TOWNLANDS OF NEWTOWNHAMILTON

Skerriff Tichburn is a townland of 419 statute acres, 1 rood and 35 perches about two and a half miles west of Cullyhanna. It is bounded on the north by Altnamackan and Tullyvallen, on the east by Skeriff Trueman, on the south by Kiltybane, and on the west by Ballynarea. In the Tithe Applotment Books of 1825 the total area of the townland is shown as 253 acres, 1 rood and 6 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland Sciarbh, "A shallow ford" ⁽¹⁾, followed by the name of a onetime landlord called Tichburn.

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	£200.75	£255.00	£330.00	£330.50	£307.00	£302.75	£303.00	£300.30	£298.05	£309.80	£308.80	£321.55	£380.70

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There were no houses of that valuation in the townland.

Griffiths Valuation records the owner of the land as John Douglas and Mrs Henry.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 145 people in 37 households; a ratio of 3.9 people per household. The households occupied a total of 90 rooms; a ratio of 2.4 rooms per household and 1.6 people per room. One of the households had 6 rooms, two had 4 rooms, ten had 3 rooms, twenty two had 2 rooms and two had one room. Seventeen of the houses were thatched.

Native Irish Speakers

Two of the households contained one native Irish speaker. Both had been born in Co. Armagh. They were -

• Mary Murphy, boarder with James Murray midwife, 90
• Patrick Murray, Ex. National Teacher, 78

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.

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped by 64.1% and the population by 75.6%.

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.