James Stuart CB of Gracehill

[Benody1921]

Wow! Thank you so much for all of that. That's incredible help to me. I will look through it all when I get a chance. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the help.

[Benody1921]

If I purchase credits to view that grave what information do you think I'll get with it? I have to be careful with how much money I spend on this family. I already paid for James's Will and codicils and it came back saying they don't have it. I don't know if they are giving me a refund or not.

I did a Google search for fun and on the Australian Library site there is a portrait of a Major-General James Stuart, CB. I don't know if it's my guy or if it's just a coincidence but I hope it's mine.

[BallyaltikilliganG]

send an email in advance asking what detail you will get and how much the credit will cost you overall

[Fritz10]

I am also researching the Stuarts, for another project.
However, these Stuarts are very close cousins.
Henry Benson Stuart had a sister, Olivia. I don't have a birth date but on FindMyPast I found a marriage entry that is probably hers.
Calcutta, 1854. An Olivia Stuart married George Thomas Gowan.
The name is correct and so is the date - she would have been about 21 at this time.
I can find no entries for Gowan so would be delighted if someone else could.
My understanding is that Olivia, her husband and a child were killed in the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
It would be great to find out some more details... for a start I don't have any details about Olivia and Henry's mother, the wife of Col James Stuart.

[Benody1921]

Wow! That's really good to know. I've been searching for any siblings for HB Stuart but haven't had any luck.

That's very sad about Olivia. I'd love to learn more about her and her family. Do you have any links for her birth and/or marriage?

[Gilby]

Hello Benody
I too have just this spring got interested in Stewarts/ Stuarts, thanks to the Dobbs Report on the Hutchinson Bequest, recently re-published by Keith Beattie and a Hutchinson descendant.

Do you know if this is available online, or is it in print somewhere?

[Gilby]

I found a ref to a tablet
https://archive.org/stream/ulsterjournalofa05ulst/ulsterjournalofa05ulst_djvu.txt
(4) I have seen a very interesting note in the handwriting of the late Charles G. Stuart, J. P., Ballyhivistock, wherein he traces his family to a Robert Stuart, a relative to James I., who obtained lands in the County Cavan at the Plantation. His grandson William raised at his own expense a regiment, still known as "Stuart's Regiment," which fought under William III., but the expenses of which the king never refunded. Rev. Irwin Stuart was his grandson, and the present Charles M'D. Stuart, is great grandson of the erstwhile curate of Derrykeighan. There is a tablet in the parish church " to the memory of Major-General James Stuart, C.B., after nearly fifty years of Indian service, during many of which he filled the arduous and responsible office of Military .Secretary to the Government. This veteran soldier returned to his native land, where, on the 19th July, i8s9, aged 75 years, he fell asleep, full of faith in the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have a copy of Dorothy Arthur’s Derrykeighan Old Church Graveyard.  Apparently the Stuarts are buried in the vault inside the church.  Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a memorial stone attached to it.

I visited the graveyard about a year ago because I was interested in the Moore (or Stewart-Moore) vault which is just outside the church.  The Stuart vault has a stoned-up entrance visible on the outside with a small hole – I must admit I tried looking in but didn’t see much!

This is what Dorothy Arthur says about the Stuarts:

In 1760 William Ussher was Prebendary.  He was also Archdeacon of Glendalough, and the officiating minister in the parish was the Reverend Irwin Stewart, or Stuart, son of Henry Stuart, and was born in County Limerick in 1707.  He graduated in Trinity College, Dublin, in 1732, and is recorded in a Visitation as curate of Derrykeighan in 1759.

It is said that Mr. Irwin Stewart was Vicar of Dunluce as well as Curate of Derrykeighan.  He lived in the old rectory and died there.  He was father of Mr. James Stuart, of Gracehill, and great grandfather of Mr. Charles McDaniell Stuart, if Ballyhivistock.

[Gilby]

Alumni Dublinensis:
STUART, IRWIN, Pen.  (Rev. Maurice Neligan), June 22, 1728, aged 20; d. of Henry, Generosus; b. Dunaman, Co. Limerick.  B.A. Vern. 1732.

[Benody1921]

Thanks for all that. Dorothy Arthur's info is great. It's too bad there isn't a memorial. I wonder who is "buried" there. That's wonderful you were able to see it. Too bad you couldn't see inside. If I ever get to Ireland I definitely want to check it out. I want to learn as much about these Stuarts as I can. I tried to order the Will and 3 codicils of James Stuart CB but it came back saying it no longer exists. I was so upset. I was hoping it would name his other children.