Belfast McCleans

[hdw]

William McKeown, farmer, is listed at Breda Lodge in the 1861 street directory.

He's also listed at Breda Lodge in the 1877 directory under Galwally:

http://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/1877VD.htm

And if you look up Griffiths Valuation under Breda townland in the parish of Knockbreda, you will see him spelled as 'William McKeon', farming 16 acres with the name 'Breda Lodge' against him.

The Orr Pedigrees book mentions a James McKean of Belfast who married Elizabeth Orr of Ballyalloly, but I don't know if he would be of the McKeon family or not. Some of these spellings are very unstable.

Another prominent McClean was Adam McClean who donated land he owned in the Markets area of Belfast for the building of St. Malachy's church, which at one time was intended to be the city's RC cathedral. McClean himself was a Protestant. I got that from J.C. Beckett et.al. (eds.) "Belfast - The Making of a City" (Appletree Press, 1983).

Incidentally, the spelling McClean is typical of Ulster - in Scotland it's McLean. I think it was Ulster folk who took the McClean spelling to America.

It's fascinating how some people never stir far from their origins, while others emigrate at an early date. Some years ago I was contacted by a Presbyterian minister's wife in Co. Down who is related to me on the Orr side, and her husband's manse is only a few hundred yards from the churchyard where her ancestors and mine are buried. She sent me pictures of some headstones. Yet my Co. Down great-great-grandmother was brought over to Scotland by her widowed mother in the 1830s, so all memory of Ulster ancestors had died out in my family until I did some genealogical research.

Harry

[gaffy]

Regarding the Mary Jane Lang reference in the Eleanor McKeown will, the Belfast Newsletter of Friday 17 November 1837 has a reference to an Alexander Lang of Jervis Street in Dublin marrying Mary Jane McClean, the eldest daughter of Daniel McClean of Ann St. in Belfast.  The marriage took place in Dublin Presbyterian church on the 9th November.  Incidentally, there is a will index entry on the PRONI website for an Alexander Lang, Asst. Inspector GPO in Dublin and living at Ballynafeigh, who died on the 1st June 1879 and it mentions his widow Mary Jane.  The will image isn't online, you would need to order it from PRONI.

If this is the right Lang, it means that Eleanor McClean McKeown and Mary Jane McClean Lang both lost their husbands within a couple of months of each other.

The reference to Daniel McClean of Ann St. ties in with the 1819 Belfast street directory showing Daniel at no. 65 Ann Street.

http://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/1819_Alphanames.htm

I just walked past that location within the last hour coming from work. All old buildings long gone now of course, but funny to think that almost 200 hundred years ago Daniel was serving folks at that spot.

[hdw]

That street directory is a great asset, but frustrating for me as the Mu- section is missing so I can't look up my Murray ancestors. However, Martin's Belfast Directory for 1841-42 lists a William Murray, stone cutter, at 50 Scot's Row and I think he is either my 4 x great-grandfather William Murray, "stonemason", in old age, or his son.

William Murray's son-in-law Archibald Petticrew, my 3 x great-grandfather, was a joiner in Belfast and I like to think that the two men helped to build the expanding city in the early 1800s. Maybe they first met on a building-site?

Harry

[sallymaclean]

I am extremely grateful to you both Harry and Gaffy for the wonderful bits of information that keep coming. My family is taking shape nicely and the PRONI website certainly has a lot more on it than I thought. I managed to find the will of the spinster sister Jemima who died in 1887. (oddly she bequeathed money to her sister Eleanor McClean McKeown who had died 6 years earlier! - I will read it again and look into that further)

So the family now looks like this

Children of Daniel McClean and Sarah Nevin

Mary Jane (c1819 - aft1887) m Alexander Lang
Eleanor (c1821 - 1881) m William McKeown
William Nevin (c 1824 - 1905) m Marianne Browne
Hugh (c1825 - 1848)
Robert (c1831 - 1869)
Jemima (? - 1887)

My husband's great aunt never married and devoted her life to her Maclean Family History. She provided me with everything she knew. She only knew of William and Mary Jane. I only found Hugh and Robert recently when I found they were buried with their father Daniel in the family plot at Clifton Street Cemetery.

Gaffy, you seem to be have access to a lot of Belfast information such as the Belfast Newsletter. I have seen it on Ancestry but it is not indexed. How are you finding references so quickly???

Your comment about walking past Daniel's old home/pub in Anne Street gave me goosebumps!

I am appreciating and enjoying all the pieces of information that you're both posting and I'm learning so much about the Belfast area.

[hdw]

The Martin's Belfast Directory which I mentioned before lists 8 individuals called McClean living in Belfast in 1841-42, including a Daniel McClean at 9 Lower Chichester Street.

A James McClean is a ship owner and general merchant, and a Francis Robert McClean is a solicitor with two addresses, presumably work and home. Another James McClean is a flesher and publican.

Harry

[sallymaclean]

Hi Harry

I'm thinking that the McCleans listed in the directories may be brothers or nephews of our Daniel as the names keep repeating themselves. One James may be the brother you listed in your first post (who married 3 times) and the others may be his sons.

I believe Presbyterians named their children strongly after their family names - I have one great example of that, my Andrew Alexander family from Glendermott Londonderry had 10 children and each one named their first born son after their father Andrew - must have been fun at family gatherings! At least the sons of the female Alexanders had different surnames!

The Adam McClean you referred to is a mystery, that name hasn't come up before but he may be a brother of Daniel's father William named from his mother's side.

The 1805 directory has only these 3 entries for McClean
McClean, S. and A., merchants, (1) Sugar House Entry writing
McClean, William, spirit merchant, 188 North Street - (I believe this is probably Daniel's father)
McClean, Adam, woollen draper, 68 High Street

Is this one of your Murrays from the same directory?
Murray, Timothy, soap and candle manufacturer, 172 North Street (just a few houses from William!!!!)

My great aunt claimed a connection to the Lindsay Spinning Mills of Belfast but she had no hard evidence. Maybe the connection is through Adam as he seems to be in that trade in all references to him.

I haven't found any information on the mill myself but I know the industry was huge at that time, probably just one of many.

Thank you for taking such an interest in my family.

Sally

[gaffy]

Information removed

Daniel's pub at 65 Ann Street (as per the 1819 directory) would have sat right on the corner of Ann Street and Victoria Street, there is nothing there now bar the ugly wall of a large police base (Musgrave Street Police Station). Back then, that end of Ann Street was very much in the thick of the river inlets, with the Blackstaff running off the Lagan parallel to the street 100 yards south and the Farset running off the Lagan parallel to the street 100 yards north (ie. along High Street). All of this is virtually unidentifiable today as the river inlets have long been culverted over, but if you look at this link, there are references to this general area and there's a little colour painting of High Street in particular which would have been done in the first half of the 1800s which gives you a sense of what the area was like - Ann Street ran parallel to this about 100 yards to the right of the painting.

http://niarchive.org/trails/maritime-belfast/

[hdw]

Hi Harry

I'm thinking that the McCleans listed in the directories may be brothers or nephews of our Daniel as the names keep repeating themselves. One James may be the brother you listed in your first post (who married 3 times) and the others may be his sons.

I believe Presbyterians named their children strongly after their family names - I have one great example of that, my Andrew Alexander family from Glendermott Londonderry had 10 children and each one named their first born son after their father Andrew - must have been fun at family gatherings! At least the sons of the female Alexanders had different surnames!

The Adam McClean you referred to is a mystery, that name hasn't come up before but he may be a brother of Daniel's father William named from his mother's side.

The 1805 directory has only these 3 entries for McClean
McClean, S. and A., merchants, (1) Sugar House Entry writing
McClean, William, spirit merchant, 188 North Street - (I believe this is probably Daniel's father)
McClean, Adam, woollen draper, 68 High Street

Is this one of your Murrays from the same directory?
Murray, Timothy, soap and candle manufacturer, 172 North Street (just a few houses from William!!!!)

My great aunt claimed a connection to the Lindsay Spinning Mills of Belfast but she had no hard evidence. Maybe the connection is through Adam as he seems to be in that trade in all references to him.

I haven't found any information on the mill myself but I know the industry was huge at that time, probably just one of many.

Thank you for taking such an interest in my family.

Sally

Well, through the Orr connection we are all one big family.

My Murray connection is through 3 x great-grandmother Jane Murray who was married to Archibald Petticrew, joiner in Belfast and Orr descendant. He seems to have died sometime between 1832 and 1838 when Jane remarries in Dumfries, Scotland. She ends up in Hawick with her new husband and the children of her first marriage, and sadly she ends her days in the poorhouse in Jedburgh, a widow for the second time. The only good thing about that, from my point of view, is that poorhouse superintendents kept files on the inmates' family background and origins, so there is a very detailed death-certificate telling me that Jane's parents were William Murray, stonemason, and Nancy Howat, something that Jane's own children probably wouldn't have known. There is some evidence that they may have lived in the Ballymacarrett area of Belfast.

Harry

[Jmcclean]

Sorry about resurrecting an old thread, but I just came across it.
The "McClean's" listed in the 1805 directory Andrew, Samuel, William & Adam, were four of seven brothers who made their way independently to Belfast during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The other three were John, James & Francis. They were from & born at Shane's Castle.
The solicitor Francis Robert McClean was Adams' son. The two addresses given were his practices, he lived in the family home at 4 Donegal Square South.
I don't know much about William apart from what is listed in the directories, ie he was a spirit dealer and Collector of Taxes. It seems possible he is the father of your Daniel, but he was definitely not from Ballykeel. All became successful merchants and dabbled in real estate, perhaps after establishing himself William purchased the Ballykeel property?