Tenants of the Twelve Townlands of Ardstraw Parish, Co. Tyrone
Saturday 12 May 1832
To the Hon. & Right Rev. Richd. POSONBY B. B. Lord Bishop of Derry,
May it please your Lordship – We, your Lordship’s Tenants of the Twelve Townlands of Ardstraw, in the County of Tyrone, beg leave to express our warmest gratitude, for your disinterested and benevolent conduct towards us on a late occasion. Your Lordship, with a disinterestedness which must enhance your character in public estimation, renewed the Leases of our present Holdings, which had nearly expired, and which perhaps, in other hands and under other circumstances, might have been withheld. By this generous act of your Lordship, you have conferred on us and our families a lasting favour.
Were the example thus set by your Lordship, imitated by the landed Proprietors of Ireland in general, our ill-fated country would cease to be a bye-word, as it is, for poverty, crime, and every species of degradation and wretchedness. Were such tenderness and concern shewn towards the middle and lower classes in society, by those of rank and influence, our industry and strength, instead of being driven to a foreign soil, would be directed to a more natural, and surely a more desirable channel, of calling forth the exuberant and hitherto unexplored rich resources of our native country.
We beg leave to express our warmest thanks Charles STUDDART Esq. for fulfilling, in so very handsome a manner on the occasion alluded to, your Lordship’s benevolent intentions.
William TAGERT J.P.
Edward EDIE J.P.
Lavens MATHEWSON
Andrew Thomas LOVE
John SMYTH
William GIVEN
William PATRICK
John GIVEN
A. C. EDIE
Robert KNOX
Margaret KNOX
Samuel HOUSTON
James IRVINE
George RUSSEL
James KERR
William KERR
Moses BAIRD
Joseph BAIRD
Thomas IRVINE
Robert CUNNINGHAM
Andrew MILLER
David MILLER
John JACK
Frances M’CLINTOCK
Violet FORBES
Matthew KNOX
David MEALEY
Joshua MOORE
Joseph PATRICK
James BREDIN
Thomas LINDSAY
William MOORE
David LOVE
Samuel CRAWFORD
Samuel STEELE
Thomas SIMPSON
John O’NEILL
Rev. John M’CARTER
Andrew DEARE
Arthur FOSTER
Andrew CALDWELL
Charles GALLAGHER
James DEAN
Patrick JACK
John JACK
John LEITCH
Andrew LEITCH
George KELLY
Patrick KERR
Francis KERR
Samuel LEITCH
Elizabeth LEITCH
Isabella HAYES
Charles MORTLAND
James RUSSEL
Matthew RUSSEL
James LEITCH
Robert CLARKE
Margaret KNOX
Robert ACHESON
Matthew NELSON
Catherine NELSON
Mary ALLEN
James LOVE
Robert M’CAY
Josias CRAWFORD
Stewart WELCH
John STEVENSON
John FORSYTHE
Agnes MONTIETH
Charles FAUCETT
Letitia KERR
John ROBB
John ROSS
Andrew JACK
David WOODS
Andrew WELCH
Matthew M’KEE
Quintain O’KANE
Samuel FINLAY
William WATSON
Robert BRECKIN
Thomas REA
Matthew REA
Robert DUNN
William WILSON
James CRAWFORD
Patrick BRADLEY
Anne HILL
James LOVE
James REA
Patrick SHEARER
William PATRICK
Rebecca TAGERT
Joseph ALEXANDER
Samuel CRAWFORD
Thomas HEART
Bernard BRADLEY
Thomas BROWN
Widow DUDGEON
William ADAMS
James ADAMS
James WELCH
James PORTER
William KING
transcribed by Teena from the Londonderry Sentinel