Regarding Peggy’s question on pew rents…this seems to have been the method of funding churches that weren’t supported by tithes as the official Church of Ireland was. Presbyterian congregations are those I’m most familiar with. PRONI had a lecture by Tom Hartley on April 14, 2022 titled “Lost Presbyterian Meeting Houses of Belfast.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2idox3eniB0 In the course of the lecture he spoke of how frequently Presbyterian congregations in Belfast would split over doctrinal issues. In one case the dispute was so heated the departing group took half the pipe organ with them and one woman locked the door to her pew even though she no longer attended services in that church because she had PAID for it. I found a record of pew rents paid by my Scots-Irish ancestor, James Ewing, in the Presbyterian Church in the village of Newton Hamilton in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Upon his arrival in 1837 the annual rent for pew #26 was $4.00. Karen Miller Wilmette, Illinois > On Aug 20, 2025, at 2:30 AM, cotyronelist-request@list.cotyroneireland.com wrote: > > Question re 'seat ownership' (CoTyroneList Digest, Vol 1799, Issue 1

Thanks for sharing the link to that lecture and the anecdotes, Karen. The half organ! Love it. I have pew rents in my family tree too -- the family that immediately came to mind were also Ulster Presbyterian immigrants to Pennsylvania: Francis Wallace or Wallis was listed in the pew rent records of the Lancaster English Presbyterian Church (Lancaster City, Penna.) for the first time on 22 January 1814. He paid pew rents of $1.50 -- about $27.50 today. The records seem to indicate payment twice a year, give or take. (As a side note: That's my earliest record of the Wallace family in the US, but it confuses things, because some of his children claimed to be born around 1812 or 1813 in Ireland. Between June 1812 and March 1815, emigration from British territories to the US would have been... tricky?) Cheers, Robin (usually hunting Catholic O'Hagans but now thinking I might go revisit the Presbyterian Wallaces for a bit...) On Wed, Aug 20, 2025, 20:21 karenamiller--- via CoTyroneList < cotyronelist@list.cotyroneireland.com> wrote: > Regarding Peggy’s question on pew rents…this seems to have been the method > of funding churches that weren’t supported by tithes as the official Church > of Ireland was. Presbyterian congregations are those I’m most familiar > with. PRONI had a lecture by Tom Hartley on April 14, 2022 titled “Lost > Presbyterian Meeting Houses of Belfast.” > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2idox3eniB0 In the course of the lecture > he spoke of how frequently Presbyterian congregations in Belfast would > split over doctrinal issues. In one case the dispute was so heated the > departing group took half the pipe organ with them and one woman locked the > door to her pew even though she no longer attended services in that church > because she had PAID for it. I found a record of pew rents paid by my > Scots-Irish ancestor, James Ewing, in the Presbyterian Church in the > village of Newton Hamilton in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Upon his > arrival in 1837 the annual rent for pew #26 was $4.00. > > Karen Miller > Wilmette, Illinois > > > On Aug 20, 2025, at 2:30 AM, cotyronelist-request@list.cotyroneireland.com > wrote: > > Question re 'seat ownership' (CoTyroneList Digest, Vol 1799, Issue 1 > > > ================================= > Send a Message to the List - cotyronelist@list.cotyroneireland.com > List Archive - > https://list.cotyroneireland.com/empathy/list/cotyronelist.list.cotyroneireland.com > Join the list by sending an email to - > cotyronelist-subscribe@list.cotyroneireland.com > To receive the Digest version, send an email to - jamckane@gmail.com > Unsubscribe by sending an email to - > cotyronelist-unsubscribe@list.cotyroneireland.com > =================================