Fultons in Northern Ireland Hearth Money Rolls of the 1660’s
In the 1660’s the British Crown passed a Hearth Tax and assessed it on the people of Northern Ireland. Essentially this was a tax for every fire place you had in your home. The extremely poor I am guessing cooked outside by an open fire so would not have to pay the tax. Wealthy people with houses big enough to have more than one fireplace would pay the tax on each fire place. While at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast I scanned transcripts of these rolls for Fultons in the Counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry, Tyrone, and Donegal. I found 36 Fultons; None in Down or Tyrone, 8 in Donegal, 9 in Londonderry, and 18 in Antrim. Below is a list of the Fultons I found by County and the Parish where they were found for Antrim and Donegal. I did not look up the parishes for Londonderry.
It is interesting to compare the number of Fultons and their County locations in the 1660’s Hearth Money Rolls with the Fultons found in the 1740 Protestant Householders lists. It is of course possible that either or both lists did not record all areas of the counties. Still, the 1740 Protestant Householders lists show only 6 Fulton households in Antrim versus the 1669 Hearth Roll showing 18 Fultons, while the 1740 list shows 30 Fultons in Londonderry while the 1663 Hearth Rolls list shows only 9. For Donegal, the numbers are the same with 8 Fultons in the 1740 list and 8 in the 1665 Hearth Roll. Since we know the first and extremely heavy migration of the Scots-Irish to America occurred between 1718 and the 1730’s, a comparison of the 1740 and 1660’s lists might indicate that few Fultons came to America from Londonderry as the number of Fultons in that county significantly increased between 1663 and 1740, while the majority of Fultons migrating to American may have come from Antrim as the number of Fulton household desclined by two-thirds during this time. Since one would expect some normal increase over the years one might conclude that some, but not a great number of Fulton families came to America during this time from County Donegal.
Fultons in the Hearth Money Roll Lists of Northern Ireland:
Name County Year of Survey Parish
Thomas Fulton Antrim 1669 Belfast
William Fulton Antrim 1669 Belfast
John Fulton Antrim 1669 Derryaghy
Mathew Fulton Antrim 1669 Derryaghy
Robert Fulton Antrim 1669 Carnmoney
James Fulton Antrim 1669 Jordonstown
Henry Fultone Antrim 1669 Ballyhorne
James Fulton Antrim 1669 Magheramore
Widow Fulton Antrim 1669 Magheramore
Cutbert Fulton Antrim 1669 Loghgecle
William Fulton Antrim 1669 Ballyrechian
George Fulton Antrim 1669 Derrykeigan
Peter Fultone Antrim 1669 Derrykeigan
William Fulton Antrim 1669 Finvoy
James Fulton Antrim 1669 Upper Ballytrasny
James Fulton (2nd) Antrim 1669 Upper Ballytrasny
Widow Fulton Antrim 1669 ??
Roger Fulton Antrim 1669 Ahoghill
John Fultown Londonderry 1663 ??
Robert Fultown Londonderry 1663 ??
William Fulton Londonderry 1663 ??
Robert Fulton Londonderry 1663 ??
Robert Fulton (2nd) Londonderry 1663 ??
John Fulton Londonderry 1663 ??
James Fulton Londonderry 1663 ??
Henry Fulton Londonderry 1663 ??
Archibald Fulton Londonderry 1663 ??
Alexander Fulton Donegal 1665 Donaghmore
David Fulton Donegal 1665 Taghborne
John Fulton Donegal 1665 Clonleigh
William Fulton Donegal 1665 Clonleigh
John Fulton (2nd) Donegal 1665 Clonleigh
Thomas Fulton Donegal 1665 Hughnish
Widow Fulton Donegal 1665 Templemore
William Fulton Donegal 1665 Morvill