The Tohill Family of Ballymacpeake Upper, County Derry, Ireland

THE TOHILL FAMILY OF BALLYMACPEAKE UPPER, COUNTY DERRY, IRELAND Sealed deed by Thomas Conolly landlord of the Vintners’ estate Signature of Michael Tochil and mark of John Tohil of Ballymacpeake dated 1803 Prepared for Patrick G Tuohey by Bobby Forrest 2012 Forrest Research Services Forrest Research Services: The Tohill family of Ballymacpeake Upper TOHILL FAMILY REPORT The difficulties of Irish research are well documented. The explosion at the Four Courts complex at the beginning of the Irish Civil War in 1922 destroyed much of the archival heritage of the island, thus making Irish research particularly difficult. The most significant loss was the destruction of the census returns for the period 1821-1851.1 The 1821 census was one of the earliest carried out in Europe and had it survived intact would have been of enormous help to many in tracing their Irish ancestral line back into the eighteenth century. 2 The practical limits of research in Ireland are determined almost entirely by the survival of local church registers. Although much work has been done to repair the archival heritage of the island the loss of census and testamentary returns in particular make the task of family research a real challenge for the genealogist in Ireland. Thus, when contacted by Patrick Tuohey, who’s maternal forebears emigrated to Australia in 1858, to research his Tohill ancestry in the period before civil registration, I was prepared for the challenges that lay ahead. Patrick had some information that his Tohill forebears were from County Derry.3 Many hours spent digging in the archives4 pouring over church registers, gravestone inscriptions, registry of deeds, extant wills, O.A.P returns, tithe books, estate records, 1831 census returns, Griffith’s printed valuation and revision books proved to be a success as we were able to trace the family to the townland of Ballymacpeake Upper in the civil parish of Maghera and Catholic parish of Lavey. The joy of discovery was shared across the globe by email; telephone and a memorable Sunday afternoon drive through the countryside of south Derry on 26th February 2012. The key to unlocking family history in Ireland is to locate the townland of origin of the family and locate the sources for the area that reveal the surnames of the locality. Encouraged by our successes and in the breaking open of new ground it was envisaged that some form of family history could be written up and perhaps published for posterity only for Patrick to discover that a hitherto unknown New Zealand ‘cousin’ Hugh Tohill of Dunedin had beaten us to it some fourteen years earlier. 5 Hugh Tohill’s work is to be commended as much of the research was conducted in New Zealand through his local LDS family history library in Dunedin and having consulted all of the standard Irish genealogical sources he had sufficient detail to produce a fairly complete family descendant pedigree chart that has proved to be a useful template in researching the family. Hugh had access to some family oral tradition, which complemented his research in the archives. 1 The returns for the period 1861-1871 were destroyed shortly after they were made and those for 1881- 1891 were pulped during the Great War much to the chagrin of genealogists and archivists alike. 2 The recent discovery of the 1821 census for the parish of Forkhill, County Armagh in the vaults of the local Church of Ireland parish church gave great impetus and encouragement to local historians in the area. 3 Patrick [or pgt as I have come to call him!] has an avid interest in family history and made great strides in uncovering source material in Australia/New Zealand that provided vital clues that supported the search in Ireland [vital records of births, marriages and deaths in these countries generally contain more information than the Irish equivalent]. 4 The vast majority of the research was conducted in PRONI, now a world-class facility. I also spent a day in the National Archives, Dublin and a particularly memorable day in the Registry of Deeds in Henrietta Street, Dublin when I ordered ten Tohill deeds. These are priceless family documents and although they were they were costly they are worth every cent and came into the possession of Patrick by post on 11/11/11. 5 The ‘Tohill family history’ by Hugh Tohill was privately published 13 May 1997. 1 Forrest Research Services: The Tohill family of Ballymacpeake Upper Hugh Tohill’s standard family pedigree chart This paper is written to complement the work that Hugh Tohill has published and to update or revise where necessary. 6 There is little point in going over the same old ground but a fresh perspective is often required in the light of new discoveries, especially in the Registry of Deeds.7 The family can be traced to the antecedent Roger Tohill who was a tenant of the Vintners’ estate in the townland of Ballymacpeake in 1788. He was deceased by 1803 but is the progenitor of the family that now has branches in New Zealand, Australian, and the USA. Having established that the family was firmly established in the parish of Lavey in the barony of Loughinsholin by the mid-eighteenth century gives us a fulcrum point from which to examine the origins of the Tohill sept in county Derry as well as tracing the development 6 Hugh’s work confirmed that my research methodologies had been successful with regard to uncovering the origins of the Tohill family in the townland of Ballymacpeake. The initial information that I had was limited to that James Anthony Tohill was from County Derry. 7 In his work, Hugh Tohill was aware of the Registry of Deeds [ROD] as a potential source. From the late eighteenth century when the penal laws were relaxed more and more Catholics came to use the ROD, especially those who had acquired a valuable perpetuity lease. 2 Forrest Research Services: The Tohill family of Ballymacpeake Upper of the family in the townland of Ballymacpeake, which formed part of the Vintners’ Bellaghy estate. THE O’TUATHGHAIL SEPT – SURNAME AND ORIGIN In the Irish context it is desirable to avoid the use of the term ‘clan’ because its use might imply the existence of clan system like that so highly developed in Scotland, which in fact, Ireland has never had. MacLysaght8, preferred instead to use the term ‘sept’ which he defined as a ‘collective term describing a group of persons who, or whose immediate and known ancestors, bore a common surname and inhabited the same locality’.9 I can think of no better description of the county Derry sept of Tohill, a distinct sept of patronymic and monogenetic origin. According to MacFibris the Ulster family is a branch of the Cinel Eoighan and thus descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages. Not much is known of the history and origins of the Tohill sept and therefore, we are forging new ground in our attempts to unravel the family history. Tohills emerge from the mists of time during the Plantation of Ulster when the family was very much connected to the Church in several contiguous parishes to the south of the new county of Londonderry, previously known as the county of Coleraine. Counties, of course, were of English origin as were baronies created as a means of facilitating civil administration. Parishes were of greater antiquity and Toghills are said to have given the name to the parish of Desertoghill. One characteristic of Gaelic Irish surnames is that the great majority are patronymic, that is, derived from named ancestors and prefixed by O or Mac. Tohill is of Irish origin and derives from O'Tuathail translating as "the descendants of the mighty people." Who these "mighty people" were is not proven. In anglicised form the more usual spelling is Toghill although Tohill has become the more accepted spelling over the past two centuries. Throughout this paper I will use the standardized spelling of Tohill except when transcribing original documents, which will retain the original spelling for veracity. Irish Catholics earned the title of the ‘secret people’ in the seventeenth century as a result of the discriminatory penal laws. Evidence of Tohills in the records prior to 1800 is hard to come by. The following chart plots the distribution of Tohills registered in three ‘census-substitutes’, the 1663 hearth money returns, 1740 Protestant Householders’ survey10 and 1766 religious census. Tohills appear in only two baronies - Coleraine and Loughinsholin. I have also included references to the Tohills of Lavey [Termoneeny] parish uncovered in the eighteenth century during the course of research. 8 Edward MacLysaght was one of the foremost experts in Irish family names in the twentieth century 9 Edward MacLysaght, ‘Irish Families: Their Names, Arms and Origins’, 4th Edition, Dublin 1985, p. 12. 10 The hearth money collectors for Loughisnholin and Coleraine baronies appear to have listed both Catholic and Protestants on thier ‘walk’. It is very unlikely that all of the Tohills listed in the 1740 survey were Protestant. 3 Forrest Research Services: The Tohill family of Ballymacpeake Upper TOHILL RETURNS FROM CENSUS SUBSTITUTES Year Barony Parish Townland First name Surname 1663 Coleraine Macosquin-Camus Not specified Shane o'Toale 1663 Coleraine Macosquin-Camus Not specified Donnel o'Toale 1663 Loughinsholin Ballinderry Ballymultrea Owen o'Toole 1663 Loughinsholin Tamlaght O'Crilly Lismoyle Owen Toyle 1663 Loughinsholin Maghera Culnagrew Patrick O'Toghill 1740 Loughinsholin Tamlaght O'Crilly Not specified Peter Tochel 1740 Coleraine Killowen Not specified John Doghill 1740 Coleraine Macosquin Not specified

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