Hugh [Ballybrittain] Boyd

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Hugh was born in 1779.

• Birth Notes

  DoB from age 89 at death in 1868 according to his gravestone in Ballylintagh Presbyterian Church.

Hugh's father was John [Collins] Boyd and his mother was Margaret Boyd. He had five brothers and two sisters, named William, Thomas, Joseph, Alexander, John, Elizabeth and Mary.  He died at the age of 89 on December 23rd, 1868.

• Death Notes

  Source: Civil Death Record - 23 Dec 1868 at Ballybritton, Aghadowey, Hugh Boyd, widower, 89, Labourer, Gangrene of feet 6 weeks certified, Elizabeth Boyd (marked) PAD of Ballybritton.
  
  Also: broken gravestone in Ballylintagh Presbyterian Church, where he is given as aged 89 at death in 1868.
  
  

• General Notes

  SPECULATIVE:  I have combined two Hugh Boyds here.
  
  Source One - Linda Gilmour's "Boyd Family Notes" as supplied by Mike Boyd of Brisbane in Australia:
  2. Hugh Boyd m. Catherine McNeill & had: John, Nancy, Mary, Margaret, Catherine, James, Betty, Joseph, Hugh, Martha.  Could this MARY be mine? 
  
  There is no DoB for Hugh but two of his brothers were apparently born in 1776 and 1787.
  
  Source Two - There is a broken gravestone in Ballylintagh old graveyard, not more than 4 yards from the one which says, "The Brewster Family of Dromore" who, I assume, are my Brewsters and the resting place of my great great grandmother, Mary Boyd Brewster.  This is what is readable on it:
  "...........years
  ....................Boyd who
  ...................December 1868
  ..................aged 89 years".
  I also have a Civil Death entry which gives a Hugh Boyd from Ballybritton aged 89 dying in 1868, which I assume is the same man.
  
  (Yet another tumbled stone beside the one for Hugh Boyd says:
  "Erected by Thomas Boyd of Bosto.........
  in memory of their beloved father..............
  this life on 7th December 1865
  ............ aged 59years"
  There is no Boyd death recorded in Civil Records of a man aged 59 in 1865.  However, Hugh Boyd DID have a brother Thomas, whose sons DID indeed go to Boston - BUT, they have erected a stone to their father in Aghadowey Church of Ireland church which says:
  "Erected by
  John and Thomas Boyd of Boston USA in memory of
  their mother, Jane Boyd, who departed this life, 27 December 1852, aged 56 years
  their father, Thomas Boyd, stone broken in half here
  Killykergan, who departed this life, 11 February 1859, aged 72 years"  How there can be two Thomas Boyds of Boston returning to the same part of Ireland and erecting stones to fathers who have only slightly different dates of death is an unresolved mystery.)
  
  There is more evidence to suggest that the two Hughs are one and the same person.  A Hugh Boyd appears in the 1831 Census in Ballybrittain as the head of a household of 5 males and 7 females.  Hugh Boyd, son of John Boyd, also has a very large family according to the "Boyd Family Notes" held by Linda Gilmour.  In fact, he also has 5 males and 7 females in his family but this can only be coincidence.  However, It does seem very reasonable to assume that these two Hugh Boyds are indeed one and the same person.  There are no more Hugh Boyds in the 1831 Census in either Macosquin or Aghadowey and since all heads of household ought to show in this source, they must be the same man unless one of them has died (aged circa 50) by 1831 or emigrated or is living outside these two parishes.
  
  BB has made a new find which provides almost conclusive proof that the two Hughs are one: the marriage of Martha, daughter of Hugh of Meath Park, which IS Ballybrittain, gives Hugh as a "bleacher"!!  So, LG's notes of these men coming from Lismoyle ties in with the Mullins book saying they were invited to work on the bleach greens by Bartlie and then Wilson and also ties in with my find of the broken stone in Ballylintagh and the death of a Hugh from Ballybrittain on the same date.  Excellent sleuthing!
  
  There are no Boyds in Ballybritton in the 1833 Tithe Applotment Book for Aghadowey.
  
  There are only two Hugh Boyds in Aghadowey in the 1850s Griffiths Valuation, one in Ballybritton and one in Mullaghinch.  Hugh in Ballybritton held House 1c from Maria Wilson, Hse and Garden, 0/0/30, 0/3/0, 0/12/0, 0/15/0.  It is significant that Hugh is holding his land from a Maria Wilson because he also owns the land in Collins that the other Boyds are living on in the GV and it was a John Wilson who owned the Bleach Green business which he acquired from James Barklie, the man who probably brought the Boyds from Lismoyle to Collins.  This therefore ties this Hugh into the Lismoyle/Collins Boyd clan.
  
  The GVRBs show Hugh Boyd of Ballybrittain scored out and replaced by Robert Blair in 1888.  A Robert Blair acquired James Blair's Plot 7 of 10 acres in Drumcroon in 1893 and then passed it on to William Boyd in 1897.  A Robert Blair aged 55 (= born 1846) is living with William Boyd and his wife, 45 year old Nancy (Blair) Boyd, in Drumcroon in the 1901 census.  A Robert Blair married Rachel Boyd, daughter of John Boyd of Crosscanley in 1878 (which makes Robert born circa 1848).  These must all be the same Robert Blair.  Did Rachel die and is this why he is living with William and Nancy?  A Robert Blair also acquired Thomas Boyd's House 1e in Collins in 1886 before passing it on to Robert Kennedy in 1896.  
  
  There are no Boyds in  Ballybrittain by the time of the 1901 Census. 
  
  It is becoming clear that there are defo different families of Boyds.  We have already isolated the Ballyminta crowd who just do not seem to connect with the rest at all - and are probably the original Boyds who are the only ones mentioned in the early records (Alsop's Survey).  But now I see another clear division.
  
  The GV showed that Hugh lived in a hovel.  He owned no land.  I was assuming my new Boyds were wealthy farmers.  They weren't.  If you look at the GV, they mainly lived in hovels.  They were in fact Bleach Green workers.  Thanks to BB's discovery in the Mullin book, we now know that that was why they came from Lismoyle - to work first for James Barklie and then John Wilson, on the bleach greens in Collins.  And the GV shows that Hugh in Ballybritton actually leases his house from Maria Wilson, the same as Thomas in Collins.  They are all connected.
  
  However, there IS land in Boyd hands!  Thomas and John Snr and John Jnr, all in Crosscanley, have small farms according to the GV.  BUT, I do not know who any of these three men is - either their ancestry or their descendants!  And I am not sure where the land goes.  Does it pass to my Collins Boyds - specifically, John, son of Andrew of Ballyclough?  Or is it only Samuel in Crosscanley who keeps the land and is the farmer?  What is the link between these two families?  Or is there none apart from the marriage of John and Martha and John was a teacher rather than a farmer anyway.  Did none of my family ever own any land?  Did they move from bleach green to schoolroom?  There is only one way to answer this.  The GVRBs.  And that means PRONI.
  
  

Details of Hugh's family with Catherine McNeil