The Magill Baronetcy

JOHN MAGILL, of Gill Hall, County Down, bequeathed, about 1676, all his estates in County Down to (the son of Lieutenant William Johnston) his grandson,

JOHN JOHNSTON (ante 1639-1701), of Gill Hall, who assumed, in consequence, the surname and arms of MAGILL, and was created a baronet in 1680, designated of Gill Hall, County Down.

Sir John, MP for Hillsborough, 1692-3, Downpatrick, 1695-9, married firstly, in 1677, Elizabeth Mary, daughter of William Hawkins; and secondly, in 1683, Arabella Susannah, daughter of Hugh Hamilton, 1st Viscount Glenawly.

Sir John died without surviving issue in 1701, when the baronetcy expired.

The estates, however, devolved, in accordance with the will of the original testator, John Magill, upon Sir John's nephew and heir,

ROBERT HAWKINS (1704-45), of Gill Hall, MP for County Down, 1724-7-45 (grandson of his sister Mary, who assumed the additional surname of MAGILL), who espoused firstly, in 1728, Rachael, eldest daughter of Clotworthy, 3rd Viscount Massereene and widow of Randal, 4th Earl of Antrim, and had an only son, JOHN (1729-36).

Mr Hawkins-Magill wedded secondly, in 1742, the Lady Ann Bligh, daughter of John, 1st Earl of Darnley, and had issue an only daughter and heiress,

THEODOSIA  HAWKINS-MAGILL (1743-1817), who married, in 1765, John, 1st Earl of Clanwilliam. 

Theodosia Countess of Clanwilliam (Image: Ulster Museum)

In the 1650s, during Cromwellian land confiscation and the subsequent plantation era following the Irish rebellion of 1641, Captain John Magill acquired land in the Tullylish area and founded Gilford, the name of the village being derived from Magill’s Ford.

Gill Hall

Gilford dates from the mid-17th century when the Magill family, after whom it was called, acquired the land.

The Magills were of Scottish origin. 

Before the Rebellion of 1641 Captain Magill, whose name appears in the list of officers of the Cromwellian Army, obtained half the townland of Ballynagarrick from Art Og Maginnis for £150.

At the end of the war Captain Magill acquired an extensive estate at Gilford, comprising the townlands of Loughans, Drumarin, Drummillar, Mullabrack, Ballymacanallen and half of Ballynagarrick. 

Furthermore, he owned land in Donacloney and Dromore; and it was here, in his Gill Hall estate, that the family seal was placed. 

Robin Knowles once unearthed a manuscript at a library in Northern Ireland concerning Sir John Magill,

In 1674, Magill held a grand pheasant shoot on his estate which had been stocked with nine hundred birds obtained by natural hatch and from eggs hatched under broody hens. He invited sixty-four guns - a nobleman and a commoner from each of the Kingdom of Ireland's thirty-two counties - to shoot and they bagged three hundred pheasants in a day. 

First published in February, 2011