Samuel Patterson and Susannah McMullen married in Magheragall, Antrim in 1840 or 1841

Emma,

You haven’t said what denomination the marriage was likely to be, nor the source of the information about the marriage.

If it was a Church of Ireland marriage then there’s a copy of the records for the 1840s in PRONI in Belfast. A personal visit is required to view them. If Presbyterian, then Magheragall Presbyterian doesn’t have any marriage records prior to 1845. (They are lost or were never kept). If RC, then it’s the parish of Blaris then they have no records earlier than 1925.

Your information is interesting and unusual.

Firstly the wording, i.e. “the form and discipline of the Church of Scotland”.  The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian but in Ireland the wording tended to be: “according to the form and discipline of the Presbyterian church.” So it’s unusual to see the Scottish reference for a marriage conducted in Ireland. But not unknown. One or two secession Presbyterian churches in Ireland got their Ministers directly from the Free Church of Scotland, so they might have used the Scottish wording.

But more significantly, the date is slightly odd. According to the history of congregations in the Presbyterian church in Ireland, Joseph Kelso was Minister at Magheragall but not in 1841. Quoting from the book (p625): “He was ordained on 8 Aug 1809. In 1828 he petitioned Synod, seeking to be disannexed and to be certified to the American church. The Synod replied by appointing Presbytery to hold a visitation, which was done in due time and in 1829 Mr Kelso was suspended for intemperance and for celebrating marriages in an irregular manner. He died at Lisburn and was buried in Magheragall burying ground.”   He was replaced in 1829 by Rev John Smith Brown who remained in post till 1877. So in 1841, Rev Kelso wasn’t the appointed Minister at Magheragall.

I dug a little further. I found a newspaper article in the Belfast Newsletter of 3^rd June 1842 reporting a bigamy case in which it was reported that after resigning his post at Magheragall, Rev Kelso continued to marry folk in the area and to baptise their children. He had married a couple of Episcopalians – presumably at their home or his own home – on 6^th May 1841 and the court was being asked to rule on whether the marriage was valid, as any conviction for bigamy would obviously fail if it was not. The case was adjourned so I don’t know the ruling.

BL_0000038_18420603_018_0004.pdf

So to summarise. There are no Presbyterian marriage records for Magheragall before 1845 so no way of searching for the Patterson – McMullen marriage in them. However it doesn’t seem that your couple would have been in them anyway because the Rev Brown who was Minister there didn’t marry them. Rev Kelso was freelancing around that time (ie 1830s and 1840s) and not formally employed by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. He appears to have been a bit of a loose cannon, apparently with a fondness for a drink. From his manner of operation, I would suggest there clearly weren’t any formal records being kept, and lodged with any recognised church for the baptisms and marriages he conducted post 1829. The piece of paper you have, presumably signed by Rev Kelso, is likely the only documentary record there is. His marrying them according to the forms of the Church of Scotland (which is identical to, but separate from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland) was probably some theological dodge to circumvent the fact that he was no longer attached to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. And whether your couple's 1841 marriage was valid or not is not something I can determine.