This section of Arborealis contains indexes and selected transcripts of Irish deeds, which have been filed as memorials (handwritten copies) in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin.
Sub-sections on this page:
— Introduction
— Scope of Irish deeds covered
— Indexes of Memorials of Irish deeds
— Selected transcripts
— Blog articles
— End notes
Quick links to other pages:
Introduction:
Registration of all memorials of Irish deeds and conveyances arose from the Irish government’s Act, the 6th Anne, cap. 2, s. 3. As a result, any transaction involving land was recorded from April 1708ff. 1 The nature of these transactions ranged from leases and sub-leases, sales, mortgages (employing land as security) to marriage settlements and, less frequently, wills.
Unfortunately, Penal Laws were also enacted which delimited a significant proportion of the population —Roman Catholics and for a time, Presbyterians— from equal participation in the laws governing ownership or leaseholds of land. It was only after more than one hundred years of incremental repeals of the penal laws and land agitation that this system was finally upended in the 1880s.2
Readers might find our short-list dictionary of legal terms and outline of the Irish statutes governing the registration of deeds useful for interpretation of the Memorials.
Scope of Irish deeds covered:
Many of the indexes and transcripts pertain to Alison Kilpatrick’s family history research interests in Ireland, particularly in the county of Tyrone. However, many more have been indexed or transcribed which might be of general interest to family and local historians alike. Thus, the primary objective of this record set is a general survey of deeds which pertain to the following parishes in the Barony of Dungannon in county Tyrone and were filed with the Registry of Deeds in Dublin from 1708ff.
- Barony of Dungannon Lower – parishes of Aghaloo, Carnteel, and Killeeshil;
- Barony of Dungannon Middle – parishes of Clonfeacle, Clonoe, Donaghendry, Donaghmore, Drumglass, Killyman, Pomeroy, Tullyniskan; and
- Barony of Dungannon Upper – parishes of †Arboe, †Ardtrea, †Ballinderry, Ballyclog, †Derryloran, Desertcreat, Kildress, †Lissan, †Tamlaght. †These parishes straddle the border between counties Derry and Tyrone. This project focuses on the county Tyrone townlands of these parishes.
This is an ongoing project, commenced in 2016 and expected to continue for several years (at least).
Indexes of memorials of Irish deeds:
Index entries for memorials of Irish deeds are compiled and sent by Alison Kilpatrick regularly to Nick Reddan’s Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland volunteer indexing website. These indexes provide enough information for a family or local historian to decide whether to look up the original transcript and learn more details about the transaction. To assist these look-ups, Nick provides links to guidance about how to use the Registry of Deeds, and aids for navigating digital microfilms to find memorials of interest online at FamilySearch.
In addition, there are two types of indexes featured on Arborealis:
- Surname indexes for the memorials indexed by Alison Kilpatrick. These are provided primarily as finding aids for family and local historians with research interests in the Barony of Dungannon, county Tyrone.
- Subject indexes: — in progress.
- pre-1708 deeds mentioned in memorials registered from 1708ff ;
- church lands, in particular those rented out by the See or Archdiocese of Armagh (Church of Ireland): because the original leases were granted by the Archbishop, memorials relating to church lands were therefore of a secondary nature, as in an assignment of a lease thus granted, a sub-lease of part of the land obtained under a Diocesan lease, a leasehold given as a bequest by a testator to a legatee, and so on;
- lists of tenants recited in memorials: these occur infrequently in the memorials but are invaluable sources for family historians, especially where Irish names were mentioned;
- surveys of landed estates and leases granted in the Barony of Dungannon, county Tyrone;
- marriage settlements; and
- last wills and testaments, in whole or in part.
— These surname and subject indexes are new to Arborealis as of May, 2021. These, also, are an ongoing and long-term project.
Selected transcripts:
The transcripts presented on Arborealis have been selected on two bases: first, only a small proportion of the deeds which have been indexed have also been transcribed; and second, this collection of transcripts is limited to those which serve to illustrate points of historical interest—many of which I hope to highlight in blog articles.
Transcripts of selected memorials of Irish deeds are presented in chronological order of execution:
— A few notes about the transcripts:
- 1708 was the first year in which memorials (handwritten copies) of deeds were required to be filed in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. However, a small number of the earliest memorials refer to years pre-dating 1708: these will be highlighted in a subject index, as mentioned above.
- Date of execution versus date of registration:—Each memorial contains two dates:
- the date of execution, which was the date on which the original deed (of which the memorial is a handwritten copy) was signed and the transaction described therein was completed; and
- the date of registration, on which the memorial (copy) was filed in the Registry of Deeds. On rare occasions, a memorial was registered on the same date that the deed was executed (signed). Normally, however, there was a short interval of days or weeks between the signing of the deed and the registration of the memorial.
- In each transcript, footnotes have been inserted by the transcriber and are hyperlinked to the “Transcriber’s notes” section at the bottom of the page.
- Please cite your sources. Look for “Source citation for this page” in the end notes of every page published to Arborealis.
Blog articles:
- Irish Deeds — Updates re: Indexing & Transcription Projects (2021-05-23)
- Duties of the Irish tenant farmer: “one fatt Unshorne Mutton,” amongst other things (2016-08-14)
- “for the considerations therein mentioned.” — or, What a memorial of an indented deed is, and what it isn’t. (2016-08-18)
Source citation for this page: — Kilpatrick, Alison. Irish deeds: Indexes and selected transcripts, 1708–1943. Online at Arborealis, arborealis.ca/records/irish-deeds/, accessed [insert date of access].
Important Notice: — These indexes and transcripts include edits, annotations, hyperlinks, and indexes created by Alison Kilpatrick ©2016–2021 All rights reserved. Therefore, these transcripts may not be copied, transmitted, or reproduced for profit or for gain in any medium including websites that ask for donations, feature advertisements, or link directly or indirectly to any commercial concern. This rule applies to websites or any other medium with commercial interests, whether entrepreneurial, charitable, or educational in intent, and no matter how small the benefit, monetary or otherwise. Please use our contact page to forward questions, suggestions, or requests for permissions to the Editor.
Image credit: — The King’s Inns building in Henrietta Street, Dublin; in which building is also housed the Registry of Deeds (Ireland). Photograph by “informatique” (2007); edited by Alison Kilpatrick (2021). Digital image online at Wikimedia Commons (accessed 2021-01-31). Posted under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-SA 2.0. — Visit the latter link to learn what you can do with this image, and what restrictions are placed upon its re-use.
See also: — Nick Reddan’s Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland website.
Footnotes:
- Furlong, John Smith, and Edmund R. Digues Latouche. “Registration of Deeds.” Chapter II in, The Law of Landlord and Tenant as Administered in Ireland. Vol. I. Dublin: Edward Ponsonby, 1869. (pp 456–71).
- See also: O’Neill, Thomas P. “The Irish Land Question, 1830–1850.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. Vol. 44, No. 175 (August, 1955), pp. 325–336.