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Previous: Chapter 17.A:
A single Irish source?
Section 17
Ireland to 1851
Chapter 17.D
The sons of Crane
At the end of section 17.A we identified Crean BRUSH [Ir12] as having had three sons, John, James and Crean. Firmly evidenced by a memorialised deed of 1740. Which places them each as adults born prior to 1719.
There is also a suggestion that Crane[IR12] had a fourth son Roland (or Rowland) Ash-Brush born around 1710. This suggestion appears in multiple trees on Ancestry (often listing him as a half-brother) but none of them seem to cite any sources for this. It also appears in the articles by Coyle & Duffy. I am suspicious of this, if only because he is not mentioned at all in the 1740 memorialised deed. The name Rowland Brush certainly appears in 18th century Irish records but not until a bit later. The first hard reference I can find is 1766 and my belief is that he is a child of one of the three brothers.
The deed also mentions Catherine as a daughter of Crane[Ir12] but nothing at all more is known of her.
Another suggestion in multiple Ancestry family trees is that a Richard Archibald Brush of Virginia was born in Clogher in Ireland around 1700 and had a son Crane around 1740. Most of this information is unsourced but I have found one reference for a Crane Brush in a 1785 'enumeration' in Botetourt County Virginia. The idea of an Irish emigrant appears to be based solely on the use of the Crane name - which given its rarity seems a reasonable one. Could the shadowy Richard be a brother of Crane [IrR12]? The best summary is in a query posted by James Holt in a genealogy.com forum.
"A Richard Brush (perhaps also known as Archibald and born 1695-1715) died in Augusta County Virginia in 1762/3, leaving known children Blakely and Elizabeth and suspected children Ann, Crane, James, and William.Elizabeth married Samuel Norwood and moved to South Carolina by 1790.Blakely moved to Shelby County Kentucky after 1800.Crane and James moved to Kentucky by the 1790s - where they appear on tax lists in Lincoln/Jefferson and Bourbon counties, respectively. (Nothing more is known of Ann and William.)Several male decendants used the given names of Blakely, Crane and/or Richard, this being a clue that these estimated siblings may be related.In 1738 a Richard Brush (perhaps the man who died c1763) baptized two daughters (twins?) Elizabeth and Annie in Neshaminy Church in Bucks County Pennsylania; these baptisms appear in the records of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia.Before that I am not certain where this family was; but after searching for several years, I have come to believe that they likely came from Ireland (counties Tyrone, Armagh, or Down) where the surnames Brush, Crane, and Blakely were relatively frequent before 1850 in the area between the towns of Omagh, Clogher, Armagh, and Belfast.Several other Richard and Crane Brush men certainly lived in this area since the 1600s.(Blakely could well have been Richard's wife's maiden name.) Other possible origins are counties Dublin (esp St Michans Parish) and Longford in Ireland"
There is also a reference to Crane in a tax assesment of real and personal estate in 1803 showing him as non-resident at Bolton, Washington County, New York. The Bolton website includes the following puzzling quote. "Following the war years, land grants were issued to the retired soldiers as a reward for military service. The old Colonial military patents issued by King George III from 1769 to 1771 (Abeel, Campbell, Ogilvie, Brush, Garland, McDonald and Porter Patents) were located along the Schroon River."
John Brush[Ir13]
John is the first named brother in the 1740 deed of partition between the three brothers. He appears to be the leading figure; the one who had advanced money on mortgage to his father. The eldest of the three? He is identified as of Kilrush, Co.Meath. This Kilrush (not the better known one in Co Clare on the west coast) is on the boundary of Meath and West Meath around 25 miles northwest of Dublin and well south of Darkmoney/Drumragh/Omagh.
AHB says nothing of him except that it was John "from whom the American branch descended". I had long assumed that this reference to "the American branch" was to the 'infamous' Crean Brush[Irxx] of New York and Vermont but he only had one daughter. Was he referring to Richard Archibald, Crane and others of Virginia?
Coyle and Duffy do not mention John at all but their dates for the other charecters would put his birth date around 1700. If he is the father of Richard Archibald an earlier date is probably needed.
There are a number of references to John BRUSH in the period 1727-1760. What complicates matters is that they are all over the country.
At 1727 a John Brush of Carlingford witnesses a deed, and the memorial of it, for the Stannus family.
At 1738,in the splendid gazetteer The Present State of Great Britain and Ireland , Containing an Accurate and Impartial Account of These Famous Islands published by J Brotherton in 1738, a John Brush is listed as Barrack Master at Drogheda. He also appears in this role in Watson's Gentleman and Citizen's Almanac of 1740. Drogheda is about 30 miles north of Dublin, 40 miles south of Carlingford and 30 miles east of Kilrush. This is highly unlikely to be Lt John who fought in 1689/90 ( who would be 76 even if born in 1662). His grandson John [Ir13], "Gent" at 1740is "of Kilrush". At around 38 probably not old enough to be Barrack master? Although it is from almost a century later, a question in Parliament indicates that the role of Barrack master was something taken on at the end of a military career. Though from a 1795 Letter from the Barrack-Master General to Barrack Masters it is clear that the role is that of building management rather than convential military service. Is there a third John[Ir11] - a son to John[Ir10] and brother to Crean[Ir12] ? Pure speculation.
At 1741 a lease of property in the parish of Termon Co. Tyrone is granted to Ephraim Smith and a Samuel [Poge] . Termon is about 8 miles south-east of Omagh/Dergmoney The lease is for the combined lives of ES & SP and of John Brush "the eldest son of the present wife of Ephraim Smith". There is no explanation of why. If the John in question is John [IR13] then Mrs Smith is the widow of Crean[Ir12], who was alive in 1740 at the time of the partition deed. Is this lease somehow for her benefit (or John's)with her husband and SP as trustees? An alternative scenario could be that she is the elderly widow of John [Ir10] and that the John referred to is an otherwise unknown brother of Crane[Ir12] - the barrack master? Or does it indicate that the John in question was still a minor? An answer that does not really fit with any of the charectars we know of..
In 1754 this lease is varied. SP relinquishes all his interest in the lease to ES. William Brush[Ir16] of Aughnacloy is a witness to both the deed of variation and to the memorial of it. Aughnacloy is another 25 miles or so further south and will appear in the Brush story for at least another 250 years with future generations of the Brush family farming there. It is right on what is now the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Being a witness has no legal effect but this is clearly symbolic in some way. More than symbolic; the Brush family clearly had some financial or personal interest in what was going on. It seems reasonable to assume that William was a son or a younger brother of John. In 1755(or early 1756, another William Brush[Ir ] is born). Age 27, with 7 years service he is, on 21 January 1783, pensioned out of the 34th Foot as wounded and identified as of Aughnacloy, a weaver. From 1776 to 1796 the regiment had been serving in Canada.
The Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland lists a will for John of Kilrush, Gent. in 1760.
In 1766 a census is taken. More fully described as "Parliamentary returns as to religion, made by the Protestant Rectors, by order of the Irish House of Lords. of Armagh in the County of Tyrone, Ireland." The record for the Aghalow and Carnteel parishes record John Brush and Roland Brush. Aghalow (Agaloo) is just to the south of Aughnacloy, Canteel just to the north. The reference to John so close to William from 1754 reinforces the link back to the 1741 lease.
On 22 January 1768 an advert is placed in The Belfast Newsletter:
John near Drogheda is clearly not the late John of Kilrush (who we had marked as James's brother), but is linked somehow to Rev James. The same John who was at Drogheda as barrack master in 1738?
The Rev James Brush[Ir14].
Of the three sons of Crane [IR12], the one we know most about is Rev James [Ir14]. Coyle & Duffy give James's dates as 1704-1777 and place him as the middle son of Crean. If there is support for this it probably comes from the Blakemore Pedigree. The 1740 deed does name him second in the list of sons. The AHB tree agrees the death year saying he died on 23 June 1777.
Next: Chapter 17.B:
John in 1599?
Following: Chapter 17.C:
Other early Irish entries
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