Historical records matching Robert Finley
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About Robert Finley
brief biography
From an unidentified source:
Robert Finley, was born on May 4, 1634 when my his father was fifty-five years old. At that time, Charles I, the son of James Vi and I, was king. He did what my family felt was unthinkable. He wanted to make changes in our church. He insisted that we use the Anglican Book of Common Prayer in our services. It felt too Catholic to our family and we would have nothing to do with it. In 1638, the Scottish people sent the king the National Covenant insisting our churches would not change to the English ways. My grandfather said he saw people sign it with their own blood. By 1639 our people had even raised an army to fight the king over this matter. In the end it mattered little, for Charles I was executed in 1649 and Oliver Cromwell was to bring greater troubles to our country.
Oliver Cromwell wanted to bring his Commonwealth to Scotland. We wanted nothing to do with him or his Commonwealth as it meant huge taxes for us. So John of Fife and Robert were delighted that after five years of harassing us, Cromwell died and King Charles II was restored to the throne. But their happiness would be short lived because King Charles II also wanted to come and change our church.
Robert and John joined the Covenanters. They believed that following their religion was more important than obeying the king. This was a very dangerous decision for them. The king wanted to control the church and put bishops in the churches to watch over us. Covenanters disobeyed the law and often held church in secret as to not recite liturgies and to kneel for communion like the Catholics. Covenanters were hunted down and killed for treason because they disobeyed the king. These were very dangerous times for my family. John's wife, Sarah, died in 1669. In 1670, at the old age of ninety one, John of Fife died broken hearted for he never saw freedom from the English control over our beloved church.
In 1680, when Robert was forty-four years old, he married Margaret Mary Lauder. After the oldest son Michael was born in 1681, the parents made a crucial decision. They were sick of English rule and control in Scotland. They had heard that King Charles II had even made secrets deals to restore Catholicism as the religion of England and Scotland. That was an intolerable thought for Robert and Margaret as they were staunch Presbyterians. So in 1682, Robert sold all his lands to his cousin Thomas and took the family to Ireland hoping to flee the religious persecution our family had known in Scotland.
They arrived in Mullagbrach, Armagh, Ireland where Michael was born the next year and another brother Samuel followed in 1684, then another brother Archibald in 1686 and later another brother John 1688. Yet the family was not free of turmoil in Ireland as Ireland was still mostly Catholic. James II, the brother of Charles II, succeeded him to the throne and he was a Catholic. In 1689 James II, attacked a Protestant stronghold in Derry, Ireland. He was defeated there by William of Orange, his own nephew. But the fighting continued until the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. William defeated James again, which ridded us of that Catholic monster king and confirmed William's kingship over England, Scotland Ireland. But the Irish did not want English control anymore than the Scottish did. The Catholics in Ireland hated all the Scottish and English Protestant immigrants that had come there. In Ireland, we were no freer from religious turmoil than we were in Scotland. Robert died in Mullagbrach, Ireland on June 18, 1712 at the age of eighty-four without knowing the freedom he so disparately sought."
a graduate of University of Glasgow
family
husband of Margaret (Mary) Lauder
Children:
- 1. Robert FINLEY b: 9 May 1681 in Armagh, Ireland
- 2. Michael FINLEY b: 7 May 1683 in Mullaghbrack, Co. Armag, Ireland
- 3. Samuel FINLEY b: 18 Mar 1684 in Mullaghbrack, Armagh, Ireland
- 4. Archibald FINLEY b: 8 Jan 1686 in Armagh, Ireland
- 5. John FINLEY b: 14 Jun 1688 in Armagh, Ireland
notes
Date of birth might specifically be May 4, 1634 (which is date of baptism).
comments
Date and place of birth have also been erroneously reported to be circa 1650 at an unspecified location.
Date and place of marriage have been (erroneously?) reported to be 1680 at Mullaghabrac, County Armagh, Ulster, Ireland.
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Robert Finley's Timeline
| 1634 |
May 4, 1634
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Inchervie, Fife, Scotland
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May 4, 1634
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1634
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Incharvie, Fife, Scotland
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| 1665 |
1665
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County Armagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
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| 1667 |
1667
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| 1675 |
1675
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County Galway, Connacht, Ireland
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| 1676 |
1676
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Mullaghabrac, Armagh, Ireland
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| 1681 |
May 9, 1681
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Mulghabrac Parish, County Armagh, Ulster, Ireland
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May 19, 1681
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Mullaghbrack, Armagh, Northern Ireland
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| 1683 |
1683
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Mullaghabrac, County Armagh, Ulster, Ireland
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