As a kid, I remember thinking that my grandfather’s family owned a farm called ‘Moyaver’ in a place called ‘Armoy’ – but none of that turns out to be true. Here’s what’s actually true…
In the 225 years I can trace, we never owned any property in Ireland. Sometimes we rented land – if we were lucky enough to get it – but mostly we lived and worked on other people’s land – and we weren’t the exception.
In 1603, when England took control of Ireland, it organized the settlement of Protestant colonists and legally complicated the ownership, inheritance, lease and sale of land by Catholics. In 1603, Catholics owned 90% of land. By 1750, it was 5%.
In this history, I’ll to give you an overview of our family homes in County Antrim, Ireland and I’ll link to the more complete story for each one, where I know it.
William O’Mullan’s Farm at ‘Lake’ Hamilton
The O’Mullan family, including my 3rd great-grandfather William O’Mullan, leased a fair bit of acreage in Mount Hamilton – but it looks as though they had to drain a lake to get it. They rented portions of what was a lake in 1832, drained it, and brought it entirely under plough by 1837.
My 2nd great-grandfather, Daniel O’Mullan, was not the eldest son, so he didn’t inherit the lease. He became a shoemaker, and married a dressmaker from Moyaver, near Armoy.
The Shoemaker’s Cottage
My 2nd great-grandfather Daniel O’Mullan was a shoemaker from Mount Hamilton in County Antrim, about 10 miles south of Moyaver Upper. He moved to Moyaver around the time that he married Isabella Scally. a dressmaker. They rented a cottage – but no land – on the Limepark Estate, across the street from her father’s farm. My grandfather and great-grandfather were born there, and I stayed in one of the cottages in October 2022.
Patrick Scally’s Farm
My 3rd great-grandfather, Patrick Scally, rented a farm in Moyaver Upper from the Macartney family. He got his lease sometime during the Great Famine. The Scally farm included Lots 2a & 2b and the field borders are still there. It’s still farmland. Prior to that he, and his father, lived and worked on other people’s farms in Moyaver Upper.
My 2nd great-grandmother is Patrick’s daughter, Isabella Scally (dressmaker). Isabella’s oldest brother inherited the lease from Patrick, but he never married and died without heirs in 1916, thereby breaking the lease.
John & Rose Loughlan’s Farm
My 4th great grandparents were John Loughlan and Rose McCaughan. They rented a farm in Stroan, a townland near Armoy, on the upslopes of Knocklayd mountain. Their homestead and farm were on Lot 6, and they shared farmland on Lot 2 with 3 other families.
I descend from their son Anthony Loughlan. He wasn’t the first-born, so he didn’t inherit the property lease. He emigrated to Scotland with his sister and worked in a foundry. His granddaughter was my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Gallagher. She was born in Scotland but spent part of her early teens living at the Loughlan farm in Stroan. That’s where met my great-grandfather, Daniel William Mullan. He was a postman covering this rural route. Her history will tell you a bit more about this line of the family.
Uncle Pat’s Cottage
In the 1980s, my parents were directed by locals to the O’Mullan homestead in Balleny. They didn’t know it at the time but they photographed a cottage that was occupied by my great-grandfather’s siblings – Pat, Elizabeth & Mary Anne O’Mullan. No one in our direct line ever lived there, and the last of them died in 1966.
