Freeduff

Freeduff is a narrow townland of 303 statute acres 2 roods and 14 perches about three miles north east of Crossmaglen, mid-way to Cullyhanna. It is bounded on the north by Cullyhanna Big, on the east by Tullinavall, on the south by Cregganduff and on the west by Cloghoge and Cullyhanna Little. In the 1828 Tithe Applotment Books its total area is shown as 187 acres and 30 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Fraoc Dubh, "The black heath or heather" ⁽¹⁾.

There is no other townland of that name in Ireland.

The townland was the site of the first Presbyterian Church in the parish of Creggan in about 1746.⁽²⁾

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽³⁾

FREEDUFF (OSNB ii 32): A long, narrow irregular Td. ... the N. End runs up to the village of Cullyhanna. A Presbyterian ... about 1/2 a mile S. of the village. Towards the S. it is principally under grazing. The Revd. W. McLean, the ex-presbyterian Minister has a large dairy established here. The land is tolerably good.
It contains 303..2..14 of which 11..0..0 is uncultivated and Bog.

Valuation

Although the decimalisation of the currency was introduced only in 1971, all of the valuations in the following table have been converted from £sd for convenience.

Year	1837	1851	1864	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1935	1952	1957	1974
Valuation	£204.14	£224.00	£280.25	£260.25	£269.50	£273.75	£273.75	£273.75	£275.25	£304.00	£308.50	£369.50	£422.75

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There were five such houses in the townland -

• Joseph Donaldson
• William Mc(Clenan ?)
• Luke Murtagh
• James Stitt
• John Stitt

Griffiths Valuation records that the ownership of the townland was shared by Ralph Jordan, John Stitt and Willaim Stitt.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 72 persons in 13 households; a ratio of 5.5 people per household. The households occupied a total of 45 rooms; a ratio of 3.5 rooms per household, and 1.6 persons per room.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 13 households enumerated in the Census, one contained a native Irish speaker -

• John Fee, farm labourer, aged 52, born in Co. Louth.

Population Decline

The following table sets out the number of houses and population enumerated in the townland in each of the 11 Censuses held between 1841 and 1951.

	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1937	1951
Houses	16	11	14	15	18	13	13	11	11	12	11
People	103	80	75	77	85	84	72	54	51	34	40
People per house	6.4	7.3	5.4	5.1	4.7	6.5	5.5	4.9	4.6	2.8	3.6

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped by 31% and the population by 61%. The population decline of 27% over the 20 years to 1861 was followed by an increase in the next two decades, and only beginning to fall again from the beginning of the 20th century.

Names of House and Land Holders ⁽⁴⁾

The following table sets of the names of those who owned or rented houses and land on the townland at the time the valuation records or population censuses were compiled.