It was just a normal subletting arrangement. If I lease some land which has say a house and several cottages on it, I may live in the main house and sublet the cottages.
That makes sense. I just don't want to assume anything because I am really not very familiar with life in Northern Ireland in the 19th century!
I don’t know exactly where your Black family lived or their occupations, but if they were farmers then most farms had some labourers cottages.
My great-aunt tried to provide me with as much family history as she could remember (this was back in the 80s - and she was born in 1898) Her father was the son of Samuel Ferguson who left NI with his young family before 1881 - they settled in Workington (CUL) The Black reference is vague but I've learned to never discard family stories... I wrote down that somebody's wife was Agnes Black, daughter of Sir Black. And I think Samuel had a brother or uncle who was a minister. So as you can see I am just trying to piece together a few very indistinct pieces of a puzzle!
The farmer (who would normally be leasing himself) would sublet those cottages, to anyone who needed them. Sometimes widows but often to labourers. The labourers sometimes paid their rent in cash, sometimes by an agreed number of days work a year on the farm and sometimes by a mix of the two. Labourers weren’t needed much on farms in the winter so generally weren’t offered permanent work. Today we’d call them GIG economy workers. In the winter months the labourers would often do weaving work if not needed by anyone else, which gave them extra income.
[/quote] Yes, and James Boyd was a weaver so it would also make sense he would just rent a house. In Ballymurphy he rented from a William Black who rented from the Marquess of Downshire. I'm wondering if the John Boyd, who also rented land from the Marquess was close family to James Boyd. One day I'll make it over to Ireland! Maybe then I will be able to figure things out more easily! In the mean time, these bits and pieces of information help me understand the social landscape a little better. THanks for you input!
