When the former Moore estate at Drumbanagher was put up for sale in 1817, Col. Maxwell Close bought most of it. But two adjoining townlands – Kilmonaghan and Knockduff were bought by the Dowglass (or Douglass or Douglas) family. The family originated in Devon, and lived at Mount Ida near Banbridge and Gobrana in Co Antrim. George was married to Louisa Waring of Waringstown.
In late 1887, times were hard, and the tenants of these townlands got together to ask the then current owner, Capt. George Dowglass (1833-1920), for a temporary rent abatement of 40%. Dowglass absolutely refused, and eventually, even though the tenants reduced their demand to 20%, in true Donald Trump-style he targeted the four men who had been elected to represent all of the farmers, and threatened to evict them if they did not pay their full rents promptly.
In doing so, he stirred up a rent strike and massive support for the farmers, well beyond these two townlands and those affected. The conflict between Dowglass and his tenants became a local cause celebre, uniting Unionists and Nationalists as never before.
I researched the events surrounding this in early 2024, having rather stupidly not checked all of the articles published in earlier years in Before I Forget. It was only after I finished that I discovered Joe Canning’s excellent article ‘A Local Episode In The Land War‘!
However, as my research contains long excerpts from the local newspapers of the day, far to long to publish in print, (and not wanting to waste it!) I offer it in the form of a PDF document – ‘A Landlord Boycott in Jerrettspass‘ – but recommend that you read Joe’s much more compact account first 🙂