Hay family of Coleraine

[Belfast Gail]

Edward Hay (my great x2 grandfather) has me completely defeated!
He was born (I believe circa 1808, and died 5 May 1890, in Coleraine.
He married Margaret Taylor on 8 April 1831, in New Row Presbyterian Church, Coleraine, and they produced 8 children.  At the time of his marriage, he was recorded as a policeman but, by 1860s, he appears as a coachbuilder in Coleraine.  In his will he refers to his estate at Flowerfield in Portstewart, so he had very strong ties to the area throughout his life.
The church marriage record does not mention his father's name so I have no idea now how to delve further back into the family.  We believe the family originally came over Oban in Scotland but when, we have no idea.
I would be so grateful for any help on how now to proceed.

[aghadowey]

Welcome to Rootschat 

Edward Hay purchased Coleraine Coach Factory in 1861 and had six sons & several daughters. I have some information on his descendants but it will be difficult to trace the family back further. There is a family headstone in Coleraine Cemetery but it most likely starts with Edward & his wife Margaret.

Edward's Will mentions a brother William Thomas Hay- have you tried searching for/contacting that branch ofthe family to see if they have more details?

Here's a bit about the history of Flowerfield House, Portstewart- Edward Hay not listed-
http://www.flowerfield.org/show.php?id=1

[Belfast Gail]

   How wonderful to hear from you - thank you for replying.
I have re-examined Edward's will and you are absolutely correct - there is mention of a brother and a nephew, both of which I completely missed before.  That does, indeed open up new avenues to research.  Thank you so much.

Re Flowerfield - the same will mentions his estate and mansion there, and my understanding is that he bought the property as an investment.  The family never actually lived there.

And thank you, we are aware of the headstone - I have photos of it.

I am very grateful for your post. My mother is approaching 86 and, while in relatively good health and very well-informed, is still hungry for more information.

[aghadowey]

Would be worth checking the Griffith's Valuation notebooks to look at ownership/tenants of Flowerfield- see www.proni.gov.uk

Do you have all the information you want on Edward Hay's descendants? I have quite a few bits from various records but don't want to duplicate what you've already found.

Will have a look later for brother and nephew. The Will was spread over 6 pages so I didn't read through it all but might be worth checking with fine-toothed comb.

[Belfast Gail]

While I feel I've gathered a fair amount of info on my grandfather Edward James (Jimmy) Hay circa 1889-1933, and his cousin Edward Norman Hay 1889-1943, and their lines, I have very little knowledge of any of the other Hays, other than that gleaned from PRONI's wills calendar. 
Do you know how Edward Hay came to buy the Coleraine Coach Factory?  I couldn't figure out how a policeman could have afforded to buy into that business or to amass the myriad properties referred to in his will?
My mother has some table silver with a Hay coat of arms on it and we believe Portstewart Strand used to form part of the Hay estate but how this is all joined up, we can't quite figure out.
While I am very grateful for any information you can share, I don't want to exhaust your goodwill!  If you could even direct me to where the information is held, I am happy to look it up for myself. 
Have you any knowledge of Margaret Ann Taylor's family also?
Very many thanks, again
Gail

[aghadowey]

Will have a look through some files and see what I can find that might be new to you.

[gaffy]

Here's something on the brother and nephew to get you started working back.

If you search for Edward Hay in the 1891 England census (free access below) you can see his whole family living in Swindon, his father William T is an Inland Revenue Officer born in Ireland circa 1851 and his mother's name is Clara. Various siblings are listed, including a John B Hay born circa 1880 in Ireland.

http://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Familysearch "Ireland Births and Baptisms, 1620-1881" has a record for son John B Hay, revealing mother as Clara Emily Chandler:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FGJ4-P2S

Edited to add: FreeBMD shows the marriage of William Thomas Hay to Clara Emily Chandler in 1874 at Northhampton.

Edited to add: I've just realised that this William Thomas Hay would have been born some 40 years after his supposed coachmaker brother Edward (if your 1808 birth date is correct), which seems very unlikely indeed  - what does anyone else think?

[gaffy]

The London Gazette has an 1891 reference to Edward William Carter Hay being taken on as a boy copyist:

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/26168/pages/2931/page.pdf

Here's the family apparently back in Ireland in 1901:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Coleraine/Captain_Street_Upper/1517751/

And 1911:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Londonderry/Coleraine/Captain_Street__Upper/588757/

Is this a wild goose chase (ie. have I got the wrong family) or was the will loose in it's description "nephew", ie. did it really mean grand nephew (William Thomas being the actual nephew)? Edited to add: Or another possibility being that Edward (c.1808) and William Thomas (c. 1850) are half brothers?

[gaffy]

The PRONI willls index shows the following:

Hay William Thomas of Captain Street Coleraine county Londonderry retired inland revenue officer died 27 August 1931 Administration W/A Londonderry 14 October to Margaret Hay spinster. Effects £510 5s. 1d.

The Captain Street address matches the 1901 / 1911 census records, it looks like wife Clara may have already died.

Notwithstanding the age reconciliation issue between 1808 Edward and c.1850 William Thomas, I suppose one way back on this one is to see if there is a father's name / occupation either in the 1874 Northampton marriage record to Clara or in the marriage record to Margaret mentioned in the wills index entry...