Ann,
Sorry about the delay in replying. I have only just come across your response.
The date of Griffiths Valuation for Tromra was 1861 (not 1841). The year is in the “Details box” on Griffiths.
To be in the tithes in 1826 and a labourer’s cottage in 1861 could indicate a number of possibilities. One is that his circumstances had declined and he had gone down from being a farmer to a labourer. Another could be that he was living alone, semi-retired perhaps, and someone else was running the farm. Or it could be a different James Gillen.
Can’t really help with finding a death post 1884. I have searched and can’t find one that matches either. So either he had move away from that area or his death wasn’t registered, which did happen.
The reason that Rose applied for a copy of the 1851 census would normally be because she had reached 70 and was entitled to a state pension. The Old Age Pension was introduced in Britain and Ireland in 1909. You had to be 70 or older and proof of age was required. The problem that created was that birth certificates had only been introduced in 1864 in Ireland so no-one there would have a birth certificate to produce. So alternative proof of age was accepted. That included baptismal certificates, some marriage certificates (depending on when you married), military discharge papers etc. For those who had none of those, the next option was to look at the 1851 and occasionally the 1841 censuses, to see what age you were then. Obviously if that age made you over 70 at date of pension application, then you got your pension.
The term “Sir” indicates either that he had received a knighthood, or that he was a baronet. Both are gifts of the king or queen, and supposedly can’t be bought (though in the 1920s Prime Minister Lloyd George was famously discovered to have been offering them for a fee). If he were knighted or given a baronetcy (a lowly form of nobility) he would be listed in Burke’s Peerage. You can search that on-line (for a fee). I am not saying that a small farmer/labourer in the Glens of Antrim couldn’t be knighted, but it’s probably not very likely. And it would have been widely reported in the papers, and listed in the London Gazette (which is on-line). If you don’t find him listed there, then it’s probably a load of nonsense.
Re DNA and Scotland, a huge proportion of the population of the Glens are descendants of Scots who settled in the area from the 1500s onwards. Here’s a link to a history of the ferry from Cushendun to Scotland:
https://antrimhistory.net/ferry-me-across-the-water/
A couple of books on the links between the Glens and Scotland you might find interesting are: “Antrim & Argyll – Some aspects of the Connections” edited by William Roulston ISBN 978-1-909556-63-8 which tells you all about the connections and how folk moved back and forth. Also “Family names in the Glens of Antrim” by Brian S Turner (a recent publication).
During the time of the Plantation of Ulster there was little difference between the Gaelic of many Scottish settlers and the Irish of the natives. The Irish of Antrim shared many features with Scottish Gaelic, and the Gaelic of Kintyre and Argyll was very similar to Antrim Irish. Robert MacAdam wrote in 1873:
Even yet the Glensmen of Antrim go regularly to Highland fairs, and communicate without the slightest difficulty with the Highlanders. Having myself conversed with both Glensmen and Arranmen, I can testify to the absolute identity of their speech (Ó Baoill 2000: 122).
In 1654, Joan Blaeu, a Dutch visitor to Kintyre (the area of Land in Scotland just across from the Glens of Antrim) wrote:
“Today in the Irish language, which is in use over this whole area, it is called Kintyre, that is head of land. It is inhabited by the family of MacConell, which has lordship here but at the pleasure of the Earl of Argyll; they regularly go off to Ireland for booty in their light ships, and have occupied the small provinces called Glens and An Rata/The Route.”
So evidence of them going to and forth in the 1600s. Mac-Conell is a variant of MacDonald/McDonnell. The Route is the area between Ballymoney and Coleraine.
The Glens of Antrim are easily accessible today via the coast road that runs up from Larne to Ballycastle but until that road was built in the 1840s, the Glens were very isolated. The only way in and out was really by sea (unless you undertook a 15 mile trek over the moors to Ballymena). It was easier to get to Scotland than to Belfast. So Glensmen had lots of contact with Scotland then.
The DNA of many Scots and Irish could be very close. (It’s only 10 miles from Scotland to Ireland, so common DNA would not be at all surprising). But remember too that DNA ethnicity tests aren’t all that accurate at times. Guesstimates in some cases.
