JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY VALUABLE RECORDS SALVED FOR DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY* B1Y far the most valuable addition, and 6d to .Sd (early). Whitefaced.wool so far, to the archives of the is priced at 7!d per lb., and white wool Donegal Historical Society are the re- at ls. Oats, of which 4,060 stones were cords of the Murray-S'tewart Estate · produced in the townland of Meenwhich date back to the year 1749. These tinadea, near Ardara, in 1846, were records, which include surveys, maps and valued at from 8d to ls ld per stone, acc·ount books covering the period from the latter price being apparently caused 1749 to the purchase of the 'estate by by the scarcity during the Famine years. the Irish Land Commission in the eariy Of the 4,000 odd stones produced 1,500, part of the present century, are a verit- it is recorded, was put aside for seed. able · treasure....chest of information and An item of ls 6d for expenses in the great credit is due to Mr. P. J. iMacGill, year. 18i47 goes to a messenger who went O.S.; Ardara, .who has salvaged them for from Meenavalley, near Ardara, to posterity§ Donegal Town and thence to BallyThough the great majority of the shannon to cash two cheques which were books, which are bound in leathe·r, are drawn on London business houses. in a remarkably good state of preserva- The first appearance of Indian meal tion, time and the vicissitudes through ln the a/c is in 1847 and its price is given which they have passed have taken their as 7s 6d per bag, The profit from the toll and in some cases the writing on Owenea fisheries is given as £4 8s Od, the damp pages is little more than the price of a '25 lbs. salmon to-day. legible. Mr. iMacG111 found the books in The records cover part ·of the an outhouse imKillybegs, where they had parishes .of 1\l'dara, Glenties; Killymard lain for some time. Hie brought them and the parishes of Killybegs, iKilcar and to his home where he dusted, cleaned Glencolumbkille, and include maps of and dried them with meticulous · ~are, the townlands in relief and beautifully and in a short time he will hand them coloured. over officially to the library of the The earliest survey amongst r.he Society. records is one taken in 1749 and townThe pages of these records present lands in the parishes mentioned are interesting sidelights on the normal life described in detail. of the people of South-West .Donegal · [Reported in "Derry -Journal.':] over a century ago. In the expenses column of tbe 1848 ale we find an entry for £ 9 12s wages for forty-sloc employees for one week. Wages at this· period ranged from 2d per day for a girl for milking and 3d per day for a herd t.o ls per day for a man mowing. The normal pay for an able-bodied man was from ·8d to lOd per day. The price of a heifer is entered as £.3 that of a bull as 22s and of another buli 3s. A 'year-old is priced at £ 1 13s, and the books record the buying of two cows at £6. The prices of potatoes range from 3d to 4d per stone (late) • See Vol. I. No. 1, p. 42 of our Journa:I. ~ ~ VQ~. I, No, 1, pp, 27-31 'L'bi~. HAND LfSTS OF MANUSCRIPTS FOUND Al KILLYBEGS and which will henceforth be known as "THE MecGILL COLLECTION .. at County Library, Lifford MacGILL MAPS-BOOK I. MAPS of part of the ESTATE of ALEXl\lNDER MIU~RAY, E.sq., in the OOUNTY OF DONEGAL, m.EUAND shewing the several holdings thereof as ·directed by M~Y BAalNO'l"QIN, Esq., J4Q
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