Davison/Davidson family from Drumrot townland in Lissan Parish, County Derry

The tithe applotment records only list folk with land, so they are not a complete survey of every house in the townland. So where you have folk without land or sharing property, they won’t be listed in the tithes. So there might have been 5 or 6 Davidson households there in 1827, or as you say, some property might have been split off, though that wasn’t a terribly common practice for farmers in Ireland. (Most farms weren’t really big enough to be split much).

1831 census for Drumrot lists 6 Davison households (nos 15 – 19). 2 households together in no 18. That they were all consecutive would suggest they were very close to each other, and so probably related. The numbers were the enumerators private numbering system and don’t relate to any other set of official records.

House 15 was headed by William who had 3 males & 2 females plus 2 servants. All were Presbyterian save for 1 servant:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinsholin/Lissane/Drumrot/15/

House 16 was headed by Ellen whose family consisted of 4 males & 3 females, plus 1 female servant. Again all Presbyterian save for the servant. Ellen was listed as Wd, ie a widow (see the original image).

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinsholin/Lissane/Drumrot/16/

House 17 was headed by William junior with 2 males & 3 females and 1 servant. All Presbyterian save for the servant,

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinsholin/Lissane/Drumrot/17/

House 18 was headed by Robert & George with a combined total of 4 males & 1 female servant. Again all Presbyterian save for the servant. Noted as 2 separate households, so probably either Robert or George had part of the property to themselves.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinsho…

House 19 was headed by Jane whose family consisted of 3 males & 3 females, all Presbyterian. Jane was a widow (see the original image).

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinsho…

In general, in a rural area, a household with servants was a farm, so it looks as though all but one were farms. And the last might have been a farm too.

Ignore Wilson Blair in house 19. That’s a transcription error and he actually lived in a different townland.

If you have not already done so, it’d be worth searching the Registry of Deeds records for Drumrot to see if any deeds were registered there for the family. You might get a 3 lives lease from the 1700s which often helps connect and sometimes age families. (They are on Familysearch. A bit fiddly to work with till you get to grips with the system but sometimes very helpful).

The PRONI e-catalogue has a number of leases, dated November 1820 eg:

D3632/B/25/1  Lease of a holding in Drumrot from the Drapers' Company to Eleanor Davidson.

Eleanor is probably the Ellen in the 1831 census, so that tells you she was widowed by November 1820.

I see additional leases for Jane & for William dated Nov 1820, Elizabeth Nov 1827, Andrew, George, William jr, William senior all dated November 1854.  In 1862 there was a:

Bargain and sale, from William Davidson to George Shannon, of the townlands of Coltrim and Drumrot, with a declaration of the receipt of purchase money.

The above leases are not on-line at PRONI but you may find them in the Registry of Deeds records on Familysearch.  PRONI has original copies and they have also put them on a microfilm - MIC 617/13 which is probably part of the Salters Company papers. Personal visit required to view them.

If you know what church the family attended, you could search their records. Nearest Presbyterian church to Drumrot looks to be Claggan. (Presbyterians didn’t always attend the nearest to where they lived). Claggan has baptisms & marriages from 1846 onwards. Presbyterians generally didn’t keep burial records but worth checking local graveyards as being farmers they are more likely to have a gravestone. There’s a copy of the Claggan records in PRONI. Not on-line anywhere so far as I am aware.

Londonderry Sentinel of 3rd April 1841 has this:

WHITE-DAVISON – On the 25th ult., by the Rev. Dr. Barnett, Presbyterian Minister of Moneymore, Mr. Thomas White, Anahavil, to Margaret, youngest daughter of the late Robert Davison, Esq., Drumrott.

So that tells you Robert Davidson died sometime between 1831 and April 1841. Also, tradition was to marry in the bride’s church which in this case was Moneymore Presbyterian. So perhaps that was the family church? Moneymore 1st Presbyterian church has records from 1827 onwards. Again there's a copy in PRONI. It probably also tells you that these families were quite well off by the standards of the time. Only gentry and more significant farming families put marriage notices in the paper at that period.

You can use the Valuation Revision records on the PRONI website to follow Griffiths Valuation forward to see changes of owner/tenant or size of property up to 1929.

There look to have been 2 Davidson households in Drumrot in the 1901 census:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Moneyhaw/Drumrot_1/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Moneyhaw/Drumrott_2/

I see a death for Andrew Davidson in 1887 aged 83, son James was the informant. Possibly his wife Nancy in 1892 aged 72. Daughter in  law Sarah was the informant. If you search the statutory BDMs for the Magherafelt area on the irishgenealogy site, you may find some more.

Probate abstract:

The Will of George Davison late of Drumrott County Londonderry Farmer deceased who died 14 April 1862 at same place was proved at Londonderry by the oaths of William John Hutchison of Ballynenagh and Robert Brown of Ballyeglish both in said County Farmers two of the Executors.

Above will is on-line on the PRONI wills site. In it George leaves bequests to his brother James’ children in Moneyhaw. Children were George, Smyth &  Mary Davidson & Jean McCan. James wife was still alive (1861). It mentions his sister Jean Miller of Lisbouy, her children Jean Erwin, Susan Young & Margaret Miller. There’s a bequest for George Davidson, son of his next door neighbour, William (so not an immediate relative). Also George mentions his wife Sarah.

Being Presbyterian, living in Co Derry from at least the early 1700s and having a common Scottish name, all point to the family being descendants of the many Scots who settled in that area in the 1600s.

Hi Elwyn

You are clearly an expert and you have provided such a range of information in such a short time.   Thank you very much.   I really appreciate your help.

I have three comments/questions.

1.Thanks for telling me Ellen could be an abbreviation for Eleanor.   I have a copy of the lease Eleanor signed and thought I was still looking for the person.   I now know where to attach it.

2. George Davidson's will provided 5 pounds sterling for the little George Davidson (named after him) who lived next door, his door-neighbour.   This little George was one of the sons of William Davison Jnr., my 2x great grandfather.   George has provided bequests for some but not all of his siblings and their children - all immediate family.   Initially I thought this meant George and William Jnr were unrelated but I now have DNA matches with a couple of descendants of his older brother, Robert.   This suggests George and William Jnr were cousins, possibly even first cousins.

Would people at this time be aware of cousin relationships?   Many Irish people these days seem to be very knowledgeable about such things and know a huge amount about their family relationships.

Maybe the point is that George was keeping his money for his immediate family which was quite large and he may already have known that William Jnr was not keeping on the straight and narrow road!

3.I have been unable to find the Register of Deeds for Drumrot on Family Search.   I have browsed all the indexes for Ireland so would appreciate more direction for this.

Thanks again.

Eleanor Davidson

Eleanor,

Ellen and Eleanor are separate names but you do see them used interchangeably at times, so my guess is in this case they are one and the same. Ellen & Helen are also interchangeable. I have a friend here in Ireland today who is Ellen on her birth certificate but Helen to her friends.

Yes I wondered about the use of the word neighbour. They would certainly have been familiar with the term cousin. (The Catholic church had restrictions on cousins marrying, and dispensations were required for such marriages). I searched the British Newspaper Archives for the word “cousin” 1800 – 1850 and again for 1851 – 1900. There were 169,000 in the first 50 years and 1.3 million for the second. I also spotted an article in the Westmoreland Gazette for 11th November 1871 discussing the difference between 1st & 2nd cousins. So a term in everyday use in the 19th century.

I got the impression George senior was just fond of his neighbour’s son George and that’s why he selected him. I noticed that George left money to his own married daughter Jean McCann. Fathers didn’t always do that. A daughter often got her “portion” when she married and would therefore not always get a further mention in a later will. (Some wills specifically explain that’s why they are not being mentioned). Or he might leave them a token shilling in remembrance. Where someone was apparently wayward or just bad with money, you sometimes see a direction that the money was to be held by their father or mother and paid out at their discretion. I also saw one recently where a son was left some money to be paid out “should he ever get in touch again” which suggests a sad break in the family. Interesting documents.

The Registry of Deeds records start around 1708. It wasn’t compulsory to register a deed, there was a fee to pay, some did register deeds, others did not. At first financial institutions and important estates tended to register deeds more than private individuals, but as the years went by more individuals registered them too.

There is a names index, listing the parties, and there’s a townland index listing the location(s) the deed related to. The names index is of limited use, in my opinion, as it doesn’t give a clue as to where the person lived, and so in your case it will list every Davidson in the county. That’s a lot of deeds. Whereas with the Land index (townlands) if you find one for Davidson in Drumrot, you know it’s likely to be your family.

When the register started all the deeds were simply filed by county, but as the years went by, they subdivided them into baronies. So you need to know that Drumrot is in the barony of Loughinsholin. So when searching you need to go through the county till you get to Loughinsholin, and then go to the letter D. All the townlands beginning with D are in the same index but not in alphabetical order. So you need to go through all the Ds to spot any relating to Drumrot. Obviously there might be several. 

The indexes are broken down into years. Initially they covered large periods but as the years went by they reduced. So for example, the index for Londonderry covers:

1708 – 1738

1739 – 1810

1811 – 1821

1821 – 1828

1828 – 1832

1833 – 1835

and so on.

Access here:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/185720?availability=Family%20History%20Library

I searched 1833 – 1835. There are no entries for Drumrot in those years. But by way of example, there is one for Drumlamph. It says Currell John, Cunningham David 1834 8 207 171. So that gives you the names of the 2 parties, and the fact that the deed was entered into the Registry in 1834. The remaining numbers tell you the volume (8) and sequential order. 

1834 is on page 13 of the LDS holding. In my example, volume 8 is in the set covering “7-9 1834.” Click on the camera at the end of the line and it will bring those records up. You then have to go through to find volume 8 (roughly half way obviously) and then scroll forward till you find deed number 207 (which I can tell you is image number 257 of 497). You then have the actual deed. This one’s about a lease on a bleach green and related machinery in Drumlamph, plus some other lands and buildings. You can print that. The handwriting varies in quality but the wording tends to be fairly formulaic as you will probably know from the deeds you have already found. 

Some deeds don’t tell you much you didn’t already know but they do sometimes have nuggets. The history of the land/buildings ownership is often recited, and so you may find a clause saying: “formerly the property of X” and this maybe something new to you. In the 1700s there were a lot of life leases, often 3 lives, (so the lease lasted for a specified period of time eg 30 years or until all 3 were dead, whichever was the longer). Those leases sometimes give the ages and relationship of the lives. So it could be the leaseholder, and for example his 4 year old son (who would hopefully live for another 50 years or more).  Or if the leaseholder had no children at that time, then it might be his brother’s son (they seemed to prefer sons to daughters). Sometimes one of the lives was royalty, eg the Prince of Wales.  That didn’t mean he had any involvement in the transaction, merely that he was well known and likely to live a long time. Royalty got the best food etc and so usually lived a long time. And there would be no difficulty in establishing if he was still alive or not.  Sometimes there were difficulties if one of the lives had emigrated and no-one knew if they were alive or dead. Led to adverts in the papers in the US etc for “anyone with information to contact Y in Ireland”.

Thanks Elwyn.   The information you have given me about the Registry of Deeds was particularly helpful.   I have started on it and it should keep me busy for some time!

Both William Davison Snr and William Davison son of James left the townland or more probably died between 1862 and 1864.   Since William Junior then took over the lease previously held by Wm Davison son of James I have surmised that he was more likely the father of William Jnr.   Would you support that?

First Presbyterian Moneymore does seem to be the church for the Drumrot families.   There is not a lot of joy in the early baptismal records which only start in 1827 and then when a birth was recorded before 1844 only the father's name was given so there are two babies born to two William Davisons within a short period in 1838 but one is left with no idea which of the two possiblilites was the father.

Thanks again for sharing your extensive knowlwdge.   I have appreciated it.

Eleanor Davidson

Thanks Elwyn.   The information you have given me about the Registry of Deeds was particularly helpful.   I have started on it and it should keep me busy for some time!

Both William Davison Snr and William Davison son of James left the townland or more probably died between 1862 and 1864.   Since William Junior then took over the lease previously held by Wm Davison son of James I have surmised that he was more likely the father of William Jnr.   Would you support that?

First Presbyterian Moneymore does seem to be the church for the Drumrot families.   There is not a lot of joy in the early baptismal records which only start in 1827 and then when a birth was recorded before 1844 only the father's name was given so there are two babies born to two William Davisons within a short period in 1838 but one is left with no idea which of the two possiblilites was the father.

Thanks again for sharing your extensive knowlwdge.   I have appreciated it.

Eleanor Davidson

Eleanor,

It was important to keep the farm in the family and farmers did tend to leave it to one of their sons, sometimes but not always, the eldest. So the father & son relationship is likely.  There were exceptions eg if the farmer was a bachelor or had no children in which case the farm might be left to a sibling. If you know that William, son of James, had male children, then it’s fairly likely it’s a father & son relationship.

Finally, I had a look at the British Newspaper Archives. Noticed a death reported on 15.1.1848 of Robert Davison of Drumrot near Moneymore, aged 58. Died 1.1.1848. That indicates there were 2 Robert Davisons, since we know that the father of Margaret who married in 1841 was dead by 25th March 1841.

Mid Ulster Mail 4.1.1936 has an article on the PRONI Deputy Keeper’s Annual report. It details some early Drapers Estate tenants including George Davison of Drumrot (1728). No other information, just that he was a tenant that year. (Copy attached).