The Life and Times of Mary Ann McCracken, 1770–1866. Mary McNeill
was the plan they voted best at last.
Through the whole business still the active man; –
Here stand the Poorhouse built on Robert’s plan.15
It is even more creditable when one recalls that all this was accomplished at the very time when the brothers were building the great paper mill at Cromac which necessitated the damming of the Blackstaff River to insure an adequate supply of water power, and in which, no doubt, the most up-to-date machinery was being installed; to say nothing of the day to day work of the Belfast News-Letter.
It was sad for Robert that the year 1771 that witnessed the auspicious ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the Poorhouse building was the year in which his second son died at the age of 15 – another Robert, a lad greatly loved and of much promise.
All through the building operations Henry and Robert were continually active, Henry concerned with funds and “debentures”, Robert interviewing workmen, buying materials and keeping his eye on every detail of the rising walls; both of them spending apparently hours of time at long and frequent meetings of committee. To the end of his days the Poorhouse and the people in it occupied a foremost place in Robert’s thoughts. His niece, Mary Ann McCracken, remembered with affection how, as a dying man, he was taken to visit it for the last time in a sedan chair.16 Indeed it was his great practical concern for the welfare of the poor both inside and outside “the House” that caused him to embark on another far reaching achievement, for, writes his son Henry:
no sooner were any of his various plans for public utility brought to perfection than the activity of his mind led him to new Objects; which he never failed to prosecute to completion. So early as the year 1777 [Hargreaves and Arkwright had patented their spinning inventions in 1764 and 1769 respectively], on a tour through North Britain, he conceived the scheme of introducing into this then desponding Kingdom, the most intricate Branches of the Cotton Manufacture which had proved unfailing sources of Industry and Opulence to our sister country. In this he was principally prompted by a desire to serve the lower orders of the working poor, particularly linen weavers and spinners whose livelihoods are often precarious, where a nation depends, as ours did, almost solely on a single manufacture sometimes as much depressed as at others prosperous. He possessed himself of the rudiments of a business foreign from any former pursuit of his life. He traced it through its remotest parts at a time when no incentive presented itself in the commercial prospects that have since opened upon Ireland, unaided by that protection which was shortly to be given by the legislature to those very springs of wealth of which indeed he may be called the parent and which he lived to see brought to considerable degree of Perfection.17
Robert Joy inspired his friend Thomas McCabe and together, at their own expense, they installed in the Poor-house the machinery necessary to teach the children in the House to spin and weave cotton, so that they could later be employed, without further apprenticeship, in the mills that he hoped would soon be started in the town. Young Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw was also interested, and though the mill that he built in Whitehouse in 1779 for spinning cotton thread was actually the first in the country, it was followed in 1784 by that of Messrs. Joy, McCabe & McCracken which included weaving also and was the first mill in Ireland to be operated by water power.18
Thus the spectacular era of cotton manufacture in the North of Ireland was started. So rapid was its development that in 1790, only thirteen years after Robert Joy’s tour in Scotland, 500 looms were working in Belfast as against 130 looms for weaving linen and cambric, and it is estimated that eight thousand people were employed in the various branches of the trade within a radius of fifteen miles of the town.19 Fortunes were quickly made and many were as quickly lost. By the 1830s largely owing to recurring war with America, the industry had virtually died, but to the original promoters belongs the credit of introducing mechanised spinning and weaving, thus making possible the revival of linen manufacture on a factory basis.
Lest Robert Joy be accused by the cynical of merely exploiting child labour for his own ends it must be added that he and McCabe paid reasonable rates for work done and arranged the hours to be spent at spindles and looms.
So we come to the last public achievement. Already a newspaper proprietor and co-editor by profession, a paper manufacturer by trade, by interest and inclination an architect and industrial engineer, Robert now turned his attention to military affairs, for it was none other than he, with that directness and foresight that characterised all his projects, who inaugurated the 1st Belfast Volunteer Company – the pattern for the Volunteer movement. War with France had already caused alarm and throughout the country groups of young men had, as formerly, banded themselves together for local protection. When, on April 13th 1778, Paul Jones the American privateer sailed into Belfast Lough fears for the safety of the town increased. Three days later, the anniversary of the Battle of Culloden, sixteen survivors of the hastily collected volunteers who manned the fortress at Carrickfergus in 1745 dined together at the Donegall Arms. No doubt it was an occasion for convivial remembrance, and we are told that the toasts were expressive of “loyalty and constitutional liberty”, but the intention of the diners was “to give their countenance and approbation to the spirit now springing up in the place for self-defence, similar to that which appeared here … in the year, 1745.”20
Henry and Robert Joy were certainly there and Robert, immersed though he was in his cotton schemes, realised that the present grave danger demanded a defence force far more carefully organised than previous efforts had been, more especially as the country was denuded of military forces, army headquarters in Dublin being able to provide no more than 60 troopers for the protection of Belfast. He set to work and by the last Sunday in June
the 1st Belfast Volunteer Company paraded, and marched to church in their uniform, which is scarlet turned up with black velvet, white waistcoat and breeches. After the sermon, which was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Graham, a very sensible and polite address was made from the pulpit, in commendation of that laudable spirit which had so early occasioned the formation of the company, and pointing out the very valuable purposes it was calculated to promote. – The clothing of the majority of the Company was of IRISH MANUFACTURE; [an illusion to the widespread movement in the North to support home industry] and the whole made a brilliant and pleasing appearance.21
Amongst the first rush of recruits to this famous company was Robert Joy’s nephew, young Francis McCracken, Mary Ann’s eldest brother. Some weeks later the Chief Secretary wrote from Dublin Castle, seat of the Irish government, that His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant “very much approves of the spirit of the Inhabitants of Belfast who have formed themselves into companies for the defence of the town.”22 And so the great Irish Volunteer movement was established.
The remaining years of Robert’s life must have been crowded with incident. Though the fear of invasion receded, trade continued to decline: “We think ourselves most loudly called upon” declared the Sovereign and Burgesses in 1779, “ by the present crisis, to express our sense of the distresses and calamities in which this ill-fated country is involved, by the decay of trade, by the want of manufactures, and by the impolitic restrictions on our commerce, under which we labour.”23 Such agitation, and the influence that the Volunteers were beginning to wield, induced the British Parliament in 1780 to revoke some of the restrictions previously imposed on Irish trade, and these concessions were welcomed by illuminations and demonstrations in the town, and a long address of thanksgiving was sent to George III. In the same year the Test Act was repealed so that Presbyterians were no longer debarred from holding official positions. Nevertheless uneasiness and distrust continued, “and an opinion daily gained ground, that without a legislature totally independent of the British parliament, the privileges of a commerce granted to this country would be quite precarious.”24 The subsequent spectacular progress of the Irish Volunteers – the reviews in Belfast, Lord Charlemont’s stirring message: “Go on – Persevere – Oppression is impossible, and Ireland must be happy”; their meetings, their addresses, their dinners and toasts; the great convention at Dungannon in 1782 and, finally, independence and “Grattan’s Parliament” – belongs in detail to the general history of Ireland, though in spirit to this story. The Volunteer movement grew from Robert’s plan, its political triumph – four years after its inception – was in no small measure due to the constant support of the “Principal Inhabitants of