The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley

First published in 2007
by the Ulster Historical Foundation
Cotton Court, Waring Street, Belfast, BT1 6DD
www.ancestryireland.com

Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means with the prior permission in writing of the publisher or, in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of a licence issued by The Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publisher.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A book of this nature requires an input of knowledge from a considerable number of sources.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who have helped to make this work possible, in particular the members of a small committee, John R. Cowdy, Robert J. McKinstry, Peter J. Rankin and J. Fred Rankin who gave helpful knowledge and advice. I am deeply indebted to the owners of the many houses who have allowed photographs to be taken and also, in some cases, provided family photographs. They often contributed information concerning the history of their houses, and this has been of great assistance. My thanks are also due to Jason Diamond, Banbridge Heritage and Genealogy Services, who provided helpful information on Banbridge families, and some photographs of houses and portraits of their owners. In particular, I would also like to thank Dr Jonathan P. Hamill who read the script and made suggestions for which I am very grateful.

Where possible modern photographs of the houses have been used and, on occasion, an older photograph included for comparison. Unfortunately a number of the ‘Linen Houses’ no longer exist, and photographs have had to be sourced from former owners or local museums and libraries. This book endeavours, wherever possible, to give some idea of the lifestyle of the people who lived in the ‘Linen Houses’. Many of their descendants are still alive and my thanks are due in very great measure to them for photographs of houses and their residents. I am grateful to the following for photographs: Dr Robert A. Logan, John R. Cowdy, Dr H.A. Lyons, Norman G.D. Ferguson, Paul McCandless, Miss Rosalind M. Hadden, Jim Lyttle, John Morton, Jerry Murland, John Girling, Thomas A. Dickson, Mrs Rosemary C. Dickson, Stanley Ferguson, Richard D. Bell, Joe A. Johnston, Mrs Esther Carswell, Ms Marilyn Braun, Canon J.R.B. McDonald, Mr & Mrs N. Carswell, J.W. Jackson, Margaret Gamble, Mrs N. Milliken, Peter N. Acheson, Mrs Muriel Palmer, Mrs Rena Brien, Barry Finlay.

Acknowledgement must also be made to the various institutions that assisted with archive material and photographic research, and that have kindly given permission for photographs to be reproduced from their collections: the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), the Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch of the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland (HMBB), the Trustees of the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland: Ulster Museum (UM) and Ulster Folk and Transport Museum (UFTM), Craigavon Museum, the Irish & Local Studies Library, Armagh, the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office on behalf of the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Lastly, I owe a very great debt to my husband, Fred, who entered into the project with great enthusiasm, and is responsible for the majority of the photographs in this book. With the inclusion of many illustrations it became clear that sponsorship support was required from outside bodies. I am extremely grateful to those listed for their generous contributions:

The Miss Elizabeth Ellison Charitable Trust
Banbridge District Council
Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society
Ulster Garden Villages Limited
Craigavon Borough Council
Environment and Heritage Service, Department of the Environment

ABBREVIATIONS

PREFACE

The Living Linen Project was set up in 1995 in order to record as an Oral Archive the knowledge of the linen industry still available within a nucleus of people who were formerly working in the industry in Ulster. Over the period 1870 to 1970 the north east of Ireland was the world’s leading linen producing area. Ulster manufacturers produced three quarters of the United Kingdom’s output, specialising in the medium and fine end of the market. Concern has been expressed regarding the fact that despite the linen industry underpinning the local economy no comprehensive history of the industry over three centuries has been written. Nevertheless, considerable historical studies on the Irish linen industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been published, but very little has been done in the last one hundred years to emphasise the world wide nature of this trade in that period.

A very important feature of the linen industry in Ireland has been the resilience of the small or medium size private family firm. Although in the aftermath of the First World War, the difficulties of trade in the 1930s, and the Second World War, many of these companies were forced to close, a considerable number survived into the 1970s. However, by the close of the twentieth century there had been a very great reduction in numbers with less than twenty companies continuing to operate. Therefore, with the Irish linen trade in very steep decline, there appeared to be an urgent necessity to gather information while it was still available. The Living Linen project, in Phase I, was set up to gather knowledge quickly, which was held by many of the former owners and managers of the industry, since there was a wealth of information not put in writing. Nevertheless, there was also oral knowledge which could be recorded, from the representatives of the linen trade who travelled world wide and from pockets of highly skilled people living in manufacturing areas. This second group of recordings, with the work supported financially by the Heritage Lottery Fund from 1999 to 2002, constituted Phase II of the project and all Living Linen recordings were placed in the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Cultra, County Down.

Initially, in Phase I, various Living Linen committee members made, in the main, recordings of the owners and managers of the old linen industry. With others, I had the privilege of invitations to homes of linen merchants where, in some cases, records of their lifestyle, including portraits and photographs, going back over many years, were held. Many of the linen merchants built new properties or improved existing ones with the large growth of the linen industry in the nineteenth century in the Upper Bann Valley, and particularly around the stretch of the river from Banbridge to Portadown. It therefore appeared appropriate to compile a book concerned with a historical and architectural study of these houses as with the companion volume for the Lagan Valley. Although this book makes use of information and photographs gathered in the Living Linen project, it has had to draw on the considerable records of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the Linen Hall Library, Belfast, the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, and the Craigavon Museum, County Armagh.

INTRODUCTION

The River Bann is the longest river in Northern Ireland, flowing for eighty miles from the south of the country north to the sea, but also being a river of two halves. The Upper Bann rises in the Mourne Mountains in south Down and flows into Lough Neagh just north of Craigavon, while the Lower Bann continues from the northern end of Lough Neagh eventually entering the ocean north of Coleraine between Portstewart and Castlerock. The water power of the Upper Bann was a significant factor leading to the early establishment of the linen industry in the rich farmland around Banbridge, continuing on to Lawrencetown and Gilford. Portadown also had a considerable linen industry, along with the famed excellence of early hand weaving around Lurgan which is unique as a linen making town, standing on the low interfluve between the River Bann and the River Lagan.

Conrad Gill, 1923, in his book on The Rise of the Ulster Linen Industry, states,

The water of the Upper Bann was relatively soft and free of discolouration as it flowed through Katesbridge, Banbridge, Gilford and on to Moyallon, but after this point the river flowed through peat bogs near Portadown which imparted a brown colour, and was a disadvantage in the bleaching of linen yarn or cloth. The bleach mills around Banbridge were dependant on a regular supply of water but very often, in summer, the level of water in the Bann fell. This is well illustrated in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs, 1834, for the parish of Tullylish:

Continuity of the water supply was essential both in the manufacture of linen and in bleaching, therefore, in 1836, the Bann Reservoir Company was set up to provide a more abundant and regular supply of water in the River Bann. A survey was made by a distinguished engineer, Sir William Fairburn of Manchester, who recommended the construction of three reservoirs, although eventually only two were constructed. The Lough Island Reavy and Corbet Lough reservoirs increased the volume of water on the Upper Bann five fold, and ensured a continuous supply of water to the mills.

Lewis, writing in 1837, comments on the enterprise of the linen merchants of Banbridge who had commenced manufacturing on an extensive scale and were already trading with America. He also states that in 1772, around Banbridge, there were no less than 26 bleach greens on the River Bann, with the trade being principally carried on at Gilford. However, by 1837, Banbridge had become one of the most important inland manufacturing towns in Ireland with linen of every description being manufactured and bleached in the surrounding area. This led to greater employment in these districts and changes, both industrial and commercial, were quite rapid. In the nineteenth century, with a steadily increasing demand on the part of bleachers for the direct supply of cloth, weavers gradually settled in larger and larger numbers in the neighbourhood of bleach greens. Again, Gill, 1923, states that the census returns show time after time, a bleach yard, the owner’s house, and a little community of bleach yard workers and weavers settled round them. The bleacher’s house was of singular importance and in many cases a modest eighteenth century house was replaced in the nineteenth century with a much more impressive building, reflecting the opulent lifestyle of the linen barons. Although the linen industry has folded, many of these houses still remain and there are particularly important houses between Banbridge and Moyallon.

In Ireland, during the eighteenth century, the spinning of linen yarn was carried out by women in their cottages, which were scattered throughout the countryside. Irish linen developed and specialised in the production of extremely fine yarns, which were woven into damasks and cambrics, unmatched in quality world wide. However, in England, within twenty years of the successful mechanisation of the spinning of cotton yarn a beginning had been made with the power spinning of flax. John Marshall of Leeds and his associates opened the first spinning mill in 1790 as a result of the inventions of John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse of Darlington. From Yorkshire power spinning of flax was taken up in the linen manufacturing districts of the east of Scotland where it soon became an important industry. The English and Scottish industries manufactured mainly coarse linens, for which the yarn produced by the primitive mill spindles was considered satisfactory. In Ireland, the linen industry remained almost untouched by these changes since it concentrated on fine cloth made from locally produced yarns. However, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, outside the traditional centres of the Ulster industry in Lurgan, Portadown, Banbridge, and Lisburn, the cottage spinning of yarn and weaving of cloth did begin to decrease and considerable quantities of flax were exported from Ulster to Britain for dry spinning. In 1825 James Kay of Preston invented a wet spinning process in that he discovered that a thorough soaking in cold water made flax fibres more slippery so that they could be drawn by machinery into a really fine yarn.

In County Down some of the earliest attempts were made at spinning by power, stimulated by a subsidy from the Linen Board, (1711–1828), and small spinning mills existed for a few years at Comber, at Kilmore near Crossgar, and at Templegowran, near Newry. These were dry spinning mills, and the yarn, which they produced, was not suitable for manufacturing fine cloth, but the introduction of wet spinning meant that a manufacturer need no longer rely on hand spun yarn. Irish manufacturers quickly adopted wet spinning since there were many employers who could afford the capital required for working the new process. They were helped by grants from the Linen Board, given on the advice of a Parliamentary Committee of 1825, and the first of the County Down manufacturers to adopt the wet spinning process was James Murland, of Annsborough, near Castlewellan.

According to Green, 1963, wet power spinning was responsible for the most profound changes which had so far taken place in the Irish linen industry, resulting in a concentration of spinning, manufacturing, and bleaching on the River Bann. Samuel Law, a bleacher, built the first spinning mill on the Upper Bann at Hazelbank, about 1834, but somewhat earlier, in 1810, Hugh Dunbar had begun making linen thread at Huntly, near Banbridge, the business also being taken up by William A. Stewart of Edenderry, and by Brice Smyth of Brookfield. A major development took place in 1834 when Hugh Dunbar, of Huntly, decided to erect a wet spinning mill, driven by steam power, at Gilford. As capital was required for the project he was joined by John Walsh McMaster, and later by James Dickson. Eventually, the Dunbar McMaster five storey spinning mill opened in 1838, and was the largest industrial undertaking on the River Bann.

As the linen industry developed, a group of closely related Quaker families became engaged in it all along the Upper Bann between Moyallon and Lawrencetown. These included the Richardsons, Wakefields, Christys, Uprichards, and the Nicholsons. Alexander Christy settled in the townland of Moyallon in 1675, and the family is reputed to have introduced linen bleaching into the Upper Bann Valley. James Christy, a grandson of Alexander, established a small chemical works at Moyallon in 1786 to produce sulphuric acid for the bleaching trade. However, in the latter part of the eighteenth century Moyallon bleach green belonged to Joseph Wakefield, who had married Hannah, daughter of Thomas Christy of Moyallon. Wakefield had originally come from Westmoreland to learn the linen business with Joseph Richardson of Stramore.

As the Upper Bann leaves Moyallon it flows into the northern area of County Armagh and passing through Portadown reaches Lough Neagh not far from the River Blackwater. This river divides County Armagh from County Tyrone for upwards of 30 miles and is joined by the River Callan just south of Charlemont. Gribbon, 1969, writing about the Rivers Blackwater and Callan, states:

Blackwatertown, in County Tyrone, four miles north west of the city of Armagh, was the site of the Jackson & Eyre bleach green, however, McEvoy, 1802, notes that they had two more bleach greens adjoining, in the County of Armagh. Some years later, Lewis, 1837, reported that the principal trade of Dungannon, County Tyrone, and neighbourhood was the manufacture and bleaching of linen.

In north Armagh around Lurgan, and also in south east Tyrone there was a considerable number of Quaker settlers who helped to establish the linen industry. Henry Greer, who came to Ireland from Northumberland in 1653, settled at Redford, near Grange, County Tyrone, and became an early member of the Society of Friends. One of his sons, James Greer (1653–1718), married in 1678 into the Rea family of Lisacurran near Lurgan, and their four sons became very wealthy linen drapers. At this time a number of the Greer families lived in the area between Dungannon and Moy, and were highly esteemed linen merchants, so much so that the grandson of Henry, John Greer of The Grange, County Tyrone, in the late eighteenth century, became Inspector General of the Linen Trade in Ulster. Descendants of one branch of the family, who changed their name to Greeves, continued in the nineteenth century their involvement with the mechanised linen industry, when the brothers John and Thomas Malcomson Greeves set up, in 1862, J. & T.M. Greeves & Co., flax spinners, Forth River Mills, Belfast. Coming into the twentieth century, two sons of John Greeves (1831–1917), started the Portadown Weaving Company which was situated at the lower end of Thomas Street in Portadown, close to the Annagh River, which flowed from the western side of Portadown into the River Bann on the east.

Many of these enterprising linen manufacturers and bleachers built homes for themselves close to their work place in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although almost all linen manufacture in Northern Ireland has ceased a considerable number of the linen houses remain. This book aims to provide an illustrated and informed commentary on the major linen families and the magnificent houses they lived in along the Upper Bann Valley. Areas included are those associated with South Down, Banbridge, Gilford, Lurgan, Portadown, Tandragee, Armagh and Dungannon, with a study of seventy nine houses. The images – exterior views of the actual houses, interior scenes of the stately rooms and portraits of their owners, many selected from private collections of the families themselves – present glimpses of a bygone age. In the areas of Lurgan and Portadown considerable difficulty arises due to the creation of Craigavon and the subsequent demolition of many important houses, nevertheless every effort has been made to find old photographs which are relevant to its linen history. The format of the book is similar to The Linen Houses of the Lagan Valley, with short family histories and family trees for major linen families, which have, of necessity, been limited to the male members of a family, who have, for several generations, been involved in some aspect of the linen industry.

The identification of these houses, some of which are very old, with the entrepreneurs of the Irish linen industry, will also serve to show the importance of that industry to the growth of Ulster over a period of three hundred years.

CASTLEWELLAN

THE MURLAND FAMILY
OF ANNSBOROUGH

ARDNABANNON PARTY Top left: Evelyn and Florence Murland Middle back row: William Forster Uprichard Second from right back: Charles Murland Front centre: Warren Murland Extreme right: Emile Uprichard Front second right: Forster Uprichard Centre: Beatrice Murland COURTESY JERRY MURLAND

Howard Ferguson Murland (1882–1958) Sixth child of Clotworthy Warren Murland and Sarah Murland née Ferguson. His godfather was Howard Ferguson of Edenderry, Banbridge. He is shown as a lieutenant in the Indian Army and is the grandfather of Jerry Murland.

COURTESY JERRY MURLAND

THE MURLAND FAMILY OF ANNSBOROUGH

Hand bill reproduced from George Bassett, County Down, 100 Years Ago

In Ireland, during the eighteenth century, the spinning of linen yarn was done by women in their cottages, which were scattered throughout the countryside. Irish linen developed and specialised in the production of extremely fine yarns, which were woven into damasks and cambrics, unmatched in quality world wide. However, in England, within twenty years of the successful mechanisation of the spinning of cotton yarn a beginning had been made with the power spinning of flax. John Marshall of Leeds and his associates opened the first spinning mill in 1790 as a result of the inventions of John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse of Darlington. From Yorkshire power spinning of flax was taken up in the linen manufacturing districts of the east of Scotland where it soon became an important industry.

The English and Scottish industries manufactured mainly coarse linens, for which the yarn produced by the primitive mill spindles was considered satisfactory. In Ireland, the linen industry remained almost untouched by these changes since it concentrated on fine cloth made from locally produced yarns. However, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, outside the traditional centres of the Ulster industry in Lurgan, Portadown, Banbridge, and Lisburn the cottage spinning of yarn and weaving of cloth did begin to decay and considerable quantities of flax were exported from Ulster to Britain for dry spinning. In 1825 James Kay of Preston invented a wet spinning process in that he discovered that a thorough soaking in cold water made flax fibres more slippery so that they could be drawn by machinery into a really fine yarn.

In County Down some of the earliest attempts were made at spinning by power, stimulated by a subsidy from the Linen Board. Small spinning mills existed for a few years at Comber, at Kilmore near Crossgar, and at Templegowran, near Newry. These were dry spinning mills, and the yarn, which they produced, was not suitable for manufacturing fine cloth, but the introduction of wet spinning meant that a manufacturer need no longer rely on hand spun yarn. Irish manufacturers quickly adopted wet spinning since there were many employers who could afford the capital required for working the new process and they were helped by grants from the Linen Board, (1711–1828), given on the advice of a Parliamentary Committee of 1825. The first of the County Down manufacturers to adopt the wet spinning process was James Murland, of Annsborough, near Castlewellan.

William and James Murland, the sons of a Portaferry tanner, acquired bleach greens at Annsborough in 1800, lying at the foot of the steep hill which falls away from the village of Castlewellan. An ample water supply came from a stream fed by the lake in Lord Annesley’s demesne and by 1816 the Murland brothers had two bleach yards capable of finishing between 7,000 and 8,000 pieces a year. James Murland, (c. 1774–1850), was the younger but clearly the more forceful of the two brothers and many stories survive among his descendants and the mill people which bear witness to the strength of his personality, along with stories of his travels in the United States as a dealer in linen cloth. The history of the beginnings of power spinning at Annsborough are far from clear, the traditional date being 1828, two years before the opening of the Mulhollands’ steam power mill in York Street, Belfast. In fact the evidence for this date is corroborated by a board lettered 1828 which was found at Annsborough and came from the old mill, indeed it may be the date of the erection of the building or at least a part of it. A portion of an old spinning frame has also survived, dated 1820, which again points to a fairly early date. Finally, James Murland told the assistant commissioner of the hand loom weavers’ enquiry in 1840 that he had been manufacturing for fourteen years, perhaps meaning that he began power spinning in 1826 or very soon after it.

Within a few years of commencing wet spinning the Murland business had grown to such an extent that another mill was required and it was built further west on the bleach greens where water power was available. Originally, William Murland’s bleach green was at the top of the hill near his house Wood Lodge, Castlewellan. About half way down the hill was James Steele’s house, then called, Green Vale, and his bleach green. However, James Murland’s bleach green and house, Annsborough Cottage, were at the foot of the hill and this became the site for the original mill, standing close to the main road from Castlewellan to Clough. By 1840 there were three hundred workers in the mills and Murlands also gave employment to about seven hundred hand loom weavers, who worked in their homes. Yarn was given out twice a week both at Annsborough and at Kilkeel, the weavers’ earnings averaging six to seven shillings a week. In 1836 the Murlands were bleaching an average of 20,000 pieces of cloth a year, most of which was for the American and West Indian markets.

James W. Murland (1814–90) son of James Murland and his wife Mary née Craig of Annsborough House, who established Murlands, Solicitors, in Downpatrick, in 1832.

COURTESY OF MURLANDS SOLICITORS

Nevertheless, the greatest expansion of the Murland business came during the lifetime of Charles Murland, (1820–87), James’s youngest son. During the American Civil War, (1861–65), supplies of material for the cotton industry were cut off and Murlands, like all the linen firms, enjoyed great prosperity. They had acquired James Steele’s bleach green and house at Green Vale, on the western side of the mill, about 1850 and a new bleach works on this site in 1863. Two years later a block of warehouses, stores, and offices were built in front of the ‘new mill’. In all, by 1886 there were two hundred and twenty nine acres of bleach greens at Annsborough, the two spinning mills, a power loom factory, and one hundred and thirty eight workers’ houses, the works giving employment to one thousand people, two thirds of them women. McCall writing in 1870 gives some idea of the importance of Murlands to Castlewellan,

At that time there had arisen a more than ordinary demand for warp yarns, prices were accordingly high and the cost of new material was much under the average of other yarns. Thus while the proprietors of the Castlewellan Mill were reaping enormous profits they had the honour of being the pioneers in establishing advantageously to themselves and also to the manufacturer that department of the linen trade which in the course of forty years has become most gigantic as well as the most important branch of Ulster industrial enterprise. As is usual however in such cases the prosperity that follows the erection of the tall chimney did not concentrate itself within the walls of Messrs. Murland’s Counting House. All classes shared in the advantages of the trade – the people who found regular employment armed the spindles. The shopkeepers of the town and the farmers in the neighbourhood were largely benefited by the new system of Flax Spinning in consequence of the increased consumption of produce and also by the greater demand for raw material i.e. flax.

The drive and enthusiasm of Charles Murland transformed the firm into one which was known world wide and had offices in Belfast, London, Berlin, Paris, New York and Glasgow.

The Murlands also took an active part in the development of Dundrum harbour, having a steam packet built which ran a weekly passenger and cargo service to Whitehaven, and they had a leading share in the formation of the East Downshire Steamship Company. A traction engine ran twice a day between Annsborough and Dundrum until 1906, when the rail link between Castlewellan and Newcastle was completed.

Charles Murland was succeeded by his son, Clotworthy Warren Murland, who had married in 1875, Sarah Ferguson, eldest daughter of Thomas Ferguson, Esq., JP, of Edenderry House, Banbridge. The Fergusons also manufactured linen and three years before Warren Murland’s death in 1903 the Murland business was formed into a private limited company, in which four of the original seven shareholders and two of the directors were members of the Ferguson family. In the 1920s, James Murland, Ltd., like so many other linen firms, encountered insuperable difficulties and the old mill stopped work in July 1927, the new mill closing down three years later. However, the earlier size of the enterprise may be judged from a statement made in the late 1940s regarding just one part of the Murland business, by the editor of the Textile and Cordage Quarterly,

The late Mr James Murland told us many years ago that the small original mill made a steady profit of £12,000 per year. When power reels were installed the operatives refused to work them and hand reels were used in Castlewellan Mill until it finally closed down.

Eventually, in 1937, James Murland, Ltd. was acquired by the Ulster Weaving Company, which retained the original name. At that time the Ulster Weaving Company was cloth bleaching at Linfield Road, Belfast, and the factory being very fully used, had begun to search for a larger bleach works. Prior to the Second World War, Mr Frank Maxwell had just completed an apprenticeship training in the linen industry with the Ulster Weaving Company and had intended to join his father in the Durham Street Weaving Company. However, Mr Graham Larmor, Managing Director of Ulster Weaving, asked him to stay on, to move to Annsborough as their manager and to restart James Murland, Ltd.

During the Second World War cotton was not imported into the United Kingdom, due to the emergency, and the armed forces had to rely on supplies of flax, which was used to manufacture both coarse and fine linen. From 1939 onwards the growth of flax in Ireland, both north and south, increased to a peak of over one hundred thousand acres in 1943, 1944 and 1945. The Ulster Weaving Company in conjunction with Jennymount Mills, owned by Philip Johnston & Co., Ltd., established a green flax factory at Annsborough and Mr Maxwell helped to get this up and running. At their best they processed about 1500 acres of green flax which was suitable for the coarser yarns, but it undoubtedly helped the war effort. By 1948 Ulster Weaving had installed many improvements at Murlands and the firm was doing very extensive business in the bleaching and finishing of linen.

At the start of the twenty first century, the company, now known as Ulster Weavers, and part of the John Hogg Group, continued to bleach at Annsborough. However, they have recently closed the plant.

ANNSBOROUGH HOUSE
CASTLEWELLAN

Annsborough House, Castlewellan

Annsborough House lies at the bottom of the steep hill on the road from Castlewellan to Clough, in the village of Annsborough, and would appear to be the original residence of the two Murland brothers, William and James, who acquired bleach greens at Annsborough around 1800. William Murland established a new bleach green near the top of the hill and adjacent to Castlewellan, where he also built his house Wood Lodge. However, his younger brother James remained in Annsborough House close to the mills which were established for the spinning of linen yarn. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs, written in 1836, for the Parish of Kilmegan, County Down mention both the house of James Murland and the spinning mill, as does Samuel Lewis, 1837, who comments on the extensive manufacture of linen by Mr J. Murland and Mr Steele. James Murland died in 1850 and was succeeded in the linen business by four of his five sons, two of whom, Henry and William, continued to live in Annsborough House. In the 1870s the house was occupied by Clotworthy Warren Murland, after his marriage to Sarah Ferguson of Banbridge, and after the death of his father, Charles Murland, he moved to Ardnabannon.

Murland family motif

JFR

Clotworthy Warren Murland

COURTESY JERRY MURLAND

The original Annsborough House was built c

	Murland	Annsborough House, Castlewellan
	Murland	Ardnabannon, Castlewellan
	Murland	Wood Lodge, Castlewellan
	Murland	Woodlawn, Castlewellan
	Murland	Greenvale, Castlewellan

	Mulligan	Millbank House, Tullyconnaught
	Mulligan	Parkmount, Tullyconnaught
	Mulligan	Roselawn, Ballydown
	Crawford	Ballievey House, Ballievey

Lindsay		Tullyhenan House, Banbridge
Lindsay		Moorlands, Banbridge
Lindsay		Ashfield House, Dromore
Lindsay		Ballydown, Banbridge

McClelland		Belmont House, Banbridge
Walker		Solitude House, Banbridge
Robinson		Rockville, Banbridge

Ferguson		Edenderry House, Banbridge
Ferguson		Clonaslee, Banbridge
Ferguson		Iveagh House, Banbridge
Ferguson		Aghaderg Glebe House, Loughbrickland
Ferguson		Warrain, Banbridge

Cowdy		Millmount House, Banbridge
Cowdy		Edenderry Lodge, Banbridge
Cowdy		Dunida House, Banbridge
Cowdy		Summer Island, Loughgall

Smyth		Brookfield House, Banbridge
Smyth		Milltown House, Lenaderg
Smyth		Bellfield, Lenaderg
Smyth		Lenaderg House, Lenaderg
Dunbar		Huntly House, Banbridge

Law		Hazelbank, Lawrencetown
Law		Glenbanna House, Lawrencetown

Uprichard		Fairview House, Lurgan
Uprichard		Bannvale House, Gilford
Uprichard		Lawrencetown House, Gilford
Bell		Tullylish House, Gilford
Haughton		Banford House, Tullylish
Haughton		Mount Pleasant, Tullylish
McMaster		Dunbarton House, Gilford

Dickson		Gilford Castle, Gilford
Dickson		Elmfield Castle, Gilford
Watson		Stramore House, Gilford
Watson		Lakeview, Lurgan
Watson		Beechpark, Lurgan

Sinton		Ballyards Castle, Milford
Sinton		Banford House, Tullylish
Sinton		Woodbank, Gilford

Richardson		Moyallon House, Gilford
Richardson		Old Drumlyn, Portadown
Richardson		Drumlyn, Portadown
Richardson		The Woodhouse, Bessbrook
Richardson		Mount Caulfield House, Bessbrook

Bell		Bellvue, Lurgan
Bell		Solitude, Lurgan
McGeagh		Derry Lodge, Lurgan

Johnston		Fallowfield, Lurgan
Johnston		The Demesne, Lurgan
Johnston		Annadale, Lurgan

Acheson		Bannview House, Portadown
Dawson		Corcrain House, Portadown
Hamilton Robb		Edenderry House, Portadown

Bryson		Gleneden, Portadown
Bryson		Rathowen, Portadown

Owden Greeves		Tavanagh House, Portadown
T. Jackson Greeves		Fairacre, Portadown
W. E. Greeves		Ardeevin, Portadown
Shillington		Altavilla, Portadown

Turtle		Mullavilla House, Tandragee
McCrum		Manor House, Milford
Compton		Umgola House, Armagh
Compton		Glenanne House, Glenanne
Proctor		Tullydowey House, Blackwatertown

Greer		Rhone Hill, Dungannon
Greer		Tullylagan Manor, Dungannon
Greeves		Fernshaw, Dungannon
Acheson		Castlecaulfield House, Castlecaufield

BNL		Belfast Newsletter
BT		Belfast Telegraph
ILC & LM		Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum
LL		Living Linen
MBR		Monuments and Buildings Record of Northern Ireland
PRONI		Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
NMGNI UFTM		Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
NMGNI UM		Ulster Museum
JFR		J.F. Rankin, Esq.

CONTENTS