Companies [Manor]

Notes on the individual estates, 1600s to c.1900

 

Clothworkers [Manor of Clothworkers]

Early building work on the estate was carried out by representatives sent over by the Company under the direction of their agent, Nicholas Elcock. Later work was carried out by Sir Robert McClelland who obtained a lease in 1618 from the Clothworkers for 51 years [no fine and an annual rent of £600.8.4 for the first three years and £250 thereafter]. McClelland  had already leased the adjacent Haberdashers’ estate in 1617. It is noticeable that the houses in Articlave on the Clothworkers’ estate and Artikelly on the Haberdashers’ estate were thatched and simply laid out along the road, in contrast to the much more orderly layout of English type houses on the adjoining Merchant Taylors’ estate.  This reflected the fact that McClelland’s estates were peopled by settlers which he had brought over from his estates in Scotland. By 1663 the lease had passed to William Jackson of Coleraine. Jackson obtained a new lease in 1669 to run for 51 years until 1720 [with a fine of £1,000 and an annual rent of £100] The next lease of 51 years was granted to R. Jackson [with a fine of £5,570 and an annual rent of £100]. In 1771 the estate was re-leased for 61 years and three lives to R. Jackson and G. Crompe [with a fine of £28,900 and an annual rent of £600]. The estate was leased again in 1804 to George Jackson and J. K. Harrington, later joined by Lesley Alexander. The lease expired in 1832 but various problems prevented the Company from repossessing the estate. Eventually in 1840 after the death of Sir George Jackson, the company took over the running of the estate, after reaching an accommodation with Lesley Alexander. The company sent over Edward Driver to carry out a survey of the estate and appointed Charles J. Knox as agent [later, the agent was Captain Edmond Stronge]. Various building and improvement schemes were undertaken throughout the estate. These were reported on very favourably by the deputation that visited the estate in 1870. In 1871 the estate was bought by Sir Hervey H. Bruce for £150,000 and became part of the Downhill estate, created originally by Sir Frederick Hervey, the Bishop of Derry.
 

Drapers [Manor of Drapers]

The Company leased the estate to Sir Thomas Roper in 1619 for 51 years. He was an absentee and did not pay his rent. The Company repossessed the estate in 1622. In 1628 Peter Barker, a drover from Co. Antrim, obtained a lease for 60 years. Barker died in 1631 and a new lease was given in 1632 to Sir John Clotworthy [later Viscount Massereene] of Antrim. Clotworthy attempted to purchase the estate in 1663 but a new lease was granted to his sister-in-law Mary Clotworthy. In 1676 this lease was acquired by Captain Dawson of Castledawson. In 1725 Captain William Rowley married Arabella Dawson and acquired the Dawson lease. In 1756 Rowley, by then Sir William Rowley, was granted a lease for three lives or 61 years. Sir William Rowley died in 1768 and his son Sir Joshua Rowley tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain a new lease in 1789. His son, Sir William, also tried unsuccessfully to obtain a new lease. By 1816 the last life in the lease had expired and the Company regained direct control of the estate in 1817. The towns of Moneymore and Draperstown were rebuilt at that time and improvements followed throughout the estate. As with most estates in the county the rest of the lands on the proportion were sold to the tenants in the latter years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century.

Fishmongers [Manor of Walworth]

In 1617 the Company leased the estate for 60 years to James Higgins. He was joined in 1619 by William Angel and John Halsey - each receiving a third portion. Angel and Halsey sublet their portions to Christopher Freeman in 1626. Freeman was then leased these two parts by the Company and Higgins obtained a new lease on his third portion from 1632. When the leases fell in towards the end of the seventeenth century the estate was leased to the Hamilton and Beresford families. These leases continued into, and throughout, the eighteenth century but had fallen in by 1820. Despite the appeals of Barre Beresford, who had carried out substantial improvements to his part of the estate, the Company repossessed the estate in 1820. The Company undertook a programme of improvements to the estate which included a comprehensive building programme, particularly in Ballykelly. The Company's agents, who included members of the Sampson and Gage families, continued to manage the estate until the tenants bought out their farms under the Wyndham Land Purchase Act of 1903.
 

Goldsmiths [Manor of Goldsmiths' Hall]

John Freeman, an Essex gentleman, became the Goldsmiths’ farmer in 1615 and was responsible for the early development of the estate. He was given a lease for 30 years [no fine and an annual rent of £106]. The low rent and no fine reflected the fact that he was responsible for virtually all of the initial building work on the estate. In 1665 the Company leased the Manor to Jon. Gorges of Somerset for 15 years [with a fine of £500 and an annual rent of £100]. In 1719 the estate was leased to William Warren for 10 years [no fine and an annual rent of £200]. The estate was bought by the Earl of Shelburne in 1729/30 [probably on behalf of George Tomkins of Londonderry and Robert McCausland of Limavady] for a sum of £14,100 and a fee farm rent of £200. The fee farm rent was not finally disposed of until 1850 when the estate was sold under the Encumbered Estates Court. In 1740 Shelburne sold the estate to the Earl of Bessborough [the Ponsonby family] in consideration of £16,000 subject to the fee farm rent of £200. In 1753 Lord Bessborough left the manor to his third son Richard Ponsonby and his heirs for ever. In 1787 Richard Ponsonby willed the estate to his nephews William B. Ponsonby [later Lord Ponsonby] and George Ponsonby [later Lord Chancellor of Ireland], equally as tenants in common. Both parts of the estate passed to relatives of each of the Ponsonbys. According to the OS Memoirs of 183?? George Ponsonby’s part of the manor had been bought by an Alexander Alexander for £47,500 [no date given]. He willed it to his brother John Alexander who, in turn, bought the remainder of the estate for £52,500 [no date given]. By the 1840s the estate was heavily in debt and it was sold in 1850 under the Encumbered Estates Act – see Encumbered Estates section for more details.
 

Grocers [Manor of Grocers]

In 1615, a lease of 61 years was given to Edward Rone [no fine and an annual rent of £116.13.4]. The low rent reflected the fact that Rone was obliged to pay for the total cost of all buildings, except the church. The Grocers, like the Goldsmiths, adopted a policy of securing tenants who would do all of the work on terms advantageous to the owners. Rone died in 1618 and his executors, headed by Robert Goodwin, took over the lease. In 1619 Robert Harrington [Rone’s brother-in-law] stepped in and took a lease of 57 years on the property on the same terms as Rone in 1615. However, conditions on the estate were far from satisfactory for the tenants. In 1676 a lease was given to George Finch for a period of 31 years [with a fine of £3,600 and an annual rent of £10]. The hefty fine suggests that the situation had either improved or was likely to improve and the fact that the Company preferred the quick return of money ‘up front’ at the beginning of the lease, rather than the slower process of an annual  income from the rent. George Finch’s nephew negotiated a further lease of 53 years to expire in 1760. William [Speaker] Conolly took over the Finch lease in 1707. His nephew’s son, Thomas Conolly, obtained a new lease in 1760 for 61 years and three lives [with a fine of £15,500 and an annual rent of £600]. Again, the substantial fine indicates the improving economic conditions by the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1805 this lease passed to David Babington [Law-Agent of the Irish Society] who tried to obtain a new lease but the Company refused and they regained control of their lands in 1822. Like the other estates who repossessed their lands in the nineteenth century, the Grocers immediately ordered a survey of the estate as a prelude to a substantial building programme in the village of Muff [later renamed Eglinton] and the surrounding countryside and a reduction in rents of some 20-25%. By 1838 the Irish Society stated that the Grocers’ Proportion was the best managed of all the estates in Co. Londonderry. The presence of the Templemoyle Agricultural School on the estate made a key contribution to the improvement of agricultural practices throughout the wider district. From the 1870s onwards the Company began to dispose of its estate and by the twentieth century tenants no longer paid rents to a landlord. Instead they paid a fixed annuity to the Land Commission for land which they now owned.
 

Haberdashers [Manor of Freemore]

Initially this proportion was in the hands of William Freeman and Adrian Moore [two members of the Company] and managed by their agent, Tristam Beresford. The name Manor of Freemore is made up from the names, Freeman and Moore. In 1617 a lease of 51 years was given to Sir Robert McClelland from Kircudbright in Scotland [with a fine of £1,000 and an annual rent of £350.10.0 from 1620].  McClelland built a castle at Ballycastle in Aghanloo. He brought over tenants from his estates in Scotland. He was probably the most successful of all the undertakers in the county. Work on buildings on the estate had already begun before McClelland took over. Beresford had granted leases  to Messrs Cooke and Warren of Limavady for five townlands. Ballycastle eventually passed to Sir Robert Maxwell of Orchardtoun who had married McClelland’s daughter. After the Restoration new grants of the Manor were made to the Company. The Civil Survey of 1654-56 shows that Sir Robert Maxwell, Col. Tristam Beresford, George Phillips and Daniel Manus O’Mullen [an Irish protestant], among others were in control of the estate. By 1657 Randal Beresford, a son of Tristam, had the major share in the estate. The final sale of the estate in perpetuity took place in 1674. The sum involved was £1,200. By 1686 most of the estate was in the hands of the Beresfords, although parts of the interests of Moore and Freeman passed to the Jackson, Upton and Carey families. This particular branch of the Beresford family became the Marquis of Waterford, so this estate became part of the Waterford estate which ranged over various parts of Ireland.
 

Ironmongers Manor of Lizard]

Towards the end of 1614 George Canning, a native of Barton in Warwickshire, was appointed agent by the company and charged with building a bawn and castle at Agivey. In 1617 a lease was given to George Canning for 41 years [no fine and an annual rent of £120]. In 1658 Paul Canning acquired a new lease [with a fine of £500 and an annual rent of £270]. This lease was assigned to another George Canning , whose son, George, obtained a new lease in 1705 for 21 years [with a fine of £1,900 and an annual rent of £250]. Stratford Canning, a son of George, failed to renew this lease and the estate was leased to Messrs. Leckey, Macky, Cunningham and Craighead in 1726 for 41 years. When the lease expired in 1767 the lease was auctioned and, after William Alexander failed to pay with a fine of £21,000, the estate was leased to a Mr Dupree from London for 61 years and three lives [with a fine of 21,000 and an annual rent of £600]. Dupree never visited the estate and his son sold the lease in 1813 to the Beresford and Hill families who retained the estate until the death in 1840 of Nathaniel Alexander [Bishop of Meath], the last of the three lives in the lease. The company took over control of the estate at that point and immediately carried out a survey of the estate. In common with the other companies who repossessed their estates in the nineteenth century, the Company made substantial improvements on the estate. The company began to sell parts of the estate in 1889. Most of the lands were sold by 1896 but the sales were not completed until the Wyndham Act of 1903.
 

Mercers [Manor of  Mercers]

During the first half of the seventeenth century the Company retained direct control of the estate. In 1658 the estate was leased to Gervaise Rose for 41 years [with a fine of £500 and an annual rent of £300]. By 1688 the Jacksons of Coleraine had acquired this lease. They appear to have renewed the lease, on the same terms, and continued to hold the property until 1713. In 1714 a lease for 41 years [with a fine of £6,000 and an annual rent of £420] was given to John McMullen. McMullen’s death two years after he had leased the estate caused legal and financial problems. James Wilson, a mortgagee, took over the running of the estate. The estate was badly mismanaged and by the 1730s much of the estate was in waste and overworked.. There was considerable Presbyterian emigration from the estate at this time. A survey in the 1740s highlighted the problems of the estate, mentioning the effects of emigration. In 1751 the lease that had been in the hands of Wilson and Hill-Wilson was advertised for re-letting. Alexander Stewart of Newtown, Ards, Co. Down was accepted as the new tenant. Alexander Stewart's son, Robert [1739-1821], M.P. for Co. Down [1770-89], was created Baron Londonderry in 1789, Viscount Castlereagh in 1795, Earl of Londonderry in 1796, and Marquess of Londonderry in 1816. The lease was for three lives or 61 years [with a fine of £16,500 and an annual rent of £420]. The lease lasted until 1831 when the last live [Alexander’s son, Alexander] expired. The Company repossessed the estate and managed it until the sale of the estate to the tenants under the Wyndham Land Purchase Act of 1903.
 

Merchant Taylors [Manor of St. John the Baptist]

The Company leased the estate to Valentine Hartopp for 51 years from 1617 [with a fine of £500 and an annual rent of £150 from 1619]. Hartopp assigned his lease in 1621 to Ralph Wall. Wall and the Company agreed a new lease of 46 years from 1621 [no fine and an annual rent of £150]. Wall was usually in arrears with his rent and after years of quarrels over the non-payment of rent, the Company sent over their own man, George Costerdyne, in 1633 to take over the running of the estate and supervise building works on the estate. After this it appears that the Company attempted to manage its estate through agents such as Michael Beresford. However, by the early eighteenth century the Company saw their Irish estate as a gross liability and a bottomless pit into which money was being poured. In 1720 the Clothworkers offered to purchase the proportion for £2,700 but the Company declined the offer. In 1729 the estate [plus the Living of Camus] was sold to William Richardson for £20,640. Thereafter the Merchant Taylors ceased to have any interest in this proportion. They had, however, a major share in the adjoining Clothworkers’ proportion.
 

Salters [Manor of Sal]

In 1616 the Company made an agreement with William Finch and his partners to farm the estate [no fine and an annual rent of £160]. It looks as if this was not successful because an agent was in control of the estate from 1622 to 1627. In 1627 a new lease was given to Ralph Whistler for 51 years [with a fine of £400 and an annual rent of £100]. Ralph Whistler was the Company’s chief farmer from 1627 to 1635. The Whistler family remained associated with the estate – a Gabriel Whistler [the ancestor of James McNeill Whistler, the American painter] was granted a lease in 1699 for 99 years [no fine and an annual rent of £100]. This lease was acquired by Sir Robert Bateson who in 1753 was given a lease for 53 years [the remainder of the original 99 year lease] at an annual rent of £500. In 1798 the company relet to the Batesons for a further term to expire in 1853. The Batesons went into partnership with the Londonderrys of Ards who also had lands in other parts of the county, including the nearby estate of the Mercers. Bateson and Londonderry wished to renew their lease [due to expire in 1853] but the Company refused. Instead they decided to manage the estate themselves and appointed Andrew Spotswood as their agent at £500 per annum. Spotswood had been agent for Bateson and Londonderry. The Company undertook a substantial building programme both in the town of Magherafelt and the surrounding area. As well as providing public and commercial buildings, the company made generous donations to the building of new churches on the estate. As with most estates in the county the rest of the lands on the proportion were sold to the tenants in the latter years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century.
 

Skinners [Manor of Pellipar]

The Company leased the estate to Sir Edward Doddington for 58 years 6 months from 1616 [no fine and an annual rent of £112]. Sir Edward died in 1618. The lease passed to his widow, Lady Doddington [nee Beresford] who subsequently married Sir Francis Cooke. She, with Tristam Beresford and George Carey as her trustees, gained a lease for 47 years 6 months from 1627 [no fine and an annual rent of £125]. In 1672 the estate was held by Lady Cooke at Brackfield [Crossalt] and Edward Carey at Dungiven. In 1696 the Manor of Pellipar, which included both parts of the estate, was demised to Edward Carey. In 1742 Henry Carey obtained a new lease [with a fine of £5,637 and an annual rent of £500]. The Carey family continued to hold the estate throughout the rest of the eighteenth century until 1794 when Robert Ogilby paid Carey £10,000 for his interest in the lease due to expire in 1803. Ogilby then obtained a lease in 1803 for 61 years and three lives [with a fine of £25,000 and an annual rent of £1,500]. Robert, who lived in Pellipar House, ran the Dungiven part of the estate and his brother James, who lived in Kilcattan House, near Claudy, was agent for the western part of the estate. Robert Ogilby died in 1839. His nephew, Robert L. Ogilby who lived in the Manor House in Dungiven, became effectively agent of the estate for his uncle’s trustees and for his cousin James Ogilby who lived at Pellipar House. When still in Ogilby hands, a number of Company deputations visited the estate and on their evidence, the Skinners brought a substantial claim against the trustees of the Ogilby estate for mismanagement and considerable running down of the estate. Robert L. Ogilby died in 1872 and the Company regained direct control. An agent, J. Clark, was appointed in 1873. Building work and improvements on the estate followed. James Ogilby of Pellipar House died in 1885 and the freehold of Pellipar House was sold to R. A. Ogilby for £4,500. As with most estates in the county the rest of the lands on the proportion were sold to the tenants in the latter years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century.
 

Vintners [Manor of Vintners]

Initially the Company leased their lands to John Rowley in 1616 but he died in 1617 and a new lease was granted to Baptist Jones in 1619 for 57 years [no fine and an annual rent of £120]. In 1625, the lease was taken over by Henry Conway. Following the 1641 rebellion Sir John Clotworthy acquired Conway’s lease without the Company’s knowledge. Clotworthy was accused of stripping the woods on the estate and the Company appointed Lawrence Cox as their agent in 1658. Despite his misdemeanours, Clotworthy remained as the company’s chief tenant. In 1660 Clotworthy became Viscount Massereene and by 1669 his son-in-law, the Second Viscount Massereene was in charge. In 1673 he obtained a new lease of 61 years [with a fine of £2,000 and an annual rent of £200]. William Conyyngham of Moneymore was commissioned by the Company to survey the estate in 1697 but Massereene would not co-operate.  The company appointed William Conolly [later Speaker of the Irish House of Commons] as their agent and he appears to have seized the estate because Massereene was in arrears. Conolly took over the estate in 1714 when Massereene died. In 1729 Conolly was negotiating to purchase the estate in fee simple for £6,000 and a rent of £200 with two fat bucks. After a survey of the estate by the Company’s surveyor Sloan, Conolly increased his offer to £15,000. Conolly died during 1729 and the purchase of the estate was completed by his nephew, also a William Conolly.  Conolly obtained his deeds by 1737. £10,000 of the purchase money was due by 1734 which helps to explain the granting of so many perpetuities on the estate at that time. The nephew, William Conolly was succeeded by his son Thomas Conolly and after his death the estate passed into the hands of various persons who, through marriages to females within the Conolly connection, managed to acquire an interest in the estate. In 1836 the estate was in the hands of the Marquis of Lothian, the Earl of Strafford, the Earl of Clancarty and Colonel Conolly, who were tenants-in-common. Strafford, for example, acquired his interest through the marriage of Anne Conolly [the daughter of the Rt. Hon. William Conolly] to George Byng of Wrotham Park. Byng was the family name of the Straffords. Lord Strafford, et.al. held the estate until the compulsory Land Purchase Act of 1921.