The Ferrie/Ferry family of Armagh and Tyrone

There was a James Ferrie farming in Levalleglish in 1828 accoriding to the Tithe applotment records.

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/armagh/tithe-applotments/loughgall-parish.php

There is also a James Ferry there in Griffiths Valuation of 1864. He had plot 3 which was a farm and 6.5 acres. Today that property is near Ballymagerny Rd at the north end of Loughgall town. The land is still farmland but the farmhouse appears to be gone, judging by Google earth.  The family bought the freehold in 1924 under the Land Act (ie with a government mortgage).

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameS…

The Valuation revision records on the PRONI site take Griffiths forwards. They show James Ferry as tenant until 1878 when he was replaced by Patrick Ferry. He in turn was replaced in 1915 by Mary Ferry, evidently his daughter, and in 1926 by Mary Gribben.

That ties in with this family in 1901:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Armagh/Loughgall/Levalleglish/1016034/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Armagh/Loughgall/Levalleglish/327693/

Mary Ferry married Thomas Gribbin on 25.9.1924 so she’s the Mary Gribben in the Revision records.

Probate abstracts:

Letters of Administration (with the Will and one Codicil annexed) of the personal estate of James Ferry late of Leveleglish County Armagh Farmer deceased who died 17 June 1877 at same place were granted at Armagh to Patrick Ferry of Leveleglish (Loughgall) aforesaid Farmer the Residuary Legatee.

The will is on-line on the PRONI wills site and mentions James’ sons Patrick & David Ferry, plus grandchildren Patrick, David  & Mary Ann Ferry (children of the late David Ferry). Also Mary Farley wife of David Ferry. James was 88 when he died.

Probate grant 16.1.1950:

Ferry Patrick of Leveleglish Loughgall county Armagh farmer died 31 July 1913 Administration (with Will) (d.b.n.) Belfast 16 January to Thomas Gribbin farmer. Unadministered effects (if any) Nil. Real Estate £144 5s. Former Grant Armagh dated 23 October 1914.

(What has happened there is that when Patrick died in 1913 his executor at that time was unable to carry out their duties. Nothing happened for 37 years until a fresh probate grant was obtained and the estate wound up by Patrick's son in law).

David Ferry looks to have died in 1866 aged 33. He was married to Mary Lindon. Here’s their daughter Mary Anne’s birth in 1865:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_retur…

Loughgall RC parish baptisms start in 1835 and marriages in 1833. You may struggle to trace back earlier than that.

Dear Elwyn, Thank you so much for this helpful and detailed reply. I had found the people you mention but had much less information about them.  They are obviously cousins of my ancestor who was also related to a Peter Ferry whose daughter Margaret married into the Cullen family. They also emigrated to Gateshead near Newcastle upon Tyne. Do I surmise from what you are saying that there are no surviving Ferry descendants in Loughgall to-day? 

I have been through all the  primary source material for the area but cannot find any more detail.  I've scoured the RC records and have found my great grandmother's family but not the direct line of my great grandfather. I suspect that the Ferry family who are also found just over the border in Tyrone may have moved down into Armagh looking for land.

May I ask you about my maternal great grandmother and the Duffy line. Sarah Duffy was born to Bernard Duffy and Susan McKeown in Annaghmore. Bernard  and Susan lived to be very old  and I have them in the 1901 census as well as in Griffiths valuation. Upon their death, their son James married Annie and lived on at the farm. Do they have any descendants in Annaghmore or Loughall that can be traced?

I am by training an historian and I am currently writing abook about life on Tyneside 1750-1950 which deploys my ancestral research. I would like to visit the area( Covid allowing!) The Ferrie family history is very unusual and  complex .We obviously have links to a number of families who were not Catholics, including the Quaker Blackburn family of Loughall. We are also closely related to the descendants of Robert Mckean who emigrated to the USA.  This family enterred politics and became very influential in te governments of  George Washington

Whoever the original Ferrie family were they were not poor. I suspect that they were affluent farmers probably from Argyllshire but as yet cannot find a route back to Oban and their undoubted MacDonald/McKean ancestry.

I am most grateful for the help which you have given me.

With best wishes,

Margaret

Margaret,

You ask if there are any Ferry households in Loughgall today. The short answer is I don’t know. (I live about 40 miles away and don’t know Loughgall itself very well).  The family farm in Levalleglish is evidently gone but that doesn’t mean there are no family nearby. It looks as though there was still someone living nearby in 1951 when the new probate grant was made.

I searched the local phone book (postcode BT61) but did not find any Ferry entries. There are 2 Ferry entries on the electoral register for that postcode but you need to pay to view them. There are some Farry households in the area which looks to be a variation of the surname, as is Fairy. However as you know many people no longer have a landline or are listed in the phone book so you can’t draw firm conclusions from that. There are plenty of Gribben households (40 in BT61).

You ask about descendants of Bernard & Susan Duffy.  Their son James hadn’t had any children by 1911. He died intestate in 1935. His probate file should be in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast and ought to name his next of kin. (His estate may just have gone to his wife Annie of course if he had no children). PRONI will copy the file for a fee or you can go in person and view it free.

Probate abstract: Duffy James of Annaghmore Portadown county Armagh farmer died 3 October 1935 Administration Belfast 6 November to Annie Duffy the widow. Effects £780 1s.

There was at least 1 other Duffy family in Annaghmore. Perhaps you know if they are related. If so, you might be interested in these files too:

Duffy Henry otherwise Henry junior of Annaghmore Portadown county Armagh retired farmer died 22 February 1950 Administration Belfast 17 October to Mary Ann Duffy the widow. Effects £638 2s. 9d.

Duffy, Mary Ann of Annaghmore Portadown county Armagh widow died 24 June 1964 at saint Joseph's Convent Tamnaharry Warrenpoint county Down Probate Belfast 2 April to the reverend William McKnight catholic curate. Effects £467 7s.

Administration of the Estate of Peter Duffy late of Annaghmore County Armagh Plasterer who died 3 March 1912 granted at Armagh to Catherine McNeece Widow.

According to Griffiths, Bernard Duffy had a farmhouse and 8.5 acres in Annaghmore on plot 91, plus he had a one third share in 3 acres on plot 90. Looking at Plot 91 on Griffiths today I see that the farm was down a lane off the modern Annaghmore Rd. The Duffy farmhouse looks to have been on the border between 91b & plot 88A. It appears to be gone. There’s a couple of large sheds or factories and a new modern house there now. (On the Griffiths maps there were a couple of labourer’s cottages on plot 91b (marked a & b on the map) which Bernard sub-let. They both appear to have gone too.

Annaghmore Rd has a postcode of BT62. There’s some Duffys listed in the general postcode area but none on Annaghmore Rd itself. Duffy is a common name though so they may be unconnected.

The 1901 census has a daughter Mary Duffy aged 18. (I am a bit dubious about that since her mother would have been 66 then, but perhaps the ages aren’t quite right. Sarah married John Hagan of Derrylettiff in 1903:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1903/10250/5730645.pdf

This is them in 1911:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1903/10250/5730645.pdf

Probate abstract:

Hagan, John of Derrylettiff Scotch Street Portadown county Armagh farmer died 15 December 1941 Probate Belfast 25 March to John Keegan retired farmer. Effects £184.

You mention a Quaker family. Fortunately for genealogists, the Quakers in Ireland kept pretty good records going back to the early 1700s. There’s a copy in PRONI. (About 7 or 8 microfilms so quite a lot of information, and you have to wade through a lot of minutes of meetings to find the periodic returns of births, deaths & marriages).  Quakers around Loughgall probably attended the Meeting Houses at Richhill or perhaps Grange near Charlemont.  Each Meeting copied their birth, death & marriage records to the Provincial HQ (which for Ulster was/is in Lisburn) so if you there are no records for the years you need in the local records, search the Provincial records too. The marriage records usually contain the names of everyone attending the ceremony so that’s a handy snapshot of friends and family. Plus when they moved overseas or to England they usually got letters of removal (references in effect) which again give some family information. There are copies of those letters in the records. Though obviously generally famed for their tolerance, Quakers didn’t tolerate mixed marriages. Anyone marrying out ie to someone not a Quaker, was usually expelled, and that’s all minuted. Olive Goodbody’s book “Guide to Irish Quaker records 1654 – 1860” pub Dublin 1967 contains a lot of useful information on Irish Quaker families. 

Findmypast also has some Irish Quaker records on-line.

You mention that your family may originate in the area around Oban. I can’t offer any specific information on them but I do have some circumstantial information pointing to Scots from the Highlands settling around Loughgall, notably because they were Gaelic speakers and asked for a Gaelic speaking Presbyterian Minister.  You might find the whole article interesting. It’s really about the use of Gaelic in Ulster but obviously touches on Loughgall:

“There is much circumstantial evidence of Protestants who were native speakers of Gaelic, and other Protestants who became very fluent through everyday interaction with other native speakers. Many of these Protestant Gaelic speakers came from Scotland. During the plantations of Ulster in the early 1600s only ‘inland Scots’ were supposed to be settlers; this policy was intended to exclude Gaelic-speaking Highlanders, but failed to do so. When the Marquis of Argyll brought his troops to Antrim during the 1640s uprisings, most of them would have been Gaelic speakers, and many settled in Ireland when they had finished their military service. Overpopulation and the commercialisation of estates in Scotland also pushed people from Argyll to Antrim in the 1690s; sometimes the dispossessed were recruited for military campaigns in Ireland.

During the time of the Plantations of Ulster there was little difference between the Gaelic of many Scottish settlers and the Irish of the natives. The Irish of Antrim shared many features with Scottish Gaelic, and the Gaelic of Kintyre and Argyll was very similar to Antrim Irish. Robert MacAdam wrote in 1873:

Even yet the Glensmen of Antrim go regularly to Highland fairs, and communicate without the slightest difficulty with the Highlanders. Having myself conversed with both Glensmen and Arranmen, I can testify to the absolute identity of their speech (Ó Baoill 2000: 122).

There are some fascinating accounts which prove that some of the Protestant settlers in Ulster spoke Scottish Gaelic. John Richardson (1664-1747), rector of Belturbet in County Cavan since 1693, wrote some interesting letters on the subject. In 1711 a correspondent of Richardson, J. Maguire, noted the following:

I met many of the inhabitants, especially of the baronies of Glenarm, Dunluce and Kilconaway, who could not speak the English tongue, and asking them in Irish what religion they professed they answered they were Presbyterians ... I had the curiosity to go to their meeting on the Sunday following, where I heard their minister preach to them in Irish at which (though I think he did not do it well,) they expressed great devotion ... His audience, (as I understand) was composed of native Irish and Highlanders (Richardson 1711: 16).

Richardson noted that many Highlanders had settled in deserted lands in Inishowen and Antrim after the Williamite conquest, and as they spoke no English, were supplied with Gaelic-speaking ministers from Scotland:

In the Northern Parts of the County of Antrim, which being also deserted by the Irish, upon the landing of the English army near Carrickfergus in 1689, many families from the Western Isles of Scotland, who understood no other language but Irish, settled there. At their first going over, they went to church; but not understanding the divine service celebrated there, they soon went over to the communion of the Church of Rome, only for the benefit of such exhortations, as the Popish priests usually give their congregations in Irish. And when they were asked the reason, why they did so? They said, ‘It was better to be of their religion, than none at all’ (Richardson 1711: 28-9).

Some of these Scottish settlers were Anglican. When Presbyterian government was established in Scotland in 1689, disaffected Scottish Episcopalians came to live in North Antrim (Ó Snodaigh 1995: 33). Cathal Dallat notes that Rasharkin was settled by Anglican Highlanders who petitioned the Bishop of Connor to provide them with a Gaelic-speaking minister (1994: 38-9).

Richardson noted that the Bishop of Down provided North Antrim Presbyterians with the Gaelic-speaking Reverend Archibald Mac Collum, who... has taken such effectual pains with the Irish and Highlanders of them, that by the blessing of God he has not only brought back numbers who had fallen off from our Church to that of Rome, but brought over several who were originally Irish Papists, and is every day gaining upon them (Richardson 1711: 14).

Scottish Gaelic speakers settled in many areas of the North. A souvenir booklet of Loughgall Presbyterian Church in Armagh notes the Scottish origin of the congregation, and continues, ‘ We glean that the Scotch settlers here still used the Gaelic of their native Scotland, a language spoken also by the Irish in the district. The Rev Archibald Macclane, who hailed from Argyle, and was a fluent speaker in the native tongue, preached in Loughgall meeting house in Gaelic in 1717’ (1954: 3-4).”

Source: www.ultach.dsl.pipex.com/ForLearners/Prodhistory.pdf “.

You mention looking for a route back to Oban. Some estimates say 200,000 Scots moved to Ireland in the 1600s (which would be about 15% of the entire Scottish population). There are no individual records of who came save for some of the big landowners (known as Undertakers). It’s not normally possible to trace a family back to Scotland using paper records, unless you are exceptionally lucky.

Dear Elwyn, thank you for writing so helpfully and at such length in response to my queries. I 've found the information about the Gaelic speaking Scots particularly helpful as it reveals how casually people might swap religions. I was also intrigued by the revisiting of Scotland by this group long after they had settled in Ireland. I agree that I will be lucky to find any paper trail back to Oman and Argyllshire. I've searched in all the  expected places but many records are missing because the areas were in such turmoil through  wars and rebellion e,g the Hearth Rolls for Ardnamurchan-the taxes  were not raised because of rebellion. The problem is exacerbated by the change to the Ferry/Farry/Fairy surname. I realsise that many of the people of the Highlands and Western Isles did not really bother with surnames as such but went by their 'handle' built from the first names of their father and grandfather. (I have a tentative hypothesis theat the surname may actually be Ferret and of French Huguenot extraction and probably adopted around 1680-1700 but I have yet to prove it and I may be wrong.)

I have found one Ferry family in the original Plantations records for Strabane around 1610 and a Hugh Farry in the religious census of 1766. Autosomal data suggests apossible link to this family who farmed in Fermanagh.

 Seven of my eight great grandparents were Irish or Irish/Scot, the other was a Scottish Tynesider who settled in Heworth on the banks of the Tyne around 1770. My book really centers on the experiences of the family on Tyneside.  The Scottish Tynesider was from a family of staunch Presbyterians but married an Irish Roman Cathoilc and was effectively ostracised. Most of my Irish ancestors arrived between 1850 and 1880. and they were all RC.

James Ferry arrived around 1862 with his mother Margaret. Poor Margaret ended up in the Gateshead Union Workhouse in her 80's and is found there in the 1881 census. James died young of an industrial disease in 1888 leaving my grandfather as a child of two years of age. He and Sarah lost four of their seven children to childhood illnesses. This is partly why our of knowledge of the Ferry  is so patchy, They did however leave one tantalising family heirloom-a beautiful, whitework, christening gown.  The gown was said to have been "almost two hundred yeras old when it first came to England around 1860" and "all the Ferry's had been christened in it". I took it to the Keeper of Costume at Platt Hall in Manchester who confirmed that it was a very early piece  of Scottish origin which would have been commisssioned by a wealthy family...intriquing.

The last chapter of the book deals with my serach for this family and the perils, pleasures and pitfalls attached to ancestral research for "ordinary" families. Ancestry has become such a huge, money making machine but for many people will ultimately prove disappointing particularly if they are Irish!

My sincere thanks for all of your help. If you would like to read any sections of my work my e mail is Ferriem444@gmail.com

with best wishes

Margaret

A problem with the family being of Huguenot origin is that they fled France in the late 1600s because of persecution by Catholics. (The Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685). Yet a couple of generations later your family is Catholic? I can’t say it didn’t happen, just that it would seem surprising. Many Huguenots settled in Ireland and they even had their own church and graveyard in Dublin for a while. However they were gradually absorbed into the mainstream denominations, mainly Presbyterian because it aligns most closely with Huguenots’ Calvinistic principles.  Having been persecuted by them and fled France because of Catholic hostility, I doubt many Huguenot refugees quickly became Catholic.

The other snag is that there are no Huguenots connections with Oban or the Western Highlands. So your family might have come from France or they might have come from Oban but it’s hard to see how both could be correct. 

MacLysaght’s “The Surnames of Ireland” says: “Fairy – O Fearadhaigh (for question of derivation see MacAree). A Donegal sept of the Cenel Conail; as Ferry is now quite numerous in Co. Sligo and frequent in others parts of Connacht in sixteenth century records” And for Mac Aree he says: “Mac Fhearadhaigh. Woulfe gives the derivation as from Fearadhach, a personal name meaning manly, but it does not appear to have been in use as an adjective. This Co. Monaghan name is sometimes changed to King from its similarity in sound to Mac an Ri (ri = king).”  I am not sure how much light that information provides but there’s no mention of either Scottish or Huguenots origins there.

Hello again Selwyn,

Thanks for this. I am afraid that my comments have probably confused you and the Ferrie family are certainly confusing!

I have been working on this research for over two years now and my book is close to completion but I should very much like to find a resolution to the Ferrie conundrum. I don't want to take your time unnecessarily or to bore you but If you are interested this is my thinking.

Over thirty yeras ago my father hired someone to try and trace his family origins expecting them to report that he was Scottish and a branch of the Ferguson clan. To his huge surprise they told him that he was descended from a Huguenot family who had fled from the Forez in the 1640's. However they provided no supportive evidence so he dismissed the idea and we forgot about it.

While researching all the other branches of my family I used normal, paper based, historical methods and  with the Ferries those took me  to Loughgall but then I was stuck. At that point I undertook autosomal DNA testing with Ancestry hoping to find some long lost cousins. I did indeed find some in the USA and most particularly the descendants of my great grandfather's sister, Ella Ferry, who had emigrated there from Tyneside in the late 1880's. They knew little about the family but told me that Ella had claimed that we were related to an American family called Ferry who ran a well known seed company. I researched this, expecting the family to be Irish, only to discover that they were in fact  of Huguenot descent and had emigrated from France to Canterbury in England and then to the USA. They were originally called Le Ferret. It turned out that I had over thirty six potential distant cousins who were descended from two Huguenot families both with the same surname. One of these was the famous Daniel le Ferre, husband of Marie de la Warrenberre, a famous Huguenot family who settled in Pennsylvania. This contrasted very sharply with an absolute dearth of links to any Scottish or Irish Ferries other than half a dozen or so who were clearly from Loughall and the descendants of those people we have discussed in earlier exchanges. None knew anything of the Irish backgrounds and all were living in the USA. This lack of  Irish/Scottish links puzzled me and I wondered if we were Scottish, Irish or French? I decided to get my brother's Y-DNA tested to try to resolve the matter.

 To my complete surprise it turned out that we were genetically from the MacDonald clan and definitely Scottish on the male side although descended from Norse-gael vikings. Being no expert in genetics I handed the findings to a professional geneticist who confirmed that we were indeed Scottish, of clan MacDonald and  most likely from Mull and then  Oban. This confirmed the  family oral history .He suggested that the name change had taken place between 1600 and 1780. Our  original surname was uncertain and could have been MacDonald or some other clan variation. At this point I came across the Clan Donald website where I found the y-signature belonging to the Chiefs of the MacDOnald clan and we matched it exactly. I contacted Dr Doug MacDonald, the geneticist from the University of Illinois who runs the website. He has been very helpful and has suggested that we are very likely to belong to the MacDonalds of Ardnamurchan or Gelncoe and to be the direct descendants of the chiefs of the clan. The Ardnamurchan MacDonalds  were strong Presbyterians and Covenanters. The Glencoe families were of mixed denominations. Both clans had disintegrated by 1600 and 1690 respectively with many of  the clansmen moving to Ireland or into Argyllshire and the Duke of Argyll's estates. As you know many of these families eventually moved to Ireland.

But what about the Huguenots? Further specialized DNA resting revealed that between 1600 and 1800 threee European ancestors had entered our family which is otherwise exclusively Irish/Scottish. One was Spanish and known about in family oral history, one was Swedish and one was Franco Prussian from the same area as Daniel le Ferree. (This might explain why I have DNA links to a John Ferrie born in Prussia in 1800 but originally of French descent.) My hypothesis is that one of my Scottish ancestors, possibly an officer in the army or a merchant married a le Ferree and took her back to Scotland. For some reason the family at some point took her name and abandoned their Scottish surname if indeed they ever used  one. A family called McKean, who are our strongest and closest y DNA match also emigrated to Northern Ireland  from Argyllshire in the 1680's and to Tyrone...so who knows? The change of religion may have come later with subsequent inter marriage with Irish Cathoilics. We all tend to want to think in straight lines but real life has many curves. I have extensively researched the Huguenots in Ireland and can find no obvious links to the Ferree family but I have found several in London at the right time. Given the mobility of people seeking land and freedom and the turbulance of the times who knows what decisions may have been made?

I hope that I haven't bored you with all of this. I read the article which  you sent about the Gaelic language and found it really interesting. I know that this is a very sensitive and much debated topic in Northern ireland to-day. it woukd be wonderful if people could find some comfort and reconciliation in those parts of the heritage which they share.

Best wishes,

Margaret

Margaret,

Thanks for that. Very interesting. You have a wide ranging set of ancestors. I am not an expert on DNA and can’t really add anything to that level of your research. I tend to focus on the paper records, which sadly rarely go back very far in Ireland. That can be very frustrating.

I hope you are able to make more progress. Do let us know if you make a breakthrough.

You have published a very interesting material, thank you. I am now studying the problem of overpopulation, and I want to consider it as the reason for the migration of people, it is difficult to track down if we are talking about such a distant past. A few days ago I found this article https://unwinnable.com/2020/09/16/overpopulation-problem-how-can-we-avoid-this/ while studying the topic, and it made me look at this problem from this angle. I hope to find useful resources or archives here as well.