In 1873 the Rev. George Hill published his classic “Historical Account of the Macdonnells of Antrim.” To him, more than to any other historian, are we of the Glens indebted for the reconstructed story of our past. This richly annotated tome of some 450 quarto pages of closely set type, is long since out of print. It sells currently on the antique book market, if it can be had at all, for anything up to £50.
The Society had hoped to celebrate the centenary of its publication with a special lecture. As this hope has not been realised, the following biographical notes are appended for the information of those who may wish to know something of the author. Much of their content is drawn from an article written by Mr. Samuel Simms, B.Sc., M.D., M.R.C.P., D.P.H., Belfast, which appeared in “The Glensman” of September and October, 1932.
The Rev. George Hill was born on 18th September, 1810, at Moyarget near Ballycastle, and died ninety years later on 4th July, 1900, in the same house. This is not to say that he remained there throughout his life – very far from it – but for the reader who is anxious to reach across time and make contact with the man, it is still possible to visit the farm on which grew up and passed away, our renowned respected and extraordinarily reliable historian. Let him take the main road from Ballycastle to Coleraine by way of Moss-side and Derrykeighan. Four miles out, this will take him through the tiny village of Moyarget, on the further side of which he should turn right (North West) along the road to Ballinlea. Almost immediately, at a bend in the road, he will pass a smithy’s shop, behind which is hidden the former Hill homestead. Gone is the canopied kitchen chimney, where as a lad he listened to “the fireside stories of his happy home,”1 for, like so many others, the old house now serves as a barn to a more modern replacement. But if the reader is fortunate the present owner, Mr. Andrew McConaghy, will throw back the big barn doors and allow him to ‘feel’ the past and ‘breathe’ the present. There is the old cassy, and across the yard stand the old farm outhouses, and here, where stand the bales of hay, the family lived and laughed and laboured together, as every farming family does in that room known as the kitchen. This was George Hill’s home during his boyhood, and by returning to it in his old age he showed that he was indeed a Glensman.
The young George first attended a local hedge school. He then went to a school in Ballycastle kept by Mr. James Simms, son of the Rev. John Simms, Presbyterian minister of Ramoan, who in 1822 had succeeded the Rev. William Lynd, George’s maternal grandfather. In 1826 George proceeded to the Royal Academical Institution in Belfast, from which he presently absented himself in order to earn a little money. This he did by offering his services as tutor to the sons of various well-to-do families, including the Sharman-Crawfords. Two years later he returned to the College Department of “Inst.” to read theology, and in 1834 he was ordained Unitarian minister to the congregation in Ballymoney. In 1837 he moved to Crumlin where he remained for the ensuing thirteen years. Here he met and married Jane, daughter of the Rev. James Bankhead of Dromore.
In 1850, on account of a voice complaint which adversely effected his ministry, he accepted the appointment of chief librarian to the newly established college, which the previous year had superseded the College Department of “Inst.” Here he faithfully performed his life’s major work. ‘For thirty years (from 1850 – 1880) the Rev. George Hill was the accurate, painstaking and obliging Librarian of Queen’s College, Belfast, performing the duties of the office with a conscientious care that met the approval and approbation of both students and professors.”2 During these years he meticulously gathered a collection of books and material which formed the nucleus of the great university library we have today. By 1869 this required to be housed in an independent building, constructed under his direction, close to the site of its present successor, the multi-storied ediface in the north east quadrant of the campus. That year the library catalogues was first published and Mr. Hill kept it in constant revision until shortly before he retired.
In 1858 Mr. Hill began his Ulster historical writing with a series of articles in the “Coleraine Chronicle” on “The Old Harbour at Ballycastle” in which he gave much information about the family of Hugh Boyd, its builder. From 1859 he was a frequent contributor to the first series of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology with articles on famous Co. Antrim families, including the Macdonnells, Macnaghtens, McNeills, McAuleys and Macartneys. In 1865 he published in pamphlet form a history of the Stewarts of Ballintoy, a work which was appearing in revised form in the Ulster journal of Archaeology3 at the time of his death.
In 1870 his first great historical work appeared – “The Montgomery Manuscripts” in which the Scottish settlement of the Co. Down during the seventeenth century was treated through a study of the family papers of William Montgomery (1633 – 1702) of Rosemount”, Grey Abbey. Three years later appeared his “Historical Account of the Macdonnells of Antrim,” followed in 1877 by his “Historical Account of the Plantation of Ulster,” still the standard text book on the subject and recently republished by the Irish University Press. The following year appeared his “Flight of the Earls, or the Earls’ Own Account of the Causes which compelled Them to Leave Ulster in the Autumn of 1607.”
Two years later he resigned his librarianship. It was about this time that the late Alfred M. McKisack of Belfast remembered him and his only daughter dining at ‘Beechcroft,’ the home of the Rev. C.J. McAlester, Unitarian minister in Holywood (1834 – 1891). He described Mr. Hill as “a fine handsome, erect man.” Others have mentioned him as being “modest and retiring.” His subsequent articles, written for the “Northern Whig,” were collected and published in 1886 and 1887 under the title of “Plantation Papers.”
Returning to the book, the centenary of which we now celebrate: in 1870 Mr. Hill had written a series of articles for the News-Letter entitled “Gleanings from the Glens – the burial place of the Macdonnells.” “After the second paper had appeared, the author was engaged at the library table checking the return of some books when a gentleman approached wearing an overcoat and asked if he were Mr. Hill and the author of the papers on the Macdonnels. Having received a satisfactory reply, he introduced himself as the Earl of Antrim and stated that his mother, the Countess, was greatly interested in the articles. He gave Mr. Hill some documents which the Countess sent for his perusal and a cordial invitation to Glenarm Castle, to examine the family papers which might assist him in the history of the Macdonnells.”4 and so was opened to the author a mass of raw material upon the very subject with which he was then engaged. His subsequent research enabled him to write his celebrated “Historical Account of the Macdonnells of Antrim.”
Since his time many books and articles have been written about the history of the Glens. Many writers have paid handsome tribute to Mr. Hill giving detailed acknowledgement when drawing upon his work. Some, however, have been at pains to point out errors they have discovered in his work. In the interest of accuracy this is both essential and correct. Unfortunately one pin-pointed error stands out more clearly than a mass of laboriously gathered exactitude, with the result that, albeit unconsciously, doubt is thrown upon the whole. There is no doubt however, that Mr. Hill’s researches have provided us with a sure foundation to our written history, and that we of the Glens, in enjoying the fruits of his labours, are privileged beyond our deserts.
1. Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 2nd Series Vol. VI. p.125.
2. Ibid p.127.
3. Ibid. p. 17.
4. The Glensman, Vol I, No. 12 (Sept. 1932) p.8.