1798 Claimants & Surrenders
Defeat of the Rebels at Vinegar Hill
(George Cruikshank 1792-1878)
(Wikimedia Commons)
What is this record set and where can you access it?
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 mirrored that enacted by their disenchanted American cousins against English rule, albeit on a much smaller scale and was much shorter lived. The people affected gave rise to this relatively small record set - The 1798 Claimants & Surrenders (FMP=£). According to their source description, Ian Cantwell compiled the names from 3 main original sources which I must presume are held by one of the main Irish archives or libraries (read the source description at the foot of the FMP search screen.)
There were 2 main groups of people recorded,
You may also come across selected transcripts of this same data elsewhere online e.g. Co. Carlow 1798 Claimants on the Carlow IGP site. In fact, it was this site that led me to what I believe must be the original source documents. These are a series of books published by the Commissioners for the Relief of Suffering Loyalists in 1799. They are held by the National Library of Ireland as part of the Joly Collection and details can be found under the catalogue reference JLB 94107.
What might you learn from the records?
I have found relatives claiming compensation who described the nature and value of their losses in relation to specific townlands/locations. These might be where they were residing or they might actually have been claiming for losses far from where they were living - you ought to find both addresses. Both men and women were listed and the claims vary widely. The nature of the losses hint at some terrible experiences - house burned, horses or cattle stolen, stores of wheat and oats taken etc. Interestingly, not all claims were settled but I don't know much about the legal process that was followed or whether that documentation survives anywhere (I suspect not.)
How do you work forwards or backwards from a record in this source?
Given the specific date of the short-lived rebellion, surrenders date from this year I believe and claimants probably in the immediate aftermath, allowing for how long the legal process took. So, the best place to follow up the land context from these records is probably to hunt for the townlands of interest in the Townland Indexes of the Registry of Deeds and find out who is named on relevant Memorial Deeds dating from around this time. If you are unfamiliar with this resource, be sure to check out the descriptive pages first before diving into the county timelines.
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 mirrored that enacted by their disenchanted American cousins against English rule, albeit on a much smaller scale and was much shorter lived. The people affected gave rise to this relatively small record set - The 1798 Claimants & Surrenders (FMP=£). According to their source description, Ian Cantwell compiled the names from 3 main original sources which I must presume are held by one of the main Irish archives or libraries (read the source description at the foot of the FMP search screen.)
There were 2 main groups of people recorded,
- Rebels who surrendered
- Citizens who claimed compensation for looted or destroyed property.
You may also come across selected transcripts of this same data elsewhere online e.g. Co. Carlow 1798 Claimants on the Carlow IGP site. In fact, it was this site that led me to what I believe must be the original source documents. These are a series of books published by the Commissioners for the Relief of Suffering Loyalists in 1799. They are held by the National Library of Ireland as part of the Joly Collection and details can be found under the catalogue reference JLB 94107.
What might you learn from the records?
I have found relatives claiming compensation who described the nature and value of their losses in relation to specific townlands/locations. These might be where they were residing or they might actually have been claiming for losses far from where they were living - you ought to find both addresses. Both men and women were listed and the claims vary widely. The nature of the losses hint at some terrible experiences - house burned, horses or cattle stolen, stores of wheat and oats taken etc. Interestingly, not all claims were settled but I don't know much about the legal process that was followed or whether that documentation survives anywhere (I suspect not.)
How do you work forwards or backwards from a record in this source?
Given the specific date of the short-lived rebellion, surrenders date from this year I believe and claimants probably in the immediate aftermath, allowing for how long the legal process took. So, the best place to follow up the land context from these records is probably to hunt for the townlands of interest in the Townland Indexes of the Registry of Deeds and find out who is named on relevant Memorial Deeds dating from around this time. If you are unfamiliar with this resource, be sure to check out the descriptive pages first before diving into the county timelines.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2023
