Susan,
I have never seen any evidence of deliberate decisions to destroy Presbyterian
records because of the 1798 rebellion. My experience is simply that in many
cases in the 1700s Ministers never kept any records, mainly because they had
never been instructed to do so by Synod. That changed around the 1820s, and
they started to keep them a bit more regularly but even then gaps remained.
You may also be told that many were lost in the 1922 fire. No Presbyterian
records were ever kept in the Public Record Office so that’s a myth.
But some Presbyterian records were lost in the 1798 rebellion. In Maghera in Co
Derry & Ballymoney in Co Antrim, the army set fire to the roofs of the homes of
folk believed to be involved in the rebellion. Since pretty well every house in
both towns had a thatched roof it meant almost all the houses caught fire and
were destroyed. And in both towns the Presbyterian churches also caught fire or
were deliberately burned by the army and any records held there were nearly all
lost. (Some fragments were rescued from Ballymoney 1st, covering the mid 1700s,
and you can see burn marks on them. They are held in Union Theological College
in Belfast). But they weren’t burned on purpose by the congregation or the
Minister and presumably if there had been no fire we’d have the Ballymoney
records today.
Some Presbyterian churches did keep early records, and they are still around
today. So why were they not destroyed if that was the rule? At least 6 churches
in Co Antrim have records for the 1700s and in some cases the late 1600s. But
in others they simply never kept any records in the first place. And some were
lost for other reasons than the 1798 uprising. Here’s an 1848 quotation from
Rev Witherow’s book on the history of Maghera Presbyterian church. The Maghera
Minister there in 1798 (Rev Glendy) was involved in the 1798 uprising and
fled/was allowed to slip away to America. His successor was Rev Charles Kennedy
who was appointed around 1801.
Maghera January 21st 1848
Shortly after my ordination in this congregation as Assistant to the Rev.
Charles Kennedy and Successor to Rev. Smylie Robson now Missionary to the Jews
at Damascus, I made application to the Senior Pastor for any documents in his
possession that might throw light upon the history of our Congregation, but he
informed me that by some accident most of all the records in his possession had
been destroyed - he did not tell me however that he had any older than his own
time, but said that on order of the Synod of Ulster had had at an early period
of his ministry written a history of the Congregation which had been given in
to the body, but he did not know what had come of it. I received no public
documents whatever from him.
As far as Stewartstown 1st is concerned, that church was only established in
1790, so there were never going to be any earlier records there anyway. (Their
baptisms start in 1814). Stewartstown 2nd was established in 1817 (baptisms
from 1827). Stewartstown 1st has marriage records for 1820 -27 which are in
Cookstown 3rd’s records. Don’t ask me why. A travelling Minister perhaps.
Regarding Presbyterian participation in the uprising more generally, it would
be wrong to assume that everyone was involved. Many were, but many weren’t and
didn’t really support it. That’s one of the factors behind their fairly
comprehensive defeat. With a few exceptions they did not have the support
necessary to overthrow the army. They didn’t have sufficient weapons, weren’t
very experienced nor particularly well led (in military terms). They were also
massively infiltrated by Government informants. These were all important
factors. But a lot of the population didn’t support the uprising at all, or at
least sufficiently to take part. In the descriptions of the battle of Antrim
the leaders noted that as the unit marched from Donegore to Antrim town quite a
number left saying “they needed to go to the toilet” and did not return.
Perhaps their hearts weren’t really in it? You’ll note that after 1798 the
United Irishmen were never heard of again. There’s a reason for that. They knew
it was a lost cause without sufficiently widespread support. And, a few years
later, as the industrial revolution started to get going in Britain and Belfast
in the early 1800s, these same Presbyterians suddenly found new sources of
employment that quickly made them pro-Crown. Their descendants in Ireland
today are now the folk who don’t want a United Ireland and who remain fiercely
loyal to the Crown.
A fascinating subject.
Elwyn
On Saturday, 2 May 2026 at 09:06:08 BST, Susan Elliott via CoTyroneList
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hello
Has anyone done any research on the impact of the 1798 Rebellion on church
records in County Tyrone? I understood that mainly Co Tyrone was affected.
On a visit to Stewartstown Presbyterian Church in 2012 I was advised that
records earlier than those accessible today probably do not exist as they had
to be destroyed to protect people’s identities. Is this correct and if so,
would there be a record of affected churches?
Kind regards
Susan Elliott
Melbourne Australia
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