Good day
Another book by Robert Sibbett, “On the Shining Bann: Records of an Ulster Manor”, gives much detail of goings-on around Portglenone. John SPEERS (sometimes written SPEAR) was a "Grand Juror" (like a town committee member) in the early 19th century.
The North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS), where Rosemary Sibbett is a stalwart, will sell you a CD - there's a plug!
Robert was a long-time Belfast journalist and author, and (as Capt Jock says) a neighbour of the Hills, but by that time they were all "down the Hill" near the Antrim road rather than in Ballyhenry townland.
The book also mentions several Sibbetts of Killycoogan and Gortgole and a whole raft of other families. A sample:
North of these residents and neighbouring the road from Portglenone to Rasharkin were the Reids, the Rosses, the Wallaces, the Meeks‘, the Dallass‘s, the Marshalls, the Wilsons, and the Kilpatricks, while towards the Bann were the Adams‘s, the Reas, more Barkleys, the Mooneys, the M‘Caughrins, the M‘Sparrons, the M‘Kees (Owen and Patrick), the Reillys, the Gortgole Reids – a fine old family, which came from Gortfadd – the M‘Grogans, the Evans‘s, the M‘Clenaghans, the Boltons, the Glasses of the Burnside, the Richmonds, the M‘Auleys, the M‘Taggarts, the Ferris‘s, and many others. South and East of the M‘Donnells also resided the Kellys, the M‘Allisters, the Dripps‘s (now the Campbells), the Surgeoners, the Boyds, the M‘Caugheys (of Killycoogan), the Carsons, the Greers, the Kyles, the Taylors, the McCaws, Lisrodden and Killycoogan (the latter family is now substituted by the Simpsons), the Duncans, the M‘Grandles, the Glasses of Bracknamuckley, the Scotts, the Laws, the M‘Ilmoyles, then, towards the Bann, the Andrews‘s, the Stewarts (Whitehill), the O‘Neills (of Rosegift), the M‘Erleans, the Raineys, the O‘Haras, the Glovers, and others of the farming population, who had many sub-tenants, all splendid specimens of manhood and womanhood.
