Share This:

Believe - Killyramer, Antrim County, Northern Ireland

Name: Samuel Harper

Surname: Harper

Given Name: Samuel

Birth: 1715 in Killyramer, Antrim County, Northern Ireland

Death: 15 Sep 1760 in Straban Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, USA

Burial: 1760 Conewago Church, Adams Co., Pennsylvania, USA

Event: Military Service French and Indian Wars

Marriage: Jane [Jean?] Houlewort (?) b: 1723 in Washington County, Pennsylvania, USA

Children

John Harper

Michael Harper
William Harper
Isabelle Harper b: Abt. 1745 in Adams County, Pennsylvania
Elizabeth Harper b: 1748 in Washington County, Pennsylvania
Samuel Harper b: 21 Jan 1754 in Straban Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania
Jane(Jean) Harper b: 1759 in Straban Township, York/Adams County, Pennsylvania

Unsubstantiated observation: A Harper branch that went South (from Pennsylvania) thought that he was the missing brother of James Harper and from there a place called Killyramer.

From the Great Conewago “Presbyterian” Church website:

Located at 174 Red Bridge Road (at Hunterstown), Gettysburg, PA, the church has served as a community burial ground since at least 1741.

Church burial records:

Harper, Samuel - 1714/15 - Sep. 15, 1760

Harper, Michal & Michal – (son(s) of Samuel Harper) – (no dates)

Note: I have a photo of his headstone:

The inscription reads: "Here Lyes Ye Body of Samuel Harper who departed this life Sept ye 15th 1760 Aged 45 years".

Any help appreciated in determining his origins based on the information above.

Regards,

Ron

 

 

RBH

Friday 5th Jul 2019, 02:38AM

Message Board Replies

  • Ron,

    A major problem you face is that there are almost no records for Co Antrim for the early 1700s. So it will be very difficult finding much out about this family.

    The oldest records for the area around Ballymoney are the 1740 protestant census which list just 1 Harper household, headed by Robert Harper. (Your Samuel may well have been in the US by that year of course). In the 1766 census there was again 1 household in the parish of Ballymoney (which includes Killyramer) headed by John Harper. In the 1803 agricultural census there was 1 in the parish of Ballymoney. He was Daniel and lived in the townland of Calhame. He was the only 1 in that immediate area but there were 3 others in the northern part of Co. Antrim. None in Killyramer. Moving forward to the 1901 census, Killyramer had 17 houses and a total population of 60. None named Harper.

    Your ancestors were Presbyterian and lived in the north of Co Antrim. Consequently it’s fairly certain that their ancestors came from Scotland and settled in the area sometime in the 1600s.  Something between 100,000 and 200,000 Scots settled in Ireland then. There was a particularly big wave of arrivals in the 1690s due to famine in Scotland.  By 1718 some of them were dis-satisfied with life in Ireland and started to move again to North America. Here’s a link that explains a bit of the background:

    https://www.ancestryireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/The_1718_Migration.pdf

    So if Samuel was born in 1715, his family may only have lived in Ireland for anywhere between 30 and 100 years. Just 2 or 3 generations.

    The vast majority of the Scots settlers were Presbyterian but only about 2 Presbyterian churches in the whole county have any records for 1715 (neither is anywhere near Ballymoney). The whole Ballymoney area is devoid of church records for the 1700s. There may have been some for the early 1700s at one time but the town of Ballymoney was burned down in the 1798 United Irish uprising and, save for a few fragments for the 1760s, all the Presbyterian church records were lost.

    So there is no documentary evidence to search of who lived in Killyramer in 1715. I can confirm that there was at least 1 Harper family in the area in 1740 and a handful thereafter. But I cannot think of any source which might allow us to find where Samuel was born. Thousands of Presbyterians from that area did migrate to North America in the 1700s and so he could well have come from Co Antrim all right, and perhaps from Killramer.

    I hope this is of some help.

    Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Friday 5th Jul 2019, 05:34AM

Post Reply