Third Son

James and Jane (nee Maitland) McIlhagga's third son was Daniel Maitland, was born 21st September 1868 at Castlequarter, Ballymoney. Daniel was a Labourer when he married Domestic Servant Elizabeth Ann Wright born about 1868, daughter of Robert Wright, on 31st March 1891. Although they both came from Presbyterian families they married in Loughguile Church of Ireland (Anglican), Ballymoney. At the time Daniel was living at Knockahollet and Elizabeth at Lavin. By the time of the 1911 Census when they were living at Drumadarrogh, Killagan, in County Amtrim, Daniel working on a farm as a Flax Scutcher, a person who separated the husk from the flax fibres by holding it against rotating paddles, a job which sounds as if it needed quite a lot of skill as well as strength. Between 1893 and 1907 they had nine children, three girls and six boys.

Jeannie was born in 1893. Another girl, the fifth child, was also called Jean, born 1900. We may suspect that their first child died in infancy or as a young child. This is probably confirmed by the entry on the 1911 Census form which says that they had had nine children, eight of whom were still alive. Their second child was Robert W. who we have met before (see blog of 23rd June) born 1895, who was killed in the First World War. The third child, James was born 1896/7, in Ballymena. He married Jean Walker Wallace on 25th April in the Church of Scotland Manse, Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland. James and Jean had five children and there are some 23 grandchildren and at least 21 great-grandchildren. James was a farm servant in 1911 but when the family moved to Scotland he, aka 'Big Huck', became a Shale and Coal miner. In 1962 when James died, aged 66, he was living in Atlantic Avenue, Bathgate. On 11th May he was found dead in bed, having last been seen alive the day before. The fourth child of Daniel and Elizabeth was Samuel, born 1899. In 1911 he was at school but I know nothing more about him. Jean followed in 1900. She trained as a nurse, emigrating to Australia where on 8th August 1929 she married Hospital Attendant, Patrick George William Carr in the Presbyterian Church, Lidecombe, New South Wales.

Daniel and Elizabeth's sixth child we have met before. He was William John who was a Prisoner of War in the Second World War and died in Borneo (see blog of 19th September). Their fifth son was Daniel, born 31st January 1903. He was a Builder's Labourer and married Margaret Willis Crowe in Kirknewton, Midlothian. He died on 3rd April 1985. To the best of my knowledge they had just one daughter who married in Bathgate. The third daughter to Daniel senior and Elizabeth was Mary born 1905/6 who I think lived into her eighties and was, again to the best of my knowledge, unmarried. Their last child was Albert Hugh Wright who was born 6th November 1907 at Killagan, County Antrim. He had also become a Shale Miner when on 20th July 1929 he married Domestic Servant Margaret Pettigrew. They had three daughters, all of whom married. For a time Albert was a Gunner in the Royal Artillery and later worked as a Builder's Labourer. It looks as if he and his wife separated for when he died in Grove Street, Morningside, Edinburgh on 9th October 1979 he was recorded as being 'single'. I believe Margaret moved to Chatham in Kent where she died eight years later in October 1987.

You will have gathered that between 1911 when a Census was taken and 1917 when a Scottish address was given on Robert's army death record, the whole family moved from Ireland to Scotland and went to live first at 104 Main Street, Livingston Station, where Daniel Maitland McIlhagga died in 1948, and then to nearby Bathgate in West Lothian. Some of the descendants of this branch of the McIlhagga clan emigrated to Australia and live in New South Wales, some not very far from Wagga Wagga where Robert enlisted in the army. I have now listed the descendants from the first three of the nine children of James and Jane (nee Maitland) McIlhagga of Ballyportery and I will come to their remaining six children, five girls and a boy, in my next blog.