Location The town of Crossmaglen stands mainly on the townland of the same name and partly on Rathkeelan. It lies about 8 miles northwest of Dundalk and 14 southwest of Newry. It is set in the southwest corner of County Armagh with the land boundary with the Republic of Ireland lying less than two miles away in both a southerly (County Louth) and westerly (County Monaghan) direction.
This page provides information about the origin of the town and, through the locations listed on the left, the names of its householders in the different locations at specific years between 1828 the third quarter of the twentieth century.
Origin of Name
The origin of the name 'Crossmaglen' is uncertain. It has been interpreted by John Donaldson as "The cross of the shading plain", and by Hugh Macauley as "McGlynn's crossroads". According to LP Murray, writing in the Vol VIII, No. 2 of the 1934 Journal of the County Louth Archeological Society -
Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Ireland 1837 has this to say about Crossmaglen -
Crossmaglen; a village in that part of Creggan which which is in the barony of Upper Fews, County of Armagh and province of Ulster, 8 miles (NW) from Dundalk, on the road to Newtownhamilton; containing 545 inhabitants. It comprises about 100 houses, of which several are large and well built, and has a penny post to Dundalk: the surrounding scenery is strikingly diversified. In the vacinity is a small lake, called Lough Maglen, or Magheralin, and there are numerous others in the surrounding district. The slate quarries here were formerly worked to some extent, but they are now in a declining state. A market for provisions is held on Friday; and there are fairs in the last Friday in every month for black cattle, horses, sheep and pigs. A constabulary police station has been established in the village; and a spacious and handsome R.C. chapel has been recently erected, which is the parochial chapel of a very extensive district, called Lower Creggan. A dispensary by subscription in 1830.
Another view from the same period is provided by the Ordnance Survey Memoirs.
Rateable Valuation
The Half Yearly Rectorial Tithe in the 1828 Title Applotment Books for the townland was £6-17-7.
The rateable valuation includes the value of property in both the townland and that part of the town of Crossmaglen in the townland, but excluding the valuation for that part of the town in the townland of Rathkeelan. The changes in the valuation are set out below.
Townland Valuation 1837 The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There is a substantial list of property owners recorded in respect of Crossmaglen. Also recorded is a statement that there were 58 houses exempt. Although it is not possible to distinguish those properties appropriate to the town alone the record of the other townlands would indicate that few, if any, of the listed properties were outside the town itself. Although the list was supposed to provide the names of those whose property met the value critera, in many cases those with a lower valuation, and many marked as exempt, are listed. The list is reproduced below as it cannot be distributed to the different parts of the town. Information Sources The information about the names of those listed in these pages come from the following sources.
The Third Revaluation (1975) did not identify property by townlands. Instead, it used the new Post Office system of road names and postcodes. It can therefore not be used to continue this series of household, land and property censuses. To get as close as possible to the present, the position in the townland at the date of the last recorded revision of the Second Revaluation is presented. Grifiths Valuation records the owner of most of the town as Thomas P. Ball. Census of Ireland 1901 For the town as a whole, including that part standing on Rathkeelan, the Census enumerated 828 persons in 174 households; a ratio of 4.8 people per household. Census details of the streets etc are available on their respective pages. Problems with 1901 Census The street names in the 1901 Census do not in all cases correspond with those used in earlier and all subsequent valuations as the following table shows. Crossmaglen Street Names 1864 to 1957
By a process of name comparison it can be deduced, with reasonable confidence that -
Carlingford St has no occupants specifically enumerated. In the case of the remaining anomoly, Brown's Lane, this has been added to The Square record as have, for 1864, Shamble Lane and Lane off the Square (which is, probably, Mill Lane). Native Irish Speakers Details of the native Irish speakers enumerated in the 1901 Census are recorded in their respective locations aside. Population Growth The following table sets out the number of houses and population enumerated in the townland in each of the 11 Censuses held between 1841 and 1951. The data is the combined total of the town, the townland and that part of Rathkeelan included in the town.
In the period of 110 years, the number of households increased by 130% and the population by 94%. Growth was slow in the 70 years to 1911 but by 1926 the population had increased by 36% over 1911.
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