O'Haras in India

With family lore and a last name of O’Hara it was very doubtful that there were NOT Irish ancestors. What we didn’t have until about 2005, was any documentary evidence that this was the case.

The letters written by Lawrence in 1821, from Limerick selling his commission and a letter from 1814, from W O’Hara asking of his whereabouts in India (below) set that right.

						War Office 30 Nov 1814.
Sir,
In reply to your letter of the 23rd instance. I am directed to acquaint
you that by the latest return from the 1st Battalion 56th Regiment
dated 25th January 1814. Captain L O'Hara is reported on Command
at Bellary in the Presidency of Madras. The above is all the information
that can be furnished from this Department. In any further enquiry.
I would suggest you applying to the Agents for the Regiment Mssrs
Greenwood, Cox and Co.
						Mr Robert Lukin
						Asst to Sec. of War
Mr W O'Hara
Nicholas Street
Limerick

But getting any further has proved to be very elusive

The problems and pleasures of Irish Record prior to 1845

In 1922, most Irish records were lost in a fire at the Public Record Office of Ireland, during the Irish Civil War. This critically includes marriage and wills from this period. We have summaries in the form of Abstracts created in the early 1800’s and the Register of Deeds (https://irishdeedsindex.net/index.php), which were transcriptions from the originals, and documents such as Burke’s Peerages which are also based on interpretation of these and related records. We also have the Genealogical abstracts of Prerogative wills, ca. 1530-1800, compiled by Sir William Betham in around 1814 which was made available online in 2023, again transcriptions and summaries of original records which are not available online, although it is possible the originals still exist in Dublin. These and associated records have proven invaluable in disentangling the story prior to his death in 1825.

However, the lack of Birth, Marriage and Death records, from church sources which are the bread and butter of most genealogy are not possible with the available records, we instead have to resort of the thin pickings to be gained from wills and land and property records to get a coherent picture.

There is a possibility that we have a sequence such as this.

The following show good reason to be the Lawrence we have been searching for.

We have a document from the Bill of Equity records. which records a legal dispute in 1769, within the O’Hara’s, (of which more later). The crucial piece of information from this document is it is dated 1769, with Lawrence O’Hara (a minor) which gives a window of certainty for his birth date.

Source: Exchequer Court of Equity Bill Books, 1674-1850

On first reading this could be seen to imply that Lawrence is the Minor of Laurence and Rebecca, however, we have a document acquiring property in Ballyshannon, Donegal in 1775 with William, his wife Elizabeth and a son Lawrence. Which would make Lawrence the son of William.

Source: Registry of Deeds: Memorial 205223

So who were Laurence O’Hara Esq. and William?

We have a document from the Genealogical abstracts of Prerogative Wills, which is the will of their father (again) Laurence O’Hara.

Source: Genealogical abstracts of Prerogative wills, ca. 1530-1800, compiled by Sir William Betham.(https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000541127 (image 122))

Laurence is the eldest and is well documented as Laurence O’Hara Esq. of Brookfield acquiring land from his father and becoming the High Sheriff of Donegal in 1781.

William, his father less so! The only documentary evidence we have are the transfer of property from Thomas Dickson to himself in 1777.

This though, goes some way to explaining why Lawrence who went to India did so and potentially the reasons for him becoming an officer without buying a commission.

William not being the eldest son would not have inherited the land, property or leases from his father. He would however, have retained some standing and the connections back to the landed gentry of Ireland would possibly have been sufficient to have ‘swung’ a commission.

Their father was Laurence O’Hara Esq. of Greggstown (b 1678 d 1745), (the former name for the townland of Brookfield), located just south of Donegal, in County Donegal and his grand-father was Laurence O’Hara Gent of Greggstown (b 1650 d 1725, his great-grandfather was Laurence O’Hara (b 1620 ? d ?)

This is a substantial amount of information still to unpack, trying to determine dates of birth and marriage. The following provisional outline shows the current state of thinking.

Lawrence O’Hara is shown in blue.