Extract from:
A HISTORY FOR THE TIMES
BY JAMES GODKIN
[pg 179]
Lisburn is classic ground. It
represents all sorts of historic interest. On this hill, now called the Castle
Gardens, the Captain of Kill-Ultagh mustered his galloglasse. Here, amid the
flames of the burning town, was fought a decisive battle between the English
and the Irish, one of the Irish chiefs in that encounter being the ancestor of
the restorer of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The battle lasted till near midnight,
when the Irish were put to flight, leaving behind them dead and wounded thrice
the number of the entire garrison. Here, on this mount, stood William III. in
June, 1690. I saw in the church the monument of Jeremy Taylor, and the pulpit
from which the most eloquent of bishops delivered his immortal sermons. I saw
the tablet erected by his mother to the memory of Nicholson, the young hero of
Delhi, and those of several other natives of Lisburn who have contributed, by
their genius and courage, to promote the fame and power of England. Among the
rest Lieutenant Dobbs, who was killed in an encounter with Paul Jones, the
American pirate, in Carrickfergus Bay.
I received a hospitable welcome from a
loyal gentleman in the house which was the residence of General Munroe, the
hero of '98, and saw the spot in the square where he was hanged in view of his
own windows. But I confess that none of the monuments of the past excited so
much interest in my mind as the house of Louis Crommelin, the Huguenot refugee,
who founded the linen manufacture at Lisburn. That house is now occupied by Mr.
Hugh M'Call, author of 'Our Staple Manufactures,' who worthily represents the
intelligence, the public spirit, and patriotism of the English and French
settlers, with a dash of the Irish ardour, a combination of elements which
perhaps produces the best 'staple' of character. I stood upon the identical oak
floor upon which old Crommelin planned and worked, and in the grave-yard Mr.
M'Call deciphered for me the almost obliterated inscriptions, recording the
deaths of various members of the Crommelin family. Their leader, Louis himself,
died in July, 1727, aged 75 years.
[pg 180]
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes
drove three quarters of a million of Protestants out of France. A great number
settled in London, where they established the arts of silk-weaving in
Spitalfields and of fancy jewellery in St. Giles's. About 6,000 fled to
Ireland, of whom many settled in Dublin, where they commenced the silk
manufacture, and where one of them, La Touche, opened the first banking
establishment.
Wherever they settled they were
missionaries of industry, and examples of perseverance and success in skilled
labour, as well as integrity in commerce. Many of those exiles settled in
Lisburn, and the colony was subsequently joined by Louis Crommelin, a native of
Armandcourt near St. Quentin, where for several centuries his forefathers had
carried on the flaxen manufacture on their own extensive possessions in the
province of Picardy. Foreseeing the storm of persecution, the family had
removed to Holland, and, at the personal request of the Prince of Orange, Louis
came over to take charge of the colonies of his countrymen, which had been
established in different parts of Ireland. The linen trade had flourished in
this country from the earliest times. Linen formed, down to the reign of
Elizabeth, almost the only dress of the population, from the king
down—saffron-coloured, and worn in immense flowing robes, occasionally wrapped
in various forms round the body. Lord Stafford had exerted himself strenuously
to improve the fabric by the forcible introduction of better looms; but little
had been done in this direction till the Huguenots came and brought their own
looms, suited for the manufacture of fine fabrics. Mark Dupre, Nicholas de la
Cherois, Obre, Rochet, Bouchoir, St. Clair, and others, whose ashes lie beside
the Lisburn Cathedral and in the neighbouring churchyards, and many of whose
descendants still survive among the gentry and manufacturers of Down and
Antrim, were, with Crommelin, the chief promoters of the linen trade which has
wrought such wonders in the province of Ulster. Lord Conway granted the Lisburn
colonists a site for a place of worship, which was known as
[pg 181]
the French Church, and stood on the ground
now occupied by the Court-house in Castle Street. The Government paid 60l.
a year to their first minister, Charles de la Valade, who was succeeded by his
relative, the Rev. Saumarez du Bourdieu, distinguished as a divine and a historian.
His father was chaplain to the famous Schomberg, and when he fell from his
horse mortally wounded the reverend gentleman carried him in his arms to the
spot on which he died a short time after. Talent was hereditary in this family,
the Rev. John du Bourdieu, rector of Annahilt, was author of the Statistical
Surveys of Down and Antrim, published by the Royal Dublin Society. Referring to
his ancestors he says that his father had been fifty-six years minister of the
French Church in Lisburn. Mr. M'Call states that, for some time before his
death in 1812, he held the living of Lambeg, the members of the French Church
having by that time merged into union with the congregation of the Lisburn
Cathedral. A similar process took place in Dublin, Portarlington, and
elsewhere, the descendants of the Huguenots becoming zealous members of the
Established Church.
Du Bourdieu informs us that Louis
Crommelin obtained a patent for carrying on and improving the linen
manufacture, with a grant of 800l. per annum, as interest of 10,000l.,
to be advanced by him as a capital for carrying on the same; 200l. per
annum for his trouble; 120l. per annum for three assistants; and 160l.
for the support of the chaplain. Mr. M'Call, in his book, copies the following
note of payments made by the Government from 1704 to 1708:
|
|
£
|
s.
|
d.
|
|
Louis Crommelin, as overseer of linen
manufacture
|
470
|
19
|
0
|
|
W. Crommelin, salary and rent of Kilkenny
factory
|
451
|
6
|
7
|
|
Louis Crommelin, to repay him for sums
advanced to
|
|
|
|
|
flax dressers and reed makers, and
for services of
|
|
|
|
|
French ministers
|
2,225
|
0
|
0
|
|
Louis Crommelin, for individual expenses
and for sums
|
|
|
|
|
paid Thomas Turner, of Lurgan, for
buying flax-seed
|
|
|
|
|
and printing reports
|
993
|
4
|
0
|
|
Louis Crommelin, three years' pension
|
600
|
0
|
0
|
|
French minister's two years' pension
|
120
|
0
|
0
|
|
|
______
|
___
|
___
|
|
Total
|
£4,860
|
9
|
7
|
[pg 182]
It should be mentioned, that when the owner of Lisburn,
then Earl of Hertfort, held the office of lord lieutenant in 1765, with his
son, Viscount Beauchamp, as chief secretary, he rendered very valuable services
to the linen trade, and was a liberal patron of the damask manufacture, which
arrived at a degree of perfection hitherto unequalled, in the hands of Mr.
William Coulson, founder of the great establishment of that name which still
flourishes in Lisburn, and from whom not only the court of St. James's but
foreign courts also received their table linen. Du Bourdieu mentions that
Lisburn and Lurgan were the great markets for cambrics—the name given to cloth
of this description, which was then above five shillings a yard; under that
price it was called lawn. In that neighbourhood cambric had been made which
sold for 1l. 2s. 9d. a yard unbleached. The principal
manufacturing establishments in addition to Messrs. Coulsons' are those of the
Messrs. Richardson and Co. and the Messrs. Barbour.
Reference:
THE LAND-WAR IN IRELAND, A HISTORY FOR THE TIMES BY JAMES GODKIN,
AUTHOR OF 'IRELAND AND HER CHURCHES', LATE IRISH CORRESPONDENT OF 'THE TIMES',
London, MACMILLAN AND CO., 1870, LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.,
NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET