Title: Register of Tenants on Estates in the counties of Ulster
Date: 1651-1903
Description: Included in this database (which will continue to be expanded as we gather more information) are the following sources:
Brownlow estate papers, c.1670-1799
Abercorn estate rent books for the manors of Donelong and Cloghogall, 1794-1809
Hertford Estate Rent Roll, 1728
Abercorn estate maps for the manors of Donelong and Cloghogall, 1777
Index to lessees in Newry from the Kilmorey estate papers
Antrim estate leases for Ballymoney, 1705-1895
Lairn' [Larne] alias Gardenmore in the County of Antrim as surveyed in the year 1735 by Archibald Stewart
Names of tenants and townlands on Skinners' Company estate, County Londonderry
Rent Roll of the Clanbrassil Estate, County Down
Rent Roll of the Manors of Cloghogle and Derrywoon, in County Tyrone, 1820-21
Rent Rolls of the Castlestewart and Lissan Estates
Rental of the Lindesay of Loughry Estate
Rental of the Rowan Estate, County Antrim
Survey of Stewart of Killymoon Estate, County Tyrone
Survey of the Sixteen towns or Mannor of Clananise
Tenants on the Beresford Estate, County Londonderry
Tenants on the Blackwood Estate in County Down, 1741
Tenants on the McCausland Estate, Ardstraw
Valuation of the Forward Estate, County Donegal, 1727
Date(s)/Year(s): c.1670-1799
Description: The names listed here have been extracted from two major sources, the leases in the archives of the Brownlow estate at Lurgan, County Armagh, in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast and the memorials in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin (RD).
The list was prepared about 30 years ago when the compiler was engaged in research on the manor of Brownlow's-Derry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Next to the name of the tenant is the date of the lease or other document providing information.
After the list of occupations comes the name of the townland on the estate for which the individual had acquired a lease.
Where the townland is defined as Lurgan followed by a number, the reference is to urban property, tenements in the town of Lurgan: the practice of the estate office was to package all the documents relating to each tenement, giving that tenement a running number as well as the name of an original tenant e.g. Porter's or Reilly's.
The final column contains references found in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin: the person named was either a tenant or a witness to the document. This column contains also some pieces of information from other sources, such as deaths mentioned in estate rentals, e.g. A1: 25 (178790), and an occasional item from the Belfast News-Letter for which an index is available.
Source: Brownlow estate papers, PRONI (D/1928), Registry of Deeds, Dublin, and Belfast Newsletter
Compiled by: Dr William Crawford
Date(s)/Year(s): 1794-1809
Description: This database includes the names and addresses of tenants in the manors of Donelong and Cloghogall in County Tyrone owned by the Earl of Abercorn. The manor of Donelong occupied the 'lower half' of the parish of Donagheady, while the manor of Cloghogall covered most of the parish of Leckpatrick.
Source: PRONI, D623/C/4/4 and D623/C/4/5
Compiled by: UHF volunteers
Date(s)/Year(s): 1728
Description: [NB The family did not use the name Hertford until the creation of the first Marquess in 1750.]
Sir Fulke Conway was granted the manors of Killultagh and Derryvolgie in South Antrim in the early seventeenth century. The land passed through his brother Edward to the Hertford family. The 1728 rent roll for the manors covers much of the land in the parishes of Blaris [including the town of Lisburn], Lambeg, Derriaghy, Magheragall, Magheramesk, Aghalee, Aghagallon, Glenavy, Camlin and Tullyrusk and contains over 1300 names of tenants.
There are, however, some difficulties which make it impossible to extract an accurate list of tenant names with their townland addresses since the rental was not set out fully or systematically by townlands. In some parts of the rental the tenant names are listed by townland but over much of the rental tenant names are grouped in divisions which are named farms or have names which cannot be satisfactorily explained by reference to contemporary [estate maps] or later documents. In some parts of the rental a mixture of townland and other divisions are both used. In Lisburn town many of the tenants are listed under street names but there are other tenants listed under names which appear to have been part of the demesne, e.g. Lords Meadow, Cow Pasture, and garrison, e.g. Troopers Field. Piper Hill was named after a soldier piper who died defending the town during the 1641 Rebellion.
A number of tenant names occur in two or more townlands both within a parish and also in other parishes. Most of these duplications of names result from tenant holdings crossing townland and/or parochial boundaries. There is also a small number of tenants with holdings in well separated townlands and parishes ant it would seem probable that most of the holdings were sublet. There is also a small number of major tenants holding large acreages which they sublet and the names of those sub tenants unfortunately do not appear in the rental. This would account for the absence of tenant names for a number of townlands in each parish.
Maghaberry townland is included in Magheragall parish in the rental but it has been placed in the extracted lists in Magheramesk Parish to which it belongs. Ballynalargy townland is divided between Magheragall and Magheramsk parishes but all tenant names were listed in the rental under Magheragall parish. Although the parishes of Camlin and Tullyrusk were united to Glenavy parish prior to 1728 the tenant names for both parishes have been listed separately below.
Despite these difficulties the Hertford estate rent rolls form a most valuable genealogical resource listing over 1300 names, almost all by townland, from the early eighteenth century.
Compiled by: Duncan Scarlett
Date(s)/Year(s): 1777
Description: This database includes the names of tenants and their townlands of residence taken from a set of maps of the manors of Donelong and Cloghogall owned by the Earl of Abercorn. The manor of Donelong occupied the 'lower half' of the parish of Donagheady, while the manor of Cloghogall covered most of the parish of Leckpatrick.
Source: PRONI, D623/D/1/16
Compiled by: UHF volunteers
Date(s)/Year(s): c. 1730-c. 1850
Description: This database comprises an index to the lessees of property in the Kilmorey estate at Newry. Most of the leases are from the 1730s through to the mid nineteenth century, but a small number are later.
Source: PRONI, D2638/B
Compiled by: UHF volunteers
Date(s)/Year(s): 1705-1895
Description: This database comprises a list of the names of tenants issued with leases for property in the town of Ballymoney by the Earl of Antrim and others from the early eighteenth century to the late nineteenth century.
Source: PRONI, D2977/3A/3/2/10
Compiled by: UHF volunteers
Date(s)/Year(s): 1735
Description: This database contains names of tenants of the Larne Estate, 1735.
Source: Map of the old town of 'Lairn' [Larne] alias Gardenmore in the County of Antrim as surveyed in the year 1735 by Archibald Stewart. Each of the tenant's holdings is numbered.
Compiled by: UHF volunteers
Date(s)/Year(s): 1886-97
Description: The Land Registry Collection, which contains an estimated 50,000 items, is one of the largest held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
The papers relate to the changes in the ownership and occupancy of land in Ireland brought about by several Land Acts which were passed from the Landlord and Tennant (Ireland) Act, 1870, to the Northern Ireland Act, 1925, and the Northern Ireland Land Purchase (Winding Up) Act, 1935. The papers created by the administration of these Acts form the Land Registry archive. Papers relating to the Skinners Estate form part of this collection.
This database includes the name of the tenant, the townland, the date, the type of document and the PRONI reference.
Compiled by: Hugh Farren
Date(s)/Year(s): 1681
Description: Names of tenants on the Clanbrassil estate in County Down. The areas cheifly covered are the Ards peninsula, Bangor and Holywood.
Source: The Hamilton Manuscripts, ed. T. K. Lowry (Belfast, 1867).
Compiled by: Ulster Historical Foundation
Date: 1750-1781
Description: Many notices in the Belfast Newsletter advertising the letting of land included the names of sitting tenants. This database is a work in progress and currently runs to over 1,100 entries. The database is limited to the name of the tenant, the landlord (if recorded), the townland, the parish or manor (if given), and the date in which the advertisement appeared in the Newsletter. Most of the advertisements are for properties in counties Antrim and Down. Fuller information can be found in the original advertisement, such as the acreage and rent. Online access to the Belfast Newsletter is available through Ancestry and the British Newspaper Archive (incomplete).
Source:Belfast Newsletter
Compiled by: UHF volunteers
Date(s)/Year(s): 1820-21
Description: A Rent Roll of the Manors of Cloghogle and Derrywoon, in the County of Tyrone, part of the Estate of the Marquis of Abercorn.
Compiled by: Mark Campbell
Date(s)/Year(s): 1786
Description: The two rent rolls presented here relate to the Castlestewart estate, owned by the earls of Castlestewart, and the Lissan estate, leased by the Staples family from the archbishop of Armagh. Excellent introductions to both of these estates and their owners can be read on the website of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
The rent rolls cover townlands in the parishes of Arboe, Ballyclog, Derryloran, Donaghenry, Lissan, Tamlaght and Tullyniskan in counties Londonderry and Tyrone.
Source: PRONI, D/1567/D/1/4/1-3
Compiled by: Colin Kennedy
Date(s)/Year(s): 1745-61
Description: Names of tenants on the estate of the Lindesays of Loughry near Cookstown, County Tyrone.
Source: National Library of Ireland, Ms 5204
Compiled by: Dr William Roulston
Date(s)/Year(s): 1761
Description: Names of tenants on the estate of the late Rev. Robert Rowan of Mullans, mainly in the Ballymoney area of County Antrim.
Source: PRONI, D/1835/15B
Compiled by: Dr William Roulston
Date(s)/Year(s): 1767
Description: Survey of the estate of the Stewarts of Killymon in the Cookstown area of County Tyrone.
Source: National Library of Ireland, Ms 9627
Compiled by: Dr William Roulston
Date(s)/Year(s): Undated survey, but mid 18th-century
Description: Undated survey, but mid 18th-century, of lands held in the Killeeshil area of County Tyrone by the Stewarts of Killymoon.
Source: National Library of Ireland, Ms 8734/1
Compiled by: Dr William Roulston
Date(s)/Year(s): 1848
Description: This database is based on a deed, dated 19 July 1848, in the Registry of Deeds and concerns the estate of Henry de La Poer Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford, in the manors of Coleraine, Freemore and Lizard in County Londonderry. Comparatively few records relating to the management of this estate are available in public archives, making this deed all the more valuable. The deed includes a schedule listing the names of tenants by manor and denomination of land, and also giving the tenure, yearly rent and rent charge. All details with the exception of the yearly rent and rent charge have been included in this database.
Source: Registry of Deeds, 1848, vol. 18, no. 137
The memorial of the deed can be viewed on the FamilySearch website (note: you need to have a FamilySearch account and be logged in to access this deed through this link).
Compiled by: Kathryn McKelvey and William Roulston
Date(s)/Year(s): 1741
Description: This database is based on a transcript of an Exchequer Bill of 28 April 1741 involving Robert Blackwood of Ballyleedy [Ballyleidy, Bangor parish], Co. Down, esquire. It was copied by Tenison Groves and may be found in his collection of genealogical notes in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (T/808/15009).
The document names 274 tenants on the Blackwood estate, but unfortunately does not place them in specific townlands. The townlands named in the document belonging to Blackwood (with suggested modern spellings and parish locations) were:
Cherryvalley [Comber ?]
Ringrevy [Ringcreevy, Comber]
Littleballyhenry [Ballyhenry Minor, Comber]
Barnymackry [Barnamaghery, Killinchy]
Troopersfield [Comber]
Raffrey [Killinchy]
Maghernycrosse alias Magherycoyle [?]
Ballykile [?]
Lislee [Lisleen, Comber]
Monerea [Moneyreagh, Comber]
Monlough [Comber]
Ballybeen [Comber | Dundonald]
Tullyhubbert [Comber]
Adnislate [?]
Tullygirvan [Tullygarvan?, Comber]
Ballycloghan [Holywood or Killinchy]
Ballygowan [found in six parishes including Comber]
Source: PRONI (T/808/15009)
Compiled by: UHF volunteers
Date(s)/Year(s): 1720-1733
Description: Listing of names of tenants in the manor of Ardstraw leased from the Bishop of Derry by the McCausland family. The names have been extracted from deeds in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin.
Source: Registry of Deeds in Dublin
Compiled by: Dr William Roulston
Date(s)/Year(s): 1727
Description: Names of tenants extracted from a valuation of the Forward estate, mainly in the parishes of All Saints and Taughboyne in east County Donegal.
Source: From: National Library of Ireland, Ms 4247