New Village

Mary Kyne & Antoinette Lydon

Ballynew or Newvillage is in the civil parish of Kilcummin. The civil Parish corresponds with the following Church of Ireland parish of Kilcummin, Galway West. In general the civil parish and the Church of Ireland parish are the same as is the case in the Kilcummin Oughterard area.

Ballynew is in the Electoral Division of Oughterard, in Civil Parish of Kilcummin, in the Barony of Moycullen, in the County of Galway

 Irish Form of Name: Baile Nua

Translation: New town

Ballynew is in the Electoral Division of Oughterard, in Civil Parish of Kilcummin, in the Barony of Moycullen, in the County of Galway

Other Forms of the Name

Ballynew or Newvillage
Baile Nua
New Village Boundary Surveyor
Ballinue Barony Cess Book
New village County Map
Balla Nue Local
the New Village of Glann Rector of Kilcummin
New Village Barony Map

Other placenames in this townland:

Some other placenames in or near this townland are:

Area:

New Village contains 1010 acres 23 roods & 0 perch.

About 180 acres are under tillage and pasture together with 4½ acres of water, the remainder mountain pasture. There is a quarry situate in the W. side of a bye road, the centre of which forms its Eastern boundary also a Smithy towards the N. extremity of the townland.

Boundaries:

It situated in the northern extremity of the parish.

New Village/Ballynew borders the following other town lands:

Landlord:

Richard Martin Esq.

Martin (Ballynahinch) – A branch of the Anglo Norman family of Martin, one of the Tribes of Galway, was granted the O’Flaherty lands in the Connemara region in the mid 17th century. This family was a junior branch of the Martins of Ross and under the Acts of Settlement were granted vast estates in counties Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Clare and Sligo. By a patent dated 1698 they were confirmed in the possession of their Connemara estate known as the Manor of Claremount by King William. The Westport Estate Papers document the sale of over 27,000 acres in the baronies of Moycullen and Ballynahinch by the trustees for the sale of Colonel John Browne’s estate to John Edwards for Richard Martin in 1699. The early generations of Martins lived at Birch Hall and Dangan, in the townland of Oranhill, parish of Rahoon, near Galway city. Richard Martin, better known as ‘Humanity Dick’, was the first member of the family to be reared as a Protestant. He was a famous duellist and founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Ballynahinch Castle was built in the centre of his estate. His son Thomas Martin died in 1847 during the Famine and Thomas’s only daughter and heir, Mary Laetita, inherited a heavily encumbered estate. She married her cousin, Arthur Gonne Bell, and died in New York in 1850. The Martin estates were offered for sale in two sections in 1849. Their property close to Galway town included Dangan, Corcullen, Bushypark and Killeen. Their Connemara estate was acquired by the Law Life Assurance Society in 1852, to which it was heavily mortgaged. In 1853 the estate of almost 200,000 acres was surveyed by Thomas Colville Scott for a prospective buyer. Richard Martin, second son of Richard ‘Humanity Dick’ Martin of Ballynahinch, is recorded as holding five town lands in the parish of Killannin, barony of Moycullen, county Galway, at the time of Griffith’s Valuation although he emigrated to Canada in 1833. He was also recorded as the occupier of Clareville, a Martin home in the village of Oughterard. Many of his descendants still reside in Canada. http://www.martinhistory.net/

 Information from the Down Survey Website:

The Down Survey is a mapped survey. Using the Civil Survey as a guide, teams of surveyors, mainly former soldiers, were sent out under Petty’s direction to measure every townland to be forfeited to soldiers and adventurers. The resulting maps, made at a scale of 40 perches to one inch (the modern equivalent of 1:50,000), were the first systematic mapping of a large area on such a scale attempted anywhere. The primary purpose of these maps was to record the boundaries of each townland and to calculate their areas with great precision. The maps are also rich in other detail showing churches, roads, rivers, castles, houses and fortifications. Most towns are represented pictorially and the cartouches, the decorative titles, of each map in many cases reflect a specific characteristic of each barony. http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/

The Down Survey website will tell you who owned this townland in 1641 (pre Cromwell) and in 1671 (post Cromwell).

Townland of NEWVILLAGE (Moycullen By)

No townland information available.

Down Survey website

Tithe Applotment Books:

About the Records

Tithes were a tax on agricultural produce which was payable by the occupiers of agricultural land. They were the main source of income for the parish clergy of the Church of Ireland (the largest Protestant church and the church established by law). However, in many parishes a large part of the tithes were ‘appropriate’, which meant that they were payable to a bishop, cathedral chapter or other ecclesiastical recipient, or were ‘impropriate’, which generally meant that they were payable to a local landowner. The parishes used in the Tithe Applotment Books are civil or Church of Ireland parishes, which often differ in name and territory from Catholic parishes, Acts of Parliament of 1823 and 1832 provided for the conversion of tithes into a fixed charge on land, and specified the average price of wheat or oats in the parish in the seven years before 1821 as the basis on which the tithes would be calculated. They also extended the application of tithes to pasture, where previously they had been levied only on tillage.

This change in the law resulted in the valuation of individual holdings in almost all parishes containing agricultural land, in order to assess the portion of the tithes for which each occupier of land would be liable. The apportionment was recorded for each Church of Ireland parish in a Tithe Composition Applotment Book. The information was collected and the amounts were calculated by two Parochial Commissioners, one of whom was appointed by the cess-payers of the parish and the other by the relevant Diocese of the Church of Ireland. This procedure was carried out in over 2,500 parishes between the years 1823 and 1837.

The Tithe Applotment Books are in a variety of formats, from a few pages sewn together to elaborately bound volumes. In most cases they are written in manuscript throughout, although some consist of manuscript entries on printed questionnaires. The information in the books is broadly uniform and generally includes at least the name of occupier; the size of holding, the valuation and the tithe payable. In some cases more detailed information is provided. Some volumes have maps and most have certificates and correspondence attached.

The sub-divisions of the parish were recorded. Some of these subdivisions, such as ploughlands, ceased to be in official use after the six inch survey of the Ordnance Survey was completed in the 1840s. Only productive land was subject to tithe, and the books usually distinguish between this tithable land and untithable land such as roads or mountains. Tithable land was in some cases classified by quality, and a money value was given to each class. In some cases the proportion of tithe payable to the rector, vicar or lay proprietor of the tithes was set out. The column for observations was sometimes completed, with information about commonage, for example.

There are a number of other points that should be noted. The acreages given in the Tithe Applotment Books are in Irish or Plantation measure, which is 1.62 times larger than statute measure. Only occupiers of land at the time of the tithe composition are recorded, so not all heads of households living in a parish at the time are included. Only rural areas are systematically covered, although inhabitants of towns who held plots of cultivable land are included. The equivalent tax in urban areas, Minister’s Money, has left few records.

The Tithe Applotment Books are an important source of information for a wide variety of researchers of pre-Famine Ireland. They provide the first surviving national list of the occupiers of land, and are used by genealogists as a partial substitute for returns of the 1821 and 1831 censuses of population, which were destroyed in 1922. They also record information on the quality of land, and provide information on pre-Ordnance Survey territorial divisions, some of which were not recognised after the 1840s.

The National Archives hold the original Tithe Applotment Books only for the twenty-six counties of the Republic of Ireland. The books for the six counties of Northern Ireland are held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast. (http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/aboutmore.jsp)

Tithe Applotment Books – New Village

No information available.

http://places.galwaylibrary.ie/asp/townland2people.asp?desc=8721

Griffiths Valuation 1855

In Griffith’s valuation the area was 1010 acres, 2 rood & 15 perch with a land value £45 0s 0d. Value of Buildings was £8 0s & 0d. Total valuation of £53 0s 0d.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&PlaceID=560141

Occupiers of land

James Connor had land & house of 956 acres, 0 rood & 19 perch, the Rateable Annual Valuation was £44 5s 0d for the land and £0 15s 0d for the buildings.

Irish Church Mission School “in fee”, meaning that the occupier is also the legal owner of the property; the school had house, 50 acres of mountain land & 4 acres 1 rood & 36 perch of water, the mountain land & water had a rateable valuation of 0 as it was given an exemption & the building had a rateable valuation of £8 0s 0d.

Immediate Lessor

Directors of the Law Life Assurance Co.

Out Offices and Land

The out office was a farm building, a cow house, piggery or barn. The land was very poor and sterile and people were always poverty-stricken. At this time most tenants were trying to eke out a living on 5 acres or less and a farmer needed at least 15.3 acres to survive.

Poor Law Union Ireland

In Ireland the Poor Relief Act of 1838 divided into districts or “unions” in which the local taxable inhabitants were to be financially responsible for all paupers in the area. In 1898 the Poor Law Union was adopted as the basic administrative division in place of the civil parish and barony. Further subdivision into 828 registration districts and 3,751 district electoral divisions followed. Townlands were not arranged according to these divisions with parish and barony retained as a means to make comparisons with records gathered before 1898.

The 1838 Act

The main provisions of the 1838 Act were:

  • The extension of the existing Poor Law Commissioners’ powers to Ireland, with the appointment of Assistant Commissioners who were to implement the Act in Ireland.
  • The division of the country into Poor Law Unions based on Irish electoral divisions which were themselves made up from townlands.
  • The creation of a Board of Guardians for each Union, two-thirds of whom were to be elected, the other third to be appointed ex officio.
  • The setting up of a workhouse in each Union.
  • The collection of a local poor-rate to finance the system.
  • Assistance for emigration.

Initially, 130 Unions were created, based upon 2,049 electoral divisions. The divisions were composed of townlands, a peculiarly Irish unit, traditionally of 120 Irish acres in area. (Between 1848 and 1850, an additional 33 Unions were created by subdividing and reorganizing the boundaries of some existing Unions, particularly in the west of the country.

Boards of Guardians were elected annually on 25th March. Only rate-payers were eligible for election, which effectively disenfranchised most of the native Irish who were usually tenants at this time. Rate-payers were allowed between one and six votes depending on the size of a valuation of their property.

Townlands

A town land is one of the smallest land divisions in Ireland. They range in size from a few acres to thousands of acres. Many are Gaelic in origin, but some came into existence after the Norman invasion 1169. New Village is a townland.

Population & Census Information

You can retrieve a list of people who lived in this townland from 1827 to 1911. This list is compiled from the following resources.

  • The Tithe Applotment Books
  • Griffith’s Valuation
  • 1901 Census
  • 1911 Census

List of nineteenth century and early twentieth century inhabitants.

 Census 1841-1891 

1841 – 39 houses with 157 people

1851 – 10 house with 41 people

1861 – 10 houses with 41 people

1871 – 4 houses with 13 people

1881 – 2 houses both houses uninhabited. Valuation of Houses & Lands £53 0s 0d.

1891 – No houses. Valuation of Houses & Lands £46 5s 0d.

Census 1901 New Village

This is a return of the member of the family, their Visitors, Boarders, and Servants who slept or abode in their house on the night of 31st of March 1901 in New Village. There was 1 house listed in the townland of New Village. Of the people living in New Village 4 (2 females/2males) were Roman Catholics.

All 4 People that lived in New Village were born in Co. Galway.

There were a total of 1 farm building and out offices which was a cow houses.

Class of House: The class of house depended on the materials used in the roof, walls, number of rooms and number of front windows. A 1st class house was considered the highest standard.

Walls of the houses: The walls were of stone, brick, and concrete or of mud, wood or other perishable material. The house in New Village was built of stone, brick or concrete. There were no mud cabins.

Enumerators Extract:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000840873/

House & Building Return:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000840874/

Out Offices & Farm Steadings:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000840875/

House Occupancy: 1 House was occupied on the night of the Census.

House 1

John Coyne aged 60 was head of the family; married to Bridget aged 52, they lived with their children Kate aged 15 & Anthony aged 13.

John was a herd; Bridget was a housekeeper; Kate was a herd’s daughter & Anthony was a herd’s son. John & Bridget could not read; Kate & Anthony could read and write. The entire family spoke Irish & English.

They lived in a 3rd class house with 2 rooms & 1 front window.  They had a cow house. This premise was a Private Dwelling.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Galway/Oughterard/Newvillage/1394736/

Census 1911 – New Village

This is a return of the Members of the families in New Village, their visitors, boarders and servants who slept or abode in the house on the night of Sunday 2nd April 1911.

There was 1 house listed in the Townland of New Village. Of the people living in New Village all 12(5 males/7 females) were Roman Catholics.

People that lived in New Village were born in Co. Galway. There were a total of 1 farm buildings and out offices which was a piggery.

Enumerators Extract:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002435802/

House & Building Return:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002435804/

Out Offices & Farm Steadings:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002435806/

House 1

Thomas Shaughessy aged 46 was head of the family; married to Bridget aged 36, they lived with their children Thomas aged 18, Norah aged 14, Sarah aged 10, Mary aged 10, Annie aged 6, Michael aged 3, Kate aged 1 and stepchildren Patrick Nee aged 14, John Nee aged 10 & Mary Nee aged 12.

Thomas was a herd, Norah, Sarah, Mary Shaughessy, Annie, Patrick, John & Mary Nee were scholars. Thomas (father), Bridget, Thomas (son), Norah, Sarah, Mary Shaughessy, Patrick, John & Mary Nee could read and write & spoke Irish & English. Annie Shaughessy could read & spoke English.  Michael spoke English.

They lived in a 3rd class house with 2 rooms & 1 front window.  They had a piggery. This premise was a Private Dwelling.

Thomas & Bridget were married for 20 years; they had 9 children with 7 still living at the time of the census.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Galway/Oughterard/Newvillage/471318/

Church records of births, deaths and marriages:

Church records of births, deaths and marriages are available online at http://www.rootsireland.ie. To search these records you will need to know the ‘church parish’ rather than the ‘civil parish’. (The civil parish is the pre-reformation parish and was frequently used as a unit of administration in the past.)

Ballynew or Newvillage is in the civil parish of Kilcummin.

Catholic parish:

This civil parish corresponds with the following Roman Catholic parish or parishes.

  • Clonbern & Kilkerrin in Galway East.
  • Carraroe in Galway West.
  • Kilannin in Galway West.
  • Kilcummin/Oughterard in Galway West.
  • Rosmuc in Galway West.

 Church of Ireland parish:

This civil parish corresponds with the following Church of Ireland parish.

  • Kilcummin in Galway West.

In general, the civil parish and the Church of Ireland parish are the same, but, this is not always the case.

Maps

It is located at 53° 26′ 48″ N, 9° 21′ 31″ W.

Original OS map of this area

Ireland was first mapped in the 1840s. These original maps are available online.

Ballynew or Newvillage

Information from Google Maps:

You can use this link to find this townland on Google Maps.

Google Maps

Information from the National Monuments Service:

You can use this link to view a map of archaeological features.

Archaeological map from the National Monuments Service

Townlands.ie Website

http://www.townlands.ie/galway/moycullen/kilcummin/oughterard-ed/ballynew/

Galway Library Website

http://places.galwaylibrary.ie/asp/fullresult.asp?id=53001

The following was taken from the local publication “A Valley Remembers GLANN” first published in 2009.

NEWVILLAGE

An Baile Nua

Area 1010 acres

This is the largest town land in the area. It is situated north of Cappagarrff on the eastern part of the Glann hill. On the east it borders Tullvealnaslee townland with the old road from Glann running through it to the Fairy Bridge. On the west it borders the townland of Barnagorteeny. It is largely wooded with a lot of natural deciduous trees, with farm land inter mixed.The higher parts are planted with state forests which have some fine walks.

In 1641 Newvillage was part of the estate of Thady McDonagh.

At the time of Griffith’s valuation in the 1850s the Proprietor was Tomas B. Martin of Ballinahinch. The Martins were granted vast areas of Connemara including the O Fflahertie Estate after they were slaughtered by Cromwell. The land was described by Griffiths evaluator John O Donovan as very stony, wet and mountainous, containing 1006 acres with about 180 acres under tillage and pasture. There is a quarry situate in the west side of a bye road, the centre of which forms its eastern boundary, also Smithy towards the Northern extremity of the townland.

There is a Triangulation station (346 feet) at Athknockmore.

The Lessor of the land at this time was the Law Life Assurance Co. of London. The reason for this was that the Martin Estate was in receivership.

There were just two listings for rates. James Connor who had to pay £45.0s.0d.rent on his land and house and the Irish Church Missions who had an acre and a school house, received an exemption.

At the time of the 1911 census there was one only one resident family in Newvillage and they were the O Shaughnessy family. O Shaughnessy Thomas and Bridget with 12 people living in the house. This house was behind Schoolhouse Grove at the top of Kevin O Connor’s fields on the right heading for Oughterard.

The old stone gable is still there at the mearing with the forest. At the time of census it is recorded that there was three step children in the O Shaughnessy house with the surname Nee. We know that Thomas and Bridget were both married twice and looking at the age of the children we assume that the three Nee children were Bridgets from here first marriage. This land was owned by Hodgsons but had rented it to a family in Maam called the O Malleys. The O Shaughnessy family herded the cattle and sheep for O Malley’s. Previous to this there was a Coyne family herding here and this was Tommy O Halloran’s mother’s family. When the O Shaughnessy family left here in the 1920’s they went herding for Jackson who was a landowner in Killaguile where Ross Lake Hotel is today. Tadhg O Shaughnessy (RIP) from Killola was one of this family and his brother Mick lived where the shop is as you turn in Killanin road. When the O Shaughnessy family left the Conneely family, known as the Marcus’, moved in and they herded and they continued to herd for Hodgson. This family came from Ugool but moved to Newvillage from Finnan. There was 22 children in this family. One of the girls, Maggie (remembered as Maggie Marcus), married Mike Hynes from Ballygally. It was Maggie Mathias (Mathias Clancy’s wife) and Martin Molloy, Tom’s father that made the match when Maggie and Mike got married. Martin and Mike were related.

In 1932 Hodgson sold the 1010 acres to the land commission. One hundred acres of the 1010 acres was allotted to local farmers from Derrymoyle, Baurisheen and Glann. Some got 10 acres and more got 6. This was fenced off in 1932. The farmers of Baurisheen and Derrymoyle who got land were Michael Molloy (father of P. A. Molloy), Mark Molloy (father of Michael John), Mike McGauley (Curley) and Michael Joe Kelly (father of Tommy and Seamus). This is all on the right hand side as you come back the Glann road—it is known as Sean Bhaile (Shanballymore today). The rest of the land was allotted to Conneely  (nee Marcus) they got 10 acres which was bought by Johnny O Connor in the mid 60s. Pete Tierney father of Stephen John got 10 acres. Martin Feerick father of Mick got 10 acres. This was sold to Sven Kapp in the 1990’s. Tom Molloy (Terry) got 10 acres—this is at the back of Eddie Banks’ (RIP) house, which Pete Joe Tierney bought. Stephen Lee also got 10 acres, which Pete Joe Tierney bought in 1960 and is where he and Mamie live to day. Martin McDonagh (Sean) got 10 acres where his daughter Kathleen and Eugene Hanley now live. John Lee Derrymoyle, who was a grand uncle of Mark and Mae Canavan, got next site. One site of this was sold to Bill and Barbra Edwards in 1960, and they lived there for many years. After they died the house was sold to Tim Pickring and Caroline Potter. The rest of this plot was sold to Hugh and Alma Allen in the 1990s. The last 10 acres was given to Joe Tierney whose son Pete farms it today. This is the boundary with the next village Baurnagurtheeney.

The outside 900 acres of the land was commonage for seven of the land owners mentioned above for many years. This area is known as Slievenavinnogue.

The first 450 acres of commonage was sold to the Forestry in 1955 for 30 shillings an acre by the Landowners and the remaining 450 acres was sold in 1957 for 50 shillings an acre. This was started to be fenced off in late 1962 by local forestry workers.

Some of the Glann people that we rembember fondly that have now passed away that worked on this were Martin McDonagh, Martin John Molloy, Mick Joyce, John Clancy and many more. Other workers were Pete Tierney, Edwin McDonagh, Jimmy Canavan and Patsy Joyce. The forestry was always associated with providing great steady employment to the men of Glann and surrounding areas.

Kevin O Connor’s grandfather, Michael McDonagh bought 45 acres from Hodgsons in the early 1900s and built the home where Kevin and Helen and family live.

Johnny O Connor who was from Oughterard married Josie McDonagh and moved to Glann in 1949.

They have four in their family Bridie, Pattie, Kevin and Pauline.

The Schoolhouse Grove, opposite the entrance to O Connors, got its name from one of the Reverend

Alexander Dallas’s mission schools (See article on Rev Dallas.) which was situated in the wood at the

top of the hill on the Oughterard side. It is now demolished. It was locally known as Teach na

Mallacht. The stones were used by Johnny O Connor to build the lovely shed beside his house recently

restored by Kevin. Bothareen Na Minne (Botharín na Muine) Shrubbery Road, or Hill Road, goes from the high road at Slievenavinnogue down the mountain to Derrymoyle townland.

Newvillage forestry was began to be sown in 1963 with Spruce and Pine trees. There was approximately

100 acres sown every year for 10 years. The cutting and thinning began in 1990 by An Coillte. In 2006

Oughterard Athletic Football Club bought 10 acres of Newvillage forestry from an Coillte for a substantial sum of money for their new Soccer Pitch. Until 1972 the road leading from Glann to Oughterard through Newvillage was only an old car track from O Connors to around “The Fairy Bridge”. In 1972 this road was developed and tarred which is now one of the most scenic drives in Galway and for many years was used for the Galway Rally as a stage of their rally and is now used for cycle racing. The high road or the old road as we call it was the original track or road to Oughterard from Glann.

In 2010 there are nine houses in the townland of Newvillage with 19 people living there.

  1. KEVIN AND HELEN O CONNOR
  2. JOSIE AND BRIDIE O CONNOR
  3. SAGGERS HOLIDAY HOME
  4. PATTI O CONNOR
  5. MARK BANKS
  6. PETE JOE AND MAMIE TIERNEY
  7. EUGENE, KATHLEEN, CIARAN, AISLING AND EOGHAN HANLEY
  8. TIM PICKERING AND CAROLINE POTTER
  9. HUGH AND ALMA ALLEN
  10. PETER KELLY AND NOREEN QUINN

NEW IN 2011

Josie McDonagh, Michael McDonagh,

Vincent McDonagh

This page was added on 26/02/2016.

No Comments

Start the ball rolling by posting a comment on this page!

Add a comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.