Templepatric - Templecorran - Templethon

[Philip McNeill]

Can anyone help identify a placename for me or confirm what I only suspect at this time?

I have traced a Micheal McNeil born 1803 to Ireland.  He was at the time of the English census in 1861 living in Birmingham.  The English enumerator has written his place of birth as TEMPLETHON which has to be wrong from the information currently available.  I have located places in Co Antrim Ireland,

1.  Templepatrick.  This village has a hotel called The Templeton could this be a clue as to a former variation of the village as records also suggest a family called Templeton resided in the area and could have given their name to the town or vise versa.


2.  Templecorran.  Now I am trying to understand the difficulties experienced between the enumerator and my ancestor in uderstanding each other.  One being a native of Birmingham and the other being an Ulsterman with a broad accent.  It is possible that the enumerator has misunderstood Micheal who was saying and wrote the name Templecorran as Templethon.

So can someone help with the history of the area and tell me if either of these places has been known as Templethon?

Regards

Phil

[kingskerswell]

Phil,
      Another possibility is TEMPLETOWN. However it is not in Co. Antrim if that is important. I can find three, Co Londonderry, Co. Louth and Co. Wexford.

Regards

[TheWhuttle]

Hi Phil,

Suggest that you can dismiss Templecorran.
['Tis extremely difficult to confuse one fricative, "hard C", with yet another, "T",
 and especially with a soft dipthong "TH".]

In Co. Antrim in the late 18thC "TEMPLETOWN" was the designation of the seat of the UPTON family,
based at (what is known nowadays as) Templepatrick, owning many ofthe townlands within.
[As part of their promotion to the Peerage of Ireland in the pre-1801-union political shennanigans.
 Originally, they had taken over Castle NORTON and renamed it Castle UPTON.]

----

There is much confusion over the town's placename..

A conjecture (aka long-term myth) had it connected with a hospital of the the Knights' Templars.
This might explain an  original town name designation - was it "Templars' Town" ?
[However, this is now firmly denied, in the notices on the approach to the old graveyard.]

The press frequently confused the family's place-name peerage title designation with the real surname "TEMPLETON".

The ("established, official") CoI church swapped its saint's dedication with Donegore during a parochial reorganisation in the 18th(?) century.
[i.e. St. Patrick moved to Temple "Patrick", and St. John moved to Donegore.]
 
The town was officially out of favour for a long  time in the early 18thC, having been burnt to the ground following the alleged active involvement by many of its inhabitants during the 1798 rebellion.

Capt Jock