The Story of Owen O'Hara

The Story of Owen O'HaraAuthor(s): Brian O'HaraSource: North Irish Roots, Vol. 13, No. 1 (2002), pp. 36-39Published by: North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27697432 .

Accessed: 13/06/2014 00:48

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to North Irish Roots.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.110 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 00:48:01 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=nifhs

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27697432?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


giving their 'Mark' instead. Having been elected they had to be sworn in, a process which the Minutes make clear could take some months and only then could they collect the Church cess. How, when, in what manner and by whom they were sworn, the Minutes do not tell us, presumably because contemporaries did not need to be instructed. Unlike myself

- is any reader able to cast light on these?

Vestries, as we saw above, in the eighteenth century fulfilled many functions we associate with Government and over the years the various vestries state that they are acting in

conformity with a specific act of Parliament. I have no knowledge of these Acts and would

again ask readers to assist me where they can.

1 I am grateful to Dr. Raymond Refusse Librarian and Archivist of the Representative Church Body for his permission to publish these Minutes. I am grateful also to the Rector of Magheralin Parish, the Rev. Dr. C. Easton, for giving permission for the original records to be photocopied and to Mrs. Ann King for doing the hard work and for so cheerfully answering all my queries. 2 Archaeological Survey of Co. Down, 1966 3 By the time this article appears I should be able to supply a copy of Book I plus notes on

a floppy-disc at 6 a copy in the UK and 7 world-wide. That includes p. & p. The master

copy will be updated as and when new background information come to light. 4

1771, 1773,4,5. According to the O.S. Memoirs, V12, 1883-8, the R.C. Chapel was

built in 1777. Might an increasing R.C. population have lead the Anglicans to accentuate their political superiority? 5 Jonathan Bardon, Belfast: An Illustrated History, Blackstaff Press, 1995. "King

William could do little for the Catholics, but while he was alive Presbyterians in Ireland benefited from his protection

... Lenient treatment of the Presbyterians came to an

abrupt halt in 1704. The accession of Queen Anne brought the High Church Tories to

power at Westminster and a new determination to extend the penal code against Catholics and incidentally against other non-Anglicans (pp26f)." 6

Nowlan, K.B., Editor, Travel & Transport in Ireland, Dublin 1973. 4. The Age of the

Stage Coach, J.L. Mccracken 7 Harris, Ancient and Present state of Co. Down, 1744, pp102f, speaks ofa weekly stage

coach to Dublin through Magheralin in 1744. 8 Cf. Minutes of 18th August 1773.

More from Magheralin Parish Minutes in our next Journal.

THE STORY OF OWEN O'HARA Brian O'Hara, Member B 0430

John O'Hara (1735-1812) was married to Eleanor. Eleanor's maiden name is unknown. John and Eleanor had a number of children:

Owen; Grace; Patrick and Henry

Owen and Grace died young and are buried with John and Eleanor in a burial plot in the grounds of The Abbey of Templemoyle, Kells, Co. Antrim.

Patrick and Henry married two sisters - Charlotte and Catherine McAnully, the daughters of Owen McAnully and Mary O'Hara. Mary O'Hara was the daughter of John O'Hara of

Tamnacaherty and his wife was Mary Dreen. Patrick and Henry both had large families

36



who lived on adjoining farms in the townland of Ballylesson, Co. Antrim.

One of Patrick and Charlotte's sons was called Owen and the following narrative is an outline of how I uncovered some of his life.

From our own family history it was known that Patrick and Charlotte had:

Mary -

kept house with Henry her 1st cousin, my Great Grandfather Ellen -

kept house with Daniel her brother Owen - who had John, Daniel and Kate Charlotte - married McCloskey Hugh

- emigrated to America

Daniel - who had 'young' Daniel Patrick

Barney

Looking though Piggots Provincial Directory for the year 1824 for the town of Ballymena, I came across the following record:

Publicans: Patrick O'Hara, Bridge St.

The Slaters Directory of Ireland ior the year 1846 for the town of Ballymena had the

following entry: Spirit Dealers: Owen O'Hara, Bridge St.

This seemed to point to this Patrick O'Hara and Owen O'Hara being father and son. The

following record found in the WILLS CALENDARS in the PRONI led me to search in Street Directories for Belfast.

WILLS CALENDAR

O'HARA, OWEN 21 February 1883 Effects 72. 16s

Letters of Administration of the Personal Estate of Owen O'Hara, late of Divis Street, Belfast, Grocer deceased, died 1882 at same place granted to Daniel O'Hara of

Ballylesson near Ballymena, Co. Antrim.

At this stage it appeared that Owen O'Hara had moved to Belfast. The question posed was whether or not the Owen listed in Ballymena in 1846 was the same Owen who had died in Belfast in 1882. If Owen was in Ballymena in 1846 I should not find him listed in the

Directory for Belfast for the year 1846.

BELFAST DIRECTORY 1846-1847 No record of Owen O'Hara 1849 Owen O'Hara, Grocer, 70 Hercules St. 1858-59 Owen O'Hara, Clerk & Grocer, 70 Hercules St. 1880 Owen O'Hara, Clerk & Grocer, 70 Hercules St. 1884 No record of Owen O'Hara

It was important that Owen O'Hara should disappear from the records after 1882

Although the mounting evidence suggested a strong possibility that I was dealing with the one person it was not at all conclusive. The records in the Registry of Deeds, Dublin, provided me with the important documents which strengthened the evidence.

37



REGISTRY OF DEEDS, DUBLIN

William O'Hara to O'Hara Vol. No. 596

Page No. 322 Memorial No. 407433

Extract from Deed - Date 1808 William O'Hara of Ballymena to Patrick O'Hara of Ballylesson Co. Antrim. Patrick O'Hara of

Ballylesson paid 162. 10s Od to William O'Hara, Innholder of Ballymena for a property in

Bridge St.

This document pointed to the Patrick O'Hara therein named being the same person as the Patrick O'Hara listed in Piggots Directory of 1842.

REGISTRY OF DEEDS, DUBLIN

Year: 1851 File No. 10 Memorial No. 117

Extract from Memorial listing people named.

People named in a document relating to the last Will and Testament of Patrick O'Hara, late of Ballylesson, Co. Antrim.

Mary & Ellen O'Hara, spinsters Daniel O'Hara Charlotte O'Hara of London Owen O'Hara of Belfast, Clerk

Henry O'Hara of Ballylesson, Farmer

Hugh O'Hara of Chicago, U.S., Clerk

With the exception of Henry O'Hara of Ballylesson, Farmer, who was Patrick's brother the rest of the people named in this document are Patrick's children. This provided information about Patrick O'Hara's family by the year 1851.

Patrick was deceased by this time. His wife Charlotte, may also have been deceased as

there does not seem to be any record made for her provision. Mary, Ellen and Daniel were

living at home in Ballylesson. Charlotte had moved to London. Owen had gone to Belfast and was a clerk. Hugh had emigrated to Chicago, US., and was also a clerk.

Patrick's brother Henry was still living in Ballylesson and was a farmer. Patrick and Barney were probably also deceased. Another record in the Wills Calendar proved useful.

WILLS CALENDAR

O'Hara, Daniel 9 April 1907

Letters of Administration of the Personal Estate of Daniel O'Hara, Late of Bridge St.,

38



Ballymena, Spirit Dealer and Farmer who died 19 Feb. 1907 were granted to Mary Hannan, a married woman.

Effects 383 17s 6d.

This information allowed me to trace the property in Bridge St., over a period of one hundred years, from 1808 to 1907. The Daniel O'Hara who died 19 Feb. 1907 was the son of Daniel O'Hara, brother to Owen O'Hara and was also known within the family circle as

"Young Daniel"

The story began with Patrick O'Hara buying the pub from William O'Hara. Owen O'Hara was in possession of it in the year 1846 but by 1849 he had moved to Belfast. He was married and had three children: John, Daniel and Kate.

We know nothing about Owen's wife. John entered the religious life and was called Brother

Alphonsis. Daniel, according to the Letters of Administration was termed a lunatic. We know nothing about Kate.

Owen lived or worked at 70 Hercules St. Belfast from 1849 -1880. He was described as a Clerk and Grocer. He died intestate in Divis St., Belfast in 1882.

DEAD ENDS Martin Gray, Member B 0552

Long ago in 1930, when I was young, my father, R.T. Gray, prepared a family tree chart for our Gray line. Sixty years later, on joining the Bangor Branch of the North of Ireland Family History Society, I started on my own research. By then, everyone of my father's generation was dead. The same going for Grandfather's time and Great Grandfather's also.

Dad's chart had to be my starting point. On the microfilm records of Eglinton Street Presbyte rian Church, Belfast, I found the marriage of grandfather Robert Gray to Eliza Martin -

Residences given only as Belfast. The chart showed great grandfather Thomas Gray mar ried to Elizabeth Armstrong

- this possibly in the early 1820s. Eglinton Street is off Crumlin Road near Carlisle Circus. I suspect that both the Gray and Martin sides came from north Belfast, possibly from the direction of Ballysillan or Ligoniel both of which I found mentioned somewhere! (When I did my early research I did not keep good records and failed to note

sources). I have been unable to find dates or locations for birth, marriage or death of Thomas and Elizabeth Gray. Dead End! Their first child, a son, is shown as John, born 5 July 1825 - but where? He may have married a Barkley (no first name shown). Did they marry in Ireland or, as some suggest, in America? They seem to have had two children -

Margaret who married George Myers and Jane Elizabeth who married someone Crawford and had a son Walter Gray. A second son, Ernest, married Esther Dumont Wolfe. Nothing more on the chart except a

pencil note '253 Mowell Street, Newark, Ohio, and Bookstore'. John Gray's first wife must have died - Where and when? No name shown for the second wife but a note 'Clinton,

Michigan'. This time there were five children:

John, jnr - note 'Sydney, Australia'. Nothing more.

Frank - note 'Locomotive Engineer, Duluth, Minnesota'. Nothing more.

William (Jim) - note 'Floater'. Nothing more.

39



Documents

The Story of Owen O'Hara