Theodosia Meade, Countess of Clanwilliam - Gill Hall, Near Dromore

Gill Hall, Near Dromore

Meanwhile Gill Hall had become one of the most haunted houses in Ireland and was home to the Beresford ghost story.

This took place 14 October 1693 when John Power, 2nd Earl of Tyrone (1665-1693) told his friend, (the sister-in-law of Sir John Magill (d.1700)), Nichola Sophia (1665/6-1712/13), youngest daughter of Hugh, 1st Lord Hamilton of Glenawly, wife to Sir Tristram Beresford, 3rd Bt., (1669-1701) and mother of Sir Marcus Beresford, 4th Bt and 1st Viscount Tyrone, of his own death that day thus showing, as arranged, that there was life on the other side.

Part of the stable block remains but the house was destroyed over thirty years ago.

Descent of Gill Hall:

• Captain John Magill (McGill), was granted fairs at Loughan in 1669, and who died in 1677, via his only child, Susanna, to her son;

• Sir John Johnston, Kt (dsps 1701), aka Sir John Magill, 1st and only Bt.

Johnston was High Sheriff 1660, changed his named to Magill, an MP, was given an Irish Baronetcy in 1680. In February 1689 he was colonel of a company of volunteers. His first wife Elizabeth Hawkins was his sister's sister-in-law. His widow, his second wife, sister of Lady Beresford, having remarried, died in 1708 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Sir John Magill's only daughter (born 1684): 'by the negligence of a servant was killed when an infant, by a fall from a scaffold at Gill Hall' (another possible ghost source).

Renowned Dublin silversmith Robert Calderwood (c1706-1766), was a nephew. (Magill's sister was Calderwood's mother). Accordingly, Calderwood (Dublin Goldsmiths Company, Warden: 1733-36, & Master: 1736-37) was patronised by his Gill Hall cousins.

Magill left Gill Hall to his elder sister's son (and his first wife's nephew);

• John Hawkins (1675-5 September 1713), who also accordingly (in 1701, as instructed in his uncle's will) changed his name to Magill or Hawkins Magill. His father was granted a fair/market in Rathfriland in 1682, having been High Sheriff in 1675. His father was also an elder half-brother to Ulster King at Arms, William Hawkins. Two sons and a daughter (John, Hugh and Arabella Susanna (b&d 1698) died young. His surviving son:

• Robert Hawkins Magill (1704-1745 at Seaforde, 'during a great hunting party'); High Sheriff 1732; MP (1724-1745); Trustee of the Linen Board for Munster 1736-1745; foundation member of the Dublin Society 1731; his first wife (who he married in 1728) was Rachael (d.13/14 April 1739), daughter of Clotworthy (Skeffington), 3rd Viscount Massereene, and granddaughter of Sir Edward Hungerford, KB, (after whom today's Hungerford Bridge is named) she was the widow of Randal (Mac Donnell), 4th Earl of Antrim (1680-1721);

left it to his daughter, by his second wife (Anne Bligh);

• Theodosia Hawkins Magill, aka Countess of Clanwilliam.