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Archive for the ‘Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland’ Category

Our last Beatty brick wall ends with Charles Beatty (Abt 1730-1798) of Farnamullan

Posted in Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland, Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), Beatty family, Charles Beatty (Abt 1730-1754), Farnamullan, Fermanagh, Ireland, James Beatty (1797-1873), James Beatty 1842-1903, tagged , , on September 14, 2024| 1 Comment »

I’ve been more interested in birding than family history for the last seven years, but thought I should tie off this loose end after all the work I’ve put into it. Here are the earliest four known generations of our Beatty ancestors working back from James Beatty of the flowing beard who brought his family to Melbourne, Australia in 1878.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find out anything at all about his mother.

Some of the research progress leading to the connection between the Beattys of Aghavoory and Farnamullan is recorded here and in earlier posts, but briefly: from the marriage record from his second marriage we knew that James Beatty of Aghavoory, Fermanagh had a father Archibald who was a farmer. There had been no Beattys in Aghavoory before James. We knew from his death certificate that he was born about 1797. I was in contact with Pete Beatty who was the closest of all the many Beatty genetic matches using FTDNA. His earliest Beatty ancestors were from Farnamullan, Fermanagh, and were well documented for the time because they owned their land rather than leasing which was the norm in Fermanagh after the Plantation of Ulster. Therefore they wrote deeds to do with the exchange of property which mentioned a lot of names and relationships. Charles’ son Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan (1758-1831) married Martha Moore of Aghavoory in 1794. They had a second son James, born about 1797 of whom nothing else was known except he was still alive somewhere when his brother Archibald also born about 1797 left him 4 pounds in his will in 1869. I spent several days in Belfast and Enniskillen in 2016 combing through the archives for some documentary proof of the connection. I found a lot of interesting background information but no certain proof, and yet the circumstantial evidence alone is overwhelming. Apart from all the above, James’ son-in-law William Robinson was a witness at the wedding of Martha Beatty of Farnamullan to Alexander Carrothers in 1871, and James Moore witnessed deeds for Beattys of Farnamullan. In 1829 James went to register his new holding at Aghavoory in order to vote accompanied by his neighbour James Moore – his Uncle. On top of that is the very close genetic link.

I’ve rewritten the early part of The Beattys out of Ireland : 1700s and 1800s and have extended my family tree accordingly – at least my ancestry.com tree. I used to show the link to my Legacy tree on the sidebar of my website, but when my old ISP, grapevine, went defunct I lost the bit of web real estate where it was stored and haven’t been able to replace it yet. Instead I’ve replaced it with a link to my ancestry tree in the meantime, but probably only other people who subscribe to ancestry.com can open it.

I’ve also notified the Beatty Project that lineages 535 and 560 have been joined.

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So who is Archibald Beatty, Farmer, father of James Beatty of Aghavoory?

Posted in Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland, Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged , , on April 29, 2016| 1 Comment »

I’ve now updated the chapter: “The Beattys out of Ireland” in the family story to include all the latest information I have about the early generations of our Beatty family. The Colebrooke Estate records at the Public records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) didn’t go back quite far enough to tell me where our ancestor James Beatty (1797-1873) came from before taking up farming at Aghavoory townland just south of Fivemiletown, Co. Fermanagh, sometime before 1829. They did tell me the year he died, which enabled me to find his death certificate, so here is his death record.

James Beatty of Aghavoory, co. Fermanagh. Death record 1873

James Beatty of Aghavoory, co. Fermanagh. Death record 1873

They also showed that the land which James later farmed was leased in 1787 to a Robert McKnight, then aged 32, and that that name remained against James Beatty’s Aghavoory land in the Colebrooke Estate rent book until November 1865 even though James Beatty paid the rent. The original Robert McKnight would have been aged 105 by then. Maybe it was sublet to James by the McKnight family all that time? There seems to be no surviving lease for Aghavoory in James Beatty’s name, even from 1865.

So who was Archibald Beatty, Farmer, who was given as James’s father at his (second) marriage?

We know from genetic testing that we are very closely related to the Beattys of Farnamullan. The YDNA tests indicated a strong probability that Charles Beatty (1725-1798) of Farnamullan could be the common ancestor between our family and descendants of the Farnamullan Beattys. I’m told that analysis of “BigY” tests using the same DNA samples gives an even stronger indication that either Charles or his father must be the common ancestor. I confess that I don’t really understand “BigY”.  As mentioned in earlier posts, Charles Beatty of Farnamullan had a son Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), who married Martha Moore of Aghavoory in 1792. Their second son was a James. It was the coincidence of Martha Moore being from Aghavoory that compelled me to visit PRONI in Belfast. It’s now confirmed that our James was born in 1797. This is the perfect date to be the second son of a couple who married in 1792 and had 8 children. The order of Archibald’s children (but not their birthdates) is given in a transcription of his will whose original is lost. The birthdates of the two youngest children are known from tombstones, indicating that Martha had at least 2 children in her forties. The ages at death of Archibald, his wife Martha and their eldest son Charles who died young come from the transcription of a tombstone at the Church of Ireland in Lisbellaw, very faint when transcribed. From the date and age at death, eldest son Charles would have been born in 1805 – too late for our James to be his younger brother. But also there is a death certificate for third son Archibald who would have been born about 1797. There was no mention of the second son James having died young, and he was left four pounds in the will of his brother Archibald so was still alive somewhere in 1869. So where did he go then??

In short, I haven’t given up on Archibald Beatty (1758-1831) of Farnamullan as the father of our James after all, although there is still no documentary proof. If this Archibald is not the one, and we take the genetic test results seriously, then we’re probably looking for a son Archibald of a hypothetical brother of Charles Beatty (1725-1798) of Farnamullan who would need to have been about the same age as the above Archibald; have married at about the same time and also have a son James. There weren’t as many Archibald Beattys in Fermanagh as there were James Beattys, and only a couple of those seemed likely from a scan of the sparse Irish records. Sigh! I think I’ll leave it at that for a while!

Beatty tombstone CoI Lisbellaw, Fermanagh

Church of Ireland, Lisbellaw, Fermanagh. Tombstone of Archibald Betty [sic] (1797-1869), wife Martha and eldest son Charles.

Update September 2024: Something must be wrong in the tombstone transcription to make the  date for Charles’ birth 10 years too late. It’s transcribed as: “Also their son Charles who depd. this life March 27th 1818 aged13 [?] years” If the barely legible age was 23 and not 13 then he was born in 1795 OR if the date at death was 1808 and not 1818 then he was born in 1795 – and then the birth date of his younger brother Archibald (born 1797) makes sense and James of Aghavoory (also born 1797) is the right age to be the missing second son James. Most likely the age at death is 23 as it is also more likely that a 23 year old would have made his will a few months before he died. 

Charles Beatty will 1817

Will of Charles Beatty from Ireland Diocesan and prerogative Wills and Admins. Indexes 1595-1858

 

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Aghavoory today

Posted in Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland, tagged on April 10, 2016| 8 Comments »

Today was the sunniest day since I arrived in Ireland, and a lovely day to be driving around in Fermanagh. I was determined to find Aghavoory townland where James Beatty of Ballina/South Yarra must have been born in 1842. I drove over to Fivemiletown, found a house on what would once have been Farmer James Beatty’s land in Aghavoory, and knocked on the farmhouse door, not sure what to expect. To my astonishment, our relations are still farming there! James’s half sister from the second marriage of Farmer James, Eliza Ann Beatty, married Samuel Hall in 1886. Today their descendants were very kind and interested. They showed me an aerial photo of the old house (demolished in the 1990s) and fed me tea and pikelets.

The homes (both new and old) are beautifully situated on a hill with pleasant views over Aghavoory and neighbouring townlands. I forgot to ask the current farmer about farming on the townland, but you can see the Friesians in the photo.

This afternoon I couldn’t resist a tour of Coole Castle, built and furbished about 1800. The servant’s quarters were fascinating! Very Downton Abbey! Off to Dublin tomorrow.

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James Beatty, Farmer, of Aghavoory, Fermanagh

Posted in Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland, Beatty family, James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged on April 5, 2016| 7 Comments »

I’ve been crook with a pretty savage flu for the last few days, and even spent the weekend in bed watching silly movies on TV! Today I feel better enough to venture forth, albeit with a lot of coughing and trying to keep away from others as I’d hate to pass it on. Luckily today is Monday when the archives are open again. Belfast continues bleak and rainy. I’ve given up trying to find good coffee – I can’t taste anything at the moment anyway, but the pubs are warm, friendly and very atmospheric.
No, I haven’t been able to prove that our James Beatty of Aghavoory is the same person as in Pete Beattys’ tree, although it’s still highly likely that he is. I’ve learned a couple of other things about him though.

James Beatty's land, Aghavoory townland 1863

James Beatty’s land, Aghavoory townland 1863

His land in Aghavoory had originally been leased to Robert McKnight in 1787, so it did not belong to the Moores although it adjoins their land. It has been suggested to me that (if it is the James Beatty born in Farnamullan) he could have married and needed land of his own before his father Archibald was ready to hand over Farnamullan and no leases were available near Farnamullan. However, if a parcel of land came available next to his uncle’s farm in Aghavoory, the Moores could have recommended him for it. James Beatty paid the rent on that parcel of land without the name being changed from McKnight and I don’t know why, but I can’t find a lease in his name. James also had 33 acres in Agheeter townland. When James’ own eldest son Joseph married in 1855, James gave him the Agheeter land – well in the rent books the name changed from James to Joe Beatty. His younger sons, Archibald and James (that we know of) must have been encouraged to make their own way. They certainly did. Unfortunately Farmer James wasn’t a noticeable tenant. He paid the rent exactly on time every time. The Estate Manager’s note book is occasionally entertaining reading as he threatens to evict miscreants who mistreat their wives, take over land without the Estate owner’s permission, build houses other than where they were told to, or (horror!) with thatched roofs. On the Colebrook Estate everything has to be “slated”! James Beatty never gets a mention, presumably because he never did the wrong thing. We now know that he remarried in 1858 though I still haven’t found out the name of his first wife.
In the Colebrook Estate rent book for May 1873, there was a note against his name “dead”. Even knowing the year of his death, I still can’t find a will.
Enough for today. I’m off to the pub for dinner!

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