St Andrews Farm, Down

I don?t know where St Andrews farm is. Perhaps local enquiries in the area may help. I have looked for Napiers in St Andrew/Ballyhalbert & Greyabbey parishes in Griffiths Valuation (c 1863) and none are listed. That would generally indicate there were no Napier households in those 2 parishes by that time.

I searched the PRONI records for Napier plus Ballyhalbert and Greyabbey. I found a reference to a  John Napier?s will being probated in 1815. His townland was Ballywalter/Ballywalker (St Andrews parish). PRONI appear to have some limited details under Ref : T/283/B p.191. I suspect that this will be a book of abstracts (summaries) rather than a full probate file but you may wish to check it out anyway. (The vast majority of pre 1858 wills were destroyed in the 1922 fire in Dublin, so even this snippet should be regarded as a bonus, in the context of Irish research.). The information also gives you a townland to focus on. Nowadays Ballywalter is in a parish of the same name, but perhaps it has been moved since 1815. I cannot say. I can?t find any townland named Ballywalker and assume that?s a mistranscription for Ballywalter.

http://applications.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_ProniNames/SearchPage.aspx

The Ballywalter Napier household is mentioned in another document in PRONI D4389/D/8/1. Note that there?s reportedly a map showing the location of each tenant?s house:

17 June 1843            Sale of lots through an auction in 1845, arising from a court decision in June 1843 in the case between George Matthews, Esq., (plaintiff) and Arthur Hill Montgomery, Robert Evans and Thomas Crozier, Executors of the late George Matthews, Esq, deceased, and several others.

"Rental of the Lands of Ballymagowne, otherwise Springvale, with the mansion house and demesne thereof, and of a Moiety of the Town or Village of Ballywalter, the Lands of Sloanstown, the Pound Lands, and the Lands called Ballyhalbert Glebe Lands, all situated in the Barony of Ards in the County of Down, as of certain Houses and Premises in Upper Church lane, Skipper's Lane and High Street, in the Town of Belfast, in the Count of Antrim, being the several Lands and Premises in the Pleadings mentioned, to be Sold, pursuant to the Decree in this Cause, bearing date the 17th day of June, 1843, in the Lots.

The Lots are individually listed with full tenant name, area of plot, yearly rental for said plot and the details of the tenure of the lease, together with a map showing the position of the lot within a particular area. For example, in Lot 1, the tenant James McClelland rents two plots, numbered 8 and 9, for the yearly total rental of ?48, 8s, 11d, and his area measures just under 30 acres. The lease was dated 22 January 1795, the duration of which is the lifetime of Nancy McClelland

Tenants include: William Scheeming; James McKee; Alexander Matthews; Charles Stuart Trotter; James Bell; James McClelland; Widow McWhinney (all aforementioned in Lot 1 for Ballymagowne and Springvale); Thomas Ross; Andrew Hamilton; John Napier; Alexander Burns; Charlotte Patten; Alex Stewart; James McCracken; William McClure; Andrew Blane; William Perry; John Gilmore; Thomas Adams; Robert Boyd; James Glover; Widow Boyd; David Dill; John Asken; Samuel Thompson; William Thompson; James Baillie; Andrew Robinson; Hugh Wallace; John Irvine; John Parke; James McKee; John Grougan; William Lemman; William Orr; Hugh Lockhart; John Wallace; Widow Johnston; Alexander Asken; John Filson; Eliza Helme; Widow Pierse; Isabella Reid; James Glover; Widow McKee; Robert Blain, and John Robert Echlin (all aforementioned in Lot 2 for Ballywalter), and John Menagh; John McKee; William Magimpsey; Samuel Reid; William Acheson; Samuel Smith; Alexander Stuart; William Burke; James Cosbey; Thomas Cosbey; William Moore; John Brown; William Gowdy and Samuel Beck (aforementioned Lot 3 for Sloanstown)."

Ballywalter is just to the north of St Andrews/Ballyhalbert.

Otherwise I couldn?t find any references to any Napier holdings in either of the parishes you have mentioned. That doesn?t mean they didn?t own any land there but in general when someone had major holdings, you would expect to find some references to it, either as a result of leases or other legal transactions. That there are none tends to suggest (to me) that they were minor tenants rather than major property owners.

A check that you might want to make is to see whether there are any Napier transactions in the Registry of Deeds records. The main records are in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin, with a duplicate set on microfilm in PRONI, Belfast. If you know the townland(s) that your Napiers lived in eg Ballywalter, you can search under that, otherwise you would need to use the names index and just search under Napier, and work your way through them (many won?t be your family). The records start in 1708.

Thanks for your very extensive reply - that is a great help and I will follow up on the suggested leads. It thus seems that these Napiers were not major land holders in St Andrews.  

Incidentally William NAPIER (1756-1830) moved to Belfast and became a merchant - his 4th son Sir Joseph NAPIER (1804-1882) rose to prominence as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland (1858-59).

Thanks also for the John Napier lead which fits. One of William Napiers brothers was John Napier (b St Andrews 1754, died without issue Ards 27/12/1814) which fits with the 1795 lease and 1815 probate records.

We are part of the same family and have quite a bit of further information which we would be happy to share. We are still looking for further information so perhaps together we can further add to the story of the Napiers in this part of County Down.