Hamilton

My GGG Grandmother Mary Hamilton was born at the family residence on her father’s estate of Brownhall, Co. Donegal, in 1825. Her parents were John Hamilton and Mary Rose.

The estate of Brownhall had been inherited by her father and had been in the family since the late 17th century. The family seat of Brownhall, a substantial house, is actually located a few km’s away outside the village of Ballintra and hidden amongst the hills and valleys; the house was built by John Hamilton in 1690 when he moved the family seat from Murvagh to Ballintra. No trace remains of the original house today and is thought to have been constructed in the early 1600’s.

Mary was born into one of the great landowning families of Ireland of the time. The Hamilton’s established themselves in Co Donegal in the late 16th century when John Hamilton, a grandson of the 1st Duke of Hamilton, was granted land by the King in gratitude for their loyal service. The Hamilton seat from which John came was in Lanarkshire Scotland and named ‘Broomhill’. The first residence was built at Murvagh near Ballintra until 1690 when his descendant, John Hamilton and his wife Jane Creighton (daughter of Col Abraham Creighton, ancestor of the Earls of Erne) built a new residence outside Ballintra. The location of Murvagh is a windswept region in contrast to the area of Ballintra where the land and terrain is far more arable and given to farming. Possibly this was the reason for the move.

Mary’s father, John, inherited the estate on the death of his father James Hamilton in 1805. Mary’s grandparents were James Hamilton and Helen Pakenham, daughter of the 2nd Baron/Ist Earl of Longford Edward Micheal Pakenham. Sadly James and Helen died at relatively young ages, James in 1805 and Helen in 1807, leaving three young children with Mary’s father, John, being the eldest at only seven years of age.

The three children, John (b-1800), Edward Micheal (b-1802) and Catherine (Kitty b-1804) were placed in the care and guardianship of their aunt and uncle Arthur and Catherine (Kitty) Wellesley; the Duke and Duchess of Wellington.

Popularity: 56% [?]

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Exactly where, and how, Frederick Courbarron met Mary Hamilton is not really clear. Mary was born and raised in Ballintra, County Donegal Ireland and Frederick was Jersey-born and raised. There are some theories; as he was a farm worker there is the possibility that he travelled to Ireland to work on her father’s estate at some stage and met Mary there. Another theory is that Mary met him on one of the many travels that her family made, and they may have travelled to Jersey and hence she met Frederick.

We do know that Frederick and Mary married in Ballintra, Co. Donegal, and began married life on the Courbarron farm in Millbrook, St Helier. In 1863 their first child, a son Augustus James Hamilton, was born. He was followed by Stanhope Frederick in 1865, John Edward Hamilton in 1866 and finally Helen in 1867.

The family are listed on the British Isles Census for 1871.

In 1877 Frederick and Mary, accompanied by the four children, were en route to Ireland and whilst in Cornwall contracted typhoid. Tragically both Mary and Frederick died within months of each other. Both are buried in Landulph Church, Saltash Cornwall. It was quite some time before a headstone was placed on their grave, the reason being a lack of finances at the time. Their son Augustus James saw to it some twenty years later that a headstone was erected on his parent’s graves.

Popularity: 17% [?]

This sadly - but only for now - is where we leave the Courbarron family line. My Courbarron ancestors settled in Jersey Channel Islands in the very early 1800’s - 1805 if memory serves me correctly - but at the moment I only have bare details on Frederick A Courbarron. His parents information will take me a while to gather together as it will involves census searches. Fortunately more people from the Channel Island are now posting such info online, a few years back it was not available at all or else you had to pay for such info.

Back in the mid-90’s, and pre-computer, it was a slow process of writing letters by hand (remember doing that?) and waiting for replies to arrive. A basic enquiry would take about 2/3 weeks to go around. That’s how I did my Channel Islands research back then. Well, all my research really. But now, onto Frederick and Mary. This section will go into several chapters I suspect; not so much on Frederick ( until I get more info on his parents, etc) but as Mary was a ‘Brownhall’ Hamilton there is a raft of stuff about her and her very fascinating life.

This is where it all gets fun.

Frederick Augustus Courbarron was born 1826 in Jersey in the Channel Islands. Not alot is known at this stage about his parents but I do know that his father’s name was Augustus Courbarron and he was born around 1805 in Jersey to French parents from Brittany. His mother, too, was born in Jersey of French parentage. His parents arrived in the Channel Islands from France around 1800/01 and Frederick and several siblings are listed on a ‘people count’ (not actually a census) from the year 1805.

Fredericks parents were farmers on the island, possibly in the town of Millbrook as that is where his own children were born later on. Farms tended to remain in families in those days so it is a good assumption that Frederick inherited his father’s farm.

Popularity: 22% [?]