OF THE LISBURN FULTONS
IN THE 17th AND EARLY 18th CENTURIES
Copyright
1999 Trevor
Fulton
You may freely link to these pages, but you may not duplicate them without my permission.
1999 Trevor
Fulton
Hope concentrates on the families of John, Robert and Richard, and I enclose the relevant chapters of the book.
Looking first at John and Robert, I think I can see a fairly plausible continuation to what Hope wrote. A John Fulton certainly was the tenant of the property known as Belsize in Magheralave townland, for I have an estate map of 1726 which shows it, and rentals for 1721 in John's name and 1728 in James's name. I assume that this John is a son of the one born in 1653, (who died in 1717 according to Hope who seems to have had access to his will, though it has now disappeared), and presumably also the John of the rental of 1719 who either died or moved away between the map of 1726 and the rental of 1728. There is a reference in IGI to a brother John born 1694 of whom I have found no other trace but suggest that he must be the John (jun) of the rental of 1719 and map of 1726. At that time leases were granted for a period such as "41 years or three lives" meaning the lease would be extended until the death of the third life. It was practice to name younger sons or even grandchildren as they could expect to live longest, so putting John rather than James in the lease would not be surprising. Hope tries to add a son John born between 1712, the date of preparing the will of John born 1653 and his death in 1717 but I think this strains credulity for a number of reasons - he was the John "of Calcutta" and I find it hard to believe that he set out for India in 1780 aged about 65, traded successfully for over 20 years and died on the journey home in 1803 aged almost 90, leaving a bequest to his sister who would have been over 100.
James an older son of the John who was born in 1653 seems to have lived in Lisburn as can be seen from a series of Deeds in the Registry in Dublin, and the Belsize property was split (perhaps sublet) as recorded in a Derriaghy Parish record of 1736.
Hope (see the enclosed chapter from his book) says that Robert, John's third son was educated at Edinburgh and was appointed chaplain on the ship "Success" and then became a rector in a parish in Jamaica from 1691. There are several facts here which I have not yet followed up but probably will be able to check. Of particular interest its the bequest of property in Archibald, Savannah, Carolina at his death in 1720. It seems probable that he had property in that area as I understand there was much trade between the American colonies and the islands, because the islands concentrated on the crops best suited to their climate, notably sugar, and imported other produce from North America where presumably Savanna was a convenient port and probably the nearest major British port to Jamaica before Florida was acquired from Spain in 1763. John's eldest son Paul grew ot maturity in Lisburn where he filled the office of Surveyor of Roads in 1678 and then baptized a daughter Margaret in the same year but then disappears from the record in Ireland. Hope assumes that he died as the property at Belsize passed by way of the second son, John born 1653. However, the enclosed Fulton Family Letter extract shows a David Fulton in Craven County, SC who died in 1745, and who named his eldest son Paul. Could it be that Paul senior emigrated to South Carolina (and did not die as Hope surmised), attracted there some time after 1691 because of his brother Robert's interest in Savannah, and that David was his son. David would have been born after his sister Margaret i.e. after 1678 so would have been aged around 65 at the time of his death, and would have been following a well established custom in naming his son Paul after his own father.
If the assumption that first Robert, then Paul, or his son David had prospered in America is correct then it seems likely that the Heyden-Fulton-Warner family tree showing Robert born 1690, son of Hugh (brother of Paul and John ) and Elinor Fulton (nee Johnston ) and Robert's John, Robert and Samuel emigrating from Ireland is correct, given the encouragement of having relatives already succeeding there.
Another Fulton who figures largely in the Internet correspondence is James who died in 1754 in Augusta Co., Virginia. He is thought to be descended from Hugh and Eleanor Fulton also, but no one has found proof. One of my internet correspondents says that James had a son David who died in 1797, but his birthplace is unknown. I have found in the Public Record Office in Belfast a transcript of early birth and marriage records for the Presbyterian Church in the parish of Drumbo, Co.Down, which is the parish almost adjacent to Derriaghy parish in Co. Antrim. This includes the birth of a son David to James Fulton on 3rd October 1719, feasible for the David mentioned above.
I am also building up a better understanding of the history of Ireland in general and in Lisburn in particular in the 1600s and later. Underpinning all this supposition of Fultons emigrating to America is that the years from about 1718-1730 and again in the mid and late 18th century were times of high emigration from the Lisburn area because of economic and political /religious circumstances. I haven't the space to enlarge on that here but the book "Ulster Emigration to Colonial America 1718-1775" by R. J. Dickson sets it out well. Further, it was a time of large families and clearly all could not make a living off one farm so had to go elsewhere.
Summarizing the above, by 1719 it seems that the Belsize property is held by John (jun) son of the John born 1653. John (sen)'s brothers Robert and Paul have gone to America and have been followed by his nephew Robert and family and also by his nephew James (sons of Hugh). His son James Camac Fulton seems to have moved into Lisburn to pursue a business career in association with the Coulson family (later the proprietors of the great damask factory there) and this is well documented by both the rental of 1728 and a series of documents held in the Registry of Deed in Dublin from 1740 onwards. The rental also links him with Mary - his sister ? - and Matthew - his uncle ??
The Derriaghy parish records exist from around 1695 and show that in 1711 Hugh and William Fulton are active in church matters. As Belsize is near the church it seems likely that Hugh with his son William ran the property for his brother who would then have been about 60. Son William was then 28 and married as he baptized a son John on 10 Sept. 1709. By 1714 Hugh was no longer signing the church register so perhaps he died around then (he would have been over 50), but William was still in Derriaghy. By the time of the rental 1719 there is no William mentioned in Derriaghy parish, but both a William and a Thomas appear as leaseholders in Aghagallon parish. This is at the western end of the Conway/Hertford estate and not far from Moira where the Camac family related by marriage, were based. This is all circumstantial evidence but hangs together well. Apart from baptizing family in the 1690's I have no futher knowledge of the youngest brother Thomas.
Around 1720 therefore of the family of John born 1623 all the sons appear to have died or gone away, and of the grandchildren only James working in Lisburn and John son of Hugh appear to remain. This John was born in 1692 so now would be of an age to marry. Coincidentally (or perhaps not) my mother's maiden name was Johnston and I have traced them back to a John and Alice Johnston bringing up a family in Tullyrusk in Glenavy parish. As you can see this is only a few miles from Magheralave the townland where Hugh Fulton and his wife Eleanor Johnston lived. The records for Glenavy parish remain and I will be checking them when in Belfast, but I have already found that John Fulton was appointed Surveyor for roads in Tullyrusk in 1716, 1717, and 1727 and William Johnston held the same office in 1726. A Fulton family remained in the area for about 100 years and the Johstons were there until the mid 19th century so for the moment I am working on the the hypothesis that the family of Eleanor, who married Hugh Fulton, held land in Tullyrusk and that her son John went to property in the same area.
Thus almost all of the family had disappeared from the Belsize property by 1730. This is confirmed in the Derriaghy parish records of 1736 which list the occupiers of land in the Parish for taxation purposes. No Fulton is mentioned, but two others hold land which is marked "part Fultons" suggesting that after the last one went the property was divided between two new tenants. I cannot say whether this was a sub-lease from Fultons or the name was just used to identify the plot.
So far I have not found very much about the family of Richard born 1625, but presumably as a younger son he had to make his own way independent of the Belsize property. A Richard Fulton thought to be his son was according to family tradition with King William III on his campaign including the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and was granted the coat of arms used by this branch of the Fultons. According to Hope he was a Captain in the Army, while my grandfather's version was that he was a chaplain. Hope conveniently has the Richard branch all die off, but I have found that some Fultons remained in the neighborhood, as a William Fulton is back in Derriaghy parish throughout the 18th century including my own gt. gt. grandfather. Drumbo was very much a presbyterian area, where the Church of Ireland did not have a church until 1788, so perhaps this was where the stricter Presbyterian Fultons went while the more business orientated ones went to Lisburn where they seem to have been happy to be attached to both Presbyterian and Church of Ireland more or less at the same time, and may also have been associated with the Quakers there.