Eviction of the Armstrong Family in County Sligo, 1876
November 8, 2014
Francis and Anne Leonard Armstrong, John Francis Armstrong’s parents, were tenant farmers in Kilcumin and Derreens Townlands near the village of Cloonacool in County Sligo.
In 1849, Francis Armstrong signed a thirty-one year lease with Edward Nicholson to rent twenty-two acres of land on the Nicholson Estate in Dereens. Francis later subleased an additional twenty-one acres on the estate from another tenant named James Gray.
A New Landlord and the Move to Tullyvellia
When the Nicholson Estate was sold in July of 1876, Francis’ lease (part of Lot 6, Derreens, Barony of Leyney) protected him from outright eviction from his farm until 1880. It did not, however, protect him from an increase in rent based on the full valuation of the land.
Circulars for the estate’s sale noted that the “tenants hold principally under leases and as tenants year to year, at rents much under the tenement valuation” (from Descriptive Particulars from the sale of the Nicholson Estate, 1876).
The managers of the Nicholson Estate had only charged Francis rent at approximately sixty percent of the value of the land. This meant the new owner could almost double the rent under the law, even with the lease in place.
It appears that by the end of 1876, Francis and Anne had moved from their lease in Derreens to the townland of Tullyvellia, probably because of a rent increase they couldn’t pay. Evidence for the move comes from several sources: the 1876 prison register at Sligo Gaol, the 1901 Irish census, the obituary of Francis Armstrong, and the Armstrong stained glass window in the Catholic church at Cloonacool.
Francis and Anne’s twenty-five year old son, Luke, was arrested on December 30th, 1876 for aiming three shots at two water bailiffs on the night of December 28th. Luke was held in Sligo Gaol until his release several days later on January 3rd, 1877. In the prison register, Derreens was noted as his place of birth and the townland of Tullyvellia was recorded as his residence. (Luke was found not guilty of the charge in March of 1877. Also, he probably was born in Kilcummin, where the family home was located before the house in Derreens was built.)
In the 1901 Irish census, conducted in March, Francis and Anne were living in Tullyvellia in a household with their son Thomas and his family. By that time, Luke had married and was living with his wife and children in Tubbercurry, where he owned a shop.
Francis Armstrong died in May of 1901 at Tullyvellia, according to his obituary, and was buried in Kilcummin Cemetery. Ten years later, in the 1911 Irish census, Anne was listed as living back in Derreens with her son, James, and daughters, Ann and Mary, all of whom were unmarried.
The surviving Armstrong children dedicated a stained glass window in the Catholic church at Cloonacool to their parents, “Francis and Anne Armstrong of Tullyvellia” after their mother’s death in 1917.
The Land Crisis of the 1870S and the Irish National Land League
During the 1870s, Irish tenant farmers found it increasingly difficult to pay the rent on their farmlands.
By the winter of 1878-79, they were faced with falling agricultural prices and wide-spread crop failures from unusually wet weather. Unable to pay their rents, many were threatened with eviction and starvation like what had occurred during the Great Famine of the late 1840s.
In 1879, with the crisis worsening, Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell founded the Irish National Land League to fight for fair rents and to work to make it easier for tenants to buy their own land.
The Irish community in the United States, anxious to help their families back home, founded the Irish Land League of America shortly thereafter.
A permanent chapter of the Irish Land League of America was founded in Augusta, Georgia in March of 1882. John Francis Armstrong, born and raised on his parents’ leased farmlands in County Sligo, was elected its first president.
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The advertisement for the sale of the Nicholson Estate, Summary of Lots in Rental, and the map of the Townlands of Derreens and Tullyvellia near Tubbercurry in County Sligo were sent to Marie Van Sant Hudson by Gerard Neary of Irish Ancestry Research in 2014. February 2017 update: These records are currently available online at Findmypast.com.
Please note that Francis Armstrong’s lease was part of Lot 6, Derreens, Barony of Leyney.
References
Announcement of the founding of the Augusta chapter of the Irish Land League of America, and the election of John Francis Armstrong as its first president. The Augusta Chronicle. March 31st, 1882. Accessed at Genealogybank.com on 15 March 2014.
“Census of Ireland 1901/1911 and Census fragments and substitutes, 1821-51”. Nationalarchives.ie, no date. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie (accessed on 10 June 2014).
Descriptive Particulars. Description of the Nicholson Estate lands in County Sligo that were for sale in the Landed Estates Court, Ireland in July 1876. February 2017 update: These records are currently available online at Findmypast.com.
Moody, T.W. and F.X. Martin, Editors. The Course of Irish History. Dublin: The Mercier Press, 1993. Print.
Neary, Gerard. “Amstrong Ancestry Research.” Report to Marie Van Sant Hudson from Irish Ancestry Research on John Armstrong. Series of four emails. May 2014.
Rental and Particulars. Advertisement for the sale of the Nicholson Estate land in County Sligo, Landed Estates Court, Ireland, 4 July 1876. February 2017 update: These records are currently available online at Findmypast.com.
Summary of Lots in Rental, County Sligo. Information on the rents being charged on lots on the Nicholson Estate in County Sligo, 1876 and the assessed valuation of the land. February 2017 update: These records are currently available online at Findmypast.com.