The Time How Sweet

The Time How Sweet...Author(s): Ann RobinsonSource: North Irish Roots, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1996), pp. 14-17Published by: North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27697048 .

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THE TIME HOW SWEET...

Ann Robinson, Member number B 78

The time how sweet when lovers meet

With love's young breath around them

How sweet the cost when hearts are lost

When those we love have found them.

These are the words from a letter which was written by my great great grandfather John Young to

my future great great grandmother Ann Shannon on 5th May 1845. The letter must have been

special to Ann to have survived down the years and generations, and to now be in my family's

possession over 150 years later. This letter is probably the oldest personal document I have of any of my relatives and is probably the one document which encouraged me to delve further into my family tree. It is written on a large sheet of paper which is headed by a print of the Giant's Causeway by M. Ward, Belfast. The page was folded and sealed, the address written on the outside and a stamp put on. Unfortunately the stamp got lost from it about 20 years ago. It was addressed to Miss Ann Shannon, Derribeg. Written at the bottom was "Carriage Mr. James

Jackson N.T. Vaddy".

So what have I been able to find out about John Young and Ann Shannon, their families and their farms?

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Ann Shannon lived in the townland of Derrybeg (meaning small oak grove) which is in the parish of Drumachose, Co. Londonderry, and ?s situated to the North East of Limavady.

As a young child staying with my grandmother in Portrush, we went on family outings and from

these I knew that the Shannons were buried inside the ruins of the old Drumachose church in the Drummond graveyard. This graveyard is now in the Drenagh Estate, and is on the right hand side of the main Coleraine to Limavady road, before you come to Limavady. At certain times of the year this graveyard contains many large nettles, which several members of my family can testify to! But

from visits to it I have found the names of Ann's parents, her two sisters and three brothers. Her

father was Samuel (1770-1854), and her mother was Ruth (1786-1862). There is also a grave for

Samuel's brother John and his family (also of Derrybeg), but there are no earlier headstones. I

remember two elderly Shannon sisters visiting my grandmother. They were Ruth and Anna

Shannon. I knew they were relatives, but I wasn't sure how.

I also went to visit Derrybeg, and I discovered that the present owners of Derrybeg had put several

old leases into the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (reference T1646) and from those I

have found that Samuel and John's father was James Shannon. The earliest lease was in 1692

and mentions a John Shannon. The other leases dated between 1692 and 1851 name other

Shannons, but I can't be sure of their relationships to each other.

Then several years ago I received a phone call from David Shannon, who was interested in the

Shannons of Derrybeg, and from this I discovered that Samuel and John Shannon had had

another brother, William, who had gone to Australia in 1843 at the age of about 55. David was a

descendant of his and from this source I got a sketchy tree of the Australian connection.

In January 1995 another of the Australian Shannons, David Hassell, contacted me and sent me a

comprehensive tree of 357 descendants from William. So, spurred on by this I have delved into

earlier records like the Hearth Money Rolls 1663, Protestant Householders Lists 1740, Religious Returns 1766, Flax Seed Premiums 1796, Tithe Applotments 1825, 183.1 Census, as well as

Griffith Valuations and the 1901 Census, and I have found Shannons in all of these sources. The

earliest Shannon I have now found is a Robert Shannon who in 1631 is mentioned as one of the

men of arms of Sir Thomas Phillips. I have also been searching newspapers for births, marriages and deaths, and have managed to find quite a few, some even with Australian connections.

As for the Youngs, I always knew more about them as they were my grandmother's family and a

fairly good family tree existed for them.

John Young (1814-1880) was living at the farm known as Knowehead, townland of Islandvardin,

Parish of Agherton, Co. Londonderry, when he wrote the letter. Later, on his marriage, he moved

to Bellemont, which his grandmother Sally Young had leased in 1803. The third Young farm in the

area was Maddybenny, which later became well known for its mushrooms and tomatoes.

Bellemont (which is not pronounced the way it is spelt, but as Bal-ay-mont!), means the townland

of Edmond, and I have found it spelt Ballymond, Balleimont, Baliiemont, Ballemont, Baliyemont, Balleman and Ballieheman. The earliest lease for Youngs in Bellemont is 1803. Bellemont is also

in the Parish of Ballyaghran or Agherton. These three Young farms are in the triangle formed by

Coleraine, Portrush and Portstewart, Bellemont being quite close to Portstewart Station. In fact the

Youngs lost land when the railway was put through part of the farm.

Ann and John were married one month after the letter was written. This was in the Register Office

in Newtownlimavady on 5th June 1845. They had three sons; Samuel Shannon Young

(1846-1925), Thomas Young (1848-1890), and John Young (1850-1929). This marriage just comes into the start of official registration of Protestant Marriages in 1845 and confirms Ann's

father as Samuel Shannon. Sadly Ann died in 1850, probably not long after the birth of her third

son. I have found her death notice in the Londonderry Sentinel for 5th October 1850.

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One of the witnesses to the wedding was Abraham James Hopkins Moody, formerly of Gortmore

House, Magilligan and then grocer, Coleraine. He is mentioned in the letter. I have found out that

he is a relative by marriage. His first wife, Elizabeth Shannon, was Ann's sister. He married on the

2nd January 1844, when he got a dowry of ?50. Perhaps John Young also got a similar amount for Ann! Elizabeth and Abraham had one daughter, Ruth. Elizabeth died in 1848 from consumption and Abraham then married Elizabeth's cousin Elizabeth Hopkins in April 1849, and had another nine children. This information I again found in P.R.O.N.I, (reference T 2901/4).

A.J.H. Moody had seven brothers who went to Australia, and some of their descendants married

into the Shannons in Australia. The Shannons in Australia seem to have prospered well and include people who featured in the political and agricultural life of Australia, as well as David

Shannon, one of the Dambuster pilots of the second world War. Abraham Shannon's farm featured in the Observer, when he had 940 acres cultivated and fenced, and 2,000 acres

unfenced.

After Ann died, John married Elizabeth Adams on 5th November 1851 in Killowen Church, Coleraine. She seems to have had a connection with the Coleraine family of linen manufacturers, the Gribbons, as William and Edward Gribbon were both witnesses to the wedding. John Young

appears to have been well educated, as can be seen from the letter, and I also have cuttings from the Coleraine Chronicle 1874/5 of letters which he had published, which seem to be on the subject of female preachers.

Elizabeth Young died in 1872 and John in 1880. Ann, Elizabeth and John Young are buried in the old burying ground at Ballywillan, Portrush, where there are six Young grave plots surrounded by a low cast iron railing. This graveyard is rapidly becoming very overgrown, but we endeavour to

keep the Young graves tidy and m repair.

Samuel Shannon Young was my great grandfather and inherited the farm at Bellemont. He had a talent for farming as I have found from articles in "The Ark" February 1910, and in his obituary in the Coleraine Chronicle, 1925. In 1897 Bellemont won a medal from the Royal Dublin Society for the second best cultivated farm in Ulster and regularly got first prize from Coleraine Agricultural Society for the best cultivated farm in the area. He also won many other prizes for the farm. He

was a judge for flax, a J.P., on the Board of Guardians, the Rural District Council and a member of the North Derry Agricultural Society and Ploughing Society among others. Some of the awards he

won have been preserved by members of the family. I have also discovered that Anna and Ruth

Shannon, who visited my grandmother, were in fact my great grandfather's first cousins.

On Samuel Young's death the farm passed to his second son James McFariane Young (1879-1960) and on Jim's death it passed to his youngest sister, Kathleen Jane Dunn Mathewson,

my grandmother, and it was then sold. It was at this time that the letter and other family documents were removed from Bellemont, and eventually found their way to my family. The Shannon farm at

Derrybeg continued in Shannon ownership until about 1939 when it was also sold. So, although none of the Young or Shannon farms continue to be owned by any members of the family, the letter has managed to survive and hopefully will continue for another good number of years. It has

proved to have been a starting point for one of my "branches". The work is not finished yet as I

keep finding more "twigs". Perhaps you too have a document or souvenir which will encourage you to research more fully an area of your family.

16



My Dear Ann

Knowing as I do your taste for natural curiosities I think you can have no objections

against taking a walk round the Causeway and examining its beauties for an hour or

two on afine evening in the month of May. Being also aware that you are a close keeper

at home I think it provident to send the Causeway so far in order that you might without

any fatigue or expense feast your eyes on its strong columns. You may now have an

opportunity of sitting in the Giant's chair and you will never stand while you sit there.

You may also drink at the well and if ever you be married it will be after that You have heard no doubt of the Blarney Stone to be found at the Causeway. The result of kissing it is that when you speak you will say something. So much for the Causeway.

You might let me know if you are still alive and what is newest with you. Your friend A.J.H. Moody paid me a visit the other day but I am sorry to say I was not at home and

I always take the Mistress with me in my pocket when I go abroad so that he met with

but a cold reception for which I say again I was sorry.

The time how sweet when lovers meet

With love's young breath around them

How sweet the cost when hearts are lost

When those we love have found them.

Now in poetic strain I've sung

And I your Lover am John Young

To Miss Ann Shannon

Knowehead May 5th 45

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The Time How Sweet