Lands in Ballygallum

In reading through these auction lots, and developing a hazy appreciation of the how the land parcels were formed and how they changed hands, it demands only a little more rooting round the available data to start to build a picture of the dramatis personae, their background, and the wider historical context:

The following, for example, is an extract from "An historical account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, ancient and modern" by the Rev. James O'Laverty (1878). I have copied this from the Ashe Family History Website.

In 1710, the estate called " The Ten Towns of Lecale," was purchased by the trustees under the will of Hugh Rainey of Magherafelt, for £6,545, subject to a reserved rent of £5 ; the rent of these townlands at that time was £333, although they contain 2,529 acres of the richest land in Lecale. " The Ten Towns" are Bally warren, Tobermoney, Mill Quarter of Do., Upper Ballyclander, Lower Ballyclander, Grange Walls, Grange Ban, Corn-Mill of Do., Ballyhossett, Milltown of Do., Ballygallum and Lower Ballymote. The rents, after paying certain debts, were to be paid by the trustees, one half to Mr. Rainey's grand-son, John Ash, or John Ash Rainey, and the other half to Magherafelt School. In 1737 William Ash Rainey, to whom the property of his brother John had passed, obtained an Act of Parliament empowering him to sell or grant leases for ever of the estate subject to a rent of £175 to be paid to the Protestant Primate for the benefit of Magherafelt School. 

Nearly all the tenants availed themselves of the powers of the Act and became purchasers of the fee of their lands. From the reserved rents £175 per annum was paid to the school, and the remainder, amounting to £600 per anmim, was paid to Mr. Ash Rainey, but he continued to sell from time to time these rents to different parties, amongst others, to Judge Ward, who also purchased the interest of several tenants in Ballyhossett and the Grange, which are now vested in his descendants, Lord Bangor, and Mr. Ward of Bangor Castle. When at at last Mr. Rainey became reduced in circumstances, his former tenants voluntarily purchased for him an annuity of £50. The permanency of tenure enjoyed by the farmers in these townlands has produced that independence, self reliance, and prosperity for which the occupiers of those lands are characterized, thereby giving a convincing proof that what is wanted to produce prosperity among the farmers of Ireland is permanency of tenure. Of course Catholics who at that time could not hold such leases were deprived of the advantages of the Ash Rainey leases, and of the opportunities of purchase which the sale of the Downpatrick estate in 1710 afforded.

The places in Lecale referred to cover almost exactly the range of places referred to in the Belfast Auction lots. William Ash Rainey seems to have part of an extended Presbyterian family, in other words probably of Scottish origin. In the case of the Reverend Thomas Nevin referred to, there is no doubt at all. This leading light and controversialist in the Presbyterian movement described himself as 'Scoto-Hibernicus'.

So, to a very large extent, the lands that ended up in the possession of Harriett Wombwell dated back to the period of the Plantation when numerous land grants were made by the English authorities to Scottish Presbyterian settlers, as part of an ongoing, long-term policy to pacify Ireland. This of course does not explain how some of these lands ended up in the pocket of Harriett Wombwell over in London in the nineteenth century.