Mullavea Glebe
MULLAVEA GLEBE (hill of the birch) Area 60:1:32
Griffiths Valuation 1862
Occupier……………………… Lessor John Murray…………………………..Rev Thomas Hand H Os L James Wallace……………………….. Rev Thomas Hand H Os L
1901 Census
Head of Family………………. Landholder if different Thomas Murray
Glebe Land
This townland is one farm still in the possession of the Murray family which is probably why we were able to borrow some very old documents.
The first document bears the signature of Rev. Thomas Hand himself and dates from 1869. The total is too dark to read here but can be seen on the original to amount to £12 : 5s : 0d
The second dates from 1875 just after the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. Tenants no longer paid rent directly to the local rector but was paid to a central body.
There is another document from 1869 where the Commissioners offered tenants the chance to purchase their farms but if the tenant could not, or would not purchase the Commission would ‘give notice by public advertisement that they were willing to receive proposals for the purchase of the property’ They offered a mortgage arrangement giving ‘EXAMPLES FOR THE GUIDANCE OF THE PURCHASER WHERE THE PURCHASE PRICE IS £400:- paying off principal and interest in 64 half-yearly instalments i.e. a cash payment of £100 and sixty-four half-yearly instalments of £8 7s.1d.each.
To give an idea of comparative prices there is a note on the back of one rent receipt ‘On the 15th January 1867 I sold Patrick Rooney a cow at £8 6s 0d sterling.’ Having to pay over the price of a cow two times a year every year would have been a strain for most small farmers.