KILLEAD,
or KILLAGH, a parish, in the barony of LOWER MASSAREENE,
county of ANTRIM and province
of ULSTER, 4½ miles (S.) from Antrim
town, on the road to Lurgan ; containing 7183 inhabitants.
This extensive
parish is for a distance of eight miles bounded on the west by Lough
Neagh, and is divided into the districts of Upper and Lower
Kilmakevit, and Upper and Lower Killelough ; it comprises,
according to the Ordnance survey, 42,836½ statute acres, including
789¼ in the Grange of Carmavy,
and 19,794½ in Lough Neagh. The land is in a high state
of cultivation, and there is neither bog nor waste land ; the whole
surface is drained, fenced, and managed on the Scottish system ; the
principal crop is wheat, for which the soil is peculiarly adapted, and
which was cultivated here with great success when scarcely known in
any other part of the county. The farm-houses are large and well-built,
and have excellent farm-yards and homesteads attached to them, and with
the comfortable cottages of the peasantry, and the numerous orchards,
gardens, plantations, and hedgerows, give to this district a rich and
cheerful appearance. The weaving of-linen is carried on to some extent
in various parts of the parish.
The principal
gentlemen's seats are Langford Lodge; the handsome mansion of
the Hon. Col. Pakenham ; Glendarragha of Langford Heyland,
Esq., Benneagh, of J. Macaulay, Esq. ; Glenoak,
of R. Macauley, Esq. ; and Tally House, of J. Murray,
Esq.
The living is a vicarage, in the diocese
of Conner, and in the patronage of the Earl of Massareene
; the rectory is impropriate in J. Whitla, Esq, and nine others.
The rectorial tithes amount to £830. 18s. 3d., and the vicarial
to £700. The church is a plain modern structure, nearly in the
centre of the parish. The glebe-house is an elegant residence, erected
in 1854 by the present incumbent, at an expense of £2000 ; the
glebe comprises about ten acres. At Gartree, formerly a separate
parish, but since the Reformation included in this parish, of which
it is the principal burial-place, a very handsome church was erected
in 1831, under the auspices of Col. Pakenham, aided by a loan
of £900 from the late Board of First Fruits : the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners have lately granted £315 or its repair. At the entrance
to the churchyard is a triumphal arch, erected in 1835, at the expense
of the parishioners, in honour of Capt. Armstrong, to whose memory
it bears a long inscription. It is endowed with £100 per annum
by Col. Pakenham, the patron, who has built a handsome residence for
the chaplain, and serves as a chapel of ease to the parochial church.
In the
Roman Catholic divisions this parish forms part of the union
or district of Glenavy; the chapel,
a small neat building, was erected in 1824.
There
are places of worship for Presbyterians in connection with the Synod
of Ulster of the first class, and for Seceders ; to the former, which
is situate at Tully, is attached a very extensive burial-ground,
in which is a. costly monument, in the Grecian style, to the memory
of S. Cunningham, Esq., of the island of St. Vincent's, a native
of this parish.
About
600 children are taught in the public schools, of which one at Ballyhill
was built in 1809, by Mr. Johnson, by whom it is partly supported
one in the churchyard, built in 1802, is supported by the vicar ; and
one built by Col. Pakenham is supported by him and his lady,
at whose expense also many of the children of both sexes are entirely
clothed. There are also ten private schools, in which are about 300
children. Lady Massareene bequeathed £100, and Mr. Cunningham
£200, to purchase land and divide the rents among the poor ; a
small farm in Ballygennif was accordingly purchased, and is let
for £16 per annum. There are numerous mounds and forts, some defended
by a single and others by a double fosse ; two of them have arched excavations.
There are also several ruins of churches, and many relics of antiquity
have been discovered in the neighbourhood. Clotworthy, Earl
of Massareene, was interred in the parish church.
