Facts Page
An ordinance survey (O.S.) book for the years 1830-1840 gives the following information.
Parish of Ballycor. South west from Agnew's hill (off Shane's Hill) adjoining parish of Kilwaughter. Main river is the Six Mile Water. (before this known as the Ollar or Owen-na-View) Entire course 18¼ miles to Lough Neagh at Antrim town.
Village of Ballyeaston. Townland of Ballyeaston. Parish of Ballycor. Barony of Upper Antrim. Manor of Ballylinney. Diocese of Connor. 1¼ miles north of Ballyclare and 9 miles north west of Larne. Two Presbyterian meeting houses.
Village: 13 two storey houses. Slated. Publicans, grocers, etc.
63 one storey cottages and cabins. Thatched. Weavers, farm labourers, etc.
All were built with stone and lime. Substantial and comfortable with a few whitened or roughcast.
The people came from the humbler classes, peaceable and industrious and were among the poorest people of the parish.
An O.S.map of 1830 shows a church at the top of the main street in the vilage. This church is now in ruins. It shows two other churches. One sitting on a hill in the village itself between main street and the Ballyeaston/Ballyclare road. The other church is on the Trenchill road between the village and the five corners,Rashee. There were two private schools in the village for the education of the children of country people.
Ballycor: A hamlet with 2 two storey houses and 29 very inferior cabins. Ballycor is built on the banks of a little rivulet overshadowed by Ash trees. This flows into the Six Mile Water. It is 1½ miles north of Ballyclare. The foundations of an old church remain in a graveyard to the north of the Hamlet.
Inhabitants: Nearly all weavers belonging to the poorer classes.
Houses: Small and thatched. Not roughcast or whitened. The only public building is Seceder's meeting house.
Gentlemen's seats: Whitepark House, the residence of William Smyth Esq. Situated on the banks of the Six Mile Water in the townland of Ballycor, 1½ miles north of Ballyclare. House: Spacious 3 storey situated in pretty and thickly wooded lawns.
Ballycor: 3 washing and beetling mills. 1 Drying linen. 2 corn mills. 2 bridges over the Six Mile Water.
Majority of the people were Presbyterian (probably being of Scots Presbyterian descent) Seceders and Covenanters. There were a few Methodists and hardly any Roman Catholics or Episcopalians.
The people married young. Women frequently at 15 (one at 14) and the men frequently at 20. They were long-lived, 75-80 not being unusual with one resident in the 1830s aged 93.
Dancing was the favourite and almost only pastime with a little card playing and some cock fighting around Easter time. Christenings were joyful occasions while at the other end of the scale, wakes were held at night time with whiskey being passed around twice. It was said that the people were too fond of whiskey drinking, but they were charitable, honest, peaceable and civil. Their accent, especially in remote areas was remarkably strong - in fact, there was no part of Ireland in which the Scottish accent was more strongly pronounced and their customs were also strongly scottish.
An excellent 2 storey house was built as a school, est 1836. Was this the 'schoolhouse' where my granny and granda Reid lived, and where Ronie, Tommy and Alex (Greer) also lived and where James Adair now lives? I believe so.
The main diet of the people was porridge and milk and potatoes.
Some notes uncovered from books in the Linenhall Library, Belfast.
From a Rate Book. The name James Reid in the parish of Ballycor.
He was leasing a small house and garden from a J.C.Ferguson. The garden cost 2 shillings (20 pence in today's money) per year and the house cost £1-3 shillings per year. Total was £1-5 shillings per year which seems to have been for rates only. The year was 1862. This could have been James from Paisley, his son James born in 1820, or possibly James born in 1842 and married to Rachel Erdis. I cannot be certain.
At the same time another James Reid was renting a house from Thomas Patterson at Rashee. Again, this could be any of the three James Reids mentioned above. There are still Pattersons living in the Rashee area today.
Other points: Ballynashee. Samuel Reid renting a house, office and land from John Donaldson.
John Harvey renting a house and a small garden from a Samuel Reid.
Rashee: Sarah Reid renting a house from John McMaster
Another point of interest that has been handed down is that James Reid (from Paisley) and his wife are buried in the old burying ground at the Four corners on the Rashee road. This would be consistent with the idea that they were living in that area. A search of the graveyard one morning gave no clues whatsoever but this still proves nothing one way or another. I believe that the Reid family like so many other families at that time were poor and so it is possible that a gravestone or a marker would have been beyond their financial means.
My cousin Stuart (one of James and Jean's sons)told me when we were talking at a recent funeral that aunt Lizzie (McKeown) had found the grave and marked it with six stones. Stuart's brother Jim, myself and 2nd cousin Colleen Peacock (Toronto, Alex's grandaughter) searched again in July 2006 but again our search was in vain. The graveyard is now closed in but not before cows had done a lot of damage to headstones, etc.
If any family members can lay their hands on the appropriate records I would love to hear from them. Remember, this is your website and family tree also.
After contacting and hiring the services of a Genealogist in Scotland, (Mrs Julie Poole of St Andrews) (cost was shared with Joseph Hayes) I received a letter from her stating that between 1780 and 1800, there were 19 James Reids born in Renfrewshire. 4 were born in Paisley. They were;
James ~ 1797 son of Thomas Reid & Jean Reid
James ~ 1797 son of Thomas Reid & Marion McDonald
James ~ 1795 son of James Reid & Mary Keir
James ~ 1792 son of James Reid & Margaret Stewart
It is very probable that one of the above were James Reid's parents and therefore our great grandparents. In my case, my great, great, great, great grandparents. I would lie towards Thomas Reid and Jean Reid as our 'original' James called his only daughter Jean. But, having said that, there has never been a Thomas in the family anywhere. This would also have made James only 18 years old when he fought at Waterloo. Is it possible that James left home for a 'reason' and joined the army and that is why Thomas is a 'forbidden' name? Also note that there are no Margarets, Marys or Marions in the tree. So, Jean is looking good for the first generation although it doesn't appear again either. I suppose we could keep guessing. Any thoughts please email me.
Contact me at: hill.reid@googlemail.com
Again, if I could only get James' date of birth, maybe through army records, it would be possible to get back at least one more generation.
March 2008: Subscribed to a website called Scotland's People. Here I was able to enter information (for a price) and got similiar results to Mrs Poole. Taking into account James' age when he went to Waterloo, I have narrowed the search down to three possible couples who may be his parents, and again, Thomas Reid and Jean Reid stand out as favourites.
