Irvines of 'The Castle Irvine'

This was a letter recently sent to me by my Aunt Carol.  She and Uncle Jerry (Jared Starke Irvine) went to Ireland several years ago (1994) and took these wonderful pictures of the Castle of Irvine, lrvinestown, County of Fermanagh, Ulster Province, Ireland.

15 October 1998

William,

Here are the pictures of the Irvine Castle--neat huh? As you can see, they are fixing it up. The landowners pulled off the roofs so they would not have to pay taxes on the property. Irvine Castle is called NeCarne, In lrvinestown, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is British.  King James 1st planted your ancestors here in 1607 from Ayrshire, Scotland. If you look on a good map, you will see a little river called Irvine on the West Coast of Scotland, below Glasgow. . (It has really great fishing today) This is where your crowd all started. They became very successful merchants in Fermanagh, but had to leave in 1798 because they were beginning a revolution to get rid of the British and it was getting violent. These people were Scot Presbyterians at that time and many are living here in this country exactly the same way they were living then. Right outside of Stauton Virginia is one such place (Williamsville)

Good Luck on your project,

                             Carol

PS. - Irvine's in Northern Ireland pronounce the name either way Irvin or Irvine, makes no difference - same name