The Irish Connection

This appeared in the Gamble Family History prepared by Peter H Gamble Melbourne Australia

The Irish Connection

Various books and publications which detail information on Irish history and genealogical material have been reviewed. In the book "More Irish Families", by Edward MacLysaght, and printed in 1982, is the following information under the heading GAMBLE:

Though English in origin and in Ireland only since the seventeenth century Gamble is sufficiently numerous to merit a place in a work on Irish families - 40 births were registered in 1890 and 48 in 1865. The great majority of these were in north-east Ulster. The name first appears here in the Ulster inquisitions in County Armagh (1618) and County Cavan (1629); it is in the army lists of the 1640's; two Gambles are specified in Petty's "census" of 1659, one a merchant in Derry, the other in Cork city. The Hearth Money Rolls for the northern counties (1663-9), contain 18 Gamble families: and the Cork marriage licence bonds have the name 13 times from 1670. Those in Munster gradually died out though a few remain, but in Ulster the reverse was the case, as any modern directory or voters' lists show. The principal landed family was in Kilooly in County Offaly: de Burgh lists four others, all in Ulster. John Gamble (c. 1770 - 1831) was an author who wrote some admirable descriptions of life in his native Ulster.

Another book, "The Book of Ulster Surnames", by Robert Bell, printed in 1988 contains the following reference to GAMBLE:

Most of the Gambles in Ireland are in Ulster, where the main centres are in counties Antrim, Down and Derry. Gamble is an English name, found frequently in the Domesday Book, and derives from two personal names, ..... meaning 'old'.

In the early seventeenth century families of the name settled in Ulster and in County Cork. Since that time the Cork connection has gradually dwindled, while the number of Gambles in Ulster has steadily increased. In the seventeenth century Gambles appear in the Ulster inquisitions, the army lists, Petty's 'census', and the Hearth Money Rolls. A few Gamble families came from Scotland - a father and son, for instance, both called Josias Gamble, settled in Fermanagh about 1670.

When James I came to the English Throne there was a spate of Irish rebellions, as the result of which in 1609 the whole of the northern province of Ulster was cleared of its Irish inhabitants in favour of people from Scotland and England who were encouraged to settle there. Consequently the people of Ulster are mainly of Scottish and English stock and Protestant in religion.

From 1846 to 1850 a series of bad seasons in Ireland produced the "Potato Famine" which resulted in one and a half million people dying from hunger during this period. The famine, combined with the levels of taxation and the political and social unrest, resulted in the migration of many families to England (particularly Liverpool and Manchester), Australia and the USA. These two factors combined to reduce the population of Ireland from eight million in 1845 to four million in 1890.

Sir David Gamble and Family

Barbara Bolt's article on the "Two Cousins from Ulster" also provides some information on the ancestry of David Gamble who was to be created a baronet in 1897 for his services to the community:

David Gamble of Ratonagh was married twice. A younger half brother of George (father of James Gamble, who partnered William Proctor) was Josias Christopher (born 1778) who trained for the Presbyterian ministry at Glasgow University, graduating in medicine as well as theology. Courses in chemistry were included in the medical studies. After graduating Josias continued dabbling in chemistry. He had a natural inventive ability and put this to good use to produce a bleaching powder to help his parishioners, the linen weavers of County Monaghan. His services as a Presbyterian minister is commemorated in the Enniskillen Church by a memorial, his wider services to chemistry have been largely forgotten.

Josias soon left the ministry to devote his time to chemical manufacture - setting up factories first in Belfast then in Dublin, making alum and Glauber Salt as well as basic soda and acids. In 1820 Josias married the daughter of a Dublin solicitor, Hannah Gower, and his son David was born three years after. Many years later David Gamble would write about the move to Lancashire when he was five, and the small village of St. Helens where Josias set up to be close to his customers, the glass and soap manufacturers on the Mersey. St. Helens was an ideal spot, on the water, close to easily worked coal supplies, and in an area with room for population expansion. David was a graduate of University College, London and the Andersonian Institute, Glasgow, when he joined his father in business at a vital time for the company's expansion. David would later be described as "one of the second generation of chemical manufacturers... one of the originators of modern chemical engineering."

David's wife, Elizabeth Haddock, was the daughter of a local colliery owner. Like many wealthy Victorian couples they combined the rearing of a large family with civic and charitable affairs. When St. Helens was incorporated as a borough in 1868, David Gamble would be its mayor (he would be mayor four times in all). In the Jubilee Year of 1897, he was created a baronet, and he received the additional honour of KCB in 1904. When he died three years later the town mourned him as a considerable benefactor and his large funeral was attended by many illustrious persons. The Lancashire Rifle Volunteers (47th), which he founded, was his pride and his title of "Colonel" meant a great deal to him.

Eighty years later the firm of Gamble and Crosfield has disappeared and is now part of the vast ICI complex, and even in St Helens the two Irishmen, Josias and his son David Gamble are forgotten. But the name is plain to see on the building which houses the public library and technical college, gifted to the town by Sir David, the Gamble Institute.

Sir David Gamble was Mayor of St Helens between 1868 and 1870, 1882-83 and also 1886-87. His title passed to his son, Josias Christopher Gamble, on his death in 1907 who was Mayor of St Helens in 1888-89. Josias did not hold the title for long before it passed to his son, David Gamble, who became the third baronet in 1908 and who was Mayor of St Helens between 1913 and 1915. From here, the title passed on to David Arthur Josias Gamble in 1943, and on to his son, David Gamble, who became the fifth baronet in 1982. Like his great grand father, he did not hold the title for long before passing it on to his son, David Hugh Norman Gamble, who is currently the sixth baronet.

A description of the Arms and Crest, together with the Motto is as follows:

Arms: Or, on a pile gules between two trefoils slipped in a base vert, a fleur-de-lis of the first, a chief ermine.

Crest: On a mount between two trefoils slipped vert a stork argent, holding in the beak a rose gules, stalked, leaved, and slipped proper.

Motto: Vix ea nostra voco meaning I scarce call these things ours.

David Gamble of Belfast and Family

David Gamble's birth date is not known, but he died before 1887. He married a Mary Halford (or could be Stalford) and it is known that they had six children, one of whom was Robert. Robert married an Agnes Stalford around 1827 or 1828 and they had four children. Not much is known about Robert, however in 1850 his wife, Agnes, came to Australia with the four children. They travelled on one ship to Adelaide, changing ships before continuing to Melbourne and eventually settling in the Kyneton area of Victoria (about 75km or 50 miles north west of Melbourne), where she was known as Ann (except on her tombstone).

Agnes' eldest daughter, Mary, married Edward Steed in 1852 and had one daughter, Agnes, whose descendants have settled in the Rochester area, about 100km (65 miles) to the north of Kyneton. The second child, Frederick, moved on to the Pyramid Hill area, some 140km (90 miles) to the north west. Nine children came from his marriage to Mary Jones and some of the children and their descendants remain in the area, while the others are scattered over a large area of south east Australia.

The remaining two children, William Henry and Edward, stayed in the Kyneton area (along with the majority of their descendants). William married Isabella Moses and had one daughter who married, and two sons who died unmarried. Edward married Helen Swainston in 1886 and they had eleven children.

Visit the Ulster-American Folk Park, an outdoor museum which tells the story of emigration from Ulster to America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

 

 

Last Updated on by Peter Gamble