Who Lived Here?
According to family notes written by Jeannie McClure in 1927 by Jeannie McClure, her great-grandmother, Jane (Jennie) Oakman, was from Hopevale when she married William McClure in the early 1780s.
Jane (Jennie) Oakman's parents were John Oakman and Jane Whitla who had married in the late 1750s or early 1760s. John was the son of Walter Oakman of Ballydonaghy and Jane Whitla was the daughter of George and Elenor Whitla of "Gobrana".
PRONI's Freeholders' Records of 1776 show John Oakman and his brother Nicholas living in Ballyminimore. A 1780s map shows these two properties as being Weir House and Darraghmore. There is no mention of Hopevale on this map. I believe John originally lived at Weir House and for some reason moved to Hopevale not long after the map was produced. Perhaps he retired from the linen manufacturing and passed the running of his mill and bleach green over to one of his sons?
John died about 1793. His wife, Jane, died about 1797. It is from the extract of Jane's Will (PRONI T/700 p371) that we learn who their children were.
Family Tree for John OAKMAN and Jane WHITLA
Jane (Jennie) Oakman married William McClure built "Mount Pleasant" in the Townland of Budore, Tullyrusk Parish, before he married Jane in the early 1780s. William intended slating the roof of his new home but Jane's father (John Oakman) thought a slate roof would be too cold up in the mountains and offered them as much wheat straw as they needed in order to thatch it. According to Jeannie McClure's family notes it was still thatched in the 1920s.
William and Jane McClure had six children: John, George, Jane, Peggy, Thomas and William.
Family Tree of William McCLURE and Jane OAKMAN
According to the family notes by Jeannie McClure, young John McClure was a "tall, slight good-looking man who had lived at his grandfather’s at Hopevale and got a good education at Crumlin Academy - riding to school on a pony. He was a great horseman always and hunted with the hounds sometimes. He was looked upon as his uncles heir; but his aunt took sick and some lady friend came to attend her. After she died the uncle married the friend and there was a son so that cut him out."
The uncle mentioned above might be George Oakman, son of John Oakman and Jane Whitla. George's first wife, Jane Close, died in 1802 and George later married Margaret (surname possibly McTeague). George died in 1811, leaving his farm at Ballymacmary in Killead to his only son - John - who was still a small child when George died (PRONI D/971/1/17/1/12). In 1834, when John was in his early 20s, he sold the Ballymacmary farm and headed for America, where he later established a cotton mill named the "Hope Mills" in Paterson, New Jersey. More about John Oakman.
Further Reading:
- Family notes by Jeannie McClure
- McClure burials at Dundrod Presbyterian Burial Ground
- GlenavyHistory.com