I first encountered the Gortmore Pilkington family when I travelled to Ireland with my sister in 2007, visiting the Drumcliffe Old Cemetery in Ennis to locate Pilkington family graves. We successfully found the graves of our great grandfather Thomas Pilkington who died in 1884, his father Thomas Pilkington who died in 1838, his grandfather also Thomas Pilkington who died in 1817, 3x great uncle Francis who died in 1801 and 2x great uncle Francis who died in 1810. We knew who all these people were, but what about those other graves? The ones intermingled with ours, that also had the name Pilkington? These headstones bore the location Gortmore.
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| Pilkington of Gortmore grave |
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| Drumcliffe Old Cemetery, Ennis, Clare, Ireland © Kaypilk 2007 |
Thomas (died 1817), Francis (died 1801) and Francis (died 1810) were all resident at Cragleagh, just out of Ennis, at the times of their deaths. Further enquiry revealed Cragleagh and Gortmore were neighbouring townlands, but we didn't follow up any further at that time.
* Cragleigh or Cragleagh, and Gortmore, Gurtmore or Gurthmore are interchangeable in the various records.
In 2014 I went to Ireland alone for the launch of the Waterpark book I had collaborated on. While there, I had been invited to address the Kilrush & District Historical Society about the history of my family in the west of Clare. This was on my last night in Ireland before flying back to England. After my presentation, I was approached by an elderly man who introduced himself as Tom Pilkington from near Ennis. He said his family were originally from Gortmore and he still farmed some land in the area. We exchanged contact details and promised to keep in touch. I deeply regretted not having a couple more days to explore the connection further.
A few months later I received a package from Tom's wife Peggy, containing a family tree, photos and notes from his family, most of whom had emigrated to America over the generations. We both have quite extensive trees going back to the late 1790's, but no obvious link between our two families.
Tom's family tree goes back from him for three generations to James Pilkington, born about 1796 & died 1833. Mine goes back 5 generations from me to Thomas Pilkington, born about 1742 & died 1817. Tom's family has been Roman Catholic all the way back, mine is Protestant. Both our families have a Thomas in every generation. Both our families tend to have long generations, with the men mostly not marrying and having families until in their late 30's or 40's.
At my suggestion, Tom agreed to do a DNA test, both autosomal and Y-DNA, and his results showed an autosomal match to me, and to my brother on both tests. So the relationship was proven, but we still had no idea how.
I next visited Ireland in 2016 with my husband. Tom and Peggy picked us up from our accommodation in Ennis one day and took us for a lovely drive, pointing out locations of significance to the Pilkington family, including the original Gortmore House. Tom stated he didn't need a DNA test to prove we were related, because we both had the same eyes!
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| Ruins of original Gortmore House |
A couple of years later, I found a hand-written transcript of the 1821 Irish census for county Clare on the genealogy website Findmypast. This showed the household of my 2nd great grandfather Thomas Pilkington (1784-1838), living at Cragleigh. As well as Thomas, his wife Anne, their infant daughter Jane and a nurse, was 25 year old James Pilkington listed as a house servant.
In 1825, the Tithe Applotment Books show Thomas Pilkington holding 225 acres of land at Gortmore and an additional 160 acres at Cragleigh. James Pilkington was the holder of just 7 3/4 acres at Cragleigh.
Sometime in the later 1820's, James married Anne Lysaght. The couple had three children that have been identified - Charles born around 1828, Thomas born about 1829 and Ellen born in 1830. Charles remained in Ireland on the family farm, while Thomas emigrated to USA in 1848 and Ellen followed in 1850.
The Clare Journal newspaper of 9th May 1831 reports an attack on the home of James Pilkington at Gortmore by the Terry Alts, a local secret society pushing for agricultural reform. The article reports the house and furniture were damaged and James was ordered to quit the 24 acres he held.
According to the headstone erected on his grave at Drumcliffe Cemetery, James Pilkington died in August 1833. His wife Anne died in 1866.
James was succeeded by his son Charles, who raised a family of 8 children at Gortmore with his wife Margaret Corry. There is no record of Charles Pilkington or his mother Ann occupying land at Gortmore in the Griffith Valuations records during the 1850's. Thomas Pilkington from my family is still recorded as occupying 208 acres.
In 1877, The Freeman's Journal newspaper (June 27th 1877) carried a report of the bankruptcy of Charles Pilkington of Gurtmore near Ennis. Charles was described as the brother of Thomas Pilkington (my great-grandfather), who was claiming the sum of £280 in rent arrears. The article stated Charles had acted as a steward for Thomas. A later newspaper report (July 11th 1877) corrected the relationship between the two Pilkington men, stating they were unrelated.
Whatever the actual relationship was, and undoubtedly there was one, I have so far been unable to discover it. I have a couple of possible theories which I am continuing to explore, but it is difficult with the absence of so many records for that early time period in Ireland.
Tom and I share 11.4cM of DNA. My potential theories would make us either 4th cousins x1 removed, or half 3rd cousins. Both of these relationships are consistent with the amount of shared DNA.
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| My "cousin" Tom & me in 2016 |
