Robert LINDESAY ⁵⁰⁸⁵

  General Notes:

17. The Lindesays of Loughry, County Tyrone, A Genealogical History, by Ernest H. Godfrey, 1949; H H Greaves Ltd., London, 119 pp.

This book is about the lives and times of Robert Lindsay and his descendants, from 1611 to shortly before the outbreak of World War II. At that time a visit by several members of the Lindesay family to their ancestral home, Loughry, County Tyrone, Ireland, prompted the author to write a genealogical history of the family. It covers, by way of a brief story about each person, the triumphs of the family as well as the various disasters that befell members of the line.

Robert Lindsay was the son of Thomas Lindsay of Kingswark, who was born circa 1522. Thomas was appointed Snowdon Herald and later Lyon depute at the Court of the Lord Lyon. Various sources indicate that he descended from the Byres branch of the house of Lindsay, but no supporting documentary evidence has been found. Thomas Lindsay had three sons, Bernard, Thomas, and Robert. Robert Lindsay took possession of his grant of the lands of Tullyhogue and Loughry, County Tyrone by Patents dated 24 June 1610 and 21 June 1611. His first house was a wooden structure surrounded by a ditch; his son Robert later built the manor house (see photo at right) at the present site. Stone-carved arms of Robert Lindsay impaled with those of his wife Margaret, with the date 1632, mark the event.

For seven generations this family of landed gentry, clergy, and military officers lived at Loughry (see photo at left), many being buried in the cemetery at nearby Donaghrisk where there is a Lindesay family vault.

At first the Loughry family spelt their surname in various ancient formats of Lindsay, but by the 1700s consistently included the medieval ‘e’ as Lindesay. During the late 1800s, members of the family migrated from County Tyrone to England, Scotland, New Zealand, Rhodesia and South Africa. The last Lindesay owner of Loughry, Lt-Col. Joshua Lindesay, died unmarried in 1893 and the estates were sold. Although no Lindesays remain in Ireland, almost all Lindesays world wide are descended from Robert Lindsay. However, the origins of a Lindesay family in Melbourne, Australia, several Lindesays on the east coast of the USA, and some on the island of Montserrat are unknown. The only other family with this unusual spelling is that of the Earl of Lindsay, James Lindesay-Bethune. Today Loughry and its surrounds are home to Loughry College http://www.loughrycollege.ac.uk , part of the University of Belfast. Check out the college webs site History link for additional information on the Lindesay family of Loughry, Ireland.

The book includes 32 black and white photographs, an index, and four appendices of genealogical details

Robert married Jane MAULEVERER in 1777. (Jane MAULEVERER was born on 24 Jul 1753 and died on 18 Apr 1826.)