This page is about the family tree of the Mulhollands at Hill House in Eden – near Portglenone in County Londonderry, Ireland. They worshipped and are buried at Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower Church of Ireland (near Innisrush). This page is a work in progress.  It will be updated if, and when, additional information comes to light.  Notably, I am still searching for Mulholland-related birth, marriage and death certificates from the 1800s.

Eden, Portglenone, Londonderry

Mulholland Family Tree

Richard Mulholland & Mary Barnes

It was 1775.  The US Revolution had just begun.  And in Europe, nine old women in Poland were burnt as witches, for supposedly causing a bad harvest.  Another lady was similarly labelled a witch in Germany and put to death.  In this same year, near Tamlaght O’Crilly, Richard Mulholland was born.  He married Mary Barnes (born 1785).  Richard was only 50 when he died on the 20 August 1825.   Mary survived her husband by another fifty years, and was 90 years old, when she died on 15 June 1875.  There appears to be conflicting data as to Richard’s birth and death records, and some other anomalies as well.  I am still trying to verify this top level of our tree.  But given that records are so sparse – e.g. the law did not require weddings to be recorded back then – it is rather difficult.

Rebecca Vickers comments: “Richard Mulholland (born c 1786) and married to Maria Barnes was my 4 x great-grandfather. I am descended from his daughter, Sarah Mulholland Barr. The family went to Canada and then my branch travelled to Cherokee County in Iowa, USA.“
Ross & Helen Maxwell add: “We are direct descendants of Sarah Mulholland who married William Maxwell in 1875 Dunedin, New Zealand. Sarah and Ellen travelled on the SS Aldergrove ex Glasgow to Portchalmers New Zealand in 1875. Ellen married Robert Stewart and all four settled in the Feilding area, North Island New Zealand. In 1878 Agnes travelled with her cousin Margaret who stayed in South Island. Agnes came to her sisters Manawatu area and married a Shannon.

Richard Mulholland Gravestone in Tamlaght Lower

In the graveyard in Innisrush, there is an interesting old weathered gravestone.  It lies flat.  Presumably it fell a long time ago.  Andy Mulholland, of Brisbane Australia, says that the headstone was transcribed in 1939, by his uncle, as follows:

“The Burying Ground of Beresford Mulhollands
Here lieth the body of Richard Mulholland
of the County Beg. W.I. and late of the 4th Kings Own Reg.
who departed this life Oct.the 20th AD1822 aged 46 years,
Also his son Henry Mulholland who departed this life
17th March 1847 aged 50 years.
And his wife Maria Mulholland, who
departed this life 28th October 1859 aged 52 years.
Also his son-in-law Bernard Mulholland
who departed this life 12th May 1875 aged 86 years
And his wife Mary Mulholland who departed this life
15th June 1875 aged 90 years.”

 

The headstone has been laying flat for many generations, and is now badly weathered.  In 2008, Denver Boyd tried to transcribe the headstone, and was only able to determine the following:

“The burying ????????
Here lie the body of
Mulholland ?the w??
and lne of the 4th orhing ow
who depd this life Oct the
AD 1822 aged ?0 years
Also his Son Henry Mulholland
who departed this life 17th D
1847, aged 50 years
And his Wife Maria Mulholland
who departed this life 28th Oct
1859 aged 52 years
Also his Son-in-law Bernard Mulholland
who departed this life 12th
aged 86 years
And his Wife Mary Mulholland
who departed this life 15th June
Aged 90 years”

Tom Brooks, from Canada, adds: “Henry Mulholland was born in 1794 in Eden, and enlisted in 1810 at 16 years old.  He was with 68th Reg in Portugal & Spain.

He married Judith (Julia), maiden name unknown, about 1815/16. Regimental depot was in Belfast. He was discharged in 1831 and shown in the 1831 Derry Census to be in Eden with Judith.

He emigrated to Canada between 1831 and 1837, where he had been with the 68th from 1818-1829. In between those years he would travel to Leeds to recruit.

In later years he claimed to be a Waterloo veteran, although he was not at Waterloo but I know that his brother or cousin Richard (married to Mary Barnes), who died in 1822, was a Lieutenant with the Kings Own Regiment at Waterloo.

Medals weren’t issued until 1848. I believe Henry claimed Richard’s medal to enhance his prospects in Canada.

Thompson & Ellen Mulholland

Innisrush, Portglenone, Northern Ireland

Thompson Mulholland, Eden, Tamlaght, Ireland

It is unclear Thompson’s relationship to Richard Mulholland.  Perhaps Richard was a father, or an uncle, to the younger man. Anyways, Thompson Mulholland was born in 1822.  To date I have been unable to recover a birth or marriage certificate.  And unfortunately the Ireland Census data from 1841 and 1851  was lost in Dublin.  But 79 year old Thompson does appear, as a farmer and head of the household, in the Ireland census of 1901.  His house and land are also referred to in an earlier property tax audit of the Eden area during the 1800s.   The 1831 Census indicates that Hill House,  Eden was owned by an Andrew O’Neil, with 9 people living in the house (6 males and 3 females). Therefore the Mulhollands must have, at some point after 1831 bought the property.  Modern family members do recall Tommy Mulholland often referring to an Andrew O’Neil.

Thompson appears to have been relatively well off.  In the 1901 census, it is noted that he employs two live-in servants, namely a 45 year old farm servant called Henry Dougherty, and a 17 year old house servant called Margret McPeak.  

Thompson’s wife Ellen Mulholland (in the absence of a marriage certificate, there is no maiden name available) is listed in one government document as a “house keeper”.  Ellen was born in 1818.  Given the year their son was born, one imagines that Ellen and Thompson were probably married relatively late in life. They had at least one child, James Richardson Mulholland.  There is some confusion as to what year their son was born.  One record suggests 1860 (derived from his gravestone), while another suggests 1865 (Ireland census, 1901).  1860 is probably the most likely, given that his mother Ellen would have been 47 years old by 1865.

Ellen Mulholland died at Hill House, Eden, on the 25 October 1896. She was 78 years old.  The death certificate lists “cardiac disease” as the cause of death.  She had been suffering from this ailment for the previous two years.   James Richardson Mulholland, was by his mother’s bedside when she passed on.  And he notified the authorities at Bellaghy, and signed her death certificate, some two weeks later, on 9 November.  Ellen never got to see her grandson, Tommy, who was born some 7 weeks after her death.

Thompson survived his wife for almost a further ten years.  He was 84 years old, when he died at home (Hill House, Eden) on the 29 May 1906.  James Richardson, his son, was present when he passed on.  The death certificate indicates that he died of cardiac failure. 

Probate was granted to his son, James Richardson, on the 2nd August 1906.  His effects came to the value of some 463 pounds.

James Richardson Mulholland & Charlotte McGaw Smyth

                James & Charlotte Mulholland

On the 3rd October 1895, James Richardson Mulholland  married Charlotte McGaw Smyth.   Between 1896 and 1906, they had four boys and a girl (Thompson, John, Charlotte, James and William).

Charlotte McGaw Mulholland was only middle-aged when she died on the 31 March 1913.   Her death certificate lists her cause of death as being “pernicious anemia.”  She had been certified as having this ailment for some three months prior to her passing.

Pernicious anemia is an auto-immune condition.  It is a vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia, and is caused by the victim’s inability to absorb the necessary B-12 vitamin, that is needed to make sufficient healthy red blood cells. If left untreated, potential complications of the illness include brain and nerve damage, heart problems, chronic anemia, and stomach cancer.   It is a very rare condition.  This type of anemia is called “pernicious” because it was, at one time, considered a deadly disease. This was due to the lack of readily available treatment. In modern times, the illness is straightforward to treat with the use of B-12 injections or supplements.

It is probably worth noting that Charlotte’s second child, John, was given B12 injections, as an adult, for the same condition (pernicious anemia). Perhaps the ailment ran in her side of the family.

Charlotte’s husband, James Richardson Mulholland, was with her when she passed on, at home (Hill House, Eden).   There is some confusion about her age.  Her gravestone in Innisrush churchyard indicates that she was 45 years old.  Her death certificate, completed in Bellaghy, and signed by her husband, says she was 40 years old.  The Ireland Census of 1901 lists Charlotte as 26 years old (on 31 March 1901), and the Ireland Census of 1911 (early April 1911), lists her as being 48 years old.  None of these ages match up.   We do know that she was middle-aged when she died, and left a young family behind.  The youngest of her five children (William) was only seven years old when his mother passed on.

Probate was granted to John Smyth (farmer, and brother) for her estate on the 19 December 1913.  Her effects came to £210, 8 shillings and 9d

James Richardson Mulholland raised his young family alone.  He survived his wife Charlotte for some ten additional years.  He was 62 years old when he died on 11 November 1923.

Some seven months later, probate was granted to his son, Thompson Mulholland, on the 4 June 1924.  The effects of his estate amounted to  £149, 0 shillings, 0 d.  His effects, surprisingly, were much smaller than those of his father (or indeed his wife).  This was possibly due to a fire that destroyed the house in the early 1900s, and the cost of the subsequent rebuild.  His children would often speak of these being very hard times.

Thompson Mulholland & Isabella Armstrong

mulholland, eden tamlaght o'crilly

Isabella & Tommy Mulholland at Portrush

The early 1900’s were not easy times.  In Eden, like everywhere else, times were hard, and money was very tight.  In his later years, Tommy would chasten society’s over-confidence, or folk getting ahead of themselves, by often referring back to “the roaring 20s, and the hungry 30s.”

Tommy, born in 1896, was the oldest child.  Along with his younger siblings, he farmed the land.  The early deaths of his parents, put tremendous pressure on his young shoulders.   By his late 20s, on free evenings, he would ride his push-bicycle to nearby Moyagney, to date Isabella Burnside Armstrong.  Isabella was ten years younger than Tommy.  She was only twenty years old, when they got married on 6 July 1927.

Between 1928 and 1936, they had four children – Charlotte, Richard, Samuel and Stanley.