JOHN Mc ILREA

1600 - Will (Ballaugh)

 

John Mc ilrea died the 23rd day of July untested [= intestate] the church hath ordered his child administrator

sup[ervisor] Donald Mc ilrea his uncle

probatm est et solvit

Invent ut supra before Candlemas next written the 23rd of October 1600

one ox, 1 horse, 1 bullock, 1 colt of a year old, 2 parts of a cow, 2 sheep, and 1 barrel

Ballacooiley

  1. The Mylrea family occupied the estate known as Ballacooiley in Ballaugh from at least 1600. It probably came to the family by way of a Settlement to Alice Gawne & her son John jnr in 1604 from Alice's grandfather, John Gawne. The son John jnr was born about 1600.
  2. Manx : Balley ny cooilley, 'farm of the nook or corner'
  3. Composition Book spellings: Ballnaqewley (1655), Ballaquooley (1704), Ballkoilley (1704); Dioc. Register= Ballnahooilea (1751) [For insights into early land tenure laws on the Isle of Man, refer to Composition Books in A Manx Note Book, and the Manx Manorial Roll site]
  4. The estate continued from about 1600 until the mid 1860s
  5. In 1868, the Mylrea family lost Ballacooiley because of crippling levels of debt
  6. Ballacooiley's new owner was John Cannell whose wife, Margaret Rogers, was a descendant of the original John & Alice
  7. The laws of inheritance on the Isle of Man dictated that the family farm went to the oldest son (and not split amongst several sons, or to a more favoured son). Thus other sons generally made their way in the world without the benefit of any of the family's assets, which is why we see the second and third Ballacooiley sons leave Ballaugh in search of a livelihood - which they did over the coming centuries

NOTES

  1. Ballacooiley??
  2. Buried 23rd July 1600
  3. These NOTES are entirely speculative, since there were several men named Mc ylrea in the parish, many named John or Donald
  4. Was this the husband of Alice Gawne? - Alice's appearance before the Setting Quest in 1601 is the only indicator that she is alone, and in 1613, Kewish applied on behalf of Alice & John jnr, another sign that the fathe of John jnr is dead
  5. Alice Gawne remarried after John's early death, an individual named William Kewish with whom John jnr had a legal dispute in 1618 to establish his ownership of Ballacooiley
  6. The name of a brother of John snr was Donald Mc ilrea, potentially the individual who died 1631
  7. Was John snr the son of Ranold & Ellin (Gawne) both of whom died in November 1600?
  8. Was he the uncle of Christian who was buried in April 1600?
  9. John jnnr might have had a sister named Ellyn who died in 1636, although she was not named as a child in the will of John snr. This Ellyn named Margaret Corlett as her brother's wife in her will & John refers to his father in law, John Corlett - it's this kind of conflicting evidence that casts doubt over the familial chain I"m proposing here

Associated Documents

Last updated: June 2021