Author Topic: Antrim weavers  (Read 1077 times)

Offline Ann Baker

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Antrim weavers
« on: Friday 29 December 17 01:12 GMT (UK) »
Hi All

I have found out today that my gtx4 gradfather was from Co. Antrim. He left Ireland sometime before 1834 when he married in Paisley Renfrewshire.

On the 1841 census for Paisley he is a Hand Loom Weaver but by 1851 he was a carter. This would fit with what happened in the mill industry around the time when basically the machines took over and a lot found themselves with no work. He had loads of kids so had to do something else.

I currently have no clue about where in Antrim he was from nor do I have his parents names (other than using the naming convention for his children as a guess). Whilst I have ancestors from other parts of Ulster they were farmers and this is my first from Antrim. I don't really know much about the area or weaving industry in the 1800s in Ireland and wondered if there were any good books or web sites anyone who knows the area and its history could recommend before I start looking for him in earnest?

His name is John O'Hara and he was born around 1814ish. His father may have been a Daniel

Thanks

Ann

Torrens, Thompson - Tyrone & Fermanagh,Connolly, Campbell - Monaghan & Cavan, McGovern, Carroll, Orr - Ireland <br />Connolly, Fulton, Stirling, Cameron, McKellar, Robertson, McGovern, Torrance, Bisland, Fraser, Hamilton, O'Hara, McAusland, McTaggart , Lambie, Twedale, Hart, Clark(Paisley/Barrhead/Glasgow)<br />McGovern, Liddell - Falkirk<br />Mair, Muir, Carroll, Stewart, Law, Orr - Lanarkshire <br />Torrance - Brisbane<br />Connolly , Robertson- NSW<br />McGovan(?), Robertson , Agnew-

Offline Rena

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Re: Antrim weavers
« Reply #1 on: Friday 29 December 17 04:17 GMT (UK) »
My OH's labourer Irish ancestors moved about the same time as yours did. The usual reason for people to move away from their family home town or homeland is for a better life; such as the Derbyshire miners who moved northwards to mines in Yorkshire where the wages were far higher.

There's an online Irish timeline which includes this 1833 Report:-
"A Royal Commission chaired by the political economist Archbishop Wheitely was appointed to enquire into the condition of the poorer classes. A three year survey was carried out, which involved interviewing 1590 people. The Commission estimated that 2,385,000 people were out of work and needing assistance for thirty weeks a year. It recommended the encouragement of emigration and a scheme of economic development. However, economists such as Nassau Senior opposed the idea of government intervention. Lord John Russell argued that landlords should be forced to play more of a role in employing and supporting the poor."
http://www.irishhistorian.com/IrishFamineTimeline.html

There are several online websites about the slow indutrialisation of Ireland and also of Antrim:-
Textile Industries
"Many Scottish and English planters established themselves in Co Antrim in the seventeenth century. They were encouraged by the government to engage in the cultivation of flax for local linen production and for use in yarn for export. Further encouragement was given to the industry at the turn of the century when Huguenot refugees, fleeing France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), received grants enabling them to instruct in methods of flax cultivation and linen manufacture. By the late eighteenth century, Co Antrim was responsible for almost half the total Irish export of brown linens."
http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/heritage/industrial-heritage-co-antrim

Industrialisation of cotton weaving began in the late 1700s and quickly increased due to merchants successfully exporting their products to the colonies.  My gt. grandfather was an apprentice in the weaving trade of Calton (Glasgow) but as soon as he had learnt the trade he upped and opened his own successful stationery business and bookshop, his younger brother became self employed as a carter/carrier. Have you considered that your ancestor thought he could earn more money by hiring out his services as a carrier hauling goods from successful factories to their customers and/or too and from the docks?  He would have moved up into the tax paying bracket if he owned a horse to pull his cart.
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie:  Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke

Offline Ann Baker

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Re: Antrim weavers
« Reply #2 on: Friday 29 December 17 15:07 GMT (UK) »
Thanks Rena

They most definitely didn't move up a social notch as most of them died in the workhouse sadly.

Will go off and have a wee read :D

Ann
Torrens, Thompson - Tyrone & Fermanagh,Connolly, Campbell - Monaghan & Cavan, McGovern, Carroll, Orr - Ireland <br />Connolly, Fulton, Stirling, Cameron, McKellar, Robertson, McGovern, Torrance, Bisland, Fraser, Hamilton, O'Hara, McAusland, McTaggart , Lambie, Twedale, Hart, Clark(Paisley/Barrhead/Glasgow)<br />McGovern, Liddell - Falkirk<br />Mair, Muir, Carroll, Stewart, Law, Orr - Lanarkshire <br />Torrance - Brisbane<br />Connolly , Robertson- NSW<br />McGovan(?), Robertson , Agnew-

Offline Rena

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Re: Antrim weavers
« Reply #3 on: Friday 29 December 17 16:51 GMT (UK) »
Thanks Rena

They most definitely didn't move up a social notch as most of them died in the workhouse sadly.

Will go off and have a wee read :D

Ann

That's very sad, my uncle told my cousin that he had an uncle in there and he had a trade too. Hospitals giving free treatment were in workhouse grounds, which many people of today don't realise.

The American civil war was officially held between 1861 and 1865 and as with most wars this one affected Britain.  British trade was halted because North American ships blockaded ports, which meant no raw cotton for your ancestor to weave.  Many British companies, including my  stationer gt. grandfather, went out of business which caused unemployment to rocket upwards.   Some like my grandfather's brother turned to South Africa for employment but he died in 1879 during that country's uprising.

Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie:  Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke