Lizzie Hill's 1879 letter

In 1879 Eliza Hill (née Clements) of Ballyboley wrote to William Hill of Abbeville (South Carolina), a brother of her husband John Hill. The people and incidents mentioned are of some interest to local families and their descendants. South Caroliniana Library kindly supplied a copy of their photocopy, with permission for its reproduction and transcription; they do not hold the original letter. The beginning seems to be missing, as the first page of the copy has no salutation and is headed “No. 2”.

First page

No. 2

Your Bridgend friends are well. David that lives in Ballycorr [1] wishes to be remembered to you kindly. James who lives at the Brighead [2] is taking his own out of the narrow gauge by keeping a coal yard also a meal-flour & bran store. Your Cousin David never would have thought in his day of a railway passing so near his house and through so much of his land [3]. Your cousin Willy’s son Robert met with his death suddenly about two months ago [4] riding home from Ballymena he was thrown off his horse & killed on the spot he leaves a widow & nine children [5] to mourn his untimely end his late residence was a rented farm near the Colen [6].

Second page

Billy Girven [7] says old Nancy Hetherington [8] was in Ballynure not many months ago singing the “Campbells are coming”. Your old friend James Smith is dead more than a year ago [9], you wanted to know if Nell Haggan got her bit & sap about Ballynure. No she has been in Larne Union this 2 years [10].

Old Jamie Weir the thatcher [?] of all Ballynure was called to his last resting place last week. He was above four score [11].

Another useful man in and around Ballynure Sam Bell the horse doctor was buried the same day [12].

You will call this almost a black page.

Third page

I had the pleasure of your niece Mrs Mary J. Wilson’s company the other evening [13]. She is well & intends writing soon to her Uncle William. Her father spends a good part of his time in Belfast so he has sold his house to young Dr William Blair [14].

Another old friend John Devenny [15] wishes to be remembered to you he had a severe illness in the month of February his life was despaired of but he is quite well now & able to go down to Ballynure.

I was almost forgetting to say to you brother Davies little pony is cutting his own loaf on the richest pasture on the farm & retired from service on a full pension.

Fourth page

So Samuel Thompson with Uncle Willie Dollar [16] are in the in your [17] Locality. Uncle writes home very seldom sometimes drops a newspaper.

I will send you a Whig next week by which you shall see the market rate etc. etc.

We have had a very cold summer for so far & as cold a November it is to be feared the farmers will feel the effects of the cold inclement summer or [?] the harvest is over.

Time now to draw this rambling scrawl to a close by wishing you health happiness & prosperity

is the wish of your friend

To Mr. W. Hill Lizzie Hill

[Written sideways:] P.S. Would it be presumptious to ask you to write often my neglect…

Notes

Some of these are speculative, and I (and NIFHS colleagues) will be grateful for corrections.

[1] There is more than one candidate; see below.

[2] The places transcribed here “Bridgend “ and “Brighead” are written differently:

[3] Ballynure station opened in August 1878 on the new Ballymena and Larne narrow gauge (3 ft) line, which ran up beside and crossed the Six Mile Water. Nearby, on the road that approached Ballynure from the west, a farm / tailoring / grocery cluster was run by the Hills and, briefly before he emigrated, by Thomas George Parkinson.

David Hill of “Bridge-end Ballynure” married Mary Wilson (cousin of Rev. D H McMurtry) in 1866:

James Hill (c. 1843-1919, brother of the David above) was a bachelor farmer, 28, of “Bridge-End Farm Ballycor” at marriage to Marianne (Mary Ann) Wilson in 1873:

In the valuation books, Plot 19 in Ballycor (under Donegall ownership) is held by James Hill, then Thomas George Parkinson 1883, then William John Hill 1884, then Robert Hugh Hill 1892. Newspapers in November 1883 announce the sale of 30 acres with “farm, grocery and drapery”; Parkinson and his family then emigrated.

“Your Cousin David never would have thought in his day”: the various David Hills around Ballynure have caused confusion, and some online family trees are incorrect. For example, this cousin is probably David Hill (c.1802-1872) who with his wife Elizabeth Houston had a son William John Hill.

(William John married Maria Houston in 1861, and their daughter Agnes, David Hill’s grand-daughter, died in February 1873 as recorded on a Ballynure headstone; then their infant daughter Mary Jane, born in November 1872, was baptised on 12 May 1873 with the additional or replacement name Agnes).

It is not certain that Lizzie’s “Your Cousin David” means a first cousin, but it is clear that the 1878 newbuilt railway ran very near the home of a David Hill; and the context and the phrase “in his day” favour this older (and in 1879 deceased) David, who was a first cousin.

[4] Robert Hill (c.1834 - 29 May 1879). The death register says “Concussion of brain induced by injuries instantaneous accidental”. This dates Lizzie’s letter to July/August 1879.

[5] Letters of Administration of the personal estate of Robert Hill late of Ballynashee County Antrim Farmer deceased who died 29 May 1879 at same place were granted at Belfast to Jane Hill of Ballynashee the Widow of said deceased. This is Jane Boyd (c. 1833 - 25 May 1905). I suggest Robert’s father “cousin Willy” was the “Willie Hill” mentioned in the Abbeville correspondence in 1865, and the William Hill who died in Ballygallagh in 1864. Robert’s signature at marriage to Jane in 1857 resembles the signature of Robert Hill on the 1864 death certificate. Lizzie is clear that nine children were living in 1879.

The Hill history around Ballycor is complicated; for example William Hill signed his Donegall lease in May 1823, but “shortly afterwards died intestate” (PRONI T1151/21), and his sons arranged several further leases and mortgages. One William Hill “of Ballycor” held land in Carntall some miles to the south, near my relatives and very near the Dicksons discussed on this website.

[6]

Probably “Collin”, as in the hills Wee Collin and Big Collin. The Collin Road slants down from Glenwherry past Big Collin to Tildarg and Braepark Road, with Ballynashee townland just to the east. Robert Hill (presumably the same) held 60 acres in Ballynashee, under William Wilson, in the 1860s and 1870s.

[7] Probably William Girvan who died in 1894 with his age given as 84, who was probably the Ballynure publican who supplied whisky to brothers John and Alexander Hill on the night in 1862 when they scuffled on the Castle Road and John was fatally injured.

[8] Probably Agnes Hetherington née Campbell (c. 1794 – 1880), James Hetherington’s widow. Less likely are Agnes Hetherington, sister of Eliza (Hetherington) McKinstry, who died in Skilganaban in 1896 with her age given as 66, and another Agnes Hetherington in Bruslee a little to the south.

[9] Uncertain. A James Smyth died age 64 in Ballycor on 17 November 1879 – one year too late if the letter was written in 1879. A James Smyth died at 44 Wall Street in Belfast on 6 April 1878, with Mary Ann Smyth of 59 Earl Street present.

[10] “Larne Union” was the Workhouse built for Larne Poor Law Union in the 1840s. Bit and sap (or sup) means here charitable food and drink for a neighbour.

[11] James Weir died age 83 in Straidland on 10 July 1879.

[12] Samuel Bell, farmer, died at Missionhouse Lane, Larne on 16 July 1879.

[13] See Belfast Newsletter, 20th Nov 1912:

WILSON: November 29th, at the residence of his son-in-law, Hugh M'Crone, Green Road, Ballyclare. William Wilson, aged 73 years (late of Bryantang House, Ballynure). The remains of my beloved husband will be removed for interment in Ballynure Burying-ground on to-morrow (Sunday), 1st December inst, at two o'clock. Friends will please accept this (the only) intimation. MARY J. WILSON.

Mary Jane Hay McMurtry (daughter of William McMurtry and Sarah Hill) married William Wilson in 1875. Sarah (c. 1807-1848) was a daughter of David Hill and Mary Maffet (Moffet etc.), and thus William Hill of Abbeville and his brothers were uncles of Mary Jane.

[14] Dr William P Blair of Toberdowney is 44 in the 1901 census, so roughly 22-23 at the time of the letter.

[15] A John Devenny lived in Ballyboley. Possibly he was related to Francis “Devinnie” who emigrated c. 1847 with his sisters and died in Ogdensburg in 1894. One John Devenny of Ballybracken died age 74 in March 1893.

[16] Samuel Thom(p)son lived in Ogdensburg / Oswegatchie when his son David wrote from Charleston in 1854. Margaret Dollar (1833-1917) married into the Thomson family and may be related to William Dollar whose will mentions Lizzie Hill and several others around Ballynure.

[17] This text and the postscript are obscured by Lizzie’s transverse writing:

Acknowledgements

I thank Evelyn Barrett of Belfast Central Library, Graham Duncan of South Caroliniana Library, Ronnie Hassard, and Richard Wallace of the Ballynure Historical Group.