The 1900 letter that had been sent to her granddaughter, Mrs Hugh Keys, formerly Sarah
Sproule, had opened the door to the family history of Ann Given. The letter had been sent by
Charles Cooper, Sarah Sproule's brother-in-law, and it had family history from Rev. Edward
Edwards. The letter told us;
“Sarah Sproul her father’s
mother was Ann Givan, daughter of Mary Jane Stuart, who was a sister of Sir
George Stuart. He was the landlord of the parish of Straws and inherited a good
many other properties. They were first cousins of the Countess Ross of Castle
Gore. The Reverend Edwards said that they were the nearest relations of King
James Stuart and any of the Stuart.”
The Rev Edward Edwards had died some 20 years before this
letter was written, and so it would be understandable that some of the details may
have been embellished in the intervening years. However, this part of the letter seems to have been
very accurate, though I didn't look into the ‘nearest relations to King James
Stuart’ part!
The letter had told us where exactly to go to find the family history of Ann Given. We must go to the Edwards Family Tree. (Note – the name ‘Stuart’ is also spelt ‘Stewart’, and I‘m going to stick with Stewart spelling here.)
We are looking for Mary Jane Stewart, who is connected to
Olivia Edwards, the Countess of Rosse, who was the heir to the Castle Gore estates and to the Manor of Hastings. The Edwards
Family Tree is vast, but I knew exactly where to go immediately, as I
had come across this Stewart-Edwards marriage when I was researching the Golan
Sproules. The Stewart marriage was situated very close on the Edwards
tree to the marriage of Martha Edwards of Kilcroagh to Robert Sproule of Golan
in the early 1700s.
Martha Edwards was the daughter of Robert Edwards of
Kilcroagh and Martha La Vie, and she was born some time around 1700. And, yes,
right next to that Golan Sproule marriage on the Edwards Tree is the marriage
of Mary Edwards of Kilcroagh, sister of my Martha, to Robert Stewart, and it even tells us that this
marriage took place on 9 Sep 1726.
 |
| From "A Table of some Descendangs of Hugh Edwards, who died A.D. 1672" |
The letter was fairly accurate on the Edwards relationship, when
it said “They were first cousins of the
Countess Ross of Castle Gore”, for Mary Edwards is the 1st
cousin 1x removed of Olivia Edwards, the Countess of Rosse.
The Edwards Tree tells us that the father of Robert Stewart
was George "Roe" Stewart of Termon, in County Donegal. Robert
Stewart, husband of Mary Edwards, was a minister at the church in Carland,
County Tyrone, and he preached in Irish. That is quite significant, as the
Plantation folk generally shunned the Irish language and it was spoken only by
the native Irish.
The Edwards Tree also confirms what the letter says, that Robert Stewart inherited land in Straw or Strews in Londonderry;
“Inherited Strews, part of the grant to Robert, father of William Stewart (who married Mary O'Neill, gd dau of the Earl of Tyrone) and 5th s/o Andrew, 2nd Lord Ochiltree, buried in Newmills churchyard”
It looks as if Rev. Robert Stewart who married Mary Edwards, was
indeed descended from the Lords of Ochiltree, a Scottish title created in 1543
for an Andrew Stewart. There was a long line of Andrew Stewarts holding this
Lord Ochiltree title until the last Andrew Stewart sold it off in the early
1600s. Our Robert Stewart is descended from this last one.
 |
| From A Pedigree of the family of Stewart, of Castlestewart, Vol 2 1892 John O' Hart |
But that’s not the interesting part of this story. Rev. Robert Stewart and Mary Edwards had 10
children, the 9th child being Mary Jane Stewart, born about 1744,
who was to become the mother of our Ann Given. However, Rev. Robert Stewart
died just 2 years after her birth, on 12 April 1746 and I believe that his wife Mary died round the same
time, although I can’t find a record of her death. The children were now orphans.
Their daughter, Mary Jane Stewart, the Edwards Tree tells us, was taken in
by her cousin, Olivia Edwards, the Countess of Rosse and she lived at Castle
Gore. At some stage the bold Mary Jane Stewart eloped with a gentleman named
James Given of Langfield!
 |
| From A Pedigree of the family of Stewart, of Castlestewart, Vol 2 1892 John O' Hart |
Unfortunately, the Edwards tree does not tell us why they eloped, but it can’t have been
that the Given family was an ‘unsuitable’ family. Martha Edwards, a first
cousin of Mary Jane Stewart also married into this Given family of Langfield. She married a
man named George Semple of Mullaghabane, who’s mother was Sarah Given. This Sarah Given was
the sister of James Given that Mary Jane Stewart had married. So there’s kind of a
Mullaghabane / Given link there too.
So James Given and Mary Jane Stewart eloped and lived in the Parish of Langfield, where, no doubt, their daughter Ann Given was born.
We can locate James Given of Langfield from his death date written on the Edwards Tree – 1792. From this we find him in the Index to Wills in 1792.
 |
| Ireland, Indexes to Wills, 1384-1858, Ancestry.com |
James Given is
living in Unshinagh, in Langfield Upper, now Longfield East. George Given, the
son of James Given and Mary Jane Stewart, is there in Unshinagh in the Tithe
Applotment, and he has 46 acres. His holding has grown to 115 acres by the mid 1850s.
Meanwhile our Ann Given has married Armour Sproule of Mullaghabane. If we leave out the 'elope' bit, this would be quite a 'good' marriage for a small farmer in Mullaghabane, even one connected to the Grennan Sproules. Does this hint at Armour having friends in high places?
Maybe, or maybe not!
Other Posts in this Series;
5. The Letter to Mrs Hugh Keys, Sarah Sproule of Mullaghabane
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