Hilditch family of Antrim

[Kiltaglassan]

7. Thomas 1858-1930. Married Isabella Raymond (1856-1900) in Belfast.
……………………………………
Had children Robert John Raymond, 1877; Mary Edith 1879;………………

Some URL links-

Thomas HELRICH (as transcribed) married Isabella RAYMOND on 30 January 1877 at St Anne's Parish Church, Belfast.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1877/11122/8071977.pdf

Robert John Raymond HILRICH born Ballysessy, Camlin, Crumlin.   MMN Raymond.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1877/02990/2095571.pdf
https://www.townlands.ie/antrim/massereene-upper/camlin/crumlin/ballysessy/

Mary Edith HILRICH born 12 October 1879 also at Ballysessy, Camlin.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1879/02899/2061920.pdf


Always beneficial to copy and paste links.

[kingsgate]

Thank you so much for posting this very helpful information.
I know a lot about this family, who are my relatives, thanks to my grandfather Thomas HILDITCH ( born 1891) who kept in touch with them all.

(NB Some of next generation worked largely in the textile mills, especially in calico printing. Most of the mills they worked at were part of the CPA - the calico printers association. This was a loose organisation set up by the mill owners and through which it was possible to move to different areas and get further training - hence why my grandfather and his brother could fairly easily move from a CPA mill in Scotland to one in England.)



Whilst grandfather knew about his relatives however, and stayed in touch with many of them,  the same could not be said about his HILDITCH grandparents, believing they were Scottish, so over the last 50 years or so I’ve done quite a bit of research on the family.

His grandparents were Hugh HILDITCH and Agnes ( known as Nancy) McConnell who married 22 November 1844 at Donegore, he being described as being of Ballyeaston, and she of Ballywee. Just one year later and civil registration would have started, giving so much more information. I only know - from the Scottish 1881 census - that Agnes was born about 1821.

Hugh was an agricultural labourer, cum gardener, cum coachman, depending on which of his children’s marriage certificates you read.

Unfortunately I have not found a death certificate for either Agnes nor Hugh, though Hugh was noted as being deceased on his children’s marriage certificates from 1877 on, so presumably he died in Belfast. As Agnes later followed Robert and Hugh and their families - first to Scotland, then England, she could have died at either - or in Ireland if she later returned to Belfast with her youngest son, Samuel.

They went on to have quite a clutch of children - here are the first group -

1. John, born November 1847 who invariably spelt his surname as Hillerege. He married Anna McKenzie (b 1849),  probably in Ireland though she was born in Scotland, so possibly also there. I haven’t been able to find a marriage certificate at all . They were living in Belfast, at 6, Cavour Street Belfast, when his unnamed son was born and the birth was announced in the Belfast Newsletter of 25 November 1875. He was possibly called John.  They already had a daughter, Agnes, born 1874, though it appears neither child lived.  He certainly went to Glasgow at some point as he emigrated to the USA from there, followed by his wife Anna and children.  It appears he emigrated in 1882, returning a year later for Anna and children John (1878-1911), Kenneth (1879 -1955, married Margaret Reinbird), and new baby Hugh (1881-1940, married Bertha Stoddard) a year later 9th July 1883, on SS Devonia from Glasgow. They went first to New York then settled in Cedar Rapids. They went on to have three more children - Anna Bernice aka Annie (1883), George (1884 -1943, married Martha Carpenter) and Jessie (1888 -1914) My grandfather stayed in touch with them for many years and I recall him writing their address in my book - I was surprised to see the street had a number rather than a name. They are listed as Hillerege in Cedar Rapids in the US census for 1900. They both died in Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Iowa.

 2. Agnes - I have no date or details for her - just my grandfather said she existed.

3. Robert 1852. He seems to have been very close to my great grandfather.
He was born in Ireland but emigrated to Scotland, firstly to Ayrshire and then to Glasgow. He worked in the textile industry. He married Isabella Patterson in Glasgow in 1877, though she died in 1889 leaving him with two children George (1879-1882) and Agnes (April - September 1880). His mother Agnes came over to look after them, and they are listed as Heldich on the 1881 Scottish census for Bridgton in Glasgow.

Robert moved to Moseley in Cheshire and remarried, a widow Hannah Lees with three children called William, Mary, and Ann.  He had no more children of his own. He lived at 10 Denbigh Street, Moseley.

[kingsgate]

Part 2 of the children of Agnes and Hugh.

4. Hugh - my great grandfather. He was born in Ireland in 1854 and was a calico printer. He married his first wife, Jane Armour (1852- 1880) in Belfast in 1872. They had a son, Hugh, born 1873 in the Shankhill area of Belfast. They emigrated to Scotland with brother Robert, firstly to Ayr, then to Bridgeton in Glasgow, where Jane died of TB. (Grandfather would tell me, ‘they lived in Bridgetown but it’s pronounced Brig-ton’). Hugh then remarried in 1884, to Isabella Ritchie (1851-1889). They had a son, Archibald, (1885-86) named for her father, but his birth triggered heart disease in Isabella. They then moved with Robert to Mossley in England, together with his mother Agnes/Nancy, who was looking after young Hugh.  Isabella had a second son there, Duncan, but tragically the birth killed Isabella who is buried in Mossley. Duncan’s maternal grandparents collected the new baby Duncan, and took him back to Scotland, where he died 3 weeks later. The little family then moved to Clayton Street in Clayton, Ashton Under Lyme. Just as things were settling, a couple of years later, Hugh’s eldest son, by then aged 14 died from peritonitis from appendicitis. It must have been devastating. Hugh moved again, this time to the Denshaw Vale Print works, another CPA factory in Denshaw ( then in Yorkshire, now greater Manchester). Hugh then remarried again, in Denshaw, (then in Yorkshire, now greater Manchester), to my great Grandmother Ada Graham, in 1890. They went on to have 10 children, my grandfather Thomas, being the eldest. All survived to adulthood except for Robert who died aged 3. Hugh himself died in 1913, and is buried in Denshaw churchyard, being joined there by Ada who died just 3 weeks before her 70th birthday, in 1937.
5. Elizabeth ( Lizzie) born 1856 in Belfast. At the time of her marriage in Belfast in 1876 she was listed as living at 7, Wellwyne street Belfast, and the daughter of Hugh Mileditch , a coach maker. However it’s very clear from her daughter Clara’s birth certificate, that her maiden name was originally HILDITCH. Lizzie married George William Wilton, who was a statue maker. They appear to have travelled at one point to the USA as all the children were born in Belfast except for George who was born in the USA.  Their children were Eliza (1879), Agnes (1881), Marny (1881) George, 1888( born USA), Hugh (1886 born 4 Cavour Street Belfast), Walter Frederick (1888), Thomas, 1889, Robert 1891, Ernest, 1893, Clara 1894 ( she emigrated to Montreal - probably with her brother Thomas - and married William Evan Popkin in Montreal in 1915. He died in 1954, her in 1979 and both are buried in the Mount Royal cemetery there. They had 4 children - a. Herbert Alfred, b. Elizabeth who married Roland Beausejour, c. Robert and finally d. Herbert, born 1896.

6. Edith - no information about her at all

[kingsgate]

Part 3 of the children of Agnes and Hugh HILDITCH - the part that is very relevant to the information about the post above regarding Robert John Raymond HILDITCH or Hillrich or Helrich

7. Thomas born 1858. He worked in Belfast at Enfield house as a coachman to James Carlisle who owned Brookfield textile/ linen mills (and who commissioned the stunning Carlisle Memorial Church, in memory of his children, a son and a daughter, who died in their teens). Thomas married at St Anne’s Belfast in 1877, aged 21 to Isabella Raymond. His marriage certificate is under the name Hilrick, and his father is listed as Hugh Hilrick , labourer.  Like the rest of the family spelling wasn’t his best asset, as he used either Hillrick or Hillrich (in Canada) and sometimes Helrich. They had the following children

A. Robert John Raymond was born in 1877. ( he later married Caroline Harper in Montreal in 1889 and went on to have 3 children - Robert John Raymond  1898, who served in WW1; Marjorie Ruth Isabella, 1899, and Mary Alice Caroline, 1901-1902) . At some point he was in the army as this is mentioned on his Canadian attestation papers.

B. Mary Edith, known as Edith,  b 1879 who married Frederick Lewis ?of Winnipeg, and later moved to Toronto. 

C. Thomas b 1881 in Ireland. Died 1884 in Canada aged 2 from bronchitis.

D. Agnes Josephine, born 1883. She was disabled, never went to school, and needed care throughout her life. She died in 1964 aged 80.

At this point Thomas and Isabella emigrated, sailing  from Glasgow to Montreal, Canada in 1881. (It was a subsidised fare if you went to Canada). 

There they had

E. Another Thomas, 1886 - 1922 - he died in the military hospital, in Montreal resulting from being gassed in France in WW1, leaving his English wife a widow with 2 children, Jack 1919-1979 and Florence 1920- 2005. I was in contact with Florence for several years until her death. She explained her father had met her mother, Florence Annie Smith, in England whilst stationed there in WW1 and they married there in Hastings. Her mother would take her children to return regularly to see their grandmother, at one time the ship hitting an iceberg ( just about where Titanic had hit its iceberg) but fortunately stayed afloat.

Next came

F. Hugh Charles 1887 - 1951 (who married Antoinette Helena de Garmendia, and had Vincent Phillip (b 1919, killed in action in the RAF in WW2, buried 1944 Harrogate UK); Charles de Garmendia (1925-2012) , and Patricia (1927- 2010) and Isabelle Irene (2021-2003). Hugh Charles - known as Charles - was mayor of Beaconsfield in Canada 1936 - 1940.

G William George, 1890-1938, (m Florence Laven and had Gordon)

H. 1896 finally the twins Edgar ( married Lillian May Laley and had Grace, Irene, Peggy Constance and Richard Edgar James 1925-1971),

I the other twin was  Reginald  m Minnie Littler and had Mildred, Reginald Longshor Hillrich (1923-2007) and Ernest, and another son Francis Edgar William who died aged 1 year 7 months from diphtheria in 1928. .

(One of the twins - Edgar - visited my family during in WW1 and borrowed my grandfathers civvies to go out in - grandfather was not best pleased when he returned on leave and saw the state of it!)

Isabella died of a ‘brain congestion’ in 1900 and is buried in Mount Royal cemetery in Montreal, leaving Thomas to raise his children, some of whom were still quite young - the twins were only 4. Thomas joined her there after his death from cancer in 1930.


 8. The last child was Samuel, born in 1861. He went to Glasgow in the late 1870s with his mother and siblings, and was there in the census at Springfield Road Glasgow in 1881. However he returned to Belfast later, where he married Esther Jane McNally in 1888. They has two children Catherine (1889-1895) and Agnes (1892 -1894). Esther died in 1894 , and Samuel later remarried - to Mary Hall , in 1895, and went on to have two more children , Mary Ann (Minnie) in 1896 and Samuel in 1899. Samuel senior worked for Harland and Wolff and worked on the engines for Titanic.

My grandparents and father visited Samuel in Belfast in about 1935. My father remembered meeting young Sam, in Salvation Army uniform, and Minnie, and it doesn’t appear that either married.
Samuel himself died in 1937 in Bangor,where he had retired to.

As you may imagine it’s been quite a task teasing all this out, especially given some of the ‘interesting’ surname spellings. It wouldn’t have been at all possible without the information from grandfather, my own interest from a very early age, and the trees drawn up by my father which were a great starting point for the research.

I have a lot more fragments and given I’m no spring chicken it’s probably time I started to post them all here.

[Kiltaglassan]

IrishGenealogy gives the surname as Hilldritch

At the time of her marriage in Belfast in 1876 she was listed as living at 7, Wellwyne street Belfast, and the daughter of Hugh Mileditch , a coach maker.      …………………….
Lizzie married George William Wilton, who was a statue maker.

William George WILTON married Elizabeth HILLDRITCH on 23 October 1876 at The Mariners Parish Church, Belfast.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1876/11182/8097315.pdf

[shanreagh]

Time to add infabout my own branch, which have been so elusive.

My great grandfather was called Hugh Hilditch, born about 1854 -1913, most likely in Belfast. He worked in the linen trade as a calico printer, which was a skilled job as it required mixing the dyes.

...
8. Samuel (1861 - 1937. ) married firstly Esther Jane McNally (1866-1894) and had Agnes (1892-94) and Catherine (1889-1895), then remarried and had Mary Anne (Minnie) b 1896 and Samuel (1899). All born in Belfast. Neither Minnie nor Sam ever married or had children. Samuel senior) worked for Harland and Wolfe on the ship’s boilers, and worked on Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. My father recalled visiting him at his then home in Down pre world war 2.
....
Hugh and his siblings were the children of Hugh Hilditch and Agnes, known as Nancy, McConnell, who married at Donegore church in 1844 - just one year before civil registration which would have given the name of their fathers. However the register notes Agnes was ‘of Ballywee’ and Hugh was of ‘Ballyeaston’. Agnes was in a census so know she was born in 1821,  and there is a baptismal entry for Agnes McConnell of Ballywee in 1821, the daughter of Andrew McConnell and Eliza Boyd.
However Hugh is more of a mystery. I assume he would have been born about 1815 - 1821.

Just a little more info/confirmation about the bolded parts

1    Minnie is a known diminutive of Mary - several in my irish family

2   Nancy/Agnes/Anne are all interchangeable, short forms, diminutives with one ancestor being confusingly (to me) recorded at times by all three names until I learned about them being short forms of diminutives. 

[Kiltaglassan]

Their children were Eliza (1879), Agnes (1881), Marny (1881) George, 1888( born USA), Hugh (1886 born 4 Cavour Street Belfast), Walter Frederick (1888), Thomas, 1889, Robert 1891, Ernest, 1893, Clara 1894 ( she emigrated to Montreal….

13 March 1885
Marny (transcribed Mamy)
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1885/02650/1977087.pdf

[kingsgate]

That’s a wonderful link. Thank you so much for the information, about the various pieces of info you have included. I’m very grateful to you.
I’m still trying to find the death of Hugh, senior, to hopefully get his age -  and am currently working through as many possible as I can. Just found another Hugh - witness at a HILDITCH wedding of someone who was probably his nephew - as Hugh Kilditch.

[kingsgate]

A Hugh HILDITCH was landlord of an inn in Ballyclare in 1800.

As my Hugh was from Ballyeaston I think his father - or grandfather - was Robert HILDITCH of Ballyhamage, as they worshipped at Ballyeaston at that time too. The other possibility is the John at Ballyboley, or the John at Balyalbanagh, but the more I think about it the more I think they were all the same family.