John Knox Hutchinson Family

Jules,

Spirit merchant doesn’t mean Knox made whiskey. It means he was licensed to sell it. In general, distilleries made whiskey and spirit merchants just sold it in their pubs. The term means “pub landlord”. He ran a pub.

I think Margaret Forgrave’s townland was Cah (not Caw). That’s in the parish of Errigal. Griffiths 1859 has Thomas Forgrave listed there. He had a half share of plot 24 with James Forgrave. That was a 16 and a half acre farm. He also had a quarter share on mountain grazing (65 acres) with 3 other Forgraves.

That farm today is up a dead end lane on the modern Mettican Rd, just north of Garvagh. You can find it on the maps on the Griffiths site:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameS…

There is a townland called Cah in Clondermott, near Londonderry, but I don’t think that’s the one your Forgrave ancestors lived in.

This may be Margaret’s father in the 1901 census:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Garvagh/Ca…

Plus his probate abstract (taken from the PRONI wills site):

Probate of the Will of Thomas Forgrave late of Cah Garvagh County Londonderry Farmer who died 10 July 1901 granted at Londonderry to Robert Forgrave and Thomas Forgrave Farmers.

The will itself is not on-line but there should be a copy in PRONI in Belfast. There are many other probate files for Forgraves from Cah.  You might want to go through them:

https://apps.proni.gov.uk/WillsCalendar_IE/WillsSearchResults.aspx

The 1901 census lists at least 6 Forgrave households in Cah. They are all likely related:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Garvagh/Cah/

PRONI’s wills site has numerous other probate files for Forgraves from Cah. You might want to look at them.

The Coleraine Chronicle for 4th Sept 1886 has an item about Knox Hutchinson. It’s a rather involved dispute over an unpaid debt. It’s a classically complex Irish story (which Percy French might well have written a fine song about) in which a cow, belonging to a Mrs Knox, was seized as security for a debt.  She paid a sum of money to get it released but there was then a dispute about the amount actually due.  I don't actually understand precisely what it was all about, and I don’t think the court did either because it eventually dismissed the case without prejudice.

There’s another court case in the Chronicle for 22nd Jan 1887 where Knox sued a Wm Boyd for damage to a riding saddle.

Another case reported in the Chronicle on 21st June 1884 involves a William Watkins who was accused of stealing money from Knox Hutchinson. Margaret (Knox’s wife) gave evidence in which she said that after Watkins had visited her premises money was missing from the till. A sum of money was found on the accused by the police. The jury found him guilty of theft, he had a previous conviction, and was sentenced to 6 months hard labour.

There are quite a few more newspaper reports on Knox. They are available on the British Newspapers site.

Knox in the 1901 census:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Duncairn_Ward/L…

1911:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Shankill/Silvio…

Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church, so since the couple married Aghadowey Presbyterian, that may be Margaret’s family church. Their baptism records start in 1855, so you may find a record of her birth there. There’s a copy of those records in PRONI in Belfast. You could try contacting the Garvagh Historical Society to see if they have any information about the pub. (And they might have some photos).

Jules,

Garvagh Historical Society: https://garvaghtown.com/garvagh-historical-society/

Thank you so much for the quick, and detailed reply! The newspaper articles are really interesting, as we can not access the British Newspaper Archives here in the US. Hopefully, our travel will be up and running soon. We had to cancel our 50th birthday trip to Ireland for the month of May, but I hope we will be able to get there soon! In the meantime, I will keep chasing down leads. Thanks again!!