James Glasgow

Current conclusion

PRONI references support a Belfast-associated shipmaster active from at least
1667 and a Belfast will in 1686. The profile's birth about 1600 is unsupported.
He is a genuine Belfast maritime root witness, but no reviewed source identifies
him with the Kilwaughter James or supplies parents or children.

Source findings

| Source | Finding | Assessment |
| --- | --- | --- |
| PRONI `MIC19/2` | Maritime record material names Captain James Glasgow/Glascow as a shipmaster associated with Belfast in the late 1660s-1670s. | Direct for adult activity; birthplace and kinship not stated. |
| Robert M. Young, *Town Book of the Corporation of Belfast* (1892), [p. 271](https://archive.org/details/townbookofcorpor00belf/page/271/mode/2up), 21 January 1669/70 | James Glasco, mariner, admitted and sworn a free commoner. | Direct occupation and civic admission; no named kin. Free commoner does not automatically mean governing burgess. |
| PRONI `T/828/15` | Will extract for James Glasgow of Belfast, 1686. | Belfast will/estate reference; not yet a proved death or terminal date. Read the extract for date type and relatives. |

WikiTree recommendations

1. Replace the unsupported 1600 Belfast birth with **born before 1667**, place
   unknown and uncertain.
2. Add the 1667–1670s Belfast maritime activity and the 1686 Belfast will/estate
   reference.
3. Do not use 1686 as an exact death date unless the full extract states death
   rather than will or probate date.
4. Attach no parents or children and do not merge him with the Kilwaughter
   James; the records provide no bridge.

Suggested edit summary: `Correct Captain James to an adult Belfast shipmaster active by 1667 and add the 1686 will reference.`

Branch placement - 31 August 2026

James falls outside the user's pre-1600 birth filter, but his supplied island
was also reviewed. His best current placement is as a **possible son or younger
relative** of [Robert Glaskow of Larne (Glasgow-3970)](https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Glasgow-3970)
and possible collateral kin of the adjacent Kilwaughter householders
[John (Glasgow-3913)](https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Glasgow-3913) and
[James (Glasgow-1081)](https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Glasgow-1081).

Belfast, Larne and Kilwaughter form a credible north-east Antrim maritime and
estate corridor, and a shipmaster active by 1667 fits the next generation after
Robert's 1653 occurrence. This is geographical/chronological evidence only.
The former categorical exclusion of identity with the Kilwaughter James is
superseded by the dated audit below. The 1686 will/estate reference has not been
confirmed as a death or probate date, so it cannot alone exclude later survival.

Identity and civic-status audit — 21 September 2026

Retain separate Belfast and Kilwaughter record groups: neither identity nor
kinship is proved. The earlier August exclusion relied on 1686 versus 1726,
but a will date alone does not prove death. A confirmed 1686 probate or death
would exclude identity with the later Kilwaughter officer, while leaving open
whether the shipmaster was the 1669 householder. The householder's identification
with the officer of 1700–1726 is itself a same-name continuity hypothesis.

Young's printed p.271 supplies **free commoner**, not a demonstrated governing
burgess office. Its mariner entry supplies no father, spouse, child or
apprenticeship master. The detailed local brief preserves the 21 January
1669/70 date and ten-shilling fee; this audit recovered the entry in independent
OCR as `James Glosco`, but did not newly verify its date visually.

The full [NLI-catalogued 1686 extract](https://sources.nli.ie/Record/MS_UR_012684),
PRONI T/828/15, was not recovered: the catalogue returned HTTP 403. That is an
access limit, not evidence that the surviving extract lacks kin. No new relative
is established. [Search scope and handoff](../larne-proof-2026-09-21/early-james.md).

Source findings

### Findmypast sweep — 7 October 2026

- **Searches that found nothing new:** no new Findmypast record for a seventeenth-century Belfast James Glasgow/Glasco was found. The only near match in the earlier pre-1750 audit is an Exchequer bill entry for "James Campbell or Glasgow", 1672 (`IRE/COURT/EXCHEQUER/0001633855`), already classed there as a non-exact hit; it gives no Belfast link.

Source findings — Macartney letters, 1667 and 1679

| Source | Finding | Assessment |
| --- | --- | --- |
| PRONI `MIC19/2`, business correspondence of George Macartney, letter of 29 October 1667 | Macartney proposed sending Mr Arthur's butter, meant for Rouen, to Dublin aboard the *Blessing* of Saltcoats, “of which James Glasgow was master”. | Direct evidence that he was master of a Scottish vessel in the Belfast trade by 1667, so born before 1667. No kin, ownership or rank stated. |
| Same, letters of 8 November 1679, one of them to Sir Joshua Allen | Macartney had freighted the *James of Belfast*, commanded by James Glasgow, with butter and tallow for Havre de Grâce (Le Havre). | Direct. His last dated lifetime record, so a conservative death field is “after 8 November 1679”. Proves neither ownership of either ship nor a military or naval captaincy. |

The letters are cited by date in the 21 September profile draft; how they were seen is not stated. The draft grades the 1686 Belfast will reference (`T/828/15`) as probably his but not conclusive until the extract is read, and 1686 is not proved to be a death or probate date.

Recorded in `research/Glasgow-3172/larne-proof-2026-09-21.wiki` (21 September 2026); carried into this file on 7 October 2026.