The plantation settlement saw the awarding of the manor of Cloghogall or Largie, largely coterminous with the parish of Leckpatrick, to Sir George Hamilton, brother of the Earl of Abercorn, the principal Undertaker of the Strabane barony plantation. The early death of Abercorn and the consequent elevation of Sir George to guardianship of the earl’s family posed difficulties for the fledgling Church of Ireland in the area and delayed the implementation of the religious clauses of the plantation settlement. Sir George had remained a Catholic and there were frequent claims that he provided a refuge for leading Catholic clergy as well as encouraging co-religionists from Scotland to settle in the area. It soon became clear that there was insufficient resolve and support to provide churches in both Strabane (Camus) and Leckpatrick parishes while the death of Abercorn led to a cessation of church building.

Suggestions that the parishes be amalgamated provided some measure of concerted activity but it was not until the appointment of Rev. John Sinclair as rector of Leckpatrick in 1666 that development of the parish began. His appointment as rector of Camus two years later reunited the parishes again and Sinclair’s appointment as rector of Tullyannish, near Ramelton in Donegal, in 1682 enabled him to purchase the freehold farm of Hollyhill and Keenaghan in Leckpatrick parish from Captain George McGhee in 1683. That provided the base for later generations of the Sinclair family and no doubt encouraged the development of the local parish. It is reputed that the church at Leckpatrick was burned by the retreating Jacobites from Derry in 1689 and that Sinclair’s own house at Hollyhill was only reprieved at the last minute on the intervention of General Hamilton, one of the sons of Sir George Hamilton of Dunnalong and a leading figure in the army of King James. Rev. Sinclair had himself taken refuge in Derry during the siege but survived the ordeal, unlike other family members who succumbed to the privations within the city.1

At the time of his death in 1703 Sinclair had established a strong position for the family in the Leckpatrick parish and the Sinclair burial vault in Leckpatrick graveyard provides much information on the subsequent history of the family. There is a memorial plaque to the Rev. John Sinclair within the present Church of Ireland at Leckpatrick and this details the achievements of the clergyman and lists the family members. The memorial records that he was a determined opponent of Dissenters and a firm upholder of the Established Church and this very likely related to the various parishes under his care. There is a suggestion that the memorial plaque was originally erected in the church at Strabane and was only removed to Leckpatrick at the time of the building of the new Christ Church in Camus parish in the 1860s.2

The Sinclair family vault and associated memorials occupies a prominent position in the graveyard. A number of the memorials, probably detailing the deaths of family members in the eighteenth century, are indecipherable but the symbols and parts of the lettering can still be recognised and these show striking similarities to other seventeenth and eighteenth century memorials in the cemetery. The information on the family from the late eighteenth century memorials onwards provide details of the marriage connections that enabled the Sinclair interests to expand during the following decades and also illustrate the twentieth century decline. The last of the Sinclair male line, William, had married an American heiress, Elizabeth, but there had been no further family and the widow had passed on the remnants of the estate to a distant relative, Captain Adair, in the late 1950s.

The present owner of Hollyhill House, Hamilton Thompson, has worked to restore much of the original house and is well versed in the history of the Sinclair family and their association with Hollyhill. The gravestone inscriptions provide little information on the deceased apart from dates and family connections; one noteworthy exception is that of William Sinclair who lived from 1810 until 1896 and was said to be ‘not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; giving thanks at all times to God.’ It was William’s father, James, who had provided the foundation for the family’s prosperity and position in the nineteenth century. In letters to Abercorn’s agent, James Hamilton, in the early nineteenth century James Sinclair had despaired of reviving the ailing fortunes of the family but an advantageous marriage to a Donegal heiress, Dorothea Law, and careful estate management had enabled him to place the family fortunes on a firm basis.

Another major family connected with Leckpatrick graveyard was the Hamiltons and the remains of a small burial chapel are located near the north east corner of the cemetery. Despite earlier claims to the contrary there is considerable doubt whether any of the Abercorn branch of the family is buried at Leckpatrick but an imposing family crest is decipherable on the east wall of the chapel. It is more likely to have been the interment centre for a junior branch of the Hamilton family and there is evidence that John Hamilton, former agent for the Earl of Abercorn in the management of the Cloghogall manor in the Strabane barony, was buried at Leckpatrick in the late 1770s as also was a nephew, Rev. Andrew Hamilton, rector of the neighbouring parish of Donagheady, reported to have been buried in the family vault at Leckpatrick in the year 1825.2 It is likely that further research would discover other members of the Hamilton family buried in what was an imposing burial centre in Leckpatrick graveyard.

The earliest recorded burial in the cemetery has a direct link with the plantation period in the memorial to John Maghee in 1617. It is likely that this John Maghee was a freeholder on the estate of Sir George Hamilton and the Civil Survey of 1655 records a David Maghee as freeholder in Balliburney (Hollyhill) in the parish of Leckpatrick. David Maghee was agent to the Abercorns for much of the mid-seventeenth century and it was this farm in Hollyhill that passed to the Sinclair family in the 1680s from captain George Maghee. This family name was prominent in Strabane in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and a Daniel Maghee is recorded as Church of Ireland curate in Camus in 1668 while the parish schoolteacher for both Camus and Leckpatrick in 1686 was also Daniel, possibly the same person.3

Rev. George Maghee was rector of Camus parish in the years 1765 –69 while a son William was curate in Leckpatrick in the period 1768 –72. The father of Rev. George Maghee was also George, an apothecary in Strabane and it is likely that this was the same George Maghee who was removed from Strabane corporation in 1732 when Abercorn was attempting to regain control of the borough. It was soon discovered that Maghee had been the victim of unfounded allegations and his appointed replacement proved much less amenable to Abercorn’s interests that had been anticipated.4 This may have been the same George Maghee whose death is recorded on a flat sandstone slab in Leckpatrick graveyard, with the inscription – ‘Here Lyeth the Body of George Maghee who Departed This Life The 29 Day of November Anno Dom 1743’.

There are a number of memorial slabs of the early eighteenth century that can provide information on families that were then prominent in the area. Thus we learn that James Ross died in 1722 at the age of 24 while William Ross, presumably his brother and described as a former merchant, died in 1729 at the age of 29. The description of ‘former merchant’ is interesting, suggesting a period of inactivity before death and denoting either a business failure or a period of illness and incapacity. Another family that had long business association with Strabane was Weir and the flat sandstone memorial slab shows a family motif and a number of deaths ranging from 1740 to 1825. Long life was not uncommon even then, with a James Weir recorded as having died in 1801 at the age of 91. Further memorials to the Weir family show that the name James was present in a number of generations, one dying in 1841 at he age of 62 while his son, also named James, was recorded as having died in Canada in 1875 at the age of 49. Another son, Thomas, had also emigrated to Canada and his death was recorded as eighteenth Feb. 1874 at 50 years of age.

Many of the early memorial stones have partially indecipherable inscriptions and varied lettering styles and this article focuses mainly on those that are most legible. Adjoining graves for Polock (Pollock) families has a family crest on one of the memorials, suggesting a measure of importance for the family but the names and dates show that mortality was no respecter of age or rank. (illustation) Ann died in 1714 at the age of 3 while the next generation saw Mick dying in 1747 at the age of 4 while Jean died in 1751 aged 5 and Ann in 1755 aged 16. On the other hand Charles Pollock had lived 77 years by the time of his death in 1737 while his son Thomas, described as a merchant, had died in 1717 aged 20 years.

As seen in the case of Maghee (or Magee/McGee) the spelling of names could change within a relatively short period and one such case was the Boke/Boak family, with three memorials in close proximity. The flagstones were very susceptible to weathering and thus the earliest memorial is partially indecipherable, with some extrapolation suggesting deaths in 1744, 1755 and 1774, with the names of William and James being recognisable. An adjoining grave suggests that the person commemorated departed his earthly life in 1727 but the name is no longer legible. The other Boke memorial lists Robert as having died in 1745 at the age of 62 years, with his wife, Jean, surviving him by only two years. A further memorial to a James Boak, who died in 1823 aged 75, is in close proximity of the grave of Robert Boke and it is likely that James was a direct descendant of the other Boke families despite the changed name spelling.

Other eighteenth century family names recorded include James Thompson, who died in 1740 at the age of 21 and on the same memorial the names of Thomas and Robert Cox were included. At this distance it is difficult to trace the relationship but probably a marriage connection could explain the different surnames on the gravestone. Another gravestone records the death of Jane McArry(?) in 1739 at the age of 30 while interred in the same grave was James Brown, who died in 1747 at the age of 27. A memorial to William McClee stated that he had died in 1730 at the age of 60 while a Rebekah Hamilton, wife to William, was also named but without a year of death.

The economic position of families would have been important in the ability to erect a memorial and many of the graves in Leckpatrick, as in numerous other older graveyards, are marked only by rough uncarved fieldstones and it would be most revealing if these stones could speak. An examination of the names in the Griffiths valuation for the late 1850s show that large numbers of families are not recorded in the gravestone inscriptions and it would be likely that a search in nearby cemeteries at Grange, Cloughcor and Strabane would confirm that many families were interred without formal identification on grave markers.

Another noticeable absence in many of the memorials is the place-name location. Some townlands are mentioned but a large number of memorials have no record of place, denoting perhaps the closeness of the society at that time and the belief that family names provided sufficient recognition. In some cases locations are provided to help in the identification of family members who had moved away from the district. Three McLaughlin memorials are located in close proximity, with Maghereagh being the townland on two and Ballycallaghan on another. This latter townland is in the parish of Cumber in the county of Londonderry and suggests that a family member had moved there in the first half of the nineteenth century. Distinctive in this case also was the fact that Henry McLaughlin was recorded on two separate memorials, one for himself and the other as part of a wider family group. Henry had died in 1867 at the relatively early age of 55 years, with the next family deaths being his daughter Annie in 1904 and his wife Mary Ann in 1906. A son, Surgeon Col. John McLaughlin R.A.M.C., died in 1933 at the age of 76 years.

Another surgeon mentioned in the memorials was Robert Hamilton who died in the year 1818 at the age of 54 years. More research is needed to place this Robert Hamilton in context. His name is recorded on a flat slate slab that also has the family names of Lyon and Knox included. A further memorial records the death of Robert Hamilton, surgeon, with the names of Rebecca and Thomas Knox on the same gravestone. It appears that Rebecca was the daughter of Robert Hamilton and married into the Knox family, with Lyon also marrying a Knox daughter. Such conjecture, however, needs to be treated with caution.

A number of memorial stones provide substantial detail on family members and a striking example is the Holmes family monument. The head of the family was John Holmes, J.P, of Brosney in the neighbouring parish of Donagheady and the memorial record the names of nine children, all said to be interred in the family plot. WE learn that John had married Eliza and it appears that her family name was McCrea since a number of the children had that as a forename. It also appears that few of the children lived to anywhere near the age of the father who had died in 1866 at the age of 84. Six of the children had died before 1890. The memorial makes no mention of wives/husbands for the Holmes children but a nearby memorial to the Hannah family suggests that one of the daughters had married Charles A Holmes and lived until 1929 and the age of 84. Nearby is another Holmes memorial, a flat slate slab that has the inscription, ‘Here Lies The Body of Mrs Elizabeth Holmes who departed this life June 16 1795 aged 34 years’. We can only assume that this was the mother of John Holmes but are left wondering why the death of her husband is not recorded on the memorial.

The family name Donnell appears frequently in the memorials, with locations given as Ballee, Woodend and Ballymagorry. A rather poignant inscription records the death of Margaret Donnell in 1798 at the age of 35 years and with the addition – ‘Also two children Died Young’. A large monolithic headstone nearby suggests that Margaret was the wife of James Donnell who died in 1846 at the age of 85, with Margaret’s age given here as 36 at the time of death. Two further Donnell memorials are sited nearby. One records the death of William Donnell of Ballymagorry in 1792 at the age of 74 years and mentions also the deaths of daughters Elizabeth and Mary but without dates. A rather laconic inscription on a headstone records simply ‘The Burying Ground of Thomas Donnell, Woodend’ and this brevity is duplicated in another memorial in a different part of the cemetery with ‘William Doherty’s Burying Ground’. Such memorials can certainly raise questions and would merit further investigation.

It is clear that Leckpatrick graveyard was used for a considerable period by the various religious denominations from a wide area and Catholic burials seem to have continued up until about 1840, when burials were allowed at their own cemeteries. Most of the identifiable Catholic burials are in one section of the graveyard and it is possible that the cemetery had reserved burial plots for the various denominations. The early Maghee burials were likely to have been Catholic since the David Maghee who claimed Holyhill in 1655 was described as a Papist in the Civil Survey. Many of the unmarked or unidentifiable graves are also likely to have been those of Catholics since their lowly civil and economic status would have precluded their families erecting costly memorials. There are, however, a number of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century memorials that can with a fair degree of certainty be identified as those of Catholics, many with the distinctive IHS symbol engraved on the marker stones.

Family names like McCormick, Donaghey, McConaghey and McShane are still widespread in the Glenmornan part of the parish and oral tradition tells of ancestors buried in the old graveyard at Leckpatrick. Most of the memorials are contiguous to each other and the inscriptions suggest a period of late eighteenth and the early decades of the nineteenth century. There are no recorded Catholic burials after 1840 and other family members appear to have been buried in the new Catholic cemeteries at Cloughcor or Glenmornan. Thus there is the single inscription for Sarah McConaghey who died in 1817 at the age of 26, but no mention of parents or other family members buried there. The same can be said for Patrick McShane who died in 1828 aged 63 and Patrick Ward, recorded as having died in 1822 at the age of 26. It is surely surprising that no further family burials are recorded on the gravestones, suggesting that Leckpatrick was no longer seen as a suitable burying centre.

These single burials can be contrasted to that of the McCormick family memorial where a number of family deaths are recorded, stretching from 1783 to 1833. This latter memorial is also distinctive in that the IHS symbol is enclosed within a type of sundial and a similar illustration appears on the McConaghey memorial. An almost identical symbol appears on a gravestone at nearby Cloughcor graveyard, suggesting a local link in the creation or erection of the memorials.

One further notable Catholic burial in Leckpatrick was that of Catholic priest, Rev. Thomas Christy, who died in 1827 at the age of 45 years. Tradition tells of Fr Christy dying from fever during an epidemic and records show that he was parish priest in Badoney Upper (Plumbridge) at that time.5 It seems likely that he had returned to his home in Glenmornan for nursing during his illness and suffered death there. The memorial stone shows an IHS inscription above a cross and chalice, traditionally marked on the headstones of Catholic clergy, but there are no other distinguishing characteristics on this gravestone.

Rather surprisingly the only other recorded clerical burial is that of local rector, Rev. George Smithwick, who had died in 1853 at the age of 58. Mention has been made earlier of the burial of Rev. Andrew Hamilton in the family plot at Leckpatrick but this interment is not decipherable on the memorial chapel there and the information comes from a printed source.6 Rev. Smithwick had been rector of the parish for eighteen years and had previously ministered in Camus and Badoney. Other rectors of Leckpatrick had likely moved away or retired before their deaths and we can conjecture that Rev. Smithwick suffered from a fatal illness while still in post and his death was not unlike the other clerical death of a few decades earlier, Rev. Christy.

The Leckpatrick graveyard was maintained by the Church of Ireland until 1962 when it was taken over by Strabane Rural Council, later Strabane District Council. Since then there have been relatively few burials and the task is now one of preservation. One notable memorial in recent years has been to local man, Robert (Bobby) Nicholl, erected by Strabane Council in 1989. Bobby Nicholl was locally renowned for his ability to recall dates and events and had the ability to name the actual day of the week that events had occurred on in the past. The memorial pays tribute to his uniqueness and his approachability while also recognising his humility and relative obscurity.

ROBERT NICHOLL 1907 – 1985

IN REMEMBRANCE OF BOBBY NICHOLL (THE MEMORY MAN)

UNIQUELY ENDOWED BY HIS CREATOR

WITH THE RARE GIFT OF

TOTAL AND INSTANT RECALL

WHICH WAS SO OFTEN USED FOR

THE EDIFICATION AND ENJOYMENT

OF MANY PEOPLE FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE

ERECTED BY STRABANE DISTRICT COUNCIL

SEPTEMBER 1989

The Leckpatrick cemetery appears to have been used by families over a wide area, with many of the memorials suggesting burials from neighbouring parishes. Many of the gravestones in the older parts of the cemetery are partially or wholly overgrown and more work is needed on preservation. The cemetery was mapped and recorded in 1991 by David and Sheelah Todd and their pioneering work has proved most advantageous in the compiling of this article. It should now be possible to have this information available in an easily accessible database for the use of family history research and as an incentive to other cemetery guardians to make accessible the vital information that each contains.

1. John Dooher - Hollyhill, Tyrone in Townlands in Ulster ed W.H.Crawford & R.H.Foy (Belfast 1998) See also William Roulston - The Parishes of Leckpatrick and Dunnalong: Their Place in History (2000)
2. J.B.Leslie – Derry Clergy and Parishes (1937) in Clergy of Derry and Raphoe by F.W.Fawcett and D.W.T.Crooks (Belfast 1999)
3. Michael Cox - The Plantation and Seventeenth Developments in The Fair River Valley : Strabane Through the Ages by J.Bradley et al (Belfast 2000)
4. Antony Malcomson – The Abercorn Family and Political Control in Strabane 1690 –1800 in The Fair River Valley (Belfast 2000)
5. Edward Daly and Kieran Devlin – The Clergy of the Diocese of Derry: An Index (Dublin 1997)
6. J. B. Leslie – Derry Clergy and Parishes (1937)