Dear All, Those of you interested in the Lisburn Fultons have probably seen or heard of Theodore Hope's book "The Fultons of Lilsburn". In it he identifies the first known home of the Fultons as a farm known as Belsize in the townland of Magheralave, which is about a mile north east of Lisburn town centre. The site is now in the suburbs of Lisburn on a road known as Belsize Road which leads past Derriaghy Church. This road was the main road to Belfast, (and probably to Carrickfergus which was the port and castle before Belfast was of any significance) and remained so up to about 1820 when the present Belfast /Lisburn road was built. Hope says that he found an estate register showing the tenant of Belsize to be John Fulton in November 1678, and gives more details about the lease. I have not seen this document but I have found several items of interest from the 18th century. There is a survey of the Hertford estate to a scale of about 12 inches to one mile showing all the agricultural holdings, and John Fulton is the holder of a farm exactly as described by Hope, in Magheralave townland and bounded on the east by the boundary between that townland and Derriaghy townland. I have not got the reference details to hand but it was copied for me from the original in the Northern Ireland Public Record Office (PRONI). From memory I think it was dated around 1720/30 amd will be checking when I get an opportunity. There are also two rentals of the estate in PRONI, the first at ref.D.427/1 covering 1719/23 and the second, ref. D.427/2 for the years 1728/9. In 1721 John Fulton held 73 acres in Derryaghy, but by 1728 the holder was James Fulton with Thomas Thompson (his brother-in-law). It is again described as Derryaghy but partly in Magheralave. They are still there in 1730 but the plot has increased to 75 and a half acres. In 1736 the parish published a list of all the leases to help to collect the tithes which everyone had to pay to the Church. This list is contained in the parish register for Derriaghy and was reprinted in 1981 in a booklet "The parish of Derriaghy Register 1686 - 1772" edited by Canon W N C Barr. There are no Fultons on the list, but there are two leases, Spratt's and Skelton's which have a note "part Fultons" These two plots appear to total about 75 acres and it seems that James Fulton had moved and that the land had then been divided between two new tenants. It seems that James had widened his business interests and moved into the town of Lisburn, for in the 1728 rental he held land in Shorrockmore Moss in the Townlands of Tamna and Lilsnagarvey i.e. the townlands on which the town of Lisburn stood. He was named jointly with Richard Coulson for this plot, and I found several documents in the Registry of deeds in Dublin confirming the move. In 1741 he registered his interest in a tenement and land in Bridge St. Lisburn "formerly Richard Coulson's " which he already occupied at that time and over the years various deeds show that he progressed from being Maulster to Chandler by 1753 and Gent. by 1760. Returning to Belsize, by 1767 the resident was Mr Hudson as shown in Taylor and Skinner's guide book "The Post Roads of Ireland" Canon Barr also had a typescript report of the area in which I found "Belsize stood on the west of Belsize Road over 200yds north of the point where Harmony Hill (a local road) joins Belsize Rd. Mr Hudson was master of the latin school in Lisburn" The Ordnance Survey Memoir of the parish written in the 1830s says "Bellsize, the seat of the late ------ Hudson Esq., stands about half a mile from Lisburn on the old road to Derryaghy. Here there stood a large and commodious slated house: was consumed in the rebellion of 1798 and never rebuilt. There is nothing now (Aug/Sept 1837) to denote this mansion but some office houses and a lofty planting" Given the size of the families of the second generation of Lisburn Fultons, the references in Derriaghy dwindle very quickly in the 18th century. The parish registers and Vestry books exist, but up to about 1760 there are very few references - John son of William born 10/9/1709, Hugh and William signing the register in 1711,and 1714, and William serving as Churchwarden in 1714, and in the 1750s a couple of references to Francis Fulton is just about it. John Fulton the first holder of Belsize that we know of, had five sons, Paul b.c.1650, John (father of James) b.c.1653, Robert (believed to have gone to Jamaica) b.c.1654,Hugh b.c.1659 and Thomas b.c.1663. Of these Paul disappears fairly early, after having baptised a daughter in 1678. Robert had two sons but left no grandsons to carry the Fulton name. Hope has a tantalising note - one of the son's wills referred to a house and lands in Archibald, Savannah, but not how he came to have this property. Could this Paul have emigrated to the Savannah area and be the father of the David Fulton who died at Craven Co., South Carolina in 1745 ( ref:-Fulton Newsletter of July 1992 page 92-76)? He called his son Paul, while the eldest son of his uncle Thomas b.c.1663 ws called David suggesting that it might have been a family name. James we know moved into Lisburn and he and his descendants are fairly fully covered in Hope's book. Hugh married to Eleanor Johnston and had five sons William, Robert, James , John, and Thomas. William may be the same William who appears in the 1728 rental at the other end of the Hertford estate near Lough Neagh and where a Fulton family spread in the 18th and 19th century, and where old John's wife Margaret Camac had her home. I have seen no trace yet of Robert locally so he could well have emigrated with brother James, while James is thought to be the James who died in Augusta Co. VA in 1753 . John may be the John linked with the Johnston family in the next parish to Derriaghy in about 1720 and I am waiting for the Valpy Fulton papers which Ross Fulton has kindly sent me as Hope says that they contain a likely family for Thomas. While there is no absolute proof the disappearance of the family from Derriaghy seems to coincide both with a time of emigration in Ireland and with the appearance in America of Fultons of the same name. I hope this may be of interest to those of you researching the Lisburn Fultons and look forward to comment, correction or extra information from anyone who can add to this. Trevor Fulton