Ummericam Johnston

The townland of Ummericam is divided into two parts, each named after the owners of the land in the nineteenth century. The 1766 Census of Creggan records it as a single entity. Ummericam Johnston contains 396 statute acres 3 roods and 5 perches. In the 1828 Tithe Books the total area is shown as 203 acres and 4 perches (Plantation Irish measure). It lies about three miles south east of Cullyhanna and half a mile north of Silverbridge. It is bounded on the north by Ummericam Ball, on the east by the parish of Mullaghbawn, on the south by Legmoylin and on the east by Dorsey.

Name of townland

Iomaire Cam, "The crooked ridge" ⁽¹⁾.

There is no other townland of that name in Ireland.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

UMMERACAM (JOHNSTON) (OSNB 1 13): The Parish boundary passes through these lakes on the east of this td. The road from Dundalk to N.T.Hamilton passes thro' this td. There is a large quantity of bog & water in it. The dwellings are numerous and very poor, the land a very inferior quality.
It contains 396..3..5 of which 37..3..6 is uncultivated and Bog, & 11..1..0 water.

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	£100.62	£122.00	£150.00	£149.75	£200.75	£204.25	£205.75	£204.75	£153.50	£173.00	£183.75	£210.00	£219.25

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There were no such houses in the townland.

Griffiths Valuation records Ummericam South (44 acres 2 roods and 33 perches was owned by Walter McGeough Bond. The rest of the townland was owned by Graham Johnston.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 126 people in 30 households, an average of 4.2 people per household. The households occupied a total of 58 rooms, an average of 1.9 rooms per households. Of the households, 5 lived in a single room, 22 had two rooms and the other three had 3 rooms. Two families, Patrick Murphy and Owen Callaghan, each had ten people occupying two rooms.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 30 households enumerated in the Census, eight contained at least one native Irish speaker - 14 in all. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a substantially Irish speaking environment, their names, occupations and ages are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh with the exception of Bridget Johnston, 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	49	30	35	38	35	34	30	25	24	24	22
People	262	177	169	167	164	140	126	118	86	72	86
People per house	5.3	5.9	4.8	4.4	4.7	4.1	4.2	4.7	3.6	3.0	3.9

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped by 55% and the population by 67%. The initial fall of 32% between 1841 and 1851 - the famine years, was followed by a period of stability into the 1880s. Thereafter the decline resumed until after the 1937 Census.

Names of House and Land Holders ⁽³⁾

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.