Two Henry tenancies?

There are possibly no fewer than five generations of clan Henrys in the townland of Maxwell's Walls between 1755 and 1899. Which of the five are referred to in the Griffith's Valuations? We can discount the first and the last. The last was Henry born to Henry and Agnes (nee Gardiner) 3 Feb 1870. By age 11 he was in New Monkland, Scotland with his parents and siblings and was to died age 28 in 1899. The first 'Henry' I have simply given this name as the father of the four 'brothers' (my assumption) who are in the 1837 Tithe Applotment Book. I have used the name in accord with the Scottish/Irish naming pattern. He could have been born about 1755. This leaves three Henrys which in my attempt to reconstruct a Maxwell's Walls Family Tree I have thought might be as follows:

1. Henry McIlhaggo, born about 1870 who married Mary McDowell and who made a Relief Application as a Farmer in Maxwell's Walls. They had four offspring, including:

2. Henry or Harry McIlhaggo/McIlhagga (see Marriage entry for son John in 1859) Farmer. If this was Henry McIlhaggo in the Tithe Book of 1835 he would have been about 35 years of age at that time. He married (whom we do not know) and had two sons, the eldest of whom was:

3. Henry born about 1821 (date from the1881 Scottish Census) who emigrated to Scotland. In 1855 he was a farmer in County Antrim. In 1857 he married Agnes Gardiner in Antrim's Registrar's Office. He was certainly in Scotland permanently with his family by 1881 working in a brickworks.

There is I think an outside possibility that Henrys 1 and 2 might be one person. In any case I think that Henry 3 is the one who had plot 30 in Maxwell's Walls in the 1862 Griffith's Valuation and was still there in 1863 (Book A) and in 1876 (Book B) but not in 1886 (Book C) when his name was still against the plot 30 but prefixed by 'Rep.', indicating someone acting as his representative. This would be necessary because he was by then in Scotland, though why he was hanging on to the tenancy I don't know. Maybe he was sub-letting it as an 'insurance policy' if Scotland didn't 'work out'.

If we now turn to the Valuation Continuation Books, there are three. In Book A a Henry McElhagga continues (from the original Griffith's Valuation of 1862) on Plot 30, Acres 2, Roods 1, Perches 20 for which he was paying £4.10.0 (land) plus £1.5.0 (buildings), a total of £5.15.0. From the above it seems that this was Henry born c. 1821. There is also a Henry McElhagga on Plot 37 with a small area, A2, R1, P5 with a house for which he was paying £1.5.0 (land) plus 10/- (house), a total of £1.15.0. Plots 30 and 37 have separate houses which rather indicates an older person, perhaps semi-retired, which could be Henry's father, also Henry on plot 37.

There is however a different scenario which I have put forward in a previous blog (10 Aug 2010) that plot 37, which is in fact just over the Maxwell's Walls/Gastlegore boundary, was rented from Francis Gardiner, Henry's father-in-law, in the middle of whose farm it is. It would have been natural for him to rent it to his daughter and son-in-law, though equally I think as a favour to them, to his daughter's new father-in-law! In the light of the 'Rep' note, which is new information since I wrote in 2010, I now  hold to my new theory.

In the following Book (B) a Henry continues on plot 30 but there is a change on plot 37. Henry is deleted from there and James Boyd inserted. As I have pointed out plot 37 is within a Castlegore plot (36) where in 1876 James Boyd has taken over and clearly wants both plots to work as one. There is however yet another plot to consider. In 1880 a Henry McElhagga takes over plot 47 from William Christie who in 1864 had taken it over from John McElhagga. Which Henry was he? Surely the likelihood is that he was 'father' Henry, who was swapping plot 37 for plot 47, the Henry who goes back to the 1837 tithes. In 1880 Henry's plot 47 was A14, R2, P20, for which he paid Land £7.5.0, buildings £1.10.0, total £8.15.0. Incidentally, James Boyd had married Jane, one of the daughters of William McIlhagga, in 1872.

What of Book C? Both plots 30 and 47 are there and similar entries apply. From plot 30 the name Henry McElhagga (who had a 'Rep' from 1886) was crossed out in 1889 and John Warwick Senior inserted. He was the father of John Warwick Junior who in 1847 had married Rose the daughter of John McIlhaggo. Also the name Henry McElhagga was deleted from plot 47 and John Warwick Senior's name also inserted there. In 1890 this became John Warwick Junior. We can make no deductions from Book C about whether this was the same or different Henrys. We must however I think assume that our arguments up to now have been correct which makes it look as if both Henry (married to Agnes Gardiner) and his father Henry were deleted in the same year, so that both must have died in the same year, 1889. Henry senior would have been the grand age of (about) 89.

These deductions leave us without a death date for 'grandfather' Henry who had married Mary McDowell, and in my mind raises again the question of whether he (Henry 1 above) and his 'son' (Henry 2 above) where in fact the same person. I must give more  thought to this.