Looking for 'Wills of Ireland'

Question

I am working on the profile of a 9xG grandfather who is also the ancestor to countless Americans as his son was an early Quaker immigrant in Pennsylvania.

The principal source for this person is a 1944 book usually referred to as Quaker Greggs.  The entry for this ancestor, William Greg, mentions two sources for him at the bottom of the page.  The first I have found, and it includes William as a landowner to be removed from Ulster and sent to the south of Ireland.  The second source is simply entitled 'Wills of Ireland'.  I thought it might be 'Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland 1536-1810' by Sir Arthur Vicars, published in 1897.  However, the relevant page of that book has no Greggs that match the dates the author of Quaker Greggs quotes. 

Does anyone have any idea of what this source might be or where I can look?

Comments

I wonder if these could be  index entries for the wills of John Gregg died  in 1724 and Richard Gregg in 1741 in Ardmore 

W Phillimore (ed).Indexes to Irish Wills, Volume 2  1910, 

Cloyne

John Grigg  1724 and Richard Grigg 1741 Ardprior  https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/28531010?h=5d690e There is also a 1670 for a John Grigg of Dromore 

  W Phillimore (ed).  Indexes to Irish Wills,  volume II  1910 reprint 1970

I don't know Ireland very well but  google says  Ardprior is about 19 km from Ardmore.

 Is  Grigg, Gregg? Or is it just coincidence? 

Couldn't find a William for 1672

EDIT . This later index  of  will abstracts in the genealogical office Dublin, 1949  ( p 255)   includes the same three Griggs but John Grigg 1670 is  listed as of Ardmore (not Dromore). These abstracts presumably still survive. 

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I like your thinking, but I suspect the Ardprior Grigg's are not of this family and that the 1944 book has incorrectly assumed they were.

An abstract of the 1741 will of Richard Grigg is at https://www.irishancestors.ie/files/?m=417&s=1&l=1 Welply would have written a longer abstract, he may well have done the 1724 will too.

I doubt whether they left a Waterford will. There's nothing in Phillimore & Thrifts Waterford Will Index, Jennings' Waterford Abstracts (x900), or Eustace's Quaker Wills.

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Thank you, Helen.  I do believe that is the book that Hazel Kendall was looking at.  

But as Ardprior is 20 miles north of Cork deep in the countryside and probably barely qualified as a hamlet even before depopulation something tells me that these are not Presbyterian landholders expelled from Ulster, but maybe that is where they ended up and they were buried under Church of Ireland rites.

The important thing is that you have found the reference she was looking at.

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Thank you, John.  That summary pretty much confirms that the Ardprior Griggs are not the Presbyterian Greggs expelled from Ulster. For one thing he has a brother Michael, which is not in the Gregg family.  I am guessing that Hazel Kendall saw the index book and made a leap of faith conclusion.  But I am glad to have tracked down where her error came from.

Answer 1

You could try

https://www.nationalarchives.ie/article/wills-and-administrations/

But if the will is not in the index you used it may not be on this one either.

See this thread as well: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1250147/british-quaker-wills-database (bearing n mind that Ireland was "British" up until 1922)

Comments

Thank you.  But sadly, the only searchable online bit is the index post-1922.  That was when they managed to destroy the records office in the Battle of Dublin.  Probably any records that were there for the Greggs went up in flames.

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My apologies, I was not aware of that. There are older records but you have to physically be there (as I have been in the past).

Answer 2

Alan Watson has put together a great source list at Space:Irish_Quaker_sources_and_resources - Wills_and_probate that may help.

Also you may want to check with the City of Waterford Archives department. They may be able to give you some direction.

Comments

Thank you, that is a brilliant listing.  Lots of places to check there.

Answer 3

Hi,

I think that the Gregg/Grigg wills are as described in other answers. Welply's summaries of the Grigg wills are printed in The Casey Collection and can be read on Ancestry.com here https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/62062/images/62062_1020705384_0001-00511?ssrc=&backlabel=Return&clickref=1011ljj3Edoz%2C1011ljj3Edoz&adref=&o_xid=01011l4JYM&o_lid=01011l4JYM&o_sch=Affiliate%2BExternal. (It is also available free on FamilySearch, but the images are terrible there.) You will see that the first of the wills (for John Grigg of Dromore dated and proved 1670) refers to '49 arrears. This indicates that the testator was one of the '49 officers who fought with Charles I in Ireland before that date and who were recompensed by Charles II after the restoration. He appears in the list of '49 Officers as John Gregg https://archive.org/details/op1244157-1001/page/624/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Gregg

In 1670 he was one of the owners of land in Dromore which had been forfeited by Catholics http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/landowners.php#l4=Gregg,+John&mc=52.303163,-8.762364&z=11

The detail of the award in the Act of Settlement is here https://archive.org/details/op1244157-1001/page/104/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Gregg but I don't think that these can be your presbyterians.

There is only one reference to your William Gregg that I can see in the Quaker archive, and that is a file note of a letter enquiring about him. The archivists seem not to have found anything.

There are no entries that I can see for Gregg or Grigg in the Irish Quaker minutes or family lists for that period. There are, however, a few entries for Greg (with one g at the end). These include the 1702 marriage of William Greg and Ann Wilkinson that Myers refers to, one entry (in 1687) for George Greg and several entries (from 1691 to 1695) for Thomas Greg. Then there are a few more in the 1720s, for Thomas, Alice, George and William. There is one more for George in 1758 and a couple of others for Thomas and William later in the century. All the entries are in Ulster. There is nothing in the name Grigg, Grig, Gregg, Gregg or anything similar that I can see in Waterford or anywhere else in Ireland.

There are also a few wills for Greg, also all in Ulster. See here http://census.nationalarchives.ie/search/dw/results.jsp?diocese_name=&district=&surname=greg&firstname=&residence=&event_year_from=1600&event_year_to=1740&year_of_will_from=&year_of_will_to=&spouse_last_name=&spouse_first_name=&additional_person=&residence_county=&search=Search

I am not convinced that your William became a Quaker before leaving Ireland. That said, he could well have attended meetings for worship and regarded himself as a member without really having been one.

Alan Watson

(Ireland Quaker team)

Comments

That's a good analysis Alan.

I did find one Greg reference in the Quaker wills:

36	Britten, John, Dublin yeoman, late of Coolroe, Co. Wexford.
	To my wife Susannah Britten (executor) my lands of Coolroe for life. After her decease said lands to my only son John Britten. To  my said son John my house, shop and two gardens in occupation of William Evans in Butchers Row, Cirencester, Gloucester. If said son dies without issue said lands of Coolroe and premises etc. in Cirencester to Joseph Thomas, tanner, Samuel Clarridge, merchant, Thomas Ashton, glover, Roger Roberts, innholder, all of Dublin, to dispose of rents to poor people called Quakers. To said son John £70 when 21 years. My brother-in-law William Greg, his wife and children. To Josiah Gunson, Dublin weaver, "my small fowling peece." Anthony Sharp, Dublin, merchant, Henry Verman, Askesillagh, Co. Wexford, yeoman and said Josiah Gunson, executors.
	Dated 9 Nov. 1695. Proved by Susanna Britten 2 Jan. 1695 in Prerogative Court.
	Witnesses: Jos. Goodman, Mary Liddell, Saml. Tyrrell, senior. Whereas Susana Britten married James Peirson and died in the 12th month last the trustees agreed, 18 April 1701, "that James Peirson receive the rents and improve the lad's estate" and have £15 per annum for his maintenance out of John Britten's estate "till the lad is fit to put out an apprentice."

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That's a good find.

John Britton's profile is here https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Britton-3423

You will see that he was formerly a soldier in the Commonwealth army. It may well be that the William Greg mentioned in his will is the one concerned, but everything points to a connection in Wexford rather than Waterford.