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Using the Online Griffith’s Revision Books. Who was living in houses 4Ba and 6Ba [later 6Ca] in 1861 and 1911 and what changes had taken place over the 50 years?
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Using the Online Griffith’s Revision Books Who was living in houses 4Ba and 6Ba [later 6Ca] in 1861 and 1911 and what changes had taken place over the 50 years? The slides that follow should help answer this question and on the way, hopefully, you will learn how to read and understand the information contained in the pages of the Griffith’s Revision Books.
How to access the Valuation Revision Books online. Go to: www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/val12b.htm Click on the Search Valuation Revision Books link to start your search.
This Search Box will then appear on your screen. If you want a townland in the countryside, in my experience , typing in the name of the townland in the placename box is often sufficient. Sometimes I need to narrow the search by selecting the County and the Parish in which the townland is situated. Certainly in the case of streets in a town you will usually need to select at least the County and the Parish – particularly if it is a street name like Church Street. With villages - the name of the village usually produces a positive result. If you are having difficulty with the spelling of a townland or street have a look at the Search hints and tips on the PRONI website. My tip - it is well worth looking at the exact spelling of “your” townland in the Printed Griffith’s Book . Or type in the name of an adjacent townland [provided it is in the same DED as your townland]. See example of a search for the townland of Seacon more on the next slide.
We are looking for the townland of Seacon More. I have filled in all three search boxes. Putting Seacon, only, in the Placename Box would produce the same result.
The results of the search are shown in the screenshot below. The last column on the right contains the PRONI Refs. for the books that cover the period 1864 to 1929. The years covered by each book are shown. You can choose whichever book you want and simply click on the link. Note that there is a book 23A for Seacon Lower and Seacon More, but not Seacon Beg. This is because parts of Seacon More and Seacon Lower are located in Co. Londonderry. Before embarking on a search of the Griffith’s Revisions Books you should have a look at the Griffith’s Valuation Map which is available on the askaboutireland.ie website . I then clicked on Book VAL/12/B/4/23B covering the period 1864-1866 and the next screenshot shows the result.
If you click on View you will get a much larger picture of the Index page that you are viewing and “one that stays still”. When you are finished with the enlarged picture – click on the Back Button in your browser to return to this page.
The Index page shows that the pages covering Seacon More begin on page 3. Go back to the normal size page and use the Next Image button to navigate to page 3. Note that if you had to go, for example, to page 56 you would use the Forward Ten Images button to speed up the process. An alternative is to go to the Last Image button and work your way back.
We have now reached page 3 of the 1864-1866 book . Moving the arrow over the page will enlarge it . If you have difficulty reading a page you can also enlarge it by clicking on View, and the image will stay still. To be honest I usually save a page by right clicking on the page and left clicking on Save picture as. This means that I can give the file a name that means something to me. If I want to save a number of pages I create a folder to hold the files..
Revision Book VAL/12/B/4/23B [1864-1866] Pages 3 and 4 are shown on next two slides. Page 3 confirms that Andrew Pinkerton was really Adam Pinkerton holding Lots 2A & 2B. Holding 1a saw James Hamill replaced by a Nancy Hamill in 1866. This was probably his wife. Unable to find a marriage for this couple in earlier church records. Page 4 shows change at 4Ba and 6Ba. No precise date for this change - sometime during the years 1864-66. The first change to notice, but could easily be missed, is the insertion of Sen. after the name James Pinkerton in 4Ba and Jun. after James Pinkerton in 6Ba. This might give the impression that this was father and son. However, if you read the paper Pinkerton Births, Deaths and Marriages you will see why this was not the case. It looks as if a house numbered separately as 6Bb has been singled out for a John Mooney. It is valued at £1.50 and the rest of the buildings in this complex are valued at £1. John Mooney may have been living in this house in 1861 but the valuer simply valued the entire complex which included a weaving house in 1833. According to his marriage certificate, John Mooney was a weaver as were his brother Henry and his father Daniel – see paper Notes on the Mooney Family of Seacon. Clearly/ having BDM data helps in the interpreting the information in the Revision Book.
Now you will need to switch to another book, in this case 23C You can click on 23C book in the Related PRONI Refs box . When you click on that link the book will open in a separate window or tab. Note that the Related Books pages do not contain this list of links. You will have to come back to this page each time that you want to see another Book. Note that all of the tabs will stay open and you can switch between them. However, if you have too many tabs open, the application can freeze. I rarely use this method. If I am working with a large number of books and papers, I save any pages within a book that I want to use. Then I go to the next book that I want to consult by clicking on the Search Results Tab. This takes me back to the full list of books where I can select the book I want. This method only uses one tab and rarely freezes.
Revision Book VAL/12/B/4/23C [1867-1885] Pages 3, 4 and 5 are shown on next three slides. Page 3 - Note that at 2A & 2B the name Adam Pinkerton is stroked out and the name John added in purple. The date 71[also in purple] appears in the Observations column. This means that this property has passed to a John Pinkerton by 1871. The date records the event after it happened, not necessarily the exact year in which it actually happened. Interestingly the valuer does not record John as the immediate lessor of Robert McAnal until the following year 72. Note this date and the name change are in blue. Each visit necessitates a different colour. Adam had died in 1870 and this farm had passed to his nephew John Pinkerton who would later become an MP. Page 4 - No change in farm No. 4 - James Pinkerton Sen. still there. Page 5 - Change in 6B. This property was taken over by James Pinkerton Sen. who, as far as I know, was not a close relative of James Jun. who lived in Moneygobbin. The date in the Observation column is 78 [it actually is 78, if you do not believe me go online and look at an enlarged copy of this page.] James of Moneygobbin had died in 1876 – see his will online. Obviously James Sen. became John Mooney’s landlord at the same time. However, if you look at the information on the Mooney family in the Notes on the Mooney Family of Seacon paper you will see he was no longer living here – certainly by 1870.
Revision Book VAL/12/B/4/23D [1885-1895] Pages 3, 4 and 5 plus some photos are shown on the next four slides. Page 3 - John Pinkerton in farm No. 2 has become an MP for Galway 1886-1900. He has built a new house which is recorded in 1890 but would have been built some time between 1886 and 1900. The valuers classified the house as 1A which means it was brand new and slated. The measurements are in yards and the height in storeys. Note the old dwelling house has become a byre. See photo of house and the “byre” on the slide after page 3. Page 4 - Here we find changes at No. 4 the farm of James Pinkerton Sen. The inclusion of the word Reps and the date 93 [1893] in purple indicates that James is dead. We know from his will [online at PRONI] that he died on the 9th August 1892 and his will was probated 28th November 1892. Page 5 - Here we find the same changes at farm No. 6 which James had taken over in 1878. If you look at James’s will you will see that he died childless and his wife died a few years later. On the death of his wife his estate was divided amongst his nephews and nieces. Three of the nephews - John MP of Seacon More, John of Coldagh and Robert Dick of Ballaghmore were the executors and trustees. Clearly the farm would have to be sold, or more accurately, the tenant right would have to be sold. The outcome of that sale might become clearer in the next few slides.
Revision Book VAL/12/B/4/23E [1897-1911] Pages 3, 4 and 5 on the next 3 slides plus a slide showing a copy of a Valuation Map [1914-1935]. Page 3 - The first point to note here is that Reps appear again. This time against the name of John Pinkerton MP in farm No. 2. and the date for this Reps. 1912. John had actually died in 1908. Pages 4 & 5 - It goes without saying, that these two pages are difficult to interpret. After much deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that this is what happened. John Pinkerton MP bought plots of land 4B [including house 4Ba] and 6B except for a small part of 6B which was renumbered 6C. This 6C along with plots 4A, 4C & 6A were bought by Samuel Pinkerton Sen. who lived at 3Ba. The plots he purchased adjoined his own plots of land 3A and 3C. There was another Samuel Pinkerton occupying plots 7A & 7B which were adjacent to plot 6C. It looks as if the valuers got the two Samuels mixed up. Instead of the old house 6Ba becoming 6Ca, it first was renumbered 7Ac as part of Farm No. 7. Later it was renumbered 6Ca with the same valuation of £1.50 as the former 6Ba. We know from the 1901 Census that William McKinley was living in 6Ca. By 1905 the house was vacant. William McKinley died in 1903 and the family turn up in the 1911 Census living in the nearby townland of Heagles. I realise that the last three pages are more difficult to work with than the previous eight pages. I would not want to leave you with the impression that reading and interpreting the revision pages is always easy. Nor would I want to leave you with the impression that everyone coming and going in a townland was always recorded. Note that there is also some text with page 4 which refers to the occupants of 4Ba Martha Crawford [1901] and Robert Elder [1911].
This shows Martha Crawford’s name from 1897. She is listed in the 1901 Census House No. 2. Her name is stroked out in 1904 and replaced by Robert Elder whose family is listed in the 1911 Census House No. 5. The Crawford family are listed in the 1911 Census House No. 10 in the townland of Dunderg in Co. L/Derry. You will also find Martha in the Revision Books..for Dunderg , County. Londonderry, Parish of Macosquin. - VAL/12/B/30/11E [1899-1910] page 51, house 10e.
Note that here the valuers say - Now grouped with the farms to which these lots belong with the date 01 in red/purple. I think that this was an attempt by the valuers to make sense of the various plots of land that had been sold in accordance with the will of James Pinkerton [Farm No. 4] whose wife died in 1895.It is very difficult to “disentangle” this information.
VAL/12/D/1/11G[ 1914-1935] Ideally I would have preferred the 11F map dated 1895 -1914 , but it was not very clear.
Revision Book VAL/12/B/4/23F [1912-1929 Page 88 on the next slide. There are more changes with some farms being taken over by “outsiders” from adjoining townlands. I have not investigated this process fully. I have included this page because it shows what happened to the houses in 4B and 6C [previously 6B]. 4Ba is now occupied by a Robert Elder. This family was living in the nearby townland of Heagles in 1901 but were in Seacon More by the time of the 1911 Census. Incidentally in 1901 Robert Elder was not listed in the 1911 Census for Seacon More, but his wife and family were. He was listed as a farm servant in the house of a William Fullerton in the adjoining townland of Tullaghgore. The James Elder listed against 6Ca is the son of Robert and was listed in the 1911 Census despite the fact that his name does not appear in the valuation book until 1923. This last example, and those in the earlier slides, illustrates the problems of keeping track of cottiers. You can look up these families in the 1901 & 1911 Census yourself.
You should now be able to see who was living in 4Ba and 6Ba in 1901. 4Ba = 1901 Census [House No. 2] Martha Crawford [Linen Weaver] and her sisters. One sister was married and her name was Murdock. 6Ba by 1901 had been renumbered to 6Ca = 1901 Census [House No. 5] William John McKinley [Surfaceman] and his family. The period c. 1860 to 1901 saw the number of inhabited, working farms reduced from 6 to 3. The three Pinkerton farms had swallowed up the McCrelis farm and the farms of James Pinkerton Sen. and Jun. The cottier population was still high. This townland had been heavily engaged in linen weaving in the earlier part of the nineteenth century but decline in this domestic industry would have led to some people leaving e.g. John Mooney who emigrated to America probably in the late 1860s. There were still two weavers amongst the cottier occupations but most were agricultural labourers. The days of the handloom weaver were virtually gone by 1901. It is interesting that Martha Crawford left Seacon More after 1901 and moved to Gribben’s bleach green in Dunderg near Macosquin. Gribbens had a linen weaving factory on the Strand Road in Coleraine. The farm consolidation led to a surplus of cottier houses. One of these, 4Ba ,would have been much better than the usual cottier house. I suspect the offices or outbuildings of 4Ba would have been used by the occupant of 2Aa.
