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I am researching my great grandmother, Rebecca Jane Noble. Her grandfather was Archibald Noble (1788-1873) born in Fivemiletown, Tyrone, died in Mulmur, Ontario, Canada. He married Grace McMahon (1794-1836 ) in 1819 and together they raised 9 cildren in Tyrone before her death. Archibald re-married Martha (Mattie) Cauthers (1788-1874) in 1839.. They had 1 son, Robert Noble (1838-1904) ), my great great grandfather, In 1842, the whole family emigrated to Ontario, along with Archibald’s cousin John Noble, and his wife Mary Nixon.  They were preceded in this big move by Archibald’s uncle Robert Noble (1761-1865) who acquired land in Canada  for the family. The family prospered and spread throughout Ontario, western Canada, and the USA. I would like to find any one who can help track this Noble family in Ireland back in the 1700’s, and before....were they possibly border reivers from Scotland/England?

 

 

RobIre

Thursday 15th Aug 2019, 12:54AM

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  • The births, deaths and marriages are all before the start of statutory registration in Ireland (1845 for non RC marriages and 1864 for RC marriages, all deaths and all births). So you need to rely on church records to trace the events.

    You don't say what denomination the family was but I would be surprised if they weren’t Church of Ireland. I looked at the 1901 census for Co Tyrone and there were 120 people named Noble there. The vast majority were Church of Ireland (or Methodist which is an offshoot of the Church of Ireland), there were a few Presbyterians and 1 Roman Catholic. Church of Ireland does fit with a Border Reiving background. None of the border folk who settled in Ireland had any religion and tended to adopt the Church of Ireland when they did. This website shows you where surnames are found in Ireland. It says that Noble is of Anglo-Norman origins:

    https://www.johngrenham.com

    Fermanagh and Tyrone certainly receive a large number of settlers from The English/Scottish Borders so the location fits with those origins.

    You are lucky in that Fivemiletown (which is in the parish of Clogher) has Church of Ireland records back to 1763 for baptisms, 1777 for marriages and 1783 for burials. They don’t appear to be on-line anywhere but there is a copy in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast and if you can get there you can look them up free. Clogher Presbyterian (aka Carntall) has baptisms from 1819 and marriages from 1829. Could be worth checking them too in case I am wrong about the denomination. In addition, tradition was to marry in the bride’s church, so if Mattie was of that denomination you would expect the marriage to have been there. Her surname Cauthers seems unusual. Try Caruthers/Crothers as well when searching.

    You didn’t say what Archibald’s occupation was. If he had been a farmer you would expect him to be listed in the tithe applotment records. He isn’t. The only Noble in the parish in the 1829 tithes was Isabella (possibly a widow) who lived in Lislane.

    https://cotyroneireland.com/tithe/clogher.html

    Is it possible that any of Archibald’s children stayed in Ireland? I ask because I can see a marriage on 7th March 1854 between Andrew Noble (widower) of Fraughmore (more commonly Freughmore), Parish of Clogher, who was the son of Archibald Noble, farmer. He married Margaret Barber, also a widow. So Andrew had to have been born before 1833 and being a widower might have been born some years before that.

    https://cotyroneireland.com/marriages/clogherney.html

    Griffiths Valuation for 1860 does not list any Noble households in that Freughmore, so it may be the family had moved away. (Freughmore is on the A4 Ballagh Rd just west of Clogher town).

    There are no records of the settlers who came to Ireland in the 1600s so you won't trace the family back to Scotland or England. However a good background read on the Border Reivers is “The Border Reivers” by Godfrey Watson pub 1974. It places the Nobles as living along the upper reaches of the Black & White Lyne river, in Cumberland (now Cumbria).

    Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Thursday 15th Aug 2019, 07:45AM
  •  

    Elwyn

    Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

    The Noble family is listed as Church of England (Anglican, I guess) in the 1871 Census of Ontario. They were listed as farmers.

    I will spend some time with your suggestions.

    Cheers

    Robert Ireland

    RobIre

    Thursday 15th Aug 2019, 09:13AM
  • Church of England is the same as Church of Ireland, so it sounds as though we have identified the correct denomination. Let me know if you have any other questions.

    Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Thursday 15th Aug 2019, 10:15AM
  • I'm quite interested in Archibald as well, I'm a descendant of his daughter Ann Jane Noble who married John Bryans in Lambton Mills (now Etobicoke in Toronto).
    Another distant cousin suspect that John Bryans' had immigrated around the same time as the Nobles.

    Barb

    Wednesday 2nd Oct 2019, 12:29AM
  • Hi, I'm a descendant of John Noble(b.1811), but may I ask who John's parents were?

     

    Cheers,

    Rich

     

    rgouette

    Wednesday 19th Jan 2022, 08:21PM
  • John Andrew Noble 1811-1881,(m. Mary May Nixon) had as parents, Robert .Hartwell Noble 1761-1865 and Mary Carruthers (in my tree). Are you related to Skylar Goulet?

    RobIre

    Thursday 20th Jan 2022, 08:29AM
  • Ok great, I had Robert Hartwell Noble in my tree, bit wasn't 100%

    I've not heard of the Skylar name before..
    Many thanks 

    rgouette

    Friday 21st Jan 2022, 02:14PM

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