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by Sam McBratney
Several factors contributed to the growth of a prosperous
linen industry in Lisburn. In the first place, the town
is situated by a river in a fertile valley which is a valuable
communication route to the coast and the rest of Ireland, and
where disasters caused by extremes of climate are rare.
Secondly, the manufacturers of Great Britain. did not feel
themselves threatened by the growth of a line industry here,
and therefore did not try to repeat in respect of the linen
manufacture what they successfully achieved when the Irish
appeared likely to rival their production of wool.
Thirdly, the linen manufacturers of Lisburn could. usually
count on. the support. of local landlords. The Conways and the
Hertfords, whatever their shortcomings as "part-time
Irishmen," were liberal with grants of land not only to Louis
Crommelin, but also to later giants of the industry such as
William Coulson.
REMARKABLE
A fourth factor in the rise of the Lisburn linen
manufacture was undoubtedly the economic history of Lisburn
since it began as a village in the early seventeenth century.
The remarkable history of Lisburn in the eighteenth century
would read differently had it not been for the efforts of the
early settlers who cleared forests in the time of Sir George
Rawdon or the experience and technology of the Huguenot
immigrants who colonised Lisburn in the time of Louis
Crommelin.
And finally, it is important to note the Linen board
established in 1711 gave encouragement in the form of capital
grants to manufacturers with progressive ideas. In 1725, for
example, Mr. James Maxwell received a grant of £40 for three
years to set up a bleach yard between Lisburn and Belfast and
to "import a Dutch bleacher."
Another example of such assistance to a Lisburn
manufacturer is given later in the text.
FACTORS
These factors - one might call them economic forces -
combined to raise Lisburn to a position of eminence among the
industrial centres of Ireland.
The linen industry here prospered after the death of Louis
Crommelin in 1727 as it had during his life, and by the
mid-eighteenth century the quantity and quality of linen
exports from Ireland caused considerable concern to the linen
manufacturers of other countries.
From the beginning of this rapid expansion Lisburn enjoyed
a high reputation not only for linen, but also for equipment
manufactured here for use in the manufacturing processes.
Kelly's shuttles and Knox's shears were recognised as
objects of quality throughout Ireland, while Lisburn become a
centre for the provision of loom parts.
At the weekly Lisburn market merchants bought great
quantities of brown linen: indeed, as late as 1816 the Linen
Board received estimates which showed that only Belfast and
Dungannon, with sales of £4,000, approached the weekly sale at
Lisburn market of webs worth £5,000..
In that year Lisburn markets accounted for over a ' quarter
of a million pounds sterling of linen - more than any of the
other 45 centres for the sale of brown linen in the nine
counties of Ulster.
REPUTATION
But of course., the reputation of Lisburn linen did not
depend on the sale of brown linen so much as on the nature of
the product. During the second half of the eighteenth century
some remarkable developments occurred, which we must now
consider.
If the economic history of Lisburn has a golden age,
it is to be sought in the_ records -of that period; and if
some objects were to be presented as evidence of such an age
in the history of Lisburn, they would certainly have been
woven in a factory established about 1766 by William Coulston.
We learn from many sources that the damask linen woven here
rivalled in its workmanship any similar product in the world,
graced the tables of the European aristocracy and won the
admiration of kings.
The sight of their crests impeccably woven into the finest
line fabric tickled the fancy of their lordships, and out of
the pride of titled people in their heritage, Coulson and Sons
made a fortune.
Fortunately for his new enterprise, Coulson did no have to
rely entirely on hi own resources. Lord Hertford made land
available for buildings, bleach green and homes for the work
people of the firm. H received help, too from the Linen Board.
The minutes of 1812 show that Coulston submitted specimens
of damask with plans for new looms to support his claim for a
grant from the Board, which "resolved unanimously that this
Board highly approve of the plan of the damask loom this day
submitted by Messrs. Coulson of Lisburn, and that the
specimens of damash this day exhibited by them afford the
highest satisfaction to the Board, as being fully equal, in
their opinion, to the finest foreign damasks that have been
hitherto imported into these countries, and that their
exertions, therefore, are deserving the aid and encouragement
of the Board."
SUCCESS
Coulson's application proved successful. As in the time of
Crommelin, however, local patronage and capital grants counted
for little if not combined with skill and technology.
In the early days of the industry, Coulson trained
designers to prepare on paper the pattern that would shortly
appear in the cloth; Weavers to work the elaborate looms-and
mechanics to service and repair the intricate machinery.
People of consequence who passed through Lisburn during an
eighteenth century cultural tour frequently stopped for a
while to stare at. the machinery moving in Coulson's factory,
and if the account of a Mr. Reid is any guide, people were
still staring as late as 1822, when he wrote: "Had I come from
London to Lisburn, and returned without seeing anything but
the admirable machinery of this manufactory, I would have
thought, myself well rewarded for the trouble of the journey."
`KICKS'
Scarcely less wonderful were the products of this same
machinery that people looked at for kicks, if we are to trust
in the first hand judgment of Hugh McCall: "Pictorial designs
were brought out in the loom," he wrote, "exceeding in beauty
the finest works of ancient tapestry ... Nobles of Britain,
princes of the continent, and untitled men of dollars ... felt
bound to have their tables covered with the beautiful fabrics
of the Lisburn damask manufactory.
Whether the money of a disappearing European aristocracy or
of lowly but rich Americans, it was all good business.
So, too, was another advance in a branch of the linen
-manufacture which occurred in 1784 when John Barbour began
the manufacture of thread at the Plantation, near Lisburn. The
new enterprise flourished and soon employed full time many
people who had been part-tune workers in linen. It is worth
stressing that Barbour took particular care to appoint
qualified teachers to instruct his employees in the skills of
thread-making.
The prospects and international markets thus opened up by
Barbour in the eighteenth century were availed of in the
nineteenth by R. Stewart and Sons: and between them, the two
firms accounted for much of the international trade in thread.
TRIUMPHS
The triumphs of Coulson and Barbour, masters of different
branches of the linen manufacture, continued through several
generations, and no historian can overlook their importance in
the economic history of Ireland. It was the practice of both
firms to exhibit their produce at international exhibitions,
where they were accustomed to win prizes.
I mention only two awards out of many. The official records
of' the Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace in 1851
state that an ' award was made to "James Coulson and; Sons,
Ltd., for an extensive and admirable exhibition of fine,
well-made damask tablecloths and napkins;" and at an
exhibition of 1862, Barbour and Sons received an award for
"sewing and other threads - for general excellence."
PRIZES
Another name sometimes; seen on the prize-lists was that of
Jonathan Richardson, a leading linen merchant of Lisburn. With
John Hancock, another Lisburn man, he also won a place in the
• history of the linen manufacture by demonstrating, about the
close of the eighteenth century, that webs could be bleached
all through the year notwithstanding the cold of winter and
the hardy thieves who would brave rain and frost to steal
them.
Coulson, Barbour and Richardson are the most famous names
of the Lisburn linen manufacture. Between them they picked up
the mantle of Louis Crommelin, and with what result is
shown in this report by members of the
Belfast Chamber of Commerce.
They had just been to an exhibition in Paris:-- "They
(Belgium and Germany) are imitating our finish and quality,
they are encouring intelligent persons, from the neighbourhood
of Belfast, to settle in both countries, to instruct them in
the processes of spinning, weaving and bleaching."
It is interesting to reflect that less than a hundred and
fifty years after the death of Crommelin, the local
manufacture he scorned in his essay of 1705 had progressed to
the point where continental firms not only admired, but also
sought after, its expertise. The brain drain had begun to
operate in the opposite direction.
ENTERPRISES
It would, of course, be wrong to assume that in eighteenth
century Lisburn, the only manufactories were linen . This list
of enterprises is by no means exhaustive and some of the dates
are not exact; but it offers, I think, an impression of
economic expansion during the early period of the industrial
revolution:
1764 - William Coulson's damask :manufactory.
1764 - Thomas Gregg's Vitriol works, built on an island formed
by the Lagan and the Lagan Canal. In association with Waddell
Cunningham of Belfast.
1763 - Belfast-Lisburn section of canal opened, completed to
Lough Neagh in 1794. In 1834 four Lisburn men owned six 50 to
60 ton lighters.
1764 -- Joseph Beattie established a tanyard in Bow Street
1784 - William Graham's brewery opened in Bow Street.
1790 - James Wallace's cotton mill established.
1793 - Cotton mill of G. Whitla and R. Stirling begins
production.
1784 - John Barbour's thread works (moved to Hilden in 1823).
1807 - Grahams tanyard established.
1810 - Fulton's flour mill. Hudson's machine making factory,
mainly for turning rollers, spindles and bobbins. A typical
service industry based on the needs of established industries.
Ed. Gribben's manufactory for husbandry implements.
During this period, then, the proliferation of small local
industries which benefited from the success of larger
undertakings proceeded more quickly than ever before and
absorbed labour from the oldest industry of the area, farming.
On fair and market days the town fairly teemed with farmers
trying to dispose of their produce, and Dubourdieu tells us
that Lisburn was "a most celebrated market for superior oats."
But since it is with the process of industrialisation that
we are concerned here, our attention must be directed to the
cotton manufacture of Lisburn.
TAMBOURING
In the later years of the eighteenth century Lisburn was
the main centre of cotton manufacture in Ulster. Between 1790
and 1794 James Wallace and George Whitla erected in the town
two cotton mills which together employed over a hundred hands.
In a letter to Lord Castlereagh Wallace wrote that he sank
£10,000 into the purchase of equipment, which included a steam
engine to drive the spindles of his factory; and like
Coulson's looms, this brain child of Boulton and Watt took its
place among the chief curiosities of Ireland, for the only
steam engine in the country was to be seen in all its noisy
glory in a Lisburn workshop.
Apart from these two mills, several hundred looms were
engaged in the cotton manufacture of Lisburn. Late in the
century John Barbour and a man from Lambeg named McFerran
brought the tambouring trade to Lisburn, and when in 1813
George Dunne began a school to teach tambouring to local girls
there, were about 300 people engaged in the manufacture of
embroidered cotton fabric.
DEVELOPMENTS
This article has merely described some of the major
industrial developments of Lisburn in the eighteenth century.
Unlike many historians who Write of these events under the
influence of wishful thinking about the benefits of
capitalism, I would avoid at all costs the pretence that the
industrial revolution in Lisburn and the Lagan Valley
progressed with the same happy results for all who found
themselves caught _up in it.
Far from it. The Linen industry had its moments of wealth.
The next aim of these articles, in fact, is to describe the
impact of industrialisation on the lives ,of the people of
Lisburn.
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