The Ogilby Estate

THE OGILBYS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LONDONDERRY, WITH 9,735 ACRES

The Ogilby estate was located near Limavady in County Londonderry.

John Ogilvie [sic] was a member of the vestry of Drumachose Parish in 1729. The family name was changed to Ogilby by his son Alexander, and the family lived in Catherine Street until John's great-grandson John built a manor-house at Ardnargle.

Ardnargle House today is plain, of two storeys with five bays; built ca 1788 by John Ogilby.

The house was given a porch, a three-sided bow, window surrounds with cornice brackets and a modillion cornice ca 1854 by Robert A Ogilby. There is Victorian Classical plasterwork in the hall and principal reception rooms.

Ardnargle was originally a dower house for Pellipar at Dungiven.

Pellipar House

Ardnargle is stated to be a good, commodious square house with its front facing southwards; and commanding beautiful views of the Roe Valley; good ornamental gardens with excellent fruit trees, now gone.

John Ogilby planted a great portion of the trees which now form the parkland. 

An artificial pond, supplied with spring-water, was used for skating during the winter months.

The Ogilbys were a Huguenot family who settled in Limavady at the time of the Ulster Plantation. 

All the records of the family were destroyed by fire in Scotland, in 1784. The original Ogilby residence was Calhame, Aberdeenshire.

The Ogilby family has had a proud military tradition: Major Robert Alexander Ogilby married Sarah Wheeler, daughter of Rev George Bomford Wheeler, a founder of the Irish Times, TCD classic scholar and contributor to Dickens' magazine, "All Year Round"; a DL for County Londonderry; captain 4th King's Own Regiment; and took part in the Zulu war (1879, medal).

The Ogilbys also owned land at Woolwich which was acquired from the Skinners' Company. Ogilby street in Woolwich is named after them.

In 1902, Maurice Marcus McCausland, of Drenagh, married Eileen Leslie, daughter of R A Ogilby DL, of Pellipar. 

There is a charitable Ogilby family Trust still extant: The Army Museums Ogilby Trust is a registered charity founded in 1954 by the late Lieutenant-Colonel Robert James Leslie Ogilby DSO JP DL (1880-1964), son of Robert Alexander Ogilby.

This made Ogilby a kinsman of both the Earl Alexander of Tunis and the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, through the line of the Alexanders of Limavady. He was also brother-in-law of Brig.-Gen. George Delamain Crocker.

Colonel Ogilby entered the Army as a 2nd lieutenant, 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards 1903-1905; a lieutenant, 2nd Life Guards; High Sheriff, 1911; 29 Aug 1914 joined the Special reserve Officers as lieutenant; 29 Feb 1915, captain (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards; 1916, Major and 2nd in Command of the 7th Norfolk Regiment; 1916, lieutenant-colonel commanding 2/114 London Regiment (London Scottish). He served with the British Expeditionary Force (dispatches London Gazette); served 1916-1919 in the war; Belgian Croix de Guerre, Star, 1914; DSO and bar, 1917.

Earlier generations of Ogilbys distinguished themselves as scholars: Lieutenant-Colonel Sir David Ogilby (1767-1834), who was a distinguished Orientalist; and his Kinsmen from the 'other' Ogilby castle, in County Tyrone, now in ruins, Altinaghree.

Robert Obilby (1790-1846), bleacher, owned the bleach field at Garvagh; resided at Woodbank, Garvagh; and donated the local village school.

Robert Ogilby was the son of Alexander Ogilby of Catherine Street, Limavady, and of Mary Alexander, daughter of James Alexander, of Roe Park, now a hotel on the outskirts of Limavady.

William Ogilby (1804-73), was a London barrister, zoologist, co-founder of the Royal Zoo in London, who knew Darwin and had a correspondence with him and his son, an ichthyologist, who migrated to Australia (1853-1925) and who identified and registered 5,000 different species and subspecies of fish.

The Ogilbys built the local School in Dungiven during the 19th century, amongst others charitable works.

I am particularly grateful to Londonconstant for kindly providing so much of the biographical information herein relating to the Ogilby family.

 Addendum

Male descendants of this family are alive and well in the USA. Amongst the worthies of this branch, more recently, was the Bishop of the Phillipines and Episcopalian Bishop of Pennsylvania, the late Right Reverend Lyman Cunningham Ogilby (1922-1990), whose great-grandfather, Leonard Ogilby, emigrated from Dungiven to the USA.

First published in February, 2010.