This post collates the records I've come across for the Lavalade family of Donaghcloney. It's most likely that this family is somehow related to the family of Rev. Charles Lavalade of Lisburn, fifteen miles or so north of Donaghcloney, but I've not come across any evidence of this connection as yet.
It is believed that a linen industry was founded in the Donaghcloney area by the Waring family, and this may explain the existence of Huguenot names in this area; alternatively, it is known that many of the French families, who settled in Lisburn in about 1700, had migrated south to the Dromore area in 1707 following a devastating fire in the town of Lisburn.
The first record of our own Lavalade family is a record in the Registry of Deeds which details the sale, in 1770, by Peter Lavalade of a house in Dromore town; the document linked Peter Lavalade to Donaghcloney.
I also accessed the register, in the Proni office in Belfast, of the Donaghcloney Church of Ireland which showed up a cluster of baptisms in the Donaghcloney area from 1784 until 1829. As in all the records I've come across, the spelling of the name was freely interpreted, and seems to have been written phonetically. The same spelling rules applied to the Esdale family who also lived in this area; the Wilson name was occasionally spelt as 'Willson'.
The Freeholders' Records on the Proni website record Peter Lovedale, aka Lavalade, farming in Lurgantamary in July 1781, with an added note that his wife was a 'Papist'.
Peter Lavalade was recorded as a freeholder in 1791 in the Donaghcloney townland of Lurgantamary/Lurgantamry.
Peter Lavalade was noted in 1791 as a farmer of Lurgantamry townland in Donaghcloney, ten kilometers west of Dromore. Peter Lavalade married Catherine Durry in 1793 in the same area. Catherine was either his second wife, or there were two Peter Lavalades, possibly a father and son - earlier, as already noted above, a Peter Lavalade had been married to a 'Papist' in 1781.
A Peter Lavalade made his will in 1805.
On 28th January 1801, Agnes Lavelet was baptised in Donaghcloney parish church; she was the daughter of Peter and Mary Lavelet of Donacloney. This was most likely our immediate ancestor who married Reid Wilson of Ballygunaghan, although there may well have been two Agnes Lavalades. (There seems to be a cluster of related Peter Lavalades here.)
Ballygunaghan, Lurgantamry and Monree are adjacent townlands in the parish of Donaghcloney and about five miles away from the town of Dromore. The Lavalade family was concentrated here; before Reid Wilson married Agnes Lavalade/Lavelet, there were few Wilsons farming in this area - they possibly originated in the townlands immediately south of Ballygunaghan, and migrated north to the Ballygunaghan area following Reid Wilson's marriage to Agnes Lavalade in about 1826. (Their first child, Mary Anne Wilson, was born in Ballygunaghan in 1827.)
- The Donaghcloney Church of Ireland register, which I consulted, shows up the baptism, on December 6th 1784, of Henry Levalet, the son of Edward Levalet of Ballygunaghan.
- A Mary Lavelet, daughter of John Lavelet and Elizabeth Stephenson, was christened on 18th July 1790 in Dromore Parish.
- The Donaghcloney church register (C. of I.) records the baptism in 1791, of Margaret Levalet, the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Levallet.
- A later Mary Lavelett, daughter of Richard Lavelett and Mary Beard, was christened in Dromore Parish on 19th June 1797.
- Peter, son of John and Mary Levellet of Lurgantamary was baptised on 1st March 1801.
- A Richard Lavalade married Isabella Ezdal in 1808 - this is recorded in the book 'Marriage Licence Bonds - Down, Connor, Dromore 1721 - 1845.' The Esdaile/Esdale family were associated with the Donaghcloney townland of Monree/Munree, where Edward Lavalade was farming in the 1830s. The PRONI website shows up two members of this Esdaile/Easdell family farming in Monree - their searchable records for freeholders indicates that John and William Esdaile were farming in the same townland as Edward Lavalade, but earlier, in the 1780s. They were noted together in 1785; by 1790, only William Easdell was mentioned. The name - of Huguenot origin - has no definitive spelling, which makes tracking this family difficult.
Esdales from the Donaghcloney C. of I. records:
John Esdale of Donaghcloney married Hannah Dick in 1767.
Samuel, son of David and Isabella Eastdale of Munree, was baptised in Donaghcloney on 12th May 1827.
Elizabeth, daughter of Sarah Estdale and James Wright, was baptised in Donaghcloney in 1830.
A Sarah Esdall married Henry Thompson here on 10th May 1831.
- On January 15th 1809, the baptism took place of Jane, the daughter of Richard Lavalade and his wife, named only as Bell, of Lurgantamary.
- The burial took place, on July 12th 1829, in Doncloney Parish Church, of ......Lavalade of Munree. The first name of this individual had faded.
- In 1834, an Edward Lavalade was farming 7 acres of land in the Donaghcloney townland of Monree, which is wedged directly inbetween the townlands of Lurgantamry where Peter Lavalade had been noted as farming in the 1790s and where a Peter Lavalade made his will in 1805, and Ballygunaghan where Reid Wilson married Agnes Levelet/Lavalade in the 1820s/1830s. The same Tithe Book of 1834 shows Reid Wilson already in Ballygunaghan, farming 4 acres of land.
- Edward Lavalade was a member of the Masonic Lodge 777 between 1793 and 1822.