Notes

Plaque on the return to the rear, (originally on the main rear façade), states that this house was “by built by John Boyd Surgeon 1748”, Historic Buildings Record HB05/15/011. See also notes for no.47.

Jerry O’Donnell (emails of 18/10/24 and 22/10/24) notes no.49 used the pre-existing east wall of no.47 as one of its structural walls. The original (bricked up) garret window to the gable end of no.47 is still visible in the attic of no.49.

Jerry plausibly suggests that John Boyd did not practice from this building, but built it as a letting proposition.

Jerry O’Donnell research based on property deeds (email 18/10/24) shows “John Boyd, Surgeon (confusingly, there were two or three in succession with the same name and profession) sold No.49 in 1800 to Samuel Corry (or Curry), merchant, and then bought it back in 1832 from Mr. Corry’s widow, whilst still carrying on his Ballycastle medical practice, presumably from next door, allowing the practice to appear in the Pigott’s 1824 directory.”

Historic Buildings Record HB05/15/011.

Grocers

Historic Buildings Record HB05/15/011.

SMcM research based on Griffith’s Valuation registers.

SMcM research based on Griffith’s Valuation registers.

Census – building no. 15

Jane Ewing, 52, head of family, Presbyterian, stationer etc, not married

Jane Coyles, 21, house keeper, Presbyterian, housekeeper, domestic servant, not married

John McConaghy, 82, boarder, COI, retired farmer, not married

SMcM research based on Griffith’s Valuation registers.

SMcM research based on Griffith’s Valuation registers.

SMcM research based on Griffith’s Valuation registers.

SMcM research based on Griffith’s Valuation registers.

Census – building no.16

William Curry, 45, head of family, Presbyterian, national teacher, married

Caroline Curry, 33, wife, Presbyterian, grocer, married

Ann Curry, 86, mother, Presbyterian, widow

SMcM research based on Griffith’s Valuation registers.

Despite Historic Buildings Record HB05/15/011 noting William Curry as the property owner in 1940, Jerry O’Donnell (email 22/10/24) notes William Curry, owned and occupied the house from 1905/6 until his death in 1937. “After William’s death, Caroline appears to have moved out at some time to live in Carrowcashel (sic) Antrim, presumably the townland in Loughguile parish a few miles away. She rented No.49 to John Jennings in 1939, and he bought it from her in 1952.”

Jerry O’Donnell (email 18/10/24) states John’s “products were sold from the front room; his workshop was in a ramshackle shed at the rear of the property.”

A receipt spike in the Ballycastle Museum collection (BC:2024:028) documents the Jennings family from 1939-2002. John and Margaret Jennings appear to have had four children, James Patrick, Miss K. (a nurse based in Harefield, near London during WWII), Peggy, and Marie.

Jerry O’Donnell (email 22/10/24) notes “John lived and worked here with his wife Margaret and their three children. After John’s death in 1968,* Margaret continued in the house and, I believe, kept the shoe shop open. Her bachelor son James Patrick Jennings and her divorced daughter (Brigid) Marie Keehan (nee Jennings), lived with her. (Marie’s marriage had been short-lived, and she continued to be referred to locally as Marie Jennings.) The elder daughter had married, and lived elsewhere. Margaret died in 1976 and left the house to her son, who continued to live here with his sister Marie. He was a civil servant, a senior scientific meteorological officer working sometimes on postings abroad, but latterly I believe at Aldergrove, whence he commuted daily. After his retirement, he continued living here with Marie until his death in 2010.”

*Death certificate for John Jennings (part of Ballycastle Museum BC:2024:028) gives John’s date of death as 24/10/1967.

Jerry O’Donnell (email 22/10/24) states James Jennings “left the house to his two nieces, the daughters of the elder sister, on terms that his sister Marie would have the right to live here for the rest of her lifetime. Marie died early in 2013, and the sisters put the property up for sale.”