Old Cavehill Road in 1912

There are the above two signatures on the Ulster Covenant from Old Cavehill Road, a leafy suburb of East Belfast. They were of Nathaniel McIlhagga and of Joseph McIlhagga who entered the name of their house, 'Loughview'. Presumably the house had a view over Belfast Lough towards County Down. These were two of the brothers in the large family of twelve children born to Nathaniel Owens and Henrietta McIlhagga, about whom I have written before. In 1912 they were living with their widowed mother. Nathaniel (whose second name was also Owens), born 1878, later married Sarah Ann Craig in May Street Presbyterian Church, Belfast. Joseph (who had the second name McKeee) was the youngest, born 1892. He would have been 20 when he signed. In 1927 he married Catherine Walker Ross in Canada, and there are certainly descendants in Canada today. I have had the pleasure of corresponding with one of them. I have no record of descendants of Nathaniel. In the 1911 Census he was a Clerk in a Linen Business.

Plus Three Johns, minus One Robert?

The first John McIlhagga who signed the Ulster Covenant lived at 41 Cumberland Street, Belfast. There is no other person from this address who signed, so we must look elsewhere for clues to his identity. Fortunately we have at least three other resources to call on. John and his wife Isabella were living at the same address the year before when the 1911 Census was taken. Also the same address occurs, as I pointed out in my blog of 23rd July last, in a Belfast Directory, where we learn that John was a baker. Next we have an Irish marriage record at St. Anne's Church of Ireland, Shankill, for 11th July 1893 when John McIlhagga, a Baker, married Isabella McKay, a Smoother. She was from 67 Grove Street, daughter of Thomas McKay a tailor. John was from 48 Brussels Street, the 22 years old son of John McIlhagga, a Bread Server. Clearly father and son worked together. John junior had in fact been born on 4th February 1871. I considered this family on 8th June last when I was looking at the 1901 Census. The mystery I noted then, of the identity of John's grandfather, I'm afraid remains, and so of where I can place these people in a wider family.

The second John who signed was from Harryville, Ballymena. The 1911 Census has a Ballymena John living with his wife Mary at 115 Queen Street. He was a Railway Carter. They were both thirty years old. This couple is surely the John McIlhagga and Mary Sloan who married on the 5th January 1894 at Ballyclug Church of Ireland, Ballymena. John, a Labourer, had given his address as 87 Queen Street, Harryville, son of John a Labourer. His witness was a William McIlhagga. Mary lived at 103 Queen Street. The record does not name her parents. Like the first John to sign, a mystery remains about this John. I explored this couple in part in my blog of 21st January last, and again on 14th June when I was considering the 1901 Census. And once again I have to say that I am no further with placing this family in a wider context.

So we come to the third John signature, signed as from 120 Agnes Street, Belfast. As I pointed out on 2nd October last, this is John who signed as one of five men from the same address, Nathaniel, John, William and two Roberts. My first thought was that if there were two Roberts, one had to be the father and the other a son, or at least they had to be from different generations. I then searched other records for such a family. In the 1911 Census I found a family of four sons at 3 Diamond Street, Shankill, Belfast. And they were Nathaniel, John, William and Robert. They were all single and living with their mother Elizabeth who was 'head of the family'. No second Robert! And further investigation, back to the 1901 Census, revealed that their father, who had died in 1898 aged 45, was not Robert, but Archibald! They were part of the Maxwells' Walls McIlhaggas of whom I have written before. So yet another mystery. Who was the second Robert? Is there any further line of enquiry? Yes I think there is - back to the 1912 Covenant, and a careful examination of the two Robert signatures, which I have reproduced above. I have come to the (slightly reluctant) conclusion that they are in the same hand. For a reason best known to himself young Robert appears to have signed the Ulster Covenant twice! Maybe a simple case of over-enthusiasm!

Ballygallough, Ballyclare and the Covenant

Our next signature on the Ulster Covenant is the sole clan member from Ballygallough near Ballyclare. It is that of Jenny McIlhagga, a signature which leaves us in no doubt about how she spelled her surname, a matter which is of some importance, as we will see. If we go back a year to the 1911 Census we find Jenny, a single woman of 64, the sister of the head of the household at 52 Ballygallagh (note the slightly different spelling). He was William James McIlhagga, Jenny's younger brother at 62, a widower and a farmer. There is also a younger single woman, Margaret, aged 34 who William James enters as his daughter. This family adhere to the church of The Brethren.

If we now go back to the 1901 Census we find the same family, slightly expanded, still at Ballygallough, though then at number 45, which I wrote about on 6th June last. It immediately becomes clear why a gap of ten years sees them in a different house. In 1901 the head of the household was James McNeilly who at 58 was eight years older than William. The relationships then were defined in relation to James. William was his brother-in-law who had married his sister Mary, in 1901 aged 65, who had had a daughter Maggie whom James rightly calls his niece. The household was completed by two servants, one domestic and one on the farm. My conjecture is that James and William, both farmers, worked in partnership. William was then a member of The Brethren, though all the others were Presbyterians. Clearly during the decade following 1901 James had disappeared, certainly died, and the Presbyterian influence had given way to that of The Brethren.

Not only had James died, but also his sister Mary, William's wife, who had passed away on 16th October 1901, just a few months before the Covenant was signed. We know this from the fact that Mary left a Will, or rather there is an 'Admon' in her name, that is the abstract of the Administration following her death. It is dated 24th April 1912. What I imagine happened is that James McNeilly, unmarried, as we know from the 1901 Census, did leave a Will, leaving the 'estate' which, as we will see, he had inherited from his father, to his sister. Then, naturally enough, she left all her estate to her husband. The abstract reads:

Administration of the Estate of Mary McIlhaggo late of Ballygallough County Antrim who died 16 November 1910 granted at Belfast to William James McIlhaggo Farmer the Husband.

Interestingly here we have William's full name as in the 1901 Census (abbreviated to 'William' in 1911) and also the 1901 spelling of McIlhaggo changed to McIlhagga in both 1911 and in the 1912 Covenant (in the case of Jenny).

The surname McNeilly in 1901 confirms that in a further document I have, the marriage record of Mary McNeilly to William McIlhagar, took place on 15th March 1875. So we have yet a third spelling of the clan name for one person, showing how folk in the 19th and early 20th Century sat lightly to a 'definitive' spelling. The further details on this record doubly confirm that we have the same people as those who appear on the later Censuses. Both were from Ballygallough. William doesn't use his second name James (as in the 1911 Census); he is a bachelor and (interestingly) a Presbyterian. He was the son of William John McIlhagar, a Weaver. Both he and Mary were 'of full age'. She was a Spinster, a Presbyterian and the daughter of Joseph McNeilly, a farmer. So we can see that the farming was inherited from Joseph to his children James and Mary, who were joined by William, probably shortly before he married Mary. They were married at Mountpottinger Presbyterian Church, Knockbreda, County Down.

At their marriage they had two witnesses, one from each family, James McNeilly and Mary Jane McIlhagar. Clearly James was Mary's brother. Perhaps Mary Jane was therefore William's sister. We know from the 1911 Census that William had a sister Jenny, and it is probable that he had two sisters. This would seem to be born out, as I poined out in my blog of 6th June, by the 1901 Census which recorded two sisters living together in Ballynure, Mary Jane McIlhaggo, aged 58, working as a Muslin Lopper, and Jannet McIlhaggo, aged 50, who is listed as the Home Keeper and Head of the family. It would have been natural for the older sister to sign as witness at the marriage. The fact that the younger is 'head' of the family may indicate that she was judged the more competent, of simply that she chose to keep house.

A few further comments may enlarge the picture that we have been building up of this family. It is quite possible that Jannet was known by the name 'Jenny' and that therefore Jenny who signed the Ulster Covenant and Jannet in the 1901 Census were one and the same. Admittedly Jannet was 50 in 1901 and Jenny was 64 in 1911, but we have seen discrepancies of four years before in Census figures, and of course mistakes. If they were not the same person, then this may mean that William had three sisters. Further, we know that the words 'full age' in a marriage record can sometimes hide an age difference between spouses, and this appears to be the case in this family. When they were married it seems from the ages given in subsequent Censuses, that William was about 24 years old and Mary was about 39 when they wed. When she died in 1910 she would have been 74. If Margaret the daughter was born about 1877, when Mary was 41, it is not surprising if William and Mary did not have other offspring. The only birth record I have found which could be that of Margaret is for a Maggy Meneally born on 17th May 1875 to William John and Mary (Meneally) McIlhagga. The name McNeilly has evolved into Meneally and William's second name has become that of his father. These could easily have been mistakes in giving the notice of the birth, by either the reporter or the registrar. If, despite these two 'discrepancies', this is the correct record, William and Mary in fact married when she was seven months pregnant, and we are given a reason why there was an age gap of fifteen years between them. Finally, I also have to add that at present I have not been able to integrate this nuclear family with a larger family grouping.

The Covenant in Londonderry

In the 1911 Census the McIlhagga Clan had no one living in the County of Derry. However, a year later there was one member living at 3 College Street in the city of Londonderry, namely Jeannie McIlhagga. The 1911 Census shows us three families at that address, each employing one or two servants, so presumably Jeannie had moved there to work as a domestic servant. From where did she move? The only Jeannie in the 1911 Census was the eighteen year old daughter of Daniel and Annie Eliza McIlhagga of 4 North street, Ballymena. In 1911 she was listed as a scholar, so either still at school or at a form of further education, perhaps doing a course preparing her for domestic work. I must say that her signature above is in a confident adult hand.

The 1911 Census lists this family as 'Church of Ireland', reflecting probably Annie Eliza's upbringing as she and Daniel married at Loughguile Church of Ireland. This was a large family of ten children amongst whom there was a Jean. She however was too young to be 'Jeannie'. 'Jeannie' was the eldest, named at birth Jane, born on 18th October 1892. Her father Daniel was the third son of James and Jane (nee Maitland) McIlhagga of Carnmoney. Annie was the daughter of Robert and Mary (nee Young) Wright of Lavin. She was the eldest of five children. I have no record of Jane, who moved to Londonderry, ever marrying.

The Ulster Covenant in Brantwood Street

Prior to the 1911 Irish Census being published the 1912 Ulster Covenant misled me about two people living at the same address. James Wilson McIlhagga and Lily McIlhagga lived at 4 Brantwood Street in the Clifton or Duncairn District of Belfast. I made the reasonable assumption that they were man and wife. I have subsequently learned that Lily did not marry until 1914 and James until 1930. In the 1911 Census there is a James Wilson and a Lily, respectively 17 and 20, living at 7 Eccles Street, Belfast, the offspring of William G. and Jane (nee Todd) McIlhagga. They were in fact two of a large family of nine children, of which Lily was the eldest and James the fourth. It is of course possible that the whole family had moved from Eccles Street to Brantwood Street in 1911-12, or perhaps Lily had moved to another address and had given a home to her brother. The first is the more likely thing to have happened.

There are a couple of name queries in this family. I am unsure what father William's middle name was. I have seen it recorded both as George and Gage and have corresponded with one person who insisted that the name Gage came down their family line. I am however unsure where it originated. The second query is about Lily herself. The 1901 Census appears to give the eldest daughter's name as Matilda. Was Lily an accepted abbreviation of Matilda, or did she simply prefer to be called Lily? The only other Lily I have come across was an abbreviation of Elizabeth. We might also ask where James got his middle name Wilson? The normal assumption would be that it was his mother's maiden name. But that was Todd. I do know he had a second cousin twice removed, James Wilson McIlhagga, who was the son of Nathaniel Owens McIlhagga and Henrietta Wilson. Perhaps the two families had a close and friendly relationship. This may indeed be demonstrated by the fact that both James Wilson McIlhaggas became Oil Merchants!

Maxwell's Walls in The Ulster Covenant

There are just two people who signed The Ulster Covenant as from the townland of Maxwell's Walls. The first was Henrietta McIlhagga, the second Eliza McIlhagga. And again their signatures perhaps reveal something of these two women. Our assumption must be that Henrietta and Eliza were mother and daughter, a fact we know from our earlier references to this family. Henrietta in 1912 was the widow of Nathaniel Owens McIlhagga. Eliza was to marry Hugh Minford, a farmer and a future MP. I have compared Henrietta's signature with that on the letter she wrote to her son, to which I referred on the 8th and 19th May, and I am sure the two are written by the same hand. The 'M' is identical. The surprising thing is that clearly on The Ulster Covenant Henrietta signed for both of them, and to make this clear, against Eliza's name Henrietta added her initials. However, I have to add that we have no evidence that any of the offspring of this family could not write, and indeed the indications are that they were well educated. It is certainly surprising that a woman who was to become the wife of a Member of Parliament couldn't write. There are of course other possible explanations for Henrietta signing Eliza's name. Eliza might have been temporarily unable to write for some physical reason. There is however another possible reason. There were no fewer than six signatures together from Maxwell's Walls on the Covenant. The two preceding that of Henrietta were initialled by someone as 'illiterate'. Perhaps Eliza asked her mother to sign for her so as not to embarrass her two friends whose names preceded theirs.

Two Covenant Spelling Errors

The next name on my Ulster Covenant list of clan members is David McIlhagga living at 42 Gainsborough Drive, Duncairn, Belfast North. The two Davids in the 1911 Census are small children and would not have been old enough to vote in 1912. Nor is there a Gainsborough Drive in my 1911 Census list. So no David and no address! Fortunately we have another line of enquiry, namely examining the signature on the Ulster Covenant. Alongside this I know that the family in which the name David occurs down the generations is not McIlhagga but McIlhagger. And yes, when we examine the signature I think it clearly does read McIlhagger. I have included it at the head of this blog. We don't have this David listed in 1911 so it is valuable to have both the name and address recorded in 1912. David McIlhagger was I believe the David born 1879 to George McIlhagger and Mary Jane Boyd. In 1906 when he married Elizabeth Louise Sherwood he was living at the family home at 29 North Queen Street, Belfast. Perhaps he and his new wife moved into Gainsborough Drive soon after their marriage. So once again the 1912 Covenant has given us a new piece of information. And I am gathering a small group of corrections to send to PRONI!

The next name on my Covenant list is the second, and a double transcription error. The North Queen Street address is now copied as 29 North Lucan Street where apparently we find George McIlhagga. We don't. We find George McIlhagger at 29 North Queen Street, Belfast. He was the head of the family there, aged 63 in 1912. My small group of corrections is getting larger!