Peter Lavalade, Dromore 1770 - From the Registry of Deeds

We descend directly from an Agnes Lavalade who married Reid Wilson in Ballygunaghan, Donaghcloney, Co. Down, in 1826.  There seems to be only the one Lavalade family recorded in Ireland, all of them clustered in the 15-mile area between Lisburn and Donaghcloney.  The name seems to disappear completely with the death of Edward Lavalade who was recorded in the tithe books as farming in Monree, a townland neighbouring Ballygunaghan, in the 1830s. 

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/07/reid-wilson-and-agnes-leveletlavalade.html

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/07/wilsons-huguenot-ancestry.html

Peter Lavalade of Dromore and Donacloney must be another member of this family.

Deed 299-479-199076 from the Registry of Deeds, dated 12th May 1769, was an indenture of lease between farmer, Peter Lavalade of Co. Down, and Edward Dowglass of Drumskee, Dromore.  Peter Lavalade did demise, set and lease to Edward Dowglass several messuages and tenements now, or late, in the possession of Michael Strain, James Magill and Alexander McCalester, as well as the houses called the shop, and the schoolhouse with gardens in possession of the said Edward Dowglass and his tenants in Church Street, Dromore.  These were to be held by Edward Dowglass for 31 years with a covenant to renew the lease from time to time at the yearly rent of 2 shillings and 6 pence.  The deed was witnesses by John Heyland and Joseph Dickson, gentlemen of Dromore, who were also implicated in the following deed.

 Indented deed of assignment (ref: 284-350-184864; date: 28th December 1770) concerns the sale of a house in Church Street, Dromore, County Down, by its owner, Peter Lavalade, to Terence Heyland.


I transcribed the following deed as best I could, and added in a few punctuation marks to make it more legible.  The name 'Lavalade' is only spelt correctly in one place - where Peter himself signed and sealed the deed - and was also spelt correctly in the Index to Deeds in the Registry Office where I found it.

'A memorial of an indented deed of assignment bearing date the twenty-eighth of December, one thousand, seven hundred and seventy, made between Peter Lavadare (sic) of Donaghclony in the County of Down farmer of the one part and Terence Heyland of Dromore in the County of Down Gent of the other part, whereby reciting as is therein recited the said Peter Lavadare for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred pounds did give grant bargain sell and assign unto him, the said Terence Heyland, all that Tenement containing 55 feet fronting Church Street southward, 37 feet joining Mr. Maginnis's tenement westward, 53 feet on Mr. John Bateman March Northward, and 37 feet on John Things March eastward, together with the Stable thereunto belonging being 20 feet long and 16 feet broad together also with the gardin (sic) thereto belonging, being 122 feet in length, bounded with John Haltride Esqrs March, 30 feet in breadth, bounded with Mr Sheweb (?) March, and 38 feet in breadth bounded with Mr. Tillets March, together with all the...(illegible)...gardens formerly belonging to Matthew Lonwellt, Thomas Thokher, being 274 feet fronting Church Street southward, and 110 feet bounded with the walk westward, and 164 feet bounded with Mr. Stothard's March, and 102 feet on Mr. Magennis's March eastward, late in possession of Alice Graham, situate in the town of Dromore and County of Down, as also all those parts and parcels of the Townland of Donaghcloney in the County of Down, late in the possession of Coolett Stothard, Gent., Deceased, but now in the possession of the said Peter Lavadate with their and every of their apputenances and all his, the said Peter Lavadale's, right to the property claim and Domain whatsoever into or out of all or any of the said assigned premises....Their appurtenances unto the said Terence Heyland his Executors, Admons, or Assigns from the twenty-nineth day of September last for and during all the residue of the terms for years or Interest, the said Peter Lavadare, his Executors, Admons and Assigns have to come or may or can have in the said assigned premises, either of them subject to Redemption or payment of the said sum of one hundred pounds sterling with Interest on the said first day of May next, which Indented Deed of Assignment and this Memorial is witnessed by Joseph Dickson of Dromore in the County of Down, Gent, and Alexander Dickson his son, and John Heyland of Dromore, aforesaid gent Peter Lavalade (seal) signed and sealed in presence of John Heyland, Alexander Dickson, Joseph Dickson.  The above named Alexander Dickson maketh oath that he saw the above named Peter Lavadale and Terence Heyland duly execute the Indented Deed of Assignment whereof the above writing is a Memorial and also saw the said Peter Lavadale sign and seal this Memorial and that the name Alexander Dickson is a witness to said Indented Deed and Memorial, is this deponent's proper name and handwriting, Alexander Dickson sworn before me at Dromore in the County of Down this twenty-eighth day of December 1770, by virtue of a Commission to me granted and I know the Deponent Joseph Dickson, Present Morgan Tellett, Thomas Wanny, Justice.'

Early Records of Peter Lavalade and Other Family:

A Margaret Levelit was born 10th June 1757 to Peter Levelit in Dundalk, Co. Louth.

The Freeholders' Records on the Proni website record Peter Lovedale, aka Lavalade, farming in Lurgantamary in July 1781, with an added note that his wife was a 'Papist'.

Peter Lavalade was later noted in 1791 as a farmer of Lurgantamry townland in Donaghcloney, ten kilometers west of Dromore.  Peter Lavalade married Catherine Durry in 1793 in the same area.  Catherine was either his second wife, or there were two Peter Lavalades, possibly a father and son.

Peter Lavalade made his will in 1805.

(Notes on the Durry family of Dromore:  I found no further reference to the name 'Durry' in Dromore/Donaghcloney. I did, however, come across a Dromore family by the name of 'Derry' and it seems likely that this was the same family. 
In 1826, Ann Derry made her will in Dromore.  
Two years earlier, in 1824, Thomas Derry, a boot and shoe maker, was noted in Dromore town. In 1846, there was a Richard Darry in the street directories as a boot maker and leather merchant on Church Street, Dromore.  The profession of shoe/boot maker or leather dealer seems to have been passed on through the family - in 1870, James and Thomas Derry were shoemakers of Rampart Street.  
Richard Derry was noted as a leather merchant in 1886 in Church Street, Dromore, (the same street where Peter Lavalade had owned a house in 1770),  but, earlier in 1881, Richard had tried his hand as a china, glass and earthenware dealer.  In 1881, James Derry of Rampart Street was a boot maker and leather dealer.

The Proni website has published the wills of some of these people, the earliest being the will of  Richard Derry in 1870 - Richard, shoemaker of Church Street, divided his house between his two sons, namely Richard Junior and Wesley. He also left £10 to his granddaughter, Mary Jane, who was the daughter of Wesley. The will was witnessed by Joseph Dickson which is a real coincidence, the 1770 deed of Peter Lavalade having been witnessed by an earlier Joseph Dickson.
Thomas Derry, shoemaker of Rampart Street, made his will in 1872 and left everything to his widow, Isabella Russell, who made her will in 1890, leaving everything to a nephew, John Boyle.
Wesley Derry (1834 - 1906), son of Richard, had moved to Belfast and was living at Little Victoria Street when he made his will in 1906.  The family were Methodist which explains his name. Wesley had married Susanna Porter in Hillsborough in 1862 and had two daughters, Mary Jane/Minnie and Susan Elizabeth/Lizzie.  Wesley Derry, a rent agent, owned property - nine house in Mourne St, 118 University Street where his daughters later lived, five house in Maryville Street and four houses in Vernon Street.  Mary Jane made her own will the same year, leaving everything to her younger sister.  By the time of the 1911 Census, there is no sign of the surviving members of this family.)

The next mention of a Lavalade was Edward Lavalade who was noted in the Tithe Applotment Book of 1834 as a farmer of Monree which is the townland next to Lurgantamry/Lurgantamary where Peter Lavalade was earlier farming.
The Masonic publication 'Ars Quatuor Coronatum' noted that Edward Lavalade was a member of the Masonic Order from 1793 till 1822 - he was associated with Lodge 777, which was located, according to this particular publication, in Magherfelt, Co. Derry.  The only Lodge 777 I could find was, however, located in Belfast.

Edward Lavalade was almost certainly the father of Agnes Lavalade/Lavelet who married Reid Wilson in Ballygunaghan in the 1830's or 1840's - their son was named Edward Wilson and was our paternal great-great-grandfather.  (Ballygunaghan, Monree and Lurgantamry are all adjacent townlands in the parish of Donaghcloney south of Dromore.)

In the same Dromore/Donaghcloney area, there were other members of the Lavalade family -  A Mary Lavelet, daughter of John Lavelet and Elizabeth Stephenson, was christened on 18th July 1790 in Dromore Parish. A later Mary Lavelett, daughter of Richard Lavelett and Mary Beard, was christened in Dromore Parish on 19th June 1797.

 I consulted the book 'Marriage Licence Bonds - Down, Connor, Dromore, 1721 - 1845' during a recent visit to the Dublin National Archives in Bishop Street and discovered yet another Lavalade reference in the same area, although an exact address wasn't given.  This was Richard Lavalade who married Isabella Ezdal  in 1808.  The name 'Ezdal' is probably a corruption of 'Esdaile' or 'Esdale'.
A William and John Esdaile were noted as freeholders of Monaree townland, Donaghcloney, which was where Edward Lavalade was farming in the 1830s.