquisitions in 1657 and the Cromwellian confiscations and redistributions , show the native population, though in diminished circumstances, still in occupation of their lands.

It is reasonable to speculate that many of the present-day inhabitants ofthe area with the same Christian names and surnames as those on the 1669 list above are their direct descendants.

There is very little data available on names of residents of the area throughout the eighteenth century. “Inscriptions in Clontibret Graveyard” (Clogher Record 1974), by L. O Mearain and P. O Gallachair gives names from 12 headstones of people interred there between 1717 and 1776:

Patrick McNally, died 1751, aged 44

Hugh Ginnity, died 1751, aged 36

Ally Ginnity, died 175(?), aged 34

Andrew Brennan, died 1774

John Callan, died 1744, aged 44

Denis Callan, died1751, aged 47

Phillip Duffy, died 1751, aged 103

Rose Duffy, died 1750, aged 73

Ardle McMahon died 1776 aged 52

Bryan McArdle, died 1717, aged 31

?? McAnally, died 1759, aged 68

Ann Flanigan, died1771

Catherine Duffy, died 1732, aged 32

Rev. John McCarney, died 1741, aged 30

Patrick Connolly, died 175(?), aged 60

THE NON-NATIVE POPULATION

The townlands which made up the Lucas Estate are home to a substantial number of Presbyterian and Church of Ireland families.  Most of these are descendants of people from Scotland, England and Northern Ireland who settled in the area from the end of the 1600s on. 

A Census of 1659 found only 434  British taxpayers in the county and these were mainly around the towns of Monaghan, Castleblayney  and Clones.. There were no British returned for the parish of Clontibret.  It appears that there may have been some earlier settlers like the Richard Clark who made a deposition (see below) and who had a substantial holding  but probably had left following the 1641 rebellion.

The end of the nine-year was with the Battle of Kinsale and the Flight of the Earls saw the beginning of the end of the Gaelic way of life in Monaghan. Already, in the reign of Elizabeth, the seizure and redistribution of the lands of the Irish chieftains as shown in the Down Survey and Book of Distribution of 1591 had begun although it probably did not have an immediate impact on the ordinary people living on the land.

Although Monaghan was not part of the Plantation of Ulster, because of the earlier redistribution, the new owners of estates followed the same methods as their counterparts in the six planted counties. Their only interest was in maximising their profits and in being as secure as possible in their new estates. The way to do this was by bringing in new tenants from Britain and offering them good terms and the best land available in the area. The people most keen to re-locate were Scottish Presbyterians. They were suffering religious persecution and frequently at war with the authorities, Many of them were also Gaelic speakers. So the first Lucases set about targeting this cohort.

The dispossessed native Irish did not go quietly so it was not surprising that the early decades of the 1600s saw much re-action which culminated in the insurrection of 1641.

1641 DEPOSITIONS

The Depositions, which are reports by witnesses of their experiences of the 1641 rebellion, have only one deposition from a resident of  the Castleshane/Clontibret area. It is as follows:

Richard Clark of the parish of Clontibrett in the County of Monaghan an english protestant sworne & examined deposeth & saith That on or about the xxiijth day of October Last past hee was robbed & dispoyled of his goods & Cattell in the parish aforesaid to the values particulerly following vizt Of howshould stuff of seuerall sorts & provision of howshould to the value of- xx li. sterling Of 400 weight of butter, & 400 weight Cheese to the value of - xiij li. Of Corne, turfe, hay & other provision to the value of - viij li. Of 34 Cowes, & a bull 12 Calues, 2 mares, & 5 hogges – lxxxiiij li. Amounting in all to the some of One hundred Twenty & fyue powndes sterling Besides this examinant lost in seuerall debts due by specialty vnto him for rent & otherwise from seuerall persons either in rebellion or by meanes thereof disabled to pay the same, the some of lxiij li. viij s. sterling Soe this deponent was dispoyled of his goods Cattell & debts to the some of One hundred <182 - 8 - 00> ffowerscore & twoe Pownds & eight shilling sterling, being the whole estate of this deponent & hee himself at the same time & now being indebted vnto Mr William Sands of Dublin gent by bond Threescore & thirteene pownds & to John Adams in the Com of Derry fforty shilling sterling which this deponent is noe way able to pay being stript out of all his estate by or by the meanes <a> of Art roe mc Mahan, Collo mc Brien mc Mahon, Mlaughlin roe mc Mahon, all of the Com of Monaghan aforesaid & other Rebells theire confederats, servantes souldiers & assistants whoe tooke from this deponent all his goods Cattell & debts due to him as aforesaid not leauing him any thing at all wherewith to releiue or maintaine himself & family & forcing this this deponent to fly to the Citty of Dublin for preservacion of his life, leaving his wyfe in the Country, not knowing what is become of her & saith that one Brian ô fflenegan in the parrish of Muckney & County of Monoghan whoe oweth this deponent iij li. is in actuall rebellion

Deposed May 28o 1642 before us
Hen: Brereton
John Sterne

fol. 155v

We do not know where this Richard Clark lived but he appears to have had a substantial holding.  (There was a family of Clarkes in Creeve in the 1800s. Griffiths Valuations has Alexander Clarke, Sen. with 17 acres and Alexander Clarke, Jun. with 19 acres in Creeve.   There is a headstone in Braddox churchyard to Alexander Clarke of Creeve who died in 1903 aged 86, erected by  sons John and James who are recorded in 1911 census.)

The only other reference in the 1641 Depositions to anyone from the area is a deposition from a Henry Steele, “Curat of Clontubrid”,who was also a schoolmaster in MonaghanTown.He appears to have lived in the town as he reported that he “with all the rest of the British inhabitants of the town” were robbed and imprisoned.

The Church of  Ireland Congregation

Although Steele was titled “Curat of Clontubrid” in 1641 there would not have been a Protestant congregation there at the time, nor for some time after that.  St Colman’s Church had existed from medieval times.  Following the Reformation it  became a Protestant church but was disused as can be seen from this  report of a “Triennial Visitation” of 1679 (Shirley)“Ecclesia ruinosa sed pariete firma. Nemo religionis Protestanatium infra parochiam” (Church in ruins but walls sound.  No one of the Protestant religion in the parish) Edward How was the Rector  and  Edward How Junior the “ Clericus parochiam.” Patricus Art O’Flanagan and Ardle McMahon were “Guardiani”.

Referring to the .Rectory and Vicarage this report also says  that…”the rectory before dissolution of religious houses by Henry V111 was appropriated by Abbey of Clones.”

The Hearthmoney Rolls of 1663 and 1665 also show that there were very few British settlers in the area. The only identifiably English names in the lists above are Robert Moore in Castleshane, who married Mary Lucas (and he may have been a Moore from Laois/Offaly), John Richards in Tirmacmoe and possibly  a Thomas Harris/Harrison in Aghalaverty.

Typical of the earliest English settlers in the area would have been Henry Swanzy (1666 – 1742) who  acquired an estate in Avelreagh in the 1690s.  He had been an ensign in the army of William the Third and was awarded the lands in Avelreagh for his services.  The Swanzys continued to be a prominent family in Clontibret  until the early 20th century.

Other Church of Ireland families who came into the area in the early 18th century and who are still inhabitants include Boyds, Reids, Currys, Leathams, Dunnes, Johns, ……….

From the 1690s on a thriving Protestant community became established and by 1750 the Church of Ireland Vestry was active, not only in building and repairing Church property such as the Church itself, sexton’s house and schoolhouse and  a new Rectory, but also subscribing  to road and bridge building and other public works.  As the Established Church  they were entitled to collect tithes from all residents in the parish, not only from landowners but even  from cottiers who held more than one acre.

A list of Flax Growers in the parish of Clontibret in 1796 gives a clear illustration of the change in  the population over the previous century.

Church of Ireland Burial Records

Inscriptions in St Colmans have the following family names:

1 Boyd,  

2  Men who served in 1st World War:  Jas., John and Robt. Brown; Joe and Thos Curry; Sam Duffy; H and Jos Finlay;  And. and John Graham; Sam, Jos and WEJohnston; J.L.Scudamore; Geo. Brophy, JCA and RM Noble; H. Tate;Thos. Wilson; Charles and Robert Wright.

This is not a burial record. J.L. Scudamore who is listed was born in 1902 so he was only 16 when the War ended.  He lived to 1975.

3. Robt. Irvine, Robt. Curry and Robt. Lynch who”gave their lives in the Great War”

4. Copeland, Aughnameal

5 .Curry, Glennyhorn

6. Donaldson

7. Dunne, Ballygreaney

8. Rt. Hon. Edward Lucas (memorial not grave; buried in St Patrick’s Monaghan)

9. Elliot, Avelreagh

10. Falls.  Shanmullagh

11. Hodge

12. Johns, Carrickaderry

13. Johns, Kilcrow

14. Johnston, Arclintagh

15. Leatham, Avelreagh

16. Lowey, Avelreagh

17.  Shortt, Cashel

18. Swanzy, Rockfield

19. Tate,  Avelreagh

20. Hon. Kate Smythe-Vereker ,Castleshane (d.1905)

21 – 24; illegible

The Presbyterian Congregation

The first two Francis Lucases set about bringing in Scottish tenants and settling them in the area which was subsequently to become known as The Scotch Corner. By 1720 there was a community of over 120 Presbyterian families and the campaigned to have a Church of their own and the first Clontibret Presbyterian Church was opened in 1725 in Legnacrieve.

Graves in Legnacrieve: (1st Clontibret)

Davidson, McMahon, Kinnear, Hamilton, Wilson, Farlow, Miller, McCrea, Mollan, Dickson, Johnston, Turbitt, Curry, Allister, Gillanders, Blsackstock, Scott, McChesney, Gass, Kent, McKeever, Branyan, McElroy, Reilly, Porter, Donaldson, McCombe, Jebb, Ballagh,Wallace, Ross, Carson, Eagle, Watson, Montgomery, Orr, Henderson, Groves, Morrison, Reed, Cunningham, Thompson, Rev. Andrew Molyneaux, Rev. John Thompson

Graves in Braddox; (2nd Clontibret)

Ballagh (3 headstones); Cobine; Lyster; Sweetin: Turbitt

Most of these names are still in the area or were until recent times.

The Tithe Applotment Books for the parish of Monaghan 1826 and Clontibret 1830 had an extraordinary list of other Protestant names in this area, mainly Presbyterian, such as:

Sproule, Alexander, Wilson, Watt, Niblock, Chapman, Greer, Hill, Cornet, Harshaw, Falls, Freeland, Hillis, Crawford,  Geoshesaw, Gordon, Clarke, Gault, Gilliland, Knox, Gardiner, Agnew, Hamilton, Hammond, Fee, Potts, Mawhinny, Ewins,  Meneely, Maxwell, Keare, Toppin, Rawdon, Brownlee, Foster, Gerwood, King, Shepherd, Ginnett, Button, Keith. Nesbitt, Rock, Moore, Reddock, Whitcroft, Cowan, Ware, McNatton, Millar, Campbell, Fleming, Chambers, Hughsten, Monary, Pollock, Taylor, Gery. Gibson, Williamson, McConnell, Dunlop, Kain,  Hain.

Many of these families who originated in Scotland and to a lesser extent England, emigrated again to America. Those who stayed set about developing their holdings – clearing shrub, planting hedges, fertilising, draining, building substantial farmhouses etc. In particular they took to the growing of flax which was very actively promoted by the Lucases along with other modern practices in farming.

 Sir Charles Coote in his  Survey of Monaghan in 1801, refers to “the open and naked landscape between Castleblayney and Monaghan with the exception of the Lucas estate in Castleshane “– evidence that in the 1700s the Lucases were to the fore in establishing field systems and promoting good farming practice.

As well as establishing a thriving farming community these mainly Scottish Presbyterian settlers of the early 1700s were to become the forefathers of many of the county’s most prominent business people and industrialists of the present day.  One need only mention McChesney (motors), Wilson (mushrooms), Moffatt (engineering) and there are many more.

THE VERY POOREST

An insight into the conditions of the very poorest of the Castleshane tenantry in the early part of the nineteenth  century and of attitudes of  establishment figures to them  is given by responses which Edward Lucas and others gave to a Committee of Inquiry of the House of Commons in 1836.  This was the Royal Commission  on Poorer Classes in Ireland, established in 1833 to investigate causes of widespread destitution in Ireland. An extensive survey was carried out over three years 1833-36.

Reports on the Parish of Clontibret (population 15,941) were given by local clergymen,  Rev. John A. Arnold (1st Clontibret, Legnacrieve), Rev. Robert Lewers (2nd Clontibret, Braddox),  Rev. John A. Russell (Church of Ireland)  and Edward Lucas. (See separate section )

In addition to small farmers, with holdings generally of five to twenty acres, there was also within the Lucas estate a population of cottiers who would have had less than an acre adjoining their cabins. They eked out an existence from the potatoes grown on their “cot-take” and from labouring work when it was available.  There was also a substantial number of destitute people who subsisted on begging and the charity of slightly better off small farmers.  In response to questions about the numbers and conditions of the latter class, Lucas replies that he “has no means of knowing” and refers the query to the Church wardens. In response to a question about the cost of diet for labourers/cottiers Lucas makes the observation that prisoners in the county gaol were fed on two and a half pence per day, “on the mixed dietary which is the ordinary food of the country people” and observes that “their own wasteful habits and a larger appetite in country work could make some increase but very little” – in other words that ordinary people should be able to live on the standard of food supplied to prisoners and if they couldn’t they were being wasteful!

While the parliament of which Lucas was a part (he was an M.P. 1835 to 1841 and Under Secretary of State for Ireland 1841 to 1846) carried out these extensive enquiries into the conditions of the poorer classes in the 1830s it is very evident that they did not lead to any action by the government to alleviate the destitution which was to continue and culminate in the famine a few years later.At the same time the residents of the area would have been watching the lavish reconstruction of Castleshane House which was completed in 1837.

BALLINACLAY QUERNSTONE

I found this quernstone in the bank of the river about 100 yards above Ballinaclay Bridge some years ago. The river is the boundary between the townlands of Corlust and Moy Etra – also between parishes of Monaghan and Clontibret and the Baronies of Monaghan and Cremourne.

How many centuries ago is it since it was in use as a valued tool of some family who probably lived in a hill-top residence in Corlust or Moys? How did it get broken and what trauma did that cause?