TOWNLANDS OF NEWTOWNHAMILTON

Camly Ball is a townland of 439 statute acres 3 rood and 11 perches about three miles south of Newtownhamilton. It is bounded on the north by Camly( Macullagh), on the east by Carrickrovaddy, Dorsey (Macullagh) and Finiskin, on the south by Drumaltnamuck and on the west by Tullyvallen (Hamilton) East. In the Tithe Applotment Books of 1828 the total of the then combined 'townland' of Camoly Ball and Camoly Stripe was 243 acres, 2 roods and 29 perches (Plantation Irish measure)

Name of townland

Camla, "A crooked hill." Followed by a surname - here Ball - a former owner of the townland. An alternative suggested by Fr. Murray is Cam Liath "A grey bend". ⁽¹⁾

Valuation

Although the decimalisation of the currency was introduced only in 1971, all of the valuations in the following table have been converted from £sd for convenience.

Year	1837	1851	1864	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1935	1952	1957	1974
Valuation	£212.80	£283.75	£311.85	£308.35	£308.35	£306.60	£306.35	£301.60	£299.10	£327.10	£356.50	£361.35	£344.10

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There was one such property in the townland; that of -

• Thomas Moore

Griffiths Valuation records the owner of the land (for the most part) as the Trustees of the Slake Estate with James Murphy owning about 60 acres.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 97 people in 26 households; a ratio of 3.7 people per household. The households occupied a total of 61 rooms; a ratio of 2.3 rooms per household and 1.6 people per room. One of the households had 5 rooms, three had 4 rooms, three had 3 rooms, 16 had 2 rooms and three had one room. Seven of the houses were thatched.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 26 households enumerated in the Census, two contained a native Irish speaker. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a predominantly Irish speaking environment, their names, occupations and ages are recorded here. Both were born in Co. Armagh -

• James Caherty, farmer, 66
• Annie Quinn, housekeeper, wife of John Quigley, 46

Population Decline

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.

	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1937	1951
Houses	58	46	46	41	36	29	26	22	20	22	20
People	301	239	227	175	141	126	98	85	69	66	82
People per household	5.2	5.2	4.9	4.3	3.9	4.3	3.8	3.9	3.5	3.0	4.1

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped by 65.5% and the population by 72.6%.

Names of House and land Holders⁽²⁾

The following table sets out the names of those who owned or rented houses and land in the townland at the time the official valuation record or population census was compiled.