Oakman ^of Ireland

About 4 or 5 miles to the south of Glenavy village, in Templecormac Townland (Parish of Ballinderry) we have found a John Oakman living and farming on a property named Ashvale (also known as Ashville).

Townland Valuation Records 1828-1840 show John as living on this property consisting of a house, stable, 2 byres (an outlying farm building used for storing grain, animal feed and/or housing farm animals etc) and a barn.

From the remnants of the 1851 Census which was taken on 17 April of that year, John is still living and farming Ashvale. By this time John was a 52 year old widow (his wife, Eliza Ann, having died in the Spring of 1850). Living with him were his son William John Oakman, William's wife Ruth, and a servant (ploughman) John Hattin. The Census records show John's mother Susan as having died in the Spring of 1849 at the age of 85.

As yet we don't know how long John had been living at Ashvale, whether he had inherited the farm from his father or whether he had purchased or leased it himself. According to the 1851 Census, John and Eliza Ann had married in 1820. The only children of this couple found to date is William John Oakman who was living and farming at Ashvale in 1851.

John died here sometime after 1851 and is probably buried with his wife, though exactly where that is is not known. It is possible they were buried at the old cemetery nearby - along with their son William and his family.

William John Oakman was born about 1824. He married Ruth Higginson, daugher of Edward Higginson and Maria, on 6 May 1850. William and Ruth lived and farmed Ashvale untill their deaths (Ruth died 13 May 1896 and William died 15 May 1906). William's children appear to have continued living at the property until the early 1900s.

William John Oakman and Ruth Higginson had the following children:

Apart from Elizabeth, all these children are buried together in the old cemetery at Templecormac. Elizabeth married Arthur Peel on 5 February 1873 and raised a family at Arthur's farm in Legatirriff (Aghadalgon Townland in Glenavy Parish?). Their children - Albert Arthur Oakman Peel, Amy Susannah Elizabeth Peel, and Rebecca Jane Evangeline Peel - died at Aghadalgon in the Glenavy Parish and are buried together in the chuchyard at St Aidan's in Glenavy. It is likely Elizabeth and Arthur are also buried there but this isn't known for certain.

Thomas became an Estate Agent while Edward became a builder (1902 Belfast and Ulster Street Directory). Edward also went into the realestate business - the 1907 Belfast Street Directory lists him as an Auctioneer, Surveyor and Insurance Agent with premises at 5 Garfield St, Belfast and the 1913 Belfast and Ulster Street Directory list him as a house and land agent at Stravondale, Cardigan Drive, Belfast as well as a rent agent at 393 Lisburn Road, Belfast. Their sisters, Mary and Henrietta, don't appear to have married - both women signed the Ulster Covenant in 1912. Ruth and her husband George Grant remained either at Ashvale or very closeby.