According to the Griffith’s Printed Valuation of 1860 there were six inhabited houses in the cluster of dwellings which made up Cullyvully clachan. Three families of Mulvenna, two families of Magill and a family of Thompson occupied these houses. By 1901 the number of inhabited houses in the clachan had fallen to four and one unoccupied house was recorded. There was still a family of Thompson and a family of Mulvenna living in the clachan and there were two new families – McQuillan and Steele. The account below will help to explain how and when these changes took place as well as tease out the relationships between the various family groups.
The Thompsons
Griffith’s listed a William Thompson in 1860 living in the house marked 18Aa on the Griffith’s map. By 1901 the Thompsons are listed as having two houses, one of which was unoccupied. The Thompson houses are shown in photo nos. 4, 5 and 5a in the picture gallery. The family listed in the occupied house in the 1901 Census returns included an Anne Thompson, a widow, aged 74, clearly the widow of William Thompson who we know died some time around 1898. Her family consisted of three sons, all unmarried – John, aged 41, Robert, aged 36 and Wm. J., aged 33. These three sons were listed again in the 1911 Census Returns, still unmarried. In addition there were three Magills (spelt McGill) listed in the household in 1901 – Jane, aged 24 and Annie, aged 22 both nieces and a nephew, John, aged 20.
Clearly a daughter of William and Anne Thompson must have married a McGill but both husband and wife appear to be dead by 1901 or simply absent on the night of the census. We know that William Thompson took over the farm of Michael Magill (no. 16 in Griffith’s) around 1896. The owner of the Magill farm at the time of the takeover was a John Magill, who was most probably Michael’s son – see below.
The Thompsons, therefore, were in possession of farms nos. 16 and 18 in Griffith’s from 1898. Robert, the middle brother, appears to have held both farms in 1924, suggesting that his elder brother, John, may have been dead.
By 1935 no.16 (originally Magill’s farm) was in the possession of a Robert McQuillan who was a nephew of the Thompson brothers. Their sister, Maggie, had married Alexander McQuillan – see below.
By 1935 the other Thompson farm, no. 18, had passed to the youngest brother, William J., suggesting that Robert was now dead. None of the Thompson brothers had married and when William J. died around 1947 the farm was taken over by their other nephew Bernard McQuillan, brother of Robert McQuillan, mentioned above.
Thompson’s barn appears to have been a local venue for dances – see The Dancing Beau from Cruck (1882) in Felix McKillop’s book on Glenarm. Click here to read the poem.
The Magills
Griffith’s listed a Michael Magill in 1860 living in the house marked 16Ba on the map and a Margaret Magill living in the house marked 16Bb on the map. Mary did not hold any land within the clachan, except for a small garden attached to the house. She was the only householder in the clachan who did not hold any land. The rest held individual plots of land within the infield plus a share of mountain land. Mary may have been Michael’s sister or mother – we simply do not know. Her house was probably tumbled after she died and we were not able to identify exactly where it had been located.
Michael’s farm passed to a John Magill (probably his son) around 1886. The farm was taken over around 1896 by the Thompsons. By 1935 farm was in the hands of a Robert McQuillan the nephew of the Thompson brothers, mentioned above. This Robert McQuillan did not live in the house. He had emigrated to Chicago in 1928. It is thought that he intended coming home to the farm but he never did and the house continued to be unoccupied.
The Mulvennas
Griffith’s listed a Patrick Mulvenna in 1860 living in the house shown in photo 3 in the picture gallery, a Mary Mulvenna living in the house shown in photos 6 and 7 and a Robert Mulvenna living in the house shown in photo 1. All held individual plots of land within the clachan and had a share of the mountain land.
By 1901 there was only one Mulvenna family living in the clachan. This was John Mulvenna, aged 64, living with his wife Mary, aged 63 and their children – John (34) and Mary (23) plus a nephew, Patrick Magill (spelt McGill) who was 5.
This John Mulvenna was a son of Mary Mulvenna of no. 17 in Griffith’s (photos 6 and 7). He had taken over the farm around 1867. John and his family were also listed in the 1911 Census returns. By 1935 the family has gone and the farm was now occupied by the Patrick Magill listed above in the 1901 Census Returns, who was the nephew of John Mulvenna, Incidentally this Patrick Magill was from the Braid and was not related to the other Magills in the clachan. It seems that he lived with his uncle in Cullyvully from a very early age.
Patrick Mulvenna who occupied no. 15 in Griffith’s (photo 3) was replaced by his grandson, Peter Steele, some time before 1901. Peter married a Jane McAllister from Capanagh. The 1901 Census Returns shows Jane Steele aged 26 living in the house with her young daughter of 11 months. Also in the house were her uncle, Hugh Close, aged 55 and her cousin Robert Mulvenna, aged 16. Both of these people were farm servants. Her husband, Peter, was not present in the house on the day of the census – he was probably in Scotland at the time – so he was not recorded. The family joined Peter for a time in Scotland but returned to Cullyvully. Peter Steele was still in possession of the holding in 1935 but by 1947 he had died and the property had passed to his wife. She died in 1959.
Robert Mulvenna who occupied no. 20 in Griffith’s (photo 1) was replaced by a Bernard McQuillan in 1876. We think that this is the same Bernard McQuillan who lived in Cruck. Bernard died around 1893 and was replaced by his son Alexander McQuillan, who is listed in the 1901 Census returns as a farmer aged 45 living with his wife Margaret (nee Thompson), aged 32 and his daughters Margaret (11), and an unnamed daughter, probably Susan (6), and his sons Bernard (4), Robert (2) and William (1). Alexander was still in possession of the farm in 1935 but by 1944 the farm had passed to his son, Bernard. This same Bernard McQuillan (aged 4 in 1901) took over Thompson’s farm (originally no. 18 in Griffith’s) around 1947. His brother, Robert (aged 2 in 1901) took over the other Thompson farm (originally no. 16 in Griffith’s) in 1935. Their mother was a sister of the Thompson brothers.
Cullyvully was perhaps one of the most isolated clachans we studied. Today the clachan is approached by a long lane from the main Skeagh road. However, this lane was only constructed by Peter Steele after he returned from Scotland in the 1930s. Before that time, access to the clachan was via the adjoining clachan of Cruck to the Loughdoo road.
Because intermarriage was a major feature of this clachan, working out relationships between family groups and understanding how and why certain families came into possession of particular properties was quite difficult. Frankly this would not have been possible without the exceptional local knowledge of Mr Felix McKillop and we are indebted to him for his generous help.