GENEALOGY 941.6501 OLld V.4
M.U.
i^^nrREArDGy
COLLECTION
6EN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
Ililillllllllliilii GENEALOGY
's'l'sSS 00675 2031 OLld^^^^
V.4
AN HISTORICAL ACCOraT
0_F THE
DIOCESE
OF
ANCIENT AND MODERN,
THE REV. JAMES O'LAVERTY, M.R.I.A.,
Fellow of the Royal Historical <& Archceological Association of
Ireland.
PARISH PRIEST OF HOLYWOOD.
' 'Remember the days of old, think upon every generation ; ask thy father, and he will declare to thee : thy elders, and they will tell thee." — Deft, xxxii. 7.
VOL. IV.
This volume treats exclusively of that part of the Diocese of Connor which is in the ancient territory of Dal-Riada.
fSacb Volume is Complete in itself.)
DUBLIN:
JAMES DUFFY & SONS, 15, WELLINGTON QUAY, AND lA, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
1887.
BELFAST :
MOAT BROS., PRINTERS,
ROSEMARY STREET.
[ALL lUOH IS RESERVKD. J
PREFACE
1456941
HAVING written a Preface to each of the three preceding volumes I feel that, in. that respect at least, I have ^- sufficiently discharged my duty to the public ; there may, however, be some of my readers who are not aware, that it ^ was only in the intervals of a busy professional life, that I y' found time to write and to have printed this book, sheet by sheet, as leisure permitted. For such, this explanation may be necessary to enable them to understand, that it is only the efflux of time that has rendered innacurate, in some cases, such expressions as : the present proprietor ; the present parish I priest ; when, during the three years that these sheets were ^ passing through the press, the present, in several instances, > has become the past. This volume, treating of the parishes ^ in the territory once named Dalrieda, which, first by r^ conquest and afterwards by patent, was conferred on the v., MacDonnells — whose history has been so faithfully written "" by Rev. George Hill — is largely indebted to that valuable book. The MacDonnells of Antrim. I have also availed myself of the Antiquarian Memoirs written by the officers of the Ordnance Survey. These contain descriptions and measurements of objects of antiquarian interest, many of which have now ceased to exist. In the Appendix I have given the substance of such of the Ordnance Papers as referred to parishes, that I had treated of in previous
volumes, before I obtained access to those Papers. I did so because I knew that, unless I published them, they were not likely ever to reach the public. Readers, who are not pro- fessional antiquarians, may think that too much attention has been devoted to rude stone monuments of a remote Pagan period, but the part of the country treated of is exceptionally rich in those remains ; and some triangular monuments of that class, which occur in the parish of Ballintoy, are of a character so rare that it was until lately supposed that they were only to be found in Scandinavia. I have carefully noted down the places at which Mass was celebrated during times of persecution — for the sites of Churches, whether ancient or modern, are more likely to be remembered, and the rude rock in the lonely glen, on which the outlawed priest celebrated Mass, will, in another century, be an object of much greater interest than the sculptured cross on the cloistered abbey. This volume concludes the parishes of Down and Connor ; and the series, each of which, complete in itself, treats of a group of adjacent parishes, contains an account of the principal events that occurred in almost every townland from the shores of Carlingford Lough to Portstewart. If 1 have contributed to teach the people that almost every field, in which they labour, or through which they pass on business or for amusement, contains some object of interest connected with their country's history, I have contributed not a little to make them patriots ; but, in the words of Camden, If there be such as are desirous to be strangers in their own soile, and Jorrainers in their own citie, they may so continue, and therein Jlatter themselves. For such I have not written these lines, and taken tJiese pains.
HoLYWooD, June 1st, 1887.
THE DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
THE two great territorial divisions of ancient times, which are now comprised in the united diocese of Down and Connor, were Dalaradia and Dalriada. All the parishes of which we have hitherto treated, with the exception of small portions of the Parishes of Larne, Glenravel,and Portglenone, are within the former territory ; and all the remaining parishes, which we have yet to treat of, belonging to the Diocese of Connor, were comprised in the territory of Dalriada. Ussher, in his Antiquities of the British Churches, says — "That tract of the County Antrim, which we call Route, was known to the Irish by the name of Dalrieda. It extends (as the late most noble Randal f, Earl of Antrim, informed me), from the Bush to the Cross of Glenfinneaght, of which I find mention made in those ancient Irish verses, bearing the title of ' Patrick's Testament/ a distance of thirty miles. The following old Irish verse being brought forward in support : —
" 0 Bhuais d'a neirgliid ealta, go crois Gleanna Finiieachta ;
Ag Sin Dal-Riada na rann, giodh be as eolach san f hearann. " " From the Bush, from which birds rise, to the Cross of Glen Finneachta ; There is Dal-Riada of the sub-divisions ; whoever be he who has knowledge in the land."
2 DIOCESE OF CONNOE.
Glen-Finneachta is the modern Glynn ; though a little south
of the Larne Kiver, Glynn, and the mouth of the River
Bush define with tolerable accuracy the territory, which is,
perhaps, better expi-essed as extending " from the Cutts of
Coleraine to the Cui'ran of Larne." It is probable that for
some time the territory extended to the River Roe, or at
least to Benyevenagh, the mountain above Magilligan ; for
the Four Masters record a battle fought, a.d, 1182, by Donal
M'Loughlin, against the English at ' Dunbo iu Dal-Riada."
The family of Niall, of the Nine Hostages, restored to the
Ulidians, as a reward for their assistance at the Battle of
Ocha, A.D. 478, the district extending west of the Bann to
Benyevenagh (see Vol, 1. p. xviii); and as the Synod of
Rathbreasil assigned to the Bishop of Connor all the territory
which the Ulidians and Dal-Riadans possessed since the
introduction of Christianity, it mentions that mountain as
one of the boundaries of the Diocese of Connor-. This
explains the entry in the Four Masters at a.d. 1182 ; but
long previous to that date, when the descendants of Niall
drove the Ulidians over the Bann, that river became the
boundary of both the diocese and the territory. Daliiada
was divided into two large districts — 1st, The Glynns,
so-called from its consisting of several large glens, extended
from Larne to the vicinity of Ballycastle, and contained the
barony of Glenarm and part of Gary. 2nd, The Route, a
modernized form of (Dal) Riada, which comprehended a part
of the barony of Cary,and the baronies of Dunluce,Kilconway
and Liberties of Coleraine. At times, the district of the
Glynns is considered a territory separate from Dalriada, and
even asbelonging to Dalaradia;tliustlie77-<^;rtr</<eZ//e mentions
" Kil-Chonadhain (pronounced Kilchonyn, supposed to be
St. Cunning), and Gluaire (Glore or Tickmacrevan)," among
DAL-RIADA. 3
the churches which St, Patrick erected in Dalaradia. It is probable that the early inhabitants of the territory were Oruithnidh, " Cruthneans," or Irish Picts, a race whose history is not well understood, but who possessed the greater portion of Scotland, and were located in Dalaradia. and in many other parts of Ireland, and were mixed by inter- marriages with the Irians.
Dalriada is named from Cairbre Eighfada (pronounced Ri-ada — " the long arm'd"), whose father, Conaire II., King of Ireland, was killed A.D, 220. Dal signifies descenda)its, and in a secondary sense, territory of descendants. The word therefore signifies the descendants of Riada, or the territory of the descendants of Riada. The mother of Cairbre Riada was a daughter of Conn of the Hundred Battles, and he was therefore a cousin of Cormac, a grandson of Conn, whose reign was rendered illustrious by his victories over the rival race of the Ulidians, and over their allies in Albany, or Scotland. It is probable that it was during this reign that Cairbre Riada established himself in the territories in the north of Antrim and Scotland, which were afterwards named from his descendants. Before that period, and even previous to the Christian Era Irish Colonies settled in Albany. It would seem, however, that until after the introduction of Christianity, the descendants of Cairbre were principally located in the Irish Dal-riada. When St. Patrick visited the territory he found it parcelled out among the twelve sons of Ere, the fourth in descent from Cairbre Riada. The youngest of these, Fergus, received the saint with kindness and obtained his special blessing. About the vear 500, this Fergus and his brothers, Loam and Aongus, led another colony from the Antrim Dalriada to Albany, and became masters of Western Scotland, as Argyleshire, Bute,
4 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
the Hebredies. In consequence of the extent of the subjugated territory, the Albanian Dalriada became much more celebrated than the parent Dalriada in County Antrim. The descendants of Loarn and Fergus ruled in alternate succession the Albanian Dalriada. until the 9th century, when Kenneth MacAlpin, the eleventh in descent from Fergus, conquered the kingdom of the Picts in the year 842, and thus became King of all Scotland. Sixty-one kings of the Dalriada race, according to O'Flagherty's On;ygia and other authorities, reigned over Albany during 783 years, from King Loarn in 503 to the death of Alexander III., King of Scotland, a.d. 1286. The Scottish kings of the Houses of Baliol and Bruce, and lastly the house of Stuart, Kings of Scotland, England, and Ireland, wers maternally descended fx-om the Dalriadic Princes. James VI., of Scotland, and the 1st of England, was the twenty-fourth in descent from Fergus MacAlpin, and the thirty-fifth in descent from Fergus MacErc, to whom St. Patrick imparted his blessing on some Antrim hill-side. " There is a double cause " said King James in a speech delivered at the Council Table in White Hall, on the 21st April, 1613, "why I should be careful of the welfare of that people (the Irish), first as King of England, and also as King of Scotland, for the ancient Kings of Scotland are descended of the Kings of Ireland." Co-s.' a.* Jlihernia Anglicana. But to return to the parent Dalriada ; after the emigration of Fergus and his brothers, its ruling chiefs were selected from the descendants of his uncle Olcu, the memory of whom is perhaps preserved in Drumbulcin, the name of an ancient mound near Rasharkin ; the territory, however, never rose to importance, and Dalriada was a mere sub-territory of the kingdom of Ulidia. The Book of Eights records among the stipends,
DAL-RIADA. D
which the King of Uladh was by custom required to pay to his sub-chiefs — " The stipend of the King of Dal-Riada, three steeds, black, well trained, three women, three large bondmen, and three ships, right gallant." The same authority tells that the inhabitants of the territory paid to the King of Uladh — " Thrice fifty oxen from Dal-Riada ai*e due of them, and thrice fifty fatted pigs that have not produced young,'' but the prose tract, which is probably more modern than the poetic enumeration, from which the recital already given is taken, says — '* Six times fifty oxen from Dal-Riada, and six times fifty hogs." It would seem that the descendants of Cairbre Riada weakened tjieir strength in the Irish Dal-Riada by their successful invasion of Albany, or Scotland; but how long they remained powerful in their original territory, or what family names they assumed, after the establishment of surnames in the tenth century, we have no documents to prove. It seems that they were subjugated at an early period by the Clann Colla, for we find the Ui Tuirtre and Fir Li, of whom O'Fhloinn (O'Lyn), a descendant of Colla Uais, was king, were in possession of Dal-Riada at the period of the English Invasion in 1177. The Hy -Tuirtre and Fir Li were two Heremonian tribes descended from Colla Uais, one of the three brothers called the " Three Collas," who subdued the Ultagh,or Ulidians,and wrested from them the greater part of Ulster in the year 332. This Colla Uais had a son named Fidchra Tort, from whom these tribes descend and from whom the Hy-Tuirtre are named. Hy or Ui signifies descendants of, and Hy-Tuirtre, descendants of Tort. The territory of Hy-Tuirtre, in the time of St. Patrick, compre- hended portions of the modei"n baronies of Loughinsholin (" the lough of the island of O'Lyn,") and Dungannon. The
O DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
Fir Li originally occupied a portion of the territory on the west side of the Bann. MacFirbis says that the Fir Li extended from Bior to Camus, and O'Dugan describes Li as on the eastern limit of Keenaght. Their territory Magh Li corresponded with the modern barony of Coleraine. Both these tribes were forced to the eastern side of the Bann by the increasing power of the Kinel-Owen.
The Book of Rights has preserved for us an account of the galling tribute which the Kinel Owen princes imposed on these tribes before they drove them to the east of the Bann : — "Ten hundred milch-cows, a hundred beeves, fifty oxen, fifty hogs from the Fir Li," — " A hundred milch-cows, fifty hogs, fifty cloaks from the Ui Tuirtre." At the same time the king of the Kinel Owen gave to these tribes presents, or, as they were termed^ " payments and stipends for refection and escort."' — " Six bondmen, six horses, six swords, six shields to the king of the Fir Li." — "Three women, three bondmen, three steeds to the king of the Ui Tuirtre"*
Dr. Beeves in his Ecclesiastical Antiquities, has collected,
*The poetic version has — "Three women with fair heads (of hair) and three large enslaved bondmen." Slavery was unfortunately an institution of the country. The Irish supplied themselves with slaves from the Saxons, to such an extent, that an Irish bishop ascribed the English invasion to a punishment inflicted by God on the Irish for their cruelty to Saxon slaves. At times however free-born children were sold by their parents into slavery. In the Life of St. Bridget in the Leahhar Breac the following passage occurs : — " He and his wife (Bridget's father and stepmother) decided to sell Bridget as a slave, and so he went into his chariot and took Bridget with him, and he said to her, ' It is not through honour or regard for thee that J am bringing thee into a chariot, but to take thee and sell thee to grind at the quern.' " The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick states, that there was a law in Ireland, according to which, slaves should become free in the seventh year.
DAL-RIADA. 7
chiefly from the Four Masters, the following catalogue of the chieftains of the Hy-Tuirtre.
A.D: 668. '■' Moelfothartaigh, son of Suibhne, Chief of the Cenel-Tuirtre, died."
A.D, 728. " Reactabhra O'Cathusaigh, Chief of the Hy-Tuirtre, died."
A.D. 738. "Muiredhach, son of Fergus Forcrad, Lord of the Hy-Tuirtre, died."
A.D. 743. " Colman, Bishop of Lessan (Lissan), strangled by the Hy-Tuirtre" (An. TJl.)
A.D. 834. " Eochaidh, son of Cucongultach, Lord of the Hy-Tuirtre, died."
A.D. 1015. "Conchobhar O'Domhnallain (Cnochar O'Donnellan), Lord of Hy-Tuirtre, slain in battle."
A.D. 1059. "Muredhac O'Flann, Lord of Hy-Tuirtre, died" (An. VI.)
A.D. 1081. " Maolmithidh O'Maolruanaigh, Lord of Hy-Tuirtre, slain."
A.D. 1121. Cumaighe, son of Deoradh O'Flinn, Lord of Derlus, drowned in Lough Neagh."
A.D. 1151. " Cuuladh O'Flinn, Lord of Siol-Cathusaigh."
A.D. 1154. " MacDeoradh O'Flinn put out the eyes of his son, because he had obtained the Lordship of Hy-Tuirtre to the prejudice of hi? father's rights ; MacDeoradh banished to Connaught by O'Lachlann."
A.D. 1 158. •« Cuuladh, son of Deoradh O'Flinn, Lord of Hy-Tuirtre and Dal-Aradia, died."
A.D. 1159. " Cumaighe O'Flinn, Rex O'Turtray," attests the charter of the Abbey of Newry.
A.D. 1176. ''Cumaighe O'Flinn, Lord of Hy-Tuirtre, Fir-Lee, and Dal-Aradia, was slain by his brother, Cumidhe, aided by the people of Fir-Li."
O DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
A.D. 1177. " John de Courcy was opposed in his advance upon Hy-Tuirtre and Fir-Lee by Cumidhe O'Flinn. In the following year having again invaded Dal-Aradia, he en- countered Cumidhe O'Flinn, Lord of Hy-Tuirtre and Fir-Lee, and, having suffered a defeat, he fled wounded to Dublin."
A.D. 1181. "The Ulidians, commanded by Rory MacDuinsleve (now Dunlevy and M'Alevy), and the men of Hy-Tuirtre and Fir-Lee, commanded by Cumidhet O'Flinn, were defeated by the men of Tullaghoge O'Cathan (O'Kane) having led an army from Tyrone across by Tiiaim (Toome), plundered Fir-Lee and Hy- Tuirtre."
A.D, 1215. " Euaidhri O'Flinn, Lord of Derlus, died."
A.D. 1218. " Murtogh O'Flinn, Lord of Hy-Tuirtre, was slain by the English."
A.D. 1275. "M. O'Flin, Rex Turturi^' and five other chieftains addressed a letter to Edward L, exculpating tbemselves from the blame of rebellion." (Rymer Feed.)
A.D. 1291. " Bryan O'Flinn, Lord of Hy-Tuirtre, died."
A.D. 1314. " Eth O'Flyn, dux Hibernicorum de Turtery" was summoned to the assistance of the King of England against the Scots.
A.D- 1359. "Murtogh, son of Thomas O'Flinn, of Line (Moylinny), heir to the Lordship of Hy-Tuirtre, was slain by Aodh, son of Bryan, son of Aodh Buidhe (Ee Boy), ONeill."
A.D. 1368. "Thomas O'Flinn, Lord of Hy-Tuirtre, died."
tCu-maighe (pronounced Cooey, meaning dog, or greyhound of the plain) and Cu-midhe (p. Coo-vee, dog, or greyhound of Meatli) were common as Christian names among the O'Lynns. A branch of the same race was located around Ardbraccan, which accounts for their connection with Meath. Cu-maighe becomes in the possessive case Con-mhaighe (pronounced Con-way), hence Coill-con-mhaighe (pro- nounced Kilconway) — 'the wood of Cu-maighe.' Some of those chiefs gives name to the barony of Kilconway.
DAL-RIADA. 9
From these extracts it may be seen, that after the as- sumption of surnames, O'Donnellan and O'Flinn were the dominant names among the Hy-Tuirtre. Their territory in the County of Antrim may be supposed to be represented by the deanry of Turtria, which comprised the modern baronies of Lower Antrim, Lower Toome, Lower Glenarm; and a part of Kilconway. The Clannaboy Invasion scattered the O'Flinns into the E.oute, where their name now assumes the form of Lynn, and even into the barony of Ards, where they were located at Inishargy, and are called in State Papers the Turturs of Inishargy. The Scotch immigration scattered them from Inishargy, through the barony of Kinelarty, and around Castlewellan, where they are still somewhat numerous under the names of O'Flinn and Lynn-
To return to Dal-Riada, that territory, in common with the remainder of the country, passed after the English Invasion into the possession of the Earls of Ulster, but when King John came to Carriokfergus to punish the rebellion, or supposed rebellion of De Lacy, he gave Dal-Riada and its appendant districts to Alan, Earl of Galloway. Dr, Reeves (Eccles. Antig. p. 323), gives the substance of an ancient roll preserved among the State Papers, London, which recites the territories given. All Dalreth (Dal-Riada), with the Island of Rathlin, Kynilmerach* Gioeskard,f and the land Lafharne, and two cantreds beyond the Bann, namely, that of Kunnock and that of Tirkehit, except twenty knights yees near the Castle of Kilsantan, viz : — ten on each
* Kynilmerach is perhaps the Tuogh of Mowbray, or Munerie, co- extensive with the Parish of Ramoan and the Grange of DrumtuUagh.
t Gwescard is an attempt at the Irish word Tuaisceart (north), the name given in Anglo-Norman records to the northern part of the present County of Antrim, Latharne—liVixne. Kunnock — Keenaght. Tirkehit — Tirkeeran.
10 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
side of the Bann " which we retain in our own hands for the guard of the Castle oi Kilsantan,"X excepting all ecclesiastical lands and those conferred on DunTcan de Karrach,% or others. Alan of Galloway died in 1234; and Patrick, son of Thomas of Galloway, was murdered at Haddington, in 1242, by the Bissets. For this murder John Bisset and Walter, his uncle, were outlawed and fled to Ireland, where they obtained the Glynns and Rathlin from the Earl of Ulster. From this John the Bissets were named by the Irish MacEoin — " son of John " — which has assumed the modern i'orm of M'Keown. Notwithstanding the extensive terri- tories granted away by the Earls of Ulstei', it was found by an Inquisition taken on the death of William de Burgo, in 1333, concerning his possessions in the " Comitatus de Oulrath," that he held vast possessions extending through the present parishes of Armoy, Loughguile, Finvoy, Billy, Coleraine, Ballymoney, Killowen, &c. William de Burgo left a daughter, who married the Duke of Clarence, a son of Edward III., through whose descendants the Earldom of Ulster with all seigneurial rights passed into the possession of the Royal Family. While, however, the De Burgos were
J The twenty knights' fees, together with Kilsantan and the Castle of Culratlb (Coleraine), were granted in 1215, by King John, to Thomas (le Galloway, a younger brother of Alan, who is called by the Four Masters, Thomas MacUchtry, after his grandfather Uchtred or Oothred.
%" Duncan de C arrack. In 1210, John granted to Duncan Kitzgilbert, a Welshman, the uncle of Alan and Thomas de Galloway, the town of Wulfrichford (Larne), and all the lands which Roger de I'reston and Henry Clemens held near it, namely — Inverth (Inver), and all the land extending from it to Olynarm ; and, in 1224 Henry I II. confirmed to the same certain lands in Ulster called Balgeithelaugh ( Ballygalley), of which Hugh de Lacy had disseised him. See Reeves's Eccl. Anthj., p. 325. His name seems preserved in the name of the t-.wnland IJallygilbert.
DAL-RIADA. 1 1
Earls of Ulster, tlie weakness of the English power and the inroads of the Irish from the west of the Bann, necessitated them to welcome and provide lands for military adventurers from every quarter. The Bissets, or M'Eoins, came from Scotland, and were located in the Glynns ; the O'Haras came from Connaught, and were located in Loughguile ; and the MacQuillans came from Wales, and eventually rose to be supreme Chiefs of all Dal-E-iada, The rights of the Earldom being vested in the crown afforded to those tenants in chief opportunities of assuming an independence, which they never could have acquired under a local superior,
MacQuillin, in Irish MacUidhelin, is supposed by Dr. O'Donovan to be an Irish form of MacLhlewellin. Duald MacEirbis, in his tract concerning the Welshmen of Tirawley, mentions Meg Uighilin an Ruta — " MacQuillin of the Route," as one of the Welsh families who came in the time of the English Invasion to that part of Connaught, and adds, from other authorities on genealogy, a tradition of their being descended from Cairbre Riada, the common ancestor of the Dal-Riada. It would seem then, that MacQuillin, like O'Hara, was brought from Connaught by the De Burgo Earls of Ulster, who had vast possessions in Connaught as well as in Dal-Riada. In returning to the north of Ireland MacQuillin was probably anxious to establish some family claim to property in the Route ; if so he succeeded well. The family held the Route for about three centuries, until finally expelled by the McDonnells. The English always believed, or pretended to believe in the British extraction or the MacQuillins. A letter addressed to Henry VIII. notices, amongst others, — " one Maguyllen, who having long strayed from the nature of his allegiance (his ancestors being your subjects, and cam out of Wales) was grown to be as
12 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
Irisshe as the worste, and was in the late conflycte with O'Neil, in his aide against your Majestic." — (State Papers, Vol. Ill, p. 381). Dymmok's "Treatise of Ireland " written in the reign of Elizabeth observes — " The Route is properly the inheritance of one Mac Willie, descended from a Welsh ancestor in the time of the first conqueror." During the whole period of their occupation scarcely one of the Chiefs of the Clan died a natural death, but was either slain in the field or secretly assasinated.
The earliest notices in the Four Masters regarding the MacQuillins, refer to transactions in Connaught. A.D., 131Q, one of the O'Connors — "a worthy heir to the crown of Connaught was treacherously slain by Seonag MacQuillin, who was one of his retainers," and in the fol- lowing year he slew another man in Ballintober, in Roscommon. In 1355 Aduc MacQuillin was slain by the l)eople of Orior, in Armagh. A.D., 1357 is the first date at which the Four Masters call the Route '^ MacQuillin's Territory;" and at 1368 they say — " Slevny MacQuillin, Constable of the Province of Ulstei-, died ;" showing that he was considered the agent representing, in Down and Antrim, the Earl of Ulster. A.D., 1418, Niall O'Donnell defeated The O'Neill, " whom he banished eastwards across the Bann to MacQuillin." A.J)., 1425, MacQuillin and other Chief- tains were carried ofi* prisoners to Dublin by Lord f urnival, the Lord-justice. A.D., 1427, O'Donnell marched into Clannaboy to assist the Clannaboy O'Neills against M'Quillin who was allied with The O'Neill, and had in bis pay, as galloglasses, M'Sweenys ot Donegal; on this occasion MacQuillin sustained great losses. A.D., 1431, MacQuillin's Territory was again plundered, this time by a party from Tyrone who remained " half a quarter of a year destroying
DAL-RIADA. 13
corn and burning dwellings. " A.D., 1433, The O'lSTeill of Tyrone marched with his forces into Dufferin to attack MacQuillin and Robert Savadge — the representatives of the English interest who were assisted by O'Donnell. The O'Neill summoned to his assistance the MacDonnells, of Scotland, who arrived with a great fleet. MacQuillin and Savadge sustained a great defeat, and '' those that made their escape from the territory of Dufferin were almost all cut ofi" at the Pass of Newcastle." This is the first occasion recorded by the Four Masters in which MacQuillin en- countered the MacDonnells, who were the Scottish auxiliaries in the pay of the Irish.
Among the early opponents of MacQuillin were the O'Kanes,. a leading family of the Kinel Owen. At a remote period they supplanted the Gianachta, a Munster family, the chief of whom was O'Connor, from whom the barony of Keenaght, in the County of Derry, is named ; afterwards they extended their conquests to the Bann, and crossing that river they became a leading clan in Dal-E.iada, known as the Clann Maghnus na Buaise — '* the Clan Manus of the Bush," to distinguish them from another branch of the O'Kanes, named the Clann Maghnus na Banna —" the Clan of Manus (O'Kane), of the Bann." The Clann Manus of the Bush held Dunseverick under the M'Donnells, until the war of 1641. Another family of the O'Kanes assumed the name of M'Henryj and was possessed of Inish- lochan on the Bann, about two miles above Coleraine; while another M'Henry (O'Kane) possessed Ballyreagb. When all Dal-Riada was granted to Randal M'Donnell, these ancient proprietors obtained grants by deeds under him, which they held until the war of 1641.
In 1442 occurred the first war recorded by the Four
14 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
Masters, between MacQuillin and O'Kane. A.D., 1444, The O'Neill accompanied by many of the chiefs of Ulster, and having in his pay MacDonnell galloglasses, marched into Dufferin to attack MacQuillin ; but the latter was this time assisted by the O'JSTeills, of Clannaboy, and the Tyrone men were defeated. A.D., 1470, The O'lSTeill marched into Dufferin to assist MacQuillin against the Clannaboy O'Neills, and took from them the Castle of Sketerick, which he de- livered to MacQuillin. A.D., 1472, Rory Aijisheagar (the unquiet) O'Kane was treacherously slain by MacQuillin, whereupon the O'Neills, of Clannaboy, and the O'Kanes, made an incursion into the Route and slew M'Qaillin. Rory MacQuillin who was elected to the chieftaincy, made peace with the chief of Clannaboy. " MacQuillin went into a small cot at the mouth of the River Bann, intending to present himself before O'Kane ; but as he was landing he was attacked by a party of O'Kane's people, who slew him and drowned him in the Bann." A.D., 1492, "the son of Rory MacQuillin, ana a great number of foot soldiers along with him were slain by O'Kane. A.D., 1506, ^' MacQuillin — i.e. — Walter, the son of Cormac, son of Jenkin. was slaiu by O'Kane — i.e. — Thomas, the son oi Aibhue. There were slain along with him Tuathal O'Donnell, two sons of O'Hara, three sons of O'Boylan, two sons of O'Quin, and seventeen of the chiefmen of his tribe in the Route." A.D., 1508, " John MacDonnell Gorm was slain by MacQuillin." A.D., 1513, The O'Neill burned Moylinny and plundered the Glinns. On this occasion The MacQuillin (Richard, son of Rory), and a party of Scots were slain by O'Neill's army. The Castle of Dunluce was taken by O'Donnell from the sons of Garrett MacQuillin, and given to the sons of Walter MacQuillin. A.D., 1524, a war raged among the O'Kanes
DAL-RIADA. 15
themselves. A.D., 1541, MacQuillin defeated the Clanna- boy O'Neills, though they wei-e assisted by gallowglasses both of the MacSweeneys and MacDonnells. A.D., 1542, was an eventful year in Dal-Riada. MacQuillin, and the MacDonnells whom he had in his pay, entered O'Kane's country with fire and sword, but O'Kane, who had the MacSweeney gallowglasses in his pay, went in pursuit of them, and having attacked them laden with the plunder slew many of them ; among whom were a chief of the MacDonnells and another principal man called — " the son of M'Shane." Many of MacQuillin's people were drowned in crossing the Bann, MacQuillin shortly afterwards, along with forces under Sir William Brabinson, re-entered O'Kane's territory and destroyed the Castle of Limavady, slaying all its garrison. MacQuillin that year was guilty of a most disgraceful act of treachery. He took into his em- ployment several of the chiefs of the M'Sweeneys with their gallowglasses, and received them in the most friendly manner; but "a malicious plot was concocted and agreed on by the son of MacDonnell, by the Scots, and also by MacQuillin's people, to attack this noble and brave clan of the M'Sweeneys after having come thither, and after having agreed in their compact with MacQuillin." They attacked them unawares, and only few of them escaped that massacre. The memory of this treacherous act is yet preserved in Antrim ; but the popular tradition represents the MacDonnells as the victims of the treachery. A.D., 1544, O'Donnell marched into the Route and took from MacQuillin the crannoge of Inis- loughan, which he delivered over to O'Kane ; he also took the Castle of Bally lough, and the crannoges of Lough Burran and Loughlynch. MacQuillin now brought over James and Colla MacDonnell, who attacked Inisloughan,
16 DIOCESE OP CONNOR.
and burned Brian O'Kane and all that were with him in it. The O'Kane called to his aid a band of the MacSween'ey gallowglasses, and when MacQuillin again cros' .d the Bann he fell into their hands and was slain. A.D., 1583, the English and Hugh MacFelini O'Neill came to rescue, if possible, MacQuillin from the utter ruin with which he was threatened by Sorley Boy. It was then the celebrated battle of Aura, or Orra, was fought, which sealed the fate of MacQuillin, and the cairn heaped up over the grave of O'Neill on the summit of Aura, is to this day called "Hugh MacFelim's Grave." After this MacQuillin sank into such insignificance that the name does not afterwards appear in The Four Masters.
The M'Donnells are descended from Colla Uais, the common ancestor of Hy-Tuirtre, Fir Li, and other tribes. Many of his race passed into Albany, or Scotland ; the fifteenth in descent from him was Samharli — " the mighty Somerled," who re-established Celtic supremacy in Argyle- shire and the Isles. From his great-grandson Domnal og, the M'Donnells take their name. The great-grandson of Domnal was Eoin na-h-Ile, or John M'Donnell, of Isla, who married the daughtei- of Robert II. of Scotland ; one of the sons by this marriage was John Mor M'Donnell, who married Margery Byset, the daughter and heiress of John M'Eoin Byset, the fifth in descent from the Byset who murdered, or was accused of murdering Patrick, of Galloway, Earl of Athol. John Mor M'Donnell was, after that marriage, styled lord of Dunyveg and Glennes; he received the former designation from his property in Isla, the latter from that in Antrim acquired through his wife.
For ages members of the M'Donnell family had taken part in Irish affairs, or commanded au.xiliary troops in pay
DAL RI ADA. 17
of the various Ulster chiefs ; John Mor's marriage with the heiress of the Glens, the troubles in the west and north of Scotland consequent on the destruction ot the kingdom of the Isles, and the endeavours of the Scottish Kings to consolidate the regal power, compelled Donnell Ballach, Eoin Cathanach (called so from being fostered among the O'Kanes), and Alaster, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of John Mor, to reside more or less in the Glynns. Of Alaster, Sir William Brabazon writes to Ci'omwell in May, 1539 — " I doe certefie your Lordship, that ther is of Scottes nowe dwellinge in Ireland, above two thousand men of warre, as I am credablie euformed, which Scottes have as will dryven away the freholders being Englische men of that contrey, as others of the Irischmen and have bylded certeyn castells there." State Papers, Vol. III. Alaster or Alexander left six sons: 1. James j 2. Angus; 3. Colla ; 4. Alexander; 5. Donnell Gorme ; and, 6. Sorley. — 1. James woun<led and taken prisoner by Shane O'Neill in a battle fought in 1565, at Glen-Taisi, near Ballycastle, died in O'Neill's dungeon.* 2. Angus was slain in the same battle.
* James, by his wife Agnes Campbell, sister of the Duke of Argyle, left issue. 1. Angus who succeeded his father in Scotland as Lord of Duneveg, and forfeited by insurrection the lands of Kintire. Queen Elizabeth's government in May, 1586, granted to him all Bisset's lands in the Glinns, except the Castle of Olderfieet. The King of Scotland in 1589, wrote to him to assist a Spaniard in recovering ordnance lost in a ship of the Armada. He was father of Sir James, of Knockinsay, who, as alleged, transferred his rights to the tuoghs of Parke and Larne to Awla M'Awla (M'Awley), of Ardineaple, Dumbartonshire, but at that period they were incorporated in the Lord Antrim property. 2. Donnell Gorm, who in 1584 obtained from the government all Bisset's lands under certain conditions, one of which was to serve "against Severlie Bwoy " (Sorley Boy, his own uncle.) The bribe iiot having succeeded was transferred with as little success to his elder brother. Donnell Gorm's son, Angus, got lands from the first Earl, A.D. 1625, in Killoquin, where his son Donnell Gorm resided at the commencement of the 1641 war. See HUVs M'Doiintlls.
18 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
3. Colla, surnamed Maol-dubh, married a daughter of MacQuillin, though he contributed most to the destruction of the power of that family. The Four Masters record a great defeat, he and his brother James, a.d. 1551, gave the English in Rathlin — " and not one of them escaped to tell the tale except the lieutenant who commanded them, whom the Scots kept as a prisoner until they got in his stead their own brother Sorley, who had been imprisoned by the English of Dublin, a year before that time." Colla's chief residence was Kinbaan Castle ; he died in May, 1558. His son Gillaspick was fostered among the O'Kanes, and married an O'Kane ; he was killed on the day he came of age at a bull-fight in Ballycastle, given by his uncle Sorley in honour of the event. By his wife he left one son Coll-kitach, who was born in the island of Loughlynch ; he was the father of Alaster, so celebrated during the civil wars of 1641. Coll is represented by the family of the late Dr. M'Donnell, of Belfast, and by Colonel M'Donnell, of Kilmoi-e.
4. Alexander Oge was sent by his brothers to collect forces in Scotland, but did not return in time to assist at the Battle of Glen Taisi ; when he arrived at Rathlin \?ith 900 men he heard of the defeat and returned to Scotland. Two year.s after that battle Shane O'Neill, forgetful of the slaughter which he had inflicted in it on the M'Donnells, came after releasing Sorley to the camp of Alexander Oge, above Cushendun Bay. to seek his aid, but the Scots hewed him to pieces and put to death all his attendants except a few who escaped by the fleetness of their horses.
5. Donnell Gorme seems to have died between 1545 and 1554.
fi. Of all the sons of Alexander of Tsla,the most distinguished was Sorley Boy, born [about the year 1505. During the
DAL-RIADA. 1 9
lifetiiTies or his elder brothers he obeyed their commands • in 1552, he, in obedience to the order of his brother James, attacked the English of Carrickfergus, and captured Walter Floddy, constable of the castle, whom he released after obtaining a heavy ransom, and giving him his opinion " that Inglische men had no right to Yrland." In the letter of Sussex to the secretary Boxall, dated June 3rd, 1558, announcing the death of Colla M'Donnell, which had occurred twenty days before that, the Lord-Deputy tells him that James M'Donnell " oflFered the Rowte to Alysander, who refused it, then he offered it to Eneas (Angus), who also refused it, and lastlye he offered it to Sorleboye." State Papers Public Record Office, London, Vol. II. For several years Sorley was left by the English Government to pursue his own course in subjugating the M'Quillins, who out of personal regard for Colla, whose wife was M'Quillin, acknowledged their defeats and submitted to him, but from Sorley they hoped for no mercy, and in many a hard fought field strove to avert the final ruin which he inflicted on them. In the meantime both the English and Shane O'Neill invited the McDonnells to join their respective sides in the war, but they determined to keep themselves neutral. The war terminated in 1563 by Shane's submission, followed by his memorable visit to Elizabeth, Shane now assured the state, that there were no more dangerous enemies to the Queen's authority than the Scots, and that he was determined to do a signal service against them. His design was declared " most commendable." Shane commenced operations imme- diately, and on the 5th of September, 1564, he writes from Coleraine, that he was re-building the old castle on the west side of the Bann, and that he had sent men over the river to ward the Friary, which the Scots attacked like madmen.
20 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
In the following April be carried fire and sword through the Route and Glynns, burning castle and homestead, and terminating his forray by the Battle of Glen Taisi, where he inflicted the most terrible catastrophe which had ever befallen the Antrim Scots. In addition to their other losses, James M'Donnell and his brother Sorley were carried off by O'Neill, who on the following day took Dunseverick, and hastened on to Dunluce, which he forced to surrender three days after " through feare of Samhirley (Sorley) Boye his dethe, who was kept without meat or drinke, to this end the castell might be sooner yielded." See Letter of O'Neill's Becretary. When, however, Shane soon after threw off the mask and again rushed into rebellion, the Scots were anxiously pressed by the Lord-Deputy to join his forces against their deadly foe. James M'Donnell had died in his dungeon, and Sorley was yet his prisoner, when Shane after two years struggle was induced, perhaps through the wily Sorley, to throw himself on the mercy of the Scots. Sorley was set at liberty and Shane presented himself at the Scottish Camp in Cushindun, where he was stabbed to death on the 2nd of June, 1567.
The Queen wrote to Sydney to reward the Scots and send them home, but Sorley intended to stay ; and to provide himself with the means, he crossed over to Scotland, and having collected eight hundred picked red-shanks he arrived with them on the 27th of November, 1567, in Ballycastle Bav, where he swore that he would never " depart Ireland with his good- will." Before commencing hostilities he re- quested from the Crown a grant of the Glynns and the lands of Munry and Carey — in other words from Larne to Bushmills. That request was not granted, and in 1568 he was leagued with Brian MacFelim O'Neill and Turlough
DAL-RIADA. 21
Luinech O'Neill, who succeeded Shane as the O'Neill. An alliance with Donnell Gorme M'Donnell, of Sleat, enabled Sorley to collect a force of 4,000 men, which he landed in December, 1568. To cement still more the Celtic union, Sorley's sister-in-law, the widow of James M'Donnell, the sister of Argyle, was married to the O'Neill, in August of 1569, in the island of Rathlin, where Sorley enter- tained them royally, for Terence Danyell wrote to the lords-justices that " Sorley Boy had passed two nights in the Glynns cutting wattles to build in the Raghlins." In 1570 an immense tract of land belonging to Sir Brian M'Felim O'Neill, was granted to Sir Thomas Smith; Sii- Brian M'Felim was so ungrateful for this mode of humanizing " a wicked, barbarous, and uncivil people," that he swept the districts occupied by the English with fire and sword, and burned Carrickfergus. Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, received a grant of immense tracts of land, and curiously enough, of some of the lands already granted to Smith; so little did the government know of Irish topography ! Essex arrived in the Summer of 1573, and notified by proclamation that he came to take possession of the forfeited lands of Clannaboy, the Glynns, the Route, &c., but that he merely intended to expel the Scots, and not to act with hostility to the Irish. Shortly afterwards moved no doubt by the perverse in- gratitude of the Irish, he writes to the Council in England— " I wish it might come in question whether it were necessary to use his (Sorley's) service against the Irish, who wilfully have refused the grace and mercy of her Majesty." At his suggestion soon afterwards the Queen sent to Sorley letters patent of denization enabling him to hold lands under Smith, he also received a grant of such of the Glynns as belonged to the Bvsets. The tradition, however, among the
22 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
M'Donnells is, that Sorley placed the Queen's patent on the point of his sword and thrust it into the fire, saying, that he intended to hold his lands by the sword. In 1574 Essex seized Brian M'Felim and his wife during a banquet in Belfa.«t, at which they were entertaining him, and, say the Four Masters, " Brian was afterwards sent to Dublin, together with his wife and brother, where they were cut in quarters." Essex, in the following year, placed a garrison of 40 men in " a castle of very great strength," in Rathlin, and recommended that 100 men should be placed in it. Essex had now ruined his fortune by his scheme of colon- ization, and in 1575, he went to London to induce the Queen to lend additional support. On her refusal he threw up the project and died the following year in Dublin, through effects, it is thought, of poison, administered to him at the desire of Leicester, who soon afterwards divorced his own wife and married the widow of Essex. Sir Henry Sidney resumed the reigns of government in 1575, and at once withdrew the garrison from Bathlin, for it was " very chardgious and hard to be held." For years afterwards Sorley was tacitly permitted to rule the Boute and Glynns, nevertheless a strict watch was kept on his movements. In 1580 Sir Nicholas Malbie, writing to the Earl of Leicester, says, " Here is a great bruit of 3,000 Scots landed in Clandeboye, Tyrlagh Lenagh's marriage with the Scot is the cause of all this, and if her Majesty do not provide against her devices, the Scottish woman will make a new Scotland of Ulster," The great Desmond War had given the English sufficient employment in Munster, and the expectation of forfeitures was amply sufficient to supply their greed for land ; it was only after the termination of that war that they turned their attention to Sorley and his Scots.
DAL-EIADA. 23
The Annals of the Four Masters, however, record that in the year 1583 great depredations were committed on Sorley Ly Hugh, the brother of Brian M'Felim O'Neill, M'Quillin, and the English. Sorley pursued them, took the preys from them, and slew O'Neill. This was the celebrated battle of Ora, or Aura, so magnified in the traditions of the County of Antrim ; it must have occurred a few months befoi'e the death of Desmond. To this day the grave of Hugh M'Felim O'Neill is to be seen on the top of Ora Mountain, at the junction of the parishes of Layd and Loughguile. In 1584 the new Deputy, Sir John Perrot, was suddenly recalled from a circuit which he was making in Munster, by the news, that Sorley had obtained a great accession of strength from Scotland. On the 14th of September Perrot was at Castlroe with Turlough Ijinneach and his wife ; the old chief was now a friend of the English, but the O'Donnellys and O'Kanes had left him, and were friends of the Scots. Dunluce, garrisoned by 40 men, surrendered to Fenton, and Perrot took Dunferte (Ballyreagh Castle), and '* another pyle by Portrushe ; the E,aghlin is now all the refuge left him." Perrot says that he could not attack Rathlin " because the waters might have arisen and stopped my return." In the meantime Sorley had retreated to the fastness of *' G-lenconkene," in the County of Derry, to which the Deputy did not care to pursue him, The Deputy shortly afterwards withdrew to Dublin, leaving officers to pursue the war, whose letters are very descriptive, both of the war and the nature of the country. Sorley soon re- covered from his losses, and on the 5th of January, 1584 (1585), brought into Red Bay a great force of Scots in twenty-four galleys. Sir Henry Bagenall writes from Carrickfergus that this force amounted to 2,000 men, and
24 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
adds, " I heare that many horsemen of the Rowte and O'Cahan's country are come to Sorley." On the 5th Feb., Sorley writes to Perrot from his " Camp in the Rowte," that he was willing to take the lower third of the Glynnes, leaving the other two-thirds of the Glynns to Donnell Gorra, the son of his brother James, provided he got the whole of Rowte or M'Quillin's country. The war, however, went on, for the government was induced to believe by its officers, that their affairs were most hopeful. At last the fall ot Dunluce opened their eyes and they wei-e more willing to accept Sorley's terms. It was therefore arranged that he should go to Dublin and make submission. His submission was made on the 11th February, 1586, and on the 28th of June, the indentures were perfected, by which Sorley got a grant of the tuogh from the Boys (Bush) to the Bann, the tuogh of Dunseverig, the tuogh of Loghghill (Loughguile), and Ballamonyn (Ballymoney), together with the government of Dunluce Castle. These four tuoghs constituted the Route. The Glynns were granted to his nephews, the sons of James, but by some private arrangement they also passed into the possession of Sorley. The old chieftain had now all he had ever fought for, and was the Lord of Dalriada from Coleraine to Larne. His wife, Mary O'Neill, daughter of Con, first Earl of Tyrone, bore him six sons — Donnell, Alexander, James, Randall, Angus, and Ludar. The Four Masters record the death of his wife in 1582, and that of himself in 1590.
Sir James M'Donnell succeeded Sorley, he was knighted in 1597 by the King of Scotland, who bestowed on him an estate in Cantii'e. " He was ane bra man of person and behaviour, but had not the Scots tongue, nor nae language but Erse," — Chronicle of Scottis Kingis. In 1597 Sir John
DAL-RIADA. 25
Chicliester, Governor of Cari-ickfergas, writing to Burghley, complains of Sir James and Ms brother Eandal, that he could not get rent or service from them, and adds, "they have like- wise broken down two of their castells, the one called Glinarme, and the other Red Bawn (Red Bay), forteffeing themselves only in Dunluse, where they planted three pieces of Ordnance, demi-cannon, and culvering, which were had out of one of the Spanish ships coming upon that coast after our fight with them at sea in '88. I have demanded the said pieces of them, to have placed them in Iverogfargus for the better strengthen- inge of the towne, bat they have utterly denied the delivery of them." Chichester sent rent and tax collectors into the Route but Sir James M'Donnell pursued the tax gatherers as far as Aldfreck, in the Parish of Templecorran, where he was met by Sir John at the head of the garrison of Carrick- fergus; and there was fought, on the 4th of November, 1597, the Battle of Altfracken, in which Sir John was killed. (For an account of the battle see Down ^ Connor Vol III., p.p. 121, 158.) Sir James M'Donnell hated the Chichesters, and when Sir Arthur, a younger brother of Sir John, was ap- pointed to the vacant governorship, he wrote to Sir Francis Stafibrd, " If her Mat^^ desire me to be her subject I will not have Sir Arthur Chichester to be the Governor of Carrickfergus." The Four Masters, under the year 1601, record that Sir James M'Donnell "the most distinguished of the Clann Donnell, either in peace or war, died on Easter Monday." He died in the Castle of Dunluce, from poison, administered by a Scotch spy named Douglas, bribed by Cecil, with the privity of Chichester,* to effect the assassination.
* Chichester writes to Cecil, " Even now a messenger is come unto me with assnred report of Sir James M'Sorlye, his death and burial.
26 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
Donnell M'Donnell, son of Sorlej, seems to have died young, and had no children ; he was slain while skirmishing near the Bann.
Alexander, son of Sorley, gallantly opposed the forces of Perrot as they advanced to attack Dunluce. Coxe tells the manner in which he was defeated in a single combat, against Captain Merriman, in 1585. "Alexander M'Sorlin, who com- manded the Scots, challenged Merriman to acombate ; and, a lusty gallowglasse being by, said he was the captaine, and so to the duell they go. The gallowglasse stunned the Scot at the first blow, and thereupon Merriman stept out and fought
Tliis is the tenth of April." Sir James died on Easter Monday, which on that year fell on the 13th of April. That Chichester heard of it on the 10th, is a proof that he expected the news of it. In a private letter, dated 12th of April, 1601, Chichester wrote to Cecil telling him what Douglas had said, "part of which were that he had caused a lough (a crannog), to be sett on fire, and Tyrone's horse to slain under him, and other thynges wch I wylled him to keep secret leste he were an hinderance to others endevors " (to assassinate Hugh O'Neill.) The " draught " of Douglas's account is still in existence. It tells that fortified with letters of introduction he visited Sir James, "I fund him sumquhat siklie of ane byl, and . . the surgin with him, who is callit William Lin, indweller of Irvine, . . then said 1 ' you halving this man in your handis, may bothe inrich your self and doe me credit. If you will find some meins to despatch him I will geyf you my bond with seissing for fyve pound sterling money, efter his death, to be payit and sunquhat in your hand.' He being silent f(jr a quhye — ' but how,' said he, * shall I aschap ? ' Said 1—' If ye ondertake it, I will geyf you fyf pound in hand, sense I have bot a smal stor of mony heir, and ane letter to the Governour of Knocl-farnus (Chichester.') 'No,' said he, 'I wil haif eyght pound and your bil, and if he dy not before Eyster, 1 shal crave no more, and you shal half your mony bak again at meeting." The spy then details his visits to O'Kaue and Tyrone, and tells how he burned a house built of wood and thatched with rushes belonging to Tyrone, which corroborates the story told by Chichester, and proves the guilt home to Chichester. See Ulster Journal, Vol. V. p. 206.
DAL-RIADA. 27
Alexander a good while • with sword and target, and so wounded him in the leg that he was forced to retreat. Thereupon his army being discouraged was totally routed, and j^ lexander being hid under turf in a cabin, was dis- covered and his head cut off, and set on a pole in Dublin." A M'Donnell manuscript referred to by Mr. Hill, tells, that when old Sorley soon afterwards went to Dublin to make his nominal submission, some heartless official cruelly invited him to look at his son's head — the old chief said " My son hath many heads." An incident well calculated to inspire in sturdy Highlanders a respect for the English Government !* On the death of Sir James M'Donnell, his brother, Randal, was recognised by the clan as its chief, in accordance with the law of tanistry, which set aside the claims of Sir James's children, because they were by their non-age unfitted to protect the interests of the clan.t Randal, called Randal
* Few places were more hateful to the Irish than Dubhn Castle with its ghastly sights ; M'Keough, the Bard of Feagh MacHugh O'Byrne, on seeing the head of that chieftain cries out—
" I wish my eyes were blind before I saw that gastly face, I wish the limbs had withered up that bore me to the place; I wish that I had never risen when fever struck me down, Ere I beheld that gory head in hateful Dublin town !" From the literal translation by W. M. Hennessy, Esq., M.R.I. A.
* Sir James had several children by his wife Mary, daughter of Hugh M'Felim O'Neill, of Clanuaboy, but whether he was married to her was a matter of dispute after his death. In Vol. II. p. 323, may be seen a certiiicate signed by Gorry M 'Henry and Cahill O'Hara, that they, together with Donnell Oge M'Fee and Bryan O'Laverty, were present at the marriage, which was performed by the Bishop of Derry (Redmond O'Gallagher. ) The most distinguished of his children was Alexander. In 1614 and the following year, the northern Irish were plotting a new rebellion, into which Sir Randal would not enter, and therefore they intended that he should be replaced in the ownership of the Route and Glynns by Alexander. The jjlot was betrayed ; at
28 mOCESE OF CONNOR.
Arranach, because he had been fostered in the Scottish Island of Arran, marched at the head of his clan to assist Hugh O'Neill and the Spanish troops in Munster, where most of his followers perished in the disastrous battle of Kinsale, In the meantime Sir Arthur Chichester, Governor of Carrickfergus, took advantage of their absence; "I founde Randall gone with Tyrone," says he, " towards Mounster with 120 foote and 24 horse, leavinge his nephewe with the rest of his force for the garde of that countrie. Bot I
the trial, however, Alexander was acquitted, but Brian O'lSTeill, Art 0 Neill, Gorrie O'Kane, Alexander MacSorley, and Loughlin O'Laverty, a priest, were executed. (Vol. II. p. 324.) Alexander was created a baronet in 1627 ; he resided at a place called Moyane— ' the plain of of the river,' probably near the cross in the Parish of Ballymoney. He was succeeded by Sir James, of Ballybanagh, the second baronet who took a leading part in the County of Antrim part of the war of 1641, for which his estate was forfeited and never restored; he, however, obtained some lands under the Act of Settlement. His eldest son, Colonel Alexander M'Donnell, married Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Henry, Earl of Surrey, Arundel, and Norfolk, and had by her Randal; he had also Sarah married to Francis Echlin, of MountstafFord ; Mary married to John O'Neill, of Ballybollan (see Vol. III. p. 389) ; Anne married to Evir Magennis, of Castlewellan ; and another daughter married to Murrogh O'Flagherty, of Ballynahinch, Co. Galway. Colonel Alexander died during the lifetime of his father. Sir James, in his will made in 1688, left his lands of Rabirenny and Horky, in the barony of Dunluce, and some lands in the barony of Carey, to his wife during her lifetime, out of which £50 was to be paid to his grand-daughter, Mary O'Neill (of Ballybollan), and if his wife wished a similar sum to the children of Murrogh O'Flagherty. The estate having been forfeited, the trustees for the children of Randal claimed for them, these were James, Randal, John, Mary, and Henrietta. Sir Randal assumed the title, which had been forfeited, and dying in 1728, was succeeded by his son Randal in the nominal title ; he was Colonel of a regiment in the service of the King of France. He was styled Sir Randal M'Donnell, of Cross, in the County of Antrim. He died unmarried in 1740, and was succeeded in the title by his brother, Sir John M'Donnell.
DAL-RIADA. 29
coraeinge unlocked for among theai, made my entrance almost as far as Dunluce, where I spared neither house, corne, nor creature. ... I have often sayd and writen it is famine that must consume them; our swordes and other endeavours work not that speedie effect which is expected ; for their overthrowes are safeties to the speedie runners, upon which we kyll no multetudes." Randal soon observed that the cause of Tyrone was hopeless, and in the Autumn of 1602, he was at Tullaghoge to assist Lord Mountjoy, where he was knighted by that Lord-Deputj ; and he had also the good fortune to keep James YI. of Scotland, well informed on passing events.
On this account, and, perhaps, also on account of the re- lationship between the M'Donnells and the house of Stewart, James, on his accession to the throne of England, granted by letters patent, dated May 28th, 1603, to Sir Randal all the territories called the Route and Glynns.
In the Route. 1st. The Tuogh (district) between the Bann and the Bush, comprehending the Parishes of Cole- i-aine, BaJlywillin, Ballyaghran, Ballyrashane, Dunluce, and Kildollagh.
2. Tuogh of Dunseverick and Ballintoy — that part of the Parish of Billy which lies in the barony of Gary, in which is Dunseverick and the Parish of Ballintoy,
3. Ballylough, containing that part of the Parish of Billy, which is in the barony of Lower Dunluce, together with the Parish of Derrykeiglian; in this lay the Castle of Ballylough.
4. Tuogh of Loughgill, so called from the Parish of Loughguile, which forms the chief part of it ; in it was the Castle of Loughguile.
5. Tuogh of Ballymoney and Dromart ; it included the Parishes of Ballymoney, in which is tbe district of Dromard, together with the Parish of Kilraght.
30 DIOCESE OP CONNOR.
6. Tuogh of Kilconway — Kilconway was originally the territorial name for tbe western part of the Parish of Finvoy.
7. Tuogh of Killioquin ; Killyquin is now the name of an estate containing thirteen townlands in the western part of "Rasharkin Parish. In the journal of Phelim O'Neill, by his chaplain, O'Mellan, the name is written Coiil Ui Cuinn, " the wood of O'Quin."
8. Tuogh of Killiomorrie — "the wood of O'Murry," now known as Killymurris, a district which contains the eastern part of the Parish of Finvoy; in it is 1 he village of Dunloy.
9. Tuogh of Magheradunagh — Machaire-dhuin-Eachdach — " the plain of the fort of Eachdacli." This Tuogh was principally made up the Parish of Dunaghy.
The district of the Glynns was divided into seven territories.
1. Tuogh of Munerie was about co-extensive with the Parish of Ramoan and Grange of Drumtullagh; in the Parish of Ramoan was the castle which gave name to Ballycastle. This district is called in various documents Munerie, Many berry, Mowbray, and Mowberry.
2. Cynamond of Armoy and Raghlins. This cinament or minor territory contained the Parish of Armoy and the Island of Rathlin.
3. Tuogh of Carey. — Gary is often used as synonymous with the parochial name of Culfeightrin.
4. Tuogh of Glinniconogh. — In the grant under the " Act of Settlement and Explanation,*' it is called Tuogh of Middle Glynnes, and Dr. Reeves supposes that Glinniconagh is a corruption of Gleann Meadhonach (pronounced Meay- nonach), the middle-glenn.
5. Tuogh of Largie — the part of the Parish of Ardclinis,
DAL-RIADA. 31
which lies between Nappan and Lemnalarrie, is still called the Largy. Learga signifies " slopes of hills," and is applied to land sloping down to water.
6. Tuogh of Parke — included the Parishes of Tickma- creevan^ Templeoiighter, and Solan, and was named from the park attached to the Castle <>£ Glenarm
7. Tuogh of Larne comprised the Parishes of Carncastle, Killyglen, Kilwaughter, and Larne.
The sixteen territories, according to the Ordnance Survey, contain 333,907 acres, 1 rood and 36 perches. See .Dr. Reeves's Eccl. Antiquities.
All this vast territory was granted to Sir Randal with all its hereditaments, spiritual and temporal ; to hold of the crown by the service of six knights fees, and paying yearly at Carrickfergus 160 fat beeves, or for every beeve 20/-, presenting to the chief governor for the time being a cast of good falcons, and maintaining 20 able horsemen and 120 footmen well armed, to serve in all general hostings for the space of forty days. Sir Arthur Chichester was wrathful against Sir Randal, he hated the M'Donnell race, who had slain his brother ; he writes to Cecil, now Salisbury, in June, 1606, and says Sir Randal "is neither thankful or obedient,"
* The names of the Glens are — 1. Glenshesk, through which runs the River Shesk, dividing the Parishes of Ramoan and Culfeightrin. 2. Glendun, traversed by the River Dun. 3. Glencorp, a small valley at the N.E. of Layd. 4. Glenaan, giving name to a townland in Layd. 5. Glenballyeraon, in Layd, the stream that runs through it is marked on Lendrick's County Map. The streams, -which flow through this glen and the last, meet and form the River Dall, which gives name to Cushendall at its mouth. 6. Glenarriff lies between Layd and Ardclinis ; the stream which flows through it is called the Acre River, but on Petty's Map it is marked Dree fluvius. 7. Glencloy, between Ardclinis and Ticmacrevan, beginning at Camlough. 8. Glenarm, in Tickmacrevan. See Reeves's Eccl. Antiquities.
32 DIOCESE OF CONNOE.
and that "some of the ancient inhabitants that were as slaves unto him " should be made freeholders under the crown, that " his father held only four tuoghsof M'Quyllin's land by grant from the deputy, which be right (if any were), should have descended to the son of his elder brother, the dispossessing of whose children and thrusting the M'Quyllin's clean out of all, would in time raise trouble in those parts." See Russell's and Prendergast's Calendar. Thomas Phillip's writes to Cecil, that he has a lease of Portrush for forty years, and prays to have a settled estate there ; Sir James Hamilton got a conveyance of the whole fishery of " the pool of Lough Neagh and the River Band up to tlie rock or waterfall called the Salmon Leap." This he affected by discovering a flaw in Sir Randal's patent ; "in this device Captain Thomas Phillips being formerly his (Sir* Randal's), farmer of that fishing, hath joined with Hamilton." On the 10th of April, IGOG, Hamilton sold this fishery to Sir Arthur Chichester. In obedience to a direction of the king. Sir Randal surrendered the estate and on the l6th of J uly, 1606, had a re-grant of it (but with a reservation thereout of the Castle of Dunluce for a fort, but he, or his heirs to have the custody of it); of the priory of Coleraine ; of three parts of the fishing of the Bann ; of the Castle of Olderfleet ; and of all the lands belonging to the bishoprick of Down and Connor ; to hold of the crown by the like tenure, as in the former grant, except the addition of four horsemen ; with power to create manors; and, a license to hold several markets and fail's, viz : — a fair on St, John Baptist's day at Clough ; on Michaelmas Day at Dunkerd; a Saturday market at Dunluce; a Tuesday's market at Dunanynie ; and, a Thursday's market at Glenarm. After the flight of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconuell, Phillips again strove to obtain Purtrush as
DAL-RIADA. 33
a place to be fortified, and a grant of Coleraine and lands on the west of the Bann, to supply a garrison which he proposed to establish there ; but the king gave Coleraine and the lands on the west of the Bann to the London Companies. To further this scheme, Sir Randal, in obedience to the king, surrendered on the 29th of November, 1610, nine towns and thi-ee quarters of land next adjoining the town of Coleraine ; and, in consideration of this, he had a confir- mation of the remainder of his estate at the yearly rent of £80, one cast of falcons, and a rising of 20 horsemen and 116 footmen. On the 2 1st of June, 1615, the Castle of Dunluce, which had been reserved in the grant of 1606, was confirmed to him to hold by the twentieth part of a knights fee and the rent of 5/-. In 1618 he was created Viscount Dunluce, and on the 12th of December, 1620, he was advanced to the dignity of Earl of Antrim, with the annual creation fee of £20 sterling. See Lodge. In 1621 the Earl was summoned by the liOrd-Deputy Grandison to answer the charge of having sheltered in his castles certain " Romish Priests." The Earl knew Grandison to be a dangerous fanatical hater of Catholics, and wisely appealed to the King who always befriended him. James wrote to the Deputy —
"Although the oflence committed by him (Antrim), is of such nature as we are not easily moved to remit it, yet in respect that he so in- geniously acknowledged his errors, and faithfully promised not to fall into the like again, we are graciously pleased thus for to concede to his desire as to require you to take order, that he shall not be further questioned or proceeded against there by any of our officers for the said offence ; but we yet hope, when he shall repair to our presence, to prevail more with him by our gracious admonitions for his future amendment, than by such punishments as might justly be inflicted upon him by our law."
The Earl of Antrim, by his great influence with James I., contrived to obtain absolute proprietorship of all Dalrieda,
34 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
with, perhaps, the implied condition that he would make sub-grants to the heads of the old septs, that once held rule in the territory ; to some of them he made sub-grants of a temporary nature ; but Cahill O'Hara, by opposing a confir- mation of the King's grant to the Earl, necessitated him, in order to avoid delay, to confer upon him the fee-simple of Loughguile estate. From the Fee-Book of the celebrated physician, Thomas Arthur, it appears that he attended the Earl on the 5th April, 1632, for dropsy, when he received a fee of £17, and again on the 10th of April, 1633, when he was paid o£5. He died at Dunluce on the lOfch of December, 1636, and was buried in a vault which he had erected in Bunamairge. The Earl was twice married ; the name of first wife is not known, that of his second wife was Ellis, or Alice O'Neill ; both Sir John Davys and Sir Arthur Chichester state that she was the daughter of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, though others who had not so good an opportunity of knowing, call her the sister of Hugh O'Neill. By his first marriage he had two sons, one named James, who was taken prisoner at Dover on landing from Calais.
" July 15th, 1624. Secretary Conway writing to the Lord President Manderville, forwards the person and examination of M'Donnell, sent from Dover by Lord flouch. Examination of James M'Donnell — Is second son of the Earl of Antrim, and was brought up till the age of 13 years at his father's house in Antrim ; then travelled and studied in foreign countries three or four years, and retiu-ned two years ago to his father ; travelled again into Spain, France, and Flanders, and sailed from Calais in the same ship which brouglit over Sir Edward Herbert. Hoped to find his father and friends in London. Is not a priest, but refuses the oath of allegiance. Dover, July 12th. StaU Papers 1623 — 1625, Domestic Series, James I.
This seems to be the same person, wlio, liaving become a Franciscan, was called Father Francis jM'Dounell. In 1632 the bishops of Ulster petitioned the Holy See to appoint
DAL-RIADA. 35
him to the see of Clougher, but the petition was not granted. The original document is preserved in the St. Isidore collection, now in the Franciscan Convent, Dublin ; a copy of it with the following translation was published by Father Meehan. in his Irish Franciscan Monasteries.
1456941'
" Most blessed Father, — We are filled with joy at hearing that our continuous prayers for your holiness, and our hearts' thanks for benefits conferred on Ireland, have not proved unacceptable. Ireland acknowledges the increment of faith and Christian virtues she has already received, and is every day receiving, from the zeal and vigilance of those whom your holiness has raised to bishoprics in our country. A few years ago this island had hardly anyone to break bread to her children ; but now, by God's favor, and your clemencj', she has a fair number of bishops, and very many energetic priests ; so much so, that in a short time hence we hope to see realised the prophetic vision of St. Patrick, who in a dream beheld all the fires in this land nearly quenched, and then suddenly flaring into a magnifi- cent conflagration. Hence it is that we bishops of the province of Armagh, relying on your wonted clemency, and desiring to have a partner in our pastoral charge, have not hesitated to supplicate your holiness to advance the reverend father ti'rancis M'Donnell to the see of Clogher. We have been moved by good reasons to make thi.': request. He for whom we postulate derives from father and mother the best blood of the ancient Irish princes. Again his fitness and deservings will be the more apparent when we state that he, although son of the earl of Antrim — a personage of vast influence in England, Scotland, and Ireland — left all things for Christ, and while yet a stripling, took the habit of St. Francis, in a convent of the Strict Observance. His virtues and learning are appreciated by his country and order, to both of which he is an ornament. Furthermore, the inhabitants of the Diocese of Clogher, the nobility and gentry especially, who are allied to him, either by consanguinity or affinity, love him and long to have him appointed their spiritual chief. We may add, that his noble father, who is a zealous protector of religion, and has deserved well of the Church, ardently desires to be able to glorify the Lord, for having given him a son worthy such a grand office. The sage earl knows that the merits of the children incline God to deal mercifully with the parents. Another consideration, and in our opinion one of great momsnt, can be urged in this man's behalf. Should persecution
36 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
— may heaven avert it— come more fiercely upon us, he, owing to his sire's connections with many of the principal families of Scotland and England, will be comparatively free in the exercise of his sacred calling. These are some of the motives which have urged the bishops of the province of Armagh to supplicate your holiness," etc., etc. " From the plane of our refuge in Ireland, 22nd July. 1632.
"Hugh Reilly, Armagh.
"Thomas, Meath.
"John CuUinan, Raphoe.
"Eugene Sweeny, Kilmore.
" Bonaventure, Down and Connor."
Mr. Hill, in his M'Donnelh of Antrim, supposes Father Francis to have been an illegitimate son of the Earl, but if he had been such, his illegitimacy would have been mentioned in the postulation. He was not a son of Alice O'Neill, for his relationship to Hugh O'Neill would not have been omitted in the postulation ; moreover Alice O'Neill who was married about 1604, had not children for some yeax-s afterwards, in consequence of which she and Sir Eandal made a pilgrimage to the well of St. Bridget, near Athlone (Colgaris Trias Thaumaturgus ) — yet James M'Donnell, or Father Francis, "the second son of Earl of Antrim," seems to have been of age for ordination in 1624.* Lady Alice bore him two sons, Randal and Alexander, and six daughters, one of whom, Anne, was the grandmother of William Fleming, Baron Slane, who resided at Anticor, near Dunloy. The first husband of another daughter, Sarah, was Neal Oge O'Neill, of Killelagh, who was the grandson of Hugh M'Felim, slain by the M'Donnells in 1583, and
* Father Francis died at Louvain, 26th of August, 1636. Hia decease is rciorded in the Franciscan book of obits thus: — "Die 26 August, decessit K. P. Franciscus M'Donnell, Illmi. comitis de Antrim filius. Guardianus emeritus in Hibernia, et ex-diilinitor, hujus collegii St. Antonii Guardianas." — See Father Meehan's Irhh Hierarchy.
DAL-RIADA. 37
interred on the summit of Ora. By that marriage Saiah was the grandmother of Sir Neal O'Neill, one of the bravest officers in the army of James II. ; he was killed at the Boyne. To his countess, Lady Alice, the Earl bequeathed the tuoghs of Monery and Carey, with the Castle in Bally- castle, where she resided at the commencement of the 1641 war, and was accused of assisting the Irish, as might be expected from the daughter of Hugh O'Neill. -To his elder son, Kandal, who succeeded him in the title he bequeathed the baronies of Dunluce and Kilconway with the Castle or Dunlucej and to his younger son Alexander, who eventually succeeded his brother in the title, he bequeathed the barony of Glenarm with the Castle of Glenarm. To each of his daughters he bequeathed .£2,800, and directed " that the sum of six score pounds sterling shall be distributed among the churchmen and the poor."
Randal, second Earl and afterwards Marquis of Antrim, was born, according to a inscription on his coffin, in the year 1610. Richard Dobbs in his Briefe Description of Antrim says of him — " The Lord Marquis has told me that he wore neither hat, cap, nor shoe, nor stocking, till 7 or 8 years old, being bred in the Highland way. He was a proper clean lymmed man, first married to the Dutchess of Buck- ingham, and after to Rose, daughter of Sir Henry O'JSTel], of Shane's Castle, now living." In 1639 he carried a considerable aid to King Charles in his first expedition against the Scots. After the commencement of the 1641 war " some false reports and asperations," says I-odge, "were carried into England, of the earl's not only joining with the rebels, but of being concerned in the very beginning of the rebellion r but from that malicious charge, Sir William Parsons, one of the Lords Justices, under whose eye he lived
38 DIOCESE OF CONNOR,
at that time in Dublin, wrote into England a vindication of him ; and it is certain he was so far from being engaged in the beginning of the rebellion, that he retired with his lady from Dublin soon after its commencement to the Earl of Castlehaven's seat, at Maidenstown, near Kildare, and lived there some five or six months in peace and quiet." Finding liimself in great danger he came to his estates, but during his absence Mr. Archibald Stewart, his agent, had raised a force of about 800 men, principally among his tenants. A portion of this force, under Alaster MacColl M'Donnell and his brother James, joined the Irish, and after defeating Stewart near Ballyraoney, were besieging Coleraine. The Earl at once proceeded to the camp of the besiegers, where he succeeded in prevailing with them to grant to the in- habitants permission to graze their cattle within a circuit of three miles around the town. After that his Lordship sent into the town about three score horses laden with corn for the benefit of the inhabitants. About the middle of April, 1642, Moni-o with about two thousand five hundred Scots arrived in Ireland, marched into the Earl's estate, seized on about five thousand cows, and burned Glenarm. He ofiered Monro his service and assistance for securing the country. Monro made him a visit to Dunluce where the Earl provided for him a great entertainment ; but it was no sooner over than the Major-General made him a pi-isoner, carried him to Carrickfergus, and seized on his castles and lands. From Carrickfergus he had the good fortune to make his escape. " Having obtained the General's pass for a sick man, two of his servants carried him in a bed as sick, to the shore and got him boated for Carlisle, and thence to York." Bailie's Letters, Vol. 1., quoted by Hill.) " He went to the king and was by him, as Colonel James M'Donnell, his.
DAL-RIADA. 3<)
relative and friend told me, designed to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and came hence in a vessel stored witli arms, and off Greencastle (Co. Down), sent one in a boat to see if they were friends or enemies in the castle. The man was taken bj' Monro, and by a shirt placed upon a stick, signifies they were friends. Antrim landed and was taken and put into Carrickfei'gus again, whence after nine months he escaped.* Antrim went from Charlemont to Kilkenny. Carte MS. Bodleian Library, Oxford, quoted by Mr. Hill.) The Earl arrived at Oxford, 16 th of December, ]6i3, where he in- formed the king "that if he would grant him a commission he would raise an army in Ireland, and transport it into Scotland, and would himself be at the head of it ; by means whereof, he believed all the clan of the M'Donnells in the Highlands might be persuaded to follow him." Lodge. The King was greatly pleased at the proposal and created him Marquis of Antrim on the 26th of January, 1644. The Marquis finding that he could not succeed without the aid of the Supreme Council at Kilkenny, took the oath of associ- ation. " It was resolved that Antrim should be put at the head of some of the Confederate Irish, to spirit up the Scots (Highlanders), and the Marquis of Montrose's command there, with a promise that Antrim should be made Duke of Argyle. The Supreme Council approved of Antrim's design, but said that Ireland wanted soldiers and money to furnish out an army. Antrim answered to keep his word with the king, ' Do you but furnish me with arms and ships to transport them, and I will find soldiers.' The Supreme Council agreed, and Antrim got together his tenants of Antrim and Clandeboie, who had served in the Irish
* For a curious account of Antrim's second escape, see Doivn and Connor, Vol. II. , p. 335
40 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
Army," (Carte MS.S. Bodleian Library, Oxford, quoted by Mr. Hill.) The Earl wrote foj James M'Donnell, the grandson of Sir James who was poisoned at Dunluce in 1601, and for Alaster MacColl M'Donnell, and committed to them the command of the expedition to Scotland. (For the gallant actions performed by this little force see note on Alaster M'Donnell, under Parish of Coleraine.) From this time till the end of 1646 the Marquis was engaged in efforts to sustain the Irish army in Scotland. He used his best endaavours to oppose tJie disastrous policy of Ormonde, espacially that of surrendering the Government in 1647 to the Parliamentarian agents. " At length the Marquis entered into an intrigue with Cromwell, from whom in 1651 he had an assignment of X500 a year and his protection from being arrested or imprisoned during his stay in the Parliament's quarters, having, in 16.55, =£890 a year allowed him. Yet he did not forget his duty to his Prince, which he expressed by assisting him with arms and ammunition ; and, after his forces were defeated at Worcester, furnished him with ships to make his escape into foreign parts^ for which and other considerations he was restored to his estates by the Acts of Settlement, and at length after much dithculty, received a confirmation thereof by two patents under the Great Seal." Lodge. For an account of the many difficultes which the Marquis exjierienced in dispossessing the Crom- wellian officer from his estates see The MacBonueWs of Antrim, by the Rev. G. Hill. Lord Antrim married the widow of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and secondly. Rose, daughter and heiress of Sir Henry O'Neill, of Shane's Castle. He died at Ballymagarry on tbe 3rd of February, 1683, and was buried in Bunamargy. As he died without issue, the title of Marquis became extinct, and the Earldom devolved on his brother.
DALRIADA. 41
Alexander, the third Earl of Antrim, was born in 1615. After his father's death in 1636, he travelled in different parts of the Continent, and returned about the beginning of the 1641 war. He was appointed in 1642 by the Confederate Catholics to the command of a regiment, and in some respects was opposed to the policy of his brother. In 1651 he served under Ever M'Mahon, Bishop of Clogher. He was attainted of treason, and the Barony of Glenarm, which had been bequeathed to him, was in 1653 set out to adven- turers and soldiers. After the Restoration the attainder was reversed, and he was restored to his estate by the Act of Explanation. In 1685 he was admitted as a member of the Privy Covmcil of James II., who appointed him colonel of a regiment of infantry.
It was against this regiment of the Earl of Antrim that the Apprentice Boys closed the gates of Derry in 1689 : the Earl was afterwards attainted, but was eventually adjudged to be comprised within the Articles of Limerick. The Earl was twice married. His second wife, Helena, daughter of John Bourke of Derry maclachtney, in the County of Galway, bore to him Randal, who succeeded him, and a daughter. He also left an illegitimate son, named Daniel MacDonnell, to whom he leased, it was alleged, extensive lands in the Parish of Layd for 500 years at the rent of £5. This young man was a captain in his father's regiuient, and was in consequence attainted, and his property was sold in 1702 and purchased by the Hollow Sword Blade Company for £2,596. Earl Alexander died in England in 1699,
Randal, the fourth Earl, was born in 1680. He married Rachael, eldest daughter of Clotworthy, Yiscount Massereene. The following undated letter of Lord Antrim's brother-in- law, which is preserved in the Public Record Office, Dublin,
42 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
and is now for the first time published, shows with what suspicions the Irish Catholics were regarded by the Govern- ment at the commencement of the reign of George I.,
giR^ — When I received the two proclamations — one to proclaim His Majesty and the other to seize any arms and horses in the hands of any Papists — I was at my Lord Antrim's, and did not receive them till ten o'clock on Monday night ; so I could not put the former in execution till yesterday, which I did in the best manner in my power. As to the latter, I showed it to my Lord Antrim, being then with him. He delivered to me all his arms, which were three pair of pistols, three guns, and two swords ; the number of his horses are — four stoned horses, two stoned colts, six mares, one filly, two geldings, eight coach mares, which, pray, acquaint the Lords Justices I have in my possession to deliver to their order for His Majesty whenever they shall please to direct, which is all from. Sir, your most humble servant, Massereene.
It was believed that Antrim intended to raise a force to assist the Pretender, Lord Antrim was imprisoned in Dublin, but was permitted by his keeper to visit the Lord Lieutenant (the Duke of Grafton), who ordered his release. The Sub-Sheriff searched Glenarm Castle, arrested Captain Stewart, but failed to seize Francis Bourke. These men were supposed to be the organisers of the rebel force. Major Kerr writes from Cai-rickfergus on the 14th of July, 1716, about one O'Hagan, who came from Scotland with five persons in a boat, and landed at a small bay, communed with the heads of the Papists, and spent money freely. He wonders that the Government has not a barrack opposite the Highlands, " that are inhabited by many clans of insolent Papists, who awe the Protestants, and are at the Back (beck) of the family of Antrim." Record Ojjice, Dublin. Randal, the fourth Earl, died in 1721, and was buried in Christ's Church, Dublin.
Alexander, the fifth Earl, was the only son of the deceased f]arl, and was only eight years of age at the time of his
DAL-RIADA. 43
father's death. By his father's will he was placed under the guardianship of his grandmother, the Lady Dowager Massereene, and of his uncle, Lord Massereene, by whom he was reared a Protestant. He grew up prone to extravagant habits, and " became recklessly generous to his boon com- panions," says Mr. Hill, " so that he had afterwards bitter, cause to regret the folly which induced him to alienate, without remuneration, several fragments of his estate." Many of the estates throughout the Eoute and Glynns are held by deeds granted by the Earl. He was thrice mai'ried ; by his second wife Anne, daughter of Charles Henry Plunkett, of Dillonstown, in the County of Louth, he had Randal William, who succeeded him. He died in October, 1775.
Randal William the Sixth Earl having three daughters, Ann Katherine, Letitia Mary, and Charlotte, and no son, obtained in 1785 the faovur of being re-created Viscount Dunluce and Earl of Antrim with limitations, in failure of issue male, to his daughters.
Anne Katherine succeeded on the death of her father, in 1791, as Viscountess Dunluce and Countess of Antrim ; she married, in 1799, Sir Henry Vane Tempest, and had one daughter, Charlotte, who became Marchioness of Lon- donderry. Ann Katherine, Viscountess Antrim, died in 1834, when the title passed, in consequence of the death of her second sister unmarried, to her third sister.
Charlotte, Viscountess Antrim, had married, in 1799, Rear- Admiral Mark Robert Kerr, third son of the Marquis of Lothian, by whom she had a numerous family. She died in 1835.
Hugh Seymour Kerr, her fifth son, succeeded to the title, but dying in 1855 and leaving an only child, a daughter, the
44 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
title and estate passed to his brothei', Lord Mark Kerr, who married Jane, daughter of Major M'Cann, of Castlewellan. On the death of Earl Mark KeiT, the title and estate pas- sed to his eldest, "William Randal, the present Earl of Antrim.
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS.
THE Parish of Dunloy and Clougli mills consists of the western side of the civil parish of Dunaghy (the eastern side being united to Glenravel. See Vol. III. p. 455.) Scotchomberbane ; the grange of Dandermot; the civil parish of Killagan ; the townlands of Gruig ; Lislaban, Ballynagabog, Carnbuck, and part of Carnagall, belonging to the civil parish of Loughguile ; the southern and western parts of the civil parish of Kilraghts ; part of Garryduff, belonging to the civil parish of Ballymoney ; the townlands of Anticur, Bellaghy, Dromore, Dtineany, Dun- minning, Glenbuck, Killycowan, Killycreen, and Killy- donnelly, belonging to the civil parish of Rasharkin ; and the townlands of Ballymacaldrick, Caldanagh, Dunloy, Tullaghans, and TJnshinagh, belonging to the civil parish of Finvoy.
Grange of Dundermot. The Taxation of Pope Nicholas enters — " the church of Dundermot is worth over and above service ^ Mark." At the Dissokition, the parish of Dundermot was appropriate to the Abbey of Kells ; it is probably that dependance on the abbey which is expressed by the word Service. The Terrier enters — •' Capella de Dounedermint — a quarter glebe — its the abbey of Kells and Sir Randal hath it. Proxies, 4/- ; Refections, 4/- ; Synodal s, 2/." The entry in the Ulster
46 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
Visitation Book of 1622, is " Grangia de Downe-dermond, no walls ever kaowne to be there — the 2nd part of all ye tithes belonging to the abbey of Kells and possessed by the Earl of Antrym, the third part possest by Mr. Maxwell, as belonging to his chancellorship — a small thing conteyning a towne and a half of land." The site of the church was on the hill of Drumnacross — ' the hill of the cross' — in the townland of Drumakeely. James M'llmoil, in whose farm it is, found the ancient cemetery about fifty perches south of his dwelling-house. The church stood on a round hill, the base of which is washed by the Clough Water, which bends round it, and is here crossed by stepping- scones south of the site of the church. A Holy Well is east of the site of the church and near the Clough Water. The Holy Water font, a coarse stone two feet broad and two feet long, having a circular basin hollowed into it, lies at the farm-house. James M'llmoyle found on the hill bronze swords, querns, a rub-stone for grinding corn, stone celts, a gold ring, an ancient horse-shoe, beads, and bronze brooches. Dundermot — ' the fort of Derraod/ derives its name from a large earthen fort which overhangs the Clough Water near Glareyford Bridge. A plan and description of this fort are given in Mason's Parochial Survey, Vol. I. It is encompassed by a single ditch and rampart. In general appearance it resembles the moats of Drumfane and Bally- dug.
A great cairn, which stood in the townland of Drunibaire, was destroyed in the year 1820. It is described as having been 40 feet in diameter, and 4 feet in height ; the circum- ference was formed by a circle of large stones about three feet high set close together. Among the stones of the cairn and near the circumference several earthen urns filled with
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 47
bones and ashes were found. Each urn, it was said, was capable of holding a gallon ; they were arranged in separate cists formed by flag stones. Outside the circumference of the cairn was a pavement of small stones, two feet deep, which extended from it about twelve feet. Many spear heads and arrow heads of flint were found in and about the cairn. About forty yards to the east of the cairn a portion of a paved road was discovered. There is an extensive cave in Drumbaire hill. The remains of an oblong fort, in which there is a cave, can still be traced in the farm of Mr, Mitchell in Carnbeg ; the site of the fort is cut through by the public road. About the year 1780, two trumpets of bronze were found in Drumnaglea. Three bronze pocketed celts were found under a large stone in Ballyhutherland ; they were linked together by a chain which passed through their loops.
Part of the civil parish of Dunaghy. The townland of Eglish — ' the church' — takes its name from the churcli of Dunaghy, and the church and parish are named from a rath, about which we will speak hereafter. In the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, " the church of Donachi" was valued at £8 10s. 8d. In 1435, Mauritius M'Umcadhan was rector of the parish of Dunchaidh in the diocese of Connor. Register of Primate Prene. The Terrier enters, " Ecclesia de Donncathe, one quarter glebe. Proxies, 20/- ; Refections, 20/; Synodals, 2/-.'' The Visitation Book of 1622, reports, ** Ecclesia de Downaghee" as a ruin and " the equall half of all tithes possesst by the Earl of Antrym, the other possesst by the arch-deacon as a member of the arch- deaconry."
The Statistical Account of Dunaghy in Mason's Parochial Survey, says — " A fort, very remarkable for size, stood at a
48 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
low piece of ground, at the foot of a large hill, in Carnbeg, but it was nearly razed about three years since (written in 1812) ; it was in diameter 420 feet, in circumference 1092, with a piece of burial-ground on the S.E. side 174 feet long by 94 broad, and a very long cave inside. In digging it up, an urn was found, with a small statue and a cross ; one of the silly fellows assisting, aj)prehensive, that if preserved, the statue might be the means of infecting the land with idolatrous worship, dashed it to pieces against a stone. The cross I saw afterwards ; the perpendicular part was about five inches long, tapering to the point, with a ball on the top, and a small ring through it ; it appeared to be made of copper and silvered over. A number of old silver coins was also found, which they carried off, and sold at Bally- mena."
In a field in the townland of Moneydiiff there was an ancient cemetery which is now under tillage ; and the only evidence of its existence is that bones and portions of old coffins have been dug up in it
Near Cloiigh and in the townland of Ballycregagh there was up till the year 1833, an earthen rath of great extent called the Fort of Dunaghy, which gave name to the parish, and the Tuogh of Magheradunagh — (Alachaire Duin-Eaclulach — ' the plain of the fort of Eochaidh — (pronounced Eochy) — the district in which the parish was situated. Dr. O'Donovan supposed this place to be the Dun-Eachdach, at which Muircheartach, King of the Kinel-0 wen, halted for a night, when on his celebrated circuit of all Ireland, in the year 041. Muircheartach's bard sang —
" We were a night at Dun-Eachdach, With the white-handed warlike band ; We carried the King of Uladh with us In the great eircuit we made of all Ireland."
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 49
It seems, however, much more likely that Dim-Eachdach of the poem is the rath of Duneight, near Lisburn, as the next day's march brought tlie King to Magh-Rath (Moira.) See Vol. II. p. 247.
To the north of the village of Clough are the ruins of a castle called Old Stone, or Clough-maghera-donaghie, which, according to tradition, once belonged to the MacQuillins and passed with their other possessions to the MacDonnells. The word Clough is frequently used in local names in the counties of Down and Antrim to express a castle ; in this instance it is translated into Stone, and the adjective Old jjtefixed. The castle stood on a very high rock, which over- looks the village and all the adjacent country to a considerable distance ; there is a deep cut through the body of the rock, from one side to the other, about nine or ten feet broad, which divides it into two equal parts. On the south end, adjoining the village, the ground plot is forty paces long by thirty-four broad ; on that the castle stood. The walls are now nearly erased, partly it is supposed, for the stones, and j)artly for the oli mortar for manure. It was evidently a place of great strength being surrounded by a wall on the top, and a deep foss on the outside. It appears to be about 25 feet above the level of the surrounding ground ; and the face of the rock on each side is quite perpendicular. See Mason's Parochial Survey, Vol. I. In the letter of Gerot Fleming describing the march of Shane O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in April, 1556, it is mentioned, that the earl after forcing the pass of Knockboy, near Broughshane, camped that night at " Cloghdonaghy," and on the following morning marched to " Owderick," (' the red cave ;' the castle at Red Bay.) See Down and Connor, Vol. III. p. 455. The castle of Clough, which then belonged to a gentleman named
50 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
Donnell Gorm MacDoanell, was seized during the early- part of 1641 war by Archibald Stewart, the agent of Lord Antrim; to it the Protestants of the district flocked after the surprise of Portnaw carrying with them all their valuables. The castle under the command of Walter Kennedy was soon attacked by the Irish, under the celebrated Alaster MacCoU MacDonnell, Art Oge O'Neill (ancestor of the Shane's Castle family), and others. Kennedy replied to Art Oge's summons that " he would never surrender to an O'Neill the castle that belonged to a MacDonnell." This reply so pleased Alaster that he swore by " the cross on his sword, if the castle surrendered the garrison and the non- combatants might march out carrying with them all their fifFects. The castle surrendered after firing two shots. The terms of the surrender were faithfully carried out, as far as MacDonnell was concerned, but it is said on the authority of the depositions preserved in Trinity College, Dublin, that a number of women and children on their way towards Lame, or Carrickfergus, were murdered near the Ravel Water, by a mob headed by 'one Toole MacHugh O'Hara. The mobs on both sides at this terrible period were most bloodthirsty, and perpetrated deeds, to which we must look back with liorror and indignation. After the capture of Clough, Sir James MacDonnell (the grandson of the Sir James M'Donnell, of Dunluce, who was poisoned in 1601), wrote the following letter to Archibald Stewart who must then have been in Coleraine. See HilVs MacDonnells, The letter, which is preserved among the Depositions in Trinity College, testifies to the high and honourable in- tentions of the leaders of the insurrection : —
" Coosen Archebald — I receaved your Letter, and to tell the truth, I was ever of that opinion, and soe was all these
THK PARISH OP DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 51
gentilmen, that your own selfe had noe ... in you ; but certainly I had not begun when I did, I and all these gentilmen, with my wiffe and children, had been utterly destroyed, of which I got intelligence from one that heard the plott alayinge. And those captayns of yours (whom you may call rather cowboyes), were every daye vexing our- selves and our tenants, of purpose to picke quarrells, which noe flesh was able to Indure ; and judge you whether I had reason to prevent such mischefe. And I vow to the Almightie, had they not forct me, as they did many others besides me that would rather hang then goe on as they did, I would stick as firm to your side as any of yourselves ; though I confesse it would be the worse thing fo r mee and mine that ever I sawe. To speake to you really the truth and the true information of the whole kiugdome — upon my credit I nowe do it. All the whole kingdome in generall are of our side except Dublin, whoe hath 2,000 men about it, in leager of it, if it bee not now taken ; DrogheJa whoe hath 1,600 men about it, and are these ten days past eatinge of horse flesh ; Carrickfergus, Coulraine, and my Lord Clandeboyes, and my Lord of Ardes. This is the truth on my creditt ; Ballemeanagh, Antrim, and all the garrisons between this and Carrickfergus are fled to Carrickfergus, soe that it is but a follie to resist what God pleaseth to happen. But certainly they will have all Ireland present- lie, whatever time they keepe it. You may truely inform my friendes in Coulraine that I would wish they .... and if they yielde me the towne, it shall bee goode for them and me, for the booty shall be myne, and they shall be sure of goode quartrs, for I will sende for all the Kaghlin boates to Portrush, and from thens send all the people away into Scotlande, which, if it bee not done before Sir Felim and
52 DIOCESE OF CONKOE.
his army comes to the towne, who comes the next week , thousand men and piece of avLillerj, all my desire of doeinge their goodwill be to noe purpose, therefore sende mee word what you doe therein. As for both your houses they shall bee safe and soe should all the houses in the country, if they would be persuaded by mee. The Oldstone has rendered mee and all they within had quarters ; onely the Clandeboyes souldiers and the two regiments from beyond the Ban were a little greedy for pillaginge which could not bee healpt. As for killing of women none of my souldiers dare doe it for his life, but the common people that are not under rule doth it in spight of our teeth. But your people, they killed of women and children about 3 score. My lord and lady are gone to Slain to whom I have sent ; tell my bror. Hill and Mr. Barwicke that their people are all iu good health, but ... in my own company, I desyre you not to stirr out of that till I be neere you myselfe, for feare you should fall in the hands of the seaven hundred I have in the lower part of the oountie, whoe would give you no quarter at all ; but when I have settled thinges here, you may come to me yourself and your dearest friends . to transport them with the rest into Scotland. As for goinge against the kinge, wee will dye sooner, or my Lord Antrim either, but their only Aim is to have their ileligion settled, and every one his owne antient inheritance. Thus wishinge you to take my counsell, whiche I proteste to God I will give you reallie as to myselfe and having the hope of your beleivinge mee hereinn I reste your verie loveinge Coussen still.
"Jamks M'Doxxell. "From the Catholic Campc at Oldstowne, the 11th of January, 1641."
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 53
Mr. Hill in his learned and impartial work, The MacDonnells of Atitrim, says — " In truth the only objects the Irish had in view, as explained by Sir James MacDonnell and others, and as admitted by many of the opposing party, were to expel the Scottish and English settlers from the lands in Ulster which had formerly belonged to themselves (the Irish) ; and also to free themselves from the oppression of those penal la'vs which had bowed them to the >ery dust, and which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. Throtighout every corner of Ulster, with a few rare ex- ceptions, the Irish had been swept from the arable lands — from their own green fields, fertile straths, sheltered valleys — and doomed to live among the bogs and morasses, or on the mountain sides. We learn from Sir James MacDonnell that the Scottish settlers in the Route, on being expelled from their lands, were expected to return to Scotland through the several sea-ports at hand ; and the humane leader offered to provide means of transport for them, rather than that the Protestants should perish in such numbers at Coleraine. " It is also to be borne in mind, that the Scottish and English settlers were then not forty years located in this country.
A standing stone, called the Butter Stone, stood a mile east of the village of Clough ; it was eight feet high, but in the year 1825 some men in a drunken frolic overturned and broke it. There are two small standing stones in Carnbeg, which are on a line with the Bulloch's Track and Giant's Finger Stone in the parish of Portglenone. There formerly stood on Dunaghy Eort a standing stone three feet high, but it was broken to pieces many years ago. This is pro- bably the stone which once stood in the street of Clough, in front of the former residence of the rectors of Dunaghy,
54 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
until it was removed, according to the statement in the Statistical Survey, by Mr. Rogers, and placed on Dunaghy- fort. A very conspicuous standing stone is in Omberbane, on the road leading from the Clough and Newtown Crommelin road to Cloughmills. This stone is 6 feet high, 2|^ feet broad, and 1 foot 4 inches thick. A circular paved hearth having on it the remains of ashes and marks of fire was found, in digging to the depth of thi-ee feet, at the foot of this stone. About the year 1829, William Alexander removed a cairn which stood at the north end of his house in Omber- bane ; he found in it an urn capable of holding about three pints, and " a stone with a hole in it ;'' human bones were also found in this cairn. In the same townland there was also another cairn, which was removed by Henry Percival on whose farm it was.* See Ordnance Memoir, M.S.
In the townland of Broughanore there is, along the side a stream, a very ancient and disused graveyard called Killagan, which gives name to the civil parish. It is'^now under culti- vation and is only recognizable by its rising a little above
* In 1812 Mr. Strittle was proprietor of Eglish, Clough, Craig- faddoch, Galdanagh, and Craigfad ; J. Stewart Moore, of Druma- grove, Glenleslie, Drumnaglea, and Frosses ; Hugh Montgomery, of Ballyboggy, Ballynamaddy, and part of Tullykittagh ; Alexander Allen, of Kinflea and JMagheraboy ; M. Gage, of Ballycraigagh, and Artnacrea. The representatives of Lord Antrim, of Carrowcowan, and Legnamannagh ; Ham. O'Hara, of Tullaghbane, Moneyduff, Carnbeg, Carnmore, Killyree, Ballyreagh, and Inshamph ; T. Dickson, of Limavallaghan ; Alexander Davidson, of Craigdunloof, Doonbought, Legagrane, Evishacrow, and Tuftarney ; Robert Smith, of Cargan, and Dungonnell ; J. Gregg, of Tullynewy ; Samuel Allen, of Doogaree ; A. Mitchell, of Farranacushog ; A Hunter, of Omer- bane ; A. Duffin, of Rosedermot ; Messrs. Staples and Caulfield, of Ballyhuthcrland, and Cornark ; Mr. Reid, of Dundermot ; and \V. Burley, of Antchill. There were forty-five proprietois in fee-simple, not one of whom it was believed held immediately under the Antrim
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 55
the rest of the field. It contains about a rood, but it was once much larger, and was surrounded by an ancient circular fosse, all traces of which have long since disappeared. The church of Killagan is not entered in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas ; in the Terrier it is entered " Ecclesia de Killa- grene, half a townland glebe, pays Proxies, 8/- ; Refectidns, 8/- ; Synodals, 2/-." The Visitatio7i Book, of 1622, says— " Ecclesia de Killagan uttei'ly decayed." There is a rath surrounded by a foss about 50 perches beyond the stream.
In the townland of Cloughmills there is a holy well called Tubberdoney, at which there was formerly a stone having an indentation said to be the impression of a saint's knee. There is a standing stone now overturned in Lough- hill ; it is 4 feet long, 2 feet 4 inches broad, and 1 foot 4 inches thick.
A fortified island, perhaps, a crannog, in a lough called Lough Hardwarnes, is entered in Speede's Map of Ulster, published in 1610. A very large townland named Loghere- hardvereins, is entered in the Down Survey. There is a tradition that Loughill was formerly named Lough Ardverin; but as neither Loughill, nor Mount Hamilton, is entered in the Down Survey, both these townland s seem to have been included in Logherehardvereins. No traces of the fortified
family, most of them paid their chiefries to Mr. O'Hara, a few to Mr. Montgomery. The lands were purchased originally in quarter and half quarter lands, the largest about 80 acres. The deeds of these lands were all made out in the year 1735, by Alexander 5th, Earl of Antrim. — Statistical Survty. A part of the lands of Dundermot was occupied towards the end of the 17th century by a family named Stewart, to which Dr. Stewart, Bishop of Down and Connor, from 1740, till 1750, belonged. On his tombstone in the north-east corner of the Franciscan Church of Bunamargy is inscribed : " Here lyeth the bodies of Captain Stewart, of Dundermod, and family, and Francis Stewart, Bishop of Down and Connor. "
56 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
island Lave been discovered. It is probable that this is " the island of Lough Burran." See p. 15, taken A.D. 1544, from M'Quillin, by O'Donnell, which Dr. Reeves, Eccl. Antiq. p. 286, supposes to be Lough-a-verrie, in the parish of Ballintoy. If there was an island on that lough, it does not seed to have been important, as it is not entered in Speede's map.
In the townland of Kilmandil there was, until about 50 years ago, a disused graveyard, which contained about eight square perches, and was surrounded by a circular fosse, like that of a fort. It was called Killmandil, the last interment in it was that of a child, about 130 years ago. A paved causeway extended from north to south along its western side ; this was removed about 1834, except a part of it, which is sunk under the soil. At the distance of about 40 perches west of the graveyard, the farmer found a quantity of loose stones and pieces of burnt timber, apparently the remains of a building that had been destroyed by fire. On the steep slope of the hill on the north-east side of the field he found a flight of thirty steps made of undressed stones, leading from the stream to the ruined building. At the bottom of the field and along the flat ground adjoining the stream were to be seen the remains of an ancient mill i-ace nearly filled up. Water-worn stones, in which holes were drilled, and many white pebbles apparently from the sea- shore were found in the ancient graveyard. There is an artificial cave of the usual construction under the field, in which is the site of the graveyard, but its entrance is in the adjoining field. It is 80 feet in length, and contains four rooms, each room is about 20 feet long, 3 feet broad, and from 4 to 5 feet high ; these rooms are connected by little square passages. One of the roofing stones of the
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 57
first room is a half of a mill-stone about 8 inches in thickness and 4 feet in diameter ; it was evidently placed in its present position when the cave was constructed. On each side of this room are two small openings each communi- cating with what were intended originally either for air-holes or chimneys, narrow cavities scooped out of the hard ground ^ but not lined with stones. At present the openings, owing to the earth having fallen in, do not reach the surface. The cave extends from south-west to north-east. The farmer, in whose farm it is, stated that it extended formerly 80 feet farther towards the north-west. See Ordna/ice Survey Memoir, M.S.
Oivilparish ofKilraghts. In Drumaqueraii there is a remark- able standing stone, called " Old Pati'ick 3" it is about 200 yards west of a bye road, but it has been removed from its original position, and is now standing in a ditch at a little distance from the bank on which it originally stood. It has on both its east and west sides crosses formed by the intersection of circles. There is a standing stone in the townland of Lisboy, 20 yards east of the Ballymena and Ballymoney road ; it is a three sided block, 5 feet by 3| feet, by 3| feet. In the same townland there is a rath of the ordinary shape, and 39 feet in diameter, but at the eastern side of it thei-e is the entrance to a cave, the interior height of which is from 5 feet 4 inches to 4 feet. There is another cave in Lisboy, the height of which is only 3 feet. Civil parish of Finvoy. In the townland of Dunloy, and at a short distance to the east of the Ballymoney and Ballymena road, there are, in the farm of Samuel Finton, the remains of what is termed a Giant's Grave. There was here formerly an ancient construction, con- sisting of six standing stones situated three on each side
58 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
in two parallel lines, these supported three flag stones, laid close to each other. In the immediate vicinity of this monument, there is another of circular construction, in the townland of Ballymacaldrack ; it is situated in a rocky field near the old chapel, and in the farm of John Dooey. Both these monuments bore a strong resemblance to the stone house of Tycloy, in the parish of Skerry ; each of them con- sisted of a square platform of small and large stones piled up, at one end of which was a number of large stones sup porting flag stones. At the distance of a few fields from the one in Ballymacaldrack there was formerly another of similar construction, but it is now destroyed. In the same townland a little south of the " Giants Grave" there is a cave in the farm of Daniel Dowd. In Dunloy there is an earthen rath of ordinary form, called Carvadoon fort, which is surrounded by a ditch 20 feet deep. In this rath there is a cave 28 feet long, 3i wide, and 5 high, but very badly built ; it has an antechamber 12 feet long at right angles to the main cave. Some silver coins were found, about 1825, in the rampart of this rath, and in 1831, many silver coins were found under a flagstone in a natural island, called Culnavey Island, in the bog of Dunloy.
There is a very remarkable graveyard upon the sloping side of Dunloy hill, in the townland of Ballymacaldrack ; it at present contains about half an acre, Irish measure, and is enclosed by a loose stone wall and thorn hedge. It was formerly surrounded by an ancient ditch, or fosse, in the form of a circle which contained within its circumference a full acre. Forty yards of the ditch was in existence up till 1841. It was fifteen feet wide, and at an average six feet deep in the middle. Formerly the space, between the spot, now occupied as a graveyard, and the circumference of the
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 59
area enclosed by the ditch, was divided by ancient founda- tions, or fences, from two to four yards broad, made of earth and stones, and overgrown with moss. They divided the ground into little plots, at an average twenty yards in area ; they are now all x'emoved, but a little more than a hundred years ago they were untouched. There is a tradi- tion that they belonged to a monastery. Formerly there was a cave at the northern, and another at the southern side of the enclosure ; but they have been long since destroyed. The graveyard is at the north-east side of the ancient enclosed space, and is called Caldernagh — " Old graveyard" (Joyce.) It is said that there was formerly a large standing stone at each side of its entrance. Formerly only the bodies of infants were interred in it ; the interment of adults only recommenced about 1760. The names on the grave-stones are — O'Neill, Molley, Deane, Scullion, O'Kane, and Carnaghan. The graveyard contains 2 roods statute measure, and is exclusively used by Catholics. The district around Dunloy is locally named Killymurris, and in the reign of James I. it formed the " Tuogh of Killimorrie."*
* The writer of the Statiscal Surveij, says — "As to the propeity in the parish of Finvoy, the whole is probably debenture lands (given as payment of debentures to CromweUian oificers), except Killimuris, which belongs to the Antrim family, and is set in perpetuity to others. The greater part was granted by Cromwell to his officers, and is now in the hands of different landlords, none of whom (save Stephen Holland, Esq., Carrireagh), are descendants of the original grantees." In the Down Survey and Book of Distribution, the entire parish is returned as having belonged to the Earl of Antrim ; but under the column, "Persons to whom distributed," he is entered only for "2 quarters of Dunloye, Gallennagh, 1 quarter, the Lower of Ballmacalient, 2 quarters of the same, and another part of the same, 1 quarter of Gallenagh, a part of Knockans, 1 quarter of Unsinagh, and a part of the same." In the Book of Distribution, the lands not distributed to the Earl of Antrim, were
00 DIOCESE OF COXNOR.
Civil 2>c(,rish of RcisharTcin. In the last century, the last Lord Slane resided in the townland of Anticur, where his mansion may still be seen in tolerable good order, being tenanted by one "Wallace, a farmer. William Fleming, nine- teenth Baron Slane, was married to Anne, daughter of Sir Randal MucDonnell, first Earl of Antrim. Their grandson, Christopher, took the side of James II., and thereby lost the estate of Slane. On his death in 1728, without male issue, William Fleming, another grandson of Lady Anne MacDonnell, assumed the title of twenty-third Baron of Slane. This William resided at Anticur, on a property which he had obtained from the Antrim family. He was interred in the Antrim vault, at Bunamargy. Lord William left one son, Christopher, who was known as the twenty-fourth Lord Slane, and died in 1772. Mr. Francis N. Lett, of Clough, in a communication printed in the Kilkenny Archicological Journal, for 1859, says — that the only daughter of the last Lord Slane, married one Felix Connor, from the County Donegal. After the death of her father and husband, her eldest son having gone abroad, Mrs. O'Connor sold her residence, and took up her abode at Craigs, in the parish of Finboy, whence she and her family emigrated to America, where they died. The executors of Mrs. Sarah Leslie, advertised to sell in Belfast, on the 17th of September, 1847, the tour Quarterlands of Anticur. containing upwards of 9uO acres, subject to a chief rent of £136 123. 3|d., and held for three lives, with
distributed to Samuel Hill, John Galland, Lord Masserene, and Richard Holland. The Quit Rent Book, in the Public Record Office, gives in addition to Lord Antrim, the following as owners, in IGGO, of lands in the parish of Finvoy : — Mr. Samuel Hill, Captain John Galland, Captain John Barrington, Mr. Forrest, Carrol Bolton, Esq., and Captain Bryan Mulhallan.
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 61
a covenant of perpetual renewal on payment of a fine of £7 19s. 8id. on the fall of each life.
Near a flow-bog in the townland of Glenbuck there is a rath of the usual form, and 72 feet in diameter, which is called Pharoa's Fort.
In the townland of Dnneany, — ' the fort of the assembly, or of the fair,' at the distance of a few fields from the road between Rashai-kin and C lough, there is a graveyard con- taining only about six square perches, called Lovestown graveyard. For many years past only the poor, who were not able to pay the sexton's fees, were interred in it, though formerly it was the burial-place for all the eastern part of the civil parish of Rasharkin, There are in it three grave- stones, the oldest of which commemorates one Love, who died A.D. 16 . . . The old church stood, it is said, at the distance of '200 yards to the south of the cemetery, in a field which is in the farm of John Hyndman. This field, it is said, was formerly in the townland of Killydonnelly, but by some alteration of the boundaries of the townlands it is now in Duneany. In the same townland there is a standing stone about fifty paces west of the road leading from Bally- money to Ballymena. There is a tradition that a great fair was held at that stone, until about 150 years ago. There was a cave in the vicinity of Lovestown graveyard.
In the townland of Killycreen there was a graveyard in Mr. Robert Dickey's farm. " It is in the centre of a large field, and not surrounded by any fence, and contains about 13 square perches Cunningham measure, but it was formei-ly much larger, the last interment in it was that of Una Shiel, who died about 1740. It is said that the church stood 50 yards to the east of the cemetery at a place where a rectangular hollow formerly
62 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
marked its site." — Ordnance Memoir. The graveyard is now completely subjected to tillage ; its site occupied the summit of a gentle hill behind Mr. Dickey's house ; near it is an old well, called Kilcreen Well. The old churches of Kilcreen and Duneany, or Killydonnelly, were at a consider- able distance from the cemeteries, because those cemeteries were only small portions of the extensive original cemeteries which once surrounded tlie churches. The ancient Irish interred in stone-lined graves which only admitted of one interment in each grave, and consequently their cemeteries soon became of very great extent.
In the townland of Dromore,''^ which adjoins Kilcreen, there is a standing stone in the farm of Samuel Adams, it is about four feet high, and has, on its eastern side, a large cross, above which are letters, seemingly I.H.S. In the same townland there is an earthen rath of 107 feet diameter on the western side of which there is an artificial cave ; it runs north and south, and is 24 feet long. Caves were very numerous throughout the parish, but they are now nearly all destroyed. This seems to have been the Dromore, where the Lord Deputy, the Earl of Sussex, encamped on the 13th of July, 1556. On Sunday, July 12th, he removed from a place two milesnorth of Carrickfergus,and"camped that night at Meckellah, by a river called Unna . . . and an old church or abbev, called Monastery Ikallo (Monastery of Kells) being of Clan Phelim Bachahe M'Hue M'Phelim Bachach. Monday the 13th of July, my Lord Deputy removed from Meckellah (Magh Kellagh, " plain of Kells"), and camped at Drummore, by a river called Owen Lagran, in the country of M'Guillan, called the Route." The Owen Lagran seems to the name, which the Athlone Pursuivant at Arms, who wrote the Progress of the Lord Deputy, gave to the Main
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHxMILLS, 63
Water, calling it Owen Lagran, wliich probably is a mistake of the transcriber for Owen Lagan, "the river Lagan," be- cause it flows from the parish of Killagan. On the followiug night he camped at Coleraine, after passing through Balle- monin (Bally money.)
* In 1668, King Charles II. made a grant of Glaskil and Craig estate to John Shaw, Esq., who seems to have assigned the grant to John Houston. This John Houston made his will, on the LSth of January, 1734, and died leaving two daughters, one married to Rev. Thomas Staples, and one to the Hon. and Rev. Charles Caultield. On the 9th of March, 1749, Alexander, Earl of Antrim, made to the Rev. Thomas Staples and the Hon. and the Rev. Charles Caulfield, in con- sideration of £3,000, a fee-farm grant of Luesgavanagh, Skerryravel, and Ballynutherland, in the Tuogh of Oldstoue (in 1812, Cornark, Skerryravel, and Ballynutherland, in the civil parish of Dunaghy, were possessed by Messrs. Staples and Caulfield), Drumore, Drum- cross, Kiltudaragh, Dorreen, Ballyaghan, Kilcrone, Dunmining, Killy- (|uan, and Killydonally, in the barony of Kilconway, An advertis- ment appeared in the Belfast News-Letter, of July 3rd, 1772, in which one undivided moiety of the following lands was offered for sale — Skerry, (rental, £46 2s. 6d.) ; Ballyhutherland, (rental, £40 lis. 6d.) ; Drumore, (rental, £50 12s. 6d.) ; Bellaghy, (rental, £64 19s. Od. ) ; Kilcreen, (rental, £73 2s Od. ) ; Dunmining, (rental, £67 2s. 3d.) ; Killycowan, (rental, £67 2s. 3d.) ; and Duneamy, (rental, £07 2s. 3d. ) It was stated that these lands were subject to a chiefry of £40, to the Earl of Antrim, that part of the lands would be out of lease in ten years, and application was to be made to Mr. James Caulfield, or to Mr. John Agnew, at Craigs. On the 12th of July, 1824, James Staples, the elder, and James Caulfield, the younger, demised to Nicholas De-la-Cherois Crommelin, of Carrowdore Castle, in the County of Down, the townland of Skerries, or Skerryravel, containing 1,610 acres Cunningham measure, with mines, quarries, timber, tithes, great and small, to be held for 1,000 years, at the yearly rent of £350. See Voh III. p. 467. In 1834, John M'Neill, Esq., Parkmount, Belfast, purchased Craigs and other lands from Edward Houston Caulfield, for £46,000. Glaskil, called Glaskill, in the Down Survey, was the name of one of the townlands belonging to the Earl of Antrim, in the Craigs, in the civil parish of Ahoghill. Shaw's estate was therefore what is now called the Four Towns of the Craigs. See Vol. III. p. 363.
64 DIOCESE OF CONNOK.
PARISH PRIESTS.
After the death of the Rev. William M'Cartan, P.P., Rasharkin, which occurred on the 23rd of May, 1864, the district attached to the church of Dunloy, consisting of the eastern parts of the civil parishes of Rasharkin and Finvoy was severed from the parish of Rasharkin and constituted into a separate parish. After the death of the Rev. Henry M'Laughlin, P.P., Loughguile, which occurred on the 23rd of September, 1869, several townlands in the civil parishes of Kilraghts, Loughguile, and the Grange of Killagan, were severed from the parish of Loughguile and added to the new parish of Dunloy. At the same time the Rev. William John M'Auley, P.P., Glenravel, surrendered the western parts of the civil parish of Dunaghy, which were added to the parish of Loughguile. Father Magee, P.P., Loughguile, made preparations to erect a church in Clough mills, but after his death, which occurred March 1st, 1873, the district attached to Cloughmills was separated from Loughguile and united to the parish of Dunloy. The new parish of Dunloy was conferred on Father Close.
The Rev. William Close was a native of Bally macward, in the parish of Derryaghy. He entered the Rhetoric Class, in the College of Maynooth, February 14th, 1850 ; was ordained in Clarendon Street Church, Dublin, by Dr. Whelau, Bishop of Bombay, in November, 1854 ; was shortly afterwards sent as assistant to the Rev. William John M'Auley, who was then temporarily in charge of the parish of Drummaul and Antrim ; was appointed in the Spring of 1857, administrator of Newtownards, and in 1860 its parish priest. From Newtownards Father Close was ap- pointed to Dunloy, on the 18th of June, 1864: he resigned the parish in February, 1866, and was succeeded by Father Curoe.
THE PARISH OF DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 65
The Rev. William Caroe was a native of the townland of Whitehills (civil parish of Ballycnlter), in the parish of Kilclief. After studying in the Diocesan College, he entered the Rhetoric Class, in the College of Maynooth, February 11th, 1847 ; was ordained in Clarendon Street Chapel, Dublin, by Dr. Whelan, on the 23rd of May, 1851 ; was appointed curate of Belfast, but after a few months he was appointed to the curacy of Duneane ; afterwards to that of Lower Ards, from which he was promoted to the parish of Dunloy, in February, 1866. Father Curoe was appointed to the parish of Rasharkin, on the 5th of April, 1877, and Father Waterson was appointed to Dunloy and Bushmills.
The Rev. Edward Waterson was born, August 10th, 1839, in the townland of Drum roe, in the parish of Kilclief ; after studying in the Diocesan College, he entered the Class of Humanity, in the College of Maynooth, November 15th, 1858 ; was ordained in St. Malachy's Belfast, by Dr. Dorrian, on the 3rd Sunday of October, 1863 ; was appointed curate of St. Malachy's Belfast, February 13th, 1864 ; curate of Ballykinlar, in July, 1864 ; curate of Ballyma- carrett, December 8th, 1866 ; dean of the Diocesan College, September 8th, 1867 ; curate of Derryaghy, in February, 1871 ; curate of St. Peter's Belfast, July, 1873 ; adminis- trator of Ballymacarrett, January, 1874 ; curate of Derry aghy, in July, 1875 ; from which he was promoted to the parish of Dunloy and Cloughmills, on the 15th of April, 1877.
CHURCHES.
During times of persecution Mass was celebrated generally on the site, where afterwards was built the old chapel in Bally macaldrack, immediately adjoining the site of the pre- sent Parochial House and National schools. Mass was
E
66 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
celebrated on the farm, which at pi'esent belongs to Alexander Catherwood, in Glenbuck, where the altar built of stones still remains. Another Mass station was at the Mass Hill, in Mr. Read's farm, in Grannagh. At times, also the people assembled for Mass at the Broad Stone, in the Craigs, and at the Square Fort, near the Broad Stone. About the year 1746, the Rev. Patrick M'Keefry and his people ventured to build the wretched construction called the Old Chapel. On the 12th of May, 1835, Mr. George Hutchinson granted to Dr. Crolly and Rev. Peter M'Mullan, P.P., a lease for ever of about half an acre Cunningham measure_, in the townland of Dunloy, at the rent of Is., if demanded. On this site the church of St. Joseph's was erected, through the exertion of the Rev. Hugh Hanna, afterwards parish priest of Maghera and Bryausford, who was then the curate of the parish. The church was dedi- cated by Dr. Denvir, on the 20th of September, 1840. The parochial house was erected by Father Curoe, on the grounds of the old chapel, which are held by prescription.
The church of the Sacred Heart, Cloughmills, was erected by Father Waterson, from plans supplied by Alexander M'Alister, Esq. architect, Belfast. On the 7th of November, 1871. Mrs. Helena M'Keevir and her family, holding under a lease, dated 1st of November, 1836, for 904 years unex- pired, granted to the Most Rev. Dr. Dorrian and the Rev. Cornelius Magee, P.P., Loughguile, a lease for 850 years, of la. 2r. I5p., in the townland of Loughhill, at the rent of 6d. per annum. A temporary wooden house was erected in 1873^ in which Mass was celebrated until the church was completed. The church of the Sacred Heart is a veiy beautiful building in the Gothic style ; built of black stone, with freestone dressings. The nave is in the clear
THE PARISH OP DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLS. 67
68 feet by 29 feet, tlie chancel, 20 feet by 15i feet, and the sacristy, 16 feet by 14 feet. The side walls are 21| feet in height, and lighted on each side by five cusped-lancet windows ; the height from the floor to the apex is 16 feet ; the roof is open, sheeted with pine and divided into panels by moulded ribs. Over the western door there is a com- modious organ gallery. The western gable and the gable of the chancel are each lighted by a very elaborate and taste- ful window. Tinted cathedral-glass is used in all the windows, which has a very agreeable effect. The church is very complete and cost £3,200. It was dedicated by Dr. Dorrian, on the 30th of September. 1883. The Most Rev. Dr. Carr, Bishop of Galway, preached a sermon on the occasion, taking as his text the 16th and 17th verses of the 24th chapter of the Book of Genesis. The collection received within the church amounted upwards of £400.
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN.
THE parish of Rasharkin extends over the portions of the civil parishes of Rasharkin and Finvoy, which are not contained in the parish of Dunloy and Cloughmills. '^ The church of Rooserkan"* was valued in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, at 20/-. The Terrier, says of it—" Ecclesia de Raserkain hath 5 towns, 4 Erenoth,t and 1 in Glebe.
* An ancient Irish tale, Buile SJnubJine, which relates the wander. ings of Suibhne, King of Dalaradia, after he had lost his reason on witnessing the slaughter at the battle of Magh-Eath, a.d. 637, mentions Bos Ercaln as one of his residences. It is again mentioned by the Four blasters at a.d. 1497, as the place where Felim O'Keill. grandson of Brian Ballagh O'Neill, was slain.
+ Erenach was the person who farmed the church lands among the ancient Irish. The term is written Airchinneach, (pronounced Erinagh), which signifies " a chief head." Dr. O'Donovan cites a passage from the Leabhar Breac, where Satan is styled the " Airchinneach oi. hell, and prince of death." It would seem that church lands were occupied by certain septs, out of who7n the bishop, abbot, or superior of the church selected a chief, the Erenach, who among the sept held the same position as a chief among a clan. After election he was unremoveable, except for some very grave crime, and at his death his successor was not necessarily his son, but some one of his tribe selected by the chief ecclesiastic of the church to which the lands were attached. The erenach subdivided the lands among the families of his tribe, like the chief of any other clan. He was required to pay a certain rent to the superior of the church, and contribute a certain amount towards the repairs of the church, and for giving hospitality. In the dioceses of Derry and Jtaphoe the tithes of each parish were divided into three equal portions, of which one was assigned to the rector, one to the vicar,
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN. 69
Sir Randal hath the parsonage ; pays Proxies, 20/- ; Re- fections, 20/- ; Synodals, 2/-." The Ulster Visitation Booh, of 1622, reports " Ecclesia de Raserkan alias Magheraserkan decayed. Rectory impropriate to the abbey of Muckamore, and possesst by the Earl of Antrym." The Antrim Inquisi-
and the third to the herenagh. See Archb. Coltoii's Visitation ofDerry, by Dr. Reeves. The English invasion broke up the ancient Irish customs in Down and Connor, so that the names of the erenachs of the different churches are unknown, or at best can only be surmised by us ; but in the dioceses of Derry and Raphoe, where the power of the Kinel-Owen and Kinel-Connal remained in vigour until the close of the reign of Elizabeth, the names of the erenachs in most of the parishes are well-known. Thus O'Deman (now O'Dimond) was erenach of Kilreagh ; O'Tuohill, of Desertoghill ; O'Crilly, of Tamlaght- O'Crilly, &c. The following finding of the jury of the Inquisition taken at Dungannon in 1609, explains the rights and duties of the erenagh, or herenagh ; "and further, they say uppon their oathes, that in all places of the said countie of Tyrone, where the tiethes are divided betwixt the parson, viccar, and herenagh ; they are to beare the chardge of repairinge and maynteyninge the proper parishe church equallie between themselves. And the said jurors doe uppon their oathes, finde and present, that the erenagh land was att first given by the temporall lords immediatlie to the first founders of the churches ; and that those did give the same to severall septs, for payinge rent and other dueties to the bushopps and for repairinge and mayntenyinge their parishe church, wherein they often tymes did beare a third parte, and some tymes twoe- third of the chardge, and for keepiuge of hospitalitie ; and that these septs or erenaghs have, tyme out of mynde, inherited the said lands accordinge to the Irish custome of tanistrie." They also found that erenachs were not removeable by the bishops, that Termon-land was the land belonging to great monasteries and was similar to erenach - land, but that it had frequently attached to it the privilege of sanctuary, and that the chief-tenant was called a Corbe (Comharba — a successor j, who at times had under him several erenachs. In early times both the title Comharba (pronounced coarba — the suc- cessor of the founder), and erenach — " superior" were borne by ecclesiastics, but in more recent days they were used to designate the persons who farmed the church lands from the ecclesiastical representative of the founder.
70 DIOCESE OF COXNOa.
tion, of 1605, also found that the rectory of *' Magherisergan in the Rowte" was at the Dissolution appropriate to the Priory of Muckamore, The Protestant church occupies the site of the ancient church. About a furlong north-east of the church is an isolated x'ocky hill, about 60 feet high, and 100 feet long, called Drumbulcan; it is distant two fields from the eastern side of the village, and stands at the foot of the steep declivity of a higher and more extensive hill that rises to the east of it. Tlie top of it is covered with a dark mould, in which fragments of bones have been found, and as Dr. Reeves remarks, the edge of the platform seems to have been formerly protected by an earthen rampart. It much resembles Dungonnel Fort, in form and height, but it wants the stone fort that crowns the rock rising over the branches of the Ravel river, A place on the heights above Drumbulcan is shown, where, according to popular stories, a church was commenced, but whatever was built there during the day was thrown down at night by some invisible agency, until the builder abandoned the undertaking and erected his church at Rasharkin. This story is told of several other churches, and as human bones are found at the sites, said to have been rejected, it obviously is intended to account for the abandonment of a church that for ages had ceased to exist. There is close to Drumbulcan a Holy Well, to which sick children, perhaps in memory ot St. Olcan's early history, were formerly brought on IMay Eve, but the well is now neglected and almost forgotten. Drom- bolcan signifies "the ridge of Bolcan," and seems to have been named from St. Olcan, who is called by some wi-iters Bolcan ; but it may also be named from Olchu, one of the chiefs of Dal-Riada. Colgan calls it Dunholcaln, and describes it as " a place without a church, near Airthermuige
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN. 71
(Armoy), where perhaps he (St. Olcan) was born." Ada. S.S. p. 378. The story of Olcan's birth is thus told in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, as translated by Mr, Hennesy for Sister Cusack,
" Patrick went afterwards to Dal-Araidhe and Dal-Riada. Then he proceeded to Eori, to Carn-Setna, southwards, where he heard the screams of an infant from out of the ground. The earn was demolished, the sepulchre was laid bare, and a smell of wine arose around them out of the sepulchre. They saw the living child with the dead mother. A woman that died of ague ; she was brought across the sea to Erin, and the child was born after death ; and seven days it lived in the tumulus. "This is bad (01c)," said the King. "That shall be his name (Olcan)," said the druid. Patrick baptized him ; and he is Bishop Olcan of the community of Airther-Maighe (Armoy), in the district of Dal-Riada."
In the more extensive copy of the Tripartite Life, which Colgan gives, the name of the prince who discovered the child is not Rori, but Darius (Daire), and the tumulus is called Carn Sedna. The conjecture of Colgan that Drumbulcan is the birthplace of St. Olcan is very likely correct ; if so it would seem that the original name of the mound was Carn- Sedna, Jocelin calls St. Olcan's church Lerkan, and Ussher styles him " Bishop of Derkan," and adds — " which in the territory of Route in Antrim, still retains the name of Clon- derkau." Dr. Reeves conjectures that " it is probable that Derkan was the name of the district about Armoy." The simpler explanation is that both the churches of Armoy and Rasharkin were under St. Olcan, and that Rasharkin is the Derkan of Jocelin and Usher. The founder of the church of Rasharkin was without doubt a bishop, hence, as in the case of the sees that in process of time became absorbed in the see oi Connor, the lands of Rasharkin belonged to that see. The Terrier has entered among the lands belonging to the bishoprick of Connor. — " In Maghereshai-kin, the
72 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
temporalities of 5 towns 3" and in the margin " Sir Randal" is entered as the tenant under the see. It is remarkable that the lands of Rasharkin are omitted in the return of see lands, in the Ulster Visitation of 1622. The following document refers to these and other lands : —
Disputes having arisen between Randall Marquess and Jeremiah, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor, concerning the four townelandes of Magherasharkin, barony of Kilconway, the | town of Diserta Vera, same barony, the territory or precinct of Ardmoy, containing four towne lands, barony of Carie, as also the lands of Enispolan, Solar, Ballyhumpany, in the barony of Glenarme and County of Antrim; and they having left same to the determination of James, Lord Archbishop of Armagh, and such as he should nominate, and he having nominated the Archbishop of Dublin ; it was awarded that the Marquess should surrender such lands to the Bishop, who there- upon should make a lease to the Marquess thereof, for 60 years, from 1st May, then next at the rent £90, the bishop to get same confirmed by the Dean and Chapter of Connor. The Marquess to pay or secure to the bishop £150 as a fine, all to be approved by the Council Board. Signed, and sealed, 12th March, 1625. Ja. Armacanus.
This lease was sold in 1749, by Alexander 5th, Earl of Antrim, to the son of Dr. Smith, Protestant bishop of Down and Connor. According to the parliamentary returns made iu 1833, "The four townlands of Magherasharkin, the J townland of Dundesartmore, and the townlabds of Bally- hampton, Sollar, and Inispollan, in the territory of the Roote," wei-e held of the see by the heirs of R. Smith, by a 21 year lease, at the annual rent of £48 9s, 3d., witli the usual implied covenant of perpetual renewal each year, and the renewal fine was £211 6s. l^d.. The same family held at that time by similar leases all the see lands in Dal-Riada, but these lands have since that been disposed of to dillerent purchasers, with tlie exceptions of the lands of Armoy. "Yhicli still belong to Mr. Smith. The four townlands
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN. 73
which constitute the see-lands of Rasharkiu, are Carntiuton, Church Tamlaght; Crushybrackin, and Drumack, containing 3,373 acres, 1 rood, and 12 perches.
"W e have seen above that in Catholic times the rectory belonged to the Priory of Muckamore, which appointed the vicar or resident clergyman. The monastery of Muckamore possessed the rectories of other churches, the lands of which belonged to the see of Connor, probably arising from some partition of ecclesiastical possessions made by the bishop of Connor, with the abbots of Kells and Muckamore, when he ceased to fill the double office of bishop of Connor and abbot de Deserto Conner ice, or Kells; for St. Col man Ela, the founder and first abbot of Muckamore had been abbot, and perhaps, also bishop of Connoi\ At the Dissolution, the rights of the abbot of Muckamore became vested in the crown, and the rectory of E,asharkin was conferred on Sir Randal McDonnell. Alexander 5th, Earl of Antrim, in 1749, sold the rectorial tithes to the Rev. Thomas Staples and the Hon. and Rev. Charles Caulfield. According to a report published in 1836, the rectorial tithes of Rasharkin amounted to £203 15s. 5d., one portion thereof compounded for £55 15s. 8d., belonged to Robert Hervey, Esq., two other portions compounded for £101 16s. 8d., belonged one moiety thereof to Sir Thomas Staples, Bart., and the other moiety co Edward Caulfield, Esq., and the residue of the lay tithes compounded for <£46 3s. Id. was appropriated to the use of the Chaplain of Castledawson Chapelry. At that date the vicarial tithes, paid to the minister, amounted to =£222 7s. Od.
In the townland of Crushybracken there was an ancient cemetery, which is now completely destroyed ; it was called Slaglittaggart, which is popularly translated " the priest's grave," and it is said that it was so-named because a priest
74 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
was murdered and interred there ; a great cairn of stones was said to mark his grave. The word Leacht, " a grave, or pile of stones in memory of the dead," has assumed throughout the Counties of Down and Antrim, the form Slaght. It is probable that there was here in pagan times a monumental cairn, which in consequence of the church erected beside it was named Slaght-taggart — ^' the priest's leachi." Crushybrackan, " the cross of Brackan," seems to be named from Breccan, the companion of St. Ciarog, or Mochuaroc of Descart. See Vol. III. p, 462. Breccan was the son of Saranus the chieftain, who opposed St. Patrick, in Dalaradia. The festival of St. Breccan was celebrated on the 7th. of May.*
In Drumack there is a very remarkable fort called Lis- canon ; it is surrounded by two ditches, having between them a rampart of a peculiar form.
There are the remains of a great cairn, in the farm of Mrs. Conway, in the townland of Tehorny. In 1837, though it was then almost entirely removed, the officers of the Ordnance Survey found that its remains extended 130 feet in length, and 30 feet in width. There was remaining about the middle of it a fragment of a large stone supposed * The commentator on the Felire of St. Aengus says, that Ech-Droma, where was the church of Mochuaroc and Breccan, was on the confines of Dalaradia and Dal-Riada, which as Dr. Keeves re- marks exactly corresponds witli the situation of Descart. Ech- Droma — "the horse hill" is no longer used, but a fair (see Vol. III. p. 461), was lield there until about a century ago, which may have given name to Ech-Droma. The church of Queur, valued in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, at £5., Dr. lleeves supposes to be the church of Descart; and he thinks that the name is some corrup- tion intended lor Cargan, the townland in which it is situated. (Jiieur seems rather a corruption of the name of the Patron Saiut- Cuaroc. See also Lives of the Irish Saints, Vol. V. p. 113, by Father O'Hanlon.
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN. 75
to have been the top-stone of a cromleach that had been covered over by the cairn. StoAe implements vsrere frequently- found from time to time in the. adjoining fields. At the distance of about 500 yards to the south of the cairn there is located, near a stream, a large rock having a rude re- semblance to a seat which is called the Giant's Chair. It is merely a natural ledge in the side of a rock, which is situated in the midst of a group of other rocks.*
There are no military remains of a date subsequent to the English invasion now remaining in the civil parish of Rasharkin, except the traces of an entrenchment along the edge of the Bann. lb is now nearly defaced but it was about 200 yards in length and 10 feet in width. It was exactly opposite to a series of similar earthworks on the bank of the river in the paiish of Kilrea, County Derry. Great quantities of Irish antiquities were found during the operations for the improvement of the navigation of the Bann. Only a few of them found their way into the museum of the Royal Irish Academy ; the remainder passed into the hands of local antiquarians and dealers. A beautiful bead of blue and white glass, set with six large pieces of a yellow vitreous paste, found in this parish, is figured in the Kilkenny Archcelogical Journal, third series Vol. I. Coloured engravings of two similar beads found in Lough Ravel Crannoge, {Down and Connor, Yol. III., p. 335), are given along with it.
* Tehorney, and most of the lands about Rasharkin, in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. were held, by gentlemen named O'Hagan, under the Earls of Antrim. Tehorney, called Ballynharrany, Carrow-ward, ("the bard's quarter, now Hazlebrook,") and Crushy- bracken, called Crossbreckan, were leased in 1625, for 101 years, to Phelemy O'Hagan, of Killyquin, Moneyleck was leased at the same time and for the same term to Turlogh O'Hagan, of Killyquin ;
76 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
Part of the civil loarish of Finvoy. This parish is named from the church, which stoQcl in the little circnlar grave- yard, near the Bann, called Vow — the name seems to have been originally Fionn-hhoth (pronounced Finn-voh) " the white huts," named so, for some cause similar to that, which which gave name to Raphoe, (Rath-bhoth, ♦' the rath of the huts.") In an Inquisition, however, taken on the death of William de Burgo, in 1333, concerning what lands were at- tached to the Earldom of Ulster, Finvoy is named Fynmagh, as if it were Fionn-magh, "the white plain." The church is not entered in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, unless it be the Kilbritoune which occurs in the taxation between the churches of Ballymoney and Tullaghgore. In the Terrier it is entered " Ecclesia de Senboth alias Finvoyhe hath 20 acres glebe. Sir Randal hath Parsonage ; (ifc pays) Proxies, 20/-; Refections, 20/-; Synodals, 2/-." This entry would seem to give another name to the church Senboth, '• the old hut," unless the initial *S be a transcriber's mistake for F. The Visitation Book, of 1622, reports " Ecclesia de Fenvoyhe decayed." The Yow, or Finvoy graveyard is situated on the top of a hill near the Bann ; it contains half an acre of land ; there is no trace of the church remaining, and Gortahar, Carnfinton, Lisheegau, Ballymaconnolly, and Bally- nawoolmone, were held under a similar lease by Henry O'Hagan, of Killyquin. Donuell Gorin M'Donnell.vvhen examined at Coleraine in 1652, stated that conflict at Portnaw, in January, 16-41 (2), took place partly on the lands of his father, and partly on those of Henry O'Hagan. The lands of the entire civil parish were parcelled out among the following Cromwellian soldiers : — Captain William Huston, Mr. Millar, Corporal Bayley, Captain Thomas Barrin>^ton, Lieutenant P]llice, Thomas Francis, Henry Gribben, William M. Mills, Captain Bryan O'Mulhallan, Lieutenant Samuel Wilkins, Nicholas Cotter, Douald M'Kay, Edward Simpson. These were in possession in 1660, but they were afterwards dispossessed and the lands restored to the Earl of Antrim.
THE PARISH OF EASHARKIN. 77
In the townland of Knockans, at the distance of 150 yards westwards from the Protestant church, there is a little graveyard of extreme antiquity, in which also there is no trace of its ancient church ; it contains only six square perches J it is at present used exclusively by Protestants. An ancient paved road extended from it toward;? the site of the Protestant church, but it was removed about the year 1825. At the distance of a few townlands, the site of a building called " the Bloody Church" is pointed out, but it is said to have been the first site selected for the Protestant church erected in 1720, and that it was abandoned in con- sequence of violent disputes among the congregation about the convenience of the site, in one of which a man was killed.
The most remarkable of the pagan remains is the Crom- leach called the Broad Stone, situated in a bleak wild valley, in the townland of Craigs, It is a slab of black, hard, and heavy stone, 8 feet long by 7 feat 3 inches broad, and 1 foot thick, raised originally on five other stones set edgewise as pillars. The foremost supporters are still standing in their first position, but one of the back ones has been taken away, and the stone in consequence has sunk from its horizontal level, the front pillars are more than four feet high, and one thick, and a foot asunder. Between the supporters there was formerly, it is said, a chamber communicating with two smaller apartments extending northward, and covered with stone. At present no certainty on this head can be ob- tained. Adjoining on the north east is a round cavity about two feet in diameter, neatly faced with stone, called the Giant's Pot, which is said to have extended into the ad- joining chambers. On the sovith side there is a large detatched stone, and there formerly was a similar one on the
78 DIOCESE OP COXNOR.
opposite side. There are vestiges of two stone circles close to the cromleach. All appear to have been formerly encompassed by a circle of lar£;e stones forty-three feet in diameter ; and from the number of stones lying around, it would seem, that this outer circle was the circumference of a cairn which once covered the entire monument. See Parochial Survey, Vol. I. A description and sketch of this cromleach are given in the Dublin Penny Journal, Vol. II., and in The Cromlechs of Antrim and Down, hy William Gray, M.R.I. A. ; published in the Proceedings of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club. Mr. Gray also has given a sketch of another cromleach in this parish, about which he says — " It is a very typical example, and occurs in a cultivated field close to the public road, within half a mile west of the Broadstone, and one mile east of the Presbyterian church of Finvoy. The cap-stone is a flat slab, measuring 8 feet long by 5 feet 6 inches wide, over eight upright stones, forming a well-marked oval chamber, the major axis of which runs E.N.E. by W.S.W. Formerly this monument was almost covered with earth, the cap-stone alone being exposed. The earth was removed some years ago, and the monument now stands on the natural surface of the ground. During the excavation the chamber was explored, and a cineraiy urn was discovered within."
Near the Broad Stone there was a Square Fort 220 feet long by 220 feet broad ; it is in John Gribben's farm and is called the Craigs Fort. It was surrounded by an ancient ditch twenty feet broad and from ten to twenty feet deej>. A cave passed under the fort from east to west which is now choked up. As the fort is subjected to tillage its ditch and rampart are almost efikced. The Parochial Survey says, " About a furlong distant from the fort is a
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN. 79
stone near five feet high, erected like a column, on a hill, from which there is a prospect of Jura and other western isles. Between the fort and pillar are two upright stones, raised at nearly equal distances, though not in a dii^eot line between them. One of these intermediate stones is seven feet high, and the other six ; they are nearly square and taper to a point." At the distance of 600 yards to the south of the Square Fort there was, in Hugh M*^Lester's farm, another square earthen fort about 100 feet square, which was provided with two caves. Fort and caves have however unfortunately disappeared before the persevering industry of the farmer in whose field they were. A similar earthen square fort is in a good state of preservation about half a mile north in the townland of Moneycanon. It is 60 feet square, the sides rise six feet above the field, a shallow ditch surrounds it and there is a cave under it. These squai-e forts which are rare in other parts of Ireland are very interesting.
Caves are of frequent occurrence in the civil parish of Finvoy ; there seems to have been at an average one to each townland. In Knockans there is a cave 420 feet long, 5 feet high and 3 feet broad, and divided at intervals of 18 feet, by narrow passages generally 2 feet 3 inches square ; the cave extends from east to west. At its eastern extremity the farmer found a paved hearth 20 feet in diameter, on and about which were charcoal and ashes. In the same townland, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile, another cave was found, which had a similar hearth near its entrance ; this cave has however been destroyed.
Near the Yow. is an eliptical rath called Drumaboichan ; below it at the Ferry was formerly an artificial island, said by tradition to have been erected as a residence for Ann
80 DIOCESE OF CONNOR,
M 'Garry, a nun, almost as famous for her sanctity and predictions as the Black Nun of Bonamargy, but it is much more probable that it was erected to guard the Vow Ferry, which was a pass of consequence on the Bann.
A defeat, which the forces under Colonel Archibald Stewart, who were guarding this ford, sustained in January, 1642, at the hands of the afterwards celebrated Alaster M'Donnell, is distorted into a massacre. Several writers even down to Froude, quoting each other in succession, or relying on the veracious " Depositions" preserved in Trinity College, represent Alaster M'Donnell as initiating the war by an act of treachery and murder at Portnaw. The learned Presbyterian minister, Bev George Hill, in his Macdonels of Antrim, places the affair in its true light, and faithfully testifies that young M'Donnell was " a terrible antagonist on a fair field, but he was not a treacherous foe like so many of his opponents ; and during his brief but brilliant career he was never known to treat prisoners with in- humanity." This Alaster, or Alexander M'Donnell, was a son of Coll, or CoUa M'Donnell, whom we will mention again when treating of Loughlinch. He was born in the island of Colonsy, \7here his father resided, but he came to his relatives in the County of Antrim, about the year 1639, and he afterwards received a commission in one of the eight companies which composed the regiment raised by Mr. Archibald Stewart, the agent of Lord Antrim's estate. He received this appointment as a means " of detatching the surrounding Catholics from the insurrection, but when the war burst forth Alaster and his Highlanders immediately seceded from Stewart's regiment. It would appear, that for a time he took no active part in the conflict, until after the opposite party killed several persons in the Irish mobs.
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN. 81
The Irish population of northern Antrim was overawed by the garrison of Coleraine and Stewart's regiment, some com- panies of which were stationed at Portnaw. This position completely cut off all communication between the Catholics of Antrim and those of the County of Derry, and left them at the mercy of their enemies." Determining therefore to effect a junction with the Irish on the west side of the Bann he calculated well his chances of success. The first of January was a day on which the Scotch were expected to have regaled themselves so well, that military discipline would be much relaxed on that night ; besides fourteen or fifteen musketeers had been sent from each of the six com- panies to strengthen Captain Kennedy's company at the Cross in the parish of Ballymoney, which was then itnder orders to relieve Mr, Canning, who was besieged in the castle of Agivey. About two hours before morning, on the second of January, 1641, (old style), a numerous body of Irish assisted by the Highlanders " displaying through the twilight their white colours, which they had brought from Scotland, attacked Stewart's companies quartered at several places near Portnaw, distant the space of half a mile, one from the other". Beioositions, " When daylight appeared he had scattered the enemy in a.11 directions, leaving several dead in their encampment and some in their beds; If Stewart placed no sentinels on the watch, or if his men were asleep when they ought to have been standing to their arms, any blame in the affair attaches to him and certainly not to M'Donnell, who thus inflicted on him a signal defeat." Hill. It would, therefore, appear that the forces of Stewart, like those of Arabi Pasha, at Tel-el-Kebir, in the recent Egyptian war, neglected to keep sentinels ; but partial historians describe M'Donnell's success on the 2nd of
82 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
January, 1642, as the "Murder at Portnaw," while for the success of his night attack on the 13th of September, 1882. England heaps honour after honour on Sir Garnet Wolseley. The principle leaders in this attack, in addition to Alaster M'Coll M'Donnell, were James M'CoU M'Donnell, of the Cross ; Turlogh Oge O'Cahan, of Dunseverick ; John Duff M'Allister, of Cairntriin, in Derrykeighan ; and Donnell Gorm M'Donnell, of Killyquin. The ford over the Bann was now open, and early in the morning, the Irish forces aiigmdted by Neill Oge MacMullan, Donoghy MacMuUen, Brian O'Hagan, Henry O'Hagan, and Art O'Hagan, with their tenants from the parish of Rasharkin, crossed the Bana, and returned on the same morning with John Mortimer and five companies of Manus Roe O'Cahan's regiment.* The united forces drew up at the house of James M'Coll M'Donnell, near the Bann, where they were put in order, then marching into the Cross they burned that village and afterwai-ds the town of Bally- money. From this they proceeded to attack Ballintoy House which they failed to capture, and after encamping for the night at Craigballynoe, they marched to Ballyma-
* John Mortimer followed the standard of Alaster M'Coll in the Scottish expedition under Montrose, and distinguished liimself in the battle, fought near Aberdeen, and throughout the entire war ; he was taken prisoner in 1650, in a skirmish near the Castle of Dunbeath and soon afterwards executed.
Manus Roe O'Cathan, or O'Kane, was appointed Colonel in one of the regiments of Alaster M'Coll in the same expedition ; his gallant daring was specially distinguished in the battle of Fivy. Though the other Irish soldiers who surrendered at Philiphaugh on terms of quarter were immediately massacred, Colonel O'Kane and IMajor Lachlan were sent to Edinburgh and hanged on the Castle-Hill — the "Covenant ShauiblL'S." The Rev. David Dick icferring to tlio number executed piously ejaculated — "The work goes boimicly on." See Hills MacDonnolh p. 104.
THE PARISH OP RASHARKIN. 83
garry and summoned Captain Digby to surrender Dunluce Castle, The strong position of tlie fortress prevented its capture, and the Irish forces turned southward through Stranocum towards the castle of Clough, where they were joined by strong bodies of men from the vicinity of Toome. Clough capitulated after a few shots, leaving the Irish masters of all northern Antrim except Dunluce and Ballin- toy. The country was thus the scene of a civil war, and all its dreadful consequences; and retaliatary deeds of blood were done on both sides at which the heart sickens. Though mobs of poor people, afraid to remain in their own houses, met opposing mobs and destroyed life and property to a fearful extent ; yet it is almost admitted by their worst enemies, that the leaders of the Irish did their best to prevent the unnecessary effusion of human blood.
In the middle of a large sweep which the Bann takes between Moore Lodge and Movanagher is a Stone Circle of about 25 feet in diameter. It is formed of large stones, which are all, except their tops, under ground, within this outer circle was an inner row of stones, also circularly set, having a large stone in the centre.
Kilconway Rath, which according to the writer in the Statistical Survey, gives name to the barony, is a large ciixular fort near the Glebe-house, and from that circum- stance now generally called G-lebe-Fort. It is of tiie ordinary class of raths and has an artificial cave round its extent in the inside.
The writer in the Statistical Survey says, " As to the property in the parish of Finvoy, the whole is probably debenture lands, except Killimurris which belongs to the Antrim family, and is set in perpetuity to others. The greater part was granted by Cromwell to his offlcers, and is
84 DIOCESE OF CONNOR
iiow in the hands of different landlords, none of whom (save Stephen Holland, Esq., Carrireagh), are descendants of the original grantees." In the Down Survey and Booh of Distribution. The entire parish is returned as having belonging to the Earl of Antrim, but under tlie column " Persons to whom distributed" he is entered only for " 2 quarters of Dunloye, Gallennagh 1 quarter, the lower quarter of Ballymacalient, 2 quarters of the same, and another part of the same, 1 quarter of Gallenagh, a part of Knockans, 1 quarter of Unsinagh, and a part of the same." The following, who were either the soldiers who had settled in the parish in 1655, or the representatives of them, are returned in the Quit Rent Book, as the owners in 1660 : — Samuel Hill, Captain John Galland, Captain Thomas Barrington, Mr. Eorrest, Carrol Bolton, Captain Bryan Mulhallan ; however in the Book of DistrihUio7i the lands not distributed to the Earl of Antrim were distributed to Samuel Hill, John Galland, Lord Masserene, and Richard Holland. For the ancient tuoghs, or districts, into which the parish was formerly divided see p. 30
CHUECHES.
During the times of persecution the Catholics resident in the districts, which constitute the present parish of Easharkin, attended Mass at the Mass Stations already mentioned, when treating of the parish of Dunloy and Cloughmills. Mass was frequently celebrated at the site of the present church in the townland of Moneyleck. There was also a Mass Station at the Broad Stone, and one at the Square Fort in the farm at i)resent occupied by John Gribben. Old men who were living a few year's ago remembered the bishop towards the end of the last century administering
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN. 85
the Sacrament; of Confii'ination at the latter Mass Station, though the old chapel of Dunloy was then built. Father Brenan commenced the old chapel of Rasharkin, in the townland of Moneyleck, about 1788. Father M'Mullan celebrated Mass within its roofless walls about 1790, before he went to college, and it was not completed until after he was appointed parish priest. It would appear that it had not many j^retentions to ai-chitectural beauty, as it was called from its shape " the Bees-cap." A new church was built on the same site during the incumbency of Father M'Mullan, by his curate. Father Edward Magreevy, after- wards parish priest of Armoy. The foundation-stone was laid on 1st of July, 1845, and the church was consecrated by Dr. Denvir, on Sunday, the 20th of September, 1846. The sermon on the occasion was pi-eached by the Rev. George Pye, then a professor in the Diocesan College, and at -present the parish priest of Glenavy ; he took for his text Psalm xxviii. v. 8, The collection amounted to £75. The site of the church and the graveyard attached to it — 1 acre, 1 rood, and 24 perches, statute measure — is held by prescription.
On the 8th of August, 1868, James ^cheson Lyle, Esq., granted to Dr. Dorrian and E-ev, Hugh M'Cann, P.P., Rasharkin, a lease for ever, of one rood of land, Cunningham measui-e, in the townland of Maddyduff, at 10s. per annum. On this site Father M'Cann erected the church of St. Colnmba. This church, which is commonly called that of " The Plains," was dedicated by Dr. Dorrian, on Sunday, the 9 th of June, 1872. The dedication sermon was preached by Father Alphonsus O'lSTeill, of the Order of Passionists.
On the 1st of July, 1875, Sir Robert Bateson Harvey, Bart., M.P., granted to Dr. Dorrian and the Rev. Hugh
86 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
M'Cann, a lease for 99 years, of 4a. 3r. 2Gp., at £7 per annum. On this property, which is separated by the public road from the church of Rasharkin, in Moneyleck, Father M'Cann erected the parochial house.
PARISH PRIESTS. The Rev. " Neale O'lSTeale," was registered in 1704, as Popish priest of the parishes of Rasharkin, Finvoy, and Ballymoney; he was then 41 years of age, and had been ordained A.D. 1688, in Kilkenny, by Dr. James Phelan, Bishop of Ossory. In 1704, his sureties were Francis Hume, of Ahoghill, and Cornelius O'Cahan, of Ballymoney, gentlemen, who each bailed him in .£50. He is returned as residing in Galhjnagh, which is intended for Caldanagh, a townland in the civil parish of Finvoy, near Dunloy. It is said that the name of this priest is entered in the registry O'Neale, by mistake for O'Heale, the name of a family once very influential in the adjoining parish of Kilraghts. It is said by tradition, that there was a second priest in these parishes named O'Heale, the other priest may have been the predecessor of Neale O'Heale, for in the return made to Rome, by Primate Oliver Plunket, in 1G70, one of the priests of the diocese of Connor is named Cormac O'Heale. We have no means of knowing the date of the death of the Rev. Neale O'Neale, or O'Heale, but tradition has preserved the name of his successor, Patrick M'Keefry. About this period an immense district (including all the County of Antrim, north of Bengore Head, round to the Bann), which then constituted the parish of Dunluce, was added to the -already too extensive parish called Rasharkin. That change occurred after the death of the Rev. Christopher M'Vagh (M'Vea), who in 1704 resided in Ballymagarry, was then 50 years of
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN. 87
age, and was registered as "Popish priesb" of Dunluce. The last Catholic Earl of Antrim, who was Randal the 4th earl, died in 1721, when his son, only eight years of age, and his estates passed under the influence of Viscount Massereene. That change soon materially affected the interests of the Catholic Church, to such an extent, that few Catholics were permitted to remain in the district ; and the appointment or the support of a parish priest became impossible.
The Rev. Arthur Brenan* became parish priest in 1756, but according to another account, he was appointed in 1743. Father Brenan was a native of the parish, in the manage- ment of his extensive charge, he was assisted by Dominican friars belonging to the Dominican Convent of Coleraine, who lived scattered through the country, mostly in the Ccunty of Derry, but they made occasional visits through the Catholic families in the northern parts of the County of Antrim ; he was also assisted in the Dunluce district by Fathers Hugh MulhoUan, James Fegan, John Fanning,
Archibald Lynn, Hugh Green, M'Cusker, and Peter
M'Mullan. Father Brenan, though attending to his
* The Rev. Edward Connor, P.P., Crossgar, has a silver chalice, on which is inscribed — " Eug. Brennan et Filii me fieri fecerunt, 1677." — (Eugene, or Owen Brennan and sons caused me to be made 1677.) Father Connor purchased it from the executors of Father Luke Walsh, P.P., Culfeightran, it probably came to him with the i^arish from his predecessor. Father Patrick Brennan, P.P., Culfeightran, who died in ISTovember, 1828. Father Patrick was a nephew of Father Arthur Brennan. If there was any priest named Brennan in the diocese, for whose use we might presume, his father and brothers had caused this chalice to be made in 1677, his name does not occur in Primate Flunket's list of 1670, nor in the roll of the 1704 registration. There is however a tradition that Father Arthur Brennan was a native of the County of Donegal .
88 DIOCESE OP CONNOR.
humble duties in a remote pai'ish, was, like his brethren, under the watchful eye of the Government, as the following letter preserved in the State Paper Office, Dublin, shows : —
" To the Clerk of the House of Lords,
"Sir, — Pursuant to an order of the House of Lords, I send you the number of Protestant and Papist families in the parish of Fin- voy, Protestant families, 234 ; Papist families, 71.+ One Popish priest called Brenon.
" From your humble Servant,
" SAMUEL DUXBAR. "Marlbrook, April 11th, 1766."
Father Brenan passed out of the reach of the Government in 1795, and on his gravestone in the Catholic Churchyard of Rasharkin is inscribed —
In God is ail*
I.H.S.
Underneath are deposited the remains of the Rev. Arthur
Brenan, Pastor of Rasharkin, Flnvoy, and
Ballymoney, who departed this UJe. the 2\st day of Oct.,
1795, aged 80 years. Re'iuiescatinpace. Amen.
After the death of Father Brenan, the parish was in charge of his curates, Father M'Cusker, a priest belonging to the diocese of Armagh, and Father Ilugh Green. Some- time before this. Father Peter M'Mullan had returned from college, and he too officiated in the parish. Father M'Cusker was recalled to his native diocese. Father Green resided
* This form of funereal inscription is very rave ; a few years before 1854, during alterations in the Church of All Saints, in Pontefract, County of York, a broken slab was discovered, upon which was out an archiepicopal cross. On a circle on the stone was in old English characters— 3(U COotl \% all. A writer, in Botes and (Jvcriex Feb. 25th, 1854, erroneously supposed that it was the gravestone of Archbishop Thurstan, who died Feb. 5th, 1140.
t In 18S1 there were in the civil parish of Finvoy, 1,503 Catholics, and •J,(i9!t Protestants.
THE PARISH OF RASHAllKIN. 89
in Rashai-kin, and Father M'MuUan in the Dunluce district until the end of 1799, when Father Green went to otficiate in Lisburn, and afterwards in Saintfield. It was after the departure of Father Green that Father M'Mullan re- ceived a collation to the parishes of Rasharkin, Finvoy, Ballymoney, and the districts of Dunluce. He was a native of Dunbeg, in the parish of Loughguile ; was ordained in Erinagh, by Dr. Hugh MacMullan, in 1789 ; was appointed administrator of Armoy, and afterwards for some little time he assisted Father Brenan in Rasharkin. He received a letter from Dr. Hugh MacMullan, dated 5th of August, 1792, recommending him to the Archbishop of Lisbon, that he might prosecute his j^hilosophical and theological studies in the college of Lisbon. Father M'Mullan, however, it seems, could not obtain admission into that college, and he proceeded to the college of St, Thomas, in Seville, in Spain, where he studied three years. We give here Dr. MacMullan's letter, as a specimen of the class of letters, which the Irish ecclesiastical students of that period carried with them, when they went to seek from the charity of the continental colleges an education in philosophy and theology, which, on account of the misfortunes of their own country, could not be obtained at home.
Hugo, Dei et Sanctse Sedis Apostolicag gratia, Diocesium Canonice Unitarum Uunensis and Conorensis Episcopus, Dilecto iiobia in Christo Magistro Petro M'Mullan Diocesis nostrpe Connorensis Salutem in Domino Sempiternam.
Cum jam a Sfeculo et ultra, probe notum sit, nulla in patria nostra afSicta haberi Seminaria pro instituenda Juventute nostra in studiis Philosophicis aut Theologicis ; hinc, tenore pneseutium tibi pr^fato Petro M'Mullan Rite et Canonice ad omnes minores ordines et ad Presbyteratum inclusive legitime ordinato facaltatem impertimus migrandi ab hoc regno Hyberuias ad loca transmarina cursum Philosophicum et Theologicum perfecturo ; teque, tanquam vitpe
90 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
innocentife et bonis moribus prpeditum et ex tua bona conversatione et fama commendabilem, omnibus Ordinariis locorum ad quos in itinera contingat ac precipue Seminariorum Rectoribus etiamvis
commendamus Insuper cum debito obsequio et honore petimus
et obsecramus Reverendissimum et Eminentissimum Archiepiscopum Hispalensen, ut supradictum Reverendum Petrum sub tutela miseri- cordice ejus in CoUegio Hispalensi aut alibi ad cursum Philosophicum et Theologicum perficiendum stabilire dignaretur. &c. In quorum omnium fidem manu propria subscripsimus et sigillum ordinarium appendi curavimus hac quinta Augusti die 1792.
Hugo Dunensis and Conorensis Episcopus. Testibus ad prcemissa vocatis Jacobo O'Ferral, Josepbo Clinch.
Father M'Mullan, aftex- his appointment to Rasharkin, completed the chapel of Rasharkin, and erected a similar structure in Bally money. Daring 1811, he administered, in addition to his extensive charge, the parish of Duneane, which was then vacant. See Vol. III. p. 357. He was offered that parish bnt declined to accept it. He wrote to the Eev. Peter M'Naliy, who was then only a few months ordained, and was staying with his relatives in Loughguile, the following letter : —
•' Rev. Sir,— As my parishioners here are so much attached to me, and have been so importunate all this week in tlieir entreaties that I should stay with them, I have consented to do so ; therefore, do not come here next Sunday, but give my compts. to Mr. Murray, and tell him, that in compliance with the hearers importunity I have changed my mind, and have written to the Bishop to that purport. I tliink you and he may have Uuueane to yourselves.
" I remain, Rev, Sir, yours sincerely,
"PETER M'MULLAN. "R.vsiiARKix, 22nd Nov., ISll."
About this period, or shortly afterwards, liallymoney be- came practically under the charge of the resident curate, who attended the chapels of Ballymoney and Bushmills. Father Arthur O'Neill, who was appointed in 1815, seemed from his account book, which is still in existence to have
THE PARISH OF RASHARKIN. 91
been in no way connected with Rasliarkin, though it is certain that Father Henry M'Loughlin, who was appointed in 1825, was the first parish priest of Ballymoney. Father M'Mullan died towards the end of 1846, and was interred in the Chnrch on the Epistle side of the Altar, which at that time was along the north sidewall. After his death, the parish was administered by his curate, Father Edward M'Greevy, until Father M-Cartan was appointed to the vacant parish.
The Kev. William M'Cartan, a native of Castlewellan, entered the Rhetoric Class, in the College of Maynooth, on the 25th of August, 1826, being then in the 17th year of his age ; was ordained in Belfast, by I>r. CroUy, in October, 1832 ; was shortly afterwards appointed curate of Down- patrick; was appointed parish priest of Ballymoney, on the 8th of March, 1837 ; was appointed parish priest of Rasharkin, in September, 1847. He died on the 23rd of May, 1864, and was interi-ed in the Church on the Gospel side of the former Altar.
After the death of Father M'Cartan, the eastern portions of the parish attached to the church of Dunloy were con- stituted into a separate parish, of which Father Close was apppointed parish priest, and the western parts of the parish were constituted into the parish of Rasharkin, as at present arranged, to which the Rev. Hugh M'Cann was appointed.
Father M'Cann was a native of the townland of Bally- lough, in the parish of Kilmegan ; after having studied in the Diocesan College, he entered the Rhetoric Class, in the College of Maynooth, on the 27th of September, 1844 ; was ordained in the College Chapel, on the 2nd of June, 1849, by Dr. Murray ; was a[)pointed curate of Ballymena in
92 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
October, 1849 ; parish priest of Portrush in March, 1852, and parish priest of Easharkin, on the 18th of June, 1864. Father M'Cann was appointed to the parish of Duneane, on the 5th of April, 1877.
The Eev. William Curoe, P.P., Dunloy (see p. 65). succeeded Father M'Cann. He died of disease of the heart, on the 30th of December, 1882, and was interred in the Church beside the remains of Father M'Cartan.
Father Thomas Quin, the present parish priest succeeded Father Curoe. He was born in the parish of Moincoin, County Kilkenny, on the 5th of June, 1846 ; studied in the Diocesan College of Kilkenny, which he entered in Januaiy, 1861 ; entered the Rhetoric Class in the College of May- nooth, August 25th, 1865 ; was ordained on the 31st of May, 1871, in Maynooth, by Dr. Lynch, Bishop of Kildare; was appointed curate of Randalstown, September 3rd, 1871 ; curate of St. Peter's Belfast, July 1st, 1873 ; curate of St. Patrick's Belfast, in February, 1882; from which he was promoted to Easharkin, on the 16th of February, 1883.
THE PARISH OF LOUGHGUILE.
THE parish of Longhguile comprises the most of the civil parish of Loughguile and a large part of that of Kilraghts : the remainder of these parishes are included in the parish of Duuloy and Cloughmills,
There are in the civil parish of Loughguile the sites of several churches, the principal one occupied the site, in townland of Lower Lavin, on which Lord Macartney built the Protestant church, which was erected on the founda- tions of an older Protestant church erected about 1733. It is close to the edge of Loughguile lough, but no remnants of the ancient church remain. It was valued in the Taxation of Fope Nicholas under the name of "Ecclesia de Loghkell" at £28, which was the highest valuation placed on any church in the diocese of Conner except the church of Billy. In 1305, the advowson of the church oi Loglikel was granted to Richard de Burgo, Earl of Ulster. — Inq. ad quod damn. 33 Ed. 1, No. 177. In J 333, William de Burgo was seized of the advowson of the church of Loglikd, which, according to an early extent, was worth, in the time of peace, 100s, but nothing then — Inq. P. M. In other records the name assumes the various forms, ' Loghgeile,' ' Loghgoyle,' ' LoughgilL' The Terrier enters " Ecclesia de Loghkeil — Paronage and Vicarage — hath | one town in glebe- Proxies, 20/- ; Refections, 20/- ; Synodals, 2/-." The Ulster Visitation reports " Ecclesia de Loghgoyle decayed." The
94 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
ancient graveyard is still extensively used by the Catholics, in it many priests of Loughguile and the surrounding parishes are interred. Here is interred Father Patrick M'Henry, of the Order of St. Dominick, who died parish priest of Glenravel ; his monument is inscribed —
Here lieth the body of Rev. Patrick M'Kendry,
loho departed this life, 13th March, 1797.
Aged 77.
There is here a mistake with regard to his age, for De Burgo, in his Hihernia Dominicana, says — that he made his profession in 1741, being then in the 27th year of his age, he therefore died aged 83 years. See Down and Connor, Yol. III., p. 471-2.
There is an ancient graveyard in the townland of IMoney- neagh, called Lignakillagh. It is raised above the field, nearly circular and 75 feet in diameter. The graveyax'd has no boundary fence ; there are no headstones, and it is only used for the interment of unbaptized children. It is situated near the foot of the mountain, in a farm, wliich in 1837, belonged to Duncan Casey. See Ordnance Survey/ Memoir MS. The graveyard is marked on the Ordnance Map, No. 23.
In the townland of Culbane there is a graveyard in a farm, which 1837 belonged to Daniel iM'Michael. It is situated near a stream and about 10 perches east of tlie road leading past tlie west side of Lisanoure demesne. The graveyard is somewhat oval, 75 feet by 46 feet, and sur- rounded by a low earthen parapet, at an average 3 feet thick, and 1 foot G inches high; at the entrance there are two pillar stones, the largest 2 feet 9 inches high, 2 feet broad and 1 foot thick ; the other not so large. The entrance is on the west side, and near the east side is a cairn of
THE PARISH OF LOUGHGUILE. 95
stones. At the distance of 40 perches north there is the site of a cashiol ; both the graveyard and the site of the cashiol are mai-ked on the Ordnance Map^ Sheet . 13. The townland of Friary, which adjoins Culbane on the east side, seems to have been named from whatever ecclesiastical edifice stood in Culbane ; for no trace of a religious house has been discovered in Friary.
At the distance of about a mile from Culbane ^ Kill' there is another ancient graveyard, also called a ' Kill,' in the townland of Carivcashel. It is situated on a high bank about ten perches west of the road leading from Loughguile to Armoy, and is in the farm, which, in 1837, belonged to Alexander M'Donnell. The site of the graveyard is nearly an oval of 56 feet by 46 feet, but is not surrounded by a boundary fence. In the same townland there are the remains of a cashiol, or circular stone fort; the wall is of the usual cyclopian style, averaging from 3 to 5 feet in height, composed of stones, of very unequal dimensions, and eai'th. Along the foundation of the wall the stones are more regularly laid and are more uniform in size. The elevated platform on which it stands seems composed of small stones with earth intermixed. A cave extends under the cashiol, and at the distance of 10 perches east of the cashiol a paved hearth was discovered. In this townland, and in Carrowcrin which adjoins it, stone weapons are frequently found.
There is a graveyard called a Mill, in the townland ot Knocknahinch, about 20 yards north-east of a bye-road leading from the Armoy road to the Ballymoney road ; it is situated on the side of a small ravine in the farm, which in 1837 belonged to John M'Neill. The graveyard is used for the interment of unbaptized children and of very poor
96 DIOCESE OF CONNOE.
people ; it is oval shaped, measures 75 feet by 59 feet, and is bounded by a fence two feet high of earth and stones. There is an artificial cave about 25 yards to the north, which extends in a westerly direction, but its roof has fallen in. Caves and casiols in the vicinity of sites of ancient churches indicate that they were once the centres of villages, for the protection of whose inhabitants these military works were erected. In 1817, there was found at the bottom of an old ditch near the graveyard of Knockna- hinch, but in Ballybregagh townland, two stones each about two feet square, one placed on the top of the other. A hollow space scooped out of the lower stone was filled with coins of different sizes, some of gold, but chiefly of silver, they were sold in Belfast for £18. A cashiol which stood near the edge of a bog in Ballybregagh was destroyed about the year 1780 ; from it three well-paved causeways extended, but not a trace of it now remains.
It is probable that the site of a church and cemetery might be discovered in Tobernagola, or in the adjoining townland of Kilmoyangey in the civil parish of Kilraghts. There is a hill in Kilmoyangey called Drumgola Hill, which seems to indicate that both townlands once formed one. Kil, in the name of the one townland, and Tober, in that of the other, seem to indicate a church and a holy well. There is a pagan funereal monument, commonly called a " Giant's Bed," in the townland of Tobernagola. It is situated on a lieathery hill 10 perches east of the leading road from Ballymoney to Cloughmills, and in the farm, which in 1837 belonged to William M'Loughlin. *• The bed is 48 feet long, by 8 feet wide, and 5 feet deep, up to the shouldeis and head ; the additional part is 21 feet leng by 8 feet wide, composed of earth and stones." Ordnance Sm-vey Memoir MS.
THE PARISH OF LOUGHGUILE. 97
There is, on the eastern slope of the mountain in Love's
Corkey, the site of a church named Kilwee (Cill-bhuidhe
"the yellow church,") one of the most lonely spots in Ireland, a place well fitted for seclusion and prayer.
In Ballybradden there is the site of a church, where human bones are frequently turned up, but it is now under tillage. It is called Kiltoorish — Cill-turuis, " the church of the jnlgrimage " — and is situated in a field belonging to J. & R. O'Kane, Wine Merchants, Belfast. The site adjoins the field in which Charles M'Nally found the oval shaped stone mentioned in p. 99, which is supposed to be lying among stones in the ditch of the field. There is a cave near Kiltoorish, in the farm of Patrick M 'Shane ; and in the same farm there was a well, now closed up, which was supposed to have been a Holy Well. About a mile to the east of it there is on the mountain a remarkable well, called the Pin-Well, which is so named because people after drinking from it throw a pin into it.
Drumkeel is entered on the map in Tully South, but there do not seem to be any indications of a Christian cemetery. Urns have been found on the hill, in a field belonging to John M'Aleece,
There is, in the farm of Peter Guthrie, in Pharis, a field called "the graveyard field," where human bones and the remains of coffins are turned up.
Traces of a cemetery and church might also be looked for in Kingarrifi", which in Lendrick's Map of the County of Antrim, published in 1780, is called Kilgarrif, its name and that of the adjoining townland of Clonty finnan seem to indicate ecclesiastical origin, Mr. J. Bleakly of the Ordnance Survey, ho-vever, writes in 1837, "I have care- fully examined Kingarrifi", Clontyfinnan East and West,
98 DIOCESE OP CONNOR.
Coolkeeran, Knocknavrinnan, Lisnisk, Drumnafivej, Bally- taggavt, and Drumdallagh, and I find nothing in any of them worth notice." Notwithstanding this statement there is even marked upon the six inch scale Ordnance Map No. 18^ in Knockavrinnan — " Kildress, a graveyard for children." This site of an ancient church is on the bank of the Bush E,iver, about 32 perches south of Knockavriunan Bridge. The following is from the Ordnance Memoir MS. : — There is a remarkably high and perfect earthen rath situated near a flow bog on the farm of Patrick Owen M'llhatton, in Ihe townland of Carnamenagh. On the highest part of the parapet he has put up a very conspicuous stone, which he has painted. There is an artificial cave in the farm of Archy M'Neill, in the townland of Drumrankin. It consists of several rooms, each about 12 feet long, 3 feet 9 inches high, and 2 feet wide ; a part of it has been destroyed. There is a high rath in the same townland, in the farm of James Wallace, There is a very high standing stone in the farm of William Hannah, in the townland of Oorkey. This stone is S feet 3 inches high, 3 feet broad and 2 feet thick. On the same farm there is another standing stone about 40 perches NN.W. of an old-fashioned dwelling-house called Love's Castle ; it is 7 feet high, 3 feet broad by about 2 feet thick. Two other standing stones formerly stood near this but they are now placed in a stone ditch about 30 yards north of their original position. There is another standing stone in the same townland seven fields south of this in the farm of Samuel Mathews ; it stands 7 feet high and is of about the same proportions as those already described. In the same farm and townland there is, in a stone ditch, another standing stone situated at a short distance from the last mentioned stone ; it is 5 feet in height but in other respects it is nearly of the same dimensions as those already described. There is a cave in the farm of Archy Clarke but it is closed up. There was formerly, at a rock in Corkey, a place, now destroyed, called" Shane- A-Cunnen's Den," said to have been the lurking place of a locally celebrated outlaw. " Phelimy Roe's cairn* is situated near the summit of Ora Mountain, in the townland of Altavecdan, about half a mile S.E. of the road leading from Armoy to Clough, as the chieftain lay wounded on the mountain * The tradition is, tlmt this is Hugh MacFdim's Cairn. (See p. 10.) It is marketl on the Ordnitnce Map—" Uugh MauFelini's Grave.
THE PARIS3H OP LOUGHGUILE. 99
he wrote with a sharp pointed insbrument some letters on a stone which still remain at the cairn to be deciphered." (Informants, AVilliam Sullivan, farmer, and Oliver Read, blacksmith.) In the townland of Ballyknock there is an artificial cave in each of the farms of Francis O'Kane, Robert Magowar, and John M'Mullan. A standing stone called " The Cannon Stone," stands on the Cannon Hill, on the farm of Patrick Skelly ; it is 5 feet 9 inches in height, and 1 foot 3 inches broad, and a little more than a foot thick, and stands in an inclining position leaning towards the north. There is a standing stone 20 perches north of the Catholic Church and 6 yards west of the road leading from Ballycastle to Clough, on the farm of Daniel M'Cormick, in Tully North. It is 54 feet high, and 2 feet broad, and 1 foot 6 inches thick. There is another on the same side of the road, a short distance from the previous stone, and in a stone ditch, in the farm of James M 'Fall, in the townland of Ballybradden . This is 4 feet 8 high, 2 feet broad, and 1 foot thick. An oval shaped stone about 20 pounds weight, girt with 2 brass bands intersecting each other at right angles, and inscribed with figures or letters was found in 1836, by Charles M 'Anally, on his farm in Ballybradden. It is lying somewhere about his house but cannot at present (1837) be found. In the farm of Andrew Duncan, in the townland of Lavan, there is a stone called Fin Macool's Stone,* about 50 perches S.E. of the road from Ballymoney to Lisanour Castle ; it is 54 feet long, 34 feet broad, and 2 feet high. "It is said that it gives name to the townland, and that it was so-called, be- cause when Fin M'Cool died and before he was buried,a woman taking hold of his hand cried out, Lav. Fin — ' The hand of Fin.' " There were formerly three other stones at this spot, but in 1813 Andrew Duncan removed them, under one of them he found an cinerary urn. In the demense of Mr. Macartney, on a hill S. W. of the castle, there is a cave, consisting of two rooms at right angles to each other, one room is 25 feet, 2J feet wide, and 4 feet high ; the other is 13 feet long, the entrance to the outer room is 15 inches square. There was an extensive cave at the house of James Luske, in Knockahollet, which had seven rooms, but it was destroyed about 1807, when he was building his house ; human bones were found in it. There is a cave in Widow M'MuUan's farm, near Mr. Macartney's planting. There is an earthen fort in "Widow Kane's farm in Knockahollet, and another in the farm of James M'Aleece, in Lisanisk ; there was a cave at the east side of the fort but it has been destroyed. There " This stone has been removed about three years ago.
100 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
is a cave in an earthen fort which is in the farm of William Huey, in Ballyweany ; it is 14 feet long, 5 feet high, and 3 feet broad, and consists of one room ; the entrance to it is 1 foot 6 inches wide, and 1 foot high. There are two caves in the farm of Mr. Stevelly, of Checker Hall, in Ballyweany ; and another in the farm of Alexander Kerr, of Ballyweany. There is a cave behind Robert Edmonstone s house in Lislabban, about 20 yards south-east of the road from Cloughmills to Lisanour Castle. There is an extensive cave in the farm of John Stewart, in the townland of Turnacreagh ; it is about 20 yards south-east of the road leading from Cloughmills to Lisnoure Castle, In Turnacreagh there are also a number of caves situated in very low ground, in the farm of Archy M'Kenna, near the planting at the castle. It is said by tradition that there was a castle in the farm of Samuel Kirkpatrick,'in the townland of Ballynagashel, but not a vestige of it remains ; the townland is named f roin a cashiol, a part of which still remains though much injured. This cyclopian fort is similar to that in Carrowcashel ; there is said to be an ex- tensive cave under it, but the people are unwilling that it should be opened. At a short distance north of Ballyhoe Bridge, but in the townland of Magherahoney, there is a standing stone called St. Patrick ; it is said that it was so-named by a body of Freemasons some years before 1S37. It is 9 feet three inches high, 2 feet broad, and 1 foot thick, and stands about 20 yards east of the road. There is an earthen rath of remarkable form called Doonavernon, situated on flat ground in the townland of Shanes. A sword and an iron pot were found in a cave in the townland of Shanes.
A Pipe Koll, preserved in the Irish Exchequer Record Office, gives an account of receipts from from certain manors in Dahiada from the year 1259 to 1262, when the lands of the earldom of Ulster were temporally in the possession of the Crown. In it is entered the item — " £Qi lis 4d of the assessed rent of Lochkel with the demesnes thereof put to farm for the same time." Ulster Journal of Arcluvology, Vol. III., p. 162.
The castle of Loughguile is said to have been built by Richard de Burgo, called from the colour of his hair, the " Red Earl" of Ulster, who died a. D. 132G ; though others
THE PARISH OF LOUGHGUILE. 101
ascribe its erection to Sir Philip Savage, the father of Sir Robert, who died in 1390. The Earls of Ulster were possessed of all the lands in the vicinity of Loughguile ; we have seen that the advowson of the church of Loughguile was granted in 1305 to Richard de Burgo. After the murder, in 1333, of William de Burgo, called also from the colour of his hair — the dun, or brown earl, an Inquisition was taken concerning his possessions in the " Comitatus de Coulrath," or County of Coleraine, when, among other of his possessions, are mentioned " Loghkel (Loughguile) Corcagh, Ever-Corcagh (Corkey) Villa Cryngel (Moyangey ?), Villa de Knogh (Ballyknock) . . . Clantyfynan (Clontyfinnan), «fec." Erom the earls of Ulster the possession of the district passed by some means, whether of relationship or of conquest, which cannot be ascertained, to the MacQuillins, who became lords of the Route. During the sanguinaiy struggles that endangered the Anglo-Norman supremacy in Ireland^ the Red Earl of Ulster brought into the Route a branch of the O'Haras, of Leyny, in the County of Sligo, who afterwards became possessed of extensive tracts of land in the parishes of Loughguile and Dunaghy, as well as of their possessions in Crebilly. Dr. O'Donovan states that they are descended from " Hugh, the brother of Conor Gott O'Hara, Lord of Leyny, who died in the year 1231. This branch removed to Dalriada, with the Red Earl of Ulster." It would seem however, that it was in much more recent times, that the O'Haras became possessed of the castle of Loughguile. When Sussex, Queen Mary's Irish deputy passed through Loughguile, from Coleraine to Glenarm, in 1556, the pursuivant, who recorded the events of that expedition, relates : —
" Tuesday, the XXIth of July, my Lord Deputy removed from Coll-
102 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
rahin and came to My Avre (Moyaver in the parish of Armoy), by a river and church called Auramyn (Armoy), and there camped yt night. This day Brian M'Nell Oge (O'Neill) tooke a great prey of Kyneand Garrens, and this day ye Earl of Ormond had the vangard towards Glynnes, in M'Guillen's County, called ye Roote. Wensday, ye XXIIth of July, my Lord Deputy removed from My Avre, and came to Mahre-Unahta, or Abbey Kera.by a river called Uuaht Kerahe, and a lough and their camped yt night. This day wee came by a castle of M'Guillen's beeing left on our righthand, called Caslan Loughe Keoule (Castle of Loughguile), the v^^ch was made by ye red earle, and allso a fayle great causy, or high gravelled way ; allso wee coming to our camp came over a little Bowrne called Unahe-Braddagh. Thursday, ye XXIIIth of July, my Lord deputy removed from Mahere-Unaha and came to Glaune Arne (Glenarm.")*
It would appear that the castle of Loughguile had not in 1566 yet passed into the possession of the O'Haras. Somhairle Buidhe (Sorley Boy.) M'Donnell, about the year 1554, took forcible possession of the Route, and in 1586, having submitted to Queen Elizabeth he received a grant of the four tuoghs, or districts of the Route, one of which was that of Loghill (Loughguile), and his son^ Randal obtained in 1603 a plenary grant of the Route and Glynnes.
* Mahere-unahta at first sight seems to be Magherahoney, near which is the site of an ancient church in Culbane, and the adjoining townland is Friary, which might be supposed to be " Abby Kera," but Magherahoney is not two miles from Armoy, and on the next day the Deputy arrived at Glenarm. It is obvious that the march was along the present road leading past the Catholic church of Lough- guile, in the direction of Clough ; they crossed the Unahe-Braddagh, which seems the Braid River — Unahe is the Irish Amhain (pronounced Oivin — "a river." They seemed to have camped in the Braid, in sight of the church of Skerry, which may be the ' ' Abby Kera. " The pursuivant paid little attention to the correct orthography of the Irish topographical names. The numerous standing stones at the Canon Hill, Corkey and other places through the parish seem to indicate "the fayle great causy or high gravelled way," which in ancient times led from Armoy to the Braid, and had the castle of Loughguile on the righthand side.
THE PARISH OF LOUGHGUILE. 103
The O'Haras were already in possession of Lougbguile, nevertheless their lands were included in the original grant to Sir Kandal, but by an implied contract he was to convey to Cahall O'Hara the lands of Loughguile. When Sir Randal was abovit to obtain a confirmation of his lands O'Hara opposed the gi-ant until the conveyance would be made. Sir Randal to obviate the danger of delay granted to O'Hara the lands which at present constitute the Macartney estate, reserving a chiefry of twenty pounds per annum. It was arranged that if this district included more than four and a half townlands the overplus should be returned by O'Hara. In 1633 the Earl appealed to the King to compel O'Hara to restore the surplus, but though the Lord Deputy and several state officials interfered, O'Hara retained the lands. An Inquisition taken at the Sessions Hall, Carrickfergus, on the 24th April, 1641, found that Cahill O'Hara, in addition to other properties, was seized of Moyaver, Clontyfinnan, Ballyveely, " Loghgile^ otherwise Tullyclosse, Dromheilen, Leganlie, and Corkee/' that " fore- said Cahell O'Hara, died on the 22nd of March, 1639 (1640), that Teige O'Hara is his great grandson and heir, and that foresaid Teige was then of full age and married. The pre- mises are held of the King by Knights Service. (For an account of Teige's management of his affair? see Vol, III., p. 426, where I stated that he died about 1660; he seems, however, to have lived during the Revolution, in the documents relating to which, he is called Colonel Tliady O'Hara.) Teige left four sons; the eldest of whom named John, succeded to the property ; he married a Miss Rowe, an English lady, but having no children, he bequeathed his estates to his wife's relations — the Rowes. His second brother, Charles was dead, but had left a son named Henry.
104 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
The uncles of this boy, Olivei* and Henry O'Hara, defended the interests of their infant nephew, and in his name took possession of the estate. When the Rowes came from England the tenantry at the instigation of the uncles, Oliver and Henry, beat them off by force of arms, which so intimidated the Rowes, that they sold their claims to the representatives of the young heir for £3,000. This money could only be raised by the scale of a portion of the estates ; accordingly an Act of Parliament was obtained by wliich Loughguile estate was sold to George Macartney, grand- father of Earl Macartney. The father of the purchaser of Loughguile was a successfal and enterprising merchant in Belfast, who settled in that town about the year 1649, and who was the possessor, in addition to his trading profits, of a small estate near Kircudbright, in Scotland, which jiroduced to him about £100 a-year. His business premises in Belfast were at the corner of High Street and Corn Market, where he erected the Market-house and rented it at £5 a year to the Coi-poration. Mr. Benn, History of Belfast, p. 256, remarks that not a word of all this is disclosed in the Peerage Books; his pedigree in them is derived from the days of Bruce : he is a captain of horse, Surveyor-General of Antiim, possessor of a great estate near Belfast, but no one could possibly tell from the language used, that he was a shipowner, miliar, sugar retiner, had tuck mills, and had in him the true nobility of being an enterprising and in- dustrious merchant. His younger son George was called to the bar in 1700; he married Letitia, daughter and co- heir of Sir Charles Porter, Lord-Chancellor of Inland, and died in 1757, having been a member of the Irish House of Commons upwards of tifty-four years. The following ex- tracts are given by Mr. Benn from the Joy MSii. : —
THI3 PARISH OF LOUGHGUILE. 105
" Freehold estate of the Roote, £5,985 10a. George Macartney, Esr^., of Belfast, purchased lands from John O'Neill, of Edenduff- carrick (Shane's Castle), and Robert Dalway, of Bellahill, by virtue of an Act of Parliament 10, George I., for sale of a part of the estates of Henry O'Hara, of Crebilly, to pay debts and legacies. Enrolled 10th November, 1733. The above contained Kneel, Moyavir, C'ul- bane, Tuornegre, and Castle, Baroiiy of Dunluce, County Antrim."
"An Indenture in 1742 — George Macartney — the lands of Dervog, Barony of Dunluce, County of Antrim, for £7,205, from the trustees of the will of the Hon. John Skeliington, lately deceased and residuary legatees."
The only .son of this George Macartney, who had issue, WHS also named George ; he married in 1732, a daughter of Rev. John Winder, rector of Carnmoney and had issue, George, afterwards Lord Macartney ; Letitia married to Godfrey Echlin, of Echlinville, County Down, who died without issue ; and Elizabeth married to John Balaquer, whose only daughter married the Rev. Iravers Hume, and was the mother of George Hume Macartney, M.P., and heir of Lord Macartney.
Lord Macartney was born at Lissanourne Castle, May 14th, 1737, was educated at home until he was thirteen years of age, when he entered Trinity College, Dublin : when travelling in 1759 he accidently met Mr, Stephen Fox, the eldest son of Lord Holland, through the influence of whose family he became M.P. for Midhurst, and in 1754 was sent as envoy extraordinary to the Empress of Russia ; in 1769 was appointed Chief-Secretary to Lord Townshend, the Lord-Lieutenant of Irelan<l ; in 1775 became Governor of the Carribee Islands ; in 1776 was created Baron of Lissanoure, in the Irish peerage ; in 1781 was appointed Governor of Madras ; in 1785 declined the office of Governor- General of Bengal ; the Company, however, granted him an annuity for life of £1,500 ; remained at home for some years
106 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
planting the larch groves of Lissanoure and building the houses of Dervock ; in 1792 was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China, and created Viscount Macartney, of Derrock ; in 1794 returned from China and found that he had been created Earl Macartney; in 1795 was sent on a mission to Italy ; in 1797 was created a British Peer, Baron Macartney, of Parkhurst, in Surrey, and appointed Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, which he resigned in 1799. He died at Chiswick, in England, March 31st, 1806, and not having issue he bequeathed his estates to his wife. Lady Jane Stuart, daughter of John, Earl of Bute ; and after her death to his neice Elizabeth Hume ; from whom they descended to her son George Hume Macartney, lately M.P. for County Antrim ; from him they were inherited by his son, whose son is now proprietor of them.
The ancient castle of Loughguile was a square building, which stood at the northern side of the present castle of Lissan- oure j the older part of the present castle was built by Lord Macartney and the more modern part was built by George Hume Macartney, about 1830. The castle, at mid-day on the 5th of October, 1847, was accidentally blown up with gun-powder, and Mrs. Macartney perished in the ruins. A fortified island is represented in Speed's Maj) of Ulster, pub- lished in 1610, as being in Lough Gell (Loughguile), and the castle is entered as Castle Balan. The fortified island is the little ornamental island in front of the castle.
Civil 2Xirish of Kilrayhts. In 1840, four trumpets were discovered in the Bog of Drumbest, two of which were sold to the Britisli Museum, by the late Mr. Carruthers, of Belfast, who had purchased the four from the finder. The two others were purchased by Mr. Bell, of Ballymoney. The
THE PARISH OF LOUGHGUILE. 107
latter two have been figured in the Ulster Journal of Arch- ihology, and the two former are figured in the Northern Whig, of January 28th, 1841. Two of them had the holes for the lips on the sides, and the other two had the holes on the end but were of a rare description ; those having the lateral mouth-holes were each 2 [feet 11 inches in curved length, and 2| inches diameter at the large end ; while the others were each 2 feet 5 inches], in length of curvature, and 21 inches in diameter. They are provided with rings for suspension.
At the distance of 56 yards south of the road from Cloughmills to Ballymoney, and in the townland of Kil- raghts are the remains of the ancient church of Kilraghts surrounded by a graveyard. These remains consist of a part of the western gable and a small piece of the south sidewall. The church is in the interior 35 feet long by 19| wide. The gable is 2 J feet thick and 15 feet high. The building is of a very inferior description. In the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, "The church of Kellrethi" was valued at h Mark. The entry in the Terrier is, " Ecclesia de Kilraghties — half a townland in glebe. Sir Randal hath it — it pays Proxies, 5/- ; Refections, 5/- ; Synodals, 2/-." The ancient glebe land is probably represented by the townland of Kil- raghts. In the Visitation Booh, of 1622, the report is " Grange de Kilraghts decayed. The 2nd part of all tithes are impropriate to the Abbey of Down and possesst by the Earl of Antrim." It is said that the roof remained on Kilraghts church until about 1737, when it was taken oft to put on the old church of Derrykeighan. At a short distance to the west of the church, on the site occupied by the meeting-house, there was formerly the foundation of a large building said to have been a castle.
108 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
At page 96 it is surmised that the site of a church might be discovered in Kilmoyangey ; I find that a cemetery was discovered by the late Mr. William Kerr, in one of his fields. The farm at present belongs to Mr, John Kerr, of Ballymoney.
The Ordnance Map, Sheet 17, enters, on the western side of Crosstagherty, where the railway crosses the road from Ballymoney to Ballymena, a sub-denomination Killoge, Human bones were found in Mr, S. Tweed's farm during the construction of the railway in such quantities that the work- men supposed that the place was the site of a battle. (Letter of Mr. Thomas Tweed, Mullan, Magherahoy), but the name of the place indicates that it was the site of a church. For the remainder of the civil pairish of Kilraghts see p. 57, where, perhaps, this townland and some of the adjoining townlands should have been treated of.
An artificial cave in Carngeeragh has an average height of 5 feet 6 inches ; six other caves are remembered in the civil parish but they are now mostly destroyed. A mill- stone six feet in diameter and about eighteen inches thick, was used as a roofing stone in a cave destroyed by Daniel M'llroy. A mill-stone was similarly used in the roofing of a cave in the townland of Kilmandil, in the Grange of Killagan. The Earl of Antrim is represented in the Down Survey as the owner, in 1G41, of all the lands in the parish The Quit Kent Boole gives the names of those who were in possession of the land in 16G0, as " Mr. Morice Thomson and Lord jNIassaroone." Tiiese men seem, however, to have been provided for else- where, for in the Book of Distribution the Earl is again entered as the proprietor of the whole parish, except Magheravan and Ballylough assigned to Daniel M'Naughton,
THE PARISH OF LOUGHGUILE. 109
and Ballymacwilliam and Killraghtis assigned to Patrick O'Heale.*
* The late Mr. CI. Porter, in a paper headed Land in the Old Times, relates a tradition, that when Alexander, fifth Earl of Antrim, sold Kilraghts, about the middle of the last century, to William Agnew, of Kilwaughter, commonly called " The Old Squire," one Brian O'Hale, a lineal representative of the old proprietors, disputed the legality of the sale, not on the ground of inheritance, but on the ground of an alleged lease made to him by the Earl. Though the lease was proved to be a forgery yet it required a company of Lord Antrim's Glenarm militia to put " The Old Squire" into possession of Kilraghts. Lord Antrim eventually agreed to allow Brian O'Hale during life a pension of £20 per annum. About the beginning of this century a grandson of that Briau, also Brian, was a thatcher in Larne ; he was poor and deaf, and the father of the late Mr. A. R. Burke, of Larne, using his influence with the Antrim family, obtained a renewal of the pension for the poor thatcher.
CHURCHES.
During times of persecution, and even in more recent times, Mass was celebrated in the glen of Ballyknock, on a large stone, which vet remains near the house of James Watt. Mass was also celebrated at LiganifFrin — " the Mass hollow" in Middle Corkey.
From time immemorial the Catholics of Loughguile were possessed of a small " Mass House" which stood in the field, called the Mass House Hill, within the domain attached to Lissanoure Castle. They had this when the owners of the castle, the O'Haras were Catholics, and they continued to use it until about 1786, when Lord Macartney, then engaged in making great alterations about Lissanoure, persuaded Father M'Nally to accept a site for a new church immediately outside of the demense, and in lieu thereof to surrender the old " Mass House," which he held by prescription. Lord Macartney granted a lease of the new church for 999 years, but inserted
110 DIOCESE OF CONNOR.
a clause, by which he retained in his own power and in that of his heii's, that by paying to Father M'Nally, or his successors, the sum of £210, he, or they, might cancel and make void the lease.* Mr. George Hume Macartney, taking advantage of this clause