William Douglas's Blog – May 2016 Archive (4)

Lord Donegall, who had huge estates in Country Antrim, was very short of money and was forced to raise rents and impose fines to increase his capital. The tenants were unable to afford these prices and only the better off merchants in Belfast could raise the money.

The existing tenants responded by houghing or maiming the cattle of the new tenants. In December 1770 one of the perpetrators, David Douglas, was taken and imprisoned in the Belfast barracks. The tenants held a meeting in…

MAN BLOWN TO ATOMS

In the Dynamite Explosion at Oliver’s Mills – Two Girls Hurt—Narrow Escapes

With a roar that could be heard for miles, the nitroglycerine building of the dynamite department of the Oliver Powder Mills at Laurel Run, on the Wilkes-Barre Mountain, [Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA] exploded yesterday [4th August 1904] afternoon at 1:25 o’clock, killing one man and injuring two girls. So great was the concussion that windows and doors in all parts of Wilkes-Barre…

I have received an inquiry from someone who grew up with a story told to her by her grandmother about her great grandmother who's name was Lilian Douglas. She said she was a Lady she was disinherited by her father for marrying beneath her but was sent 2 gold sovereigns, weekly or monthly. She ended up with a chestful as she wouldn't touch the money. On her deathbed this was taken from her house. Does anyone know of any disinherited Lady Lilian?

There then followed some nonsense about…