January 10, 2001 e-mail
e-mail of Jan 10, 2001 from Donald Wood to Bill Anglin, filling in some background for the 'W. G. Anglin log'
Dear Mr. Anglin
I came across your home page by chance and was interested in the early history of your family. While I now live in England, I was born in the parish of Kinneigh, about a mile from Farranmareen and Rushfield and I have many Hosford ancestors.
My great great grandfather was John Hosford of Farranmareen. He was the father of Ben (1816-1893) of Farranmareen, Thomas (1817-1896) of Moneycrohy and Walter (1819-1900) of Castletown. These were the three brothers that W.G. Anglin visited in the autumn of 1876. Their mother, Sarah, had died in 1822 and John married again. My great grandmother, Martha Hosford (c.1830-1878) was a child of this second marriage. She married her cousin John Hosford of Lissarourke in 1860.
Without any knowledge of what avenues have already been explored, there are a few options that I might suggest for further investigations into the Irish origins of the family:
1) The Tithe records for Kinneigh of about 1830 should place the family at Farranmareen. These records are available in the National Archives in Dublin. I see John Anglin of Farranmareen in the Griffiths evaluation records of 1852.2) While the Anglins were Methodists living in Kinneigh parish, it is possible that their family burial plot is in the Church of Ireland parish of Murragh. This parish church is sometimes called Farranthomas. The church at Kinneigh was a ruin from the 1600s until a new church was built in 1794. Anglican families (and those who converted to Methodism in the 1700s) settling in Kinneigh during the 1600s usually established burial plots in the nearest neighbouring parish and continued to use these plots until the 20th century. If the Anglins were established at Farranmareen in the north eastern corner of the parish for a significant length of time prior to 1800, then Farranthomas would be the best bet. Even after the setting up of Wesleyan chapels, few if any of these had graveyards, so the old family plots in the Anglican churchyards continued to be used by Methodists.3) However, I have come across a record of the baptism of Samuel, son of Robert Anglin, in Ballymoney church on September 17th 1809. This would support the idea, mentioned on your web page, that Robert lived in Ballineen at one time. It might also suggest that Robert Anglin acquired the Farranmareen land through his association with the Welpley family.4) Ballymoney parish records go back to about 1800. Murragh parish records go back to 1755, although information before 1800 is both patchy and not very detailed, especially for families from outside the parish. Both sets of records are available in the National Archives in Dublin.5) The Registry of Deeds in Dublin contains records going back to 1709, and was unaffected by the Civil War of 1922. This is the likeliest source of 18th century information on Irish families, especially landowning non-Catholic families. However, the chances of finding a particular family's information depend on whether the family had a tradition of registering transactions. For example, I have found more than a dozen 'Wood' deeds but no relevant Hosford deeds, although both families held reasonably substantial acreages of land throughout the 1700s and 1800s.If all the above suggestions have already been explored, please excuse me.
I also thought you might like a quick update on what has happened to the some of families mentioned by W. G. Anglin in his 1876 log.
The Moneycrohy farm of Thomas Hosford is now in the hands of his great grandson. Four of Thomas's children died within a few years of W. G. Anglin's visit. His eldest son, John, who was W.G.'s guide as he visited relatives, died in 1881, aged 22. Thomas died in 1896. His wife, Anne, died in 1889, aged 58. She was another Welpley from Rushfield. The farm passed into Shorten hands with the marriage of Thomas's daughter, Elizabeth, to John Shorten around 1900.
The Castletown farm of Walter Hosford remained in the family until last year. I used to visit the Hosfords at Castletown frequently when I was a child in the 1950s. The children of that generation were of similar ages to us.
The farm at Farranmareen is no longer in Hosford hands either. I remember Ben Hosford of Farranmareen visiting us when I was a child. He was a middle aged man then and I think he had no children to pass the farm to. The Smiths at Rushfield have also sold up. The family that the Anglin visitors met in 1961 consisted of two girls and a boy. One of them has, I believe, investigated her family history and may be of more help to you than I am. In particular, she may know something of Sarah Welpley. I could get in touch if you want.
The Welpley family have not survived in Kinneigh either. Since the 1850s, the family have farmed at Clonomara, south of Castletown. The last local member of the family, Martha Welpley, died unmarried in 1984 and the farm was sold. Her brother, James, had also died without marrying, in 1974. They were my father's first cousins. This James, like his 19th century namesake (his grandfather, I think), was also keen on greyhounds. One of that family, William Welpley (1866-c.1960), who was a British Civil Servant in Belfast, was also a noted genealogist, who built up a large collection of will abstracts from the archives before the 1922 fire. With the family connection, his records are a possible source of Anglin information. He donated his collection in his will to the Library of the Representative Church Body of the Church of Ireland, which is located in Dublin.
There is also an interesting footnote to the February, 1838 letter from William Anglin in Clonmel to his brother Robert. His employer, Mrs. Davis, is said in the letter to be about to sell her drapery business. In May 1838, an ancestor of mine, Achilles Wood, sold his farm at Gurranereagh for £600 to a Mrs. Davis of Clonmel. Gurranereagh is about a mile north of Farranmareen. Mrs. Davis obviously also had roots in the area.
Just a few corrections to the names in the 1876 log:
'Jennery' is probably Chinnery. A family of that name intermarried with the Welpleys.'Shandarjan' is probably Shandangan. An aunt of mine used to tell me that it was a Hosford farm.I hope the above is of some use. Please let me know if you have any information on the Hosford family that I do not know. I would be particularly interested in knowing how they were related to the Anglin family of the mid 1800s.
Regards Don Wood
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