Maxwellswalls revisited and 'Brother' William

In my blog of 11th July I implied that Henry McIlhaggo born (I thought) about 1823 who married Agnes McMeekin was the son of another Henry. From information on his marriage record just received from AncestryIreland I now know this was an error. The father of Henry (probably born about 1824/5) who married Agnes was in fact a John McIlhaggo, farmer. His place of residence is indeed given as Maxwellswalls; the church in which the marriage took place on 31st August 1855 being Templepatrick Presbyterian Church. Interestingly one of the witnesses was a James Wilson. This could well imply that the family was related to Henrietta Wilson who married Nathaniel Owens McIlhagga ten years later and/or John Wilson McIlhagga who died in Maxwellswalls in 1896 and whose Will we have. So which John is the father of Henry who married Agnes McMeekin? My best guess now is John who married a Houston, possibly Mary, with Henry given a birth year of 1835.

So we come to the fourth clan farmer mentioned in the 1830s Tithe Applotment Book for Maxwellswalls, William McIlhaggo. Can we identify him? Well, we can postulate another conjecture! There appears to have been a family of four or five clan siblings associated with Maxwellswalls who could have been born between 1840 and 1850. They were John Wilson, Archibald Duncan, Nathaniel Owens, Margaret and (possibly) James Edwin. We know for certain from three Wills that John, Archibald, Nathaniel and Margaret were siblings. Now, both Archibald and Nathaniel had eldest sons named William, probably, according to a common naming pattern, named after their paternal grandfather. Usefully the above siblings had second names suggesting that the possible 'grandfather William' married either a Wilson, a Duncan or an Owens. The two with the William grandsons were Duncan and Owens. It would be just about the right time-scale for this 'grandfather William' to be the William in the Maxwellswalls Tithe Book and the best suggestion I have at present is that he was William who married a (Mary) Duncan. He could have been a brother of Henry who married Mary McDole and James who possibly married Margaret Mawhinney.

A blog is for thinking aloud and sometimes for re-thinking relationships. This has been hapening with our Maxwellswalls family and I suspect may happen there again! For the time-being, to complete what has been revealed from the AncestryIreland marriages I must record nine more marriages of clan members claiming Maxwellswalls as their residence, four with a John as father and five with a William. Rose (born 1821) daughter of John McIlhagga, farmer, married John Warrick on 22nd June 1847 in Connor Presbyterian Church. Mary (born 1830) daughter of John McIlhagga, farmer, married William Christie on 30th August 1859 also in Connor Presbyterian Church, when one of the witnesses was an Agnes McIlhagga. Ellen (born about 1847) daughter of John McIlhagga, farmer, married Robert Scroggy on 16th March 1868 in Ballymena 3rd Presbyterian Church. Henry (born about 1833) son of William McIlhagge, farmer, married Agnes Stevenson in 12th December 1854 in Donegore 2nd Presbyterian Church. Nancy Betty (born 1843) daughter of William McIlhagga, farmer, married Alexander Brownlees on 27th October 1865 in Antrim Civil Registrar's Office. George (born about 1845) son of William McIlhagga, farmer, married Elizabeth Anne Robinson on 20th March 1866, in Raloo Presbyterian Church, Larne. Jane (born about 1851) daughter of William McIlhagga, farmer, married James Boyd on 17th August 1872 in Ballymena 3rd presbyterian Church. And finally Margaret (born about 1881) daughter of William McIlhagga, farmer, married William Kerr on 9th May 1902 in Connor Presbyterian Church.