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'The Huguenots did more to promote technical education and
economic growth by bringing the techniques of early capitalism
to Lisburn'
by Sam McBratney
In my last article I offered a brief description of how the
village of Lisnargarvey became established as an Q economic
centre in the Lagan Valley following the conquest of the area
- by British forces and a lifetime of effort by a community of
settlers guided by Sir George Rawdon.
This week's article describes the coming of another group
of settlers to Lisburn, the Huguenots, and the contribution
they made to the development of the town.
The story of the dispersal of the Huguenots begins in the
later part of the seventeenth century, in France, where Louis
XIV surrounded himself with a splendour that well suited his
conception of his office as 'le roi soleil." Conscious of what
had happened to the kings of England when they pretended that
their subjects had no rights, Louis decided that the French
Protestants, or Huguenots, were becoming powerful enough to
challenge his absolute authority, and, determined to avoid the
formation of a "state within the state," he issued a series of
laws which attacked the religion of the Huguenots, restricted
their personal freedoms, hampered their economic activities
and finally placed their lives in danger.
As a result many of them fled to seek safety and freedom
within the boundaries of the enemies of France. To Holland,
and after 1688 to England and Ireland, countries under the
sway of William of Orange, the declared enemy of Louis XIV,
the Huguenots brought their capital, their Calvinism, and
above all the technological skills they had acquired from long
experience in working with textiles.
What these countries gained from the migration of the
Huguenots is a measure of the cost, to France, of the French
king's absolutism and intolerance.
COLONIES
In Ireland the Huguenots settled in colonies at
Portarlinglon, Kilkenny, Cork, Waterford, Carlow, Wicklow, and
other locations. They also came to Lisburn, and several
historians nave argued that the colony they established here
had more impact on the economic development of Ireland than
any other in the country.
About 25 families, 70 people settled in the Lisburn area,
and it is certain that further immigration occurred.
"Encouraged by the failure of James II to win back the English
crown from William III most of the Huguenots arrived between
1693-1695, although we read that Pierre Goyer established the
manufacture of silk at Lisburn as early as 1688.
We know therefore, that when Louis Crommelin arrived in
Lisburn 10 years later he found there a Huguenot community
which had already made the first efforts to come to terms with
a new environment in the Lagan Valley.
BUSINESS
The French estates of the Crommelin family had been near
St. Quentin in Picardy. In the laws of the French king and the
religious fanaticism of Bishop Bossuet, Crommelin saw
foreshadowed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in - 1685
which doomed the Huguenots to serfdom or worse within France.
He sold his land and moved to Holland, where he made the
acquaintance of William of Orange, before settling at Lisburn.
There can be little doubt that he came here with the intention
of using the natural advantages of the Lagan Valley for the
manufacture of linen, for with considerable business acumen he
immediately proposed in a letter to the Crown that he should
establish an industry at Lisburn.
And it is arguable that when William II accepted his
proposal - out of gratitude, perhaps, for Huguenot support
during the Irish wars - he left as great a mark on the
economic history of Ireland as he had already achieved
politically through his military campaigns.
PROPOSALS
Here is the test which affirmed the success of' Crommelin's
proposals. It is one of the most important historical
documents relating to the history of Lisburn:-
In consequence of a proposal by Louis Crommelin to
establish a linen manufacture in Ireland, and the design and
method in said memorial being approved of by the Commissioners
of Treasury and Trade, the following grant was made: that £800
be settled for ten years as interest an £10,000 advanced
by the said Louis Crommelin for the making of a bleaching-yard
and building. a pressing-house, and for weaving, cultivating
and pressing hemp ad flax, and making provision of both to be
sold ready prepared to the spinners at reasonable rate and
upon credit; providing all tools and utensils, looms and
spinning wheels, to be furnished at the several costs of
persons employed, by advances to be repaid by them in small
payments its they are able.
Advancing sums of money necessary for the subsistence of
such work-men and their families as shall come from abroad,
and of such persons of this our kingdom as shall apply
themselves in families to work in the manufacturories; such
sums to be advanced without interest and to be repaid by
degrees.
That £200 per annum be allowed to the sold Louis Crommelin
during pleasure for his pains and care in carrying on said
work and that £120 per annum be allowed for two assistants,
together with a remium of £60 per annum for the subsistence of
a French minister and that letters patent be granted
accordingly. Dated 14th, February, 1699.
CONTRIBUTIONS
Louis Crommelin made three important contributions to the
development of Lisburn. He provided capital to establish the
linen industry. His knowledge and experience of the
manufacturing processes helped the industry to survive and
flourish; and he a provided leadership for the Huguenot
community of Lisburn. Let us briefly examine each of these
contributions.
The £10,000 which Louis Crommelin invested in the linen
industry was to be used for four main purposes.
(1) to establish buildings in which flax and linen could be
worked.
2/ to encourage the sowing and cultivation of flax.
3/ to provide equipment such as looms and spinning wheels and
train people to use it.
4/ and to make loans and credit facilities available to
incoming families.
It is important to realise that without this initial outlay
of capital the new venture of manufacturing linen could not
have been undertaken with the same thoroughness or success, as
followed the building of the "first factory at the foot of
the wooden bridge over the Lagan," the preparation of a
bleaching green at Hilden and the importation of 1,100
looms from Holland.
Capitalism, with all that it implied for the future, had
come to Lisburn.
But. capital and equipment do not make an industry and
Crommelin saw that if the earlier inhabitants of the Lagan
Valley did not, improve their methods the outlook for the
manufacture of linen was bleak.
"The people are entirely ignorant of the mysteries relating
to the manufacture," he wrote in 1705.
"The flax being managed by women altogether ignorant as to
their choice of the ' seed or soil, for which reason their
flax is too short.
"And what is yet worse than all, they constantly dry their
flax by the fire, which makes it impossible to bleach cloth
made of their yarns.
" The spinning wheels then in use "overtwist the thread,
the looms "are properly disposed and invented for the making
of woollen cloth" and tile reeds are uneven and too thick."
Crommelin's first task, therefore was to correct such
mispractices and substitute for them methods which he knew to
be successful. With help from other Huguenots such as Mark
Dupre, reed-maker, and Louis Perrin he introduced schemes of
apprentice ship and technical education in Lisburn by which
the experience and knowledge of the Huguenots were passed on
to the coming generations
And as Albert Carre remarks in his work of the Huguenots in
Ireland, "les eleves ne manqueront point de maitres competents,
s'ils les cherchent dans la coloni fracaise de Lisburne."
LEADERSHIP
Enough has been said of Crommelin to indicate that he
gave direction and leadership to the linen industry of the
Lagan Valley and indeed to Ireland as whole, for the
government appointed him Overseer of the Royal Linen
Manufacture of Ireland and the Irish Commons formally voted
him thanks for his work in 1707 promoting the export of linen
from £12,000 in 1690 to £31,000 in 1706.
It is remarkable to read that during the three years
following productivity in the industry increased so rapidly
that £114,000 worth of Irish linen found its way to foreign
markets.
But Crommelin also gave direction and leadership to the
Huguenot community at Lisburn. He was well aware that the
Huguenots needed more than a new context for familiar skills.
They had been forced to leave France as refugees and
inevitably felt the strains of communicating with strangers in
a foreign language.
No doubt they had to cope also with the hostility of some
of the inhabitants to their religion, for intolerance was by
no means the prerogative of French kings or the practice only
of Catholics.
Accordingly Crommelin requested and was given a grant to
support a French minister at Lisburn. I have, unfortunately,
no evidence of the attitudes of the settlers who worked the
land in the time of Rawdon to the artisans who worked in their
homes or the workshops with linen; but it is, I think, a
justifiable assumption that the personality and national
importance of Crommelin and the economic prosperity he helped
to create were valuable factors in promoting the integration
of the two communities.
ASSESSMENT
An assessment of the contribution of the Huguenots to the
growth of Lisburn must take account of the dynamic economic
development which occurred during the eighteenth century. I
shall describe that result of the coming of the Huguenots in
my next article. It is sufficient to note here that the
Huguenots more to promote technical education and economic
growth by bringing the techniques of early capitalism to
Lisburn, than any other group of people who preceded them or
arrived in later years in he town.
The side effects of, their coming, in terms of new
buildings, shopping facilities and education, were
considerable, and it was perhaps inevitable that their
achievements have been bound up in the work of the outstanding
Huguenot, Louis Crommelin.
As Carre writes, "Ulster compte Louise Crommelin au nombre.
de ses plus grandes bienfacteurs, car sa richesse industrielle
date dur jour de l'arrive a Lisburne du manufacturier hugenot.."
PERSONALITIES
As for the Huguenot community - which included many,
interesting personalities about whom I would gladly have
written had I had space - they saw their stay in Ireland as a
temporary exile. Pierre Goyer returned to France hoping to
find that the persecution of his people had stopped. He had to
escape in a wine flask. The exile was permanent.
The Huguenots remained to contribute to the growth of
Lisburn and to be absorbed by the way of life they found here
and did so much to change.
I should imagine that most people in modern Lisburn know
someone whose name was originally French, and whose ancestry
is either little thought of or unknown.
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