1787 - 1868

By Robert E. Clegg - 2001

Robert Clegg was the son of Joseph and Sidney Clegg and was born in about 1787.  The Robert Clegg family resided at #17 Darling Street in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland.  A business directory published in 1824, titled "PIGOT & CO.'S DIRECTORY", lists Robert Clegg of Darling Street as a Grocer.  He is also listed in this same directory as a Tallow Chandler.  Anne Clegg, his sister, is also listed at this same address as a Grocer.  Both, Robert and Anne died in 1868.  Another later directory titled, "DIRECTORY OF SLIGO, ENNISKILLEN, BALLYSHANNDA, DONEGAL, & TOWNS 1839" in the Enniskillen section lists Robert Clegg of Darling Street as a Grocer and Iron Merchant.  This same directory also lists a Joseph Clegg of Main Street as an Earthenware and Glass Dealer.  In another place in the same 1839 directory, Robert Clegg of Darling Street is listed as an Ironmonger and Hardware Merchant.

This Joseph Clegg, I know for sure, is the father of Robert Clegg and I know this from a grave marker and memorial erected in 1868, which had the following text: 

Erected By

Robert Clegg, of Enniskillen, in 1868

In Memory of His Mother

Sidney Clegg

Who died on 15 March 1835, Age 68 Years

Also his Father, Joseph Clegg

Who Died on 18 March 1842, Age 85 Years

And of Anne Clegg, His Sister

Who Died 8 Feb. 1868 Age 76 Years

And Of The Above Robert Clegg

Who Died 23 Oct. 1868 Age 78 Years

The original flat ledger was destroyed over the years but the above text was recorded in the church history.  A replacement ledger was erected in 1995 by Robert E. Clegg and J. Roselle Clegg.

The death certificate of this Robert Clegg of #17 Darling Street lists him as an Architect.  He is listed as dying of old age disability.  A Joseph Clegg of Darling Street was listed as being present at his death.  This was the Joseph Clegg of Van Buren, Arkansas.  Joseph made a trip back to Ireland and I learned of this trip to Ireland from an old Van Buren, Arkansas newspaper clipping, dated June 22, 1869 that was welcoming him back home after ten months absence.  It said he went back to his homeland for a visit and was fortunate to have been able to be there at his father's death.  Earlier in this same year when Anne, the sister of Robert, a spinster, died an E. Clegg of Darling Street was listed as being present at her death.  This could very well mean that after the civil war in the United States, both, Edward and his brother, Joseph, may have made a journey back to Ireland.  Edward used just his initial "E" more often than he did his full name of Edward.  These two men were single and could very well have taken this trip.  Joseph was not yet married because he was listed in the 1870 Federal Census as living in the home of George and Sidney Austin in Van Buren, Arkansas.  Edward had just recently been divorced from his second wife and had no children at home, therefore, he could have made the trip, too.

I have looked and looked but have never satisfied myself that I have correctly constructed the entire family of Robert Clegg.  There are no Enniskillen Parish Church registers existing as they were lost in the Dublin fire of 1922.  There is a James Clegg of Enniskillen, born about 1826, died October 20, 1884, that may very well be another son of this Robert.  He is buried in the Derryvull­an cemetery along side another group of Clegg’s and he may or may not belong to the Clegg group that is buried in Derryvullan.  It is quite possible that there was no room for him in the St. Macartin's cemetery when he died and his family may have buried him in Derryvull­an for that reason.  The St. Macartin's cemetery is very old and I recall reading in an Enniskillen history that burials there ceased in 1880.

The Derryvullan Cemetery is even older and one can get there by driving from Enniskillen towards Belfast and at Tamlaght turn off towards Carrybridge, then when reaching Derryvullan Road turn right and go up the second left lane which winds up the hill to the graveyard.  This graveyard is within the area of an old medieval church that is now enclosed by  the remains of the walls of an old Protestant parish church built in 1776, the Protestant church being the second church at this site.  I really have not been able to definitely connect these two Clegg families but I feel sure they can be connected a couple of generations back.  I would almost bet money that the Joseph Clegg of Derryvullen and Robert Clegg of Enniskillen are brothers, their father being the Joseph Clegg, who is buried in the St. Macartin’s cemetery.  If this reasoning is correct, then The Robert Clegg of Enniskillen named a son after his brother, Joseph of Derryvullen, and this Joseph named a son after his brother, Robert of Enniskillen.  It all fits together nicely.    

In addition to being a merchant, Robert Clegg of #17 Darling Street was a sort of bondsman and owned and leased considerable real estate in County Fermanagh.  A Robert Clegg of Enniskillen was the Town Clerk for many years and I think the Robert Clegg of #17 Darling Street was that person because the Robert Clegg of #17 Darling Street could have had a son named James. William Trimble’s "History of Enniskillen”, in Volume III, page 723, states that James Clegg succeeded his father, Robert, and it for this reason that I have placed the James Clegg, who was born in about 1826, in the #17 Darling Street Robert Clegg family.  Besides, the other Robert Clegg of Derryvullan did indeed have a son named James but according to  the text on the Robert Clegg grave marker in the Derryvullan cemetery, his son, James, died in 1880 at the age of six years; therefore, he could not have succeeded his father as Town Clerk.  It is for this reason that I definitely do not believe the Derryvullan Robert Clegg could have been the Town Clerk.  This is the only evidence I have that suggests James Clegg belonged in this family.   

Robert Clegg is listed as a Church Warden in the year 1840.  A listing of the seat holders for the Enniskillen Parish Church (St. Macartin's Cathedral) for the year 1845 shows Robert Clegg as being assigned pew #55 and one-half of pew #11.  Apparently, he must have had a large family to have needed that many seats.  Those same pews were still in use in 1995 when this writer, Robert E. Clegg and his wife, Margaret, visited Enniskillen and County Fermanagh and it was a very emotional event for them to attend Sunday services at St. Macartin's Cathedral and to sit in pew #55, the same pew his 3rd great grandfather sat in one hundred fifty years earlier.  

Robert Clegg's Last Will and Testament was destroyed in the Dublin fire but the Will Index survived and the Index indicates the estate of Robert Clegg was under 250 Pounds.  The was sold on October 20, 1870 by his widow, Elizabeth, and the two spinster daughters, Anna and Elizabeth Edgar, sold the Darling Street property, and two other properties.  Only Elizabeth, Anna, and Elizabeth Edgar were signers of the deeds conveying the properties, which tells me that they are the ones to whom Robert left the properties to in his will.  When you think about it, that would have been the proper thing to do as they, more than likely, were the ones that really had need.  The other children were all married and had done sufficiently well.  Remember, at Robert’s death, with only a modest estate left, it would be the wife and two unmarried (spinsters) daughters who would be most in need.  I have concluded, after much thought on the fact that only Elizabeth and the two unmarried daughters signed the deeds, my reasoning on this subject is the most probable one.  I have no idea of what happened to Elizabeth Clegg, wife of Robert, after the sale of the Enniskillen property.  The #17 Darling Street property remains a grocery store to this day, 175 years having passed since 1824.  It is now called Elliott's Grocery and the Elliott family has operated a grocery from this location for many years.  Wesley Elliott and Hester, his wife, occupy the property at this time.  Mr. Elliott is also in the Mortuary business in Enniskillen and it was he with whom I contracted to erect a replacement for the Robert Clegg grave memorial.

Robert had six children and five of these I can definitely document. I am assuming that James, too, was a son of Robert.  I am also assuming, at this time, that Elizabeth is the mother of all six of the children.

The first child, Edward, born about 1820, married Maria Jane Austin on May 18, 1841 in Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, Ireland.  They emigrated from Ireland to the United States and first settled in Arkansas for about two years or more and thence went on to Texas, settling in the village of Lavaca (Port Lavaca), arriving there in late 1845 or early 1846.  Edward and Maria Jane were the parents of six children, one born in Ireland who lived only seven days, and five born in the United States, only two reaching adulthood.

The second child, James, married Eliza Graham and remained in Enniskillen where he, too, became a merchant.  The written histories of Enniskillen state that he succeeded his father, Robert, as Town Clerk.  Apparently, James prospered because after his death he had property to probate in both Ireland and England.  His English estate was valued at  £15,441.12.6d and was probated on April 8, 1885.  His Ireland estate was valued at £16,058. 19s. 6d and was probated on February 27, 1885.  We really do not know any more about him except that he is buried in the Derryvullan Cemetery near Tamlaght in County Fermanagh.  It may well be that he is not the son of Robert but I could find no other family to associate him with.  I have no records of his wife, Eliza.  When researching in Salt Lake City, I stopped at the year 1888 simply because I did not think, at the time, that it would be necessary to consider any records after 1888.

The third child, Anna, never married and emigrated to Van Buren, Arkansas in the United States at some time prior to 1870 because she showed up in that census living in the home of George and Sydnie Austin, Jr. and she was still there in the 1880 census.  A funeral notice I found in the Van Buren library, dated April 25, 1888, announcing her death and burial said she was buried from the home of her sister, Mrs. George Austin, Jr.  A mention in the publication, “Enniskillen, Parish and Town” makes reference of the Misses Cleggs operating a “School for Girls” and this may heve been her along with her sister, Sydnie.  I have no other information on Anna.

The fourth child, Sydnie, married George Austin, Jr. in 1853 when he made a return trip to Ireland.  According to George’s obituary in 1878 he had been in business in Van Buren, Arkansas for thirty-eight years.  It is not known if George and Sydnie were acquainted before he returned to Ireland, or did he meet her for the first time while on that return trip.  I am inclined to believe that he went back to Ireland, and met her for the first time or upon that return trip discovered a little girl he had known as a child had grown in to a beautiful woman and proceeded to claim her as his bride.  George was about fifteen to twenty years older than Sydnie.  There are numerous mentions of Sydnie in the old Van Buren newspapers and one thing that stands out is that she was a very active member of her church.  A record shows she was confirmed in the Methodist Episcopal Church of Van Buren in1857.  Her will left $100.00 to the Trinity Church of Van Buren.  Other beneficiaries in her will were Joseph Clegg, brother; Lizzie E.Clegg, sister; Maud A. Fielder, niece; and Mary Sydnie Clegg, a great niece.  When Maud and her brother Austin were sent back to Arkansas in 1860 after the death of their mother, Maria Jane, it was grandmother Austin that Maud first lived with and after the death of grandmother Austin, she lived with George and Sydnie Austin who raised her as if she was their one of their own.  George and Sydnie did not have children of their own.  They also boarded Sydnie’s brother, Joseph, and her sister, Anna.  I even like to think that Uncle George took a special liking to nephew, Austin, because I have found cattle transactions between Austin and George.  I would imagine that George furnished the financing for the cattle purchases of Austin in Dewitt and Victoria counties in the 1870's after the civil war.  George was a wholesale merchant in Van Buren and it was he who,  for a period of two to three years after Edward Clegg arrived in Van Buren, operated in partners with Edward.  George, apparently, was highly respected because in 1854 he was serving as a City Alderman and again in 1861 was an alderman and again in 1869 appears on record as an alderman.  In 1860 he assumed the position of County Treasurer and served four years.  George, according to his obituary, was in bad health, gone blind very quickly, was severely depressed and upon advice of his doctors went to Montreal, Canada for a change in climate and while there was in the care of an Occultist. He died on September 4, 1878 in Montreal.  Apparently, he is buried there, too.  There is considerable information on George and Sydnie Austin in early Van Buren records and from everything I have read, they were a very highly respected couple in Van Buren.

The fifth child of Robert and Elizabeth was Joseph E. Clegg.  One can readily see that Joseph was named for his grandfather.  I do not know what the “E” in his name represented.  Was the “E” for Edgar, maybe so?  Surely it was not for Edward because Robert and Elizabeth already had a son named Edward.  Joseph first showed up in Van Buren on the 1860 Federal Census.  The 1900 Federal Census says that he had resided in the United States for forty-seven years.  This means that he came to the United States in 1853. Surely, he must have accompanied George Austin and Sydnie Clegg Austin on their trip in 1853 when George returned to the U.S. with his new bride.  There is considerable confusion as to just what year Joseph was born.  In observing four Federal Census reports Joseph’s age is different in each census.  I elected to give him the year of birth according to the age stated on the 1860 Census.  Joseph is listed as a store clerk in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 Federal Census reports.  Joseph served in the Confederacy during the Civil War, first showing up as member of the Frontier Guards of Crawford County, Arkansas with the rank of private.  He married Mary Hall Adams sometime after 1880 and  next showed up on the 1900 Federal Census in Silver City, New Mexico with his wife, Mary.  Maud Clegg, in 1900, was already a widow with a sixteen- year-old child and they were boarding with Joseph and his wife.  Joseph is listed on this census as a miner.  We know nothing of his wife, Mary Hall Adams, except that she is listed as having been born in North Carolina.  Joseph and Mary, apparently, did not have children.  There are no known records of any children and Joseph, the second to die, made no mention of his children, if any, in his will.  His will left his estate to Lizzie E. Clegg of Toronto, Canada, to the children of Austin Clegg, to Maud A. Fielder, and to Mrs. Maggie Brice and Mrs. Francis Brice 2/3 of his estate. The relationship to Mrs. Maggie Brice and Mrs. Francis Brice is through Mary, his wife, and I strongly suspect they probably took care of him in his last years.  Josephs’ Last Will and Testament is dated November 15, 1909, less than two years before his death. Joseph and Mary are buried in the Fairview Cemetery in old downtown Van Buren and the grave is marked with a nice stone.  Joseph made a return trip to Enniskillen in 1868 and was in attendance at his father’s death.  A Joseph Clegg was listed in the death certificate as being in attendance at the death of Robert Clegg and this baffled me for several years because I could not account for another Joseph Clegg.  Finally, I discovered an old 1869 Van Buren newspaper article that was welcoming young Joseph Clegg back home after ten months absence when he went back to his homeland and was so fortunate to have been there at his father’s death.  I really never have found any other public information on Joseph.  I tink he was just a quiet sort of fellow that worked hard and just did not have time to get involved in community activities.  Apparently, he was a good man because John Austin, brother of George, and for whom Joseph worked for many years, named a son Joseph Clegg Austin.

The sixth child is a mystery in this family because of thirty-five years span between the first child, Edward who was born about 1820 and the last child, Elizabeth Edgar, who according to her 1900 Census birth date would have been born in about 1855.   Apparently, there must have been another wife or the youngest child, Elizabeth Edgar, may have been an adopted child with the original surname of Edgar.  I also have often thought that Elizabeth, wife of Robert, may have had the maiden name of Edgar and I say this because Robert had some joint business dealings with a person who I recall had the name Samuel Edgar.  Robert’s son, Edward, and Maria Jane, named a son Robert Edgar, which would have been normal because it would have been honoring the grandmother on the child's father's side.  Since Edward was the first child of Robert  and used the name Edgar in naming one of his own children, I am inclined to believe there was no second wife for Robert Clegg and that Edgar was the maiden name of Robert's wife, Elizabeth.  A newspaper clipping dated February 24, 1842 announced the birth on Monday of a daughter to Mrs Clegg, the wife of Mr. Robert Clegg.  This just cannot be so if the birth date of July 1841 for Joseph Clegg is correct; and, I really do not know just what is the correct birth year for Joseph because I have found him on the Federal Census Records of 1860 listed as being age 22, on the 1870 Census as age 28, on the 1880 Census as age 34, and finally on the 1900 Census as being born in July 1841which would make him be age 59. Given the fact that his birth month (July) is in the middle of the year, there should not be more than ten years difference between any two consecutive Federal Census reports.  Therefore, this new child of February 1842 may or may not have been the child of this Robert and Elizabeth.  There was no name given for this daughter, therefore, I have not entered her into the records as an additional child.  Let us not forget, this new baby of February 1842 may be the Elizabeth Edgar described above if we can adjust the year of birth for Joseph by using his 1860 Federal Census age of 22, therefore, making him born in the year 1838.  Assuming Elizabeth Edgar is the baby girl born in February 1842, this family then fits together quite nicely with a span of twenty-two years, or less, between the first child and the last child.  It is quite possible that Elizabeth Edgar backed her age up by thirteen years.  Women, and particularly older unmarried women, have been known, quite often, to do just that.