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LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710) Collected Essays

LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710)

Collected Essays

LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710) Collected Essays

Published by Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative, April 2021. Texts: Professor Raymond Gillespie, Doctor Naomi McAreavey, David Weir Editors: Ronnie Hanna and David Weir Design: Strong Design, Dromore Image Credits: Craigavon Museum Services National Library of Ireland Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast Print: GPS Colour Graphics Ltd © Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative and the authors

Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council Craigavon Civic Centre 66 Lakeview Road Craigavon, BT64 IAL T: 0300 0300 900 This booklet has been published as part of the Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative, supported by the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council and Lottery players through The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Cover image: 'Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland Parte of the Barony of Oneilan' by Josias Bodley, 1609/1610. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

CONTENTS

PAGE 4

LIST OF FIGURES

PAGE 6

FOREWORD

PAGE 12

PAGE 24

LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710)

Raymond Gillespie, Professor of History Maynooth University

LURGAN, 1641: MEMORIES FROM THE 1641 DEPOSITIONS

Naomi McAreavey, Lecturer in Renaissance Literature, University College Dublin PAGE 40

PAGE 54 PAGE 60

LURGAN IN ACTION, 1660-1713

David Weir, Education and Activities Officer Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative

APPENDIX 1

Tenants of William Brownlow, 1622

APPENDIX 2

Hearth Money Roll, County Armagh, 1664 Barrony of Oneland and Parish of Shankill Lorgan Towne

PAGE 62

APPENDIX 3

PAGE 66

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1693 Shankill Parish Church Cess Returns for the Town of Lurgan

LIST OF FIGURES PAGE 8

PAGE 9

PAGE 10

PAGE 11

PAGE 15

PAGE 16

PAGE 23

FIGURE 1

On Monday 14 October 2019 Brownlow House hosted the second lecture of our series entitled ‘Place-names in Lurgan and the South Armagh District: From the Plantation to the Present’ by Prof. Micheál O Mainnin and Dr. Frances Kane of the Northern Ireland Place Name Project.

PAGE 29

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 9

PAGE 39

FIGURE 10

PAGE 41

FIGURE 11

‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: A Generalle Description of Vlster’ by Richard Bartlett, c.1602/03. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

FIGURE 4

Detail of Clanbrasil from ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: A Generalle Description of Vlster’ by Richard Bartlett, c.1602/03. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

FIGURE 5

‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland Parte of the Barony of Oneilan’ by Josias Bodley, c.1609/1610. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

PAGE 51

PAGE 52

FIGURE 6

Detail from the ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: Parte of the Barony of Oneilan’ by Josias Bodley, c.1609/1610, outlining the principal townlands granted to John and William Brownlow by King James I. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

The 1641 Depositions archived at Trinity College Dublin can be accessed online at https://1641.tcd.ie/

PAGE 38

FIGURE 2

Professor Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth University speaking on ‘Lurgan’s First Century: The Origins and Growth of a town in the Lagan Valley’ in St. Peter’s Parish Hall on Monday 28 October 2019.

FIGURE 8

PAGE 53

Facsimile copy of the map 'The Barony of Onealand in Ardmagh County', which formed part of the Down Survey of Ireland (1656-8) overseen by William Petty. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queens University Belfast. Detail of 'Lorgann Towne' from a facsimile copy of the map 'The Barony of Onealand in Ardmagh County', which formed part of the Down Survey of Ireland (1656-8) overseen by William Petty. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queens University Belfast. Dr. Francis X. McCorry provided the final lecture of our series, entitled ‘Lurgan in Action, 1670-1713’, in the Lurgan Friends (Quaker) Meeting House on Monday 11 November 2019.

FIGURE 12

Part of the Middle Row, Market Street, Lurgan, prior to its demolition in c.1885. Image reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Ireland.

FIGURE 13

Margery’s Lane, off Market Street, Lurgan, c.1895. Image reproduced by kind permission of Craigavon Museum Services.

FIGURE 14

Dwelling in Margery's Lane, off Market Street, Lurgan, c.1895. Image reproduced by kind permission of Craigavon Museum Services.

FIGURE 7

Detail of Lurgan town in c.1703 from ‘A Mapp of the Glan Bogg lying between the Counties of Ardmagh and Down’ by Francis Nevil. Image (D695/M/1) reproduced by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

the wide interest in local history and the quality of the talks provided. We would like to extend our thanks to all of the speakers who took part in the series and to all those who attended which made for many memorable evenings. Contained within this present booklet are three essays based on lectures delivered as part of the series. A special thanks is due to Professor Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth University and Doctor Naomi McAreavey of University College Dublin for taking the time to write the essays and Dr. Francis X. McCorry for providing permission for an essay to be produced themed on his talk. Over the next four years we will continue to follow Lurgan’s history through our lecture series, with further publications to follow which we hope will preserve the research for future generations to learn from and indeed debate.

FOREWORD Councillor Joe Nelson Chairman, Lurgan Townscape Heritage Partnership

January 2019 marked the commencement of the Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative (Lurgan THI); a five year National Lottery Heritage Fund regeneration scheme, delivered in partnership with the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council. The principal aims of the Lurgan THI are to: 1) Repair, restore and regenerate up to 25 designated buildings within the Lurgan Conservation Area which contribute to the historic townscape character of Lurgan. 2) Organise a community based activities, education and training programme to promote enjoyment and understanding of Lurgan’s built and cultural heritage. In pursuit of this second goal the Lurgan THI were proud to inaugurate the first annual Lurgan Lecture series on 8th October 2019. Over five weeks venues throughout Lurgan hosted a number of speakers who provided expert insights into the Plantation origins of Lurgan town and the events and personalities which shaped its development through the seventeenth century. The high attendances at each talk reflected both 6

FIGURE 1 On Monday 14 October 2019 Brownlow House hosted the second lecture of our series entitled ‘Place-names in Lurgan and the South Armagh District: From the Plantation to the Present’ by Prof. Micheál O Mainnin and Dr. Frances Kane of the Northern Ireland Place Name Project.

FIGURE 2 Professor Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth University speaking on

‘Lurgan’s First Century: The Origins and Growth of a town in the Lagan Valley’ in St. Peter’s Parish Hall on Monday 28 October 2019.

FIGURE 3 ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: A Generalle Description of Vlster’ by Richard Bartlett, c.1602/03. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

FIGURE 4 Detail of Clanbrasil from ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: A Generalle Description of Vlster’ by Richard Bartlett, c.1602/03. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collection & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast. The town of Lurgan can trace its origins back to 1610 when John and William Brownlow, a father-son partnership from Nottingham were granted land in the territory of Clann Bhreasail (Clanbrasil). The land was granted to them by King James I as part of his Plantation of Ulster scheme, which aimed to pacify the province by planting loyal English and Scottish settlers on land confiscated from the rebellious Gaelic and Old English lords. Pre-plantation sources about Clann Bhreasail are scarce but in Edmund Hogan’s The Description of Ireland, published in 1598, it is noted that ‘CLONBRASSELL is a verie Woody and Boggie Countrie upon the great Lough side, called Oaghe or Sidney’. 10

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LURGAN’S FIRST CENTURY (1610-1710) Raymond Gillespie, Professor of History, Maynooth University

Towards the end of 1703, Arthur Brownlow, the landlord of Lurgan, wrote to Queen Anne about his town. It was, he claimed, a large village with a great many houses, well shingled and abounding in settlers. These were ‘industrious and trading people’ who had advanced linen manufacture so that it was ‘one of the most thriving, flourishing villages and most considerable market towns of … Ulster’.1 Brownlow’s claim was supported by a number of testimonials from local landlords. Nearly a century earlier when the map-maker Josias Bodley mapped the barony in which Lurgan lay, he recorded no trace of a settlement on the site (see figure 6). The emergence of Lurgan was the result of the influx of new settlers that accompanied the Plantation of Ulster in the first half of the seventeenth century and an even larger influx after 1660. This growth was not inevitable. Other nearby places, such as Portadown, had a similar inflow of settlers but they failed to produce settlements of the size of Lurgan. Why Lurgan’s first century was so productive is the subject of this essay.

BROWNLOW’S TOWN (1610–30) Lurgan’s success was, in large measure, the result of the initiatives of the family who were granted its site in the early seventeenth century, and remained its landlords into the eighteenth century, the Brownlows. It is among the papers of that family that many of the sources for the early history of the town can be found, in particular the leasebook made by Arthur Brownlow (1645–1711) which records much of the seventeenthcentury development of the town.2 Supplemented by the records of the Plantation, we have in Lurgan one of the best documented towns of seventeenth-century Ulster.

1 2

R. P. Mahaffy (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, Domestic: Anne, 1703–4, London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1924, pp. 232–3. See R.G. Gillespie (ed.), Settlement and Survival on an Ulster Estate: The Brownlow Leasebook 1667–1711, Belfast: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 1988.

Lurgan was different from other successful Ulster Plantation towns such as Armagh or Dungannon. Apart from the fact that these were well-established settlements before the Plantation, they also in the seventeenth century acquired charters which confirmed their status as centres of civil administration. Hence they had the support of the Dublin administration behind them. Lurgan was not an administrative centre. It was simply a market town with no support but that of the local landlord, who needed a market that would allow his tenants to buy and sell their goods and make enough profit to pay him rent. The first grantee of the site, William Brownlow, moved quickly. By 1611 he was busy constructing a house for himself, presumably on the site of the present Brownlow House. He was already planning a town with two houses recorded as finished and ‘other frames set up, where his town shall be’.3 By 1619 things had advanced with a survey commenting that Brownlow ‘hath made a very fair Town, consisting of 42 Houses, all which are inhabited with English Families, and the streets all paved clean through’.4 Three years later, the final survey of the progress of the Plantation modified this slightly by reducing the number of houses to forty and noting that the houses were built ‘on both sides [of] the street’. We can have some confidence in this description as the surveyors in 1622 also collected a list of names of forty-seven inhabitants, presumably representing the families in the forty houses (see appendix 1).5 Most occupants of the town were English but two tenants were described as Irish. Almost half were described as either ‘yeoman’ or ‘husbandman’, farmers living in the town while cultivating their assigned lands outside of it, which varied between one acre and forty acres in size. The range of specialist occupations in the town was limited with ten occupations being listed. These included four joiners, three turners, three coopers, two shoemakers, a mason, a weaver, a smith, a tanner, a carpenter and a butcher, all tasks that one might find in a settlement dominated by farmers and their families. While three gentlemen were mentioned, there is little indication of any high-value craft occupations or trading. The position of the town as a small marketing centre was 3

Printed in Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on the Manuscripts of the late Reginald Rawdon Hastings, Vol. IV, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1947, p. 174.

Printed in George Hill, An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster at the Commencement of the Seventeenth Century, 1608–1620, Belfast: McCaw, Stevenson and Orr,

1877, p. 557.

Printed in Victor Treadwell (ed.), The Irish Commission of 1622: An Investigation of the Irish Administration, 1615–22, and Its Consequences, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2006, pp. 540, 552–5.

confirmed in 1629 by the grant of the right to hold a Friday market and two fairs each year, although these were probably already in existence before the formal grant was made. Where precisely was this flourishing early seventeenth-century market town? In the late seventeenth century, the landlord, Arthur Brownlow, copied an estate rental from 1635 into his leasebook.6 From this source we can identify a number of holdings whose existence are known later. The evidence suggests that the town was laid out along a roadway, possibly much older than the town itself, that followed a ridge of high land that was safe from flooding (hence the name Lurgan from the Irish Lorgain meaning ‘a long low ridge or a strip of land’). The Pound River was to the west. The cluster of houses was laid out close to the castle around the junction of present day Castle Lane and the main street of the town, and it was here that the market house was located. From this it extended south-eastwards down what is now High Street. The surveys hint at what the town looked like. Framed houses are mentioned, which suggests that houses were made of timber. It is possible that, as in the late seventeenth century, these houses were raised up on a stone base to prevent the timber posts supporting the frame from rotting.

PROGRESS STALLED (1630–60)

FIGURE 5 ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: Parte of the Barony of Oneilan’ by Josias Bodley, c.1609/1610.

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast.

During the 1630s new settlers probably continued to arrive in the town. In c.1630, when the settler forces were mustered as a militia, Brownlow was credited with forty-two tenants, which may well represent the adult male inhabitants of the town. Certainly there were strong continuities in names with the 1622 list. About half the surnames, however, had not been there in 1622 and this suggests that there continued to be a steady influx of new settlers seeking houses, probably in the town, along with land in the surrounding countryside.7 That influx ground to a halt in the early 1640s with the outbreak of the Irish insurrection on the evening of 22 October 1641. The depositions taken in the aftermath of that insurrection provide much of the documentary evidence for Lurgan in the 1640s. Various deponents described the town as having been burnt, but how much of the settlement was actually consumed by fire is

Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, pp. 150–3.

R.J. Hunter (ed.), ‘Men at Arms’: The Ulster settlers, c.1630, Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2012, pp. 26–7.

uncertain. Contemporaries gave various estimates for the numbers of town inhabitants killed in the assault. The number varied from five or six to ten people, which might have been about one in twenty or 5 per cent of the town’s population.8 More significant was the disruption and dislocation that the rising caused. Some people, such as William Duffeild, had fled into the town from the surrounding countryside, but many others escaped to Belfast or elsewhere never to return. After the plethora of evidence for the early weeks of the rising, our sources go silent for most of the 1640s and 1650s. It seems that the town shrank in size, with only forty-three holdings listed in the 1659 rental, suggesting a town somewhat smaller than it had probably been by 1640. Whatever happened to the town’s population was clearly traumatic, since when the lists of hearths was compiled for the 1664 hearth tax of Lurgan town (see appendix 2), only two names – Alexander Gill and Peter Harland – among the forty-six houses noted, had appeared in early seventeenth-century lists of tenants.9 Gill (or perhaps his father) appears in the earliest lists of the town and by the 1660s he had become a substantial figure with one of the largest houses in Lurgan, containing four hearths. It was located in the core of the old town at the junction of Market Street and Castle Lane. He would also acquire substantial property on the Brownlow estate in the late seventeenth century.

RECOVERY (1660–1710)

FIGURE 6 Detail from the ‘Maps of the escheated counties of Ireland: Parte of the Barony of Oneilan’ by Josias Bodley, c.1609/1610, outlining the principal townlands granted to John and William Brownlow by King James I.

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queen’s University Belfast. The Brownlows would found their village of Lurgan in the townlands of Lurgavallivican and Derry, which together comprised a broad sloping ridge bounded on the west by the Pound River and the east by the Derry bog. The old Shankill Parish Church is clearly marked on the map. 16

Lurgan expanded considerably over the late seventeenth century. By 1693 the parish cess recorded ninety-nine houses in the town, suggesting a considerable expansion of the settlement, most of which occurred along the southern approaches to the town. We can trace something of this rebuilding in the collection of leases that the landlord, Arthur Brownlow, made. Some seventy-four leases for the town were agreed in 1666 alone. It is likely that some of the impetus for reform

The 1641 depositions are held by Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and can be accessed online at http://1641.tcd.ie. For example, see Deposition of William Duffeild, 9 August 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 48–49); Examination of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD MS 836, 202r); Examination of Alexander Gill, 8 April 1653 (TCD MS 836, 209r); Examination of William McGinn, 2 May 1653 (TCD MS 836, 245r); Examination of Henry Ogle, 2 May 1653 (TCD MS 836, 264r); Examination of William Codd, 3 June 1653 (TCD MS 836, 268r).

L. P. Murray (ed.), ‘The County Armagh Hearth Money Rolls, AD 1664’, Archivium Hibernicum 8 (1941): 176–7.

came from the new landlord, Arthur Brownlow, who had succeeded his father, William, in 1660. Tenements within the town were subdivided to accommodate more people, and rents from Lurgan town increased from 23 per cent of the estate rental in 1659 to 55 per cent in 1667. They remained at that higher level in 1675. This expansion of the town was not random. Each lease made in these years contained specific instructions as to the design and appearance of the houses. Houses were to be 18 feet by 30 feet and timber framed. Each timber frame was to rest on a stone foundation to retard decay, and roofs were to be shingled. A prosperous and well-appointed town encouraged trade in a way that a ramshackle one did not, and Brownlow was clearly concerned that his town have the appearance of prosperity at least. Lurgan’s growth was not unique in this era of expansion, and a similar trend occurred throughout the Lagan Valley, and especially in the towns. Lisburn, for example, expanded significantly and by the end of the century Belfast was thought, erroneously, by some to have grown to become the second largest port in Ireland.10 Some new arrivals in Lurgan, such as John Henderson, who had been in Armagh in 1641 but relocated himself to Lurgan by 1653, came from other parts of Ireland, but most were new migrants into Ireland. The 1641 rising and the Cromwellian disruption had left land untenanted, and landlords, keen to recruit good tenants, offered land at low rents. This led to an influx of migrants into Ulster, and the Lagan Valley in particular. Many of these settlers came not from the traditional source of Ulster settlers in lowland Scotland but from north-west England, and they brought with them distinctive religious beliefs, such as Quakerism, as well as land holding customs, such as leases for lives and copyhold, that would come to be important in Lurgan.

MARKET EXPANSION What generated this considerable expansion in Lurgan and its surrounding region? It is possible to detect two strands influencing change. The first of these was demographic. In the late seventeenth century, Ulster’s population expanded dramatically, increasing the labour supply and bringing new skills into the economy. Such

demographic expansion could be a double-edged sword. A landscape already carved up into leases could not easily support a rapidly increasing population without forcing some to the margins and creating poverty. New employment opportunities had to be created to allow people to make enough money to at least pay their rent and support the landlord. The second strand of change was economic. In the early seventeenth century the Lagan Valley economy was relatively simple, concentrating on trading beef and other unprocessed agricultural goods, often for local consumption. In the late seventeenth century the economy began to develop in a more complex manner, now exporting processed agricultural goods such as butter, beef and cheese to England and northern Europe. This required a more elaborate trading system based on towns and fuelled by the activities of the Belfast merchants. Lurgan’s growing importance as a market town is clear from the expansion of the amount of money that Brownlow could extract from the tolls charged in the market. In the 1650s these were leased for £5 a year but by 1702 some £30 was realised from leasing the tolls. Lurgan had a unique advantage in this commercialisation, since the landlord, Arthur Brownlow, quickly recognised this opportunity and set about promoting his town of Lurgan as a marketing centre. In 1708, Samuel Molyneux, a member of the Dublin political and scientific family with an endless curiosity about the world around them, travelled to Ulster. Passing through Castle Dillon, where he had an estate, and on to Portadown, he finally reached Lurgan. He commented: ‘This town is at present the greatest mart of linnen manufactories in the North, being almost entirely peopled with linnen weavers. And all by the care and cost of Mr Brownlow, who on his first establishing this trade here, bought up every thing that was brought to the market of cloath, and lost at first considerably, but at length the thing fixing it self he is now by the same methods a considerable gainer’. 11 Brownlow was, as Molyneux described him, a ‘gentleman…more curious than ordinary’ (he collected Irish language manuscripts and

On Lisburn, see Raymond Gillespie, ‘George Rawdon’s Lisburn’, Lisburn Historical Society Journal 8 (1991): 32–5; and for Belfast, see Raymond Gillespie, Early Belfast: The Origins and Growth of an Ulster Town to 1750, Belfast: Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society and Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007, pp. 88–127. Peter Barry (ed.), ‘The Journeys of Samuel Molyneux in Ireland, 1708–9’, Analecta

Hibernica 46 (2015): 20–1.

conducted scientific experiments on the petrifying qualities of Lough Neagh), and his curiosity doubtless led him to this early experimentation with economics. However, Brownlow’s interest was not entirely prompted by curiosity, for he clearly saw the possibility of making a profit from the emergence of a market economy that his neighbours, such as George Rawdon at Lisburn, only understood at the end of the seventeenth century. Brownlow had one significant advantage over his neighbours. While other landlords were intolerant of religious diversity (Rawdon at Lisburn would make leases only to members of the Church of Ireland), Brownlow welcomed all religious groups into Lurgan. According to the 1693 cess list (see appendix 3), some sixty-eight cess payers in Lurgan were Church of Ireland, fifteen were Quaker, fourteen Presbyterian and two were Catholic.12 It was the modest but significant Quaker population that had settled in the town in the 1650s that held the key to Lurgan’s prosperity in the linen trade. Prominent Quakers in the town, such as the Hoope family, had access to international markets through the Quaker network. This meant that the linens bought by Brownlow to be sold into a wider market could be marketed through Hoope’s connections in Dublin.

legislation to benefit the town. As Brownlow expressed it in his petition to the Queen, he wanted Lurgan to have two MPs ‘in order to move and represent such matters as shall be thought convenient for the encouragement of trade’.13 His petition was not successful and Lurgan had to meet the challenges of expansion and prosperity as best it could. Its second century would see those problems transformed into a different set of challenges and opportunities, but that is another story.

MIXED BLESSINGS The prosperity of Lurgan in its first century was not an unmixed blessing. It certainly brought business and employment to the town, which generated wealth and allowed the settlement to be reconstructed in a modern and impressive form. But it also brought problems. When Arthur Brownlow petitioned Queen Anne in 1703, he had a very particular problem in mind. The town had been intended as a small market town and it now found itself as something of a metropolis. As a market town it had not been given a corporation as Belfast, Armagh or Dungannon had. The town was administered from within a manorial system, with a series of manor courts run by the landlord, all of which were becoming overburdened as the town expanded. Moreover, Armagh, Lisburn and Charlemont, all smaller urban centres than Lurgan, had the right to return Members of Parliament, which not only conferred considerable status on the town but also allowed its MPs to promote private 12

Francis Xavier McCorry, Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town, 1610–1970, Lurgan: Inglewood Press, 1993, p. 23.

Mahaffy, ‘Calendar of State Papers’, p. 233.

FIGURE 7 Detail of Lurgan town in c.1703 from ‘A Mapp of the Glan Bogg lying between the Counties of Ardmagh and Down’ by Francis Nevil.

Image (D695/M/1) reproduced by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

LURGAN, 1641: MEMORIES FROM THE 1641 DEPOSITIONS Naomi McAreavey, Lecturer in Renaissance Literature, University College Dublin This town was all but destroyed in the rebellion of 1641. That was a frightful time. It showed what popery can do.1

Although the cultural memories of the 1641 rebellion in Lurgan are not as pervasive as for nearby Portadown, local memories of the assault on the Plantation town and castle persisted well into the nineteenth century, as these reminiscences from an unnamed Protestant clergyman indicate. But these memories themselves have a history, and in this essay I will trace that history back to the earliest surviving local memories of the assault on Lurgan, which have been preserved among the 1641 depositions, an important collection of survivor testimonies from the 1640s and 1650s.2 The veracity of the 1641 depositions has long been debated by historians.3 However, literary scholars are able to circumvent such controversies by approaching the depositions as narrative rather than as historical source.4 The 1641 depositions tell us not what happened during the rebellion, but how traumatized locals remembered and recorded their experiences. They provide evidence of the practice of memory through which it is possible to learn much about the subjective experiences of British Protestants – and even some Irish Catholics – in mid-seventeenth century Lurgan.

The 1641 depositions encompass several thousand witness testimonies made mostly but not exclusively by Protestant settlers in the immediate aftermath of the 1641 rebellion. They are the textual records of testimonies that were delivered orally before at least two officials who posed a series of questions and recorded the answers.5 The statements were then read by or to the deponent who made any revisions before adding their signature or mark.6 The collection is diverse, but can be broadly divided into two categories.7 The first is the core of the collection, the original depositions that were gathered in the early 1640s primarily in Dublin, where refugees had fled from violence elsewhere in the country. They were collected with the threefold purpose of gathering evidence against the rebels, providing a historical record of what happened and facilitating the relief of victims.8 The second is the Commonwealth examinations, taken during the Cromwellian settlement of the early 1650s with the aim of convicting those responsible for violence; here the examinations of Irish Catholics accused of participating in the rebellion can also be found. Original and Commonwealth materials commingle in the collection, which is now split into separate county groupings.9 Amongst the 1641 depositions, only thirteen individuals mention the assault on Lurgan, which is small compared to the forty-five who cite the mass drownings in Portadown.10 Four of the thirteen examinants testify more than once, usually producing shorter unsworn statements prior to 5

6 7 1

2 3

Thomas MacKnight, Ulster as it is: Or Twenty-Eight Years’ Experience as an Irish Editor, London: Macmillan, 1896, cites his conversation with an unnamed clergyman on the train from Dublin to Belfast on 1 February 1866. The conversation is discussed in the context of cultural memories of 1641 by John Gibney, The Shadow of a Year: The 1641 Rebellion in Irish History and Memory, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013, pp. 151–3. Guy Beiner, ‘Memory Too Has a History’, Dublin Review of Books, 1 March 2015, http://www. drb.ie/essays/memory-too-has-a-history. The historiography of the 1641 rebellion is huge. For one of the most important recent interventions, see Jane Ohlmeyer and Micheál Ó Siochrú (eds), Ireland, 1641: Contexts and Reactions, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013. Marie-Louise Coolahan, Women, Writing, and Language in Early Modern Ireland, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 144; and Naomi McAreavey, ‘Re(-)membering Women: Protestant Women’s Victim Testimonies during the Irish Rising of 1641’, Journal of the Northern Renaissance 2 (2010): para. 6, https://www.northernrenaissance.org/remembering-women-protestant-womens-victim-testimonies-during-the-irish-risingof-1641/.

8 9 10

Aidan Clarke, ‘The 1641 Depositions’, in Peter Fox (ed.), Treasures of the Library, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1986, pp. 111–22 (p. 113). See also Marie-Louise

Coolahan, ‘“And this deponent further sayeth”: Orality, Print and the 1641 Depositions’, in Marc Caball and Andrew Carpenter (eds), Oral and Print Cultures in Ireland, 1600–1900, Dublin: Four Courts, 2010, pp. 69–84. These revisions are indicated by italics. Clarke, ‘1641 Depositions’, remains the definitive description of the 1641 depositions. Aidan Clarke, ‘The Commission for the Despoiled Subject, 1641–7’, in Brian Mac Cuarta (ed.), Reshaping Ireland, 1550–1700, Dublin: Four Courts, 2011, pp. 241–60.

The depositions can be accessed online at http://1641.tcd.ie, and in print in Aidan Clarke et al. (eds), The 1641 Depositions, 12 vols, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2014–. Examination of Valentine Blacker, undated (Trinity College Dublin (TCD), MS 836, 242r); Examination of James Bradley, 21 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 261r); Examinations of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 202r) and 24 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 266r); Examinations of William Codd, 3 May 1653 (TCD MS 836, 244r), 20 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 258r) and 3 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 268r); Deposition of William Duffeild, 9 August 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 48r–49v); Examinations of Alexander Gill, 8 April 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 209r) and 20 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 254r); Examination of Neece McConwell, 9 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 256r); Examination of William McGinn, 2 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 245r); Examination of Owen Roe McKeene, 5 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 252r); Examinations of Henry Ogle, 8 April 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 208r) and 2 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 264r); Examination of Robert Person, 18 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 262r); Examination of Nicholas Williams, 28 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 204r); Deposition of John Wisdome, 8 February 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 14r).

the delivery of longer sworn statements. Only William Duffeild and John Wisdome’s testimonies are found among the original depositions; for Portadown there are twice as many original depositions as Cromwellian examinations.11 The evidence from Lurgan is primarily eyewitness testimony rather than the hearsay evidence that proliferates in the Portadown depositions.12 In addition to providing higher quality eyewitness testimony, the predominance of Cromwellian examinations amongst the Lurgan material means that recorded memories are shaped by the time lag between the events of 1641 and their recall in 1653; by the radical transformation of Ireland after the rebellion was crushed and the country brought under the control of Lord Protector Cromwell; and by the particular context in which the examinants were being asked to remember in 1653, which was to provide evidence against two Irishmen, Neece McConwell and Owen Roe McKeene, who had been accused of participating in the assault. For their Protestant accusers as much as for the Catholics, the circumstances in which they were remembering in 1653 could not have been more different than the events they were recalling in 1641. Whereas in 1641, Catholics and Protestants alike might have felt they were witnessing the end to the Plantations, under Cromwell’s leadership the British colonial project in Ireland was now stronger than ever. Lurgan was a young Plantation town, founded by the Brownlow family in 1610, and is unreliably described in 1619 as ‘a very fair Town, consisting of 42 Houses, all of which are inhabited with English Families, and the streets all paved clean through; also two Water Mills, and a Wind Mill, all for corn; and he [William Brownlow] hath Store of Arms in his House … planted and estated on this Land … 57 [Brittish] Families … and not one Irish Family upon all the Land’.13 Sir William Brownlow (d. 1660) is characterised as a successful planter because he had ensured that the town was entirely British. Although the violence and displacements of the Ulster Plantation provided an important reason as to why Catholics took up arms in 1641, only one Protestant who recalls the assault on 11 12

Deposition of William Duffeild, 9 August 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 48r–49v); Deposition of John Wisdome, 8 February 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 14r). On Protestant memories of the mass drownings in Portadown, see Naomi McAreavey, ‘Portadown, 1641: Memory and the 1641 Depositions’, Irish University Review 47, No. 1 (2017): 15–31; and Naomi McAreavey, ‘Building Bridges? Remembering the 1641 Rebellion in Northern Ireland’, Memory Studies 11, no. 1 (2018): 100–14. Nicolas Pynnar’s 1619 survey printed in Kieran Clendinning, ‘The Brownlow Family and the Development of the Town of Lurgan in the 17th Century: Part I English Origin and the Ulster Plantation’, Seanchas Ard Mhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society 20, no. 1 (2004): 117.

Lurgan acknowledges this: Nicholas Williams testifies that he ‘thinks Rory Mc Cane was also there, for tha[t] he had a pretension of right to the Castle of lurgan’.14 None of the other examinants provide any motivation for the assault on Lurgan, with William Codd attributing the rebellion simply to ‘the Cruelty of the Irish’.15 Either way, the depositions indicate that the constitution of Lurgan was rather more complex than the observations of 1619 suggest. The assault on Lurgan occurred within weeks of the outbreak of the Ulster rebellion. Examinants say that Protestants from surrounding areas fled to Lurgan as Irish Catholics gathered with the intention of besieging the town. At least one warning was received by Sir William Brownlow, whose castle provided refuge to a number of displaced Protestants, and he agreed to surrender the castle to the Irish on the condition that the Protestants would be given safe convoy to Lisnegarvy (Lisburn). It is alleged, however, that the Irish immediately abandoned the terms of the agreement, stripping and robbing the Protestants and pillaging the castle. Brownlow was taken prisoner and the other Protestants fled the town for refuge elsewhere. Amongst the 1641 depositions are testimonies from Brownlow and other residents of the town, from Protestants who found temporary refuge there, and from two Irishmen accused of participating in the assault. There are differences in the way each examinant remembers the rebellion in Lurgan. The most significant divergences are between Catholics and Protestant accounts, of course, but there is also variation in the way the Protestants remember, which reflects their different interests and perspectives. This essay will look in detail at how the assault on Lurgan was variously remembered, recounted and recorded by these different deponents and examinants. There will be no attempt to weigh up the evidence in the hope of establishing the facts of the rebellion.16 Instead I will highlight the tensions, contradictions, gaps and ambiguities across the deposition evidence to offer a more nuanced account of how locals experienced and remembered the 1641 rebellion and its aftermath. In doing so, I will argue that what is unsaid is perhaps more important than what is said, and that these silences reveal a more complex history of seventeenth-century Ireland.

14 15 16

Examination of Nicholas Williams, 28 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 204r). Examination of William Codd, 3 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 268r). For this, see Thomas Fitzpatrick, ‘The Sack of “The Lurgan” (A study)’, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Second Series, 10, no. 4 (1904): 170–87.

LURGAN BESIEGED The depositions indicate that upon the outbreak of the rebellion, some of Brownlow’s tenants fled to the castle along with Protestant refugees from outside the town. Person says that he was ‘drawne into Sir Wiliam Brownlowes house his landlord for safetie’.17 Williams testifies that ‘he and his freinds … came from their dwelling house a mille and a half distant from Lurgan toune, and came to Sir Will. Brumleyes Castle together with many others’.18 Duffeild specifies that he and his wife and four children were among ‘about 50 howsholders & their familys’ who fled to Lurgan from the parish of Seagoe alone.19 Brownlow is represented as a significant source of succour for the Protestant settlers in and around Lurgan. We learn from a range of examinants that a large party of Irish Catholics were meanwhile gathering outside Lurgan with the intention of besieging the town. One of them, McKeene, admits that ‘a great number of the Irish of those parts’ gathered in Clanbrassil ‘with all such Armes, they could in soe short tyme finde out in the Country and encamped themselues within less than a mile to Lurgan’, while another, McConwell, specifies that they were ‘a party of two hundred men & upwards’.20 The Protestant witnesses do not estimate the number of Irish, but they do acknowledge the strength of the party. In his sworn testimony, Brownlow testifies that McConwell came to him ‘with a threatening messagde’ that the rebels had gathered ‘within a mile of Lurgan’ and were ‘armed ready prepared, & resolued to come to the towne of Lurgan, to destroy the said towne & the inhabitants thereof, if they would not depart and get them gon from thence in all hast’.21 McConwell’s words, as relayed by Brownlow, emphasize the superior power of the rebels (‘they did admire that hee durst [dared] presume or conceaue himself, to bee able or of force to withstand them, or hould his house against their power’); they highlight their previous successes (‘Haueing taken the Neury Ardmagh, with other townes, and lately destroyed and burnt Drummore, from whence they made the English and Scoch that came against them, to flee and run away’); and they threaten Brownlow that if he did not surrender the castle, ‘they would fall vpon them, and destroy them with fire and sword’.22 In bringing McConwell’s threatening words so vividly to life, Brownlow emphasizes his vulnerable position. Brownlow’s account is corroborated by some of his tenants who adopt similar wording. Gill testifes that McConwell’s message threatened ‘that 28

FIGURE 8 The 1641 Depositions archived at Trinity College Dublin can be accessed online at https://1641.tcd.ie/

17 18 19 20 21

Examination of Robert Person, 18 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 262r). Examination of Nicholas Williams, 28 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 204r). Deposition of William Duffeild, 9 August 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 48r). Examination of Owen Roe McKeene, 5 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 252r); Examination of Neece McConwell, 9 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 256r). Examination of William Brownlow, 24 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 266r). Examination of William Brownlow, 24 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 266r).

unless the towne and Castle were suddenly deliuered vp vnto the said partie, the[y] would destroy the Inhabitants and people of both, with fire and sword as they had done at dromore’.23 While Brownlow represents McConwell as a messenger carrying the words of the leading rebels, Gill accords more individual agency to McConwell. Whereas Brownlow recounts that McConwell said that ‘they did admire’ that Brownlow thought he could withstand the siege, Gill attributes the words to McConwell himself, specifying that ‘hee did wonder’.24 Gill also labels McConwell’s ‘maner’ as ‘scornefull’ and ‘Jeereing’ and even goes so far as to suggest that McConwell called Brownlow ‘soe simple’ for not immediately capitulating to his demands.25 McConwell is thus represented even more strongly as an aggressor, well able to intimidate Brownlow. McConwell himself admits that he delivered the message, but his statement provides only the bare details of its content, and instead emphasizes Brownlow’s response. In McConwell’s account, Brownlow is not cowed by the rebels’ threats but is defiant and determined to withstand the siege, even threatening that the Catholics ‘should bee hanged lyke Raugues and theeves as they are before that hee would deliuer either Towne or Castle vnto them’; the addition of ‘as they are’ in the second draft of the examination reinforces Brownlow’s name-calling.26 McConwell is given the opportunity to say why he was chosen to deliver the message to Brownlow and his response draws attention to something that is not explicitly acknowledged in any of the testimonies: that in 1641 he was a boy of just fourteen. His testimony suggests that he had little choice but to deliver the message, which was done in obedience to the will of his father and the rebel leader to whom he was sent. McConwell says that it had been his father who had been called to the camp, but his father, ‘not willing to goe himself’, sent his son instead.27 The rebel ‘wisht or Commanded’ McConwell bring the message to Brownlow, with the addition of ‘or Commanded’ in the second draft of the examination making a stronger case for the child McConwell’s experience of coercion.28

LURGAN PILLAGED AND BURNT There are different accounts of what happened when Lurgan was besieged, with examinants variously claiming that the town was burnt and pillaged and residents were imprisoned, assaulted and murdered. In his first, unsworn, statement, Brownlow testifies that the rebels came to Lurgan ‘and with fire, and sword burnt the Toune’, a phrase also adopted by Gill in his unsworn statement.29 The two prisoners, McKeene and McConwell, admit that Lurgan was ‘burnt’ but mention no swords.30 Duffeild speaks in 1642 of the ‘burning’ of Lurgan but also its ‘sacking’ and ‘pillageing’.31 McKeene speaks of the pillaging of Lurgan, saying that the party were directed by their leader to ‘plunder and bring to the Camp or Randivoues, all the English mens Cattle and goods’.32 He also says that the rebels acted with such ‘disorder’ that his own livestock was taken, and he was later unable to retrieve more than one cow and a small workhorse.33 He thus suggests that he shared losses with the Protestants. Duffeild claims that ‘twoe hundreth persons or thereabouts’ were imprisoned by the rebels, but this evidence is unique.34 McConwell denies knowledge ‘of any Murder comitted at the burneinge of the towne’, but McKeene makes no such claim (McKeene admits being there during the assault but McConwell denies it, saying he had returned to his father’s house).35 Brownlow testifies that the Irish ‘Murthered seauerall of the protestant inhabitants’ and names six men who died during the assault on Lurgan town and also uses the words ‘and seauerall others’ to imply a larger number of dead whom he is unable to identify.36 In his second, sworn, statement, Brownlow also makes the vague claim that the rebels ‘killed se u erall diuers [many] the people', but this time specifically names only three victims, without attempting to account for the difference in the two statements.37 In the sworn statement he points the finger of blame at the prisoners, McConwell and McKeene, but this is 29 30 31

23 24 25 26 27 28

Examination of Alexander Gill, 20 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 254r).

Examination of William Brownlow, 24 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 266r); Examination of Alexander Gill, 20 June 1653 (TCD MS 836 254r); emphasis added.

Examination of Alexander Gill, 20 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 254r).

Examination of Neece McConwell, 9 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 256r). Examination of Neece McConwell, 9 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 256r).

Examination of Neece McConwell, 9 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 256r).

Examination of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 202r); Examination of Alexander Gill, 8 April 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 209r). Examination of Owen Roe McKeene, 5 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 252r); Examination of Neece McConwell, 9 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 256r). Deposition of William Duffeild, 9 August 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 48v). Examination of Owen Roe McKeene, 5 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 252r). Examination of Owen Roe McKeene, 5 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 252r). Deposition of William Duffeild, 9 August 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 48v). Examination of Neece McConwell, 9 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 256r); Examination of Owen Roe McKeene, 5 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 252r). Examination of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 202r). Examination of William Brownlow, 24 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 266r).

only hearsay: he says only that he ‘doth verily and creddibly believe’ their guilt having ‘beene seuerall times informed and tould the same, dureing the time of his remaining prissoner in Ardmagh’.38 Gill, in his first, unsworn, statement, specifies that ‘about sixteene’ English people were murdered, and he names ten of these.39 Five of the victims named by Gill are also named by Brownlow; five are new names and include two women. One man is named by Brownlow but not by Gill. Speaking a decade earlier than Brownlow or Gill, Duffeild offers hearsay evidence that Protestants died during the assault on Lurgan, but he offers the lower number of ten and does not name any of the victims. He adds that he heard that the victims ‘were either wounded soe as they quickly thereof after dyed or otherwise were slaine outright’, which is more detail than any of the later examinants provide.40 Codd is the only examinant who offers eyewitness testimony of the murder of Protestants in Lurgan. He claims that he spent a day in the Irish camp, having been sent by Brownlow as a pledge, and offers three different accounts of his experiences. He says in his first testimony that ‘hee beheld the Corpes of severall Inglish men murderred, Amongst the rest was One Cutt all to peeces’.41 ‘The body of Mr John Davis one of the Cheife Inhabitants of Lurgan hee likewise beheld lyeing naked which hee knew verry well’, and he says that his request for the body to be buried was refused, and he is warned that ‘more such sights should be seen Ere long’.42 Although this is a Commonwealth examination, Codd tells some stories more commonly found in the original Dublin depositions – namely, the dismemberment of victims, the refusal to bury the corpses, and the threatening language of the rebels. There are telling differences between Codd’s first and third statements: the first names only John Davis but the third adds Thomas Ward; the first says only that Davis was ‘lyeing naked’ but the third that Davis and Ward were both ‘lyinge murthred in ther blood’, which paints a more colourful picture of the crime scene.43 Like Codd, McGinn also claims to have seen the bodies of some of the murdered men, and he names five victims including ‘Thomas the shomaker’.44 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

Examination of William Brownlow, 24 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 266r). Examination of Alexander Gill, 8 April 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 209r). Deposition of William Duffeild, 9 August 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 048r). Examination of William Codd, 3 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 244r). Examination of William Codd, 3 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 244r). Examinations of William Codd, 3 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 244r) and 3 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 268r). Examination of William McGinn, 2 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 245r).

ASSAULT ON BROWNLOW CASTLE Those present in the castle emphasize the terms agreed between Brownlow and the Irish. Brownlow himself says that the Irish agreed that ‘if we would surrender’ ‘they would convoye vs safe to Lisnegaruey [Lisburn], with what goods Wee would carry with vs and each man [ ] to goe with his sword, and apparell’.45 He indicates that the terms were good – both for himself and the people under his protection – and that he expected them to be honoured, and therefore that he acted in accordance with his responsibilities as landlord. At the same time, Brownlow uses the first person plural in order to suggest that he did not make the decision alone, but with the agreement of all those in the castle. He also uses the passive voice: instead of saying they surrendered the castle, he admits only that ‘wee consented to deliuer the house’, thus emphasizing the limited agency of the Protestants.46 He justifies their surrender by saying that they had ‘noe manner of fire Armes, nor amunition, wherby wee might defend our selues’.47 He also stresses the vulnerability of the people under his protection, which he describes as ‘many poore stript men, women and children’, saying that they lacked ‘Liuelihood’ – or provisions – ‘in regard of our sudden surprisall’ to sustain everyone through a siege.48 Bradley and Codd testify that they were present when the terms of the surrender were agreed and they broadly verify Brownlow’s account, although unlike Brownlow neither attempts to explain or justify the surrender, which suggests that Brownlow felt a greater need to defend his actions. The Protestants testify that the Catholics abandoned their agreement as soon as they gained entry to the castle and – according to Brownlow, who was not an eyewitness – ‘plundered the house, stript the people, and in a cruell manner Murthered seauerall of them’.49 Gill, who was an eyewitness to the assault, claims that upon entering the castle the Catholics ‘presently fell to stripping and plundering of the people and goods in it’, but he does not claim that there was any other violence or any deaths.50 Codd and Bradley also offer eyewitness testimony, and

45 46 47 48 49 50

Examination of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 202r). Examination of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 202r). Examination of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 202r). Examination of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 202r). Examination of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 202r). Examination of Alexander Gill, 20 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 254r).

although neither claims that any of the English died in the castle they do speak of violence. Whereas Codd says that the Irish ‘fell to stripp and beat downe the Inglish’, Bradley says in the first draft of his statement that they ‘fell to strip and plunder the Inglish and knocked them down’, and then in the second draft embellishes further by saying that they ‘knocked pushed and threw them down to the ground’.51 The multiplication of verbs in Bradley’s revised testimony creates a more chaotic scene, but once the rhetorical flourishes are stripped away, he actually provides no more information than Codd. All three eyewitnesses identify McKeene as a participant in the assault, and Bradley provides the further detail that McKeene entered the house carrying a shotgun.52

ESCAPE FROM LURGAN The Protestants testify that they then escaped the castle for refuge in other towns. Duffeild, speaking in 1642, provides a longer chronology than that of the Cromwellian examinants. He offers a story that is ubiquitous in the original depositions: his family are driven from their home, robbed and stripped, experience a traumatic journey as they flee from danger, encounter deaths on the way, eventually find safety but continue to endure poverty. He says that he ‘and his family fled to Knockfergus: & from t where 2 of this deponents children dyed by cold & want haveing beene [ ] stripped as aforesaid: and from thence this deponent and his wiffe and the rest 2 of of the children fledd into England’ where they remain ‘in greate wante’.53 Among the Cromwellian examinants, Codd says that he and his wife and children, who had been ‘stript Naked’ in the castle, ‘ffledd’ towards Lisnegarvey (Lisburn) and on the way ‘saw one Mr Giles whitehead whoe was in Sir Will iam Brownlows house when it was yeelded murtherd near Sir william Brownlowes house when aboute one houre after Sir williams house was yelded’.54 He seems to mean that he saw the man’s murdered body rather than the murder itself. In a story that is more common in the original depositions than the Commonwealth examinations, and entirely unique in accounts of Lurgan, Codd also testifies to seeing, near Brownlow’s mill, ‘about three

or foure scoore litle Children lying stickinge and lyinge in the Myre, wher this Examinat veryly beleeues they all perrished’.55 Other examinants testify against McKeene specifically. Person says that as he and his wife and two children ‘and other poore English’ fled towards Lisburn, they were met by McKeene ‘and about a duzen more of the Irish’ where they were stripped and he himself was wounded in the head and left ‘for dead’. He specifically says that the wound was not inflicted by McKeene, naming a Hugh McCann as the perpetrator, although McKeene had ‘threatened att that tyme to shoote’ him. He says that ‘he did nott hear of anie other of the said stript people that was wounded or kild, att that tyme’.56 Person’s fellow Lurgan townsman, Ogle, goes further than Person by claiming in his first, unsworn, statement that McKeene did not just threaten to shoot the Protestants but discharged his weapon against them and missed. He says that McKeene then ‘strive[d] to kill them with his sword’ but was prevented by another named Irishman.57 In his second, sworn, statement, Ogle further testifies that he and his family, as well as Person and his family, were stripped by McKeene and his party, corroborating Person’s statement. He repeats that McKeene ‘mist [missed] fire’, but this time says that McKeene aimed his weapon at the ‘Examinantes brest’. He further testifies that after the misfire, McKeene attacked him, not with a sword but with a skein – the Gaelic for knife, which as the signature weapon of the rebels (at least according to the depositions) is deeply resonant.58 For his part, McKeene admits to seeing Ogle and Person, whom he evidently knew, ‘2 or 3 dayes after the Towne was burnt’. He denies being in possession of a firearm at the time, saying that the musket he was given for the assault on the castle had been returned. He specifies that Person had been ‘cutt in the head or shoulder with a sword’ and names the same perpetrator (Hugh McCann) as Person does.59 None of the eyewitnesses accuse McKeene of inflicting violence, but another examinant, Bradley, accuses him – on the authority of a now-dead Irishman – of hanging his brother-in-law ‘on a tree and after threw his body into a dich’.60 Although this evidence is unique, it exposes the primary purpose of this subset of Cromwellian examinations, which was to convict McKeene and McConwell. 55

51 52 53 54

Examination of William Codd, 3 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 268r); Examination of James Bradley, 21 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 261r).

Examination of James Bradley, 21 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 261r).

Deposition of William Duffeild, 9 August 1642 (TCD, MS 836, 48r).

Examination of William Codd, 3 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 268r).

Examination of William Codd, 3 June 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 268r). Examination of Robert Person, 18 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 262r). Examination of Henry Ogle, 8 April 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 208r). Examination of Henry Ogle, 2 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 264r). Examination of Owen Roe McKeene, 5 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 252r). Examination of James Bradley, 21 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 261r).

CONCLUSION There is significant variation in the way deponents and examinants recall the assault on Lurgan. Together they tell us that the town and castle were taken by Catholics on 1 or 2 November. They reveal that between two and ten Protestants were killed in the process and many more were stripped, robbed and forced to flee their homes. They indicate that at least two Catholics were examined and probably tried and executed for their involvement in rebel activity in Lurgan. They also show that Sir William Brownlow and his family survived the 1640s under the protection of the Catholic Confederates, and that Lurgan was resettled by Protestants in the early Cromwellian period (since a number of examinants go on to testify from the town in the 1650s). But they do not tell us how many people were killed on both sides or whether the killing of Protestants was deliberate. The depositions also reveal little about Brownlow and his family. Brownlow himself testifies in his first, unsworn, account that he with his wife and children were ‘sent in a most sadd condicion to Ardmagh’, and from thence to Dungannon, where they remained prisoners ‘vntill a partie of the Inglish Army, came to Charlemount, at which tyme it pleased god to sett me at Libertie’.61 Even less information on his imprisonment is provided in his sworn testimony.62 McKeene verifies Brownlow’s account, saying that Toole McRory McCann ‘sent Sir William to Ardmagh prissoner, and from thence by further orders, hee was sent to dungannon prisson’.63 None of the examinations tell us why Brownlow was imprisoned or the circumstances of his imprisonment. Nor do they tell us whether he made any attempt to withstand the siege in the first place. Thanks to Clendinning’s research we know that Brownlow was married to a Gaelic Irishwoman: Elinor O’Dogherty, of Inishowen, Co. Donegal.64 The couple had three daughters, Lettice (1612–99), Rose and Elinor, who

were likely to have been raised in the Catholicism of their mother. Lettice’s first three marriages were to Gaelic and Old English Catholics, and her eldest son, Arthur Chamberlain (1645–1711), who became his grandfather’s heir, was an Irish scholar and collector of Gaelic manuscripts. Clendinning’s research has also shown that the Confederate commander, Owen Roe O’Neill, was Lady Elinor’s uncle by marriage, and the Brownlows were related to the O’Hanlons who attacked Lurgan.65 Sir William Brownlow was evidently a man whose family’s English Protestant credentials were far from secure, and this was a dangerous place to be in Cromwellian Ireland. ‘Lorgann Towne’ is depicted in the map of the barony of Oneilan, Co. Armagh, as part of the Down Survey of Ireland (1656–8) (see figures 9 and 10).66 The primary purpose of this survey was to measure the lands confiscated from Gaelic and Old English Catholic families, as well as Protestant royalists, in order to facilitate it’s redistribution to Cromwellian soldiers and Merchant Adventurers. The influx of these ‘New Protestant’ settlers during the 1650s put pressure on earlier generations of settlers, especially the likes of Brownlow who had extensive kinship relationships with Gaelic and Old English Catholics, and whose conduct before, during and in the aftermath of the 1641 rebellion might not be beyond reproach. Brownlow’s memories – and those of his friends and supporters – are therefore shaped by the need to emphasize his honourable conduct during the siege of Lurgan, and other details that might throw doubt on this are simply forgotten. These details are as important as those which are remembered and recorded, but finding them involves looking beyond the depositions themselves to other historical evidence. By attending to the gaps in deposition memories, life in the Ulster Plantation towns of the mid-seventeenth century is revealed to be much more complex and nuanced than the depositions at first suggest.

65 61 62 63 64

Examination of William Brownlow, 26 February 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 202r). Examination of William Brownlow, 24 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 266r).

Clendinning, ‘The Brownlow Family Part II’, pp. 119–20. Trinity College Dublin, ‘The Barony of Onealand in Ardmagh County’, The Down Survey of Ireland, http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php#bm=Oneilan&c=Armagh.

Examination of Owen Roe McKeene, 5 May 1653 (TCD, MS 836, 252r). Kieran Clendinning, ‘The Brownlow Family and the Development of the Town of Lurgan in the 17th Century: Part II William Brownlow and the Formation of the Manor of Brownlowsderry’, Seanchas Ard Mhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society 20, no. 2 (2005): 106–7.

FIGURE 9 Facsimile copy of the map 'The Barony of Onealand in Ardmagh County', which formed part of the Down Survey of Ireland (1656-8) overseen by William Petty.

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queens University Belfast.

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FIGURE 10 Detail of 'Lorgann Towne' from a facsimile copy of the map 'The Barony of Onealand in Ardmagh County', which formed part of the Down Survey of Ireland (1656-8) overseen by William Petty.

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Special Collections & Archives, Queens University Belfast.

LURGAN IN ACTION 1660–1713 David Weir Education and Activities Officer, Lurgan Townscape Heritage Initiative The following essay is partly based on a talk entitled ‘Lurgan in Action: 1660–1713’, which was given by the eminent Lurgan historian Dr. Francis McCorry on Monday, 11 November 2019 in the Friends (Quaker) Meeting House, Lurgan. I am grateful to Dr McCorry for providing me with permission to produce the article. Any mistakes in the text are, however, attributable to the current author.

EARLY CHALLENGES Sir William Brownlow, the original grantee of the Manor of Brownlowsderry, first arrived in Ulster in 1610 at the age of nineteen.1 Enthusiastic and determined, Brownlow had by 1640 established the basic infrastructure of a Plantation village named Lurgan, at the heart of his rural manor. Brownlow’s other ambitions for his estate’s development were, however, hindered by the high turnover within the colonist population, a result of the desertion of English tenants, wearied by the arduous labour demands required to convert wooded townlands into tillage farms.2 The subsequent Irish uprising of 1641 brought great hardship to the manor, with much of its tenantry scattered, its cattle, the mainstay of the economy, seized and the fledgling village’s fabric destroyed.3 Robbed of tenants and rental income, Brownlow’s debts rose in the aftermath, while a lingering sense of unease ensured his manor’s development faltered during the 1640s and 1650s. How the Brownlow family recovered their manor’s fortunes is the subject of the remainder of this essay. 1

FIGURE 11 Dr. Francis X. McCorry provided the final lecture of our series, entitled ‘Lurgan in Action, 1670-1713’, in the Lurgan Friends (Quaker) Meeting House on 11 November 2019.

The Manor of Brownlowsderry was formed on 29 June 1629 from the amalgamation of the manors of Doughcoran and Ballynemony, which were originally granted to John and William Brownlow in 1610. William took over both manors in 1616 following the death of his father, John. For detailed accounts of these years, see Francis Xavier McCorry, Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town 1610–1970, reprint, Lurgan: Inglewood Press, 2010, pp. 1–11; and Kieran Clendinning, ‘The Brownlow Family and the Development of the Town of Lurgan in the 17th Century, Part II: William Brownlow and the Formation of the Manor of Brownlowsderry’, Seanchas Ard Mhaca: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society 20, no. 2 (2005): 112–21. For a full account on Lurgan and the 1641 Uprising, see Thomas Fitzpatrick, ‘The Sack of “The Lurgan”’, in ‘1641 (A study)’, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Second Series, 10, no. 4 (1904): 170–87.

REVIVAL

SUCCESSION

Two events can be identified which mark the beginning of the gradual

Sir William Brownlow died in 1660, aged sixty-nine. Lacking any direct male heirs, William nominated his grandson Arthur Chamberlain, as his successor. Arthur was the son of William’s eldest daughter, Lettice, by her second marriage to Patrick Chamberlain of Nizelrath, County Louth. The Chamberlains were an Old English family who had retained the Catholic faith.9 Providing additional evidence of the Brownlow’s pragmatic approach to matters of religion, the marriage would prove an astute arrangement, as through Arthur, the Chamberlain estate fell into the Brownlows’ possession.10 By the conditions of William’s will, Arthur was required to adopt the name Brownlow to inherit the manor; a provision he partially complied with, styling himself henceforth ‘Arthur Brownlow als. Chamberlain’.11 Arthur was also required to convert to the Anglican faith, but the retention of the Chamberlain name suggests a considerable affection for his heritage.12

restoration of the Manor of Brownlowsderry. The first was the somewhat fortuitous arrival of William Edmundson, a former Cromwellian soldier from Westmoreland, who opened a shop in Lurgan in 1654.4 A convert to the non-conformist group known as the Religious Society of Friends (or more informally, Quakers), Edmundson also here founded the first Quaker Meeting in Ireland. The meeting soon attracted other Quakers and converts from among the settler population, much to the displeasure of Brownlow’s Anglican tenants.5 No religious zealot, Brownlow ignored their calls for the Quakers’ expulsion, a decision which his successor would reap the benefits of.6 Buoyed by the arrival of these new settlers, Brownlow began to forwardplan for his estate’s future success, leading to the second significant event which is evidenced in his will of 1660. Here it states that in 1657 Brownlow had agreed to mortgage his manor as security to obtain a £3,600 loan from the financier Sir Robert Parkhurst.7 The loan, an enormous amount of liquid capital for the time, allowed Brownlow to settle his debts and provided the funds necessary to further the

stewardship of Brownlowsderry was coming to an end.

Arthur, trained as a lawyer, officially took control of his inheritance in 1666 at his coming of age (twenty-one). As with most landlords, his principal objective was to attract rent-paying tenants to settle on his lands and develop them. Potential tenants were in good supply, for during the second half of the seventeenth century Ulster’s population

development of his estate.8 The timing of the loan also suggests a considerable degree of confidence in his successor’s ability to make use of the windfall, for the aging Brownlow must have been aware that his

5 6 7

STRATEGY

For an account of William Edmundson’s life, see Kenneth L. Carroll, ‘William Edmundson: Ireland’s First Quaker’, Journal of the Friends Historical Society 60, no. 1 (2003): 25–35. George R. Chapman, ‘Quaker Meeting Places in the Lurgan Area in the 17th Century’, Review: Journal of the Craigavon Historical Society 2, no. 1 (1971). McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, pp. 12, 18. Extract from the will of Sir William Brownlow contained within the Brownlow Papers archived at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI Ref: D1928/T/3/1) and printed in Clendinning, ‘The Brownlow Family Part II’, p. 123: ‘Wheras by deed dated December 2nd 1657, for £3,600 which I owe to Robert Parkhurst, of Piford, County Surrey, I have made over my manor of Brownlow’s Derry, in County Armagh, for 21 years commencing June 1st next … He will accept £300 per year for 12 years in satisfaction of said debt.’ The details of the loan are unclear, as it is also possible that the mortgaging of the Manor of Brownlowsderry was instigated to pay back a loan William Brownlow had originally obtained in 1635 from Robert Parkhurst’s grandfather, the former Lord Mayor of London, also called Robert Parkhurst. For this argument, see Clendinning, ‘The Brownlow Family Part II’, p. 118.

For further information on the Chamberlain family, see T. G. F. Paterson, ‘A Survey of the Lands of Niselrath’, Louth Archaeological Journal 10, no. 4 (1944): 318–26; and T. G. F. Paterson, ‘The Chamberlains of Niselrath’, Louth Archaeological Journal 11, no. 3 (1947): 175–85. Indeed William Brownlow himself had allied with the Gaelic O’Doherty family, Lords of Inishowen, through his second marriage to Elinor O’Dogherty in 1622. For further information on the diversity of the Brownlow family’s religious affiliations, see Kieran Clendinning, ‘The Brownlow Family and the Development of the Town of Lurgan in the 17th Century, Part I: English Origin and the Ulster Plantation’, Seanchas Ard Mhaca: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society 20, no. 1 (2004): 100–23 (esp. pp. 110–11). Extract from the will of Sir William Brownlow (PRONI Ref: D1928/T/3/1) and printed in Clendinning, ‘The Brownlow Family, Part II’, pp. 123–4: ‘I devise the said Manor of Brownlowsderry and all the parts and members thereof unto Arthur Chamberlain my Grandchild and to his heirs for ever … Provided the said Arthur Chamberlain, my grandchild, do from and after my death change his surname of Chamberlain unto Brownlow … and shall use my coat of arms for their seal and signature in remembrance of me the said Sir Wm Brownlow.’ Arthur Brownlow’s Catholic background was also reflected in his interests, which included the collection of Irish manuscripts. On this see Raymond Gillespie and Bernadette Cunningham, ‘An Ulster settler and his Irish manuscripts’, Éigse 21 (1986): 27–36.

expanded rapidly, driven mainly by the arrival of immigrants from the north-west of England and Scotland.13 Finding and retaining reliable tenants was the difficulty, for competition between landlords and the resulting low rents meant that the Ulster population was at this time a highly mobile one. The leasebook of Arthur Brownlow provides an insight into the strategy he developed to overcome the problem.14 New arrivals to Brownlowsderry were in the main offered short leases (usually three to fifteen years in length). As Raymond Gillespie notes in his analysis of the leasebook, this essentially functioned as a vetting system, allowing Arthur to assess the quality of a tenant before offering a longer-term lease. This increasingly took the form of a three life lease renewable, in which a lease was valid for the lifetimes of three nominated people. Effectively making land inheritable among tenants, the three life lease provided security of tenure, which in turn encouraged tenant loyalty. By the early 1700s the population on Brownlowsderry gradually stabilised, allowing Arthur to overcome the problem of tenant desertion which his grandfather had faced.15 Reflective of the more committed tenantry was their fulfilment of the demanding clauses which Arthur inserted into leases which mandated the development of his manor. In Lurgan, land on both sides of the main street was divided into long strips, known as tenements, originally averaging 98 feet wide by 650 feet in length. Tenement leases required tenants to build houses of specified dimensions which faced onto the main street, plant trees and enclose ground. Typical of such leases is that issued to John Watson, which required him ‘to build a house 30 fooet long 20 foot broad 9 foot high rough casted with lime with a bricke or stone chimney to plant 6 appletrees 4 plumb trees 2 cherrie trees and the same to sett with ditch and quicksets of whitethorn with siccamores 10 yards assunder’.16 As a result of such stipulations, Lurgan began to grow south-eastwardly in an orderly and uniform manner, with the main street taking the shape

which it retains today. By ordering the planting of trees and specifying construction materials, Arthur also ensured his town would project a prosperous, attractive appearance. In the rural parts of Brownlowsderry, tenants were often faced with further burdensome demands which focused on land improvement and transformation. William Copeland’s lease of land in Tegnevan (Taghnevan), for instance, required him ‘to stubb and cleare 2 acre meadow 2 of pasture and 4 arrable’, while John Langtry’s lease of land in Donegreigh (Donagreagh) stipulated that he was to ‘trench and scour boggs ’.17 Through his leases Arthur also rigorously controlled the exploitation of the valuable and plentiful wood and turf supplies on his estate, granting his tenants only limited rights to their use.18

NEW HORIZONS The onerous obligations which Arthur required of his tenants, additional to rent, were costly and their fulfilment required the generation of reliable sources of income. Cattle and crop farming were the principal occupations on Brownlowsderry, but their weather-dependent nature, combined with fluctuating market demands, made for an uncertain existence. In response, Arthur encouraged the development of new sources of employment, which could supplement his tenants’ income during lean years. Two commercial specialisations prevailed. The first, leather-making, owed much to Arthur’s grandfather, William, who in 1652 had leased seven townlands in the Montiaghs to a trio of tanners, attracted to the area by the availability of oak bark and water, both necessary agents for tanning (the process of turning animal hide/skin into leather).19 The industry generated jobs in the specialised skills of bark-peeling and 17

13 14

15 16

On population estimates, see Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, pp. xvi–xxv’; and McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, pp. 14–16. The leasebook (1667–1711) of Arthur Brownlow is contained within the Brownlow Papers archived at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI Ref: D1928/L/1/13A). For a transcription of the leasebook and an analysis of its historical importance, see Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’. Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, pp. liii–lvi. Extract of tenement lease (roughly corresponding to 9–13 High Street today) from Arthur Brownlow to John Watson (25 March 1666), contained in the Brownlow leasebook (pp. 24–5) and reprinted in Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, p. 28.

Extract of lease from Arthur Brownlow to William Copeland (10 April 1666), contained in the Brownlow leasebook (p. 30) and reprinted in Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, p. 33; and extract of lease from Arthur Brownlow to John Langtry (10 December 1686), contained in the Brownlow leasebook (p. 63) and reprinted in Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, p. 67. For further information on the management of woodland on Brownlowsderry, see W. H. Crawford, ‘The Woodlands of the Manor of Brownlow’s-Derry, North Armagh, in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, Ulster Folklife 10 (1964): 57–64. The lease granted by Arthur Brownlow to John Waring of Derrieaghie, Thomas Waring of Belfast and Thomas Anderson of Lurgan (26 October 1652), contained in the Brownlow leasebook (pp. 39–40) and reprinted in Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, pp. 44–5, granted them ‘free libertie of ingress egress and regress to cut fell carry away, and make vse of all woods growing theron by Barking sale or otherwise for 21 yeares’.

tanning, as well as labouring jobs such as tree-felling and carting. Under Arthur the tanning industry continued to grow, with several tanneries established in and around Lurgan by the early 1700s.20 In part this growth was fuelled by demand from the fast growing port of Belfast, where tanned hides formed a principal export.21 Among those taking advantage of the new opportunities generated were the Quaker families of the Bells, Kirks and Matthews.22 Arthur, following the example, and perhaps advice, of his grandfather, had continued to allow the Quakers to settle on the manor. By the 1690s at least fourteen Quaker families are recorded as living in Lurgan, with several more residing in the surrounding Lough shore and Moyraverty areas.23 William and Arthur’s tolerance and foresight were rewarded, for these Quakers, although small in number, were central to the introduction of linen manufacture to the manor. Hailing mainly from the textile manufacturing counties of Lancashire, Northumberland and Yorkshire, a number of Quakers naturally turned to the weaving of locally produced linen yarn to make a living.24 Similar to the more lauded impact the Huguenots had in Lisburn and Waringstown, the Quakers provided the injection of outside expertise necessary to stimulate the emergence of commercial weaving on Brownlow’s estate.25 Allied to the Quaker skill, were the keen instincts of the landlord Arthur, who quickly spotted the potential of linen manufacture as an ancillary trade for his rural tenantry. Flax could be grown, processed and woven into linen fabric at home, alongside the farming routine. Provisions were included within leases ordering tenants ‘to sow hemp or flax’ on their land.26 To further encourage his tenantry to take up the craft, Arthur established a linen market house at the north end of Lurgan’s main street, where he claimed to have ‘bought up everything that was brought

to the market of Cloath’.27 Although initially making a loss, the gamble paid off, for an increasing number of his tenants, spurred on by the guarantee of a return, turned to weaving to supplement their income. By 1682 it could be said that in Lurgan was ‘managed the greatest Linnen manufacture in Ireland’.28 The purchase, finishing and marketing of linen was soon dominated by the Lurgan based Quaker linen drapers, who through their closely knit network of meetings were able to access the lucrative linen markets in Dublin and further afield. Robert Hoope, a tailor who had arrived in Lurgan from Yorkshire in 1660, is the earliest known such draper, first described as such in 1696. He accrued such wealth for his family through the trade that his son, John, was in 1706 able to join with the landlord Arthur to purchase the nearby Manor of Richmount, contributing £3,000 to the total £13,000 cost.29 The acquisition demonstrated the close relationship which had developed between Arthur and the Quakers. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, for Arthur received tolls from linen sales at the market, while the Quakers received help in the advancement of the trade, which increasingly focused on developing Lurgan’s linen bleaching capacity. To this end, Arthur had the insignificant Flush River deepened to increase the volume of raw linen which could be bleached. As McCorry remarks, it was no coincidence that the new Quaker Meeting House and graveyard, erected in 1696, was subsequently sited near the Flush River at the south end of Lurgan’s main street, for water was a key requirement of the bleaching process. Indeed the minutes of the Lurgan Quaker Meeting held on 16 January 1698 record the presence of a bleachyard and bucking shed on a plot of ground sandwiched between the Quaker graveyard and Flush River, which had been leased to the Quaker Ninian Simpson.30

27 20 21 22 23 24 25

McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, pp. 13, 24–5. Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, p. xxxiv. See Arthur Chapman, ‘Lurgan’s early Quaker settlement’, Review: Journal of the Craigavon Historical Society 9, no. 3 (2010–11): 14–15. McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, p. 17. McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, pp. 17–18.

28 29 30

Extract from Samuel Molyneux, ‘Journey to the North, August 7th, 1708’, Corpus of Electronic Texts, University College Cork, 2014, p. 154, https://celt.ucc.ie//published/ E700002-002.html R. M. Young and William Brooke, ‘An Account of the Barony of O’Neiland, Co. Armagh, in 1682’, Ulster Journal of Archaeology 4, no. 4 (July 1898), p. 241. Crawford, ‘Domestic Impact’, p. 34; and Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, p. xxx. McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, p. 24; and Crawford, ‘Domestic Impact’, p. 14.

For a comprehensive account of the development of commercial linen-weaving in Ulster and the impact of the Quakers, see W. H. Crawford, The Impact of the Domestic Linen Industry in Ulster, Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2005. Example extract of lease of land of Kilnargett (Silverwood) from Arthur Brownlow to Captain William Jones (1 November 1672), contained in the Brownlow leasebook (p. 30) and reprinted in Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, pp. 59–60.

PROSPERITY AND TRIBULATION The linen and leather trades brought great cohesion and prosperity to Arthur’s sprawling manor, now bounded together through the marketing centre of Lurgan. Indeed, reflecting the success of Arthur’s strategy was Lurgan’s growth, from forty-six houses recorded in the 1664 Shankill Church Parish Cess to ninety-nine houses in the 1693 Parish Cess. An arbitrary examination of the names on the 1693 Parish Cess suggest that the town was diverse in its make-up, with sixty-eight Anglican (Church of Ireland), fifteen Quaker, fourteen Presbyterian and two Catholic households (see appendix 3).31 Further evidence of the town’s mix is provided by a reference to a visiting Quaker missionary, Katherine Norton, who in 1678 was said to have ‘preached in Lurgan market on a marketday in Irish’.32 The rising wealth of the town was reflected in the growth of market customs from £5 in 1658 to £10 in 1675, £14 in 1682 and £30 by 1702.33 That the burgeoning linen industry was primarily responsible for the town’s remarkable advance is illustrated by Samuel Molyneux’s observation that Lurgan was in 1708 the ‘greatest mart of Linnen Manufactories in the North, being almost entirely peopled with Linnen Weavers’.34 Yet success brought new challenges. The sustained influx of new settlers to the manor between 1670 and 1710 resulted in demand for land soaring. Two trends resulted. In the rural parts of the manor the native Irish, lacking security of tenure, were increasingly pushed to the boggy margins of Brownlowsderry, losing their leases of favourable land to the incoming migrants.35 Meanwhile in Lurgan, where space for expansion was severely restricted by the Pound River to the west, the Derry bog to the east and the glebe land in Shankill and Aghnacloy to the north, existing tenements were from the late 1670s onwards increasingly subdivided to cater for demand. When this response proved inadequate, Arthur permitted new development in Lurgan, by allowing the merchant Jonathan Gilbert to 31 32 33 34 35 35

McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, pp. 14, 22–6. Thomas Wight and John Rutty, A History of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers in Ireland from the Year 1653 to 1700, 2nd edition, London: William Philips, 1800, p. 129. Printed in Crawford ‘Domestic Impact’, pp. 11–12.

build onto the end of the market house in 1695.36 The decision proved a mistake, as subsequent extensions in 1709, 1716 and 1725 resulted in the creation of the Middle Row, a middle-of-the-street development which became to be regarded as a gross disfigurement of Arthur’s carefully planned town.37 Inevitably sub-tenancy prevailed in the town, as Brownlow’s tenants profited from the situation by subletting their tenements to incoming migrants. Unplanned developments arose, which by the nineteenth century resulted in the creation of a maze of inferior streets, courts and dwellings hidden behind Lurgan’s main street. Ever aware, Arthur took steps to ensure that such actions did not hinder long established rights of way, as can be seen in the clause contained in a tenement lease granted to Abell Porter in 1703: ‘Arthur reserves free liberty of clear passage or way from the Street of Lurgan of the breadth of 8 feet all along the premises to that of the said tenement or land beyond the River or Stream to pass and trespass with horses, cows and Carrs.’38 Repeated in a series of leases, this stipulation gave rise to the elongated narrow gateways that are characteristic of the town’s streetscape today. Lurgan’s expansion also brought with it additional administrative and maintenance burdens, with tithes to be collected, roads maintained, disputes settled, orphans reared, poor cared for and the dead buried. Recognising the problem, and the limitations of the manorial court system to deal with such issues, Arthur turned to the Shankill Church of Ireland Vestry.39 Consisting of the principal citizens of the manor, and representing the Anglican majority, the Vestry was ready-made to fulfil the role of local administrative body.40 Arthur assumed the chairmanship of the Vestry, at the expense of the rector, which proved a shrewd move as it not only invested the body with authority, but also 36

37 38

Molyneux, ‘Journey to the North’, p. 154. McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, pp. 25, 34–35. McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, pp. 25, 34–35.

Extract of lease from Arthur Brownlow to Jonathan Gilbert (25 January 1695), contained in Brownlow leasebook (p. 109) reprinted in Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, p. 135: ‘20 foot in the street adjoineing to the market house stairs leased to Jonathan Gilbert for the liues of his wife Ann, and Stephens and Jonathan junior his sons … he to build equall to the market house and cover stairs.’ McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, p. 30. Extract from the lease of a tenement (roughly corresponding to 39-41 High Street today) from Arthur Brownlow to Abell Porter (2 September 1703), reproduced in McCorry, 'Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town', p. 31. On manorial courts, see Gillespie, ‘Settlement and Survival’, pp. vi–lix; and Dr. F. X. McCorry, ‘Court Leet records of the Manor of Brownlows Derry’, Review: Journal of the Craigavon Historical Society 10, no. 2 (2014–15): 30–7. McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, pp. 16, 20–1.

allowed Arthur to quell any misgivings that his Anglican tenants may have had about his Catholic background, the growing Quaker community and the establishment (in 1684) of a Presbyterian congregation within the town. Among the Vestry’s most painful duties in its early years was overseeing the response to an alarming rise in child mortality in the autumn and winter months of 1708 and 1713, with the Shankill Parish Burial Registers recording ninety-six and sixty-three child (under the age of ten) deaths respectively. A smallpox outbreak was the most likely cause.41 The stark realities of urban dwelling – poverty, open sewers, town slaughterhouses and inadequate waste disposal – ensured that disease and hardship would increase alongside Lurgan’s continued expansion through the eighteenth century; an unfortunate accompaniment to Arthur’s accomplishment in reviving the fortunes of his manor.

CONCLUSION Arthur Chamberlain Brownlow died in 1711 and was succeeded by his second son, William. Over fifty years, Arthur had, through diligence, instinct and tolerance, restored the fortunes of the Manor of Brownlowsderry. His success owed much to the foundation established by his grandfather, William, and the enterprise of his Quaker tenants, which allowed Arthur to formulate a strategy to realise his manor’s potential. The emergence of Lurgan as a chief linen market town in Ulster symbolised his achievement, and one which Arthur was notably proud of. In an unsuccessful petition of 1703 to Queen Anne, in which he requested that Lurgan’s advancement be recognised through the granting of two burgesses who could represent the town in the Irish Parliament, he asserted:

FIGURE 12 Part of the Middle Row, Market Street, Lurgan, prior to its demolition in c.1885.

Image reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Ireland.

'The said town of Lurgan is a large village consisting of a great many stone houses well shingled and finished and abounding with a great number of British inhabitants, who are industrious and trading people, and have considerably advanced and improved several manufacturies, and especially the linen manufacture there, and is, as they conceive, one of the most thriving, flourishing villages and most considerable market towns of… Ulster.’ 42

41 42

McCorry, ‘Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town’, pp. 51–6. R. P. Mahaffy (ed.), Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Anne, 1703–4, London: His Majesty’s Stationary, 1924, pp. 219–52, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers domestic/anne/1703-4/pp219-252

FIGURE 13 Margery’s Lane, off Market Street, Lurgan, c.1895. Image reproduced by kind permission of Craigavon Museum Services. As Lurgan’s population grew through the 18th and 19th centuries, tenants on Lurgan’s main street took advantage of the rising demand for accommodation by erecting housing to the rear of their properties. Over time such unplanned development resulted in the creation of a labyrinth of inferior courts and streets hidden behind the facade of the main street such as Margery’s Lane. Entry to these streets was provided via gateways from the main street which were a result of stipulations that guaranteed rights-of-way contained within lease agreements. Many of these gateways can still be seen on Lurgan’s main street today.

FIGURE 14 Dwelling in Margery’s Lane, off Market Street, Lurgan, c.1895. Image reproduced by kind permission of Craigavon Museum Services.

APPENDIX 1 Tenants of William Brownlow, 1622 The following list of William Brownlow's tenants was collected as part of a survey investigating the progress of the Plantation in Armagh and Tyrone, entitled 'A Breif Survey of the present Estate of the Plantacons in the Counties of Ardmagh and Tyrone, taken by the Ld Caulfied & Sr. Dudley Diggs, & Sr. Nathaniell Rich, Knts, Anno Dm. 1622'. The list is reproduced from Victor Treadwell (ed.), The Irish Commission of 1622: An Investigation of the Irish Administration, 1615–22, and Its Consequences 1623-24, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, pp. 552-555, by kind permission of the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

A note of the names of all the tenants of William Brownlowe, esquire’, endorsed ‘Mr Brownlowe’s 1,500 near Lurgan: his certificate of 5 Aug. 1622 for Clonbrasill’ Name

Occupation

Property

Lease term

Henry Hunter

husbandman

House + 40 acres

21 years

John Longhorne

husbandman

House + 11 acres

21 years

Thomas Fead

cooper

House + 22 acres

21 years

William Poyntz

joiner

House + 11 acres

21 years

Thomas Webbe

joiner

House + 11 acres

21 years

Ra. Calvert

yeoman

House + 11 acres

21 years

John Boseman

butcher

House + 30 acres

21 years

William Hooker

husbandman

House + 100 acres

21 years

Mark Clifford

gentleman

3 Houses + 30 acres + 2 townlands, nr 120 acres

31 years

Thomas Hooker

husbandman

House + 11 acres

21 years

Richard Hoggard

carpenter

House + 11 acres

21 years

Peter Harland

turner

House + 50 acres

21 years

William White

mason

House + 22 acres

21 years

John Ridesdall

husbandman

House + 22 acres

21 years

Thomas Atkinson

tanner

House + 100 acres

21 years

Robert Atkinson

yeoman

House + 6 acres

21 years

Thomas Thomson, father

husbandman

House + 2 acres

21 years

Henry Smyth

yeoman

House + 80 acres liber tenens

3 Lives

William Donninge

gentleman

2 Houses + 22 acres

21 years

John Davies

yeoman

3 Houses + 160 acres liber tenens

3 Lives + 21 years

John Cooper

turner

House + 40 acres

21 years

Name

Occupation

Property

Lease term

Name

Occupation

Property

Lease term

Thomas Davies

yeoman

House + 20 acres

21 years

James Hobson

yeoman

House + 20 acres

21 years

Henry Roberts

husbandman

House + 10 acres

21 years

Richard Brownlowe

gentleman

Humphrey Wilson

labourer

House + 2 acres

21 years

House + 60 acres liber tenens

to him and his heirs

John Hartley

shoemaker

House + 2 acres

21 years

William Ward

smith

House + 1 acre

21 years

Robert Horner

weaver

House + 4 acres

21 years

James Hartley

yeoman

House + 1 acre

21 years

Richard Barker

cooper

House + ¼ acre

21 years

Brian Preston

yeoman

House + 50 acres

31 years

James Atkinson

tailor

House + 2 acres

21 years

Christopher Crooke

turner

House + 20 acres

21 years

James Jackson

joiner

House + 2 acres

21 years

George Smyth yeoman 2 Houses + 30 acres liber tenens

3 Lives

Thomas Thomson, son

21 years

shoemaker

House + 12 acres

‘All these above named are joined at a town, called Lurgan, in Clonbrasill near to the church.’

‘All these have their houses out of town but some 4 or 5 houses together:’

William Hobson yeoman House + 200 acres

Some 3 Lives, some 21 years

Name

Occupation

Property

Lease term

Roger Wasse

31 years

Edward Till

carpenter

House + 30 acres

31 years

Francis Greene gentleman House + 21 acres + 20 acres + 30 acres

3 Lives 31 years for his and his son’s life

Jeremy Cartwright

carpenter

House + 30 acres

31 years

Robert Tenant

yeoman

House + 30 acres

31 years

Robert Norwood

yeoman

House + 30 acres

31 years

John Deyton

21 years

Adam Hopkinson

clerk

House + 240 acres

21 years

Richard McAnuff cooper House + 10 acres

An Irish man, during pleasure

Jon Vernon gentleman Mr Hopkinson’s [under]tenants

Patrick McAnuff yeoman House + 11 acres

conformable Irish 21 years

Richard Wards gentleman Mr Hopkinson’s [under]tenants

Thomas Wasse

yeoman

House + 30 acres

21 years

William Killinghall

John Hobson

yeoman

House + 2 acres

21 years

William Hunter

William Horner

husbandman

House + 1 acre

21 years

John Patterson

husbandman

House + 1 acre

21 years

joiner

yeoman

House + 2 acres

House + 120 acres (in England)

31 years

husbandman

House + 10 acres

21 years

William Mantell

yeoman

House + 10 acres

31 years

William Dethe

gentleman

House + 11 acres

21 years 57

Name

Property

Lease term

Robert Gennings yeoman Mr Hopkinson’s other [under] tenants

John Norwood yeoman Mr Hopkinson’s other [under] tenants

Name

Occupation

Property

Lease term

Robert Ingledewe glover House + 30 acres liber tenens

3 Lives

Richard Boomer

turner

House + 10 acres

21 years

John Walker

yeoman

House + 30 acres

31 years

Richard Walker

shoemaker

House + 10 acres

31 years

Leonard Younge

yeoman

House + 30 acres

31 years

Wilfred Trueman gentleman House + 60 acres liber tenens

to him and his heirs

John Anderson

turner

House + 20 acres

31 years

William Atkinson

yeoman

House + 30 acres

21 years

William Mastone

cooper

House + 50 acres

31 years

Robert Atkinson

yeoman

House + 30 acres

21 years

Richard Griveson

yeoman

2 Houses + 60 acres

21 years

Thomas Greene

yeoman

House + 20 acres

31 years

Philip Kelly

husbandman

House + 20 acres

21 years

labourer

House + 11 acres

21 years

[under]tenant to Mr Hopkinson

Thomas Yates

John Wynde

Anthony Waters

labourer

House + 3 acres

21 years

Thomas Hodgson

yeoman

House + 30 acres

31 years

John Gale

carpenter

House + 30 acres

21 years

John Sherton

husbandman

House + 30 acres

31 years

Robert Trueman

yeoman

House + 20 acres

21 years

Thomas Woods

yeoman

House + 30 acres

31 years

Thomas Denninge

yeoman

House + 30 acres

31 years

Robert Lynne yeoman House + 60 acres liber tenens

3 Lives

Robert Sowdan

husbandman

House + 20 acres

21 years

Rowland Calvert

yeoman

House + 30 acres

21 years

Richard Trueman

yeoman

House + 30 acres

21 years

John Robinson

weaver

House + 10 acres

21 years

Leonard Rigge

weaver

House + 10 acres

21 years

John Robson

husbandman

House + 20 acres

21 years

Thomas Carter

yeoman

House + 25 acres

21 years

Robert Gibbes

yeoman

House + 20 acres

21 years

William Nicholson

weaver

House + 8 acres

21 years

George Greene

Occupation

yeoman

House + 20 acres

[A crossed-out sentence in the draft of the survey noted the receipt of Brownlow’s certificate, ‘which, upon the best inquiry we could make, we conceive to be true’.]

APPENDIX 2

Name

Hearth Money Roll, County Armagh, 1664 Barrony of Oneland and Parish of Shankill

Hearths

Tax (£ - s - d)

William Marshall

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Jozias Booth

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Thomas Browne

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Thomas Barrowes

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

John Barnes

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

John Coulter

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

The hearth tax, sometimes called the chimney tax, was introduced into Ireland in 1662. Arranged by county, barony, parish and townland, the Hearth Money Roll lists the names of those householders who were liable to pay the tax at the rate of two shillings on every hearth or fireplace they had. The following table provides the names of those residents within Lurgan town who were required to pay the tax in 1664.1

Ffrancis Dawson

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

James Maghen

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Peter Harland

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Robert Hoope

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

William Smart

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

The following list is reproduced from L.P. Murray (ed.), 'The County Armagh Hearth Money Rolls, AD 1664', Archivium Hibernicum 8 (1941): pp. 176-177.

John Mathews

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Mr. John Reilly

twoe

£0 - 4s - 0d

Richard Tymons

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Torlagh ó Hugh

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Hugh Stamper

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Charles Wallace

twoe

£0 - 4s - 0d

Widdow Tomsen

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Widdow Porter

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

John Heath

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Allexander Ffletcher

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Hugh Willson

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Henry Dowdall

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Robert Booth

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Ffrancis Best

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Pattr Willson

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Mr. Joseph Cooly

twoe

£0 - 4s - 0d

Henry mcCormack

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Mr. John Harker

twoe

£0 - 4s - 0d

Robert Ffarrell

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

George Thornkery

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

John Kitchen

twoe

£0 - 4s - 0d

William Blackhall

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Lorgan Towne

Name

Hearths

Tax (£ - s - d)

Major Ffoulk Martin

four

£0 - 8s - 0d

Mr. Allexander Gill

four

£0 - 8s - 0d

Mr. Thomas White

twoe

£0 - 4s - 0d

William Perry

twoe

£0 - 4s - 0d

Miles mcElleavy

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

William Joanes

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

David Blackburn

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Andrew Crawford

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Miles Harrison

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Allexander Hutchinson

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

Luddowick Hamilton

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

William Gibbson

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

William Spence

one

£0 - 2s - 0d

For an analysis of the 1664 Hearth Money Roll of Lurgan see Francis Xavier McCorry, Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town 1610-1970, Reprinted, Lurgan: Inglewood Press, 2010, pp. 14-6.

APPENDIX 3

Contributor

1693 Shankill Parish Church Cess Returns for the Town of Lurgan

The Church Cess was an annual local tax levied from every family in a parish to help defray the cost of the Anglican (Church of Ireland) obligations which included looking after the parish poor. Each family in town and country was assessed on it's apparent potential to contribute to the local tax. In the 1693 Shankill Parish Cess ninety-nine households heads are detailed for Lurgan town. Based on an arbitrary examination of the names, Dr Francis X. McCorry has identified four town based groupings consisting of sixty-eight Anglican, fifteen Quaker, fourteen Presbyterian and two Catholic households.1 The following list is reproduced from Francis X. McCorry, ‘Lurgan, 1693’, Review: Journal of the Craigavon Historical Society 6, no. 1 (1988-1989): pp. 40-6, by kind permission of Dr. Francis X. McCorry.

For a full analysis of the Cess list see Francis X. McCorry, ‘Lurgan, 1693’, Review: Journal of the Craigavon Historical Society 6, no. 1 (1988-1989): pp. 40-6 and Francis Xavier McCorry, Lurgan: An Irish Provincial Town, 1610-1970, reprint, Lurgan: Inglewood Press, 2010, pp. 17-26.

Contribution (£ - s - d)

Denomination

Mr Robert Martin

£0 - 0s - 10d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Madam Babersham

£0 - 1s - 0d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Leit. Smith [Thompson]

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Thomas Kain

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

James Fforbus [Forbes]

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Widow Compton

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Alice Thamie

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

George Hoyle

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

George Fox

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Clarke

£0 - 0s - 2d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Henry Semple

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Torronce Murphy

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Widow Johnston

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William Taylor

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Bryan Gaynir

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Hamilton

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Alice Matthews

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Henry Ginniffe

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Hoyle

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Thomas Mulligan

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Wilson

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Neis or News

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

George Bullock

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Henry Mizror

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Alex Spence

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Henry Douglas

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Charles Kaine

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Porter

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

James Allen

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Thomas Johnston

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Thomas Bunting

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William Spence

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William Marshall

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland) 63

Contributor

Contribution (£ - s - d)

Denomination

Contributor

Contribution (£ - s - d)

Denomination

Thomas Taylor

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Alec Noble

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Henry Spence

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Broggor

£0 - 0s - 2d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Widow Lawllis

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Shane O'Neill

£0 - 0s - 3d

Catholic

Widow Barrab

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William McMahon

£0 - 0s - 4d

Catholic

£0 - 0s - 6d

Presbyterian

Saudard [Lennon]

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Mr Nathaniel McCormick

Alex Patterson

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Widow Blackburne

£0 - 0s - 4d

Presbyterian

William John Smith

£0 - 1s - 0d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William Wallace

£0 - 0s - 4d

Presbyterian

John Titterington

£0 - 1s - 0d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Widow Hamilton

£0 - 0s - 4d

Presbyterian

Ambrose Hodgson

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Addyson

£0 - 0s - 2d

Presbyterian

Thomas Wainwright

£0 - 1s - 0d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

James Morton

£0 - 0s - 6d

Presbyterian

Lawrence Hobbs

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Francis Wallace

£0 - 0s - 2d

Presbyterian

£0 - 0s - 6d

Presbyterian

George Straitton

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Lawtherdale

George Leggatt

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Donaldson

£0 - 0s - 6d

Presbyterian

George Johnston

£0 - 1s - 0d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Dorby Maglaughlan

£0 - 0s - 2d

Presbyterian

Thomas Trimble

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Robert McCowan

£0 - 0s - 2d

Presbyterian

William Waddy

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William McMurray

£0 - 0s - 6d

Presbyterian

Richard Bamber

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Robert Richy

£0 - 0s - 3d

Presbyterian

William Hall

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William McCiorr [McCorr]

£0 - 0s - 2d

Presbyterian

£0 - 0s - 6d

Quaker

Sandard Shiols

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William Bell

William Roley

£0 - 0s - 6d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Porter

£0 - 0s - 6d

Quaker

William Robinson

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Thomas Walker

£0 - 0s - 10d

Quaker

John Hoath

£0 - 0s - 9d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John and Thomas Turner

£0 - 1s - 0d

Quaker

James Jamison

£0 - 0s - 2d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Ezokiall Bullock

£0 - 0s - 6d

Quaker

Thomas Pattison

£0 - 0s - 2d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Widow Hodgson [Robert]

£0 - 1s - 0d

Quaker

£0 - 1s - 0d

Quaker

Widow Walker

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Thomas Turner

Widow Haddon

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Robert Hoop [Hoope]

£0 - 1s - 0d

Quaker

William Brooks

£0 - 0s - 10d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William Porter

£0 - 1s - 0d

Quaker

Butcher

£0 - 0s - 2d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

William Loggan

£0 - 0s - 6d

Quaker

Widow Clarkson

£0 - 0s - 3d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Jacob Turner

£0 - 0s - 8d

Quaker

George Slowall

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

John Hoop [Hoope]

£0 - 0s - 10d

Quaker

Mason

£0 - 0s - 2d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Widow Matthews

£0 - 0s - 3d

Quaker

£0 - 0s - 8d

Quaker

£0 - 0s - 4d

Quaker

John Turkington

£0 - 0s - 4d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Robert Robinson

William King

£0 - 0s - 8d

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Thomas Walker

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