John & Ann Lightbody

John and Ann Lightbody appear in just one place, one record that we can say for sure that they are the parents of our branch of the tree. The death Record of Hugh Lightbody, their 4th child is the only document which lists their names. John Lightbody and Ann Huch(k)ing. 

The writing is a little hard to see and with the penmanship of the writer it can be a bit to figure our for sure Ann's last name. There are many different versions of this last name. Hucking, Huching Hutching, Huckings, Huchins, and the name would be very easy to misspell. When looking in both Ireland and Scotland from the mid 1700's onward the name Hutchenson, Hutchinson, are very common so it leaves so much open to interpretation. 

So as you can see when you look at the copies below the capital "H" of both Hugh and Huching you can see they are the same and the "K" which it may be is slightly different too. 

Hugh Lightbody

Hugh Lightbody's parent are John and Ann Huching Lightbody

Neither the Hucking or the Huching are names appear a lot in Ireland and Scotland but they do in England.  This leaves things open to a lot of theory.

While we can not find any records with both of them listed together or the birth of any of their children we can find several listings for a John Lightbody. It is at this point where we have to use speculation, guess work and logical deduction. None of this can be proven, it's all circumstantial.


In Ireland there are only a handful of places where Lightbody families lived. Until the early 1700's there are little records to support the name Lightbody being a pure Irish name at all so if we go on the idea it was Scottish and they immigrated then the main areas we see this immigration are areas like, Belfast and Bangor, which are larger centers. In the late 1860's-1910's the majority of Lightbody families migrated to these two places or to either North America, mostly to larger US cities on the eastern coast & to Ontario, Canada or to Australia. Keep in mind the Potato Famine was at it's peak about 1852 and we begin to see a decline in rural areas for Lightbody families. This can also be said for just about any small town in Canada or the US. They began to migrate to larger centers.

The majority of Lightbodys settled in County Down. They lived in about 14 separate parishes which are located one to the other to form a central location within the center  of County Down. There are other groups and families of Lightbodys who did settle in Armagh, Rich Hill was a primary location where we see one of the largest Lightbody Families that settled in the Midwest USA. County Antrim has Belfast which is why we see Lightbody families there, some in the late 1700's and then more in the later part of the 1800's.

In this area of County Down are the parishes of Kilmore, Killinchy. Early records show little in the way of Lightbodys in Killinchy but more in Kilmore. I am focusing on these two for a few reasons.


With the knowledge of Killinchy, County Down listed as home on the Magnet's passenger list for their son James, we know this is a great place to gather records from. Killinchy is a small village and a townland in County down. It is very close to Kilmore Parish where we see in the late 1700's a John Lightbody. 

In 1789 we have John Lightbody listed in Claragh as a land occupier leasing the land from a Mr. Forde. It's interesting to note there being a McCulloch also listed as it would be John and Ann's first child Annie who married a McCulloch. The name McCulloch and McCullogh can often we interchanged. Again, it depends on the family and the person recording the names.

The other reason is the Flax Grants of 1790. These were grants given to owners of Flax Mills. When James arrived he bought land in Nova Scotia so he had money. Having a good income from the linen trade such as flax mills which would make linen could be one source. There are three names, John, Samuel and William. There is also a James McCullough listed in these same records for Kilmore as well.

The earliest records of Lightbodys in County Down is the death of a Grezeld Lightbody (female & b. about 1725) in 1753 with a James Lightbody of Drumaghlish b. 1699 died 1749 and his grandson James who died 1771. Grezeld(Grizel) is more Scottish and most likely not Irish. The best guess is that this James may have been the first generation Lightbody to immigrate from Scotland to County Down and may be a a connection to our line. This may place the arrival time between 1725 & 1749. 

Now the place names which keep coming up over and over again with Lightbody names are Carnakelly, Saintfield, Crossgar, Killinchy, Dromore(a), Kilmore and Drumaglis(h). These are all within a 10 mile (16 km) area of each other. This is taking the main road. Putting ourselves in the past in the 1780's let say, travel would be done by walking, horse back or by horse and buggy/cart. Walking a few miles would be something that would be common. Traveling across the land and not always by road would make the travel shorter. The land in this area has little forest area and while there would be rolling hills it was rather flat and suitable for small farms and mills. Easy travel across the land from village to village.

To have families that would move just a few miles from each other would be very common. Having them live 40-70-80 miles away would not be so common. We can reasonable say that most likely the Lightbodys in this area may be related. There is no way to know for sure if the John, Samuel and William are brothers, father and sons uncle or nephews. 

Naming patterns play a role in this family too. Usually the first born male is named after the fathers' father and the first born female is after the mother's mother. If this were so then we could conclude that John Lightbody's father's name was James, a name that follows in every generation after as we see with John and Ann's first born son was James and his first born son was John, who's first born son was James. 

So while we know very little about John and Ann we do know a lot about those who may have been living around that time. Not enough to make any kind of firm statement. The location in Scotland is still a complete mystery.

With regards to Scotland I can conclude the majority of Lightbody families are within a particular area of Scotland, between the large urban areas of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Records in Scotland can be hard to find, with wars, forced migration and disease & death, while our family did survive of the tens of thousands who left Scotland there are hundreds of thousands who just disappeared. 

The only key we really have it the verbal history that has been passed along to us about Glasgow. So Glasgow is a good starting point.