The Browns of Brown, Shipley and Company, Merchant Bankers of
Liverpool and London.
William and Mary Cumming's travel companions across the
Atlantic aboard the "Lydia" were William Brown of Liverpool and his
wife. William was returning to Baltimore to report to his father, Alexander
Brown, on trading conditions in England: and also to introduce to his parents
his wife and baby daughter.
Alexander Brown was a Ballymena man. In his younger days he
had built up there a thriving linen business. At first he auctioned locally made
webs at the Linen Hall man Belfast, but later sold direct to the Liverpool and
American markets. At the age of nineteen he married his cousin Grace Davison of
Drumnasole, Co. Antrim, six years his senior. This partnership stood at the
heart of his long and successful career. That he was able to send his four sons
to boarding school in Yorkshire suggests that his Ballymena business was already
doing well.
Then came the rising of 1798. Whether Alexander was
actually implicated or not is uncertain, but like many another good North of
Ireland Presbyterian, he decided thereafter to emigrate. This decision cannot
have been taken lightly, for it meant leaving his three younger sons to complete
their schooling in England while he and his wife, together with their eldest son
William, then aged fifteen, started a new life in America. They settled in
Baltimore, partly because they already had friends there. (Stewart, Alexander's
younger brother was there, as was his sister-in law, Ann of Drummasole and her
husband, Dr. George Brown - he was no blood relation). They took with them by
way of initial stock an assortment of best Irish linens, three dozen mahogany
chairs and four eight-day clocks. By the end of December 1800, Alexander Brown
was again in business, this time in Baltimore.
When the boys' schooling was completed they rejoined their
parents in America. Each entered the family business where, under the strict
direction of his father, he learned the ropes. Soon the firm handled business in
both directions across the Atlantic, much of it later in their own vessels.
These carried chiefly cotton and tobacco and returned with Irish linen and
manufactured goods. To manage the Lancashire end of the trade, William returned
to England in 1808 and established himself in Liverpool as an independent
trading house. Eventually his brothers also established themselves
independently, James in New York, John in Philadelphia, while George remained in
Baltimore to assist his father run the parent company there. This network of
integrated independent units, always under the far-sighted direction of
Alexander brown himself, was able to withstand the strain of the prolonged
period of hostilities with France and the war between America and England of
1812-14. By the time Alexander died in 1834, he had become one of the wealthiest
men in America; and he left to his sons a trading enterprise by which they too
became immensely rich. Later they gave up trading goods and used their
accumulated resources in the realm of merchant banking.
Immediately the war with America broke out in 1812 William
Brown returned to England. When peace was declared two years later he was ready
to ship over to America vast quantities of manufactured goods and to accept in
return the amassed cargoes of cotton and tobacco his father and brothers had
collected over there. His Liverpool firm grew rapidly into one of the strongest
and most respected trading houses in the country. William entered public life
first as a magistrate and alderman and then in 1846 as M.P. for South
Lancashire. In 1860, at his own expense, he built Liverpool its museum. Two
years later he was created baronet and the following year he as High Sheriff. In
1864 he died, aged 79, and was laid to rest beside his wife in St. James'
cemetery, Liverpool.
A Cross Section of the Southern Appalachians, Virginia
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Petersburg lies on the North American East Coast Fall Line.
This is a narrow belt of comparatively steep gradient which separates the gently
sloping Appalachian Piedmont from the almost horizontal Coastal Plain. The Fall
Line marks the limit of navigation of all eastward flowing rivers and also
provides water power. Thus it became marked by a chain of towns as far from the
sea as vessels could sail and where water power was available to start their
industries. Along its northern section much of the Coastal Plain is 'drowned' so
that the Fall Line towns there are sea ports. e.g. New York, Philadelphia and
Baltimore. Further south the inland capitals of all the coastal states as far as
Alabama (except Georgia) stand on the Line. So Petersburg, situated immediately
down stream of the Falls of the Appomattox River, stands as a natural nodal
point of considerable importance.
The site had its disadvantages, however. Owing to the
lowness of the ground on either bank and the almost complete lack of gradient on
the Coastal Plain, the area was subject to flooding and the river below the
Falls was in an almost stagnant condition which caused fevers of every kind.
HENDERSON WIGHTMAN'S ELEGY
OF THE DEATH
OF MRS. CUMMING
On hearing of Mary Cumming's death, Henderson Wightman
wrote from Genoa on 1st January, 1816, to his sister Nancy in
Lisburn. See Letter No. 15 footnote 1. He said: "It is with infinite regret
that I heard of poor Mrs. Cumming's death. Most amiable she was, and one of our
earliest acquaintances, both sufficient to make us deplore her loss. I was
particularly touched by her untimely fate . . . "
And in his next letter dated Malta, 11th July, 1816, he
wrote:
"On the other side I send a copy of verses I wrote
tributary to the death of Mrs. Cumming one of our earliest friends on whose
virtues I need not expatiate. Being devoted to her you loved, I am convinced
they will be acceptable to you, though they may recall some sad sensation."
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Elegy on the death of Mrs. Cumming
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Sad was the Bark across the Atlantic borne,
In plaintive dirges sighted the Western Gale,
Which bade the flood of weeping friendship mourn
The tidings Mary, of thy hapless tale.
Alas! Whoever thy matchless worth had known
But would its loss thus premature deplore.
What breast ungirt with adamantine zone,
Would not be bleeding in its inmost core?
What ear, once by the lively converse blest,
Which from the tidings would not shrink away?
What eye, that saw thee in youth's roseate vest,
Would not embalm with tears thy lifeless clay?
Thou in thy native soil to thee denied
Mid friends beloved to seal thy early doom,
Although Columbia's zephyrs o'er thee glide
And strangers' footsteps pass the unknown tomb.
Yet be thy Requiem sung by one who trode
With thee thy darling haunts, thy native bowers,
When lightly tripping o'er the verdant sod
In bloom of youth you plucked its sweetest flowers.
Nor may it aught displease thy sainted shade
Which from the scenes its heavenward flight has sped
If friendship, in the muse's garb arrayed
Strew flowers of Cypress o'er thy earthly bed.
No, none of Erin's daughters ever owned
A soul more pure, with righter virtues fraught,
Beaming in looks, where mingled sat enthroned
The dew of feeling and the ray of thought.
How every act, creative of delight
Showed as therein, some Grace its magic wore
Her heart, an open temple where the sight
Could nature's image silently adore.
Forth from that elegant and cultured mind
How did intelligence its radiance shoot!
Within that bosom sympathizing, kind,
Each soft affection intertwine its root.
Such were the virtues which with artless charm
Did her parental mansion so illume
Diffusing Joy. Ah! How could Fate e'er harm
And blast a flower that breathed such sweet perfume?
And from that home when torn with struggling pain
New duties led her o'er the Atlantic tide,
Her heart to wide extent of billowy main
Could e'er a moment from its friends divide.
To them and her husband still devote
Her thoughts n'er wandered but to seek the skies.
At last the unwonted clime her soft frame smote
Severing with baleful breath those earthly ties.
But yet by virtue's powerful arm sustained
Mary, undaunted, eyed the coming blow,
Whilst calm religion at her couch remained
And dried the tears affection bade to flow.
Then when as if with angel hand she traced
The words that told her friends the last adieu,
And their eternal weal their prayers embraced
Which fervent from her quivering pale lips flew.
Those parting moments, so serene, so mild,
The dawning of eternal bliss might seem
On her pale features resignation smiled
And her last look reflected Hope's bright gleam.
Thus on the bosom of a crystal fount
In trembling line the lambent sunbeams play
And thus exhaled its drops pellucid mount
And point to Heaven's blue vault their liquid way. |
Hendersonius
(Alluding to her parting letters to her friends)
Goto Top
There was a Derry-owned vessel, the "Mary
Cumming," but it is not known if she was called after Mary Cumming of these
letters. She was snow-rigged, 237 registered tons, built in Prince Edward
Island, and owned by Crompton, McKye and Alexander of Londonderry between 1833
and 1836. In 1833-34 her master was Musgrave Wilkinson and she was employed in
the Quebec trade. She was sold in 1836 to Newcastle owners. She was not one of
Alexander Brown's ships
(The 'snow' rig differed little from the orthodox brig
except that the after fore and aft sail or driver was lowered on to the boom by
means of mast-rings sliding on the thin spar set up on the after side of the
main-mast.") Details extracted from "The Maiden City and The
Western Ocean," by Sholto Cooke.
Goto Top
Akerson, D. H. and Crawford, W. H. `James Orr, Bard of
Ballycarry; 1977.
Ballymena Observer, `Old Ballymena; 1857.
Brown, John Crosby. `A Hundred Years of Merchant Banking,'
1909.
Cooke, Sholto. 'The Maiden City and the Western Ocean,'
1957.
Craig, Andrew. `An Autobiographical Sketch,' Ulster Journal
of Archaeology, Second Series, Vol. XIV.
Craig, Rachel. 'Diary,' private collection, 1814.
Cumming, Mary. Original Letters, 1811-1815, private
collection.
Transcript copy - P.R.O.N.I. T2757.
Dickson, Charles. 'Revolt in the North,' 1960.
Dubourdieu, John. 'Statistical Survey of the County of
Antrim,' 1812.
Ellis, Aytoun.'Heir of Adventure, the Story of Brown,
Shipley and Company, Merchant Bankers, 1810-1860,' 1960.
Kent, Frank R. `The Story of Alex. Brown and Sons,
18001975.
Lawlor, H. C. 'Fibre and Fabrics,' September and October
issues, 1941 -
McCully, James.'Letters by a Farmer,' originally published
in the Belfast Evening Post, 1787.
McSkimin, Samuel. 'Annals of Ulster, 1790-1798,' 1906.
Reid, J. S. 'History of the Presbyterian Church in
Ireland,' 1867.
Scott, James G. and Wyatt, Edward A. 'Petersburg's Story,'
1960.
Wightman, Henderson T. Letters of P.R.O.N.I. T1475/27. (P.R.O.N.I
- Public Record Office of Northern Ireland)
Mary Cumming's Letters, the originals - private collection
typescript copy - P.R.O.N.I. T2757.
Henderson Wightman Letters, P.R.O.N.I. T1475/27
Diary (January to March, 1814) by Rachel Craig - private
collection.
An Autobiographical Sketch by Andrew Craig, 1754 -1833
Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Second Series, Vol. XIV.
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