Hi Nancy
Good to hear from you, that sounds like a fascinating letter that someone had the foresight to preserve; do you have an address for the Crawfords? The letter does seem to hint that money might have been travelling eastwards. I have temporarily parked some of the Hunter research until March in the hope of finding physical evidence in the shelves of the PRONI offices. Until then I am doing background research spanning the 17th and 18th century history of the area.
In answer to your question the short answer is that there was an economic value attached to leaseholds especially if the lease had some time to run. The value would be greater if the lease holder could sub-let at a higher rent than the rate that had been set by the landlord potentially a decade or more before. Andrew died two years after the1870 Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act which may also have encouraged him to write a will.
With regards to the Crawford letter, tenants in the 1840s generally had less protection, long term leases common in the previous century were not renewed. Instead tenants were usually given an annual tenancy which offered little protection. The only exception being the Ulster Custom of Tenant Right. This custom usually meant that a tenant would not be evicted if he paid his rent. If the farmer left the farm, for whatever reason, he would expect to be entitled to a sum of money from the incoming tenant which reflected the value of the farm at that time. Estate records are likely to contain more information on individual tenancy terms and some are filed at PRONI.
That is probably as much as you want to read but if you interested in some background read on.
The late 18th century was a turbulent time in the area and the primary reason was expiring longer term leaseholds which gave landlords the opportunity to evict local farmers from land they had improved or demand heavy fines for the renewal of leases. (I think you may have access to the Belfast Newsletter if you have an international Ancestry subscription). The Newspaper catalogues what happened to the farms tenants were evicted from:
3rd September 1765, "To be let for leases for lives, the following farms in the parish of Raloo and county of Antrim, part of the estate of the right Hon. A. Trevor." "15 farms, more than 400 acres." "The lands within 10 miles of Belfast and 3 of Larne."
29th September 1769, "To be let the following lands in the parish of Raloo, county of Antrim, part of estate of viscount Dungannon: Allelevelly, 2 farms, Ballyrickard, 4 farms, Ballyvalloh 4 farms, Carneal, 2 farms, Toreagh, 1 farm.
The above evictions contributed to migration to the US but also culminated in the Presbyterian led United Irishmen rebellion of 1798. The rebellion failed and some of the leaders were executed at Carrickfergus Castle, others were deported. Ulster was the epicentre of the rebellion and the Ulster custom may have evolved from attempts to pacify the Ulster Scots and slow down migration.
Eventually there was a raft of legalisation that incrementally improved the lot of tenant farmers I will only mention two that are pertinent to Andrew’s farm around the time of his death.
The 1870 Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act: Which sought to compensate tenants for improvements made by them to their holding or for any disturbance to their occupancy.
The 1881 Land Law (Ireland) Act: Effectively tenants were granted "judicial tenancies" for a statutory term of 15 years renewable every 15 years with a revision of rent at each renewal. The act also legalised the Ulster custom of tenant right.
I’m sure if you read the above you are ready to sleep so I will wish you a good night
Lloyd
