The Anderson family history: Northumberland & County Mayo

Northumberland

Matthew Anderson (1784-1857) had been born into a family of millers living at Barrow Mill, Alwinton in the Upper Coquetdale in Northumberland.

There is a story written by Matthew’s great-great grand daughter[i] in the 1920s saying:

“[His] mother was a frivolous and extravagant woman who destroyed her husband by causing him to lose his fortune.  Because of this Matthew, still a young boy, was forced to become a shepherd …..  He became very frugal, painfully so and he soon earned enough money to begin farming on his own.   Soon he married Jane Wanless and brought up a family to whom he gave the best education possible at that time ….four sons John, Ephraim, George and Archibald.  In 1852 these four came to Ireland with their father, and settled in the west of County Mayo.”

 

Matthew’s eldest son John was born in 1811 away from the valley at Birdhope.  Archibald b1815, Margaret b1817 and Ephraim b1819 were all born in a small building at Lounges Knowe on the side of Upper Coquetdale valley above Barrowburn.  The baptismal records give their father Matthew as a shepherd. There are now no obvious remains of the building at Lounges Knowe.

Matthew then moved further up the valley to Carshope where George b1823 and Jane b1829 were born.  This may have given the family a better house to live in but due to a cobalt deficiency in the soil shepherds always struggled to make a living there [ii].  Locally they were known as the “Muckle Andersons”.

Matthew’s wife died in 1840 and the next year during the 1841 census most of the family were living at Carlecroft, higher up and on the opposite side of the valley.

Ten years later, in 1851 the majority of the family had dispersed into the local area:

• Matthew was living with the Bolams, his sister’s family at Bickerton; he had been with a Bolam in 1841.
• John, as in 1841, was at Silloans, near Birdhopecraig, with his Uncle Ephraim.  John was soon to marry Margaret Stokoe, daughter of a shepherd.
• Archibald may have married Jane & become a cattle salesman in Westgate, Newcastle.  There is a GRO reference to an Archibald Anderson marrying Mary Clark at Bellingham in 1840, but this is a different, though related Archibald.
• Ephraim had married his cousin Mary Ann Anderson  in the Rothbury registration district during the last quarter of 1843. By the 1851 census had five children & were farming 122 acres at Little Harle.
• George may have married Catherine & farming 380 acres at Old Town, Troughend
• Margaret & Jane were “daughters to head of household” at Carlecroft with James Cowan.

County Mayo

During the next few years after the 1851 census Matthew and most of his family with James Cowan(s) moved to County Mayo.

Matthew and John:

Griffiths shows that Matthew & John occupied 284 acres of land, a house, an office, and two cottages at Barnagreggan, Parish of Mayo, rented from Geoffrey Martin,  and sublet a further 7 other holdings of land and houses.

John Anderson married Margaret Stokoe at  Birdhopecraig, Northumberland on 30 April 1853 and made their home at Brieze (or Brees) House,  Barnagreggan, near Mayo where their six daughters were born.

• Catherine b1854 married Arthur Oram in 1880 & lived at Wilford Lodge for the rest of their lives
• Isabella “Bella” b1858 married Robert Dick & lived at Mullaun in 1887
• Mary b1859 lived at Knockroe in 1887 and married James Cowan (son James Cowan & Jane Anderson)
• Margaret “Maggie” b1866 livied at Knockroe in 1887 [& Edinburgh for part of the year?]
• Anne “Annie” b1863 or 69 lived at Knockroe in 1887
• Jane referred to as Mrs Hardie who was living in America by 1887.

When John died in 1874 he was living at Mayo Cottage [Where is this?].

Margaret joined the family in Ireland. Margaret and John’s widow Margaret (nee Stokoe) were living with James Cowan at Knockroe when Arthur’s diaries start in 1887 and both died there.

Ephraim and George:

Ephraim and George are mentioned in Griffiths as renting at least 1,000 acres of land in Tagheen from Patrick Crean-Lynch.

According to a descendant of John Young[iii] Ephraim & George were described as “Northumberland gentlemen” and that “it was highly likely that John Young was recruited by the Andersons, recognising him as a typically reliable Northumbrian Presbyterian herd”.

Ephraim & Mary Ann move into Hollybrook House, Boleybeg & lived there for the rest of their lives.

There are photographs of some of their six children & their offspring

and very brief mentions in Arthur Oram’s diaries when he met them:

• Matthew b1843
• Elizabeth b1845 married Thomas Honeyman “a Revenue man”
• Jane b1847 married Joseph Robinson who farmed in North Northumberland
• Robert b1848 who may have married Mary Bole
• Mary b1850 who married John Rochester
• John, born in Co Mayo c.1860.   John, in the1901 & 1911 Irish censuses was living at Hollybrook House with his wife Clara.

George married Catherine Lamb, as shown in the record of Elizabeth Anderson’s birth 6 Feb 1865 in Claremorris.

It is thought that George & his wife Catherine lived at Hollybrook House before emigrating to West Virginia in 1874.   The 1880 USA census shows that George and Catherine were living with seven offspring all of whom had been born in Ireland between 1855 and 1866.

Archibald:

There is no evidence that Archibald joined them, though various family sources suggest that he was in Co Mayo for a while.  There was an Archibald Anderson, cattle salesman living in Westgate, Newcastle for the 1851, 61 & 71 census returns with wife Jane Anderson and their son Mathew Thomas.  Matthew was born on 17 September 1850 and on his birth certificate Jane’s maiden name is given as Patterson.  There is no sign of them in 1881 & 91 census returns.

Family sources suggest Archibald was at Three Mile Bridge, close to Westgate so, although no record of Archibald and Jane’s marriage had been found by February 2012, it is highly likely that this Archibald is one of the brothers.

On 29 Aug 1893 Arthur Oram receives a “telegram announcing death of Archibald Anderson” and attends a funeral at Hollybrook on 31 Aug but does not specify the graveyard.  This is the only mention of an Archibald Anderson in the diaries.

Jane married James Cowan or Cowans  (1827-1907) who was at Carlecroft, the Anderson’s home in Northumberland for 1851 census.  There are no James Cowan(s)s in Griffiths so we do not know where they lived but the birth of James in Co Mayo in 1856 does back up the family story that James Cowan(s) moved to Co Mayo with the Andersons.

By the 1871 census James, a shepherd & Jane had returned to Northumberland with Matthew, Jane, Eleanor, John & Hector though some of the given places of birth are at odds to the GRO records.  James and Jane could be the couple who appear in the 1901 census returns in Northumberland when their dates and places of birth are correct and James gives his occupation as ‘retired coal miner’.

James & Jane Cowan’s six children:

• James who was born in Co Mayo in 1856 (Irish census).  To confuse matters James married John & Margaret Anderson’s daughter Mary b1859  in early 1898.  No offspring.  At the time Arthur Oram’s diaries start in 1887 James lived at Knockroe.

• Mathew born c1861, Co Mayo (1871 census), who went to Canada.

• Jane, born in Westport, Co Mayo c1863 (1871 census), married John W Rotherford (Rutherford in Arthur’s diaries) farmer in Northumberland.

 

• Eleanor who was born in Ireland in 1865 (UK census), married Tony Oliver and lived in Northumberland All their offspring emigrated to North America.

• John was born on 11 September 1866 in Claremorris, Mayo (GRO).  Knockroe is close to Claremorris. John  later went to Idaho.

• Hector who also went to Idaho was born on 5 June 1869  in Church Hill, Donegal (GRO).