Land Owners in Ireland 1870’s

Five months ago, in early November 2020, I decided to look more at the British government’s excellent 1876 publication: Owners of land of One Acre and Upward, Ireland Return.  This publication documented, on the island of Ireland, all those owners of farms of over one acre. The returns were collected across Ireland between February 1873 and November 1875.  The final report was published in 1876.

My primary interest was limited to in and around Eden.  Although the area of analysis was eventually widened. Initially, the data was transcribed into a large table. But in order to make the data searchable, it was then transferred to a database.  Although this was a time-consuming exercise, it was well worth it.

In this article, I am experimenting with two new innovations – a live table that can be interrogated/searched (by name and townland), and the display of a readable book in PDF form.

The local area in question is marked below with a red circle. In the future, the area may be expanded upon, and more farm data added.

local map

Some Basic Notes on the Data

The villages associated with the various townlands are as follows:

Bellaghy – Ballymacombs, Killyberry, Drumlamph, Drumanee, Mullaghbuoy.

Kilrea – Boveedy, Drumsaragh, Killygullib, Lislea.

Maghera – Ballymacilcur, Ballynacross, Craigmore, Curragh, Fallogloon, Grillagh, Knocknakeilt, Mullagh, Termoney.

Portglenone – Ballymacpeake, Ballyneese, Innisrush, Moneystaghan.

Dreenan is associated with the postal area of Knockloughrim.

The document had incorrectly spelled Knocknakielt (misspelling it as Knocknakeilt). 

Innisrush, for some reason, was sometimes spelt Ennisrush in this publication.

Bellaghy Presbyterian Church Trustees are listed as owning 2 acres, 1 rood and a perch, worth some 10 pounds and 15 shillings.

Measuring Farm Sizes – Acre, Rood and Perch

If one goes back far enough in Ulster, you see all sorts of variances on the acre, such as the Cunningham Acre, the Plantation Acre and the Irish Acre.

But by the time of this document, in the 1870s, the Statute Acre had been established as the default measurement of farm size in Ulster.

A statute acre is made up of 4 roods, with 40 perches in a rood.

My father and grandfather would sometimes mention roods and perches, when referencing areas smaller than an acre.  I imagined that roods and perches had died with those generations, but my cousin tells me that the terms are still in use til this very day.

Farm Owners in County Londonderry

From the document, we see that in 1871, there were 173,932 people and 32,601 inhabited houses in County Derry.

In County Derry, there were a total of 1,380 owners of land, of one acre and upwards.  This land covered some 511,609 acres.  It was valued at 311,596 pounds.

There were 798 owners of land, in the county, of less than one acre.  This land in total, was 229 acres, 0 roods, 20 perches.  It was valued at 53,136 pounds and 5 shillings.

That gave a grand total of 2,178 owners of farm land. These proprietors  owned 511,838 acres, which was worth some 364,732 pounds.

The estimated amount of ‘Waste Lands’ in the county was 4,200 acres.

Farm Owners in County Antrim 

In 1871, there were 394,618 people and 69,439 inhabited houses in County Antrim.

In County Antrim, there were a total of 2,176 owners of land, of one acre and upwards.  This land covered some 690,810 acres.  It was valued at over 771,377 pounds.

There were 3,172 owners of land, in County Antrim, of less than one acre.  This land in total, covered 1,100 acres.  It was valued at 243,910 pounds.

That gave a grand total of 5,348 owners of farm land. These proprietors  owned some 691,910 acres, which was worth some 1,015,287 pounds.

The estimated amount of ‘Waste Lands’ in the county was 4,000 acres.

Some Key Points

In looking only at my local area (the red circle in the map above) of Counties Derry and Antrim, here are some points of note. 

County Derry was made up of lots of small farms.  However on crossing the River Bann into Portglenone and County Antrim, it was a different story.  The Alexanders in Portglenone, owned many thousands of acres of farmland in and around the area.

e.g.  Robert J. Alexander, of Portglenone House, Portglenone owned over 4215 acres, worth 3576 pounds.  It’s also worth noting that in County Tyrone, Robert also owned an additional 1769 acres, worth 1178 pounds.

George Alexander, of Portglenone owned over 2135 acres, in County Antrim, worth 1224 pounds.

William S. Alexander owned 956 acres, valued at over 558 pounds.

In a wider overview of County Antrim, Sir Henry Hervey Bruce, of Downhill, on the north coast not far from Coleraine, owned over 20,801 acres, worth some 11,397 pounds.

In County Derry,  the biggest local landowner in my area at that time, was Andrew Spottiswoode of the Manor House in Bellaghy. He owned over 1,412 acres, valued at 721 pounds and 15 shillings.

Land in County Antrim appears, on average, to be worth significantly more than land in County Derry.

Search the Table

In my local area (see the red circle in the map above), encompassing parts of County Derry and Antrim, there were 175 farms.

The search box below will hopefully prove useful.  You can search the table via name and townland, to not only find your ancestors (and their acreage), but also discover who their neighbours were. 

Search the Book – Owners of land of One Acre and Upward, Ireland Return

If you cannot find what you are looking for, in the table above, then you can do your own search below.  The publication is 334 pages long.  It is divided up by county. The Province of Ulster begins on page 181.  County Antrim starts on page 183.  County Derry starts on page 254.

You can toggle the publication to full screen by pressing the square box (bottom right). 

Use your arrow keys to go backwards and forwards in the publication. 

Experiment, and don’t worry, you cannot break anything.