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To me, the literal meaning would normally imply she was a Minister’s daughter.

There is sometimes a wider meaning when someone is described as a “son of the manse” it can just indicate a hardworking individual usually of Presbyterian background.

Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church so if Ann Lowry was a Minister’s daughter I would expect her to have married in his church. Bushmills Presbyterian has marriage records from 1821  onwards.  I don’t think they are on-line anywhere but there is a copy in PRONI (public record office) in Belfast. Personal visit required to view them. The only snag is that my guide to Presbyterian congregations says that the Bushmills Minister from 1820 until 1864 was a Rev Hugh Hamill. So maybe not the right church.

The problem you face is that in Ireland marriages were only recorded formally by the state from 1845 onwards. Prior to that you need to know where the couple married, and hope that the church records have survived. Not all have.  There are 2 more Presbyterian churches near Bushmills ie Toberdoney & Mosside but neither has marriage records for the 1830s. (Neither had a Minister named Lowry in the 1830s either). And even where records do survive, frequently they are not on-line. You often need to go to PRONI to view them.

Bushmills is famous for having a whiskey distillery, not a brewery. (Possibly there was a brewery in the 1830s too but it’s the distillery that it’s most famous for).

No Watters in the parish of Billy (where Bushmills is situated) in the 1803 agricultural census. No Wat(t)ers in the parish in Griffiths Valuation c 1860.

Just bringing this to the top again as I have failed to find both a burial and a will for this John Clegg.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to find one?

Thanks.

If he left an estate that was below the level required for estate duty (inheritance tax) and the assets were movable or in joint names then probate may not have been required. His executor(s) will, hopefully, have settled his debts and disposed of his assets in accordance with his will. And that will have been that.  His will would not make it into the probate records.

Many people’s estates were disposed of without probate in the 1800s and it’s still possible today. Probate is really only required if inheritance tax is due or if financial institutions request it. Surprisingly perhaps, many financial institutions will pay out to the executor on sight of the will and the death certificate alone. (I have personal experience of that in England in the past 10 years).

They were of Methodist religion when they came to Canada. Any guidance would be appreciated, including if anyone can recommend a certified, genealogist service in Armagh. Many thanks!

Methodism took a lot longer to become established in Ireland as a separate denomination than in England. In Ireland there was considerable resistance to separating from the Church of Ireland. In 1816 the main body of Irish Methodists (the Wesleyans) took the decision to allow baptisms in their preaching houses or chapels, but it was a practice which was only gradually introduced so that it wasn’t until the 1830s and 1840s that it became fairly standard. Because of continuing loyalty and other factors, many – including Primitive Wesleyans - continued to use the Church of Ireland for baptisms for years after this and it was 1871 before all Methodists routinely performed their own.

For Methodist marriages, the earliest that I am aware of, date from 1835 (Belfast Donegall Square, the first Methodist church in Ireland). However in the mid 1800s there were only a few Methodist Ministers (Methodism relied heavily on lay preachers). So that shortage led to the continuing practice of marrying in the Church of Ireland. In addition, in the early years, many Methodist Meeting Houses were not licensed for marriages so that too contributed to couples marrying in the Church of Ireland.

So to summarise, you are unlikely to find many Methodist baptisms before 1820. Few marriages before the 1840s and only a handful for many years after that. If there are no Methodist records in the location you are researching, I would search Church of Ireland records instead, as that’s the most likely place to find the relevant event.

Not many Methodist Meeting Houses have graveyards and so they may be buried in public or Church of Ireland graveyards (which are open to all denominations).

Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

Yes you can e-mail PRONI and ask for copies of wills. They will quote you a fee and you have to pay in advance. Alternatively you could hire a researcher in the Belfast area to copy them for you.

PRONI has probate files up to around 2010 (after that they are still held by the Probate Office). The calendars (indexes) to post 1970 wills are not on-line but can be accessed in PRONI. They are on the shelves in one of the public reading rooms.  Again you could ask PRONI to search them or get a researcher to do the same.