Sleeth Salters Grange

Salters Grange is the name of a townland. It?s 308 acres of agricultural land. A townland is the smallest administrative area of land in Ireland. They can vary in size from 1 acre up to 5000 acres, though most are between 50 and 500 acres. The whole country is divided into townlands. Many are rural, and there is not necessarily any town in a townland. Indeed some have no-one at all living in them eg mountain tops and uninhabited islands. Originating in the older Gaelic dispensation, and dating back to the 11^th century, if not earlier, townlands were used as the basis of leases in the estate system, and subsequently to assess valuations and tithes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In rural areas there were no street names or house numbers (that is still the case in some remoter parts) and your townland was sufficient to identify you or get a letter delivered. The postman, and anyone else who mattered, knew exactly where in the townland everyone lived. They survive as important markers of local identity. A group of townlands makes a parish and a group of parishes makes a barony.

Hugh Sleeth?s property in Salters Grange is listed in Griffiths Valuation for 1864 (where his surname is spelled Sleigh). It was plot number 9b(b) and consisted of a house and garden (1 rood 30 perches) on Henry Scott?s farm. Typical for an agricultural labourer or weaver.

The cottage remained under Hugh Sleigh until 1887 when it changed to Joseph Sleigh. W. Connor replaced him in 1901. Joseph is not there in the 1901 census.

To find that farm today, you will need to go to the local studies section of Armagh library and get a copy of the Griffiths map which will show you where plot 9 was. (The online version doesn?t have the plot numbers for that townland). The modern Salters Grange Rd runs through the middle of the townland but you?ll need a Griffiths map to find the specific farm. The farm is probably still there but the agricultural labourers cottages on it are probably gone now. (Hugh?s was described as dilapidated in 1914).

http://applications.proni.gov.uk/dcal_proni_val12b/ImageResult.aspx

Salters Grange is in the parish of Drumcree. If you know what denomination the family were, you could search the local church records (a copy of the surviving records for that area is kept in PRONI, Belfast).

If the family were weavers or agricultural labourers, they are unlikely to have had the money to pay for a gravestone. If they were Church of Ireland you may find their burial record. Other denominations generally don?t keep burial records. They may not necessarily be buried in the church they attended. If there was a family plot somewhere, but the family moved around, then burials may have been in the plot, and not at the church they now attended.

I came across this family who I wonder might be the Joseph in Griffiths in Salters Green till 1901:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Armagh/Tandragee_Urban/Mill_Row/1021280/

That Joseph married a Susanna Davidson in Armagh Apr ? Jun 1898 Volume 1, page 59. (Evidently a second marriage judging by the age of the children). You could order a copy of the marriage cert to see if Joseph?s father was Hugh.

I hope I'm not too late to make contact, but I've just come across this thread. I'm also a descendent of Hugh Sleeth and Mary Elloot's son Francis, living in Melbourne, Australia. Their son, William Sleeth, is my great-grandfather. I'd love to make contact and compare notes!