Thomas Bellingham

culmorehill

Thomas was born in 1793.

• Birth Notes

  DoB from age at death in Civil Records.

Thomas' father was Thomas Bellingham and his mother was ???? ????.  He was an only child.  He died due to natural causes or old age at the age of 84 on March 20th, 1877 in Culmore.

• Death Notes

  Al located death on register in General Registry Office - recorded as "old age, no medical attendant", aged 84. Farmer of Culmore. Informant was Thomas Bellingham - presumably his son.
  Could not find any mention of him in the Calendar of Wills at Derry Probate Office.
  
  AL: I do not recall ever finding the grave of Thomas Bellingham (1917). I do know that his father, Thomas (c. 1794 – 1877) was buried in the churchyard at St Patrick’s, Kilrea but that there is no memorial stone and no records where in the yard he was interred (discussion with rector Oct 2001). I checked all the stones at the Rasharkin C of I and found no Bellingham’s and only Francis’ stone at the Finvoy C of I. 

• General Notes

  THIS MAN IS BOTH MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER AND MY GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER!!
  Known as Thos Belgium Jnr of Culmore on the 1834 valuation map.  The 1834 Tithe Applotment Book shows a Thos Belgium Jnr holding 22/0/0 arps in Culmore.  The GV gives him as Thomas Bellingham of the townland of Culmore in the parish of Rasharkin in County Antrim.
  There is a major problem with who he was married to, when, what children he had, and was there actually two Thomases of Culmore.  Al Luce puts it thus:
  "I am still ambivalent about the Thomas who was married to Jane in Culmore. Was he the same Thomas who married Agnes Dempsey? This is a puzzle that Don had noted and I had no, adequately supportable response to give him. The available facts, inferences, presumptions and family memories present an inconsistent story. I might state the problem in two questions as 'How do we resolve the apparent overlap in presumed birth dates (about 1828 for Robert with about 1827 for Fanny and 1828 for Francis) while explaining the 'brothers' assertion between James (b. about 1822) and John (b. about 1829) and the implied siblings relation between James (b. about 1822) and Fanny (b. about 1827) and Hester (b. about 1831)?' and 'How would we include the two Mary's (one born about 1823 and the other born about 1845) in a one Thomas solution?' The first question, as I see it, is assigning Robert (b. about 1828) to Thomas and Agnes. Without that presumption, a one Thomas hypothesis would work, if we ignore the Mary's question. The problem is that we need to assign that Robert, son of Thomas, somewhere. I think that Don's choice of Thomas and Agnes as Robert's parents is a very reasonable choice with the data that we have today. [The choice was made based on the concept that Robert's first female child, Nancy (Agnes), would be the same as his mother's and that Robert's birth date could not fit in with the birth dates shown for Thomas and Jane.]  We do have Robert's death registration which implies a birth year of 1828 or 1829."
  
  Further analysis from BG and AL in emails during January 2007:
  Al,
  A few more observations as a result of seeing your OAP database.
  First, the record clearly states that Mary2's parents were TB and JMcC AND that they married in 1829.  I think this date is likely to be fairly reliable.  When given in 1851, they would remember reasonably accurately - to within a couple of years - when they were married.  They might lie to protect children born a tad "early" but again, the date would only
  vary by a couple of years.
  *** Just to repeat, the date was actually in the binding and should have been recorded as 1829(?). The last digit is in question.
  Two, this means Fannie lied or made a mistake or her parents WERE mistaken when she said she was 23 at marriage in 1850.  Not too important.
  *** The census question is 'age at last birthday' as of census day, 1 Jun 1850. Also, note that the 1850 US Census was the first to ask each member of the household for an exact age (the 1840 census only asked about ages in 10 year increments). Also, the census taker could accept data from a neighbor who may not have a detailed knowledge of the facts. And the US Census taker was paid by the completed page against a time deadline with little concern for accuracy beyond the number of residents and eligible voters.
  Three, you have Francis baptised on 11th Jan 1828 in Kilrea CofI, to Thomas and Jane.  This date is incontrovertible so TB and JMcC WERE wrong when they said they married in 1829 - or he was illegitimate, which is unlikely.
  *** The actual parish register entry has '1828 Jany 11th, Francis son of Thomas and Jane Bellingham of Kilrea'. In viewing other entries on that page of the register (I have a copy of that page of the register from microfilm done by David Beck of Coleraine) I see 'of Movanagher' and 'of Moynock'. Based on those other entries, I would infer that Thomas & Jane lived in Kilrea townland at that time. The extant 1831 Census for Kilrea only has an Isabella Bellingham with two others in her household per an extraction done by UGHG in the 1960's for my uncle. The 1834 TAB does have a Thomas Bellingham Jr in Culmore on a lease of the same area as the Thomas Bellingham of the GV and the place that you and I visited in 2001, Culmore Hill.
  Four, I have your John as born 1829, which is okay if he is to be a son of TB and JMcC.
  ***I would accept John's birth year as about as good as we can get for that time period. He stated his age as 23 in Mar 1853 at his marriage registration with the registrar in Ballymoney and as 72 in April 1901 for the census of that year. His daughter registered his age as 84 at the time of his death in July 1908. I assign him to TB and JMcC based on family stories (my uncle, again) and supported by family naming conventions.
  Five, Robert at 1829 is on the cusp and Hester at 1830 makes rather a crowd all around the same period but we can live with that - twins or slightly inaccurate records - and make them all kids of TB and JMcC.
  *** Robert's birth date is based on the very round age of 50 given on his death registration. I would work with +/- 2 to 3 years on that age. We do know that he married in 1853 at 'full age', so he was born before 1832. The only reference we have to Hester is the 1850 US Census with it's notoriously approximate ages. So the crowd may be a bit more spread out than our current data suggests.
  Six, any child born much earlier than 1829 is unlikely to be a child of JMcC and Jane and Mary#1 rule themselves out anyway by giving an Agnes as mother.  Now, this is a key point.  They give their father as TB of Ireland.  Do they ever mention Culmore?  In other words, could it be an entirely different Thomas?  The TAB gives two Thomas's in Culmore but we think they are father and son - the designations Snr and Jnr usually suggest this.
  *** Since the marriage year is now 1829(?), some parts of point six are not so certain. The Scot's death registrations extracted for Don did not have any residence information for the parents of the deceased nor did they cite the birth place of the deceased.
  Seven, I cannot find the record of the 1818 marriage in Finvoy CofI of TB and Agnes Dempsey.  I suppose it doesn't give any parents or addresses?
  *** I found this marriage at PRONI Finvoy C of I - MIC/1/48/1; Marriages: '2MAR1818, Thomas Bellingham & Ann Demsy of Rasharkin Parish by James Grier'. This begs the question 'why would they go to Finvoy to be married and not stay in their own parish?' It also suggests that they chose not to
  >go to Kilrea for the ceremony either - why? The bridge to Kilrea was built before 1800, so the market town of Kilrea was readily accessible by road.
  Eight, the big conundrum is James.  You have pointed this out before. The American censuses give his ages as varying wildly, I have written, but I do not have the censuses.  If born in 1822, he can only be a half bro of Hester, Fannie and all the other children of JMcC.  But, if he is living with them, it suggests his TB must be the same TB as theirs which suggests a TB who married twice.  If James is born a few years later, say 1828, he could be a full bro and therefore the TB married to Agnes Dempsey could be an entirely different person.  Also, if James can be
  pried loose from Jane and Mary, then the TB/Agnes Dempsey union has a very strong Scottish flavour and this suggests a different family entirely.
  *** I agree James is a problem. I have not been successful in locating a marriage record for James with the hope that it might include something about his parents. I do search for newly available records from time to time.
  We have done this so many times but it IS very intriguing!  Two Thomases or one married twice? I am definitely thinking that Thomas Bellingham of Culmore may have
  married twice.  Born in 1798, eight years before JMcC, he might well have remarried if Agnes died young.  This might explain the wee gap between 182 Mary1 and 1827 Fannie.  Two Marys does not bother me too much because we do not have their birth records and so one might not actually be called Mary - perhaps she only has Mary as a middle name.
  BUT, if there is no documentary evidence that the Thomas Bellingham married to Agnes Dempsey was from Culmore, then I think it also quite that likely he is a different person, and therefore our Thomas was only ever married to Jane McCart.
  *** And now for another possible sequence, perhaps it was Thomas Snr who married Agnes Dempsey and had a few additional children late in life. Thomas Jnr would probably be one of his early children (1st, 2nd or 3rd son by naming convention, depending on the names of the grandfathers). If this were the case, then James would be Fanny and Hester's uncle in Newark, NJ and also an uncle and not a brother to my great-grandfather, John who remained in Kilrea (therefore a great-uncle to my grandfather, John, who came to New York). My knowledge of my connection to James started with my uncle's claim that James was an uncle of his father - I would now not rule out great-uncle with the 'great' detail lost in retelling the story over the years. My uncle actually started his active family history research about 20 years after his father died. He was able to question his mother, Jane Perry Bellingham, about her recollections but her association with the Bellingham's started in New York about 1900 and probably after that James had passed on.
  If you find time, could you send me the 1818 Finvoy CofI marriage record and the James census records.
  *** I have included the 1818 Finvoy CofI marriage record above. I will need to do a bit of digging to find the James census records and will send them to you after I find them.
  -Al
  
  

Details of Thomas' family with (Margaret or Mary) Jane McCart