Richmond family

Daniel?s farm was on plot 28 in Drumcon. He had a farmhouse and outbuildings and a one third share of 75 acres. He shared with Mathew & John Richmond. The farms would be easy enough to locate today, should you wish to do so.

PRONI have 2 wills for people who looks likely to be descended from them. Here?s the abstracts (summary). The original docs are in PRONI but are not on-line yet:

Full Abstract :

Richmond Daniel of Drumcon Rasharkin county Antrim farmer died 1 July 1942 Probate Belfast 12 April to James Hanna and Robert Hanna farmers. Effects ?212 3s.

Full Abstract :

Richmond Mary of Drumcon Rasharkin county Antrim spinster died 18 February 1940 Probate Belfast 3 July to James Hanna and William Clements farmers. Effects ?94.

See also a further will:

Full Abstract :

Probate of the Will of Elizabeth Richmond late of Drumcon County Antrim Widow who died 17 December 1899 granted at Belfast to Matthew Richmond and Robert Fleming Farmers. Effects ?40 10s.

The above will is on-line.

http://applications.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_WillsCalendar/willsSearchResultsDetails.aspx

You could also search the tithe applotment records in PRONI (1820/30) to see who was on that farm at that time. MIC15AA/25. (They are not on-line and so you would need to get someone to make a personal visit).

Hi,

My name is John Walker and I appear to be related to the same Richmond family, although my branch came over to Scotland and settled in Chapelton, Lanarkshire. My ggg grandmother was Martha Richmond, born about 1800 and she probably married my ggg grandfather Thomas Walker sometime before 1827.

I'm led to believe that there were several marriages in the Ballymena (Drumcon/Rasharkin) area between Walker and Richmond families, although there do not appear to be any surviving records.

My gg grandfather, Charles Walker, was the son of Thomas Walker and Martha Richmond, and would have been born in either 1827 or 1828. He appears to have come to Scotland with two of his cousins, Richard and Henry Richmond, who were the sons of a John Richmond and Janet Henderson. They all worked for a time as coalminers together at Bredisholm Colliery, Baillieston, Lanarkshire, but Richard and Henry moved to Chapelton to be with their parents and the rest of their large family, who came over from Ireland in the 1860s and mainly worked as iron ore miners at Chapelton.

I've spent a good few years trying to get more info on the family, but cannot find any Irish records relating to them at all. It is possible that some of them went to the Americas, but I haven't been able to find anything regarding that. I know all of their history after they came to Scotland, and for what it's worth they were almost certainly members of the Reformed Presbyterian Scottish Church (Covenanters). They would most likely have been obliged to flee from Scotland (probably Ayrshire) to Ireland in the years between 1680 and 1690 to escape religious persecution in Scotland.

They obviously ended up in hard times during the Irish Famine of 1847 and came back to Scotland in an attempt to better their lot. Unfortunately most of them died relatively young in Scotland, as they were riddled with tuberculosis and typhus, consistent with them living in poverty in Ireland. They do not appear to have made much of themselves in Ireland, as they were effectively fugitives from Scotland. Those who could manage it became small tenant farmers, but as their families outgrew the available farmland, many of them were obliged to become weavers. Some of them simply roamed the countryside looking for whatever work they could find, and elements of my (your) families were probably in that category. One or two Richmond families in Drumcon appear to have soldiered on with their small farms and the weaving industry, and managed to stay in Ireland during and after the Famine.

Of those who stayed the course in Ireland, most of them eventually ended up in the Shankill and Ormeau areas of Belfast where they chiefly worked as labourers or tradesmen in the various industries to be found in Belfast at that time.

Hope this info is of some use to you,

Kind regards,

John Walker

The nearest Reformed Presbyterian or Covenanter church to Drumcon was (and still is) in Cullybackey. Possibly that?s where your Richmonds attended church? Their baptism records start in 1836; marriages in 1822. I have looked those records up several times in the past. They are very clear and in good condition. You might want to check them out in PRONI, Belfast. (They are not on-line anywhere. A personal visit is required).

Thanks Ahoghill,

I was aware of Cullybackey Presbyterian Church, although the only known Irish record relating to "my" Richmond line was the marriage of William John Richmond to Ann Chambers in November 1851 at 1st Ballymena Presbyterian Church. William was only 17 at the time and was working as a labourer in Broughshane. Ann was from Crebilly.

It seems to have been the case that my gg grandfather probably came to Scotland from the townland of Craigs, or somewhere near there. This is borne out by the surnames of some other miners at Bredisholm Colliery, Lanarkshire, particularly some brothers called Carley, who had Richmonds as neighbours in Craigs. In parts of Scotland after the Famine there were a lot of mixed marriages between Irish Presbyterians and Catholics, and in my own Walker line I have Boyles from County Armagh, and Dohertys from County Derry. This seems to have come about as a result of the local Scottish populace distancing themselves from the immediate post Famine Irish immigrant workers in the rural areas, where they had to integrate with each other regardless of religion. In the Scottish towns and cities Irish catholics tended to form their own communies, whilst the Protestants appear to have integrated with the locals after a generation or two. I suppose, given the fact that most of the Protestants were after all of Scottish origin, this would have been inevitable.

I was in touch by e-mail with a Paul Richmond from County Antrim, who has carried out extensive research of Richmond families in Counties Antrim and Derry in preparation for a book he was going to write. He tells me that he has carried out extensive searches of all of the available church records in the Ballymena area, but was unable to find anything on my Walker or Richmond lines. Recent attempts to contact him have met with no reply, so perhaps he is no longer with us

I hope you aren?t getting the various churches mixed up. There are 2 unconnected Presbyterian churches in Cullybackey (and there used to be a third). The first is the Cunningham Memorial, and the other is the Reformed Presbyterian, which is the covenanter church. Separate churches and separate records.

In addition, there was a United Presbyterian Church, a dissenting church established around 1820 or so. It was known locally as the Scots Kirk, and had Free Church of Scotland Ministers until about 1921. At that point the Free Kirk in Edinburgh declined to send any more ministers and encouraged the congregation to merge with one of the other 2 in the village. They declined and all decided to become Methodists. So that?s now the Methodist Congregation but their records, prior to 1921, are Presbyterian church records. (They go back to the 1860s. Earlier records have been lost).

Few of these church records are on-line anywhere. Most are in PRONI, save for the United Presbyterian records which are still held by the church. There are a lot of Presbyterian churches in the Ballymena area (not surprising since 95% of the locals were descendants of Scots settlers from Ayrshire and Wigtownshire) but it means quite a bit of legwork to go through them all.

I can't help you with a contact for Paul Richmond. I don't know him at all.

I've never personally carried out any searches at all, but have had PRONI do one or two for me with negative results. I'm due to retire in a couple of years, and reckon I'll have to come over and do some research. I only started doing family history a few years ago, and haven't got a lot of knowledge or experience. It is interesting that you are able to tell me that 95% of the Scots around Ballymena came from Ayrshire or Wigtownshire. I was previously unaware of that fact, and have been unable to establish where my Walkers lived in Scotland before they moved to Ireland.

I'm very grateful for the insight into the churches, as it may be of considerable help to me. My gg grandfather, who was born in Ireland, was married in the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Glasgow. My generation were brought up as United Free, but our village also had a Methodist Memorial Hall (popular with some of the coalminers), and some of the parishioners went to the local Bargeddie Parish Church (of Scotland). People often flitted from church to church and I dare say the same thing probably happened in Ireland. The absence or appearance of a particular minister often swayed the congregation one way or another.

I've also read that in the days when churches were few and far between or were still being built, some Presbyterian marriages in Ulster were carried out at the roadside by whoever was licensed to perform the ceremonies. I had drawn the conclusion that my gggg grandparents, Thomas Walker and Martha Richmond, were possibly married by such means, but I've currently no way of finding that out. I've been on various worldwide websites but have been unable to find any clues whatsoever.

Co Antrim wasn?t part of the Plantation of Ulster largely because by 1610 when the Plantation started, it was already well filled with Scots who had, in the main, come across in the previous 5 years or so. They tended to be the tenants of one of about 3 or 4 big land owners in Co Antrim. The north of the county belonged to the McDonnnells (Lords of the Isles, based in Islay) so their tenants came from Bute, Kintyre, Islay, Jura, plus Renfrewshire. The Hamilton & Montgomery settlement saw a lot come from Ayrshire. The area around Ballymena was settled by the Adair family from Kinhilt, near Stranraer in the 1620s. (The tourist office in Stranraer is in a castle that was at one time their family seat). And so on. 

There are no records of the individual tenants who accompanied the big landowners but it is fairly easy to say in a general way roughly where and when they arrived. There was a bit of toing and froing over the years, especially around the time of the Irish uprising in 1641 when a lot fled back to Scotland. But they came back again fairly soon afterwards.

A Minister brought up in Aghadowey, Co Derry (not far from Ballymena) wrote this of his childhood in the 1820s: ?Aghadowey had originally been settled by a Scotch immigration and I found that my new neighbours spoke as pure Scotch as a man might hear in any part of Ayrshire.?[1]

In the early part of the 1600s, when there were no Presbyterian churches in Ireland, Presbyterian Ministers were allowed to use Church of Ireland churches for their services. That tolerance ceased around the time of the Commonwealth when attitudes hardened and they were all expelled from their pulpits in 1661. For the next 20 or 30 years they had to preach in the fields and hills. Some degree of tolerance returned towards the end of the 1600s, and it was then possible to build Presbyterian churches. So the earliest Presbyterian records start from the late 1600s. Antrim 1^st Presbyterian Church has records that start in 1677 for example. Cullybackey Presbyterian church?s records start in 1727 which is when the church was built.

The Reformed Presbyterian church in Ireland didn?t start till much later. Their first Minister was Rev William Martin who was ordained in 1757.  By 1779 there were 6 Covenanter ministers in Ireland. Unfortunately several, including the Rev Martin emigrated to the US (with parts of their congregations) and so that first Presbytery collapsed that year. By 1800 there were still only 3 RP Ministers. From that time onwards the numbers increased gradually. However due to the general shortage of Ministers and churches, many RP marriages and baptisms were performed by visiting Covenanter Ministers from Scotland or occasionally the parties would go to Portpatrick and have the ceremony performed there.

There are hardly any Reformed Presbyterian church records before about 1800. According to Dr William Roulston, a renowned local historian, that in part, is due to the lack of Ministers and churches. Cullybackey Reformed Presbyterian church was built in 1789 but unfortunately has no records prior to 1822.

I came across this wee poem recently in Ballymena library, which probably sets out your ancestors feelings about their own identity and culture quite well. It was written in the 1800s by Samuel Thomson, a weaver poet who lived near Ballymena. It comes from a poem entitled ?To Captain MacDougall at Castle Upton.?

I love my native land no doubt

Attached to her thro? thick and thin

But tho? I?m Irish all without

I?m every item Scotch within.

Thomson was one of a group of weaver poets, mostly self employed men who worked from home. They had strong connections with SW Scotland where their ancestors had mostly lived. Thomson was heavily influenced by Robert Burns, whom he met in Scotland at least once, and wrote in his vernacular style. He also composed a poem entitled ?To a hedgehog? which was a reference to a military tactic employed at the Battle of Antrim (a hedgehog being a formation of men) but anyone familiar with Burns work will immediately recognize the allusions ?To a mouse? and ?To a louse.?

Many thanks again for this extremely valuable insight into the Ballymena area. I've never as yet visited Ireland in my 60 years, but hopefully that will be "sorted" soon. Truth was I never knew my Walker line had any connection with Ireland at all until I found my gg grandfather in the 1851 Scottish Census Return a few years ago. One of the people I've managed to contact via e-mail is a Hugh Richmond, who also lives in Scotland. Although it seems almost certain that our families are related, we have found nothing to substantaite that fact.

Hugh seems to think that his family, and probably mine, never went to Ireland until about 1685. In November 1684, a farmer named John Richmond from Galston in East Ayrshire, was arrested by agents of Lord Claverhouse (Bonnie Dundee) and summarily executed along with several others in Glasgow in March 1685. Their "crime" was that they were alleged to have taken part in the Battle of Bothwell Brig in 1871. Hugh believes that our respective families would probably have fled Scotland about that time to avoid being caught up in any such persecution.When Hugh's family came back to Scotland in the 1860s they settled in Chapelton, Lanarkshire, which is not that far away from Galston.

However, in all of the research I have done I keep ending up with the Richmond family at Drumcon, as they are the only ones, apart from an unrelated family in County Cavan, known to have named their daughters Martha. It would seem to be the case that they were the most settled branch of the Richmonds in Co. Antrim, I have done just about everything short of tossing a coin to try and discern whether my Richmonds were part of the original Scottish settlement of about 1605, or were they in fact fugitives from Scotland about 1685, who perhaps went over to join elements of their families already in County Antrim? The fact that the whole family seemed to be destitute by 1847 suggests that they may never have had any land allocation in Ireland at all during the time they were resident there, or perhaps met with some financial disaster. Only my gg grandfather, Charles Walker, came over to Scotland, and I've no idea what became of the rest of his family.

The elusive Paul Richmond managed to persuade me that they were probably not part of the original settlement, as he cannot find any people in County Antrim named Richmond until about the mid 1600s. He also made reference to the situation in 1641, and reckoned that not many Scots would have remained in Ireland after that year. He tended to confirm Hugh's train of thought about the later migration around 1685.

I've had to rely heavily on my Richmond line to make any headway at all in Ireland, as the surname Walker is simply too common. I am satisfied that my ggg grandmother Martha Richmond was probably part of the Drumcon Richmond "clan", but as she would have been born about 1800 there doesn't appear to be much scope for tracing any certificates. I've also tried Scotlands People just in case they were married or perhaps died in Scotland, but haven't been able to find them. Almost all of the Richmonds in 17th century Scotland were from Ayrshire.

You've certainy given me a few pointers for further thought and study, and I'll maybe get around to turning over some new ground shortly.

Many thanks,

John W