Ulster Genealogy and Local History Blog

 Ballygowan is a townland of some 424 acres in the parish of Drumragh in Co Tyrone - It is locates south-west of Omagh on the main road to Irvinestown: In 1851 the whole townland was in the possession of Lady Charlotte Burgoyne (formerly Head) - she was the widow of Sir John James Burgoyne and she was his second wife. Sir John James Burgoyne died on 23 May 1838 in his 58th year after a short illness at his seat at Strabane. He had been agent of the Abercorn estate and provost of Strabane. The Land was put up for sale through the recently established Encumbered estates court. Establishment of the Land Courts By the mid-19th Century many of the large Irish estates in Ireland were in serious financial difficulty. Land owners found themselves legally obliged to pay out annuities and charges on their land, mainly to pay mortgages or ‘portions’ to family members contracted by marriage settlements and/or wills of previous generations. All of these payments had to be met, before the owner/ occ

The Registry of Deeds Book 743 page 216 memorial number 505952 contains details of a mortgage by Lord Viscount Dungannon dated 21 July 1819, which lists over 250 tenants in the town and parks of Larne in County Antrim. Additional details contained include the date and type of lease, acreage of the property and yearly rent paid. Most of the details concern tenements in the town. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJ9-Y4PQ?i=429&cat=185720

GEORGE LEEKE (c1833-1908) was born Magilligan son of George Leeke of Upper Doaghs (1831 census). His father George Leeke died 2nd April 1835 aged 36 years (family headstone St Aidan's Catholic cemetery). In the 1901 census for Aughtymoyle, Magilligan George Leeke gave his occupation as Grain merchant, Grocer and Publican. He was a member of Limavady Rural District Council for the Bellarena division.  The coming of the railways to Magilligan and Limavady opened up potential markets throughout Ireland and further afield. Bellarena railway station opened in 1853 and George Leeke soon established a business there selling and exporting local produce and advertised in local newspapers. He exported fish, game and poultry from the station in Bellarena. Londonderry Sentinel 6 Oct 1863 George Leek Fish, Game and Poultry Dealer Bellarena Station George Leeke was a Magilligan man to the core. He built up extensive business interests and invested in the local infrastru

  A report of a murder near Portglenone appeared in the pages of the Northern Whig newspaper dated 11 June 1832: 'On Monday the fourth inst. Arthur Henry, a respectable, inoffensive man (a Catholic) of the parish of Tamlaght O'Crilly, was on his way home from Bellaghey fair, waylaid and so inhumanly beaten and abused between Bellaghey and Portglenone that he expired Wednesday last. He has left behind him a wife and seven children. He was a very quiet man, and was never implicated in any party measures'. It seems there had been an upsurge in party violence in the Portglenone area in previous months. A stipendiary magistrate had arrived in the town on the 8th June to 'deal out justice and teach a wholesome lesson to the disturbers of public peace'. In memory of a quiet man - Arthur Henry.

Judge John H. McCunn (November 2, 1820 – July 6, 1872) was born Burnally, Myroe, Limavady on 2nd November 1820 son of William McCunn and Martha [Matty] McKinley. Tamlaght Finlagan (Ballykelly) Church of Ireland baptismal register gives his birth details as follows - 1820 - Nov 2nd John son of Wm & Martha McCunn, Burnally [page 97]. McCunn said he walked into New York in a red flannel shirt and canvas trousers and eventually walked out as a Judge of the Central Criminal Court. He amassed a fortune and bought the large farm at Farmhill, Coleraine, which passed to his brothers and later to the Bullick family. McCunn presented in 1857 two magnificent silver tea services for competition at Keenaught Farming Society's ploughing match (Derry Sentinel 3 July 1857). He died in New York on 6th July 1872 shortly after having been impeached in a political scandal. He was a self-made man, his life being a somewhat remarkable one. When a child he conceived a fondness for a sailor's life,

BALTEAGH PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION There are no surviving pre-civil registration church registers for the parish of Balteagh, Limavady, which makes it difficult to trace early ancestry in the area. For those with Presbyterian roots in this scenic parish, however, the discovery of a petition by the newly formed congregation in 1828 provides wonderful detail on the families attached to the newly formed church. The petition was discovered in the National Archives, Ireland in Dublin in the files of the Chief Secretary's Office papers. The Official Papers series (OP) is a collection of incoming correspondence to the Chief Secretary’s Office (CSO) and the surviving papers cover the period 1790 through to 1880. The petition from Balteagh is found amongst a bundle of various papers relating to the payment of Regium Donum (NAI: OP1/685/2).  The Presbyterian congregation of Balteagh was established in 1823 by people originally attached to Drumachose Presbyterian congregation in Limavady (wh