List of Inhabitants in Ballymoney Town 1804-1810

This is a list of the inhabitants of the town by a George Miller who was born in Ballymoney in 1797 and lived there until 1837 when he moved to Belfast. In 1871, in his 74th year, he wrote down his recollections of the persons who lived in each house in each street within the town between the years 1804 and 1810.

The information includes not only the name of the head of each household but also their occupation and religion. Religions listed include Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Covenanter and Methodist. He also uses the capital letter O to identify people whom he says had apparently no religious profession - he says: I never knew them to attend any place of worship. He also puts religion unknown against some people and he simply leaves a blank for some others.

All of this information was published in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Second Series, Vol. XVI, 1910, pages 101 to 107.

The information can now be accessed through the tables below. First it is available street by street in the order that he originally transcribed it in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology. Secondly it is available in an order where it has been sorted by surname.

Note that Head of Town is High Street, including the Diamond plus Townhead Street. Remember at that time High Street led to Townhead Street. Also note that Piper Row was Charlotte Street.

It is possible to make some links between this list of 1810-1814 and the map of the town which dates from 1814. This map allows us to decide where George Miller's numbers for each street begin.

• Numbers 1 in Main Street (both east & west side) are at the Diamond end of the street.
• Numbers 1 in Head of Town (both east & west sides) are at the Main Street end of the street.
• Numbers 1 in Church Street (both north & south sides) are at the Diamond end of the street.
• Again numbers 1 in Piper Row (both north & south sides) are at the Diamond end of the street.
• Meeting House Lane is a bit more difficult to match up but it looks as if the list begins at the Main Street end of the street as does the list for Gate End or Castle Street.

The list of occupations is very interesting. Note that a besom-maker is a maker of brooms or brushes with twigs and a huckster is a hawker i.e. a person who is a small-scale dealer. There are some other observations such as someone who is listed as a labourer when not too lazy. Also what exactly is a half sir and a transferer of infants?