The William Descent

We will stay with the descendants of the eldest son of the Ballycloughan family. William son of William, as we have seen, had six children. From the youngest: Elizabeth lived until the age of 37. She married William Baxter who was the person trusted to give notice of both his father-in-law's and his mother-in-law's death, despite the fact that she is wrongly recorded as his mother (see The Greenock Telegraph for 27th April 1900)! Janet is absent from the 1871 Census so she may well have died before she reached double figures. Agnes also gave notice of her mother's death in 1900. She was by then married to Samuel Stewart, a Journeyman Baker, son of Alexander Stewart and Elizabeth McLelland. Matilda, like her younger sister Janet also died before her tenth birthday (1868). James, when he was twenty, married Johanna McCulloch by whom he had sixteen children. I will dedicate another blog to him and his descendants. Finally William son of William son of William, when he was twenty, married Rachel McLelland, daughter of John McLelland and Rachel Anderson, by whom he had eight children: William, Matilda, Andrew, James, Rachael, Eliabeth, Martha and Thomas. It is interesting how often the McLellands crop up in relation to the McIlhaggas. I imagine them from one family.

William son of William son of William was born 1852/3 and was given a second name, to 'keep alive' his mother's maiden name, Carson. On 31st December 1873 he married Rachel in the Greenock Free Church Manse in Ratho Street, after banns had been called according to the custom of the Free Church of Scotland. His address was of course that of his parents, 12 Terrace Road. This was also Rachel's address, though she only hailed from the next town along the coast, Port Glasgow. However, her parents were both deceased so maybe she had been lodging with the McIlhaggas. It looks as if William's young sister Agnes, aged only thirteen, was his witness at the marriage, though admittedly it might have been his Aunt Nancy who was using her 'proper' name. In either case, she 'made her mark'. William, a Sugar-House Labourer like his father, was 21; Rachel, who was a Steam Loom Weaver in a Flaxmill, was 19. By 1881 they were living with their first two children, William and Matilda, at 108 Drumfrocher Road, Greenock. Later in life he got the better job of Donkey Engine Driver. He died in 1932 aged 80, one imagines after some years in retirement. By 1891 the family had moved to 130 Maclean Street, Plantation (Govan), the five children then being William (of course!), Matilda, James, Elizabeth and Martha. The three others are clearly elsewhere on Census night, Andrew, Rachel and Thomas. Let us meet each of the eight in turn.

William son of William son of William son of William (!) was born on 4th June 1875. When he was only eighteen, as the eldest son, he had registered his mother's death in 1893. In 1891 he is on the Census as an apprentice to a sail maker. He may be the William McIlhago at Hurlford, Ayr, in the 1901 Census. He was boarding there and is listed as a Labourer. He may have been on the Ayrshire coast in order to work at his trade of sail-making, though his birth place of 'Ireland' may be against this identification. He is however the only clan William in Scotland in 1901 with the 'right' birth year. Matilda (b. 1877) moved by 1891 to 'Plantation' (Govan) from where, on 31st December 1898 she married Alan Woods McLellan, a Blacksmith, in St. Margaret's Hall, according to the rites of The Free Church of Scotland. She died in 1938 in Tradeston aged 61. Andrew (1879) who was given as second name his mother's maiden name, McLelland, sadly died as a two-year-old on 13th February 1881.

James (born 19th August 1882) is probably the James McIlhaggie in the 1901 Census on board Prince George First Class Battleship in Gibralter Bay; aged 18, born Scotland, single, with an 'undefined' employment but listed as a member of the crew. There were 745 others in the vessel. On 30th October 1908 aged 27, as a Merchant Seaman, he married 26 year old Mary Young, daughter of John Young a shipwright, and Mary McNeilage, at 8 Bellahouston Terrace, according to the rites of the Church of Scotland. A year later they were to have a son, John Young, who became a Quay Labourer and who on 25th September 1931 married Margaret Smellie Allan at Union Church of Scotland, Maryhill, Glasgow. They had a daughter, Margaret Allan in 1934 who sadly died three years later of Whooping Cough and Broncho Pneumonia. Her father John Young McIlhagga died in 1940 aged 31. His father, James McIlhagga died in 1921 aged 38.

William and Rachel's fifth child was Rachel who also died as an infant (1884). Next came Elizabeth (1886) who lived in Govan until she died in 1951, aged 65. Martha was born in 1888, about whom we have no more information at present. Finally Thomas Norris was born on 6th December 1891. The long line of first sons, all William, had come to an end. Thomas was the survivor of this large family, but his story must wait until another blog.

Sugar-refining in Greenock

Berryyards Sugar Refinary, Greenock

shown with permission of

The McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Inverclyde Council.

Progenitor William McIlhagga of Ballycloughan was a weaver and a smallholder - he called himself a farmer. He and Agnes must have married about 1828 and have had their first child, a boy they also called William, about 1830. We have already established (see blog for 15th August, 'A Problem solved?') the he was the William McElhagga aged 20 named in the 2% sample of the 1851 Census of the townland of Craigs. He worked for Blacksmith Brown as a servant-weaver, along with Brown's own son. Later that very year, on 14th July he married Elizabeth Carson from Gortfadd, a townland in the village of Portglenone, 8.5 miles west of Ballymena. She was the daughter of farmer James Carson and Matilda McEwan. They married at Portglenone Second Presbyterian Church. William had attained his 'majority' between the census and the wedding for he is recorded as 'full age' in July; however, as we know from later records, Elizabeth was six years older than him, so was about twenty-six at their marriage.

William and Elizabeth were to have six children, but only the first, also William, was born in Ireland (about 1852). By the time number two, James, came along (about 1855) they were living in Greenock on the south west coast of Scotland. In the next ten years William and Elizabeth had had three children, and are recorded in the 1861 Scottish Census with the surname McIlhaggan. After James came Matilda (1 March 1858). We know that James and Matilda were named after Elizabeth's parents, so they were following the 'naming pattern' very strictly. Their fourth child and second daughter Agnes was born on 7th February 1860. Janet came along two years later on 15th July and finally Elizabeth on 23rd September 1864. In the 1871 Census they were 'McIlhaga', in 1881 'McIlhagga' (except James who was 'McIlhaggart') and in 1891 'McIlhaggart'. Such variations were surely due to the misspelling of the enumerators rather than to the family deliberately making such changes. Father William died at 6.30am on 20th September 1899 of a malignant tumor of the throat. One wonders whether this was work related. He was registered as a 69 years old Labourer. His wife Elizabeth died only seven months later, at the age of 75 of a Heart Disease. Both died at the house they had lived in all their time in Greenock, at 12 Terrace Road.

It is clear that William moved across to Scotland in order to find work, and possibly to escape the potato famine. He found work in the sugar-refining industry and was labouring in one of the many Greenock sugar houses by the time the 1861 census was taken. Technically he was a Sugarbaker. The job of Sugarbaker has been well documented by Bryan Mawer in association with the Anglo-German Family History Society. The title of his book, Sugarbakers - from sweat to sweetness says a lot. Work in the 19th Century Refineries in places like Greenock or Liverpool was hot, hard and often for long hours. They mostly employed men escaping from lack of work on the land who, like William, were therefore exchanging an outdoor life for 'stoking fires, unloading raw sugar, ladling boiling syrup, pouring bullocks' blood, grinding animal charcoal, cleaning filters, filling moulds with hot sugar, loading ovens, etc.' (p.6). Heat permeated the whole building such that men worked 'naked but for a covering for their legs and some sort of apron' (p.49, from an article by G. Dodd in the Penny Magazine). Doubtless working conditions improved as time went on, but the basic 2-3 week process of refining meant day and night working to produce the prized 'sugar loaf'. The intense heat meant that not only were there many personal injuries but also that many 'Sugarhouses' went on fire. Also heat produced intense thirst and where water was impure, as Bryan Mawers sums it up, doubtless with social and family consequences we can only imagine, 'so it was beer throughout the working day, beer in the evening, and they had Sundays off for church, rest... and a beer' (p.64).

Perhaps 'our' William was fortunate to reach his seventieth year, and not to die of anything worse than he did.

The Ballycloughan Naming Pattern

It's ages since I've spent time working on my own McIlhagga family tree though I often think of the fact that my brick wall is there with my great-great-grandfather William, born at the turn of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries. In a blog on 20th February I toyed with the idea that William's father was James who farmed a plot of land in the next townland to where William lived and farmed, but I'm not convinced I've found the way back to the previous generation. So where do I go next? Can I do a bit of lateral thinking? I sat down today and made a family time-line from 1800-1890 with the names of children and grand-children. Would it reveal anything of interest? It certainly reminded me of the Scottish and Irish naming pattern. I think that William and Agnes must have reminded their offspring in no uncertain terms of the 'proper thing to do' when naming their children.

Let's see what they did. Two of the three sons (William and Crawford) called their first son William, after their paternal grandfather. The third son John called his second son William. The second son of daughters 'should' also have been named William. Two out of three were (the second sons of Jane and Margaret) and with the third (Ann) it was the next boy who was William. First daughters of daughters 'should' be named after the maternal grandmother. Three out of three were; Agnes was the name of the first daughter of Jane, Ann and Margaret. We don't think that either of the other two daughters (Mary and Nancy) had daughters. In the case of sons the second daughter 'should' have been Agnes. Two of the three were (William and Crawford) and in John's case Agnes was number three. All this leads me to think that William and Agnes themselves must have 'inherited' the traditional pattern from their parents, which means that in all probability William's father was also William. By the same token, further analysis makes me think that William's mother may have been Mary, that Agnes' father may have been John and that her mother may have been Jane.

Can we extrapolate from any of this? Let's start with Agnes McCosh. We don't have a marriage certificate, so we don't know for certain her father's name, but two McCoshes, David and John, rented land in Ballycloughan. There are no Davids in the Ballycloughan McIlhagga family so our guess would be that she was daughter of John, or perhaps there was a John McCosh who was also father of David and John. This would accord with John McIlhagga's second son being called John. Maybe we will discover whether her mother was Jane in accord with William and Agnes' first daughter being Jane. It is the fact that their second daughter was Mary which leads me to think that William's mother may have been Mary. So does the idea that William's parents were William and Mary? Not yet, I'm afraid. We will keep the possibility in mind!

Is there any more to be said about the family names? One special thing. The family has clearly inherited the unusual name of Crawford (possibly first a surname). Naming their third son Crawford wasn't a 'one off' as the name keeps cropping up in succeeding generations. We can surely assume that William, born about 1795, was not an only child. It is quite likely that he had a brother Crawford, but does a Crawford exist who might fit this slot? There is just one reference that we know about. In 1833 Margaret McIlhagger was born, who incidentally doesn't seem to relate to any other 'McIlhaggers'. We know of her existence from the record of her marriage to John Hill on 1st November 1854 in Kirkinriola Church of Ireland, Ballymena. Margaret's father was called Crawford. He was a shoemaker in Harryville, Ballyclug. He could well have been born in the first decade of the century which could certainly make him William's younger brother. And just maybe their father was also William. So have we learned anything from the Ballycloughan McIlhagga's naming patterns? Just possibly!

There are some other common names among the eight offspring of William and Agnes: James (2), John (3), Thomas (3), Robert (2); Matilda (2), Janet (2), Elizabeth (5), Margaret (3). The names Thomas and Robert, Matilda and Elizabeth were brought in by marriage, which leaves James, John, Janet and Margaret, any of which could also have been siblings of William or Agnes.

Ballycloughan Family: An Overview

First Presbyterian Church, Broughshane, Co.Antrim

William and Agnes (nee McCosh) McIlhagga of Ballycloughan had eight children. The eldest was William. The first boy in Ireland was often named for the paternal grandfather, which raises the question (against my earlier mooting the possibility of James) whether both William's father and grandfather were also William? This is just a possibility to be kept in mind for the future. We have already met the eldest son, William, in the 2% sample which has survived of the 1851 Census (see 'A Problem Solved? on 15th August last) where he is William McElhagga. He is the ancestor of two branches of this family, one based in Canada and the other in the United Kingdom. He was a Weaver and a Presbyterian who, on 14th July 1851 married Elizabeth Carson of Gortfadd, daughter of James Carson and Elizabeth McEwan. They married at Portglemone Presbyterian Church. We can calculate that he must have been born about 1830 and hence that his parents probably married at the end of the 1820s, giving them birth years around the turn of the Century.

William and Agnes' second son John was born a couple of years later. He was to marry Mary Stewart at Broughshane Presbyterian Church on 15th July 1851, the day after his brother married a few miles away at Portglenone! Mary came from Ballygarvey. Both she and John 'made their mark' during the marriage ceremony. William and Agnes' third child and first daughter was Jane, born about 1833. Like her father and two older brothers, she too became a weaver. She married Robert Wade of Ballycloughan at Broughshane on 16th May 1854. Two years later the marriage took place of the family's second daughter, Mary, to Robert Dickey, yet another weaver, on 13th June. He brother John was her witness at the wedding. Mary was probably born in 1835. Next came the third son, Crawford, who was to become ancestor of the second branch of the family now to be found in England. He was born about 1837 and on 1st September 1865 married Eliza(beth) Smith of Port Glasgow at The Free Church of Scotland there. Ann was the third daughter to be born 1838/9 and be baptised 16th January 1839. She married Robert Linton on 8th October 1864, moving afterwards to live first in Ballymena. Interestingly she chose to be married at Clogh which is where her mother came from. Nancy, fourth daughter was born and baptised (on 17th October) in 1841 and when she was twenty-one, on 15th May 1863 married William John McCleary in Broughshane. Both the Lintons and the McClearys moved to Central Scotland. Finally William and Agnes' fifth daughter and eighth child was Margaret, baptised 16th June 1844. She married Alexander Scott from Port Glasgow on 26th June 1866, in the Church of Scotland there. They became ancestors of a large Australian branch of the family.

Most of this family were baptised and married at what is now called the First Presbyterian Church in Broughshane. The minister who baptised all the McIlhagga children was the Revd. Dr. Robert Stewart (1783-1852). S. Alex Blair in his County Antrim Characters (3), Mid-Antrim Historical Group: 36, 1997, writes of him, '...Stewart was one of the great personalities in the Irish Presbyterian Church of the last century. A noted conversationalist and debater, as well as a famous preacher, he.. "excelled in quick repartee, in clear discrimination and in far-seeing sagacity" (Prof. W.D.Killen). He was a native of Tullybane, near Clough.. in [1816] he [was] Moderator of the General Synod [and of] the General Assembly in 1843... "Mr. Stewart [was] rough in appearance... [but] celebrated for wit, humour and logical acumen.. an original genius whose arguments were elaborated from facts by his own mind, and not borrowed from books, of which he had very few in his possession". (W.T. Latimer)... In his own congregation Dr. Stewart was greatly beloved... To his pastoral duties he added unwearied efforts in the cause of secular and scriptural education, erecting appropriate school houses, selecting well-qualified teachers and watchfully superintending the progress of the rising generation.'

Problem solved?

The problem posed in my last blog has I think a probable and simpler solution that the ones hinted at earlier. I searched the IGI for any references and found an Islandmagee (mistranscribed Islandmager) marriage of Eliza Acken to 'Hoy' born in Ballypriormor(e) on the peninsula. I admit this is a marriage which has been submitted by an individual after 1991 and such entries are notorious for their errors, but this one looks as if it has a sound basis in fact. I think it would make total sense if Eliza's parents were Mathew Aiken and his wife (Samuel McIlhaggo's daughter). It is very frustrating that we do not have her name. So I think that the Aiken family tree, kindly shared with me by my correspondent, may be missing out a generation. Mathew didn't marry Eliza and have a daughter Mary. He married Samuel's daughter and had a daughter Eliza who had a daughter Mary, and if this were the case the age gap of 16 years between Mathew and his wife disappears.

A time-line would then look like this:

1758 Mathew Aiken born;

1774 Mathew Aiken married daughter of Samuel McIlhaggo (although he was only 16. They realised she was pregnant);

1774 Eliza Aiken (Acken) born to Mathew and daughter of Samuel;

1792 John Aiken born to Eliza Aiken (Eliz aged 19. Born out of wedlock, which is why he has the surname Aiken!);

1794 Eliza Aiken (Acken) (aged 21) married Hoy (born Ballypriormore). Marriage on IGI. [Was her middle name Brennan?];

1795 Mary born to Eliza Hoy (nee Aiken);

1810 John born to Mary (aged 15) Hoy. The father was Napier;

1810 Samuel makes his Will. His daughter, granddaughter (Mary) and ggrandson (John) are all alive;

1815 Mary Hoy died end of July, aged 20;

1818 Samuel dies. Will proved end of July. John aged 9 inherits his mother Mary's interest in Carspindle;

1830 Mathew Aiken dies aged 72;

1838 Eliza Hoy (nee Aiken) dies aged 64. She is called Eliza Aiken on the Ballypriormore grave - it was very common to revert to a maiden name as a widow.

The McIlhaggo-Aiken Problem

My correspondent about Islandmagee has set me a problem. Our clan member who farmed in Portmuck was Samuel McIlhaggo. He left a Will in which he makes one of his three sons-in-law Mathew Aikin (or Aiken) his Executor and indeed a beneficiary. Unfortunately the original copy of the Will is damaged and many words are indecipherable. These include the name of his granddaughter who married a Mr. Noy or Hoy. My correspondent tells me that Mathew Aiken who is on his family tree married an Eliza Brennan. He gives their respective dates as 1758-1830 and 1774-1838. He also says their daughter Mary, born 1795 married a Mr Hoy! I am wondering if Mathew married twice, first to Samuel's daughter and then to Elizabeth Brennan. This might be indicated by the fact that Eliza was 16 years younger than Mathew. I suppose another possibility is that Eliza was Samuel McIlhaggo's daughter and that she had been married first to a Mr. Brennan and that she married Mathew Aiken as a widow. A third, but I think remote possibility, is that Eliza's middle name was Brennan. Unfortunately Samuel's Will doesn't give us her name, but it does make quite clear that Mathew was his son-in-law.

There is an additional reason to think that Mathew Aiken may have been married twice. On the Aiken family tree Eliza Aiken (nee Brennan) had a daughter Mary who married a Mr. Hoy. The (1818) Will of Samuel McIlhaggo named a son-in-law Mathew Aikin (or Aiken) and a granddaughter Mary whose son John appeared to be fathered by a Mr. Noy (Hoy?) otherwise Napier. However no son John appears on the Aiken family tree, so maybe there were two Marys, one the daughter of Eliza Aiken (nee Brennan), one the daughter of the daughter of Samuel McIlhaggo. She (ie the second Mary's mother) was possibly a first wife of Mathew Aiken or else the wife of one of the other two sons-in-law named in the Will. There is of course a further possibility that she was and remained unmarried and had a child by Mr. Noy/Hoy. We need some more evidence, but where will it come from?

Back to Islandmagee

I wrote about families at Islandmagee between 4th and 12th June last. Yesterday I received a comment from a descendant of the Aiken line which Mathew Aikin (or Aiken), whom I mentioned on 8th June, belongs. My correspondent has a full family tree of the Aiken family which I have been able to consult, for which I am very grateful. I will write about a problem this has raised for me next time. He kindly also sent me the URL for a number of County Antrim graveyards which include Ballypriormore on Islandmagee. This includes a McIlhaggo family, the MI which I quoted on 4th June. The transcription gives a different age for the death of Samuel McIlhaggo, 53 rather than 57, so I may have to revise his birth year to 1833 (from 1837).

I checked the other graveyards which have been transcribed and found two McIlhaggas in Connor New Cemetery and one in Kirkhill Cemetery, Connor. I already knew about the Kirkhill MI and I quoted it on 2nd February. The two in Connor New are new to me and they both add to our knowledge. They read as follows:

1849. McIlhagga. In loving memory of Nathaniel Owens 1834 - 1905; His wife Henrietta 1849 - 1939; Their daughter-in-law Sara Jane 1886 - 1913; Her son Robert 1911 - 1930.

1937. McIlhagga. In loving memory of Nathaniel McIlhagga, beloved husband of Charlotte McIlhagga, died 22nd March 1937 aged 41 years.

In addition to the McIlhaggo grave in Ballypriormore the Internet site provided me with the grave there of Catherine whom I believe to be a daughter of Samuel and Ellon McIlhaggo and sister of William. She married Arthur Forbes. Her MI (Memorial Inscription) reads:

Erected in memory of Arthur Forbes who departed this life 5th Mar 1873 aged 75 years. Also his beloved wife Catherine Forbes who departed this life 27th June 1882 aged 76 years.

One of Arthur and Catherine's daughters was also Catherine who married a Napier. Good fortune also provided the following MI which surely must be hers and that of their seven children (and so great-grandchildren of Samuel and Ellon McIlhaggo):

Napier. Erected by Catherine Napier in memory of her husband John Napier who died 14th Oct 1900 aged 71 years. Their daughter Maggie who died 27th Aug 1888 aged 20 years. Their son Robert who died 23rd Mar 1898 aged 17 years. Their daughter Catherine who died 25th Feb 1902 aged 35 years. Their son James who died 8th May 1904 aged 30 years. Their son Arthur Forbes who died 30th Aug 1908 aged 43 years. Their son John who died 26th Nov 1916 aged 46 years. The above-named Catherine Napier who died 8th Apr 1921 in her 83rd year. Their daughter Eliza died 6th Feb 1952 in her 89th year. Their daughter-in-law Margaret Jane, wife of John Napier, died 16th Oct 1953.