Crosskeys Placename in Townland of Ardnaglass, Ballyscullion Grange Parish

Hi Karen, I have just come across your posting July 2012 re Crosskeys.  I also have ancestors who lived  this area, in Ardnaglass,  Kennedy and McKeagney. (McKagney / Mc Kaigney)  A Mary Kennedy married a Hamill about 1860 but I have no other information about her.

The Grange of Ballyscullion is the name of the Civil parish covering that area.  The townlands of the Grange of Ballyscullion are part of the RC parish of Duneane, aslo called Moneyglass.  The Grange of Bs. is not to be confused with the (civil and CoI ) parish of Ballyscullion that lies on the west side of the river Bann, in Co. Derry, but which has an outpost of one townland namely Ballyscullion East on the Antrim side of the river Bann.

 

Hi David, Thank you for getting in touch. I visited the area in July of 2011, and stopped by the Crosskeys Inn. I have a record of a Jane Hamill married to a William Kennedy in northern New York state. They both emigrated as children from the "Crosskeys" area around 1821. It sounds like their relations also tied the knot in Ireland.

So the Grange of Ballyscullion has an outpost of one townland named Ballyscullion East? Is that the only townland in the Grange of BS? Do you have any idea where the placename Crosskeys came from and have you ever heard of it. I learned of it through a ballad written by my ancestor Young John Hamill who wrote about his experience of religious persecution in the area and why his family left for America. He states, "I was born at the sweet Cross-Keys, just bordering on the Grange." He references "Creek Billy", "the Largy", "Skerry Top", "Moneyglass", and "St. Patrick's church". It's difficult to keep the civil parish, RC parish, and the various placenames straight. I have the following, which I'm not sure is entirely correct. Can you comment?

Crosskeys placename in townland of Ardnaglass, Grange of Ballyscullion Civil Parish, Duneane (aka Moneyglass) RC Parish, Upper Toome Barony, Antrim County. Where does Toome fit in all this? : )

 

Hi Karen, About Ballyscullion.

The Irish Time genealogy website has a good listing of records for most parishes in Ireland. You can see an outline map of Ballyscullion at this site if you cut and paste the link 

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/civilparish/index.cfm?fuseacti…

The Grange of Ballyscullion is No 17 on this map and nowadays, for church purposes, is part of the parish of Duneane, no. 35. The townland of Ballyscullion East is 16 on the map and is in the CoI parish of Ballyscullion most of which lies to the west of the River Bann, and is in the County and Diocese of Derry. I introduced this complication of the two Ballyscullions in case you had tried searching for civil records. There are many Kennedys and Hamills in the parishes on both sides of the River Bann.

 

At the Irish Times ancestor site, if you click on a parish eg No. 33, it will link to a page where you can see a list of the townlands in that parish, as well as a list of the most common names in that parish. Kennedy is the 8th most common surname in the Grange of Ballyscullion, and the most common surname in the adjacent parish of Duneane, in 1856. I would guess that Hamill also features high on the list of common surnames. So no surprise to see a Kennedy-Hamill marriage in that district.

 

The area now popularly called Crosskeys takes its name from the public house which was in existence in 1771 and which lies in Ardnaglass townland. The name, John Kennedy, my great grandfather's, appeared above the door of this pub from about 1880 to about 1970. I was told that the Crosskeys sign derives from the coat of arms of some English bishop who had authority to issue licences to public houses. I have seen a number of similar pub signs in other places in both Ireland and England.

 

Griffiths Valuation survey, of 1862, shows a William Kennedy with 8 acres in the townland of Taylorstown in Grange of Ballyscullion. You can access details of Griffiths Valuation for Grange of Balllyscullion, and any parish, at the website askaboutireland.ie . Unfortunately the maps at this site for Grange of Ballyscullion do not show the individual plots of land, but they do show how the land was laid out in the 1850s.

I would be very interested to see the whole poem you refer to; I certainly recognise some of the placenames mentioned.

Regards David

Karen a few more facts to try to answer some of your other questions.

 

The system created by the central government for describing places was originally : Townland, (civil) Parish, Barony, County.

Upper Toome is one of the 15 baronies of Co. Antrim. It takes its name from the village of Toome(bridge), which is and always was the name given to an important crossing point of the river Bann.

 

In 1898 the Poor Law Union was adopted as the basic administrative division in place of the civil parish and barony; a PLU would contain 5 -10 civil parishes. The PLU were used as a basis of registration districts for Births, Marriages and Deaths. Duneane is in the Union of Ballymena.

Nowadays we have GPS co-ordinates and Google maps!

The official placenames may or may not correspond with what the locals want to use. So Crosskeys has no official standing, but it did once house a Post Office, and its name is commonly used for the locality. Likewise while the official ecclesiastical name of the parish is Duneane, Moneyglass is more frequently used in everyday speech, by Catholics.

Apart from Crosskeys you mention some other placenames.

The Largy is a local name for an area between Crosskeys and Portglenone.

Creek Billy sounds to me like Craigbilly, a locality about 12 miles away, on the other side of Ballymena. It is sometimes called Crebilly and not to be confused with Crevilly a townland perhaps only 5 miles from Crosskeys.

Skerry Top. I would need some context for this from your poem. If it is a distant hill it may be one, some 20 miles away, as the crow flies, near Trostan, the highest hill in Co. Antrim.

 

Moneyglass is a townland in Duneane, near Crosskeys. It has given its name to the RC Church, and by extension to the RC parish, in modern times.

 

The Church in Moneyglass is dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes. The present building replaced, in the 1920s, an older building which stood in the adjoining graveyard. I do not know to whom this older church was dedicated. (The local saint is a St. Ergnat.) To the best of my knowledge the nearest church to Moneyglass that is dedicated to St. Patrick is that at Craigbilly. But as one might expect from the region where St. Patrick reputedly was enslaved, there are a number of churches dedicated to him in the Diocese of Connor. Agin the context might sort this out.

Regards 
David
 

 

Hi David,

 

Thank you for all the information! I also posted the same initial messag inquiring about Crosskeys on the "Duneane (Antrim)" section of Ireland Reaching Out because I wasn't sure which was more accurate for my purposes. Have you signed up there too?

Below is the ballad that was written by my great-great-uncle John Hammill who emigrated to rural northern New York State, on the shores of the St. Lawrence River and border of Canada, in 1821. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Karen

 

Young John Hammill

 

There was a fair in Creek Billy

       On the twenty-ninth of June.

A number of we Catholics appeared there

      In full bloom.

Our white cockades were flying

      Green shamrocks in them ah

In rememberance of St. Patrick

      Old Erin-Go-Braugh.

 

We left the fair that evening

      In order to go home,

In unity we did agree,

      Bad intention we had none,

Until we met those orange-men,

      So soon we made them fa’

While their heads did ring,

      Loud we did sing

      Old Erin-Go-Braugh.

 

For this we stood the assizes

      For justice we got none

We knew if justice would take place

      That we would be sent home

Me and five other heroes

      Did dearly pay for ah

We were sentenced to be flogged like dogs

      In Erin-Go-Braugh.

 

The first of we six heroes

      That did ascend the stage

The first was Barney Murry

      A boy of tender age.

And not a Roman that stood by

     But their eyes with tears did fill,

To see his comrade follow him

      Whose name it was McGill.

 

The next was Edward McGleason

      And the next was Mahalin

The next was Young John Hammill

      And John McCauley too

And the one said to the other

      We’ll ne’er yield to their crew.

 

They flogged we six heroes

      For half an hour space

They changed their lashes different times

      Their pain for to increase,

When they released we loyal lads

      We made the town to ring.

 

And the one said to the other

      We’ll still be the old thing

Then looking up at Skerry Top

      St. Patrick’s church we saw

And there we stood

Wet shed in Blood

      And sang Erin-Go-Braugh.

 

My friends and kind relations

      They all advised me

To quit my native country

      And go to America

Go to that land of freedom

      That place called America

Which makes me sigh

And oft times say

      Old Erin-Go-Braugh.

 

My name is Young John Hammill

      That name I will maintain

I was born at the sweet Cross-Keys

      Just bordering on the Grange

They reported me a ribbon man

     Both here and far awah’

They commit no sin

For that I am

      Old Erin-Go-Braugh.

 

God be with the Largy

      And likewise Moneyglass

And likewise to the sweet Cross-Keys

      Where my youthful days I passed.

And on the seventeenth of March

      When you assemble ah’

Drink a toast to Young John Hammill

      Who left Erin-Go-Braugh.

 

 

Karen,  

 

Your ballad on John Hammill is a most interesting document. I have put together a few facts about Craigbilly/Crebilly/Creek Billy.  It wont help you find your Hamill ancestors, but it might add some "colour" to your search.

 

I have no doubt your ballad refers to the fair of Craigbilly/ Crebilly, a place just outside Ballymena. This was a very large fair, held twice a year in June 26th and Aug 1st, and as well as all the usual dealing in cattle and horses, which came from all over Antrim and Derry and even further afield, from Connacht and Scotland. Fairs such as this were a great occasion for entertainment; the pop festivals of their time.

"Trick 'o the loop men, three card sharpers, thimble riggers, fire eaters and medicine men; stalls laden with hard nuts and yellow man; tramps, beggars and tinkers from all over Ireland converged on the hill for three riotous days."

It is celebrated in another famous humorous ballad:

 

CRAIGBILLY FAIR

As I went up to Craigbilly Fair,

Who did I meet but a jolly beggar,

And the name of this beggar they call?d him Rover,

And the name of his wife it was Kitty-lie-over;

There was Rover and Rover and Kitty-lie-over,

There was Rooney and Mooney, and Nancy and Francey,

And Lily and Billy, and Jamie and Joe;

And away went the beggar-men all in a row.

You can read the rest of this ballad at http://irelandsotherpoetry.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/richard-hayward/

However the fair was also known for its Faction Fights, the outcome of one is what is commemorated in your ballad. There were apparently intense faction fights in 1819 and 1826. The Ordnance Survey Memoir for the parish of Ballyclug (1832) states:

 

"No outrages have lately occurred. Crebilly was, until the last 3 years, the scene of many a bloody party fight. Previous to the last 8 years these fights were as regular as the fairs, and though lives were but seldom lost on the ground, still many never recovered [from] the beatings they received. Latterly these riots have ceased. The last that took place was a year ago and it was but trifling."

In O'Laverty's history of Diocese of Down & Connor, Vol. 3, parish of Racavan and Skerry, p442 it states:

 

"The Hamills were numerous in Racavan; Shane m'Brien O'Neill, in the reign of James I, granted Lisnamurrikin to Phelim Oge O'Hamill......[Later] the O'Hamills seem to have moved towards their co-religionist about Crebilly, where they were remarkable even among tall men for their colossal stature; and in troublesome times they were not unwilling to lend their gigantic strength, to level the balance, when they felt that the weight of magisterial authority was thrown into the wrong scale."

 

Racavan and Skerry is the parish around Crebilly, generally to the East and North.

Skerry is the location of very old church, and the remains of the old church building on top of Skerry hill make a prominent landmark. Legend has it that St. Patrick when fleeing from captivity was enabled by a angel to step from Slemish to Skerry, some 2 or 3 miles! You can still see his footprint on Skerry. (The wags then add to this story by saying that the Devil tried to copy this feat, but he fell into the valley, where he lives to this day!)

 

The surname McGleason is unknown to me. Could it be McAleese with the "an" taken in from the next line of the song? There are many McAleeses in the area; the former President's husband's people came not far from the Largy. Mahalin is also strange. Could it be Mallon or McAlone or a similar sounding Mc name. ? There could well be a record of these people in the newspapers or court proceedings of the time.

Regards David