A. T. Stewart, Millionaire, 1801-1876.

SOME EXTRACTS

FROM THE

RECORDS OF

OLD LISBURN

AND THE

MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --

Edited by JAMES CARSON.

-- -- -- --

LX.

-- -- -- --

A. T. STEWART, MILLIONAIRE, 1801-1876.

Extracts from a Sketch of His Life by Hugh M'Call.

In the last quarter of the eighteenth century John Turney, a very intelligent farmer, resided on the Hertford estate, at a part of Lissue near the Maze. It was usual at that time for men who had capital to spare to do a little in the manufacture of linen as well as to attend to the business of the field. As one of the descendants of the Huguenot exiles that settled in the town and about the neighbourhood of Lisburn one hundred years before, Mr. Turney inherited much of the spirit of industry and peaceful disposition of his forefathers, and, like them, had great taste for the beautiful, whether in nature or art; his garden was quite a model in floriculture, and, what was not usual in country houses, he had in his parlour two or three oil paintings of a style which was rare as the works were valuable.

One of his neighbours, Thomas Lamb, of Pear Tree Hill, greatly admired the pictures, but laughed heartily at the estimate their owner placed on them. Mr. Lamb, a sturdy Quaker, and Elias Hughes, another member of the same sect, who resided in that locality, were also engaged in the making of coarse linens.

John Turney's family consisted of his wife and a daughter named Margaret, and very happy was his household; but during the troublous times of Ninety-Eight the former, who was a delicate and rather nervous woman, had been much shocked by some local occurrence, and became very ill.

After lingering some weeks, she passed away into the Unseen Land.

There lived at that time near the Red Hill, and not far from Mr. Turney's place, Thomas Stewart, and his wife Martha, a very industrious and very quiet people. Their family consisted of five sons and three daughters.

The head of the house had been brought up on a farm situate near the Rock Chapel, but several years before he had taken some land at Red Hill, in Lissue.

The second son, Alexander, a steady-going and very energetic young man, commenced life as an agriculturist on a twenty-acre farm on the Hertford estate.

In the list of Margaret Turney's admirers young Alexander Stewart had a high place, but her father could not think of his daughter giving her hand to a small farmer who had only commenced to make his way in the world.

More than twelve months had gone by since the second marriage of her father had made the previous happy home a scene of unpleasant and divided feeling.

At length she left her father's house and got privately married to Mr. Stewart, immediately after which the young husband took her home to the farm cottage at Red Hill, a picturesque part of the Hertford estate, situate about two miles from Lisburn.


Birth and Early Life.

The young couple lived very happily together. Stewart was a good-natured, industrious fellow, and worked hard at the farm. Among the saddest years of Ireland's eventful history was that of 1801, the time of dearth, disease, and privation; the previous harvest was a failure, and every article of food had gone up to famine price. Extra exertion was necessary to keep farmers afloat, and in his anxiety to get finished some outdoor work the farmer over-heated himself, and eventually fell into consumption, which carried him off in some few months. Not many weeks had elapsed after the death of Alexander Stewart when the young wife, still in her teens, was confined of a son; and in that cottage which still stands (in 1881) on the farm of Mr. James N. Richardson, of Lissue, the future merchant prince of Broadway first saw the light, and in due time received the baptismal name of Alexander Turney, in honour of his father and grandfather.

As soon as she was able to leave the cottage her father had her and the infant removed to his own place. A purchaser soon turned up for the little farm, the stock and furniture were disposed of to good advantage, and the proceeds set apart for the young widow and her son.

Some time afterwards David Bell, a farmer, began to pay court to the widow, and in April, 1803, got married to her. The father of the bride, for a second time, was still more annoyed at that affair than he had been on the previous occasion. Bell sold his farm and stock and prepared to embark for America. He himself, as well as his wife, was anxious to take the child, then eighteen months old, along with them, but Mr. Turney would not permit that arrangement, and took it home.

Having received a good education himself, Mr. Turney determined that his grandson should enjoy the full advantages of modern acquirements, and at the proper time become a minister of the Church of England. There was then in the Causeway End a teacher of children famed for instructing them in the rudiments of spelling, reading, and writing; and all that course was to be taught juveniles without the use of the rod. That model school-master's name was William Christie, and if he lived in these days, when, in some schools, flogging is still a sort of pastime with the principals, he would deserve canonisation. MAny of the people of Causeway End -- John Hodgen, George Briggs, John Anderson, and others -- recollected the thoughtful-looking lad passing along the road that led from his grandfather's house to the village seminary, conning over his Manson's Spelling-Book as he went on his way. In due time the lad was sent to the Lisburn English and Mercantile Academy, then conducted by Mr. Benjamin Neely, one of the ablest of teachers, as well as one of the most efficient flagellators that ever flourished a ratan. Many of that gentleman's pupils rose in after days to places of high distinction in the world. Thomas Spence, the famous writing-master, was one of his early scholars; James W. Hogg, afterwards known as chairman of the East India Board, and member for Honiton, a great favourite of Sir Robert Peel, who conferred on him the honour of a baronetcy, Brigadier-General Nicholson, one of the leading heroes of the Punjaub; Serjeant Armstrong, celebrated as a chief of the Irish Bar; and several other men mark, were also taught at the Lisburn Academy.

This most popular classical seminary in the rural districts of that part of Antrim County was then presided over by the Rev. Skeffington Thompson, LL.D., of Magheragal, and on the first day of February, 1815, Alexander T. Stewart was entered there as a student. Early in the following month John Turney took ill, and it was evident his day of life was coming to a close. Thomas Lamb, his valued neighbour, visited him very frequently, and, with the never-failing attention to worldly affairs that forms the leading characteristic of Quakerism, advised his friend to settle his affairs, and in doing so not to forget his daughter, Margaret Bell, and her children.

He died on the 16th of April, 1815.

After the old man's death Mr. Lamb brought Alexander T. Stewart to reside in his house, where he became thoroughly at home, the two sons, John and Joshua, looking on the orphan boy as, if possible, something more than a brother.

Stewart had now quite given up any idea of going on for the clerical profession, and in order to fit him for business Mr. Lamb advised that, instead of emigrating to New Tork, as he proposed to do, he should go to Belfast and learn something of shopkeeping. The good old Quaker arranged with a grocer in that town that the well-educated lad should become his apprentice, and in course of a few weeks he commenced his duties there. But neither the place nor the business suited the taste of A. T. Stewart. During the short time he was at the grocery business he spent the time from each Saturday evening till Monday at the house of Mr. Matthew Morrow, whose daughters conducted a ladies' school in Chichester Street, and where he met with the utmost kindness. But before the end of April he told the grocer that he did not like the business; and, having begged his guardian's permission to carry out the project of going to America, Mr. Lamb did not stand in the way, and thus all was amicably arranged.

America, 1818.

His guardian handed him fifty pounds out of the fortune then awaiting his coming of age. With that capital, in May, 1818, he left Belfast, in a ship bound for New York, and six weeks afterwards he found himself in the city on the Hudson.

After considerable difficulty he found his mother's residence. His half-brother, James Bell, had, some weeks before, ran off from home, and gone to sea, and the family then consisted of his half-sister Mary, his mother, and stepfather. Determined not to remain a burden on the family, he sought employment as an assistant teacher, and was engaged at four hundred dollars a-year -- a sum barely equal to pay his board and maintain him in respectable clothing. Having found himself fully equal to the duties of the school, several additions were made to his salary during the next two years, and in 1820 he found himself master of an annual income of six hundred dollars.

A course of communication was maintained between him and his guardian all that time, and in December, 1822, he received a long letter from the honest Quaker, stating that the property left him having been realised, the proceeds were lodged in a Belfast bank. Mr. Lamb also advised his ward that the money arising from the sale of the meadow and two fields, together with small cottage and garden (£140), was lent at 5 per cent. interest to a linen draper, and the seven pounds arising from that investment were paid quarterly to Mrs. Turney, his step-grandmother.

Early in the following your A. T. Stewart left New York for Liverpool, and when he reached that port in May, lost no time in taking his passage in the next steamer for Belfast, where he arrived in due course, and from thence made his way to Lisburn. The first person he called on was Fanny Fox, a Quaker lady, then engaged, in the haberdashery and millinery business. Miss Fox pressed him to remain all night, and next morning, on speaking to that lady respecting his business in Ireland, he requested her to introduce him to a lawyer, which she did by taking him to the office of Mr. Dillon. Having had some legal advice from that solicitor, the young man set off on foot -- a distance of about four miles -- for Pear Tree Hill, the residence of Mr. Thomas Lamb, his grandfather's executor, where he was received with the utmost attention, and in the course of the day all the accounts of Mr. Turney's estate, from April, 1815, were laid before him, with the several amounts received and the sums paid, and the vouchers in each case. Various estimates have been made respecting the sums paid over to A. T. Stewart; nothing definite, however, is known on the subject, but it must have amounted to several hundred, or perhaps one thousand, pounds.

It has been stated that Mr. Stewart had received from his guardian the full amount of money arising from the proceeds of property left him by his grandfather; but on getting the cash into his hands he found some difficulty in arriving at any definite conclusion as to how it should be invested. The bustle and prosperity he had seen in the everyday commerce of New York had stirred in his mind a desire for business; he therefore consulted a Belfast friend on the subject, and in doing so frankly acknowledged his ignorance of mercantile affairs. That friend told him that with his educational attainments and aptitude for learning he would soon master the details of trade. "It was most erroneous," he added, "to suppose that because a young man was a classical scholar he would not succeed when engaged at the matter-of-fact details of life as they existed behind the counter."

Acting on that shrewd counsel, the student made his first purchase from a manufacturer in Rosemary Street in that town, comprising a large lot of fancy goads, high-class muslins, insertions, tambours, and some flouncings. These articles were all of a quality which the embryo merchant was assured had rarely before been seen in any American city. He had also bought from the eminent firm of James N. Richardson & Co., of Lisburn, a parcel of the finest linens and some specialities in French cambric. Having thus invested the greater part of his capital in first-class goods, he once again sailed for New York, and arrived safe in July, 1823. There was then to be let the store afterwards known as "283, Broadway," situate between Murray and Warren Streets. The locality was central, and although the store was a mere wooden structure, twenty feet square, and the rent 37S dollars a-year, he entered as tenant, made some improvements, and in that tiny spot, with his Belfast and Lisburn purchases, and a job lot of laces, silk gloves, and general hosiery, the man who in after years became the financial counsellor of Presidents and the wonder of Wall Street commenced his marvellous career.

Marriage in 1825.

In 1825 Mr. Stewart married Miss Cornelia Clinch, daughter of a very wealthy ship chandler of New York. The young lady had received a very good education, but in the course of that sowing of intellectual seed the duty of industry had not been forgotten, and immediately after having taken upon herself the responsibilities of a wife she set about aiding in the transactions of the store, as it was on her own exertions much of the future success depended. It has been said that, on the delivery of the goods which her husband was in the habit of purchasing at the auction sales, she would refinish parcels of gloves and also the lots of ing in the transactions of the store, as if it just from the hands of the manufacturer. [sic]

The concern 283 [sic] had ceased to accommodate the customers and and contain the stock, and during the three years previous to the autumn of 1832 A. T. Stewart had made two removals, in each case to larger places of business. No 257, Broadway, was an extensive store, situate between Murray and Warren Streets, and this had been fitted up with great care and taste, the young merchant's classical education having given him a love of the decorative that was seen even in his selection of fancy fabrics. Nine years' successful commerce had made him a person of civic celebrity and a wonder to the plodding speculators of Wall Street.

In the spring of 1847 the premises of A. T. Stewart & Co. were found totally inadequate to meet the growing extension of their business. Washington Hall, a famous commercial hotel and its mercantile club, were then in the market, and at a cost of sixty thousand dollars the site was purchased by Mr. Stewart. The area of that building ground comprised two acres, and after clearing away the buildings that stood over it the erection of the world-renowned Marble Palace was commenced.


Famine, 1847.

Ireland in 1847 was undergoing one of those periodical seasons of sadness which seem coincident with her history. Two millions of her people were in the very whirlpool of destitution, dearth, and disease, and towards the relief fund which had been got up the Broadway merchant sent to the Irish Committee, then sitting in Dublin, a contribution of ten thousand dollars, and a cargo of food to the Lisburn Committee value for £5,000.

A. T. Stewart had then been in the dry goods trade for more than one quarter of a century, and his power of arranging the daily duties of an entire army of rank and file assistants showed how well the algebraic and mathematical lessons he had been taught by Mr. Benjamin Neely must have been acted upon in course of his commercial life.

The marble palace had become more than ever the resort of the fashionable and the gay of high life, when A. T. Stewart saw that it was time for him to make another move in the upward direction. He accordingly, in 1860, purchased the fee-simple of more than two acres of ground situate between Ninth and Tenth Streets and Fourth Avenue. There he commenced the erection which, when finished, stood, from the level of the street to the top cornice, eighty-eight feet in height, and was the largest store ever erected in any part of the world. It consisted of eight floors, six above and two below the ground, thus making an area of eighteen acres in all.

About the time of the commencement of the war between the Southern and Northern States of America Mr. Stewart purchased immense quantities of military stores, and when demand for such goods rose with the requirements, sales were made at very large profits, and yet, as it was afterwards proved, the purchases made by Government at A. T. Stewart's were on much better terms than any that had been bought from other holders.

Some of A. T. Stewart's biographers have written of him as if he had been a man whose only enjoyment was the accumulation of riches. Nothing could be further from broad fact than such statements. It is true that to casual observers he may have seemed cold and frigid, and that in the management of his great business he exacted scrupulous attention to details on the part of his army of assistants, but in connection with that stern love of discipline and a determination to have the line of conduct he marked out strictly adhered to, he had a heart brimful of benevolence, and a disposition which ever prompted him to distribute with no sparing hand a portion of his wealth in doing good to his less fortunate brethren.

The munificent contribution which Mr. Stewart sent to the Lisburn Relief Committee has been mentioned. He also chartered the ship Mary Edson to take over on her return voyage a number of the cotton weavers to New York. When those emigrants reached that city the Broadway merchant had temporary homes prepared for them, and until they got into employment all were supported at his expense.

Death, 1876.

He delighted to gather around him the most distinguished man of the city, and on the third Sunday in March, 1876, had his usual dinner party. On the occasion alluded to the party was intended to consist of sixteen gentlemen, including the host himself, but three of the invited guests were unable to attend, and, to Mr. Stewart's momentary annoyance, thirteen sat down to table. A very pleasant evenins was spent, however, for he was quite a different man in his own house from the plodding merchant of Broadway. Next day he felt very ill, and did not go to business. An internal disease which had first appeared three years before set in with increased severity. The family physician, Dr. Marcey, was in close attendance, and he rallied a little under that gentleman's care, but on Thursday, the 6th of April, he had caught fresh cold and became considerably worse. On the morning of the 10th he was quite unconscious, and before the close of that day the millionaire storekeeper, whose name had been a household word to every place of note in the world of commerce, had passed away to the Land of Spirits.

President Grant offered to appoint Mr. Stewart to the very important office of Secretary of the United States Treasury, but various obstacles intervened, and the matter fell through.

He died childless.

One of A. T. Stewart's peculiarities was that of being religiously reticent on the subject of his boyhood. He occasionally referred to John Turney, his maternal grandfather; but of Thomas Stewart and Martha, his paternal grandfather and grandmother, or of his four uncles and three aunts, he was never heard to speak. A friend once wrote him in favour of one of his relatives, then in poor circumstances, but he never replied to that letter. More than thirty years ago Tom Stewart, then the only surviving son of his grandfather, had got past the age of labour, and was badly off in Lisburn. On having been appealed to on the subject by Mr. Jon Owden, of the arm of J. N. Richardson & Co., A. T. Stewart sent the applicant means to pay his uncle ten shillings a week which sum was continued till the old man's death.

That disposition to ignore the existence of his relations in that country was evinced in his last will; and most remarkable is the fact that the world-renowned merchant, who is said to have died worth fifty millions of dollars, and whose benevolence towards the outside world was munificent, did not leave a solitary cent to those blood relations who, seeing that he died without issue, had direct claims on his testamentary action.

This neglect of his relations was one weak point in the character of one of the most wonderful of the world's commercialists. And yet he loved with national fervour the land of his birth, and in her times of need administered with liberal hand to Ireland's necessities. He has gone to his final resting-place, and, taking him for all in all, more than one generation will have passed before the world sees another A. T. Stewart.


Chamber's Biographical Dictionary, 1897.

Alexander Turney Stewart, 1803-1876, millionaire, born at Lisburn, near Belfast; emigrated to New York in 1823, where two years later he opened his first dry-goods store. His charities were numerous, yet at his death he left some £8,000,000. His body was stolen in 1878, and restored to his widow three years after on payment of £4,000 through a lawyer.

(Next Week: Betty, the Young Roscius.)


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 7 December 1917 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week through 1917 and into 1918. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

Bartholomew Teeling. 1798. (part 2)

SOME EXTRACTS

FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE
MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --
Edited by JAMES CARSON.
-- -- -- --

LIX.

-- -- -- --

BARTHOLOMEW TEELING.

1798.

Some Extracts from "Sequel to Personal Narrative of the Irish Rebellion" of 1798, by Charles Hamilton Teeling, 1832.

(Charles H. Telling was a brother of Bartholomew, and participated in the Rebellion.)

Of the several armaments equipped by the French Republic for Ireland, the only force destined to make a landing on her shores was that small veteran band stationed at Rochelle, under General Humbert.

Impatient of delay, and without waiting the co-operation of others, he hurried his slender expedition to sea, and on the 22nd day of August, 1798, anchored in the Bay of Killalla.

The whole force of this invading army, which spread consternation throughout the British realm, consisted of about 1,000 men, a few pieces of light artillery, with an extra quantity of arms and ammunition.

Humbert selected as his aide-de-camp in the present expedition a young officer, an Irishman Bartholomew Teeling. He was a refined scholar, and the mildness of his manners and his patrician bearing, as the French minister expressed it, formed a pleasing contrast to the blunt and soldier like deportment of the Republican general. Two other Irishmen accompanied this expedition -- Captain Matthew Tone, brother to the celebrated Theobald Wolfe Tone, and O'Sullivan, a gentleman from the South of Ireland, who had the good fortune to escape the fatality of the campaign.

From Killalla Humbert marched on the following morning with a small detachment to Ballina, leaving the main body of his troops to receive and arm the peasantry of the country who flocked to his standard. The celerity of his approach and the terror, which his landing had inspired procured him an easy conquest. After some opposition the garrison, a portion of which consisted of veteran cavalry, fled; and Humbert, leaving a small force to maintain possession of the town, returned to his headquarters at Killalla.

Humbert from Ballina proceeded to Castlebar, which he captured, and on taking possession of the town despatched his aid-de-camp, Teeling, with an escort and flag, bearing proposals of capitulation to the commander of the British troops. Refused access to General Lake, he was compelled to accompany the British army for many miles in its retreat, and frequently threatened with death for daring to be the bearer of any commission from the enemy to the commander of his Majesty's forces.

At length presented to General Lake, addressing that officer in English, he communicated to him his message, viz.:-- "Humbert, General-in-chief, actuated by the desire of stopping the effusion of blood, offers honourable terms of capitulation to General Lake, and the British officers and soldiers under his command." Lake received the message with sullen displeasure, and expressed his resentment for the language in which it was conveyed. "Such is the language of my General," was the reply; "and if even less courteous, it would be my duty to convey it." General Lake hastily rejoined, "You, sir, are an Irishman; I shall treat you as a rebel -- why have you been selected by General Humbert on this occasion?" "To convey to you, sir, his proposal in a language which, presumes, you understand. As to your menace -- you cannot be ignorant that you have left with us many British officers prisoners at Castlebar." Lake hastily retired. In a little time General Hutchinson came forward, and apologising for the conduct of the British troops, requested that it might not be unfavourably represented to General Humbert. He added that General Lake was much concerned at the occurance, and begged it might be attributed to the true cause, the laxity of discipline in a moment of much excitement; that General Humbert's officer was now at liberty to retire, with an escort in attendance to convey him beyond the British lines.

"I can excuse, for the reasons assigned," replied Teeling, "the personal rudeness I have experienced; but I cannot suppress my abhorrence of the atrocious and cold-blooded massacre of my escort. I shall return to General Humbert, but not without my flag."

The flag was restored, but the acceptance of the escort declined.

General Humbert received his aid-de-camp with the warmest expressions of satisfaction at his return.

The fiery temper of Humbert's mind was not at all times easy to control, and on this occasion he gave vent to his feelings in no very qualified terms of indignation. He spoke of reprisals for the murder of his escort, and the insult offered to an officer of his staff. "No, General." replied, Teeling, "it is by your magnanimity you must take revenge on our enemies." The generous rebuke struck at once on the feelings of the fiery Humbert. Embracing his officer, he exclaimed, "You have preserved my life more than once to-day! . . . Select of our prisoners whom you please, and send them to their runagate commander." This concession was cheerfully embraced, and several British officers, on the moment, were permitted to retire fro Castlebar.

The victory of Castlebar placed in the hands of Humbert a large supply of military stores, arms, standards, and cannon, with a vast number of prisoners, many of whom joined his ranks. So rapid was his success that in the course of six days after his landing he was in the possession of the towns of Killalla, Ballina, Castlebar, Newport, Westport, Foxford, and Ballinrobe.

On the night of the 7th September Humbert halted at Cloon, refreshed his troops, and indulged them with two hours' repose.

He then pushed vigorously forward, and took up his position for action on the field of Ballinamuck, Colooney, near Sligo.

Humbert supported to the last the high reputation of a soldier. Not desiring to survive the disaster of the day, he determined never to make personal surrender. Turning to his aid-de-camp, who fought hand to hand by his side, "Allons, mon brave camarade," he exclaimed, "Nous mourrons ensemble!" -- and it was not until this intrepid soldier was actually borne from his saddle by the British dragoons who surrounded him that his brave companion in arms, Bartholomew Teeling, surrendered his sword. The French troops, were admitted prisoners of war -- the Irish received no quarter.

Teeling was removed to Dublin to be tried by court martial. Matthew Tone, who had been arrested the day after the battle, was also recognised as an Irishman detained for trial, and hanged about September 27th. Theobold Wolfe Tone was captured on board the French man-of-war Hoche, and committed suicide in prison on the 11th November, 1798.

On the 20th of September Teeling was brought to trial at the royal barracks in Dublin, before a court-martial.

Mr. William Coulson, an inhabitant of his native Town (Lisburn), was produced to identify the person of the prisoner; to prove that he was a natural born subject of the King, and had assumed a different name. It was customary in the French armies to assume a "nom de guerre," in conformity with which Teeling, on entering the service, adopted the name of Biron. The proposed information was rendered unnecessary by the candid declaration of Teeling, who at once avowing his native country and his name, protested against any desire of concealment, or of resorting to any measure incompatible with the open and manly line of defence which ha conceived it his duty to adopt.

When called on to enter on his defence, he stepped forward with the same serene and unruffled countenance, the same dignity of deportment and self-possession which he had evinced throughout the trial.

"Sir," said he, "I am accused of high treason, inasmuch as being a subject of these realms I was found in alliance with the enemies of the King. I admit, as have already done, that I was born an Irishman. But circumstances forced me from the land of my birth. I became a subject of France. I embraced the profession of soldier, and entered the service of that country which afforded me its protection. It is scarcely necessary to observe to this honourable court that as a soldier and a man of honour it was my duty to obey the orders of my superiors without privilege of inquiry; and that disobedience of them must have been followed by infamy and death. In obedience to such an order I repaired to La Rochelle, embarked with my general as his aid-de-camp, and was landed in Ireland. You will decide, sir, whether I can fairly be considered as an Irish subject deliberately rebelling against the State of which he was a member, or joining an invader as a traitor against that State. That I acted as a French officer I admit; nor do I fear that it can prejudice my case in a court of soldiers to say that I did my duty to the utmost of my power. I did what I conceived my duty. I did not desert my post. I did not endeavour as a conscious traitor to save myself by flight. I did not endeavour to waste unnecessary blood by fruitless resistance. I surrendered upon the confidence of being treated as a prisoner of war. To the privilege of the conquered the general under whom I served, and to whom I immediately belong, has put in a claim on his own and in my behalf; and to that privilege permit me to repeat my pretensions.

"One word more, sir, and I have done. The witness who supported the prosecution has borne evidence to what he terms my humanity, in a manner which seemed to have produced an influence on the court. Perhaps it scarcely becomes me to claim any merit upon such a ground. Certainly I did not pursue it under the influence of any selfish impression allianced with future consequences. I was merciful for mercy's sake, and from the conviction that it should ever influence the conduct and the decisions of power.

"Sir, I shall trouble this court no further. I feel grateful for the candour and indulgence which I have experienced. I know the high character of the great personage in whose breast my fate may perhaps find its final decision. To you, sir, and to him, if it shall so happen, I do submit that fate; and, let the issue be life or death, I shall await it with the confidence which becomes a man who has no doubt that his case will quit this court accompanied by every advantage which it can derive from a just and generous consideration."

The trial closed. The court, after some deliberation, pronounced sentence of death, and the sentence was finally approved by his excellency the Marquis Carnwallis.

On the 24th September, at two o'clock, Bartholomew Teeling, in the twenty-fourth year of his age, suffered death on Arbour Hill, and conducted himself on the awful occasion with a fortitude impossible to be surpassed, and scarcely to be equalled. Neither the intimation of his fate, nor the near approach of it, produced on him any diminution of courage. With firm step and unchanged countenance he walked from the Prevot to the place of execution, and conversed with an unaffected ease while the dreadful apparatus was preparing. With the same strength of mind and body he ascended the eminence. He then requested permission to read a paper which he held in his hand; he was asked by the officer, whose immediate duty it was, whether it contained anything of strong nature? He replied that it did; on which permission to read it was refused, and Mr. Teeling, silently acquiesced in the restraint put on his last moments.

It is not for us in the present day to hazard a conjecture whether strict justice be always and under all circumstances true policy; but we will suppose, for so far we may suppose safely, that the severity of Teeling's fate was rendered necessary by the peculiar state of the times.

Luke Teeling, father of Bartholomew, was imprisoned for four yearn, first on board the Posilethwaite Tender, and afterwards at Belfast and Carrickfergus. He was a United Irishman and a prominent leader amongst his co-religionists. He appears to have suffered great privations, both in health and fortune, and was released early in 1802. See detailed account in the "Sequel to Personal Narrative," "Madden's United Irishmen," and "Musgrave's Irish Rebellions."

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NAPPER TANDY -- 1740-1803

Extracts from the "Recollection's of Hugh M'Call."

Napper Tandy, who was a prominent United Irishman, figures in Paris in 1790 and for some years afterwards. He was the son of James Tandy, a linen manufacturer, who lived in Bridge Street, in a house on the south side, and near the entrance to Market Lane. He was called "Croppie" Napper Tandy.

The fashion at the close of the eighteenth century was to wear the back hair very long, and tie a portion of it with a black silk ribbon, the "queue," as it was called, hanging over the coat collar. The united Irishmen cut off the queue, hence the origin of the term "Croppie."

A portrait of Harry Munro shows that he continued to wear his queue even to the day of his execution in June, 1798.

In "Ireland and Her Staple Manufactures." 1865, Mr. M'Call refers to the Tandy family:--

The Lisburn troop of Volunteers numbered in its ranks many of the principal merchants and traders. There were Harry Munro, Thomas Ward, William Coulson, R. Carleton, George Tandy, brother of the famous James Napper Tandy, B. Teeling, and many other merchants. The Volunteers were suppressed in 1793.

What evidence Mr. M'Call may have had for claiming Napper Tandy as a native of Lisburn is not now known. Other authorities quote Dublin as the city of his nativity.

It is quite evident, however, that a branch of the Tandy family was long resident in Lisburn and neighbourhood, and occupied a position of some social and mercantile prominence.

In 1635 a Philip Tandy conducted a school in Lisburn. About 1658 Major Rawdon, writing from Hillsborough, says:--

Dr. Jeremy Taylor preached excellently this morning. Mr. Tandy is also considered a rare preacher, and is liked in the parish.

Tandy joined in a charge against Dr. Taylor, which is thus referred to:--

I fear my time in Ireland is likely to be short, for a Presbyterian (Tandy) and a madman have informed against me as a dangerous man to their religion and for using the sign of the Cross in baptism.

Bowden in "A Tour Through Ireland," 1791, writes:--

I was also introduced in Lisburn to Councillor Dunn, to a Mr. Tandy, brother of the celebrated patriot in Dublin, and to several other public-spirited gentlemen, to whose obliging attention I am infinitely indebted.

In the Record Office, Dublin, is to be seen the will of George Tandy, 1798, Lisburn.

The Hearth-Money Rolls, Lisburn Town and Parish, 1669, record the name of Mrs. Tandy as paying tax on six hearths.

Authorities -- Wills' "Irish Nation," Musgrave's "Irish Rebellions," Madden's "United Irishmen," Teeling's "Personal Narrative," and Leckey and Froule, the English historians.


Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 1897.

James Napper Tandy -- 1740-1803 -- born in Dublin, became a prosperous merchant there. A Presbyterian, he took an active part in corporation politics, and was the first secretary of the Dublin United Irishmen. In 1792 he challenged the Solicitor-General for his abusive language, and was proclaimed by the Viceroy. For distributing a "seditious" pamphlet against the Beresfords he was about to be tried in 1793, when the Government learned that he had taken the oath of the "Defenders." He fled to America, crossed to France in 1798, shared in the ill-fated invasion of Ireland, and at Hamburgh was handed over to the English Government. In February, 1800, he was acquitted at Dublin. Again put on trial, April, 1801, at Lifford, for the treasonable landing at Rutland Island, he was sentenced to death, but permitted to escape to France, and died at Bordeaux.


The Dictionary of National Biography

states that he owed the name of Napper either to his mother or to the connection that had for many years subsisted between his father's family and that of Napper, of County Meath. In 1695 the lands of the Tandy and Napper families in that county adjoined each other.

In 1775 Napper Tandy declared himself warmly on the side of the American colonies in revolt, and tried to institute in Ireland a boycott of goods of English manufacture. He threw himself heart and soul into the Volunteer movement of 1780, and had command of a small volunteer corps of artillery. On May 27, 1782, when Parliament met in Dublin to receive the decision of the Ministry touching to legislative independence, the duty of guarding the approaches to the house was assigned to Tandy and his corps of artillery. He also took an equally prominent part in the Volunteer Convention, November 10, 1783, when the Bishop of Derry and a large muster of the Volunteers proceeded through the streets of Dublin on their way to the Rotunda.

With the decline of the Volunteer movement his influence began to wane. His enthusiasm for the principles of the French Revolution was unbounded. In later life he gave way to the lure of drink, and it is stated that when with the French force invading Ireland "Tandy, after being on shore about eight hours, was carried back to his ship in a disgusting state of intoxication." Sir Jonah Barrington, who knew him personally, in his "Historie Memoirs" thus estimates his character:--

His person was ungracious, and his language neither graceful or impressive but he was sincere and persevering, and though in many instances erronous and violent, he was considered to be honest. His private character furnished no grounds to doubt the integrity of his public one, and, like many of those persons who occasionally spring up in revolutionary periods, he acquired celebrity without being able to account for it, and possessed an influence without rank and capacity.

The posthumous fame he acquired as the hero of the popular ballad, "The Wearing of the Green," was remarkable.

I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand.
And he said, "How's poor old Ireland, and how does she stand?"
'Tis the most distressful country, for it's plainly to been seen
They are hanging men and women for the wearing of the green.

(Next Week: A. T. Stewart.)


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 30 November 1917 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week through 1917 and into 1918. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

Bartholomew Teeling. 1798.

SOME EXTRACTS

FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE
MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --
Edited by JAMES CARSON.
-- -- -- --

LVIII.

-- -- -- --

BARTHOLOMEW TEELING.

Extracts from "Recollections of Hugh M'Call."

Luke Teeling, a linen merchant and bleacher, resided in the house afterwards occupied by Robert M'Call, and which house is situate in the south side of Chapel Hill, immediately adjoining the chapel.

His eldest son, Bartholomew, familiarly called Bartley, left his home in 1792, went over to France, and some time after introduced himself to Napoleon, then First Consul, who appointed him lieutenant in his bodyguard.

Teeling landed at Killala, in the County of Mayo, with the French troops. The British army met them at Castlebar, and the French invaders chased them out of the town. The two armies met several times, but at Colooney, County Sligo, Teeling was taken prisoner and brought to Dublin.

He was brought before Major Sirr, the chief military authority of the city, and who had been in command from 1793 till Teeling's arrest in 1798. Sirr could not really assure himself that his prisoner was Teeling, formerly of Lisburn. He had him brought into his parlour several soldiers in plain clothes being stationed in the hall to prevent any attempt at escape.

The major, knowing that in the Dublin Linen Hall were often to seen merchants from Lisburn, sent his servant thither to say that a gentleman of that town was anxious to see a Lisburn merchant. William Coulson, founder of the Damask Factory, came to Sirr's house, and at once recognised Teeling, and shaking hands with him, thus unquestionably proved his identity.

Teeling was immediately tried and found guilty, as several members of the English army had seen him leading one wing of the French troops at Colooney, near Sligo. He was hanged next day at Arbour Hill, Dublin.

Thomas O'Hagan married a very pretty daughter of Luke Teeling. She was his first wife. Belfast had the honour of sending two Lords Chancellors to the Irish Woolsack -- O'Hagan and Napier -- and one to the English -- M'Calmont Cairns.

The will of Bartholomew Teeling, Lisburn, 1775, may be seen in the Record Office, Dublin, probably the father of Luke Teeling.

Extracts from "Ireland and Her Staple Manufactures," 
by Hugh M'Call, Third Edition, 1870.

Bartholomew Teeling was one of the malcontents who attended the linen markets with Henry Munroe. This young gentleman had joined the United Irishmen when he was little beyond the years of boyhood, and soon became one of its most zealous members. Wild, wayward, and warm-hearted, that juvenile patriot entertained all those romantic ideas of nationalism which led enthusiastic Irishmen to indulge in the dreamiest visions of reform. His father was very extensively connected with the staple trade, and, about 1796, stood at the head of a prosperous business as an extensive bleacher. The family resided in the house situate immediately adjoining the Roman Catholic chapel; and a field at the back of the garden is still known to the older inhabitants of Lisburn as "Teeling's Mount."

Bartholomew Teeling had been brought up to assist in the mercantile pursuits of his father, and attended to the bleaching of cloth and the purchase of brown linens, but, in an ill-starred hour, he went over to France, and got a commission in the Imperial Army. When the mad and mischievous project of sending French soldiers to aid the Irish in the equally insane war against England had been matured, Teeling was appointed aide-de-camp to General Humbert, and in that capacity he embarked with the troops and landed at Killala in August, 1798.

The first battle that took place between the invaders and the British army was fought at Castlebar. By mere chance the French troops were victorious and took possession of the town, but the commander, finding he could not maintain his position prudently sent terms of capitulation to General Lake.

As the aide-de-camp of the Gallic chief Teeling was appointed to convey the message, and, accompanied by an escort bearing a flag of truce, he rode forward to overtake the retreating troops. No sooner, however, had he arrived within range of the enemy than his flag was fired on and his escort shot. This disgraceful breach of the rules of honourable warfare was indignantly resented by the officer, who, having himself been taken prisoner, immediately demanded an audience of the commander. When he stood before General Lake and delivered his message, he complained bitterly of the insult offered his flag and the murder of his escort. "By the tone of your voice, I believe you to be an Irishman," said the General, "and I will treat you as a rebel." "Do as you please sir," replied Teeling, "but recollect that my commander is General Humbert, and that several British officers are his prisoners at Castlebar." The unexpected reply startled the British commander; he at once felt that the lives of these officers were in imminent peril, and after some parleying Teeling was permitted to return.

Capture and Death.

When he arrived at the quarters of the French army and informed his chief of what had occurred, the latter felt so much incensed that he threatened to shoot every English prisoner be had in custody. But Teeling immediately appealed against that terrible decree to the nobler feelings of the commander. "No, General," said he, "you must rather take revenge on your enemies by your magnanimity." The effect of this generous sentiment was to cool down Humbert's indignation, and ultimately Teeling succeeded in obtaining freedom for six British officers and having them escorted for seven miles beyond Castlebar.

After the defeat of the French troops at Colooney all the Irish found in their ranks were charged with high treason. Teeling was among the prisoners, and ordered for trial by court-martial. Some difficulty arose in consequence of the Crown not being able to identify the accused, even with the assistance of a treacherous ruse by which Major Sirr sought to accomplish that object. At length the notorious informer Burke -- a pet of Castlereagh -- was brought forward as V Government witness. This man swore that under a feigned name he had joined the French army as a volunteer, and marched with the troops from Castlebar to Colooney, during which time the prisoner acted as an officer under General Humbert. On this evidence Teeling was found guilty and sentenced to death.

The fate of the condemned youth called forth immense sympathy in Dublin and throughout the provincial towns, but especially in those parts of Ulster where his name was so much associated with that chivalrous love of country which the native Irish look upon as the noblest of all virtues. Considerable influence was used in the hope of obtaining a remission of the sentence, but the authorities were inexorable, and the imperious Cornwallis refused to meet a deputation of mercy. In vain were all appeals to the Viceroy, and the plea that the condemned aide-de-camp had been the means of saving the lives of the captive officers at Castlebar made no impression on the chief of Dublin Castle. "The law must take its course," was the reply of the Lord Lieutenant.

On the 24th of September, 1798, Bartholomew Teeling was taken from his place of confinement in Kilmainham to Arbour Hill, where a gallows had been erected, and where thousands of people were assembled to take a last look at the condemned. Dressed in the Irish uniform, and leaning on the arm of Brigadier-Major Stanley, he walked to the place of execution with the solemn step and thoughtful aspect which so well became a man about to be hurried into the eternal world. He died almost without a struggle. General Humbert, in alluding to his conduct during the march from Killala, said: "In all the towns through which we passed Teeling, by his bravery and generous disposition, prevented the insurgents from proceeding to the most criminal excesses."

Dictionary of National Biography.

Bartholomew Teeling, United Irishman, was the eldest son of Luke Teeling and of Mary, daughter of Jolin Taaffe, of Smarmore Castle, Louth. He was born in 1774 at Lisburn, where his father, a descendant of an old Anglo-Norman family long settled in County Meath, had established himself as a linen manufacturer.

The elder Teeling was a delegate for County Antrim to the Catholic Convention of 1793, better known as the "Back Lane Parliament." Though not a United Irishman, he was actively connected with the leaders of the society, and was arrested on suspicion of treason in 1796 and confined in Carrickfergus prison till 1802.

Bartholomew, who was educated in Dublin at the academy of the Rev. W. Dubordieu, a French Protestant clergyman, joined the United Irish movement before he was twenty, and was an active member of the club committee.

In 1796 he went to France to aid in the efforts of Wolfe Tone and others to induce the French Government to undertake an invasion of Ireland.

His mission having become known to the Irish Government, he deemed it unsafe to return to England, and accepted a commission in the French army in the name of Biron.

In the autumn of 1798 be was attached to the expedition organised against Ireland as aide-de-camp and interpreter to General Humbert, and embarked at La Rochelle, landing with the French army at Killala.

During the brief campaign of less then three weeks' duration which terminated with the surrender of Ballinamuck, Teeling distinguished himself by his personal courage, particularly at the battle of Collooney.

Being excluded as a British subject from the benefit of the exchange of prisoners which followed the surrender, though claimed by Humbert as his aide-de-camp, he was removed to Dublin, where he was tried before a court-martial. At the trial the evidence for the prosecution, though conclusive as to Teeling's treason, was highly creditable to his humanity and tolerance, ono of the witnesses deposing that when some of the rebels had endeavoured to excuse the outrages they had committed on the grounds that the victims were Protestants, Mr. Teeling warmly exclaimed that he knew no difference between a Protestant and a Catholic, nor should any be allowed. (Irish Monthly Register, October, 1798.)

But despite an energetic appeal by Humbert, who wrote that "Teeling, by his bravery and generous conduct in all the towns through which we have passed, has prevented the insurgents from indulging in the most criminal excesses," he was sentenced to death by the court-martial, and notwithstanding the recommendation to mercy by which the sentence was accompanied, he suffered the extreme penalty of the law at Arbour Hill on September 24, 1798.

(To be Continued.)


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 23 November 1917 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week through 1917 and into 1918. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland, 1536-1810.

SOME EXTRACTS

FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE
MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --
Edited by JAMES CARSON.
-- -- -- --

LVII.

-- -- -- --

INDEX TO THE 
PREROGATIVE WILLS OF IRELAND,
1536-1810.



Edited by
SIR ARTHUR VICARS, F.S.A.,
Ulster King of Arms.
1897.

-- -- -- -- --

Extracts from the Preface.

The wills in Ireland may be said to consist of two classes, Prerogative and Diocesan. Those proved in the Prerogative Court are the most important, containing, as they do, testamentary demises from all parts of Ireland, and generally referring to the more important members of the community.

They commence in 1536, and continue to 1858.

Before 1857 wills used to be proved in the Consistorial Court -- that is, the Court of the Bishop or Ordinary within whose diocese or jurisdiction the testator dwelt -- but if there were effects to the value of £5 in two or more dioceses the will had to he proved in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, which was the Supreme Court in matters of which the ecclesiastical jurisdiction had cognisance.

The Consistorial Courts dealt with the assets of deceased persons who were domiciled in the diocese, and had no personal estate outside of it.

As the number of wills proved in the Prerogative Court increased considerably after 1810, it was thought better not to continue the Index further.

Classification of Wills in Ireland in Public Custody.

Prerogative wills, 1536-1858, deposited in the Public Record Office, Dublin.

Diocesan wills, 1536-1858, in Public Record Office.

Unproved wills, dealing with real property only, from 1708, at Registry of Deeds, Henrietta Street.

Wills from the Inquisitions -- Henry VIII. to George I. -- Public Record Office.

A few very early wills in the Royal Irish Academy and in Trinity College Library.

Further and full information regarding Irish wills may be found in "A Supplement to 'How to Write the History of a Family,'" by Phillimore, 1896.

-- -- -- -- -- --

Some Local Wills.

The book under review contains upwards of 40,000 names of deceased testators. All those connected with Lisburn, Hillsborough, and Ballinderry have been extracted and recorded here. A number of other names of possible local interest are also given. The genealogist, however, in search for information, is referred to the volume itself, which may bo seen in any of the large public libraries.

                                   A.
1799    Jane Agnew, Mossvale, Co. Down, widow.
1767    Richard Archbold, Esq., Lisburn.
1804    Guy Atkinson, Lisburn.

                                   B.
1793    Richd. Barnesley, Lisburn, merchant.
1786    Elinor Barton, Lisburn, spinster.
1786    Henry Bell, Lisburn, linen draper.
1746    Robert Bell, Lisburn, merchant.
1760    Susanna, widow of R. Bell, Lisburn.
1726    John A. Bernicre, Lisburn.
1790    Henry Betty, Lisburn, linen draper.
1682    Capt. Lancelot Bolton, Lisburn.
1790    Jas. Boyes, Stoneyford, linen draper.
1697    Randall Brice, Lisburn, Esq.
1791    Eliza. Bridge, Plantation, spinster.
1702    Arthur Brooke, Lisburn, surgeon.
1695    Francis Brooke, Lisburn, M.D.
1672    Ay. Bunting, Ballinderry, yeoman.
1810    Hy. Burdon, Lisburn and Calcutta.
1788    R. Burden, Lisburn, linen draper.
1679    Captain John Byron, Lisburn.

                                   C.
1767    Mary Campbell, Ballinderry, alias Haddock.
1789    William Carleton, Parish of Blaris.
1772    John Carson, Hillsborough.
1707    Henry Charters, Lisburn, merchant.
1784    Thomas Clark, Ballinderry, gent.
1706    Humphry Clarke, Ballinderry, gent.
1744    Elizabeth Close, Lisburn.
1742    Henry Close, Plantation, farmer.
1781    William Close, Plantation, gent.
1632    Edward Conway, Viscount Killultagh.
1732    Francis Conway, Viscount Killultagh.
1737    Daniel Cormier, Lisburn, gent.
1801    Wm. Coulson, Lisburn, linen draper.
1728    Lewis Cromelin, Lisburn.
1737    Alex. Crommelin, Lisburn, gent.
1756    Anne Crommelin, Lisburn, widow.
1726    Samuel Crommelin, Lisburn.
1743    Samuel L. Crommelin, Lisburn, gent.

                                   D.
1788    Isaac Davis, Ballinderry, farmer.
1775    Samuel De Lacherois, Hilden, Esq.
1637    Marmaduke Dobbs, Lisnegarvie, gent.
1775    Rev. Richard Dobbs, D.D., Lisburn.
1802    John Douglas, H'borough, merchant.
1667    Bishop Jeremy Taylor.
1807    Robert Duncan, Lisburn.
1719    William Dynes, Mullacartan, gent.

                                   E.
1802    William English, Magheranesk.

                                   F.
1750    Wm. Fairlie, Lisburn, gent.
1744    Jeremy Falloon, Ballinderry Hotel.
1804    Jane Fletcher, Lisburn, widow.
1727    Eliza. Forbes, Ballinderry, widow.

                                   G.
1760    Cathne Gayen, Blaris,
1800    Edward Gayer, Derriaghy, gent.
1755    Rev. Philip Gayer, Derriaghy.
1743    Lewis Geneste, Lisburn.
1690    George Gregson, Lisburn, merchant.
1742    Thos Gurnall, Plantation, malster.

                                   H.
1718    Catherine Hackett, Lambeg, widow.
1766    Benjamin Haddock, Ballinderry.
1707    John Haddock, Carranbane, gent.
1785    Rev. Isaac Haddock, Hillsborough.
1793    Christopher Hall, Tonagh.
1772    James Hall, Ballinderry, farmer.
1755    Bryan Hamill, Derriaghy.
1757    Susanna Hamilton, Lisburn.
1763    Jacob Hancock, Lisburn, merchant.
1793    Jacob Hancock, Lisburn.
1757    John Handcock, Lisburn, merchant.
1784    John Handcock, Lisburn, merchant.
1766    Robert Hardy, Ballinderry.
1774    John Hastings, Lisburn, merchant.
1809    Samuel Heron, Lisburn, attorney.
1780    Rev. Thomas Higginson, Ballinderry.
1665    Arthur Hill, Hillsborough, Esq.
1699    Michael Hill, Hillsborough, Esq.
1682    Moses Hill, Hill Hall, Esq.
1693    William Hill, Hillsborough, Esq.
1756    Roger Hodgkinson, Lisburn.
1775    Sarah Hodgkinson, Lisburn, widow.
1781    James Hogg, Lisburn, merchant.
1773    William Hogg, Lisburn, merchant.
1667    William Hoole, Lisburn, gent.
1723    Anthony Hopes, Ballinderry, farmer.
1690    Jennett, widow of Wm. Hull, Lisburn.
1690    William Hull, Lisburn, gent.
1771    Jas. Hunter, Lisburn, linen mercht.
1805    James Hunter, Ballinderry.
1794    John Hunter, Lisburn, Esq.

                                   J.
1710    Michael Jackson, Lisburn, gent.
1734*  Michael Jackson, Lisburn, gent.
1804    John Johnson, Lisburn, Methodist preacher.
1709    Isa. Johnston, Lisnetrunk, widow.
1711    Jane Johnston, Lisburn, widow.
1779    Conway Jones, Lisburn, M.D.
1780    Mary Jones, Lisburn, spinster.
1761    Valentine Jones, Lisburn, Esq.
1789    Rev. Frans. Jonston, Tullycross.

                                   K.
1791    Elizabeth Kennedy, Lisburn, widow.
1769    John Kennedy, Lisburn, merchant.
1762    Moses Kinkead, Hillsborough.

                                   L.
1793    Hugh Lang, Carnmeen.
1741    George Lang, Derrydrumuck.
1738    Margt. Leatnes, H'borough, widow.

                                   M.
1723    Murdock M'Call, Derriaghy, tanner.
1811    John M'Dowell, Lisburn, tobacconist.
1749    Joseph M'Kibbon, Hillsborough.
1763    Nicholas Magee, Lisburn.
1807    Edw. Magennis, Lisburn, merchant.
1720    Adam Maitland, Hillsborough.
1796    Henry Marmion, Lisburn, gent.
1707    Wm. Muslin, Lisburn, innkeeper.
1720    Arthur Maxwell, Drumbeg, Esq.
1757    Hamilton Maxwell, Drumbeg, Esq.
1682    James Maxwell, Drumbeg, gent.
1794    Bryan Mercer, Hillsborough, gent.
1799    Wm. Montgomery, H'borough, Esq.
1671    Edward Moore, Lisburn.
1771    John Moorehead, Dunmurry.
1775    Jas. Moorhead, Milltown, linen draper.
1797    Thomas Morris, Lisburn, Esq.
1780    John Mussen, Lisburn, apothecary.
1690    Isabella Mussenden, H'borough, wid.


                                   O.
1728    Thomas Oates, Lisburn, surgeon.
1790    Edward Obre, Lisburn, Esq.
1665    John Olphert, Lisburn, quarter-master George Rawdon's troop.

                                   P.
1716    Edward Peers, Lisburn, Esq.
1789    Edward Peers, Lisburn, brewer.
1701    John Peers, Lisburn, gent.
1781    John Peers, Lisburn.
1691    Sir Henry Ponsonby, Hillsborough.

                                   R.
1792    Elizabeth Ravenscroft, Ballinderry.
1684    Sir George Rawdon, Lisburn.
1753    Thomas Read, Tullanacross.
1743    Philip Robinson, Lisburn, merchant.
1726    Lewis Rochett, Lisburn, merchant.

                                   S.
1785    Thomas Seeds, Lisburn, gent.
1774    Andrew Shanks, Lisburn, merchant.
1753    James Sloan, Lisburn.
1690    Ralph Smith, Ballymacash, gent.
1751    Alice Smyth, Lisburn.
1730    Mary Smyth, Lisburn, widow.
1714    Patrick Smyth. Lisburn, gent.
1736    Ralph Smyth, Lisburn, Esq.
1781    Joseph Speer, Lisburn, merchant.
1773    John Spence, Magheragall.
1772    William Spence, do., linen draper.
1759    Henry Stanhope, Legmore, gent.
1709    Richard Swinerton, Lisburn, gent.

                                   T.
1798    George Tandy, Lisburn.
1766    Adam Tate, Sprucefield, linen mercht.
1667    Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down.
1775    Bartholomew Teeling.
1692    Mary Thelwall, Hillsborough, widow.
1745    John Towle, Hillsborough, gent.

                                   U.
1767    John Usher, Aghalee, linen draper.

                                   W.
1798    James Waddell, Springfield, Esq.
1703    Godfrey Walker, Mullacarteen, gent.
1627    James Walshe, Castle Robin, gent.
1768    George Warren, Hillsborough.
1786    William Waters, Aghalee.
1772    James Watson, Brookhill.
1785    James Watters, Aghalee.
1729    Anthony Welsh, Lisburn, gent.
1735    James Whittle, Lisburn.
1800    David Wilson, Lisburn.
1773    William Wilson, Lisburn.
1757    John Wolfenden, Dunmurry, gent.
1743    Richard Wolfenden, Lambeg, linen draper.
1777    Richard Wolfenden, Lambeg, mercht.

Specimen of Old Will.

Prerogative Will, 1682.

I, Captain Lancelot Bolton of Lisburne, in the County of Antrim, being sick and weake of body but of sound memory and understanding, do hereby make my last will and testament in manner and form following, and trusting through the merits of Jesus Christ to be saved. I commit my soul to Almighty God, my Creator, and my body to be decently buryed as either of my Executors shall think meete. Imprimus -- I will that all debts justly due by me be first paid, with my funerall expenses. Item -- The surplicsage and remainder of all my Estate, goods and chattels, movable and immovable, reall and personal, leases, debts due me, arreares of pay, and all other my Estate whatsoever belonging to me, I give to my Exors. hereafter named, to be by them distributed and disposed of to my brother, Capt. Richard Boulton, and my sister, Anne Webster, as my Exors. in their discretion shall think meete. Item -- I do humbly request and do hereby nominate my very good Lord, the Right Hon. Edward Earle of Conway, and my very good friend Richard Mildmay, Gent., his Lordship's receiver, Exors. of this my last will.

    Will signed 23 Aug., 1682.
    Witnesses  Edwd. Ellis.   Tho. Ffarewell
                    Pat. Conne.   Hen. Conly.

The will of Lancelott Boulton, late of Lisburne, County Antrim, Esq., was proved by Richard Mildmay, one of the executors named, having the right of the Earl of Conway, 14th November, 1682.

(Next Week: Bartholomew Teeling, 1798.)

* The date printed in the Lisburn Standard was 1743. After a check of the original this was proved to be 1734. Thanks to Sharon Oddie Brown for highlighting the error.


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 16 November 1917 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week through 1917 and into 1918. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)

In Remembrance - "The Winners"

We stand one with the man that died;

Whatever the goal, we have these beside.

Living or dead, we are comrades all--

Our battles are won by the men that fall.

He died quick with his face to the foe,

In the heart of a friend must needs die slow.

Over his grave shall be heard the call--

The battle is won by the men that fall.

For a dead man leaves you a work to do;

Your heart's so full that you fight like two.

And the dead man's aim is the best of all--

The battle is won by the men that fall.

Oh, lads, dear lads, who were loyal and true,

The worst of the fight was borne by you;

So the word shall go to the cottage and hall--

Our battles are won by the men that fall.

When peace dawns over the countryside

Our thanks, shall be to the lads that died;

Oh, quiet hearts, can they hear us tell

How peace was won by the men that fell?

                                     Author Unknown

Published in the Lisburn Standard 31 Aug 1917 and available on Eddies Extracts
Image: A painting in oils by Niki Gulley

Curry's Glen.

SOME EXTRACTS

FROM THE
RECORDS OF
OLD LISBURN
AND THE
MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

-- -- -- --
Edited by JAMES CARSON.
-- -- -- --

LVI.

-- -- -- --

CURRY'S GLEN.

Situated in the townland of Ballyhomra, about three miles from Lisburn and convenient to Ravarnette cross-roads, is one of the most romantic and picturesque spots in the vicinity.

The Glen extends for almost a mile, forming a connecting link between the Deneight and Hillsborough-Legacurry (Blue Gate) roads. Homra House, in the Glen, is located a few hundred yards from the latter. Near the house two streams meet, and, joining forces, from what in winter is a turbulent mountain torrent, but in summer only a sparkling, gentle rivulet.

The Glen rises steadily from Lisnoe Bridge on the Deneight road to a considerable altitude at its other extremity. It is heavily timbered practically all the way, and in the vicinity of the house the sides of the Glen descend precipitously to a great depth, where the stream wends its murmuring way at the bottom.

The water of the united streamlets working ceaselessly through the centuries carved out of the hillside this great chasm, and kindly Nature, taking up the task, has clothed its bare and rugged sides with verdant shrubs and trees and flowers, covering its nakedness and converting it into a thing of beauty.

But man intervened, and on the most beautiful point of that exquisite landscape left his mark in a monument of rain and decay.

Homra House, standing near the junction of the two streams surrounded by huge trees, and almost overhanging the precipitous side of the Glen, is now a picture of desolation and ruin. The roofless walls stand out like ghostly fingers pointing to the sky; the windows, empty and void, suggest unseeing eyes brooding over well-remembered scenes of mirth and revelry, tragedy and sorrow enacted long ago within their shadow. The setting of a wonderful story is there -- the ghostly house, the overhanging trees, the old neglected garden, the deep ravine -- all only awaiting some facile pen to weave around them a fitting tale of tragedy and romance. Could the old walls speak, who may say what tales they could unfold? Who can say what scenes during the long years they have looked upon with stony indifference? But they do not speak now in articulate language; they are silent and only suggest. To the imagination is consigned the task of trying to clothe the dry bones.

Approaching the house from the direction of the Deneight road, in the old faraway days there was a large garden, several acres in extent surrounded by an impregnable hedge, and divided by massive beech hedgerows into squares. Between the garden and the Glen was a narrow plantation of trees. Garden and plantation were there as late as 1865. There is not a trace of either now left. Passing where the large garden stood, and quite close to the house, there are still to be seen at the present time some fine old trees and the remains of flower plots and walks. Immediate adjoining the house at the rear, and away from the Glen, is a yard surrounded by a wall, and containing out-houses, wall and houses now falling into ruins. Here Nature in her activity and profusion is hastening the work of destruction and covering over the marks of decay. Following the narrow path that separates the house from the Glen, not a stone-throw distant from the building a small knoll or headland projects out boldly into the valley. Here there was a small flower garden or pleasance, known as "My Lady's Garden." The gate pillars are still standing. An ideal and beautiful spot this must once have been. In one of the bends of the Glen as late as 1841 there were traces to be seen of the fish ponds, in which, according to the practice of the day, fish were fed and preserved alive till they were required for the table.

Possibly the Earliest Tradition

regarding Homra House is to be found in Edmund Gosse's life of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, where, on the authority of Canon Lett, Loughbrickland, it is stated that the Bishop owned, and during the later part of his life often resided at, Homra House, and also occupied, and is even said to have built, a house in Castle Street, Lisburn, opposite the entrance to the Cathedral. Independent of whatever evidence Canon Lett may have had for locating Jeremy Taylor temporarily at Homra House, it may be accepted that the assumption is not unreasonable. Bishop Taylor resided during the later part of his life -- 1660-1667 -- chiefly in Lisburn, Hillsborough, and the neighbourhood, and for a considerable time was an honoured guest at Hillsborough Castle. From the centre at Hillsborough he visited, frequently on horseback, his Cathedral churches at Lisburn and Dromore. His love of solitude and retirement is well known, as evinced by his sojourn at Portmore and Magheraleave; and where, when seeking seclusion and rest, could he have had it more effectually or been more suitably located for the discharge of his duties than in the leafy solitude of the Ballyhomra Glen?

On the 23rd January, 1699, in the reign of William III., "Edward Harrison, Esquire, and his eldest son Michael," by an "Exemplification of Recovery" were possessed of the lands of Ballyhomra and Magheradartin. This "Exemplification" went to show that they had been in occupation of the lands for a considerable time previous to 1699.

The Dictionary of National Biography states that Bishop Taylor's second wife was Joanna Bridges -- 1655 -- said to be a natural daughter of Charles I. Their daughter -- also Joanna -- married Edward Harrison of Magheralin (Magheraleave?), a member of the Irish bar and M.P. for Lisburn.

The next in succession to the lands of Ballyhomra was Francis Harrison, of the city of Dublin, banker, and partner with Benjamin Burton, Lord Mayor of Dublin 1706, and M.P. for Dublin from 1703 till 1723, and who was the eldest surviving son of Edward Harrison and Joanna Taylor. He devised his estates in the counties of Down and Kildare to his brother Jeremiah and his issue male, and in default of same to his remaining brother Marsh. Francis Harrison died unmarried in 1720, and Jeremiah having predeceased him without issue, Ballyhomra, according to the terms of his will, devolved on his only surviving brother Marsh Harrison, who, dying without issue in 1727, bequeathed by will dated 1726 his estate to his elder sister Mary, wife of Sir Cecil Wray, Bart. Their daughter, Frances Joanna, married before 1725 William Todd. By Indenture of Lease bearing date 1731 William Todd demised the lands of Ballyhomra and Magheradartin to Valentine Jones, of Lisburn, for 931 years. Conway Jones, of Lisburn, the third son of Valentine Jones and Mary Close, married in 1753 Mary Wray Todd, second daughter of William Todd,, and their son, William Todd Jones, sold Ballyhomra and Magheradartin to Wills Hill, first Marquis of Downshire, in 1790. It would appear that the consideration given by the Marquis for the said lands was in the nature of an annuity to William Todd Jones and his three sisters for the term of their lives.

      Jeremy Taylor -- Joanna Bridges.

      Joanna Taylor -- Edward Harrison.

      Mary Harrison -- Sir Cecil Wray.

      Francis Joanna Wray -- William Todd.

      Mary Wray Todd -- Conway Jones.

      William Todd Jones.

The foregoing genealogical record is supported by documentary evidence in possession of the Downshire Estate Office, Hillsborough, extracted and supplied by Mr. W. H. M. Smyth, of that office.

It is not improbable that Todds Grove, situated a shirt distance from Ballyhomra, was so named after William Todd.

It is generally believed that there was an older structure on the site now occupied by Homra House, and that the present building was erected by William Todd Jones about the year 1780.

Ravarnette House, in the townland adjoining Ballyhomra, was built in the year 1789, as recorded on a date-stone in the building. It was formerly known as Agnesville, and owned by a family of the name of Anderson or Henderson. Henry Hart, father of Sir Robert Hart, of Chinese fame, became lessee in 1860: John Sinton in 1873.

Bishop Heber, in his life of Jeremy Taylor, 1824, states that William Todd Jones was collecting material for a life of Bishop Taylor, and had a series of autograph letters to and from the Bishop, and "a family book" in the Bishop's handwriting containing an account of his parentage &c. The greater part of his family papers Jones had, on the sale of Homra House to Lord Downshire, transferred to the care of the Earl of Moira at Montalto. They are believed to have been destroyed by an accidental fire in London on their way to Lord Moira's residence. Some letters and notes made by Mr. Jones were, however, preserved, and remained in the possession of his sisters. These were subsequently supplied to Bishop Heber. The following notes are also culled from Heber:-- Michael, the eldest son of Joanna Taylor and Edward Harrison of Maralave, died without issue. Jeremiah also died without issue at Brook Hill, Lisburn. Francis was a partner in a large private bank in Dublin. He died intestate in 1729, leaving his affairs in a confused state. Marsh Harrison inherited his brother's estate. He was a captain in the army, a weak and dissolute man, and unfit to manage his brother's large affairs. Under his management the bank failed. A considerable surplus was saved from the wreck, and passed to Mary, the survivor of the family. Mary married twice -- first Colonel Francis Columbine; secondly, Sir Francis Wray. Their daughter Frances married William Todd. Lady Wray during her life gave the greater part of her Irish property to her daughter Frances and her husband, William Todd. Their daughter, Mary Wray Todd, married Conway Jones, of Lisburn -- the parents of William Todd Jones.

Jeremy Taylor.

Edmund Gosse, in his life of Jeremy Taylor, thus refers in the prefatory note to the work of William Todd Jones, and to the reminiscences of Lady Wray:--

When Heber was collecting material for the 1822 edition he was favoured with some manuscripts which he described as "amongst the most interesting hitherto recovered concerning Bishop Taylor's private concerns." They purported to be the papers of William Todd Jones of Homra, who had been occupied all his life, so it was averred, in collecting documents for a biography of Jeremy Taylor, from whom he was lineally descended "in the fifth degree." Mr. Jones died suddenly in 1818 by being thrown out of his carriage, when all his notes and manuscripts were found to have absolutely vanished. In a mysterious way, however, some of them, and particularly reminiscences said to have been contained in a letter written in 1782 by a Lady Wray, a granddaughter of Jeremy Taylor, were eventually placed in Heber's hands. Many of the statements which Heber did accept -- he did not accept all -- were quietly expunged later on by Eden. But many more have hitherto been repeated, until they form part of Taylor's accepted biography. In very careful examination of what remains of Lady Wray'e reminiscences have gradually come to the startling conclusion that they are apocryphal, and my narrative is accordingly deprived of some romantic but ridiculous incidents. It is of course always possible that the letter of May 31, 1732, may have existed, and may even have been written in good faith, though in that case with a recklessness of ignorance positively amazing.

Gosse's strictures on Lady Wray's reminiscences would appear to be confined chiefly to her remarks on the Bishop's ancestors, and her statement that Joanna Bridges was the natural child of Charles I. He does not mention the daughter -- Joanna -- and makes no comment on or reference whatever to the Bishop's descendants. He makes a curious mistake calling Lisnegarvey "Lismagarry," and evidently did not know that Jeremy Taylor had also a residence at Magheraleave, which is still standing.

This genealogical survey, covering the Downshire records and Bishop Heber's account, connects Bishop Jeremy Taylor and his descendants, through his daughter Joanna, intimately with Ballyhomra from 1665 till 1790, and goes to confirm the statement in the Dictionary of National Biography that William Todd Jones was a descendant of Jeremy Taylor.

The life of Jeremy Taylor is also dealt with in Wills' "Irish Nation" Biography, 1876, vol. 2, and Sir James Ware's works, 1739, vol. 1.

In the light of to-day some of Jeremy Taylor's acts appear harsh and arbitrary. He at one time declared thirty-six parishes vacant -- this is, he evicted thirty-six Presbyterian ministers from their livings and homes, and filled their places with men he invited over from England. Important meetings between the Bishop and the ministers in regard to this matter took place in Lisburn. No one now doubts the Bishop's saintly life and singleness of purpose, but it is a strange commentary on the fallibility of the human intellect to find him writing:--

Here I am perpetually contending with the worst of the Scotch ministers. I have a most uncomfortable employment, but I bless God I have broken their knot, I have overcome the biggest difficulty, and made the charge easy for my successor.

Jeremy Taylor's will -- 1667 -- may be seen in the Record Office, Dublin.

Edward, perhaps the only son of Jeremy and Joanna Taylor, was buried at Lisburn on the 10th of March, 1661. He could not have been more than five years old at the time.

On the 24th July, 1667, the Bishop visited the bedside of a fever patient in Lisburn. The following day he was taken ill. He lay sick for ten days in his house at Lisburn, the disease being described as a fever, and on the 13th August, 1667, he died, being about 54 years of age. His last words were, "Bury me at Dromore." His body accordingly was taken on the 21st August to the Cathedral which he built in that town.

It is rather curious that John Ward F.S.A., in "Notes and Queries," November. 1910, states that Joanna, daughter of Jeremy Taylor and Joanna Bridges, married a Mr. Jones of Lisburn.

William Todd Jones

was a celebrated character in his day. He was born in Lisburn in or about 1760, and died in 1818. In conjunction with Colonel Sherman in 1783 they defeated the Hertford office nominees, and were returned as the popular representatives to the Irish Parliament for the Borough of Lisburn. Jones was a noted pamphleteer and writer of verse. Some time about the year 1802 he appears as a prisoner in the county gaol of Cork upon a charge of high treason. Later he fought a duel with Sir Richard Musgrave, and shot him through the body. The details are given in a pamphlet dated 1802. This pamphlet, and several others by Jones, are in the Linen Hall Library, Belfast.

In "The Annual Biography and Obituary" for the year 1821 appears an account of the life of William Todd Jones, extending to four pages.

EXTRACTS.

Mr. Jones, of Ross-Trevor, was born in Lisburn about the year 1760. He was called to the bar, and soon aspired to obtain a seat in Parliament. He became a candidate to represent his native town of Lisburn, and finally succeeded, but not without some severe and expensive contests, that hurt his fortune and shackled his future endeavours in life.

He threw in his lot with Grattan and Curran, and was a strong advocate of the claims of the Catholics.

He became an object of suspicion in 1798, and experienced a variety of hardships. He applied by petition for redress, in which all his grievances were stated, to the English Parliament, but without success.

In later life he courted the shade and lived in great obscurity, sometimes Wales and sometimes in Ireland.

He died at Ross-Trevor May 10th, 1818, from the effects of a driving accident.

William Todd Jones was evidently a contentious and finally a disappointed man. Sir Richard Musgrave, author of "Memoirs of the different Rebellions in Ireland," writes very unfavourably of him; others speak in the highest terms of his ability, character, and attainments.

In 1792

Wills Hill, Marquis of Downshire, granted to Henry Clibborn, of Lisburn, a lease of Homra House and lands for three lives or thirty-one years. This lease expired October 2, 1860.

Richard Fulton was in occupation of the house and lands from 1798 till 1806. The interest in the lease was purchased in 1806 by Edward Gayer, Esq.

The Gayers or Goyers were of Huguenot extraction. Peter Goyer, a silk weaver, and a native of Picardy, acted as clerk about the year 1700 in the French Church, Castle Street, of which the Rev. Charles Lavalade was pastor. In 1780 the worship at the French Church was discontinued. An Edward Gayer was one of two brothers who were clerks of the Irish House of Lords, and resided at Derriaghy. It was at Mr. Gayer's house that the Rev. John Wesley frequently visited, and there that on one occasion in 1776 he had a serious illness. Wesley described the home of the Gayers at Derriaghy as one of the pleasantest spots in the kingdom. The ground on which the old Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was built in Market Street was granted for ever by Edward Gayer, Esq., of Derriaghy, about 1772.

Marcus Corry

appears in the Downshire estate books as in occupation of Homra House in the year 1813. It remained in possession of the Corry family till 1863, when Andrew Morrow succeeded to the property. The name of Marcus Corry, Esq., of Homra House, appears in "Ireland Exhibited to England," by A. Atkinson, in 1823.

For some years after 1863 a man named Carlisle lived in Homra House, and conducted a school there. It then became vacant, and has since gradually fallen into ruin and decay.

A tradition appears to have grown up that a Miss Corry met with a tragic death in front of her own drawing-room window. The story runs that Miss Corry returning one evening from the hunt, her horse bolted, rider and horse going over the edge of the Glen, both being killed in the valley beneath. The usual ghostly appearance on a certain night each year, when horse and rider might be seen going to their death, was of course the natural sequence. This tradition, although not quite true, has, like most traditions, some foundation in fact. The actual facts are that Miss Caroline Susan Corry, returning from a drive on an open car, was killed quite close to her home by the overturning of the vehicle.

The natural inference would, appear to be that the Glen derives its name from the Corry family, who resided in Homra House from about 1813 till 1863. Canon Lett however, makes another suggestion:--

On one of the streamlets that enters the Glen there is a pit or hollow into which the water falls, and is known locally, as the "Rumbling Hole." The Irish name for this pit or hollow is Lag-a-choire -- the hollow of the cauldron. There is little doubt but that this is how the name "Curry" came to be applied to the Glen, and not from the Corry family. This Irish word also gave a name to a neighbouring townland -- Legacurry.

The "Rumbling Hole" is located a few hundred yards from the house, on the main stream, in the direction of the Blue Gate road. For twenty or thirty yards above the fall the stream rushes down a sloping incline, then passes between two rocks in a cleft in the hill about three feet apart, and drops some twenty feet into a deep pool that the falling water has carved out of the rock.

Canon Lett's suggestion regarding the origin of the name of the Glen is interesting, even if not very probable, and it may be pointed out in regard to the townland that the "Rumbling Hole" is in Ballyhomra, and that Legacurry, although in the neighbourhood, is a considerable distance away. Joyce in his "Irish Names of Places" similarly attributes the name Legacurry to the Irish word Lag-a-choire.

In the "Memorials of the Dead," vol. vi., is to be found a sketch of the Corry family by Canon Lett, of Loughbrickland. In the parish churchyard, Hillsborough is a flat slab bearing an inscription to the effect that the Rev. H. D. Corry, A.B., son of Lieut.-Colonel Marcus Corry, J.P., D.L., for sometime assistant curate of Hillsborough, died at Homra House, April, 1835, aged 28 years. There is also an inscription referring to the decease of two of his sisters and mother.

Marcus Corry, of Ballyhomra and Newry, was the eldest child of Isaac Corry, Abbey Yard, Newry, and was born at Newry in 1771, and died at Marketdrayton in 1849. One of his daughters married the Rev. Charles Lett. Their son is the Rev. Cation Henry William Lett, M.A., Aghaderg, Loughbrickland. Another daughter of Marcus Corry married Archdeacon Mant, of Hillsborough, and died in 1865, as the resist of burns caused by the overturning of a lamp.

And so ends a record of the Glen extending over two hundred and fifty years. The actors appear upon the stage and pass away into the darkness, leaving in most instances no trace of their passing but a name. Some few are more fortunate, but they to are forgotten save when the searcher amongst the musty records of the past resurrects their dry bones, and for a fleeting moment makes the story of their lives live again. But the Glen! the Glen itself is ever fresh and new. The old house and the people who lived and loved and died therein were only as melting, snowflakes on its bosom. The people are gone; in time the old house too will disappear; but the stream in the valley runs on for ever, and kindly mother nature each returning year clothes anew the rugged sides of the Glen in beautiful garments, as she has done through the long centuries that are past.

Next Week: Prerogative Wills -- Lisburn and District -- 1536-1810.


(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 9 November 1917 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week through 1917 and into 1918. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)