Part of the Frederick Brown Collection
1. Isle of Tonti;- Amherst Island 16,000 acres 10 miles long
& 3 miles wide
Between 1820-70 300 left Ards to Amherst Island
80 Families from parishes of Innishargie (sic), BWalter
[Ballywalter?],
BHalbert, [Ballyhalbert?]
1830 & 1840 Most common destination was Canada
David and Mary Boyd left as early as 1824
Samuel Glen [Glenn?] left 1827
mostly Single People or Newly Weds
In 1850 larger familes eg George Findlay left with his wife
Elizabeth McCann & 6 children left in 1855
Ballymullan - part of Innishargie. Several families left
Robert Finnegan, James McFadden, Hugh McMagh,
John and Samuel McWaters John & Wm [William?] Taylor left in
1832
It is estimated that most took from £20 to £80 with them.
Jane Filson carried $500 of silver in her petticoat
& Portaferry was the port of embarkation where emigrant ships
left for Quebec.
Earl of Mountcashel with lands in Co Antrim & Southern Ireland.
Had purchased the Island in 1835 after its former owner
Maria Bowes (Johnston) had put it up for stakes in a card game
in Ireland and lost it.
Mountcashel encouraged emigration to try + relieve
the unemployment + poverty of those in Ireland.
But his high living high spending & the effects of the
famine in Ireland he was bankrupt & sold the Island
Robert Perceval Maxwell Finabrouge and Groomsport Hse
[House?] who owned it well into the 20 century. They
settled in well and became a close knit community Early
settlers moved into best land. Settlers after 1850 moved
into the [Pooves?] land on the South of the Island.
Rocky and marshy land. The Island is [feather?] than the
Ards and was covered with trees. Land had to be cleared
and the trees made log cabins and railed fences untill they
could afford to build a house Gone were the white washed
stone cottages, green hedges and turf fires of home
[Cummins?] [aGeul?] wrote home about large wild turkeys dry
cold air Bears [Wolves?] snow Ice slaying [sleighing?]
Irish made up 60%-80% population and over a few Americans
and Scots.
Presbyterian Church formed in 1852
Orange Lodge and prentice Boys by 1882
The pub was called the Co Down Inn and was run by
John Watson Cloughy
The Glenns [Glen?] of Ballywalter owned General Stone
The Pollys from Portavogie owned [Grow?] & [Finover?]
Reids from Ballyhalbert General stores at Emerald
when creamery was eventually established
Farming Fishing Sailing + Shipbuilding
coming of Railway took some fishing away
Barley market collapsed in 1883
Farmer (sic) started Dairying
It was Barley that made the money to keep Farmers
Buy their own farms. When many farms were sold in 1870
-15-30% leased on rented land @ 1/=an acre not £1 to £2
Back in Ards - 7 year leases
Wm (William) Monty [Fovear?] Royal Co Tyrone cousin of Percevel
Maxwell was the land agent on the Isled [Island?]
Accept [---?] in form of crops [or?] Labour in Bad
years late payment no Interest
80% of Ards Immgres [Immigrants?] received on the land up
untill 1900 close links were kept with Ards but as a younger
Generation Grew up fewer kept their Links with the old
Country
Jason Adair, Allen, Anderson, Askin, Baily, Tom Beggs,
Caughy Filson Geo [George?] Finlay, Finnegan McGrallon
Fleming, Johnston, McKee McMaster McMath, McWaters, Scott,
Watson,
