Summary

Large scale settlement of Ulster by

Scottish tenants began in the first

decade of the 17th century. Two

Scottish Lairds, Hamilton and

Montgomery, and the recalcitrant

Gaelic Warlord Sir Randell

McDonell, would initiate the

process.

It would expand dramatically beginning in 1610 with

the official Plantation of Ulster. Scores of Scottish and

English “Undertakers” would be granted proportions

of Ulster territory in which they established estates

settled by Scottish and English tenants.

By the mid 17th century the McClure surname was well

established in Northern Down, the Route of Antrim

including the Ballymoney and Ballymena region, and

in the  Barony of Rapho in Donegal. The persistence of

the McClure surname in these territories can be verified

by census substitutes and ultimately by intensity

indexes based on the 1901 census.

The Ards Settlement:

Hamilton and Montgomery would

use the narrow sea passage between

Port Patrick and Donaghadee on the

Ards Peninsula to facilitate

movement of tenants to their new

estates. To support his new

settlements, Montgomery controlled

trade through the ports of Portpatrick in Ayrshire and

Donaghadee in Down. To this end, in 1617

Montgomery obtained a Royal Warrant which

attempted to limit the crossing between the two ports.

 This likely accounts for the presence of two McClure’s

on the Ards in the 1630 Muster Roll. Additionally in

The McClure Family, the author identifies the presence

of three McClure brothers who settled in Saintfield

Down, Crumlin Antrim, and the third in Armagh.

Further references to locations thought to be associated

with these brothers are Knockbreda, Lisburn and

Ballymena. It is not known if these three brothers were

related to the Muster Roll McClures.

The Ballymena reference is of

particular interest. By 1620 William

Adair who owned estates near

Portpatrick had fallen on hard

financial times. In 1626 he acquired

newly-settled lands at Ballymena

from William Montgomery in

exchange for part of his patrimony

in Wigtownshire, and his son, Sir Robert, built the

castle as a centre for the new estate. This may accounts

for the presence of the McClures in Ballymena.

The Settlement in Donegal:

The early presence of the McClure’s in the Barony of

Rapho is based on the assumption that the spelling

McClere is a variant or misspelling of McClure.

The 1630 muster roll lists two

McCleres, John and Anthony, in

Rapho with Sir J. Wilson as the

Landlord of the Estate. A search of

Ulster Ancestry,  lists “William

Wilson, Esq., granted 2,000 acres

called Aghagalla.” His Son was Sir

John Wilson, d. 1636.

No contemporary place name matches Aghagalla. It is

likely the place name references a 17th century

townland. A search of townlands.ie  for similar

sounding townlands in Donegal found Aughagault.

Appended to the Aughagault reference are several

historic spellings.

1637 Aghagalla, Inq, Ult. Lethanach 24 CI1654-1659

Agagalty  CS 111 Lethanach

It would be reasonable to assume the historic

plantation reference of Aghagalla is the modern day

townland Aughagault.

It also confirms that McClere was a

misspelling of MClure, as the

townland of Aughagult is but 2

miles from the townland of

Findrum. where in 1677 Richard

McClures was party to a land

deed. Both townlands are within

the District Electoral Division of 

Convoy where we find the highest McClure surname

intensity in the 1901 census. Persistence of a surname is

not to be unexpected, but to find a surname persisting

in an area with a  2 mile radius over two centuries is

remarkable.

Donegal Origins:

Its unlikely the early origins of the McClures in

Donegal are associated with the Wigtown/Kirkbright

McClure homeland. It would be far more likely that

this region was settled by McClure’s from central or

northern Ayrshire, It is probable that passage would

have been by sea to the River Bann and Lough Swilly.

The Scottish homeland of the

Donegal Undertakers is in

Ayrshire. A “spider graph” can be

used to connect the Ulster and

Scottish estates of the

Undertakers.

The Route and the Glens

of Antrim:

By 1604 after decades of conflict Sir Randal

MacDonnell had come to an arrangement with King

Charles and had consolidated his territory within the

Route and Glens of Antrim.

Between 1609 and 1626

MacDonell had demensed 25

Lowland Scots to his holdings.

Tenure in Scotland was uncertain

with short leases and feu tenure

as major grievances. MacDonnell

attracted tenants with

particularly good terms of settlement including long

term leases. Nothing is known about these tenants but

Perceval Maxwell notes that;

“the size of the grants and the length of tenure

suggests that those who obtained the leases were

men of some substance. Such men would

undoubtedly drawn over other Scots after them.”

This was most certainly the case for by 1630

MacDonnell had 814 Scots and 142 English males on

his estates. They were drawn from the Western Isles,

Kintyre and Northern Ayrshire. While we have no

direct evidence it is likely that McClures from Northern

Ayrshire were among them.

Return to Top