Hello Boyd. Thanks for providing this detail to us. Oh what a 'cold' document it is. Mr Stewart sounds like a lawyer! (tee hee). I could see many people emigrating if they could, just to get away from overlords with such 'attitude'. What I cannot understand though, is that if he was so eager to kick out tenants, then how was he expecting to obtain income from the properties? There must be an historical context here which I am missing; or else there were just lots of others who were seemingly willing to take over leases etc. A very socially revealing document. Thanks for sharing it. Ray in oz ((hmmm?? were you trying to call us "Lobsters"? -- tee hee. (That is what most of us use here in oz for what many others call crayfish, I think.); or was it "Losers"? (tee hee some more) Sorry, I must be in a mischievous mood. )) ----- Original Message ----- From: <boydgray26@utvinternet.com> > Losters, > > The data below is copied from PRONI's ecatalogue and all these places are > in > Clonleigh Parish. The ecatalogue somethimes throws up immensely valuable > nuggets like this and at other times, all you get is a very brief outline > of > the document in question. > > (Lindel, could it be copied and pasted straight onto your website under > Clonleigh so it is easily found again by researchers?) > > > [c.1820] > > Description :"Observations sent up by Mr Stewart". Detailed observations > on > tenants, noting crop failures, emigration, etc, (see transcript). Earl of > Erne. Lifford and Croghan Estates, Co. Donegal. > > Earl of Erne's Donegal Account: Observations sent up by Mr Stewart > > No. Denominations Tenants Names Observations > > 5 Ballindrait Eleanor Denny Served with notice to quit which must be > proceeded on. ...

Hi Ray (and LIsters!!), I think the context is simply that this is how things were in the 19th century and we must try not to look at the past through 21st century "liberal" eyes. It always makes me feel slightly uncomfortable when Irish people blame the English for being vehemently anti-Irish over the 1847 potato famine. Yes, I am sure there was an element of "oh, it doesn't matter as it's just the Irish complaining again" but the bigger driving force at the time was the doctrine of Laissez Faire which had produced the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act which in turn created the hated and feared workhouses where English people were incarcerated. And we should not forget, the people who passed these laws, the Whigs or Liberal Party, genuinely believed they were helping the feckless poor!! They were the reformers! And in some ways, these people were right. In the same period, another Mr. Stewart, James Stewart, who was the Marquis of Abercorn, who owned much of the next door parishes of Taughboyne and Raphoe, wrote many letters to his Land Agent, also called James Stewart, urging him to force people into abandoning the rundale system as it was so unproductive. In order to do this, it meant forcing people to give up leases and combining the small plots into bigger farms. His success with this policy, along with the good quality of the land of the Laggan Valley, helped to avoid the worst excesses of the Great Famine in East Donegal. As to this document, I suspect that Stewart had far less success than he hoped for when he recommended that these poor folk were thrown out and their cabins pulled down. The townland of Portinure is still owned by John Throne, the direct ancestor of the John Throne recommended for eviction here. Incidentally, the current John Throne wrote "The Donegal Woman", a harrowing account of women taken from hiring fairs in Strabane and badly abused in the early 20th century. This, sadly, was the way things were. Boyd Gray http://familytrees.genopro.com/boydgray26/Boyd/default.htm http://www.westulstergenealogy.com/ http://preview.tinyurl.com/yk7gckr -----Original Message----- From: donegaleire-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:donegaleire-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Ray Sent: 02 August 2011 14:38 To: DONEGALEIRE@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [DONEGALEIRE] Clonleigh Parish 1820 Hello Boyd. Thanks for providing this detail to us. Oh what a 'cold' document it is. Mr Stewart sounds like a lawyer! (tee hee). I could see many people emigrating if they could, just to get away from overlords with such 'attitude'. What I cannot understand though, is that if he was so eager to kick out tenants, then how was he expecting to obtain income from the properties? There must be an historical context here which I am missing; or else there were just lots of others who were seemingly willing to take over leases etc. A very socially revealing document. Thanks for sharing it. Ray in oz ((hmmm?? were you trying to call us "Lobsters"? -- tee hee. (That is what most of us use here in oz for what many others call crayfish, I think.); or was it "Losers"? (tee hee some more) Sorry, I must be in a mischievous mood. )) ----- Original Message ----- From: <boydgray26@utvinternet.com> > Losters, > > The data below is copied from PRONI's ecatalogue and all these places are > in > Clonleigh Parish. The ecatalogue somethimes throws up immensely valuable > nuggets like this and at other times, all you get is a very brief outline > of > the document in question. > > (Lindel, could it be copied and pasted straight onto your website under > Clonleigh so it is easily found again by researchers?) > > > [c.1820] > > Description :"Observations sent up by Mr Stewart". Detailed observations > on > tenants, noting crop failures, emigration, etc, (see transcript). Earl of > Erne. Lifford and Croghan Estates, Co. Donegal. > > Earl of Erne's Donegal Account: Observations sent up by Mr Stewart > > No. Denominations Tenants Names Observations > > 5 Ballindrait Eleanor Denny Served with notice to quit which must be > proceeded on. ... When replying to a digest post, quote only the specific text to which you are replying, removing the rest of the digest from your reply. Also, remember to change the subject of your reply so that it coincides with the message subject to which you are replying. TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY SUBJECT, GO TO THE THREADED ARCHIVES AT http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/DONEGALEIRE/ TO VIEW PREVIOUS EMAILS BY DATES AND SUBJECT GO TO THE SEARCHABLE ARCHIVES AT http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=DONEGALEIRE SOME HELPFUL WEBSITES: Donegal Genealogy Resource (Lindel's Site) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegal/ Donegaleire Genealogy Links & Data http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~donegaleire/ Bob's Donegal Ireland Genealogy http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hiflyte/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DONEGALEIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message