McLorinan family burying-ground, Antrim

[Elwyn Soutter]

I think that the bridewell was the cells in the police station which is across the road from the courthouse. I have been in that courthouse many times. It's not very big. There was a court upstairs, accessed by raised steps at one end and underneath were facilities for the local market. I think the weighing facility was outside. There were probably a couple of holding cells but my understanding is that prisoners were brought across the road from the police station on the day of the court hearing. I don't think there was ever accommodation in the courthouse. It's not big enough. It may well have had a keeper but I doubt he lived there. Could be wrong though.

Looking at the 1901 & 1911 censuses for Market Square, I only see the police officers in the police station/barracks. I don't see anyone living in the courthouse.

[jnomad]

Thanks again. It's a bit odd that the death notice for Margaret in the BNL says she died at the Courthouse. Perhaps it means a house in Market Square adjacent to the Courthouse? I don't think I've seen it as a residence anywhere else; these weighmasters etc. are usually placed in Market Square. (There was certainly a court keeper; John McL is so described at the marriage of his son Henry.)

About First Antrim Presbyterian: Genuki says a new meeting house (for the Millrow congregation, seemingly) opened on the Church Street site in 1837, and in 1860 the congregation changed its name from Millrow to First Antrim Presbyterian. It says the church has/had a graveyard, but there doesn't seem to be much room (on the Genuki map) for a green. But there's what looks like plenty of green space across the street, as you suggest.

[jnomad]

I found an 1868 marriage (Bristow Charters to Anne Murphy) said to have taken place in the Old Presbyt. Meetinghouse, Antrim. The link below makes it seem likely that the building that was so named was the disused Unitarian church Elwyn mentioned, which was previously a boxing club. Built 1700, so already old by 1868. I gather Unitarian and Non-Subscribing Presbyterian were equivalent or nearly; or is that wrong?

https://velvethummingbee.com/2018/11/09/old-meeting-house-antrim/

And perhaps this church's graveyard, or part of it, was Meeting House Green?

As Elwyn said, the graveyard is managed by the town council. I've asked the cemeteries department of the town council if they have records of nineteenth-century burials there, and in particular of McLorinans.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Yes Unitarian and Non Subscribing Presbyterian are the same thing. As I understand it, NSPs don’t believe in the Trinity. They believe that there is just a single unified entity (ie God), hence the term Unitarian. They also don’t proselytize, but otherwise their beliefs are fairly similar to other Presbyterians. Many NSP congregations were originally “mainstream” Presbyterian but split in the 1800s. And when that happened they sometimes kept the old church records.  (But not in the case of Antrim).

That church could certainly be the Old Meeting House. I don’t think there are any surviving records for Antrim NSP church. (Certainly none are listed in PRONI’s guide). Though it hasn’t been a functioning church for 50 years or more, the NSP Minister in Larne has responsibility for the building. You could check with him/her.

I’d be surprised if there are any burial records for the church as Presbyterians generally didn’t keep burial records.

Just to throw a little more confusion into the situation, there is also Antrim 2nd Presbyterian congregation, often known as High St church. That used to be in High St.  It’s moved now to a new site beside the Council buildings on the edge of town, but has been in existence since the 1850s anyway. (It’s baptism records start in 1850). I am not sure if it ever had a graveyard but there might have been a green near it at one time.

[aghadowey]

2nd Antrim (High St.) Presbyterian Church started 1850 (they 1st met in Primitive Methodist Chapel, 1st minister ordained 1851, church opened 1853) so there won't be any earlier records.

[jnomad]

Thanks, Elwyn and aghadowey.

I think it's pretty certain that the church called the Old Presbyterian Meetinghouse in 1868 is the disused NSP/Unitarian church. The marriage of Bristow Charters and Anne Murphy there (19 June 1868) was conducted by Rev. James McFerran. In the Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory for 1870 he's listed as the Unitarian minister in Antrim.

I'm inclined to discount 2nd Antrim (and indeed 1st Antrim). No doubt they were described as meeting houses, but this church looks like the best candidate to be The Meeting House, so that its green might be expected to be recognized, in a BNL death notice, under the label Meeting-House Green.  And it certainly had/has a graveyard!

For what it's worth: Mary Mackey, who spearheaded the conversion to Methodism of the Mackey siblings, Mary, Martha, and Alexander, was previously a Unitarian. (See reply #2 on this topic.) Martha became the mother of Rev. Thomas McLorinan, one of the people said to have been buried in the McLorinan family burial ground. It's surely likely that this was the family church of the Mackeys before the conversion.

I wasn't hoping for church burial records. I was hoping someone might find McLorinan graves in the graveyard. And of course Mackey graves would be interesting too.

[Elwyn Soutter]

I wasn't hoping for church burial records. I was hoping someone might find McLorinan graves in the graveyard. And of course Mackey graves would be interesting too.

Let me know what the Council say. I don’t mind getting the keys from them and having a look for you. I have been in it a couple of times before.

[jnomad]

Thanks a lot, Elwyn. I haven't heard back from the council yet.

[jnomad]

Hello, Elwyn.

My contact in the cemeteries department says they have no records about burials there. So it would be great if you would have a look.

As I said, Mackey graves would also be interesting. Another topic I started here, Mackey family of Antrim, has drawn a response from someone looking to place five Mackey siblings born in the 1810s and 1820s, and their father, evidently from Antrim, in the family from which Mary, Martha, and Rev. Alexander come; you might want to look at that.