Coolkenno History

KILLINURE IN THE 1730s (Part Two) - This is the second part of discussing Killinure's earliest social records, with main focus emplaced upon Upper Killinure. Using the previously mentioned source, the Hume Observations, held within the Rockingham Papers in the National Library, we can create an unofficial census of the Coolkenno area when combined with the help of the Aghold Parish Records. Upper Killinure is described by Hume as, The above farm, a good farm for plowing. Good meadows and very good graising. A tenant may very well pay 3/4 per acre for the said farm for there are very indifferent improvements of planting upon the said farm. The list of tenants are listed as : John Coates, wife, three sons and two daughters; Thomas Jackson, wife, two sons and daughter; Nicholas Farroll, wife, son and daughter; Jerome Harney, wife, two sons and daughter; James Kelly, wife, son and two daughters; Daniel Kelly, wife, three sons and daughter; Joseph Tumkin, wife, son and two daughters; James Davison, wife and two sons; Darby Hickey, wife, three sons and daughter; Cornelius Kelly, wife, two sons and two daughters; Matthew Swain, wife and four sons; William Walker, wife and son, and Matthew O'Neale and his wife. - Using other records available, we can gain more information about some of these families. It appears some financially gained from the massive timber industry that made the Coolattin Estate prosperous in the early 1700s. Joshua Nickson of Lower Killinure, was given £6 being paid...for a half years salary paid to him for looking after the bark mills in Shillelagh and Cashaw, for giving tickets to the tanners who bought bark and also for helping to look after the woods in Shillelagh and Cashaw. The 1766 Religious Census, commissioned by the old Irish House of Lords, shows William Walker residing in the old Parish of Crecrin, highlighting he and his family had moved from Killinure to the neighbouring Ballyconnell area. Was there more Walker's on the Coolattin Estate during this period, other than Graham Norton's ancestors, who are detailed on his BBC Who Do You Think You Are episode as the only Walker's, on the estate in the early 1700s? Evidently yes there were, unless they branched from that particular family. The 1730 population of both sections of Killinure appears to be 118 inhabitants. Interestingly, the 1841 Census figures show the townland to hold 618 people. Killinure was the second most badly affected townland in regards to depopulation upon the Coolattin Estate, after Ballynultagh, during the Coolattin Clearances. The 1861 population shows us a serious and continuous decline of numbers with a population of 274 people living in Killinure.