RootsChat.Com

Hi Mark

Good to hear there are Houstons still running around!

There is a book on the Houstons which I saw at the Centre for Migration studies at the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh. I can't remember the name of it but if you ring them, they will be able to tell you. I think it may be something like The Life of Christopher Houston and his Family. It gives the whole story of these Houstons, from the time their original ancestor came across on an open boat from Gallloway in Scotland on through. The people at the Centre will be only too pleased to talk to you. If you are ever up in Tyrone, please give me a shout and I can show you the old homesteads which I think you will find interesting. Presbyterian Church records for Ballynahatty or Fintona Churches would be your best bet for individual ancestors (if they still are available at the Public Record Office in Belfast).

Anything else, give me a shout.

Thanks

Keith Hamilton (Matchett)
Ballynahatty

Hi Fiona

Houstons lived at Ballynahatty and Edergole outside Omagh from the early 19th century until the 1920's. I have little direct information regarding specific members but I know they were well connected with the Presbyterian Church. They attended Ballynahatty Presbyterian Church. You may be able to find records relating to Rachel Houston in those Church records. They were also connected to Feenan, Fintona and Lifford, Donegal (all the same outfit as far as I know). I don't have any other information on Rachel but will double check. I wouldn't be sure if her maiden name was Houston or she married one of the Houstons. Ballynahatty Presbyterian Church records should reveal this (if they can be accessed!).

Thanks

What I have on Ballynahatty is typed on a 76 page document. It also contain scans of pictures of landmarks and buildings e.g the Church and the barns. I can't figure out a way of emailing it to you via rootchat, so I will type what is relevant to the Houston's in this space.

I have found no record of the Houston's in Ballynahatty/Edergole before 1805. In 1832, Ross Houston of Edergole and John Houston of Ballynahatty applied to be registered as freeholders in these locations. A tithe valuation book for Drumragh Parish for 1831 refers to John Houston of Ballynahatty who owned 21 acres there and a further 7 in the townland of Edergole. Ross is listed a owning 44 acres in Edergole Upper.

These Houstons are supposed to be descended from a Christopher Houston who came to the Castlederg area of County Tyrone from Galloway, Scotland in the 1660s. His son James was the marksman who is said to have shot a French officer at the head of his troops from the walls of Derry during the Siege of 1688-89. He had descendants who lived at Newtoncunningham, County Donegal and at Ballynahatty, Co Tyrone. One of his sons, also called Christopher (who was 9 during the siege of Derry)  is supposed to have fathered 3 sons, one of which was the grandfather of Ross (Edergole), John (Ballynahatty), James (Lifford Co. Donegal) and Patrick (Beragh, Co Tyrone).

Some Houstons are buried in the graveyard of Fintona Presbyterian Church, Co Tyrone. The gravestones are weathered and the inscriptions are hard to read. However, a Roseanna Houston of Ballynahatty (died 1926) aged 87, and her sister Isabella (died 1928) also aged 87 are buried behind the Church. Also buried there are some of their relations, the Houstons of Hillhead, Edergole. The Reverend John Houston, Minister of 1st Ballynahatty Presbyterian Church is also buried there. He died in 1903 aged 84. His wife died the same year aged 81. Also buried in the same plot are their son William Alexander (died 1936) and their daughter ? died 1937.

Houstons no longer live in Ballynahatty. In turn, James Hamilton and Herbert Wilson bought their properties in the early 1930’s. Few of the families who lived in the neighbourhood 100 or more years ago remain.

A Presbyterian congregation was first established in Ballynahatty in 1805. It followed a quarrel among the congregation of First Omagh Presbyterian Church over the treatment of the Rev. Hugh Delap. This Delap was removed from his post as minister ‘on account of immoral behavior’, and went on to become a barrister, but not a particularly good one. As a result of this quarrel, a number of families withdrew from First Omagh and built a meeting house of their own on the commons of Ballynahatty (as none of the local landlords would give them a site). They joined the Secession Synod, which was more Calvinistic in outlook than the Synod of Ulster.  The prime movers in establishing this new Presbyterian congregation at Ballynahatty were Messrs. Crawford, Dudgeon, Houston, Hunter, Ramsay, Shields, Sproule and Young. In 1838, the members of the Church Committee were –

Ross Houston, John Houston, Samuel King, John Young, Samuel Young, John Megrew, William Dudgeon, David Fyffe and John Perry.

The Rev. Latimer was succeeded by John Houston, a relation of the Houstons of Ballynahatty mentioned earlier. The congregation in Ballynahatty is said to have lost many families to emigration during the Potato Famine of 1846-49.In 1862, Miss Rachel Houston of Lifford and Bundoran, a relation of the Houstons of Ballynahatty, presented a manse to Ballynahatty Presbyterian Church, along with a freehold farm worth £1,000. She also presented another manse to Ballindrait Presbyterian Church, Co. Donegal. By 1891, the Rev. Houston was forced to retire due to ill health
1892-1928

The Rev. George Brown, a native of Eglish, Co. Tyrone, succeeded the Rev. Houston. In his time, the inside of the Church was renovated, stables built and the schoolhouse repaired. The Church Committee of 1913 included –

John Johnston, King Houston, James White, Robert Ross Dudgeon, Alex White, Thomas Young, John J.Fyffe, J.J.K. Johnston, Richard Johnston, Hugh Johnston, William Warnock, John Deery, John Houston, John Young (Edergole), John Young (Blacksessiagh), John Adams and Robert Clarke.

I will have to check the deeds of our farm again to find a list of the Alexander children who benefited from the sale of the Houston farm at Ballynahatty. As far as I can recall there was in in Dublin 1 in Cincinatti, Ohio, and 1 in Melbourne, Australia. I will send you another message with more detailed info. Our neigbours (who bought the Houston farm at Edergole) say that 20 or 30 years ago, a surgeon called Houston from Dublin called with them to revisit the farm where his ancestors lived. The old lady (Mrs Wilson) of the house gave this gentleman the original key of the farmhouse as a keepsake. Unfortunately her son doesn't remember the man's first name or whereabouts in Dublin he lived. He has not been heard of since.

Finally - thankfully says you! - a John Houston, together with a Nancy and a Mary Houston of Edergole signed the Ulster Covenant of 1912 to opposed Home Rule for Ireland. This continued a tradition of loyalty to the British that had began with James Houston's involvement at the Siege of Derry back in 1688.

Matchett