Tonweeroe

Treasa Nic Dhonncha & Antoinette Lydon

Tonweeroe 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.

Tonweeroe 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: Toin Buidhe Ruadh

Translation: red yellow bottom

Information from O’Donovan’s Field Name Books

Other Forms of the Name:

Tonweeroe

Toin Buidhe Ruadh

Thoanweeroe Boundary Surveyor

Tonebuyrua Barony Cess Book

Thoneweeroe Local

Tonweeroe Rector of Kilcummin

Description:

The townland contains 49¼ acres about 20 acres of arable land, the remainder is bog. Thoanweeroe means a yellow and red mixture of earth or clay, at the base of a hill.

Situation:

In the northern extremity of the parish.

Tonweeroe borders the following other townlands:

Carrowmanagh to the east
Clare to the east
Claremount to the south
Derrylaura to the north
Tonwee to the east

Proprietor:

Thomas B. Martin of Ballynahinch Castle. Thomas B. Martin is a member of the Martin (Ross) family.

Landed Estates Database:

Martin (Ross) – The Martin family were established beside Ross Lake in the barony of Moycullen, county Galway, from the late 16th century, where they purchased land from the O’Flahertys. They were Royalist supporters and were dispossessed of their property in the city of Galway by the Cromwellians. Robert Martin received a grant of 2,909 acres in the barony of Moycullen, by patent dated 21 Aug 1677. Jasper Martin of Ross, who died in 1700, had two sons Jasper and Richard, from whom descend the two branches of the family settled at Ross and Ballynahinch. Nicholas Martin, who died in 1811, married Elizabeth O’Hara, daughter of Robert O’Hara of Lenaboy, and according to Burke’s ”Landed Gentry”, a grandniece of James O’Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley. Their grandson, James Martin of Ross, had sixteen children from his two marriages. His daughter, Maud, married H. Callwell and they were the parents of the author, J. M. Callwell. The youngest daughter of James Martin was Violet Florence Martin of the well known literary team Somerville and Ross. The Martins of Ross owned 5,767 acres in county Galway in the 1870s. They advertised the sale of their estate in the Landed Estates’ Court in May 1885.

Information from the Down Survey Website:

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

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)

Townland of TONWEEROE

Down Survey Name: Mountain
1670 Owner(s): Martin, Richard (Catholic); Clanrickard, Earl of (Protestant)
County: Galway
Barony: Muckullin
Parish: Killcumyn

Down Survey website

http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/landowners.php#mc=53.430951,-9.344504&z=14

The 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 Record for Tonweeroe

Landholders

Listed in the Tithe Applotment book for Tonweeroe in 1829 are;

John Connely
Patt Oughagan, Philem Lowrey, Michael McDonagh, Edmd Thornton and Co.
Michael Walsh
Martin Connely and Co.

Land Liable for Tithe

The total land liable for tithes in Tonweeroe was 18 acres. John Connely had 2 acres, 1 rood, Patt Oughagan, Philem Lowrey, Michael McDonagh, Edmd Thornton and Co. had 10 acres, Martin Walsh had 1 acre and Martin Connely and Co had 5 acres.

John Connely

1 acre of 1^st rate quality land with a tithe of 1s 6d per acre.
1 acre of 4th rate quality land with a tithe of ½ d per acre.

Tithes Payable

The proportion of tithes payable to Richard Martin Esq. was 9 ¼ d, the proportion of tithes payable to Reverend James Daly was 4 ¾ d, and the proportion of tithes payable to Reverend John Wilson was 4 ¾ d.

Patt Oughagan, Philem Lowrey, Michael McDonagh, Edmd Thornton and Co.

2 acres of 2nd rate quality land with a tithe of 1 s per acre.
4 acres of 3rd rate quality land with a tithe of 3 d per acre
4 acres of 4th rate quality land with a tithe of ½ d per acre

Tithes Payable

The proportion of tithes payable to Richard Martin Esq. was 1s, 7d, the proportion of tithes payable to Reverend James Daly was 9 ½ d, and the proportion of tithes payable to Reverend John Wilson was 9 ½ d.

Martin Walsh

1 acre of 3rd rate quality land with a tithe of 3 d per acre

Tithes Payable

The proportion of tithes payable to Richard Martin Esq. was 1 ½ d, the proportion of tithes payable to Reverend James Daly was ¾ d, and the proportion of tithes payable to Reverend John Wilson was ¾ d.

Martin Connely and Co.

3 acres of 3rd rate quality land with a tithe of 3 d per acre.
2 acres of 4th rate quality land with a tithe of ½ d per acre.

Tithes Payable

The proportion of tithes payable to Richard Martin Esq. was 5 d, the proportion of tithes payable to Reverend James Daly was 2 ½ d, and the proportion of tithes payable to Reverend John Wilson was 2 ½ d.

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?county=Galway&parish=Kilcummin&townland=Toniveerae&search=Search&sort=last_name_sort

Griffith’s Valuation 1850s

In Griffith’s Valuation the area is 49 acres 0 roods and 34 perches with a land value of £6 and a building value of 10 s with a total value of £6 10 s 0 d.

Occupiers of the Land:

The occupiers of the land at this time were: Michael Caulfield and Michael Houghagan.

The Landlord or immediate leasers was Directors of the Law Life Assurance Co.

Ownership of Land and Property

Michael Caulfield owned a house, offices and land, Michael Houghagan owned a house and land.

Annual Valuation

The total annual valuation of ratable property in Tonweeroe came to £6 10s 0d.

Land Rates: Michael Caulfield paid £4, Michael Houghagan paid £2.

Building Rates: Michael Caulfield paid 5 s, Michael Houghagan paid 5 s.

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 5acres or less and farmers 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. Tonweeroe is a townland.

Population and 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.

1901 Census

This is a return of the members of the family, their Visitors, Boarders, Servants who slept or abode in their house on the night of Sunday March 31^st 1901 in Tonweeroe

General Information

There was 1 inhabited building listed in the townland of Tonweeroe. The total population was 3, 2 male and 1 female. All the people were Roman Catholic and were born in County Galway.

Farm Buildings and Out Offices

There were 3 out offices and farm steadings in the townland. These were; Cow houses and a piggery.

Description of the 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 1^st 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 houses in Tonweeroe were built of stone, brick or concrete. There were no mud cabins.

Roofs: Roofs were of slate, iron, tiles, thatch, wood or other perishable material. The roofs of houses were of thatch, wood or perishable material. They were most likely thatched.

Enumerators Extract

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000840957/

Houses & Buildings Returns

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000840958/

Out Offices & Farm Steadings

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000840959/

House Occupancy

The building was listed as a private dwelling and was occupied by 1 family. The person listed as the head of the family was also listed as the lawful landholder. There was a total population of 3, with 2 males and 1 female residing in the townland.

House No. 1 (3 occupants)

William Caulfield aged 54 was the head of the family. William was a farmer, he had 2 cow houses and a piggery. He was single and lived with his brother Michael aged 52 who was also a farmer and his sister Honor aged 47 who was a farmers sister. Michael and Honor were single. Everyone spoke Irish and English. William could read, Michael and Honor could read and write. They lived in a class 2 house with 3 front windows. 3 people occupied 3 available rooms.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Galway/Oughterard/Tonweeroe/1394784/

1911 Census

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

Description of the Houses

The house in Tonweeroe was listed as private dwelling and was built of concrete or stone. The roof of the house was of wood, thatch or other perishable material. Most likely it was thatched. One family lived in the property. The Class of the house depended on the material used in the roof, walls, number of rooms and number of front windows. The house came under ‘2’ in the census form meaning that there could be 2, 3, or 4, rooms in the house.

General Information

The house was listed as a private dwelling and was occupied by 1 family. They were all Roman Catholics and the head of the family was the landholder. There were a total of 4 people living in the village, 3 males and 1 female. There were a total of 2 farm buildings in the village. These were 1 cow house and 1 piggery.

Enumerators Extract

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002435964/

Houses & Buildings Returns

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002435966/

Out Offices & Farm Steadings

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002435968/

House No. 1 (4 occupants)

William Caulfield aged 68 was the head of the family. He was a farmer and had 2 out buildings. William was single and lived with his brother Michael aged 65 who was a farmer and his sister Honor aged 62. Michael and Honor were both single. Also living in the house was Patrick Moloney aged 26. Patrick was a laborer and single. Everyone spoke Irish and English. Only Michael and Honor could read and write. They lived in a class 3 house with 2 front windows. 4 people occupied 3 available rooms.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Galway/Oughterard/Tonweeroe/471366/