The Life and Times of Mary Ann McCracken, 1770–1866. Mary McNeill
members of this company Francis and William McCracken were there and we can be sure that the event was much discussed in their household. So also would be the visits of John Wesley. Nine different times he came to Belfast on his journeyings through Ireland, preaching in the open air, or in the Market House, though on the last occasion, in 1789, the use of First Meeting-house was granted ‘in the most obliging manner”.
It is, [Wesley wrote in his Journal] the completest place of public worship I have ever seen … It is very lofty, and has two rows of large windows, so that it is as light as our new chapel in London. And the rows of pillars, with every other part, are so finely proportioned, that it is beautiful in the highest degree. The House was crowded both within and without (and indeed with some of the most respectable persons in the town) that it was with the utmost difficulty I got in; but I then found I went not up without the Lord; Great was my liberty of speech among them: Great was our glorying in the Lord, so that I gave notice contrary to my first design of my intending to preach there again in the morning; but soon after the sexton sent me word it must not be, for the crowds had damaged the House, and some of them had broke off and carried away the silver which was on the Bible on the pulpit; So I desired one of our Preachers to preach in our little House [the first Methodist chapel in Belfast was opened in 1787 in Fountain Street], and left Belfast early in the morning.10
Behind a rather sober exterior the town provided a great deal of gaiety and sociability. Dances, balls and card parties were held in the beautiful Assembly Rooms. A coterie met regularly here, and another in the Donegall Arms. There was a great deal of card playing, sometimes for very high stakes, and hard drinking was regarded as an accomplishment rather than a vice. A description of the festivities of “that old and very respectable meeting known as the Card Club of Belfast” at an anniversary celebration in 1784 of the Glorious Revolution, mentions no less than twenty-nine toasts and indicates that others followed: the toasts illustrate clearly the wide interest in liberal movements among the “respectable” citizens of the town.11 Festivities of this kind were very popular, and commemorations and rejoicings were often accompanied by fireworks and illuminations, particularly on the King’s birthday. The Adelphi Club, of which Amyas Griffith was a member, was a popular non-political affair.
Hospitality, lavish by modern standards, was dispensed in private houses, when guests were regaled with course after course of abundant food and drink. Indeed many a hostess in Belfast must have welcomed the arrival of Charles Frederick Schuller, “late cook to the Rt. Hon. John Foster, Speaker of the House of Commons”, and read with interest his advertisement in a News-Letter of October 1792 in which he
Begs leave to inform the Ladies of Belfast & its Environs that he has opened a Pastry Cook & Confectionary Shop in Hercules Lane (a few doors from the corner of Rosemary Lane) where all sorts of Cakes, Jellies, Pies & Comfits may be had. He like-wise dresses Dinners or Suppers in the newest & most approved manner; & hopes from his long experience & abilities to give perfect satisfaction to those who may please to honour him with their Commands.
In the same year George Langtry, a general merchant, was advertising his wares as follows:
| Alicant Barilla | Gunpowder |
| Starch and Hair Powder | Castor Oil |
| Indigo | Variety of Teas |
| Black Soap | Prunes & Walnuts |
| Liquorice Ball | Shovels |
Nails & Iron & a few puncheons of Strong Jamaica rum.
The two theatres played an important part in social life. Already Belfast audiences were renowned for their discerning taste. Mary Ann must have seen Mrs. Siddons in these early days, for the famous actress made the first of three visits to the town in June 1785. There were frequent concerts; pantomimes, side-shows, wax works, and menageries were all enthusiastically enjoyed. There was hunting and cock fighting for those who favoured outdoor pastimes, and for the literary there was the Belfast Reading Society.
The social life of the town reached the height of its excitement when Lord and Lady Donegall were in residence. The Chichesters – to use their family name – loved gaiety; and dancing, riding, hunting, amateur theatricals and cards took much of their time and a great deal of their very considerable wealth.
But at the back of everything lurked the ever-present dread of “the fever”. Outbreaks of typhus became more and more frequent as contact, through shipping, with foreign lands increased; frequently vessels had to lie out in Carrickfergus Bay for weeks of quarantine; on one occasion at least we know that Mary Ann was a victim, and Mrs. McTier writes: “We have all been greatly shocked by the death of poor Getty, his fever was a dreadful one, and no creature yet ventures to the house”. And again: “A fever certainly prevails here – tho’ its having been mostly among the better sort marks it perhaps more to us than at other times.”12 At last, in 1797, the Belfast Fever Hospital was opened, the first institution of its kind in Ireland.
Such was the general appearance of the town in which Mary Ann McCracken grew up. We do not hear of the Joys and McCrackens participating in the more riotous entertainments, but in their own circle of friends there was always time for mirth and gaiety and happy social intercourse. There were, no doubt, during Captain McCracken’s seafaring days, visits to the Blacks at Stranmillis, that lovely elevated district a mile or two inland on the banks of the Lagan, and we may assume that Francis Joy’s daughter would as often as possible take her children to see their grandfather at Randalstown, – the old gentleman who left such an indelible impression on Mary Ann. Political events in America, on the Continent and in Ireland; the development of their cotton and other trading enterprises; the interests stimulated by their love of music and painting were matters for constant thought and discussion by all in the McCracken circle, and there is ample evidence that the female members were accustomed to take their full share in family doings.
By 1790 the third generation of Joys and McCrackens were grown-up. The deaths of Uncle Robert and Uncle Henry had cast dark shadows, but there had also been the happy occasions of the weddings of Elinor and Mary Joy to prominent Belfast merchants, and no doubt there were other love affairs of which no record has been left. The McCracken family had moved from High Street to Rosemary Lane, and it was to this welcoming roof that in due course William and John brought their young wives: the house indeed became known as “Noah’s Ark,” for neither stray animals nor dear friends were ever turned from its door.
Margaret, the eldest, did not marry. She was tall and good-looking, quiet and reserved, with a misleading hint of haughtiness, extremely capable and practical. Mary Ann records with deep affection how much she was guided by the wisdom of her only sister: “My sister and I” she says “had but one heart, though she always kept in the background and left me to act frequently on her suggestions, although considerably my senior in years and much my superior in understanding.”13
Francis came next, also quiet and, one imagines, a sensitive and conscientious person. He was among the earliest recruits for the Belfast Volunteers in 1778, and later was to play an active if unspectacular part in the United Irishmen. He took over the management of his father’s rope walk and the sail cloth factory, and was connected with them till the end of his life. William, too, was an early Volunteer, and was to be more conspicuously associated with subsequent developments, finding a most encouraging and resourceful wife in Rose Ann McGlathery. He also was in the cotton business.
And next comes Henry Joy – Mary Ann’s adored Harry, and as Harry he will be known in this story. Much has been written and sung about this romantic figure; here we are concerned with the part he played in the family and in his sister’s life. Six foot all but an inch, extremely handsome, vivacious, intelligent and capable – life was almost too full of interests for Harry. From his schoolboy days he was noted for his quick powers of observation and his gift of mimicry: had he not, during Breslaw’s visit to Belfast [one of Breslaw’s turns, advertised in Dublin, Was “to cut off the heads of two horses, and the head of a postilion, and make the horses draw a post chaise round St. Stephen’s Green, dexterously whipped and flogged by the headless postilion”. Young MSS, Queen’s University, Belfast], detected the secrets of the famous conjurer, reproducing his tricks with all the appropriate patter to the immense delight of his young friends? Many years later while a prisoner in Kilmainham Gaol, he disguised himself as a clergyman and dilated with such vigour