1766 Religious Census for the Parish of Ballymoney

In March and April 1766, Church of Ireland rectors were instructed by the government to compile complete returns of all householders in their respective parishes, showing their religion, as between Church of Ireland (Episcopalian), Roman Catholic (termed ‘Papists’ in the returns) and Presbyterians (termed Dissenters), and giving an account of any Roman Catholic clergy active in their area. Some of the more diligent rectors listed every townland and every household, but many drew up only numerical totals of the population.

Within North Antrim there is only one parish, Ballymoney, which has a list of names and religions but, unfortunately the rector did not indicate the townland in which each person lived. This list can be regarded as a list of heads of household in the parish. However, we cannot be sure that every householder in the parish was listed. Furthermore, all of the original returns were destroyed in the Four Courts fire in 1922, and we depend on transcripts which were made before this date. Any transcription can suffer from spelling mistakes and the odd omission.

I have databased the information in the source. Note that in the database there is a column which lists the exact spelling of each surname recorded in the returns and a column with a standardised spelling selected by me. Incidentally, you may not agree with some of my standardised spellings. Feel free to make up your own mind.

 Note that the names within the Excel version of the database are presented in the order in which they occur within the source. There is also a separate sheet in the Excel file where the entries are sorted by standardised surname. The entries in the PDF version are arranged alphabetically by standardised surname.
 

1766 Religious Census for the Parish of Ballymoney

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