1766 Religious Census for the Parish of Ballymoney

In March and April 1766, Church of Ireland rectors were instructed by the government to compile complete returns of all householders in their respective parishes, showing their religion, as between Church of Ireland (Episcopalian), Roman Catholic (termed ‘Papists’ in the returns) and Presbyterians (termed Dissenters), and giving an account of any Roman Catholic clergy active in their area. Some of the more diligent rectors listed every townland and every household, but many drew up only numerical totals of the population.

Within North Antrim there is only one parish, Ballymoney, which has a list of names and religions but, unfortunately the rector did not indicate which townlands each person lived in. This list can be regarded as a list of heads of household in the parish. However, we cannot be sure that every householder in the parish was listed. Furthermore, all of the original returns were destroyed in the Four Courts fire in 1922, and we depend on transcripts which were made before this date. Any transcription can suffer from spelling mistakes and the odd omission.

The information has been entered in the table below and sorted alphabetically. Note that in the table there is a column which lists the original spelling of surnames recorded in the returns and a column with a modern-day or more common spelling selected by me. The table is sorted by common spelling which means that various spellings of a particular surname are kept together. Incidentally, you may not agree with some of my interpretations. Feel free to make up your own mind.
 

1766 Religious Census for the Parish of Ballymoney

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