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Previous:     Section 16: The South West 1610-1700

Section 17
Brush Families in and from Ireland

Section 17.A
John Brush - the root of the Irish tree?

In addition to the BRUSH families of England there are other BRUSH lines.   One of the more interesting is an extended family group in Ireland, all of whom are commonly said to descend from a single individual - John BRUSH.  Who, at least for now, I am designating as [Ir10].

One of the problems with Irish research is that large amounts of original documentation was destroyed in the Four Courts, Dublin, in 1922.   The Four Courts is Ireland's main court building and was destroyed on 30 June 1922.  The west wing of the building was obliterated in a huge explosion, destroying the Irish Public Record Office at the rear of the building.  Nearly a thousand years of archives were destroyed by this.  Which makes tracing the Irish Brush families particularly challenging.

A single source for all Brush residents in Ireland may not be strictly true but it does appear to be the root for most of those bearing the Brush name - especially the more prominent ones.   This section focuses on the Brush families first documented in and around Omagh, County Tyrone, in what is now Northern Ireland.  Other early references to the Brush name elsewhere in Ireland are considered in section 17.C .

The 'standard' version of events appears in two articles by Eugene A.Coyle & John J. Duffy.  The first about two descendants of John, both called Crane, or Crean; Loyalty and its rewards in 18th century New England and County Down:The cousins Crane Brush(2). The second about the Crean who went to the USA; Crean Brush vs Ethan Allen: A winner's Tale(3).  Crean of the USA is one of very few carrying the Brush name who appear in 'real' history.  The two Coyle & Duffy passages are very similar; this is an amalgam of them.

The common ancestor of the cousins Crane Brush was John Brush (1662- 1741) who served as a Williamite officer in a Dutch Regiment against the Jacobites in the major Irish battles of the 1680s and 1690s including at Londonderry, Aughrim and the Boyne.

He was rewarded [for his staunch loyalty to the British Crown] with a treasury warrant in 1696 for his military service in Ireland, with which he bought a small number of the forfeited Abercorn properties near Omagh in County Tyrone. He later purchased properties at Kilrush in County Meath and in Dublin City from the Williamite Commissioners sale in 1703"

For reasons explained in more detail below, I am increasingly doubtful about the detail in that version of events.   That there was at least one John Brush in the Omagh area in the period 1666 to 1740 is certain but whether he was a Williamite officer and whether he was granted the lands mentioned is much less certain.

There is also another version of the single source story, passed on by one of the Northern Ireland family ("AHB"), suggesting that the original John Brush was not part of the 1689 Williamite army but arrived some ninety years earlier as part of the Elizabethan army led by the Earl of Essex.   I fear however that this is a mangled piece of family folklore and I have for the moment relegated the 1599 theory to a separate chapter - section 17.B .

More detail on the Williamite John's military career was given in a now deleted webpage on the FLATT family history (4).  It added three little details, though without identifying the source.   First that John was an ensign before being a lieutenant.  I'm unsure if this is real detail or if all lieutenants began their service as ensigns.  Second that he served in Colonel Crofts Regiment.  Thirdly (relying on Burke, below?) it says "he was granted property at Darkmoney, Omagh for his services".

The document which raises the possibility of the first John arriving in 1599 (the "AHB tree") does also mention, as a great grandson, the Williamite John BRUSH. It refers to him as "Captain" John BRUSH but says that, presumably earlier in his life, he "was an ensign in Col CROFTON's regiment [illegible](5)garrison of Derry 1698-9 [sic - the siege was in 1689] & fought the Irish at the Boyne[1690], Aughrim[1691[ and Limerick [1690 & 91]"

Although I have many doubts about details in the AHB tree, of the two named regimental commanders, Crofton seems to be correct. I haven't been able to find any mention of a Col.Crofts.  Crofton however is clearly a historical figure.  According to Walker's diary of the Siege of Derry (6) , Colonel Crofton's regiment was already in Ireland by April 13th 1689.   What was hoped (but failed) to be a relieving force under Colonel Cunningham only arrived at the Lough on April 15th.

An article on an Ancestry message board (7) (which sounds authoritative and quotes a number of sources including House of Commons Journal, Vol.12m 8 June 1698) refers to :

"…a company formed in Jan 1689 in Colonel Skeffington's Londonderry Regiment, also known as the Antrim Volunteers, for service during the siege of Londonderry. During the siege, Skeffington's Regiment unofficially became Major John Mitchelburne's Londonderry Regiment…... On the lifting of the siege the Regiment amalgamated with Crofton's Regiment. This new Regiment was taken onto William III's Irish Army establishment as Colonel Mitchelburne's Londonderry Regt on 4 August 1689. "The Antrim Volunteers" went on to fight at The Battle of the Boyne, 1 July 1690, where William III decisively defeated James II's 30,000 main Franco-Irish army."

Dr John Childs (a bona fide and detailed military historian, emeritus professor of military history at the University of Leeds.) in The Williamite Wars in Ireland gives a similar version of events but refers initially to Major Richard Crofton. He also states that Crofton's regiment (of 12 companies) was merged immediately following the relief of Derry into Mitchelburne's regiment. At some point during the siege Crofton was designated as a colonel. More specifically he says that Crofton's regiment was disbanded and its men incorporated into the new regiment. He gives more detail in General Percy Kirke and the Later Stuart Army.

"Following the relief of Derry Kirke had seen only a disorganized, ramshackle, undisciplined, amateur militia in need of comprehensive and rapid restructuring. Accordingly the eight infantry battalions…were immediately demobized and disarmed, an action that caused enourmous resentment. The more promising men were re-engaged and allocated to four, new, regular battalions…. Richard Crofton [and others] lost their colonelcies….The new regiments were entered onto the Irish establishment ensuring lower rates of pay than comparable English units. Kirke appointed the field officers and captains allowing the men to elect their own lieutenants, ensigns and NCOs.

If, as AHB suggests, John Brush had been part of Crofton's regiment then he was not part of the 'invading' Williamite Army but had been part of an Anglo-Irish militia already present in Ireland.  Richard Crofton had "been among the Protestant officers cashiered by Tyrconnell prior to the Revolution"(8).   The Duke of Tyrconnel was a Catholic put in charge of the Irish Army by James II who replaced Protestant officers with Catholic ones.  If John was indeed part of Crofton's regiment this is very different to the Coyle and Duffy reference to him being part of a Dutch regiment in the Williamite Army that arrived in 1689 and 1690.  Two armies were sent to Ireland.   The first, and insufficient, force went in 1689 and a bigger force under William himself in 1690.  I am not clear whether the relieving force sent to Derry under Colonel Cunningham was part of the first 1689 army or a separate detachment sent directly from England.

The Coyle & Duffy passage talks of John being "rewarded [for his staunch loyalty to the British Crown] with a treasury warrant in 1696 for his military service in Ireland".   It may be that this is overstating what happened.  

There was a warrant, issued to Lord Sydney in 1693, to pay the officers, and widows of officers, who were of the garrison in Londonderry the sums specified in an annexed list.  A transcript of this warrant and list can be seen at ulstergenealogyandlocalhistoryblog.com/2020/03/officers-at-siege-of-derry.html .  But, unfortunatly, John Brush is not listed in it - though Colonel Crofton is. Another transcript of this warrant is in the " Calendar of State Papers Domestic: William and Mary, 1693, ed. William John Hardy (London, 1903), pp. 165-208" available in British History Online.

Source: [Signet Office Letter Book 13, p. 7.], 'William and Mary: June 1693', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: William One name listed which might be relevant in some way is Lieutenant William Stewart as there is a later Stewart/Brush marriage.

There is however an entry in the "Calendar of state papers, Domestic series, of the reign of William III... Preserved in the Public Record Office v.3 1697" available at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293027027113&seq=112 referring to John Brush being one of "various sick officers, soldiers and seamen and Irishmen from the French army in Catalonia" on whom Consul Nicholas Herne had ... spent [money] on".  Which is rather different and may not even refer to the same John.

Given these, I am beginning to question whether the heroic story of ensign, lieutenant or captain John Brush of Crofton's (militia?) regiment is true at all.  

Burke's 'Landed Gentry of Ireland' states (and AHB repeats) that Lt. John was "granted ppty at Darkmoney, Omagh, co Tyrone and at Kilrush, co Meath".   Coyle and Duffy that "he bought a small number of the forfeited Abercorn properties near Omagh in County Tyrone.  He later purchased properties at Kilrush in County Meath and in Dublin City from the Williamite Commissioners sale in 1703."  Another expression of this {from where?} was that he "acquired land at Kilrush, Dublin, and at Darkmoney".  There is of course some difference between being granted land and being granted funds which were then used to buy land.  Buying extra land near where he lived seems more likely than being directly granted land.

As for property at Kilrush and Dublin, I am becoming less and less convinced by this received story.  Kilrush (two small townlands of Kilrush upper and lower in co Westmeath, rather than Meath, and not the town in County Clare on the west coast) is some distance from Omagh.  Furthermore the earliest references to Brush at Kilrush are not until 1739 and seem to be connected to the marriage of a later John ("John junior", son of Crean) to an Elizabeth Ashe.  As for Dublin there were certainly Brush families in Dublin, including a John Brush, in the late 1600s but I have not been able to link these to John Brush of Omagh.

'Darkmoney', which appears in this story about John Brush and in a significant 1740 deed discussed in section 17.D is an earlier spelling of Dergmoney which is a 'townland' within the parish of Drumragh, in or adjacent to Omagh in Co.Tyrone.  Strangely, the town of Omagh (or at least part of it) falls within the parish of the smaller settlement of Drumragh.  I am even beginning to question the 'grant of Dergmoney' story.   I have not been able to find any information about the forfeiture of Abercorn land in Drumragh parish or Omagh; the main Abercorn estates seem to have been a little further north and west in Tyrone.  The area around Omagh seems to have been, as a result of the 17th century Ulster Plantations, granted to (someone else).   More significantly there is a transaction in 1717 in which Crean Brush (who may have been John's son) buys the townland of Dergmony from a Rev William Hamilton, considered in section 17.A2 .  Clutching at straws a little, Hamilton is the family name of the Earls of Abercorn, .   If the grant of Darkmoney to Lt. John is a fiction then the land being bought from a Hamilton may be the grain of truth inside a legend.

Coyle & Duffy cite, as one of their sources, the Blackwood Pedigree for County Families.  This is not available online but I was able to view it in the Linen Hall Library in Belfast.  Although it sounds very authoritative it was only created in the 20th century and is (insofar as it concerns the Brush family) only a few handwritten notes and rough trees. It does not actually mention John but begins with the first Crean Brush as discussed in section 17.D .

Burke's Irish Family histories were first published in 1899 but the earlier editions do not include the Brush family.  The first listing of them, including the information about Lt. John, is in the 1958 edition as the start of the lineage of Lt Col. Edward James Augustus Howard Brush, born 1901. The Blackwood Pedigrees created in the first half of the 20th century make no mention of Lt John.   The AHB tree dates from sometime in the mid 20th century.

I fear that a social climbing family between 1740 and the late 19th century may have substantially embellished their ancestors rather than accepting John the apothecary and Crean the innkeeper (who feature in section 17.A2) for what they were and that the story was passed down through the famly until it got committed to paper in the 20th century.

The proposition that John Brush (whether ensign, lieutenant, captain or not) was indeed already in Ireland prior to 1689 is not based solely on the statement that he was part of Crofton's regiment.

The website https://www.cotyroneireland.com/hearth/drumragh.html displays the Drumragh (Drumra) Parish Hearth Money Roll, Co. Tyrone c.1670 ("Extracted from FHL Film #1279356") and records John Brush as holding land at Omagh.   This is noted as "undated, but believed to be 1670". If this listing is correctly dated it reinforces the idea that John did not arrive with a Dutch regiment of the Williamite Army in 1689 but was already in Ireland.  At least 19 years earlier.  If the grant story is true seems perfectly possible that John used his treasury warrant to purchase additional land near land he already owned, or had some say in the location of land he was granted.

In the public library at Omagh there is a set of folders with notes ( typewritten - 1960s or 70s?) about various historical records.  One of these headed 'Hearthmoney Rolls - 1666 & 1670 Drumra Parish (Omagh)' containing a 'List of taxpayers (23) who appear on both registers, with their various spelling of townlands and names'. Darkmoney is not one of the listed townlands, within Omagh is listed 'John Bruss/Brush'.  A William Hamilton is also listed in Omagh.

There is also a record of a John Brush as the plaintiff in a Chancery action in Ireland in 1682. Again, the date reinforces the conclusion that John was already in Ireland before the Williamite invasion.  But the index entry, which is all we now have, does not show if the John in question was from the Omagh area or from Dublin or elsewhere.

There are some other early entries in the limited Irish records in Dublin and elsewhere going back some thirty years before the Williamite invasion.  These are considered in section 17.C .  Interesting though they are, they are nowhere near enough to document a link back to another military John arriving in 1598.  In fact the Dublin records overlap with the Drumragh records.   There is a John Brush, an innkeeper, buried in Dublin in 1679 - nine years after the reference to John of Drumragh.

None of the sources mention any wife for Lt John.  A very early draft by me of this article suggests that Lt John married a Ms KINGHAM but it contained no mention of any source for this, and it may be complete rubbish.  Whatever the forename and maiden name of Mrs John BRUSH might be she would be desigated as [Ir10a].

The only mention of a birth date for Lt John Brush is by Coyle and Duffy. Their suggested birth date for John[Ir10] is 1662 and for his death date is 1741. They give the dates as firm in the text but in the family tree they put question marks against both dates. Again, I feel the need to question this version of events.  There is certainly a will dated 1740 but, as discussed in section 17.D, this was the will of the man identified as 'John junior' who may not even have been born in the 17th Century, let alone have been old enough to fight in 1689 to 1691.  And the will was not proved until 1760.

Coyle and Duffy also give a birth date of 1680 (without question marks) for a son Crane.  These dates would mean that John was 18 when Crane was born.  Possible of course but relatively unusual.  Pushing John's birth date back to, say, 1655, to make him 25 in 1680 makes him 34 in 1689.   If he had served in a regular English foot regiment that would seem to be still possible for a lieutenant (though rather too old to still be an ensign).   But if he was in a locally recruited militia unit the age seems much less of an issue.

However, even a 1655 birth date makes him too young to be paying hearth tax in 1670.  So could John of Drumragh [Ir8] be his father?

The earlier his birth date the older he would be in 1741 when Coyle & Duffy (and AHB) suggest he dies.  Born 1662 would make him 78/79, born 1655 would make him 85/86. Born at least 21 years before 1670 (1649 or earlier) makes a 1741 death seem most improbable if not impossible.

There are at least two alternatives. First that Lt John's death date was not 1741 and second that he was not the father of Crean. Or, was John of Drumragh[Ir8], age at least 40, Lt John?  I am becoming increasingly convinced that the suggested death date of 1741 is wrong.  Particularly if the suggestion is based only on the 1740 will.

It is said that from Lt. John Brush (who I designate as [Ir10] ) there descended an extensive and often prominent family.  These are discussed in the next section 17.A2 .

List of Sections concerning the Irish families

(1) back to text    In FWB papers there is a single A2 sheet including a handwritten tree (not FWB hand). An FWB comment on it refers to A.H.B. as the author and to correspondence or conversations in 1977 and 1987.

(2) back to text    Published in the journal Eighteenth Century Ireland Vol 16, 2001 www.jstor.org/stable/30071253

(3) back to text    Published in the Vermont History journal Vermont History 70 of the Vermont Historical Society 2002. www.vermonthistory.org/journal/70/vt703_402.pdf

(4) back to text    http://braddonsmith.tripod.com/id5.html) "John Brush (died 1741) was an ensign and later a lieutenant in Colonel Crofts Regiment, fought at the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and the siege of Derry. He was granted property at Darkmoney, Omagh for his services"

(5) back to text    The missing text is illegible but I think it says "of immortal" which is a reference to the 'Orange Toast' which begins "The glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the great and good King William…"

(6) back to text    https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kgYwAAAAMAAJ

(7) back to text    www.ancestry.co.uk/boards/localities.britisles. ireland.ldy.general/7565/mb.ashx

(8) back to text    A phrase from More Irish families by Edward MacLysaght (not fully viewable online). Childs also says in General Percy Kirke and the Later Stuart Army that Crofton "had suffered the ….indignity of being purged by Tyrconnell in 1686".

(9) back to text    Burke's Irish Family Records. London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976

(10)Coyle and Duffy include this tree showing the development of the family and expand on this in the text of their article on the Crane cousins.