While this isn't a full history of northern Ireland it does introduce us to the region and some of the background for understand a little more about the area in which our John Nickell is suspected to have been born. Eugene Howard NICKELL, a stress engineer by profession, has long been searching for John NICKELL's birth place. He recently wrote this article and wanted to share it with everyone. This article was written in the assumption that John already had children in Ireland. To date that hasn't been proven and it's assumed they were born in America from various documents. But, that's not the issue here.
But, first, where is north Ireland? If a picture is worth a thousand words, then here are 4,000 well chosen words to begin with, with a couple of very interesting Internet Web Sites:
Irish facts:
http://islandireland.com/
Ireland ca 1500: http://renaissance.dm.net/compendium/map-ireland1500.html
NORTHERN IRELAND 1607-1745
by Eugene Howard Nickell
June 23, 2003
We have no idea why John Nickell left Northern Ireland in 1745 and came to America nor why his parents settled in Northern Ireland. In order to get some idea why John left Northern Ireland let us recall the religious and political environment in the north. The most northern province of Ireland was called Ulster, and consisted of the following nine counties: Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, and Tyrone. John is said to have come from Gortin, Tyrone County. (See attached map) The "Great Colonization" of Ulster began in 1607 when James I seized the lands of the Earl of Tyrone and the Earl of Tyeconnell for conspiring against the crown during the Nine Years War in the reign of Elizabeth, James I's immediate predecessor. An attempt to establish episcopacy in Scotland after 1662 sent many Presbyterians out of Scotland into Ireland, where economic difficulties and religious inequalities then drove some of them on the America.
Thousand of Scots and English were transported to Ulster and even to more southern portions of Ireland; the English taking with them their Church of England and the Scots their Dissenter Church. What the other kings had tried to do by force in establishing the Church of England among the Irish, James I, did by sheer numbers. The best farmland in northern Ireland was now under control of the Protestants. The native Irish were reduced to vassal status, had no voice in government and were oft times referred to as "the mere Irish." The day would come that the Ulster Scots would be in the same position.
The county of Tyrone is an island in Northern Ireland, being bounded by the county of Donegal on the north, and northwest; by the county of Londonderry, on the north and northeast; by the county of Loughneagh, and the county of Armagh, on the east; and by the counties of Monaghan and Fermanagh, on the south, and southwest. The County is very irregular being 42 by 54.8 miles in size.
The principal divisions of the county are baronies namely: Barony of Strabane, to the north; Barony of Dungannon, to the east; Barony of Clogher, to the south and Barony of Amagh, partly to the west. Gortin where the first John Nickell was born is in the Barony of Strabane.
A great variety of soil and surface, throughout the county, causes a great variation in the climate. Westerly winds are most prevalent the year round; hence follows the great humidity being situated so near the Atlantic Ocean.
Autumns are generally very wet, and unfavorable to the saving of crops of hay and corn. November is sometimes a favorable month. It is the inconstancy of the seasons you have to guard against; either extremes are never known to be intolerable.
The times of common occurrences in husbandry are, in a great measure, determined by the climate. Oats are sown from the middle of March to the first of May; barley during the whole month of May; flax seed about the same time. The hay harvest, let the weather be never so favorable, is generally kept late.
The mountainous parts are generally shallow, wet, and sour; in other parts dry, bushy, and peaty, the depth seldom exceeding six inches. In some places the substratum is tenacious, and hence you find the tops and sides of mountains generally wet and spongy. In other parts, the substratum is a black, solid bog, which is equally as tenacious as strong clay soils and of course prevents the water from sinking, by which means the surface is equally as bad as in the former case. But where the substratum is open rock, gravel, or any other porous body, through which the water may readily pass, the surface is always dry and wholesome, and very well calculated for young stock in the summer. These types of soils are prevalent to the baronies of Strabane and Omagh. (A barony is defined as "The estate of a baron", so it can be either a city or a district.)
The surface of the whole county is wonderfully diversified, hill and vale being the prevailing character. The mountains of the great magnitude are in the barony of Strabane.
As one comes from Omagh to Gortin there is an extensive -view of many of the Munterloney mountains. The village of Gortin may be considered the capital of this immense region. Before the woods were cut down, the scenes about Gortin must have been truly picturesque, and especially the bank of the river and brooks which situations the woods chiefly occupied.
Farms vary in size for 5 to 50 acres, and they are much greater in the mountainous parts. In many parts of the county the houses are built with lime and stone; but by far too many are built with clay-mortar as a cement. In the angles of the houses, jambs of doors, etc. lime mortar is used, in order to strengthen the walls; but, notwithstanding, the walls frequently bulge outwards, wherever clay-mortar is concerned. Walls of stone houses are generally built too narrow to support the roof, and especially when the mixed cements are used. To support the roof the side walls should be twenty eight inches at the bottom and reduced to twenty two inches at the top.
The people of the Baronies of Dungannon and Clogher are much more polished, than those of Strabane and Omagh. The inhabitants of Strabane and its vicinity seem quite a different race of people from those of Munterloney, who are in the same Barony. Except for the wilds of Munterloney the English language is most prevalent. The Roman Catholics are the only sect, who are fond of speaking the Irish language.
There are no better potatoes and flax farmers in the kingdom than those in Tyrone County. There are seldom large tracts of potatoes, yet there are innumerable small potatoes farms throughout the county, including many parts almost to the summits of the highest mountains. The same observations holds good with respect to flax, as it is as common for the poor man to have a lot of the latter, as a farmer, since without both he could not exist. There are many mountains situations, which may answer for potatoes, where flax would have no chance; in such, oats always follow potatoes where barley would not succeed.
Potatoes are generally planted on lea-land, ploughing for them being very seldom done, especially by the poorer class. The practice is chiefly confined to the Baronies of Strabane and Omagh, which are equal to two thirds of the whole county. But the farmers are fond of barley crops, as they are always a ready money article; indeed they are frequently bought up by private distillers, several months before they are reaped.
A overstocking with barley the effects of which are sorely felt by the lower class, from the-immoderate use of spirits, when it becomes so cheap, as to be within the reach of every common laborer. But the case is different with respect o potatoes; there cannot be too many of them. As long as Britain retains a navy, there is a demand for pork. Potatoes are not only the food of man, but are also that of horses, cattle, pigs, and poultry; sheep, also are easily taught to eat them.
The cultivation, necessary to support a family of six persons requires 3 acres of oats, 1/2 acre of potatoes, 1/2 acre of barley, 3/8 acre of flax and 1/8 acre for garden and haggard. In Strabane the potatoes are planted on lea land, barley requires one ploughing in April or May, oats require one ploughing at Christmas and flax requires 2 ploughing one at Christmas and one in may. in the mountain country where farms are extremely small, horses will always supercede oxen in cultivating the soil. In 1780 very few wheel-cars were used except in principal towns.
In the hilly and mountain parts of the county the slide-car must always prevail, as being capable of access, where a wheel-car would have no chance of acting.
Although there are several market towns throughout the county, yet very little grains sold. Oats and barley are generally sold by sample. Oatmeal and potatoes are the chief articles of food, sold in public markets, flax-seed abounds in every market, in spring, not only in market towns, but even in small villages, and detached houses through the country. Great profits are made by retailing flax-seed.
In 1800 there were 124 mills in the county. Grist-mills are the common names that mills go by, but this is understood only of such as prepare oatmeal and malt, and sometimes barley for bread. There are mills of other description, such as beetling-mills, one of which must be at every eminent bleach-green; tuck-mills, for thickening woolen cloth, and sometimes drugget; flax-mills, for scotching flax; but these are not so numerous as the quantity of flax raised in the county.
As Ulster flourished in agriculture and industry, the migration from England and Scotland grew in proportion, so did the animosity of the Irish toward the Protestant government. In 1641 the Irish rebelled in a war that was to last eleven years when it was brought under control by Oliver Cromwell. It is interesting to note however that during this period one Irish proclamation decreed the death penalty to any native Irish that should molest a Scot in body, goods or land.
In 1688 revolution flared again in England as James II attempted to take the throne. William and Mary of Orange had been called from Netherlands however and with overwhelming support were crowned King and Queen of England.
The displaced Catholic James II fled to France, organized an army and went to Ireland to gain support of the Irish Catholics. While the revolution in England had been practically bloodless, in Ireland it was a long, horrible and bloody conflict that ended only when James 11 was defeated by the Orange forces under William at the Battle of Boyne in 1699. The Ulster Scots fared less well during this period of war where the decree against their harm apparently did not apply.
Despite open warfare the population of Ulster swelled during this period by nearly fifty thousand, mostly artisans from the lowlands and out-lying islands of England and Scotland. Because of this marked effect of this migration upon the industries of those regions, King William expressly forbid any further migration to Ulster.
These times in Ireland were not good for Presbyterians. James II came to the throne in February, 1685, and then the clergy and members of the established church began to feel the brunt of persecution. Every favor was shown by the King to Roman Catholics, and to gain the support of Dissenters (people who apposed the established ecclesiastical laws and the exorbitant demands of the established clergy for tithes), he issued his "Declaration for liberty of conscience." this afforded relief to the Presbyterians, and the fears of the established clergy for their own safety induced them to relax in their severities towards Nonconformists. In this hour of peril, the Presbyterians forgot their recent sufferings, and made common cause with the Episcopalians in opposition to the despotic and bigoted monarch. They were the first to hail the arrival of William, Prince of Orange. The native Irish rose in behalf of King James, and a general massacre of Protestants was threatened. In 1688, the Earl of Antrim, a partisan of James, was approaching Londonderry to occupy it with his regiment. A majority of the established clergy inculcated the necessity of non-resistance; but a number of resolute youths, called "The Printice Boys of Derry," encouraged by the bulk of the inhabitants, seized the keys and closed the gates against the Earl. The small town of Derry thus became the only refuge of the Protestants of Ulster. Upon the march northward of the army of James, says Macauley, "all Lisburn fled to Antrim, and, as the foes drew near, all Lisburn and Antrim together came pouring into Londonderry. Thirty thousand Protestants, of both sexes and of every age were crowded behind the bulwarks of the City of Refuge. The ordinary population of the town and suburbs furnished only about six hundred fighting men; but when the siege began there were 7,300 men armed for defense." Dissenters having been excluded from offices in the army, none of that class were fitted by previous military experience for command. Therefore a majority of the higher officers were of the Church of England. A majority of the inferior officers, captains and others, were Presbyterians, and the soldiers and people generally, the Dissenters outnumbered the others by fifteen to one. The commanding officer, Lundy proposed to surrender; but the great body of soldiers and people, headed by Capt, Adam Murray, defeated the scheme, and Lundy was compelled to fly from the town in disguise. Even the Rev. Mr Walker, the assistant governor, who afterwards claimed most of the credit of the defense for himself, wavered and was disposed to capitulate.
"Now," says Froude, in his History of Ireland, "was again witnessed what Calvinism-through its fires were waning-could do in making common men into heroes. Deserted by the English regiments, betrayed by their own commander, without stores and half armed, the shopkeepers and apprentices of a commercial town prepared to defend an unfortified city against a disciplined army of 25,000 men, led by trained officers, and amply provided with artillery. They were cut off from the sea by a boom across the river. Fever, cholera and famine came to the aid of the besiegers. Rats came to the dainties, and hides and shoe leather were ordinary fare. They saw their children pine away and die-they were wasted themselves till they could scarcely handle their flintlocks on their ramparts. "Still they held on through more that three miserable months. Finally, a frigate and two provision ships came in, and Derry was saved. The garrison had been reduced to about three thousand men. Enniskillen was successfully defended in like manner.
Seldom has an unfortified and ill-supplied place been defended with such obstinate valor. On the 31st of July, the siege was raised having lasted 105 days. Before retiring the army of James lost a hundred officers and between 8,000 and 9,000 men.
The Duke of Schomberg and his army arrived in August, and secured comparative peace and safety to the inhabitants. soon thereafter, King William wrote to Schomberg, recommending the Ulster Scotch to his protection.
The law prohibiting Presbyterian ministers from officiating in public was still in force, and Presbyterians were still legally incapable of holding any public office. These laws, however, were not enforced for a time. But as soon as the recent danger was over, there was a renewal of unfriendly feeling on the part of the established clergy towards the Presbyterians, and occasionally one of the former sought to revive the penalties of the law against a dissenting brother.
The first step which King William caused to be taken for the relief of the Irish Presbyterians, was the abolition of the oath of supremacy. Accordingly, the English Parliament passed an act, in 1691, abolishing the oath, and substituting another which the dissenters did not scruple to take, and thereby all public employments were opened up to them. Still the public exercise of their religious worship, though connived at, was legally prohibited under heavy penalties.
It was well known that King William was anxious to obtain from the British Parliament the abolition of tests, and secure for his Dissenting subjects in England ample toleration; but his plans were defeated by the High Church party. The same influence arrested his measures for the protection of the Irish Presbyterians. The Irish Bishops, who constituted a majority of their House of Lords, insisted upon "Sacramental Tests," by which all public officers should be required to receive the communion as administered by the clergy of the Church of England. Public opinion and the favor of the executive relieved Dissenters from some of their annoyances; and the parochial clergy generally and Presbyterian ministers co-operated in repairing the disasters of the war.
The matter of marriages by Presbyterian clergymen was again brought forward. The ministers were "libeled" in the Bishop's courts for celebrating the marriages of their own people, and heavy penalties were imposed upon them; and the parties married were condemned, either publicly to confess themselves guilty of sinful cohabitation, or to pay heavy fines to the officers of the Courts; while the marriages of those who refused to submit, were declared void, and their children pronounced illegitimate. No attempt was made, however, by the established clergy, to have the validity of such marriages tested in the civil courts, for the reason that they had been held to be valid contracts, though irregularly entered into.
During the time of Cromwell, a number of French Protestant refugees settled in Ireland, and afterwards, upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many more came over. Being of the same religious faith as the Ulster Presbyterians, they affiliate with them, and thus it is that some French names appear among the Scotch-Irish.
King William died in March, 1702, all his efforts to obtain Parliamentary relief and protection for the Dissenters in Ireland, having failed. Queen Anne immediately placed herself under the guidance of the High Church Tories, and from the beginning of her reign the series of anti-popery laws began, which have been the cause of so much misery in Ireland. The Sacramental Test Act (in which a person was required to acknowledge the religious sovereignty of the Church of England) was now enacted, by which all Nonconformists, Protestants and Catholics, were excluded from public offices. The Roman Catholics employed counsel to oppose the measure, and in his appeal he reminded the Parliament of the services of Protestant Dissenters in the defense of Londonderry and Enniskillen. They were then thought fit to command, he said. Whatever Papist might be thought to deserve, the Dissenters stood clear before the government, and to pass the bill would be an unkind return and poor encouragement for th em or others to do likewise in a similar emergency. But all in vain. The bill was passed in 1704, and received the royal assent. Thenceforth no Presbyterian could hold any office, civil or military. A majority of the city officers of Londonderry were turned out, and that too in a city which most of these men had contributed to preserve by their services and sufferings during the siege. Throughout Ulster most of the magistrates were ejected, and others appointed "who had nothing to recommend them but their going to church."
In addition to the oppressions on account of their religion, the industry and commerce of the people of Ulster were systematically repressed by the English government. Twenty thousand people left Ulster on the destruction of their woolen trade in 1698. Many more were driven away by the passage of the Test Act. The wonder is that the whole people did not leave the country, and seek rest elsewhere from their intolerable harassments. But, notwithstanding their oppressions, they enjoyed a good degree of business prosperity, so that at one time they were able to send pecuniary relief to their suffering co-religionists in Holland. Their industry and thrift enabled them to survive, and to some extent flourish, in the midst of the oppressive measures of government. Moreover, they were constantly buoyed up by the hope of relief.
In 1711, the Tory party of England came into power again, and this political revolution was the signal of a fresh outburst of High Church zeal against Dissenters. Appeal after appeal was addressed by the Dissenters of Ireland to the authorities in England, and one Commissioner after another was sent to represent them before the Queen. Among the grievances complained of was the refusal of Episcopal land owners to renew leases to Presbyterian tenants. They also complained of the Test Act and the oath of abjuration which some of their people scrupled to take.
A new Lord Lieutenant having come into office, some of the ministers of Ulster laid before him a statement of their grievances, and said they contemplated going to America that they might in a wilderness enjoy the quiet which was denied them in their native country.
In 1714, under the inspiration of the Tory party, the "schism bill" was passed, by which every Presbyterian in Ireland who ventured to teach school, except of the humblest description, was liable to be imprisoned for three months. In various parts of Ulster Presbyterian catechisms and other religious books were seized when exposed for sale, and in several towns the Presbyterian churches were shut and nailed up.
In accession of George I to the throne, in 1714, arrested the career of the High Church party, and gave some relief to the Irish Presbyterians. Several leading members of the late English ministry were arraigned for high treason. The Ulster people lost no time in appealing to the King, who uniformly showed a liberal spirit toward them.
In 1715, an invasion by the Pretender was threatened, and the Protestant militia of Ireland were called out. This proceeding place members of the Presbyterian Church in a embarrassing position. If they enrolled, either as officers or privates, and received pay, they exposed themselves to the penalties of the Test Act; and if they refused, they were liable to the charge of deserting their sovereign and country in time of danger. A meeting of gentlemen was held at Belfast, and resolved to assist in the defense of the country and brave the penalties of the law. This action being communicated to the government authorities, parliamentary relief was promised, and accordingly a bill was introduced to exempt Dissenters in the militia for penalties. But it was opposed by the Bishops and abandoned. The house of Commons, however, adopted a resolution, declaring that any person who should commence a prosecution against any Dissenter who accepted a commission in the army or militia was "an enemy to King George and the Protestant interest, and a friend to the Pretender."
The Presbyterian people, though favored by the crown and protected by the House of Commons, were still exposed to annoyances in regard to their marriages. The Rev. Gilbert Kennedy, alluding to the excommunications by the Bishops, says, in a letter, dated October 5th, 1716, "Our prelates are violent where I live. Four of my flock have been lately delivered to Satan for being married by me." The Act of Toleration was passed in 1724, and by it liberty of worship was granted to Presbyterians, but other grievances were left unredressed. Presbyterians were still subject to frequent prosecutions and expensive litigation in the ecclesiastical courts for marriages celebrated by their clergy.
George I died, and was succeeded by his son George II in June, 1727. The highest authorities in the Irish church and State were then generally favorable to the Presbyterians. Dr. Roulton, the Episcopal primate, was a friend to toleration and disposed to relieve Dissenters of their grievances, except those arising out of tithes and church dues. As leases of lands expired, the proprietors began to raise their rents, and as the rents increased, the tithes, payable to the established clergy, increased in proportion. In addition, the three successive harvests of 1724, were unfavorable. This is about the time that John was born. These discouragements, with the Test Act and other civil disabilities, caused the Presbyterians, in 1728 , to look to America as a country for investment of capital and labor, and where religious liberty might be enjoyed. In 1718, six ministers and many of their people came to America. The Passage of the Toleration act and the hope of further relief, checked the spirit of emigration for a season. It revived in 1724, and in 1728 attracted the attention of the government. Archbishop Boulton sent to the Secretary of State in England, a "melancholy account," as he calls it, of the state of the North. He says the people who go complain of the oppressions they suffer, as well as the dearness of provisions. The whole North, he says, is in a ferment, and the humor has spread like a contagion. "The worst is," says the Archbishop, "that it affects only Protestants, and reigns chiefly in the North, which is the seat of our linen manufacture.,, writing in March, 1729, he says: "There are now seven ships at Belfast, that are carrying off about 1000 passengers thither" - to America. From another source we learn that, in 1729, near 6000 Irish, nearly all Presbyterians, came to America, landing at Philadelphia. Before the middle of the century nearly 12,000 arrived annually for several years. Protestant Episcopalians did not have the same motive for emigration, and the tide of Catholic emigration from Ireland did not set in till after the American Revolution.
Another attempt was made to obtain the repeal of the Test Act, and again it failed. The only relief extended to the Presbyterians during the reign of George II, was an act, passed in 1738, exempting them from persecution for marriages celebrated by ministers who had qualified under the Toleration Act.
The organization of the Associated Presbytery in 1733, attracted the attention of the stricter party in the church of Ulster, who were dissatisfied with the temporizing conduct of the Synod, and the recent regulations about calls. In 1736 Rev. William Patton was installed. This led the disaffected persons of the congregation to renounced the jurisdiction of the Synod of Ulster and to put themselves under the care of the Associated Presbytery. The request for service of a minister from Scotland contained the names of no less than two hundred and eighty heads of families. It is possible that John Nickell was raised in the beliefs of the Associated Presbytery.
John Nickell was born sometime before 1720 in Tyrone county of Ulster near the town of Gortin. His parents are not known nor is his actual birthday known. At some later date around 1737 he married a Miss Lewis and they had two children born in Ireland, (IA) John born in 1738, and (IB) Thomas born in 1740. John Nickell and his family immigrated from Ulster in about 1745 to America. The winter of 1739-40 is known in Ulster as "the time of the black frost," from the unusually dark appearance of the ice, and because the sun seldom shone during its continuance. In the fall of 1739, many of the more industrious and enterprising inhabitants fled from scarcity and oppression in Ireland and came to America, landing on the Delaware river in Pennsylvania. Likely this is the place that John and his young family landed in 1745.
The historian of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland remarks that the circumstances of ministers in Ulster must have been exceedingly unfavorable, if they could calculate upon bettering their temporal condition by coming to America. In 1760, an appeal was made to the Ulster Presbyterians to contribute to the relief of their brethren in the New World, who were suffering the hardships of poverty aggravated by the miseries of the Indian war; and the former, "out of their deep poverty," raised upwards of 400 pounds for the purpose.