The Life and Times of Mary Ann McCracken, 1770–1866. Mary McNeill
abandoned for Ann met and married a sea-captain, John McCracken. In contrast to the Joys he was tall; he was also handsome, a widower and ten years her senior. We know nothing whatever of the romance, but their sincere and happy attachment ended only with his death.
Generations earlier the McCrackens had settled at Hillhall near Lisburn in County Antrim, having been driven from Scotland during the persecution of the Covenanters by Claverhouse.2 Possibly the family was related to the Rev. Alexander McCracken, Presbyterian minister in Lisburn from 1688–1730, whose strong views against the Oath of Abjuration forced him to fly the country and eventually landed him in prison. Certainly John McCracken had been trained in the Covenanting tradition, and in the new family that started from his marriage the stern, fiery, uncompromising characteristics of the Scot are evident alongside the calmer, more orderly tendencies of the French-English roots of the Joys.
John McCracken, himself, was a man of deep spiritual convictions and unbending integrity, and yet withal, of so kind and lovable a nature that “his particular gentleness” was long remembered as one of his most endearing qualities. On matters of principle he was adamant: for example – in an age when, as a matter of course, every ship’s captain and, to a lesser degree, every member of the crew, augmented their earnings by smuggling, Captain McCracken would have none of it, either for himself or for his men. He regarded, it was said, his Custom House oath to be as binding as any other; furthermore, he considered that smuggling was unfair to the honest trader. In spite of this, and other, strict interpretations of duty his men loved him, for he had all the qualities of a leader.3
The Captain and his wife set up house in High Street next door to Henry Joy and close to the quay where his ship would berth. It was an anxious early married life for Ann. She must have been separated from her husband for long periods, and communications were woefully uncertain. In addition to the perils from nature, there was, as we have seen by the letter from her father, constant danger from the enemy, and once, at any rate, Captain McCracken was taken prisoner by the French. The fact that her husband’s mother lived with her may have made the young wife less lonely, but Mrs. McCracken senior, was not an altogether easy companion. A fierce, uncompromising old lady, she was regarded by her grandchildren with awe, due in part to a belief that any threat she might utter would surely come to pass. Her granddaughter, Mary Ann, related one such family experience. In the spring of 1763 it was necessary for Captain McCracken to spend some time in Liverpool supervising the building of two vessels for his employer, George Black, a substantial Belfast wine merchant. Supposing that his mother would readily undertake the care of the two small children, he arranged to take his wife with him. But the old lady had other views. Feeling, perhaps, that the wife’s place was in the home, and having no sympathy for the Joy delight in a new experience, she declared most vindictively that “she wished she [her daughter-in-law] might get a scare before coming back.” The stay in Liverpool was highly successful, the new ships were completed, but Captain McCracken, not wishing to expose his wife to the risk of a maiden voyage, decided that she should travel home before him. The vessel in which she sailed, encountering bad weather, was wrecked off Ballywalter on the County Down coast, and as the small boat into which the passengers clambered was unable to reach land because of shallow water, it was necessary to wade ashore. In addition to the effects of fright, fatigue and cumbersome clothing, Mrs. McCracken was only too conscious of the 200 golden guineas carefully concealed about her person, which her husband had entrusted to her safe keeping.4 Altogether an alarming outcome of Grandmother’s threat! The old lady held tenaciously to her Covenanting ideas, and, in protest against the iniquity of set-days and holydays, would sit ostentatiously in the window on a Christmas Day busily engaged at her spinning wheel. But there must have been a more attractive side to her rugged nature, for, as we have seen, she had succeeded in winning the respect of old Mr. Joy.
A letter written by George Black to John McCracken at the time of the Liverpool visit is interesting:
Belfast, 3rd May, 1763.
Dear Jack,
I suppose last week’s very bad weather has retarded Mr. Oakall’s launching the two Vessells, so that you have got little or nothing done yet, excepting the draft and the moulds, which, no doubt are finished by Mr. Sutton ere this; and who knows but that the bad weather might induce him to make the small model we spoke of, as he could do no work without doors. Tom Black will tell you what great matters we have been doing here, haveing, on a quarter of an Hour’s deliberation, bought a ship of 200 Tons and freighted one of 70. This was on receiving an order from London for the transporting the french prisoners here and at Castle Dawson, in number abt 420, to france, and finding M. Auld was not lyke to appear, we freighted Bob Moore to go to Bordeaux in his place, and he is to carry about 90 or 100 prisrs. The ship we bought of Ts Greg, and is the ‘Prince of Wales’ from Boston, Capt. Trail, which you saw. She cost us above one thousand Britt: but this is her first Voyage, tho’ but indiffly found. She is a course, stout, full-built carrier. Capt. Eager goes in her to Bordeaux, when she may be sold …5
The Black family [to which the famous chemist, Joseph Black of Edinburgh, belonged] had an extensive wine business in Bordeaux, and presumably McCracken was the principal captain of their fleet of trading vessels. Later he was constantly engaged in the shipment of linens to the West Indies and America. As a result of the Bordeaux voyages he acquired a lifelong interest in France and French ways which he communicated to his children. Indeed, so anxious was he that they should learn the French language accurately, that he engaged an old weaver, the only native speaker he could find in Belfast, to give them lessons. Little could he guess in what direction admiration of the French would later lead them.
This French connection, and his own experiences as a prisoner there, would account for John McCracken’s association with Robert Joy and other prominent citizens in a movement to alleviate the lot of French prisoners of war quartered in Belfast in 1759.6 The unfortunate prisoners were being cruelly exploited by a dishonest local agent, and these gentlemen suggested to the government in London that a committee of townspeople should be appointed to look after their welfare.
However, neither a stern mother-in-law nor the long dreary absences of her dear husband, clouded the happiness of Ann’s growing family. High Street then was a bright, safe playground, and with the cousins next door, the Templeton family nearby, and other neighbours, there was ample scope for fun and high spirits. Many, many years after, Mary Ann was able to remember “hopping three times across High Street without stopping” the height of ambition for an active little girl, holding her own against older competitors. Though there was a garden at the rear of their house, Captain McCracken rented a larger plot out of the town beside Uncle Robert’s Poorhouse, and in Mary Ann’s own words “as soon as I was able to walk my mother took me with her to the garden, and we often visited the Poorhouse.”
During his periods at home John McCracken started various projects of importance. In 1758 he established a ropewalk. No doubt rope of some kind had already been made in connection with the port, but McCracken’s affair was on a much larger scale. It was situated on the County Antrim shore of the Lough [as indeed was all the town in those days,] and ran along the east side of the Fore Plantation, a district now entirely covered by docks. [With the growth of the port several other ropewalks were started later, one of which eventually became the present world-famous Belfast Rope Works.] McCracken also started the first factory for the manufacture of sail cloth and canvas, and we have seen how he combined with his brother-in-law in the cotton firm of Joy, McCabe and McCracken; indeed it was he who shipped the first cargo of raw cotton from Liverpool to Belfast.7 Later he built a cotton factory of his own in Francis Street, said to have been named after his eldest son, and when, as the family grew up, Mrs. McCracken once again turned her attention to business, it was to start a small muslin industry. Indeed the McCracken family was to be associated with the cotton trade in Belfast much longer than the other original partners, – long enough to make and lose in three generations a very considerable fortune.
As well as his many business concerns John McCracken had time and thought for other interests: he established the Marine Charitable Society,8 a benevolent undertaking to which sailors paid regular contributions and received benefits in sickness and old age. This society continued to function till the beginning of the 19th century, when, at the request of Captain McCracken’s son Francis, the Belfast Charitable Society took over the funds