Thanks to my DNA - and also my father's - being shared publicly on both Ancestry, Family Tree DNA and MyHeritage UK, I recently came across another relation - James McCartney who descends like we do from Joseph Stewart of Crossnacreevy, Co. Down. My father and I descend directly from Joseph's son, also Joseph Stewart, while James McCartney descends directly from Joseph Stewart's daughter Lucinda Stewart.
https://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2019/03/lucinda-stewart-and-james-mcgowan.html
https://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-stewart-family-of-crossnacreevy.html
Both James McCartney and I share DNA relatives who have also shared their DNA on Ancestry. Our results show that we both share genetic material with a Thomas Cashion and a Linda Walker.
Both Thomas Cashion and Linda Walker descend, according to their respective family trees, from Thomas Walker of Belfast, the son of William Walker of Magheragall near Lisburn, Co. Antrim. Thomas Walker was the husband of Margery A. Stewart, which begs the question if she was a member of my own Stewart family of Crossnacreevy?
Some generous soul has gone to the trouble of publishing the registers of Rosemary Street Presbyterian Church online, and these show up the marriage on 25th January 1831 of Thomas Walker, son of William Walker of Magheragall, to Margery A. Stewart, the daughter of James Stewart of Edenderry.
Margery Stewart and Thomas Walker had several children in Ireland - Eliza Jane Walker (1834 - 1885), Mary Walker (born 1835), George Walker (1837 - 1920) and William Thomas Walker (1839 - 1909) - before emigrating to New York in 1842. James Walker was born in 1842 and Margaret Wallace Walker in 1848 (she would die in 1895).
Thomas Walker, husband of Margery Stewart, died in New York in 1851 and Margery moved west with her children, settling in Livermore, Alameda County, California, where she died on 20th Janaury 1895. She made a will in 1886 in which she named her main beneficiary as her son, William T. Walker, who was to inherit her half-interest in her Livermore property of 160 acres, valued at $1500. Her two daughters, who had already been provided for, were to be given one dollar each - they were named as Margaret W. Budsworth and Eliza Jane Brownredge. Margaret Wallace Walker had married William Budsworth, while Eliza Jane Walker had married George (or Joseph) Brownridge. Both daughters had died by the time their mother's will had been administered in May 1895.
William Thomas Walker, who inherited his mother's property in e, had married Delia J. Trainor - their children, as named in his mother's will, were Louise C. Walker born 1877, William Thomas Walker born 1882, John Francis Walker born 1885, Margaret Margery M. Walker born 1887, Theresa Walker born 1889 and Valentine A. Walker born 1890 or thereabouts.
The same online marriage records for Rosemary Street reveal more of the children of James Stewart of Edenderry. On 10th January 1822, Simon Clark, the son of Arthur Clark of Ballymagarry near Ballysillan, married Lucy or Lucinda Stewart, also the daughter of James Stewart of Edenderry. The name 'Lucinda' is not common in Ireland, and makes me wonder if the Lucinda Stewart, daughter of Joseph Stewart of Crossnacreevy, who married James McCartney and who I am definitely related to, might have been named after this earlier Lucinda Stewart?
Simon Clark and Lucinda Stewart baptised a daughter, Margaret Clark, in Rosemary Street, on 1st February 1826 - the date might be the date of birth rather than the baptism. A Margaret Clark, daughter of Simon, married a baker, Robert McCrea, son of Robert McCrea, in Belfast in 1849.
Margaret Clark and Robert McCrea had a son, William Thomas McCrea, at 81 Hopewell Street on 6th May 1871; William Thomas McCrea died young aged only 14 on 20th December 1884 at 33 Arnon Street. An apprentice tailor, he died of TB and his brother-in-law, Thomas Stewart, was present at his death.
This same Thomas Stewart was also present when another of the children of Margaret Clarke and Robert McCrea died of TB aged 41 on 13th January 1896. Robert McCrea, son of Margaret Clarke and Robert McCrea, was a baker like his father.
A daughter of Margaret Clarke and Robert McCrea was Jane McCrea who tragically drowned and whose body was discovered in the Lagan on 1st March 1888 having been in the water for several weeks.
On 30th March 1875 in St. Ann's, Belfast, Caroline McCrea, the daughter of the baker Robert McCrea, married Thomas Stewart, son of coachman James Stewart. I have no idea if this Thomas Stewart was another member of my own Stewart family, or whether he belongs to an unrelated family. Thomas Stewart was the son of James and Martha Stewart; his brother was James Stewart who married Margaret Jane Johnston and who lived at 18 Warkworth Street. This Stewart family were buried in grave F1 522 in Belfast City Cemetery - Thomas Stewart died aged 49 at 71 Cumberland Street on 1st February 1907; his niece, Cornelia de Etta Stewart, died aged 5 at 18 Warkworth Street on 1st July 1893 - her parents, James and Margaret Jane, later named a second daughter after this child. Martha Stewart, wife of James, died aged 64 at 18 Warkworth Street on 1st January 1893 while her husband, James Stewart, died there aged 64 on 28th March 1889.
Margaret McCrea, née Clarke, died aged 57 on 1st May 1878.
Lucinda Stewart, daughter of James Stewart of Edenderry, and wife of Simon Clark of Ballymagarry, died young, since on 14th November 1829 he married a second time, his new wife being Ann Jane Nelson, the daughter of Francis Nelson of Barrack Street. Lucy Clarke was buried in Shankill Cemetery: "Erected by Simon Clark of Ballynagarry in memory of his wife Lucy Clarke died 16 April 1829".
On 17th November 1866, Jane Clark, daughter of Simon, married Thomas Dwatt or Dwallt. William Hugh Lynn, son of Robert Lynn, married Louisa Ellen Clark, youngest daughter of Simon Clark of Ballymagarry on 28th March 1866.
An Arthur Clark, farmer, dairyman and carowner, died in Ballymagarry in 1907 leaving a will in which he named his children as James, Arthur, Jane and Annie.
On 20th April 1830 John Clarke, also the son of Arthur Clark of Ballymagarry, married Nancy Seals, the daughter of John Seals.
On 25th December 1830, William Martin, son of Thomas Martin, married Anne Jane Stewart, daughter of the late James Stewart of Edenderry. This family emigrated to Iowa. Their son, who had been baptised in Rosemary Street as James Martin, on 15th November 1835, was later know as John C. Martin - he married Jane Brownlee of Ballymena, Co. Antrim, and both of them died in Iowa, leaving a son, Albert Clarence Martin who had been born in 1879. William Martin and Anne Jane Stewart also baptised a son, Thomas Martin, in Rosemary Street on 15th February 1835.
On 8th February 1825, also in Rosemary Street, linen merchant David Herd or Hurd, the son of William Hurd of Old Park, Belfast, married Nancy Stewart, the daughter of the late James Stewart of Edenderry.
My father's DNA strongly matches that of Isobel Houston who has shared her genetic material and her family tree publicly on Family Tree DNA. She confirms that she is a direct descendant of David Herd and Agnes Stewart of Belfast.
Their daughter, according to her family tree, was Agnes Hurd who was Irish-born but who died on 14th January 1867 in Partick, Lanark, Scotland. Agnes married twice, first in Ireland to a member of the Gilliland family and then to the Irish-born William Galbraith. According to the 1861 Scottish Census, she had a daughter, Lucy Gilliland, in about 1850 before the death of her first husband. Agnes and William Galbraith married in Tradeston on 22nd February 1856, and the LDS records the birth of some of their children - Agnes Galbraith was born there on 22nd November 1857 and David Galbraith on 10th December 1859. In 1861 the family were living in Glasgow and the census reveals further children - William Galbraith aged 4 and Mary Galbraith aged 10. Son David would go on to marry Elizabeth Black.
William Galbraith, husband of Agnes Hurd, was noted as the son of Roger Galbraith. The LDS notes that a shoemaker of Malone, Belfast, William Golbraith (sic), son of the smith Roger Golbraith, married Jane Scott, the daughter of Andrew Scott, in Belfast on 16th May 1849. A Gilbert Galbraith was one of the witnesses.
The grocer, David Hurd and his wife, Nancy Stewart, also had a daughter, Jane Hurd, in Belfast on 3rd March 1826.
The Herd family lived at Scotch View, Old Park, an area of west Belfast near Ballysillan. William Hurd or Herd of Old Park, the father of David Herd, gets no mention in the Irish newspapers (courtesy of Find My Past) but the later Herd family of Scotch View is frequently mentioned.
On 2nd October 1821, farmer John Stewart (born circa 1800), son of James Stewart of Edenderry, married Agnes Wright, the daughter of William Wright of Shankill. They baptised a son, James Stewart, in Rosemary Street on 21st May 1825. William Stewart was baptised there on 1st February 1827 and John Stewart on 15th March 1829.
(On 8th September 1830, also in Rosemary Street, Margaret Wright, the daughter of William Wright of Shankill, married William McCully of Belfast who was the son of Robert McCully - they had Ann McCully on 29th May 1834 and Robert McCully on 11th September 1837. )
On 11th September 1857, Lucinda/Lucy Stewart, the daughter of John Stewart and Agnes Wright of Edenderry, Belfast, and granddaughter of James Stewart of Edenderry, married the linen lapper John Curry/Corry, the son of George Curry and of Margaret Saulters. Once again the Stewart family use the name 'Lucinda'. The marriage certificate has faded significantly but one of the witnesses was a member of the Saulters family.
Lucinda Stewart and John Curry had plentiful children, some born at Edenderry and some in Crumlin Road or the Ardoyne - a child was born on 26th May 1865, another unnamed child on 2nd January 1870. Samuel John Curry was born at Edenderry on 18th October 1867, Robert George Curry on 1st May 1878, Mary Lucy Curry on 10th August 1871 and an unnamed child on 23rd September 1874.
One of the unnamed babies born to Lucinda Stewart and John Curry was Joseph Stewart Curry who, on 22nd February 1895 in Ballysillan Church, married Annie Lowry McAdam, the daughter of farmer Thomas McAdam. It would be interesting to know if Joseph Stewart Curry was named for our immediate ancestor, Joseph Stewart of Crossnacreevy, whose daughter was named 'Lucinda' as was John Curry's wife. Joseph Stewart Curry, retired confectionary factory manager of 2 Lawnbank, Ballysillan, died on 6th July 1929 and was buried in Carnmoney Cemetery, Co. Antrim.
One of the daughters of Lucinda Stewart and linen house manager John Curry, Agnes Curry of the Ardoyne, married a doctor, Edward Albert Kirkwood, the son of Edward Kirkwood, in Cooke Centenary Church on 7th December 1898; the groom died young of TB on 23rd May 1909. The widowed Agnes Kirkwood, née Curry, married again on 24th April 1913. Her groom was the widower Robert Wilson, a mill manager and son of the late William Wilson.
Margaret Lucy Curry, the daughter of John Curry, manager of the Ardoyne Factory, married millwright Matthew McDowell, son of millwright Francis McBride McDowell and of Charlotte McDowell. The wedding ceremony was performed by Rev. William C. McCullough at the bride's family home in the Ardoyne on 13th April 1877 and was witnessed by John Stewart and Ann Jane Stewart.
The McDowell family came from Glenbank, Ballysillan, which is where Matthew McDowell and Margaret Lucy Curry settled and had their large family:
- David McDowell was born on 23rd August 1877
- Charlotte McAlister McDowell was born on 3rd July 1879 - she was living at 28 Windermere Gardens when she died on 7th March 1963 and her will was administered by her brother, Samuel Curry McDowell and by Stewart Paterson Marshall.
- John Curry McDowell was born on 1st June 1880; a publican, he died at 27 Glenbank place in Ballysillan on 27th July 1931 leaving a widow Eliza Jane McDowell.
- Margaret Lucy McDowell was born on 24th September 1881
- Francis McDowell was born on 27th september 1885
- Matthew McDowell was born in Glenbank on 24th December 1887 - he married Margaret McVicar, the daughter of William McVicar, in Belfast on 6th September 1916.
- Joseph Curry McDowell was born on 7th September 1890 - he emigrated to Southbridge, Massachusetts, where, on 28th January 1922, he married Mildred Eager the daughter of Charles Eager and Jennie Williams. Joseph Curry McDowell died in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 24th January 1945, leaving sons Rear Admiral Charles Eager McDowell, Donald and Joseph, and a daughter Jean McDowell.
- Albert McDowell was born on 11th June 1893.
- Samuel Curry McDowell was born on 22nd May 1895 - he administered the 1954 will of his uncle, Robert George Curry.
- William T. McDowell was born circa 1896.
John Curry, linen house manager, died aged 80 on 12th October 1914; the widowed Lucy Curry, née Stewart, died at 348 Crumlin Road aged 80 on 19th December 1914; her son, Robert George Curry, was present. In 1930 he married Daisy Gertrude Syre - he would die at 573 Crumlin Road on 21st December 1954 and his will was administered by Samuel Curry McDowell.
The brother of John Curry, linen house manager, who was married to Lucinda Stewart, was William Curry, a linen lapper, who married Lucinda Stewart's sister Margaret Stewart. William Curry, son of George Curry, married Margaret Stewart, daughter of John Stewart of Edenderry, on 25th January 1867. William Curry and Margaret Stewart baptised a daughter, who was born on 18th January 1878, as Agnes WRIGHT Curry. Margaret's parents were farmer John Stewart, son of James Stewart of Edenderry, and Agnes Wright, who had married on 2nd October 1821. Another child of William Curry and Margaret Stewart was John Stewart Curry who was born on 4th January 1879.
The Curry family were buried in Shankill Cemetery. "Erected by George Curry in memory of his beloved wife Margaret Sarah who departed this life 28 December 1859 aged 53. The above named George Curry departed this life 11th May 1866. Their son William Curry departed this life 4th march 1910 aged 70 years. And his wife Margaret Stewart departed this life 13 December 1909 aged 71. Also their son John Curry who departed this life 12 October 1914 aged 80. And his wife Lucy who departed this life 19 December 1916 aged 80 years."
John Stewart, a coal merchant and son of coal merchant John Stewart and Agnes Wright, who had been baptised in Rosemary Street Church on 15th March 1829, married Margaret Scott in Belfast on 29th May 1867. John Stewart was a widowed coal factor of Whiterock, and the marriage registration confirmed that his father John Stewart had died by this time. The bride was the daughter of the late linen manufacturer Robert Scott. John Stewart's sister, Marjory Stewart, witnessed the wedding.
John Stewart and Margaret Scott had Agnes Stewart at 49 Dundee Street on 3rd March 1869, Marjory (various spellings) who was born at 89 Dundee Street on 1st September 1870, Elizabeth who was born at 24 Moscow Street on 30th August 1872, and James Stewart.
First wife Margaret Scott died of paralysis in 18 Moscow Street on 14th May 1883. John Stewart remarried for a third time on 17th June 1884, to the widow, Mary Elizabeth Roney, the daughter of builder Thomas McCall.
A coal merchant, John Stewart was living at 243 Shankill Road when he died on 1st January 1888, leaving a will whose executor was his brother James Stewart, coal merchant of 179 Shankill Road. His will named his two daughters as Margory/Marjory and Agnes. There was no mention of daughter Elizabeth who must have died young.
On 17th March 1899, Marjory Stewart, the daughter of coal merchant John Stewart and Margaret Scott, married Alexander McKibbin, a mechanic and fitter, son of the moulder Henry McKibbin. The witnesses were E. Turnley and Minnie Cochrane. Marjory Stewart and Alexander McKibbin would have a daughter, Marjorie Stewart McKibbin, who would die in Belfast on 4th June 1941.
Alexander McKibbin had been born on 11th September 1867 to his parents, Henry McKibbin and Mary Jane Jamison, who had married on 1st October 1866 - Henry McKibbin was the son of Hugh McKbbin while Mary Jane was the daughter of Alexander Jamison.
The papers announced the death on 28th December 1887 at 179 Agnes Street of Marjory Stewart, the daughter of the late John Stewart and Agnes Wright of Edenderry. For the last 26 years, she had been the principal of Campbell's Row National School. Present at her death was her brother James Stewart, a coal merchant of 179 Shankill Road. When she died was aged 46 so had been born circa 1841. In her will she named her siblings as sister Agnes Stormont Stewart, James Stewart of 179 Shankill Road and brother John Stewart of 243 Shankill Road.
The papers announced the death on 31st December 1923, at 17 Summer Street, of Agnes Stormont Stewart, youngest daughter of the late John Stewart of Forth River.
The Irish papers reported the marriage of coal merchant James Stewart, son of John Stewart and Agnes Wright of Edenderry, to Mary, the youngest daughter of Mrs. Saulters of Edenderry, in Ballysillan Presbyterian Church on 12th May 1854. The marriage certificate notes that father and son - John and James Stewart - were carmen of Edenderry, while Mary Saulters was the daughter of William Saulters a farmer of Edenderry. The wedding was witnessed by John Stewart and Thomas Saulters.
John Stewart, carman, and Mary had Thomas T. Stewart at 1 Hobson's Row on 10th August 1868, Mary Stewart on 13th August 1864 and Elizabeth on 20th April 1867. An online family tree tracks Thomas T. Stewart (1868 - 1923) as he emigrates to Ramsey, Minnesota where he married the Irishwoman Kathryn McDonough.
The Saulters or Salters family were also from Edenderry in Belfast - another Rosemary Street marriage occurred on 21st April 1832 when Margaret Salters, the daughter of William Salters of Edenderry, married George Curry the son of the late Edward Curry of Dunmurry.
James Stewart of 179 Shankill Road was noted in the street directories as 'James Stewart & Sons'. He died at 62 Lonsdale Street aged 67 on 15th August 1892 - his will named his sons as John and William, and daughters as Mary Jane, Mary and Elizabeth. The 1901 census shows the adult children of James Stewart all living together at 62 Lonsdale Street. The unmarried sons, John and William Stewart, were coal merchants. Mary Stewart was also single, while Mary Jane Stewart was widowed. Her two children were living there too - May and Annie Barr, as was a young niece May Dunlop.
Ann Jane Stewart had married her cousin, William Stewart Barr, on 26th January 1892 in Fortwilliam Park Church. A horse dealer, William Stewart Barr of 6 Dundee Street, Belfast, died in Rugby, England, on 23rd November 1895.
Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of coal merchant James Stewart, married James Dunlop, the son of William Dunlop, in Crescent Church on University Road, Belfast, on 23rd April 1890 - the witnesses were William Stewart and Isabella Dunlop. In 1901 they were living at 24 Fairview Street with their two sons, William Stewart Dunlop and James Stewart Dunlop.
Another son of the original James Stewart of Edenderry must have been William Stewart, who was married to Jane - Jane, the widow of William Stewart, died aged 80 at the residence of her son, William Stewart of 176 Shankill Road, in 1875, and was buried in grave K238 in Belfast City Cemetery along with her son and daughters. Daughter Elizabeth Stewart died aged 59 in 1894 at 176 Shankill Road, while Lucinda Stewart died there aged 60 in 1893.
176 Shankill Road was the home of William Stewart Junior, a horse dealer who died in 1916.
Mary Jane Stewart, daughter of the carman William and Jane Stewart, married Hugh Barr in Belfast on 27th January 1855. Hugh Barr, a widower and a carman, was the son of the older Hugh Barr, and the wedding in St. Anne's was witnessed by William and Elizabeth Stewart. Hugh and Mary Jane Barr's son, William Stewart Barr, was present when Mary Jane's sister, Elizabeth Stewart, died at 176 Shankill Road in 1894. On 26th April 1895 the papers announced the death at Dundee Street of Mary Jane, wife of Hugh Barr and sister of William Stewart of the Shankill Road.
On 26th January 1892 in Fortwilliam Park Church, William Stewart Barr, the son of Hugh Barr and Mary Jane Stewart, married his cousin, Ann Jane Stewart, who was the daughter of James Stewart and Mary Saulters of 179 Shankill Road. The witnesses were Minnie Stewart and Joseph Stewart Curry, the son of Lucinda Stewart and John Curry.
William Stewart Barr and Mary Jane Stewart had twin daughters, Annie and Lizzie Barr, who were born at 6 Dundee Street half an hour apart on 13th October 1895. A third daughter was Mary Jane Barr of 10 Percy Street who married Samuel Gault, the son of missionary James Gault, on 4th March 1893.
Where was Edenderry, the home of the original James Stewart and of the subsequent generations of his family? I used the maps on Griffiths Valuation to isolate an Edenderry close to Old Park, Belfast. The two places are about a mile apart. At the junction of the modern Ardoyne and Crumlin Road, and immediately south of Ballysillan and Ligoniel, the old maps show up Edenderry Turnpike, Edenderry Lodge and Edenderry Cottage. A later member of the Saulters family, who also lived at Edenderry, left a will in which his address was given as Edenderry, Ballygomartin Road - the Ballygomartin Road runs into the junction of Ardoyne and Crumlin Road.
This area in the 1850s was a hotbed of mills, presumably all forming part of the thriving linen industry of the time.
