Killymurris Presbyterian church was founded in 1796. It was in effect an overflow congregation from the nearby Clough Presbyterian church. Most of the congregation were descended from Scots who settled in the area in the 1600s.
Around 1850 there was a major disagreement within the congregation, apparently over the Minister, and the congregation split in half. The breakaway congregation built another church a few hundred yards north, known as Killymurris 2nd Presbyterian church. It operated as a separate congregation from about 1855 until 1884 when the apparently controversial Minister at Killymurris 1st church resigned or retired. The two congregations then reunited and remain one congregation today. What was Killymurris 2nd church was used for some social and religious events for many years but eventually was abandoned due to structural issues. It was demolished around 2000. It had a graveyard and that is still maintained.
The records for both churches have been combined. Marriages from April 1845 are on the irishgenealogy site. PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast has a copy of the baptism records from 1862 onwards for the 1st congregation and for 1878 – 1884 for the 2nd. No earlier records exist.
The gravestones in both the Killymurris Presbyterian churchyards have been transcribed and can be viewed on the Braid website (link available on this site).
References
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Graveyard transcriptions | Northern Ireland. Great Britain. | VIEW SOURCE |
