The Earliest Fultons
THE EARLIEST FULTONS CONNECTED WITH LISBURN
Copyright 1999 Trevor Fulton
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    Several independent groups of Fultons appear to have come from Scotland or perhaps indirectly through England from Scotland in the 1500's and maybe later. It should be remembered that Scotland was an independent country, totally separate up to 1603, and then still separate but sharing a common monarch (James I and his descendants) until Union in 1707. In the first great movements in the early 1600's the arriving Scots were aliens and required to be naturalized (denizified was the term used) and swear allegiance to the English monarch. Lists of such people exist covering years between 1610 and 1633, but the only Fulton I have found is John Fulton of Beltany, Raphoe, Co. Donegal who is recorded on 28 Nov. 1617. An undated list of Sir Foulke Conway's tenants resident in the town of Lisburn (which must have been before November 1624 the date of his death) lists no Fultons, but this does not preclude our Lisburn /Derriaghy Fultons for they did not live in the town. There is also another possibility. The list comes from a map relating the names to the houses which they lived in. I have a photocopy which I suspect is taken form a tracing of original, whose whereabouts I do not know. I have also seen a history of Lisburn which quotes the same list but 60% of the names vary in some degree. Obviously that list was either from the original or from a different copy of it. I assume the names on the original must have been in manuscript and been very difficult to decipher. One of the names which varies is given as Thomas Paston in one version and Thomas Luton in the other. At that time Fulton was probably written ffulton and a faded manuscript of this in the writing of that time could well have resulted in either of the above interpretations. Could it be that the first Fultons there included a Thomas as well as William? Though the settlers on Conway land are thought to have come mainly from England and Wales, the Fultons are believed to have come from in or near Ayrshire in Scotland. If Rev. Dr. Fulton who was asked to visit Lady Arabella in the Tower, as described by Theodore Hope in his book, was a Scottish clergyman who accompanied the court of King James from Scotland to London then this would explain how his descendants came to be found in Lisburn and also in a way provide indirect confirmation of the story.  Another reason for finding Fultons amongst the Scottish settlers may be that they came from England as Theodore Hope suggests, having accompanied the Scottish Court to London in or after 1603.

    The Fulton settlements in Ireland of which I know all seem to have originated in the counties of Antrim, Londonderry, Donegal or Down (all in the north and north east of the island). My main interest is the Lisburn/Derriaghy family but I have collected some information about others and it seems that there were several separate arrivals. I think the Londonderry/Donegal arrivals are one group which later spread south to Co. Tyrone, and may also include the Fulton/Guthrie family who lived in Articlave and perhaps were also associated with those in Limavady. There is another family in Armoy in the north of Co. Antrim, who may have come direct or spread from further west. Those in Coleraine could obviously had links with either of the above.

    Another group settled in Carmoney, about four or five miles NE of Belfast on the north shore of Belfast Lough, and were there from the mid 17th century. I have found no links with the Lisburn group as yet though it seems strange as they are only about ten miles apart and Carnmoney lies on the route from Carrickfergus (the port before Belfast developed in the 1600s) to Lisburn.

    Another group appears to have been in the Ards peninsula area of the east of Co. Down from at least the early 1700s, who may have spread from the Lisburn or Carnmoney groups or may be a separate arrival as they are close to the port of Donaghadee which provided the shortest sea route from Scotland to Ireland in the days of sail. I have so far found no link between them and either of the others.

    Finally, the Lisburn group who are said to have come around 1612. The earliest official record of them which I have found is not until about 1660 but they were well established by then so the earlier tradition seems feasible at least. I think this family then spread west and south into Co. Down and the NE of Co. Armagh, and perhaps north into the parishes of Glenavy and Tullyrusk. While the evidence is not conclusive there are several useful pointers.

    The locations which I have found containing apparently separate groups of Fultons include the Lisburn area; Carnmoney (north of Belfast); Donegal/Londonderry probably linked to those in Tyrone; North Antrim; and the Ards peninsula of Co. Down respectively. My interest is in the Lisburn group from whom I descend. I am trying as a secondary objective to keep tabs on the others so that I can eliminate stray names from my main interest. There may be links between the Lisburn and Carnmoney groups but so far I have not managed to establish this, and it is possible that the Ards group may also be connected but that is just my speculation at present.

    From my own family the only clue I have is that my grandfather said that he understood that we were the descendants of one of the six brothers who emigrated from Scotland. This would not conflict totally with the other versions if we assume that whether William "of Kilkenny" (mentioned below) himself ever lived at Lisburn or not, he was the father of five or six sons who did.

    Mr. Dr. Fulton and William "of Kilkenny". The Hope book speculates on a story (I have enclosed the relevant chapters of Hope's book in case you have not seen it) handed down through his mother that the earliest Fulton in Lisburn was either William "of Kilkenny" or his family and links William with a Mr. Dr. Fulton, possible Christian name Robert, who had been called to comfort Lady Arabella Stuart imprisoned in the Tower of London as she was a possible claimant to the throne recently occupied by King James VI of Scotland, who in 1603 had succeeded Queen Elizabeth as James I of England (* Ireland) this is speculation based on the fat that Lady Arabella was married to a Seymour who later became the family who held the land around Lisburn, but as you can see from the short summary of The Conway/Seymour/Hertford period as landlords in the Lisburn area, the land did not pass to Seymours until 1683 so in itself does not support the speculation. On the other hand, I do not think we can totally dismiss it as the tradition of Mr. Dr. Fulton is so firmly fixed in several versions, and we also have the fact that settlement in the Lisburn area is believed to be largely from England and Wales with the Scots settling in numbers further north, so the idea that the Fultons in Lisburn, though Scottish, had been in Court circles in London in the entourage of King James is not impossible. On the other hand Hope quotes two references in support of the Lady Arabella theory. The one I tracked down, Harl 7003 no. 138 is in the British Library, but it does not seem to make any reference to a Fulton anywhere. I have still to follow up the other reference which is Iac.Bibl.Birch 4161 No. 33, 7126.

    The early history of Lisburn Fultons is also covered in Burke's "Landed Gentry" etc. The first entry in, the 1863 edition (enclosed) was placed by Hope's uncle John Williamson Fulton, the one whose memoir he refers to in the book and in its early generations bears little resemblance to the final Hope version.

    I have now found from IGI and the Internet that Rev. Dr. or Mr. Dr. Robert Fulton and William of Kilkenny figure largely in the records of Fulton families who emigrated to America. Are these just quoting from Hope's book or is there a family tradition which crossed the Atlantic before Hope came on the scene?

    I have been equally unsuccessful in getting evidence of William "of Kilkenny". "William Fulton of Kilkenny died 1638" is quoted by Hope as the earliest name in the memorandum of his uncle John Williamson Fulton which Hope saw in 1872 but could not find it later, but there is an entry in the Lisburn parish register showing the death of Elizabeth, widow of William Fulton of Derriaghy on 31st July 167 4, i.e. 36 years after her husband. If the family attributed to William is correct (see below) this could equally be a widow of his son William, presumed to be the one shown in the Hearth Money Rolls as moving to Malone and Belfast in the 1660's. But then is this William the same as the one in the Clanbrassil rental of 167 8 at Holywood, an old town about 4 miles from Belfast on the Co. Down side, in which case his wife would not be a widow in 1674? Coming from a source which would have heard the information within 150 years of the event and at a time when the family had been in the same area for a long time and family memories were stronger perhaps we should accept the accuracy of Hope in this case.

    The mention of Kilkenny is an oddity. Kilkenny is south of Dublin and about 150 miles south of Lisburn. It was not an area where there was a Scottish plantation but was a main administrative center for Ireland at the time. Neither Hope though he tried hard, nor myself with the help of modern search methods, etc. has been able to find any trace of a Fulton in Kilkenny before the 1770's (and I suspect that this was a clergyman who was sent there not an established family in that area). Hope doesn't say that William was of Kilkenny, just that he died there. I have been able to establish a connection between the Conways and the proprietors of the lands at Kilkenny, the Butler family,Dukes of Ormond. The Conways and Butlers were friends and Conway sent his sons to Kilkenny to be educated. In the preparations for defense preceding the rebellion which ultimately took place in 1641, Conway was appointed to a command of a troop of horse in 1638 and later he was complaining about the quality of supplies from Kilkenny (these acts are found in the Calendar to State Papers (Ireland) in the Public Record Office in London) - perhaps William was with Conway's representatives in Kilkenny arranging for supplies and died while staying there. As I mentioned above I find that American sources frequently refer to William of Denaghy, etc. and sometimes to Lisburn, Kilkenny. Are these all garbled versions of Hope or is there another source?

    The next generation (born c. 1623-1630) With the next generation we are on firmer ground as regards their presence in Lisburn, and the speculation becomes centered on which if any of them emigrated to America or moved to other parishes in Northern Ireland. The five sons are shown on the enclosed tree. My grandfather's understanding of the first arrival in Ireland was that there were six brothers, but after 250 years it may be that either the story became a little stretched (did someone say about half a dozen instead of a precise five) or one brother has been overlooked. To avoid repetition I have copied the chapters of Hope relating to this generation and comment below where I have independent confirmation or other information.

    Hope and the entries in IGI seem to agree that the five brothers were John, Richard, James, Thomas and William in that order, born between 1623 and 1630. There is no mention in the Muster Roll of Ulster but the Conway estates seem to have been omitted and anyway these people would have been too young (the minimum age was 16) to appear on a muster of around 1630. The Hearth Money Roll records John in the parish of Derriaghy in 1666 or 1669. There is no mention of Richard or James, but both Thomas and William appear in the Upper Malone which lies between Derriaghy and Belfast in 1666 and in Belfast itself in 1669 suggesting that the younger brothers had moved away from the original location towards the town of Belfast which was now beginning to expand. The Town Book of Belfast records that a William ffulton (using the old form "ff instead of F" was admitted a "free commoner" presumably meaning that he could pursue his trade of shoemaker, having served his time with his father who was not named. It is likely given time and name that this was a son of either Thomas or William above and that one of them worked in Belfast as a shoemaker. In 1678 a William Fulton is recorded as jointly holding a lease from Sir Hans Hamilton for 36 acres including a number of buildings at Holywood, an old established town about four or five miles NE of Belfast. This could be either William born 1630 or a William in the next generation (or of course another William entirely but it is tempting to assume a connection given the name). By 1702 a William Fulton aged 16, son of Thomas Fulton and born near Belfast is recorded entering Trinity College Dublin (Ireland's oldest university).

    The oldest Lisburn parish records are for the period 1637 to 1646. These have been reprinted and indexed but contain no Fultons which is not surprising as the time lies between the birth of the youngest William, in 1630 and a likely marriage date for any of them. I have not yet had the opportunity to look at the later records in detail but have found some of the entries mentioned by Hope so presumably they are reliable.

    None of this is positive proof of the connections but it reinforces the relationships which Hope has deduced, and would explain where some of the family had dispersed to. By the first half of the 18th century Fultons are not as frequently encountered in the parish records as would be expected if the families had remained in the area and I think the answer is that they moved away, some further than others because of pressure on land in  the Lisburn area, and better opportunities elsewhere including emigration (see below). This would support the theory that the Thomas and William found in Belfast are the sons of William "of Kilkenny".

    One noteworthy fact which comes all through the "Hope" Fultons is how few died young and the age to which many of them lived. Given the disturbed times and the frequent recurrence of famine, it suggests that the family was probably well off and better able to survive than others less fortunate. They were also enterprising and seem to have been able to identify business opportunities and benefit from them.

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