HANAGAN, John 1
- Born: About 1788, Ireland 1 2
- Marriage (1): MULLIKIN, Rosann
- Died: 25 December 1856 at 11.00 pm, Poor Asylum, Neilston, Renfrewshire, Scotland 2
- Buried: Burial Ground of St John's RC Church, Barrhead, Renfrewshire, Scotland 2
Cause of his death was dropsy over 1 year.2
Other names for John were HANAGIN, John,3 HANIGAN, John,4 HANNAGAN, John 2 and HANNIGAN, John.5
General Notes:
1841 Census:
John and Rose Hanagan were recorded in their family household living in Barrhead village, Renfrewshire. (The 1841 census did not record familial relationships but it seems a safe conclusion to make here.). All nine members of the household were born in Ireland. John and Rose were recorded as being in the 50-54 years age group, but they were not the oldest in the group. A woman in the 70-74 years age group called Mary Hanagan held that honour. All of the other members of the household were surnamed Hanagan too and were recorded in roughly descending order of age: Richard, aged either 25 years or between 25 and 29 years; James, 28 years old; William, either 20 years old or between 20 and 24 years old; Mary 15 years old or between 15 and 19 years old; Jean 12 years old; Cathrine 9 years old. As for occupation, John, Richard, James and William were labourers, and Mary and Jean were cotton mill workers. This family group lived beside another family whose heads were Edward and Mary Hanagan, a couple in their thirties with five children aged 10 years down to one year, all born in Ireland.
Note: The 1841 enumerators had instructions about how to record ages, but did not always follow them. So sometimes it is unclear which course they are taking.
1851 Census:
John and Rose Hanagin were recorded living in the parish of Neilston, about two to three miles from Barrhead, with their two sons, Patrick and James, and a daughter Catherine. John was aged 62 years, Rose 58 years, Patrick 30 years, James 26 years, and Catherine 18 years. All had been born in Ireland. The men were labourers by occupation, and Catherine was a steam loom weaver.
John died on Christmas Day 1856. His death certificate recorded him starkly as 'Hannagan John Labourer Pauper Widower'. His recorded age was 72 years. His parents were both deceased.
John was recorded as a labourer in the 1873 death certificate of his son Richard.
When his son James died in 1875 John's occupation was noted as 'quarry labourer'. 1 2 3 4 5
Research Notes:
BARRHEAD
Many people think the Irish emigrated to Scotland and elsewhere as a result of the famines of 1845-1849, but in fact many Irish were travelling workers and the emigrants for many decades before that.
The eighteenth century saw a dramatic rise in population in Ireland, and coupled with the problems many faced of subsistence farming where yields from poor land hardly fed a growing family, it was no surprise that many agricultural workers travelled to their nearest neighbours for seasonal cash work. Towards the end of the eighteenth and the start of the nineteenth centuries the Industrial Revolution provided work for willing hands, and the Irish population had many free and willing hands to contribute to the transformation of the British industrial landscape. Ireland was British and its people travelled freely within its borders.
As well as cotton mills and coal and ironstone mines, labour was needed to develop suitable roads and quays, to transform canals into railways and to complete all manner of construction that we take for granted now; tunnels, bridges, civic and domestic architecture.
Barrhead, like Airdrie, was well placed as the Industrial Revolution got into gear. It had good natural resources like the Lower Levern Water, it sat between the important conurbations of Glasgow and the Ayrshire coast, and it offered possibilities for living and working that could attract a substantial population. From 1750 on bleaching, printing and mill work began to change the rural scene of the earlier eighteenth century. In 1820 there was a Turnpike Road from Glasgow via Barrhead to Irvine, Kilmarnock and Ayr with the Tollhouse at Dovecothall. Railway connections opened in the 1840s. If you were strong and fit, then there was work for you in Barrhead. 6
Medical Notes:
Thomas Young, surgeon, who last saw his patient on 25 December 1856, certified the cause of death.
The matron of the Poor Asylum, Eliza Jane Mackie, who had been present where John's death occurred, gave notice of the death before the registrar at Neilston on 26 December 1856.
Patrick Reidy, sexton, certified that John Hannagan was buried in the Burial Ground of St John's RC Church Barrhead Renfrewshire. 2
John married Rosann MULLIKIN. (Rosann MULLIKIN was born between 1790 in Ireland 1 and died between 1851 and 1855.)
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