John Glasgow Faris writes: My mother Mary J Faris, who had a passion for family history, dictated these notes and my father typed them, when my mother was aged 77 and my father 84. As the typescript is faded I have retyped and edited with some footnotes. Possibly this was first written for a talk. It is said that the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's University, Belfast declined to publish it, possibly because of my mother’s sometimes quirky take on events ancient and modern. John and Harriet Acheson were my father’s grandparents through his mother Grace. Born in March 1913, my father’s earliest childhood memory was of being taken to see an old lady in bed who lifted up her arms to receive him. This may have been his grandmother Harriet Acheson who died in August 1914.
One afternoon some thirty years ago my mother-in-law showed us a letter she had received from the Public Records Office. It said that the PRO had recently received some memoirs that described her father as “Protestant Liberal Home Ruler”. They went on to say that while they had a considerable amount of material on Nationalism and Unionism, they had very little on Protestant Home Rulers. My mother-in-law’s immediate reaction was “He was never that.” She was objecting to the term Home Ruler, which in the years since partition has acquired a pejorative sense. We found a similar linguistic shift in the opposite direction. The Protestant rioters in Portadown in 1886 are described not as Unionists but as Conservatives.
Words apart, however, the fact is that John Acheson was a Gladstonian Liberal, and was in favour of a parliament in Dublin. The passage that vexed Grace Isabel Acheson Faris had in fact been written by her cousin, the Rev. Alexander Crawford. After serving as a missionary in China and Manchuria, he had spent his retirement researching his family history. He and Grace Faris were the children of two sisters, Annie Glasgow Crawford and Harriet Glasgow Acheson. Alexander Crawford’s son Dr J.C.C. Crawford, had kindly allowed us to copy his father’s account of the distaff side of his family, before placing a copy in the PRO. We shall have occasion to quote from this source but the bulk of our material comes from family letters, newspaper cuttings that the family thought worth preserving, and from the last volume of the diary of the Rev. James Glasgow DD. He was the father of Annie Crawford and Harriet Acheson.
Three other daughters died without issue. Margaret Jane born in Bombay 16 March 1841 and died 11 June 1841 in Rajkot; Jane Henrie born 12 June 1842 at Rajkot and died 14 April 1845 in Rajkot; Mary Eliza “Minnie” born 12 January 1845 in Rajkot and died 8 December 1874 in Belfast. She is buried with her parents in Balmoral Cemetery, Belfast and her older sisters are buried in the “English Cemetery” Rajkot.
The earlier volumes of his diary recording his service as a missionary to India have been used by church historians writing the history of that mission. This last volume begins on 1st August 1857 in Surat and deals with his life in India down to 29th February 1864 when he took ship for home. He reached England on 28th March, and went at once to Walthamstow to the school set up by the London Missionary Society for the daughters of missionaries. His two daughters were at school there and on the morning of 4th April he took them by bus to Leabridge station, by train to Shoreditch station, by cab to Euston Square in time to catch the 10 a.m. to Fleetwood , where they arrived at 4 p.m. They sailed at half past seven and reached Belfast at 6 on the morning of April 5th. Today’s transport by sea and land is not much an improvement on that.
Words apart, however, the fact is that John Acheson was a Gladstonian Liberal, and was in favour of a parliament in Dublin. The passage that vexed Grace Isabel Acheson Faris had in fact been written by her cousin, the Rev. Alexander Crawford. After serving as a missionary in China and Manchuria, he had spent his retirement researching his family history. He and Grace Faris were the children of two sisters, Annie Glasgow Crawford and Harriet Glasgow Acheson. Alexander Crawford’s son Dr J.C.C. Crawford, had kindly allowed us to copy his father’s account of the distaff side of his family, before placing a copy in the PRO. We shall have occasion to quote from this source but the bulk of our material comes from family letters, newspaper cuttings that the family thought worth preserving, and from the last volume of the diary of the Rev. James Glasgow DD. He was the father of Annie Crawford and Harriet Acheson.
Three other daughters died without issue. Margaret Jane born in Bombay 16 March 1841 and died 11 June 1841 in Rajkot; Jane Henrie born 12 June 1842 at Rajkot and died 14 April 1845 in Rajkot; Mary Eliza “Minnie” born 12 January 1845 in Rajkot and died 8 December 1874 in Belfast. She is buried with her parents in Balmoral Cemetery, Belfast and her older sisters are buried in the “English Cemetery” Rajkot.
The earlier volumes of his diary recording his service as a missionary to India have been used by church historians writing the history of that mission. This last volume begins on 1st August 1857 in Surat and deals with his life in India down to 29th February 1864 when he took ship for home. He reached England on 28th March, and went at once to Walthamstow to the school set up by the London Missionary Society for the daughters of missionaries. His two daughters were at school there and on the morning of 4th April he took them by bus to Leabridge station, by train to Shoreditch station, by cab to Euston Square in time to catch the 10 a.m. to Fleetwood , where they arrived at 4 p.m. They sailed at half past seven and reached Belfast at 6 on the morning of April 5th. Today’s transport by sea and land is not much an improvement on that.
The diary, kept until his death in 1890 contains material not only on the family but also on world affairs as well as on local politics both civil and religious.
The last volume of the diary is in the possession of John Faris farisjohn@gmail.com and a copy resides in the library of Union Theological College, Belfast. A transcription in progress can be accessed at RevJamesMcClureGlasgow.blogspot.com
On 14th January 1866 he records a visit to their Mountpottinger home of Mrs Crawford of Mainemount, Randalstown and her son William “my expected future son-in-law”, and on 22nd February, Annie’s 18th birthday, they were married in the old Fisherwick Place church. This marriage was important because William, later to be Sir William Crawford of York Street Flax Spinning Co took his new young wife to Paris where he was the company’s representative. Annie's father and sister frequently visited her in her home in the Rue Mentholon. In the year of the Franco-Prussian War both William and Annie were in Ireland where she gave birth to her third child a son, James Glasgow Crawford. They already had two children, Mary who was later to marry Robert Brown of Donaghmore and Alexander the author of the memoirs. He was born in Paris on 1st December 1868. William Crawford remained in Ireland until 1st March 1871, when he set out again for France. During the siege of Paris he had been kept in touch with events in that city by letters he received from his agent Eugene Martin. These letters came out by balloon and took about a fortnight to reach Belfast. They are now the property of Peter Rankin 1, a grandson of that James Glasgow Crawford whose birth we mentioned above. France was very far from peace in 1871 and William Crawford got no further than Anvers, during the second siege of Paris. By August, however, he was able to reestablish his family in Paris.
James Glasgow uses the French form of Antwerp and his diary shows his sympathy with France. Under 16th July 1870 he has “Pope’s infallibility proclaimed and the same day war was proclaimed by the Emperor of France against Prussia. Strange coincidence! Who shall truly anticipate the result? As to the terrific war that thus comes Shame on wretched Spain as the cause of it. Why did they seek a King at all all? The example of the United States might have taught them that a President once in four years might at much less expense give government all its power and unity and why did they resort to the Prussian family, the most grasping and therefore the most dangerous in Europe?” Interesting sentiments from an Ulster Tory! He goes on, “Men here talk idly and ignorantly as if Prussia were fighting for Protestantism, a thing the Prussians whether Prince or people do not dream of. As to which side may win I pretend not to prophesy as many people about me in newspapers and with glib tongues are ignorantly doing.”
The last volume of the diary is in the possession of John Faris farisjohn@gmail.com and a copy resides in the library of Union Theological College, Belfast. A transcription in progress can be accessed at RevJamesMcClureGlasgow.blogspot.com
James Glasgow uses the French form of Antwerp and his diary shows his sympathy with France. Under 16th July 1870 he has “Pope’s infallibility proclaimed and the same day war was proclaimed by the Emperor of France against Prussia. Strange coincidence! Who shall truly anticipate the result? As to the terrific war that thus comes Shame on wretched Spain as the cause of it. Why did they seek a King at all all? The example of the United States might have taught them that a President once in four years might at much less expense give government all its power and unity and why did they resort to the Prussian family, the most grasping and therefore the most dangerous in Europe?” Interesting sentiments from an Ulster Tory! He goes on, “Men here talk idly and ignorantly as if Prussia were fighting for Protestantism, a thing the Prussians whether Prince or people do not dream of. As to which side may win I pretend not to prophesy as many people about me in newspapers and with glib tongues are ignorantly doing.”
He believes that of France and Prussia for one to subjugate the other would not be for the safety of Europe, a true prophecy. He has preserved the Belfast Newsletter’s second edition of 3rd September 1870 announcing the surrender of the French Emperor and the demand for a new German Empire. James Glasgow deplores the idea and again mentions that the generality of people who ought to be enlightened and to see matters with Christian eyes speak of the German Emperor as if he ought to be a champion of protestantism.
He adds that there is much more bloodshed yet to come. He continues his comments on the situation until the return of the Crawford family to Paris in 1871.
The year 1871 also has mention of his daughter Harriet, the real subject of this memoir. She last appeared in her father’s diary as having returned to school in Walthamstow and later as having visited her sister in Paris in 1866. Now her father records that she took top place for women in the Queen’s University in Ireland examination. She was awarded first class in History, Language and Literature (Eng. Lit.), Latin, French, German and Geometry, and second class in Algebra. She must have been entered as a private student as the Queen’s Colleges did not admit women at this time.
Under the year 1882 James Glasgow notes that the Queen’s University has been suppressed and the Royal University has been set up in its place. It was to be a long time until Cambridge would admit women to degrees Harriet’s daughter Mary was a student at Girton but she got a degree ad eundem gradum [to the same level ] from the University of Dublin. In the view of JA Faris, no mean mathematician himself, comparing her to her siblings who had distinguished careers in art, teaching, the Indian Civil service and medicine “she was the cleverest of them all”.
Harriet also had a Cambridge connexion: her father continues that in 1872 she submitted at Liverpool for the Cambridge Examinations for Women and was reported far the best by the secretary.
We have still in our house the poet’s chair, This chair is now (2018) in the possession of John and Heather Faris farisjohn@gmail.com so called because it was given to Harriet Acheson by the poet William McComb, whose collected poems include two written on the departure of Harriet’s parents in 1840 and one on her father’s return in 1864. He was a well known Belfast bookseller, who every year published an Almanack with his new and other poems. As his health began to fail Harriet helped him to produce the final editions of this work. Her first publication was in the Almanack in 1866. She was then only 15. It was a set of eight quatrains, giving the solution to an enigma. It took second prize. She took another second prize in 1869 with eleven quatrains on the subject of “Flax”. One stanza is worth quoting:
But Erin’s blossoms blue have passed away,
And still we bear the words of bitter hating
And for the dawn of some more flowers day
Our hearts like these sad fields are ever wailing.
The year 1871 also has mention of his daughter Harriet, the real subject of this memoir. She last appeared in her father’s diary as having returned to school in Walthamstow and later as having visited her sister in Paris in 1866. Now her father records that she took top place for women in the Queen’s University in Ireland examination. She was awarded first class in History, Language and Literature (Eng. Lit.), Latin, French, German and Geometry, and second class in Algebra. She must have been entered as a private student as the Queen’s Colleges did not admit women at this time.
Under the year 1882 James Glasgow notes that the Queen’s University has been suppressed and the Royal University has been set up in its place. It was to be a long time until Cambridge would admit women to degrees Harriet’s daughter Mary was a student at Girton but she got a degree ad eundem gradum [to the same level ] from the University of Dublin. In the view of JA Faris, no mean mathematician himself, comparing her to her siblings who had distinguished careers in art, teaching, the Indian Civil service and medicine “she was the cleverest of them all”.
Harriet also had a Cambridge connexion: her father continues that in 1872 she submitted at Liverpool for the Cambridge Examinations for Women and was reported far the best by the secretary.
We have still in our house the poet’s chair, This chair is now (2018) in the possession of John and Heather Faris farisjohn@gmail.com so called because it was given to Harriet Acheson by the poet William McComb, whose collected poems include two written on the departure of Harriet’s parents in 1840 and one on her father’s return in 1864. He was a well known Belfast bookseller, who every year published an Almanack with his new and other poems. As his health began to fail Harriet helped him to produce the final editions of this work. Her first publication was in the Almanack in 1866. She was then only 15. It was a set of eight quatrains, giving the solution to an enigma. It took second prize. She took another second prize in 1869 with eleven quatrains on the subject of “Flax”. One stanza is worth quoting:
But Erin’s blossoms blue have passed away,
And still we bear the words of bitter hating
And for the dawn of some more flowers day
Our hearts like these sad fields are ever wailing.
She was then eighteen and it is a bitter irony of Irish politics that her great grandson John Glasgow Faris would have been writing in a Schools’ poetry competition, run by the New Ireland Society of QUB in April 1969. aged 17
And I hear the raving roar of the mob,
waving flags of three colours like children
howling its empty phrases of loyalty,
expressing only its protest of frustration.
And through the riot and ruin pierces
the two notes of the nerve rending siren
answering too late the distress signal
U.V.F. I.R.A. S.O.S.
sounding in vain to clear a way.
And through the riot and ruin pierces
the two notes of the nerve rending siren
answering too late the distress signal
U.V.F. I.R.A. S.O.S.
sounding in vain to clear a way.
The closing phrase gave the title to a booklet of the poems “Clear a Way”, of which a copy is now in the “Troubles” pamphlet collection of the Linenhall Library, Belfast.
James Glasgow has been described as a Conservative, He took a keen interest in politics, but only at national and international levels. Indeed, although he comments on the results of general elections, he never mentions having voted. In 1866 he writes on the situation in Greece, Palermo, England and on Fenianism in America where things are sad and hurtful. “Political strength may be given in Ireland by liberals (not truly so) including too many Presbyterians.” Writing in the previous year about his rejection by the General Assembly for a professorship at Magee College, he says “the tenants’ right party prevailed although 315 voted for me.” The same Assembly put matters right by giving him a joint professorship in both the Belfast and Derry colleges. The chair was in oriental languages. It is interesting, however, to see that party divisions should have been so open in the church. His choice of the description “the tenants’ right party” for his opponents is unfortunate. His daughter Harriet was to write her best verses in support of tenants’ rights at the behest of her husband John Acheson.
It was eleven years later that James Glasgow gave his daughter in marriage to John Acheson of Portadown. He was the son of Rev Joseph Acheson of Castlecaulfield, and Amelia Brown of Donaghmore. The obituary in the “Northern Whig” of August 20th 1907 of Amelia’s brother James Brown JP, of the well known soap and candle works David Brown and Sons of Donaghmore, throws interesting light on political attitudes. “In politics Mr Brown was an ardent liberal and worked in the interest of the tenant right in the exciting times of the seventies and eighties. But when the late Mr Gladstone surrendered to the forces of disorder in 1886 Mr Brown refused to follow his leader’s example.” The Whig then goes on to list the services James Brown did for unionism. His nephew John Acheson did not follow his uncle’s example but remained a loyal liberal until his death in 1914. In fact the liberal gene seems to have persisted since his granddaughter Dr Harriet Emily Rhys Davies (née Faris) received this year [1997] the MBE for her services to the Liberal Democrats in Somerset. An obituary (1893) of John Acheson's father Joseph describes him as a pillar of the old Secession Church The Secession Synod was a Presbyterian denomination in Ireland which reflected splits in 18th
century Scottish Presbyterianism. It defined itself as more orthodox than the Synod of Ulster
whose roots were in the Scottish Plantation of Ulster in the 17th Century. Joseph Acheson, John’s
father was ordained by the Secession Synod and James Glasgow, Harriet’s father, by the Synod of
Ulster. Both were present at the union of the Synods in 1840 to form the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in Ireland and both were alive in the jubilee year of 1890 James did not live to
attend the the jubilee meeting in July 1890, but his journal ends wonderfully “I would anticipate
meeting them in the general assembly of the first born” (Hebrews 12.22)who maintained its reputation for piety, orthodoxy and temperance. The obituary goes on to say, “When called to help he knew no creed and was as popular with his Catholic neighbours as with his Protestant ones.” In a memoir by the Rev W.T. Latimer written in 1908 we are told Mr Acheson always took a strong position in politics as a liberal and had the satisfaction of seeing the Tenant Right Reform movement carried to a satisfactory issue. Perhaps the fact that the rent of his father's farm at the Markethill was raised at one step from 2/6 to 30/- an acre may have influenced his mind.”
Joseph Acheson, as well as being a Seceder, had also been active in the Tenant Right movement.He had nothing to gain personally. As a minister he farmed his glebe and shared with his brother-in- law James Brown an interest in improved farming methods. His son John was a successful linen manufacturer and had no personal interest in land tenure either, but was active in Liberal politics.
It is perhaps worthwhile here to deal with the notion of the “Ulster custom”. When to compensate for the failed Scottish settlement in Darien, James VI & I’s English parliament encouraged Scottish settlers to emigrate across the Moyle the space of water between SW Scotland and NE Ulster to Ulster, they established the rights of the landowners to English law. Indeed the law of all Ireland to this day is based on English common law. The Scots, both the landowners and tenant farmers had been used to Scottish law. It was and is, if anything, more favourable to the landowner than English law, but in order to encourage the settlement, leases were granted on easy terms and there was an implied right to buy the land. When two hundred years later tenants sought to use this “Ulster custom” to protect themselves from increased rents and eviction, they found it did not avail. Gladstone’s Land act of 1870 obliged landlords to compensate tenants for improvements and to make non payment of rent the only ground for eviction, but it did not meet the demand for “fair rents, fixity of tenure and free sale of holdings”.
Let John and Harriet speak. They were married in 1877, so Harriet’s first poem “Pat’s bewilderment” must refer to the Act of 1870.
It is perhaps worthwhile here to deal with the notion of the “Ulster custom”. When to compensate for the failed Scottish settlement in Darien, James VI & I’s English parliament encouraged Scottish settlers to emigrate across the Moyle the space of water between SW Scotland and NE Ulster to Ulster, they established the rights of the landowners to English law. Indeed the law of all Ireland to this day is based on English common law. The Scots, both the landowners and tenant farmers had been used to Scottish law. It was and is, if anything, more favourable to the landowner than English law, but in order to encourage the settlement, leases were granted on easy terms and there was an implied right to buy the land. When two hundred years later tenants sought to use this “Ulster custom” to protect themselves from increased rents and eviction, they found it did not avail. Gladstone’s Land act of 1870 obliged landlords to compensate tenants for improvements and to make non payment of rent the only ground for eviction, but it did not meet the demand for “fair rents, fixity of tenure and free sale of holdings”.
Let John and Harriet speak. They were married in 1877, so Harriet’s first poem “Pat’s bewilderment” must refer to the Act of 1870.
The other poems are dated 1880, 1881, and 1882.
“Marry a farmer? No!”
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=112756677104790&set=pcb.112757680438023
“The Landlord’s Troubles (11 December 1881)
Coercion! That’s the only cure
for every Irish ill”
“Marry a farmer? No!”
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=112756677104790&set=pcb.112757680438023
Coercion! That’s the only cure
for every Irish ill”
These lines reflect the situation in the south of Ireland, where the question of the law of contract and economics got mixed in with the demand for a parliament in Dublin, with its usual accompaniment of violence. Harriet’s next poem dated only six days later reflects her sorrow at the situation.
The Dark before the Dawn
A Liberal government under Gladstone had been returned that year, but its attempts to bring in an Irish Land Act were being obstructed. The Tory James Glasgow has some interesting comments in his journal
The Dark before the Dawn
A Liberal government under Gladstone had been returned that year, but its attempts to bring in an Irish Land Act were being obstructed. The Tory James Glasgow has some interesting comments in his journal
1880 April 13 The elections for a new parliament are nearly over and have run so marvellously in favour of liberalism that “we are as men that dream”. In Co Armagh for which no liberal ever sat before we brought in the liberal Richardson at the [?].
I think also that the new ministry are likely to abolish Grand Juries, which are generally condemned and institute County Boards; and that this will have the effect of working up the power of the Home rule system; and the liberal majorities have so far operated favourably on Romanists [?]
I think also that the new ministry are likely to abolish Grand Juries, which are generally condemned and institute County Boards; and that this will have the effect of working up the power of the Home rule system; and the liberal majorities have so far operated favourably on Romanists [?]
31st Dec. Portadown - The old year running out. We are in strange times. — the tenants rising against landlords all over Ireland. I always thought landlordism not founded on right., — its tenure being from Kings who had no right, or seizures by violence: but I never [?] account] to see this asserted as now; and I almost tremble to see it; for as it is to come before parliament , the danger is the House of Lords may reject any reasonable measure & so drive the nation into rebellion. Protestants and Romanists are united in this. They demand what was called in Portadown at meetings before last election in last April, “the 3 Fs.” = Fair rent, Fixity of tenure and Free sale: — these to be followed by Free purchase and proprietorship of each tenants’ [sic] property. In Israel every man’s land was his own — so in Egypt under Joseph — So in U.S. & Canada — so in France— so in India — so in Belgium — so in Australia — so in N. Zealand
1881 - 19 March - Portadown _Saturday night. Another drenching season would awfully intensify the sufferings of Ireland. — The expected land bill has been now delayed two months by most persistent obstructions made by home rulers & land leaguers to a peace preservation bill & a disarming bill both of which the ministry thought very 1881 urgent. The obstructionists were determined to permit the parliament to get nothing done in order to drive them to a repeal of the union. By this they have so far kept back the land bill and done immense harm to Ireland. To overcome this the French Cloture was partly imitated. [initiated?]
cloture a motion for “closure” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloture#United_Kingdom
Harriet’s poem “Freedom of Contract” is still putting the arguments in March 1881, as does John’s speech on the subject.
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Gladstone's second Land Bill finally passed in 1881 and secured the desired reforms. It inspired “Marry a Farmer, Yes!”
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=112771437103314&set=pcb.112771583769966
Gladstone's second Land Bill finally passed in 1881 and secured the desired reforms. It inspired “Marry a Farmer, Yes!”
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=112771437103314&set=pcb.112771583769966
In the general election of 1880 in which the Liberal J.H. Richardson topped the poll in County Armagh with the Conservative H.H. Close as the other member. Harriet helped with two bits of election literature
> Richardson for ever!
> The candidates for County Armagh
This was a Liberal win from the Conservatives. All three other candidates were Conservatives: Maxwell Close was the sitting member, St John Blacker was a landowner without local connexion, although he polled better than Sir William Verner Bt., a local landowner and nephew of the former member for the constituency.
In County Tyrone, where the Achesons’ relatives, the Brown family of Donaghmore, were active in the Liberal cause, Harriet contributed some verses.
This was a Liberal win from the Conservatives. All three other candidates were Conservatives: Maxwell Close was the sitting member, St John Blacker was a landowner without local connexion, although he polled better than Sir William Verner Bt., a local landowner and nephew of the former member for the constituency.
In County Tyrone, where the Achesons’ relatives, the Brown family of Donaghmore, were active in the Liberal cause, Harriet contributed some verses.
> The Future Member
The reference to “young Dickson” must be to James Dickson who took the seat in a bye election in 1880 when his father D.A. Dickson was unseated following an election petition. “The Colonel” is Colonel the Hon. V.S. Knox, a member of the Ranfurly family, who were the chief landowners in the area. Knox had taken the seat without a contest in 1868, but had lost it to D..Dickson in 1874.
The year 1881 saw a rift in the house of Acheson. John and his younger brother Joseph had long been in business together, as J. and J. Acheson, first as druggists and then as linen manufacturers. It was envisaged that John’s services to the Liberal party were to be rewarded by his being appointed Justice of the Peace, but when the warrant appeared the name upon it was Joseph not John Strenuous efforts were made by various worthies to have the error corrected but without effect. John had to wait until 6th July 1893 to be made magistrate, although the account of his father’s funeral in January of the same year shows that John’s eldest brother, David Acheson of Castlecaulfield, was already a J.P. John’s father-in-law James Glasgow had no doubt that the substitution of Joseph for John was made by the Rev. Sam Andrews, minister of 2nd Portadown (aka Armagh Road) Presbyterian Church, in conjunction with Joseph and Joseph's brother-in-law Dr Heron. He so much abhorred their moral turpitude that he could no longer remain under Sam Andrews’ ministry, and removed house to the other end of the town so as to attend Edenderry (aka 1st Portadown) church. John’s family also moved to 1st Portadown. This was an unhappy incident, as earlier letters show affectionate social intercourse between the Achesons and the Andrews family. It is worth recording that the Rev Joseph Acheson, who had retired to Portadown to be near his sons, remained an elder in 2nd Portadown. There was some question whether the firm of J. and J. Acheson would survive this incident, but it lasted until Joseph’s death. Then his widow and son also named Joseph had their revenge for the slurs of 1881 by withdrawing their money from the firm and departing to live in America.
MJ Faris may be unfair to Joseph Acheson’s widow and son in writing of “revenge”, unless correspondence or journals reveal such a motive. If they were minded to go to America, to withdraw their investment in the firm was reasonable and possibly necessary.
John changed the name to Achesons Ltd and took into partnership some of his Brown cousins of Donaghmore.
Joseph may have had reason to regret his magistracy since it was he and not John who was
attacked in a riot in Portadown on 22nd October 1884. James Glasgow in his diary entry for
November records the convictions of twelve conservatives, with the comment “Bigotry is a frightful
evil.” Questions were asked in the House of Commons, and the story reached Paris with an
account in Le Temps. As the French account says D. A. Dickson M.P. received a knife wound.
David Acheson of Castlecaulfield, the elder brother of John and Joseph, was seriously injured and
their father, the Rev. Joseph Acheson was stoned by the Church of Ireland mob. Joseph Acheson
J.P. had not been at the meeting but was waylaid on his way home from the station. John does not
appear to have been hurt, but the defence counsel tried to argue that the case would not have
been pursued by the police without the suggestion of Mr John Acheson and his clique of Liberals.
This refers to the war of words that had arisen after the riot, the conservatives arguing that the
liberals had no right to be holding a meeting in the Town Hall in loyal Portadown. Counsel for the
defence also sought to play down the politics by pointing out that some of the rioters were
employed by J. & J. Acheson. This was especially hurtful, since the Achesons prided themselves
on being good employers. Long before the Disablement “disability” may be the word intended Lobby was thought of they gave
employment to a man who could not speak. He must have had hearing, since he was able by
signs and noises to answer questions. John’s daughter Grace used to tell how girls in the kitchen
would say that Ned was an awful liar. His main job was as a messenger, and Grace remembered
an occasion of an early cinema showing in Portadown when a grandee was shown alighting from a
train in Portadown station, and the cry went up from the audience “There’s Acheson’s Dummy.”
Ned had been sent to collect a parcel. Political correctness hadn’t been invented.
The Town Commissioners of Portadown had done their utmost to preserve the peace by denying the use of the assembly rooms in the town hall. The original request in the names of John Acheson, James Grew, and Thomas Grew, and Thomas Shillington (secundus - so called to distinguish him from his father the J.P.) had been for a meeting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday 22nd October. An afternoon meeting would have been less likely to have been exposed to interference. This request was refused, first by the town hall committee, and then by a specially convened meeting of the entire board. Fourteen of the fifteen members were present and the missing member who was ill, authorised the chairman to state that he, the missing member, would have voted to refuse the request. It is interesting to see that nothing changes in Ireland. Lawful rights to hold a meeting or a march must be set aside in the face of threatened disorder. It seems that on this occasion the Town Commissioners had not the authority to refuse the use of the hall, and being threatened with a writ of mandamus from Dublin, they gave way. A Latin term for "we command." Mandamus refers to a writ issued by a court ordering a lower court (or governmental entity) to properly carry out a nondiscretionary ministerial function. Mandamus is a drastic remedy and is invoked only in extraordinary cases where there is a clear and indisputable right to the relief sought. https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/6-507-0674? transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&bhcp=1 accessed on 3 May 2018
The Town Commissioners of Portadown had done their utmost to preserve the peace by denying the use of the assembly rooms in the town hall. The original request in the names of John Acheson, James Grew, and Thomas Grew, and Thomas Shillington (secundus - so called to distinguish him from his father the J.P.) had been for a meeting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday 22nd October. An afternoon meeting would have been less likely to have been exposed to interference. This request was refused, first by the town hall committee, and then by a specially convened meeting of the entire board. Fourteen of the fifteen members were present and the missing member who was ill, authorised the chairman to state that he, the missing member, would have voted to refuse the request. It is interesting to see that nothing changes in Ireland. Lawful rights to hold a meeting or a march must be set aside in the face of threatened disorder. It seems that on this occasion the Town Commissioners had not the authority to refuse the use of the hall, and being threatened with a writ of mandamus from Dublin, they gave way. A Latin term for "we command." Mandamus refers to a writ issued by a court ordering a lower court (or governmental entity) to properly carry out a nondiscretionary ministerial function. Mandamus is a drastic remedy and is invoked only in extraordinary cases where there is a clear and indisputable right to the relief sought. https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/6-507-0674? transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&bhcp=1 accessed on 3 May 2018
The fifteen were elected in groups of five by the ratepayers, and each five served for three years.
On 1st October 1883 Arthur Thornton, William John Paul, Thomas Best, William Mitchell and John
Richardson had served their three years. It would seem from Harriet’s verses on the subject that
Thomas Best was not standing for re-election. William John Paul, Arthur Thornton, and William
Mitchell were returned together with William Henry Atkinson and John George Livingston, the
target of Harriet’s verses. It is interesting to see that the extension of the franchise could return a
different sort of member, but still a conservative. At the end of the next three years James Grew
was elected to the Town Commission, and in 1889 John Acheson was elected. He was to serve
until his death in 1914, first as a Town Commissioner and then as an Urban District Councillor.
Harriet was much engaged in the Temperance movement. Not long after the death of Edward VII in 1910 she took the chair at a public meeting in Cookstown, in connexion with her work for the Temperance movement. [See Appendix 2 for the question of appropriate mourning dress.] She was then not only President of the Women’s Temperance Association but also presided in the same year in Portadown at a joint meeting of the men’s and women’s branches of the Catch My Pal Society. It was only in July 1909 that a branch of this Society had been set up in Armagh city by Rev R.J. Patterson , the minister of Mall Presbyterian Church, Armagh. It set itself up under the name of “County Armagh Protestant Total Abstinence Union”. Its other name described its method of recruitment. Each member who took the pledge of abstinence was bound also to bring into the organisation another member - an early form of pyramid selling. I think Mary’s linkage of the “catch my pal” methodology with “pyramid selling” is unfair. It is rather an example of an exponential sequence see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wheat_and_chessboard_problem accessed 7 May 2018
It was highly successful in its beginnings; Mr Patterson’s original six members had risen to more than five hundred in Armagh alone by the end of 1909, and it spread rapidly through Ulster and beyond.
Eric Villiers asserts that in in World War One, not long afterwards, British recruiting officers adapted the concept to entice young men to ‘catch’ their ‘pals’ and sign up in groups - the “Pals Battalions” http://www.historyarmagh.org/dox/190120111279.pdf accessed 7 May 2018
Harriet devoted much of her time to Temperance and also to women’s welfare. In 1887 she is found in print in the Belfast Newsletter at a public meeting of the Women’s Temperance Association, seconding a vote of thanks proposed by Mrs Richardson to the Mayor of Belfast, Mr Haslett J.P., for his carrying out of his teetotal principles in his recent banquet for the Lord Lieutenant and the Vice-regal party.
As early as 1830, Rev John Edgar, the minister of the Secession church in a lane near Waring Street, Belfast was interesting himself in Temperance activities. After the union of the Synods see footnote 5 above for the Secession Synod and the Synod of Ulster, united in 1840 to form the Presbyterian Church in Ireland Dr Edgar became Professor of Divinity in Assembly’s College. I mention the Seceder beginnings of the Temperance movement because it agrees with a family tradition that John’s father, Rev Joseph Acheson, was the only member of the Presbytery not to make use of the bottle of whiskey routinely placed on the table at their meetings. John himself in his daily letters to Harriet several times mentions temperance meetings usually held in the Methodist Church.
Harriet was much engaged in the Temperance movement. Not long after the death of Edward VII in 1910 she took the chair at a public meeting in Cookstown, in connexion with her work for the Temperance movement. [See Appendix 2 for the question of appropriate mourning dress.] She was then not only President of the Women’s Temperance Association but also presided in the same year in Portadown at a joint meeting of the men’s and women’s branches of the Catch My Pal Society. It was only in July 1909 that a branch of this Society had been set up in Armagh city by Rev R.J. Patterson , the minister of Mall Presbyterian Church, Armagh. It set itself up under the name of “County Armagh Protestant Total Abstinence Union”. Its other name described its method of recruitment. Each member who took the pledge of abstinence was bound also to bring into the organisation another member - an early form of pyramid selling. I think Mary’s linkage of the “catch my pal” methodology with “pyramid selling” is unfair. It is rather an example of an exponential sequence see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wheat_and_chessboard_problem accessed 7 May 2018
It was highly successful in its beginnings; Mr Patterson’s original six members had risen to more than five hundred in Armagh alone by the end of 1909, and it spread rapidly through Ulster and beyond.
Eric Villiers asserts that in in World War One, not long afterwards, British recruiting officers adapted the concept to entice young men to ‘catch’ their ‘pals’ and sign up in groups - the “Pals Battalions” http://www.historyarmagh.org/dox/190120111279.pdf accessed 7 May 2018
Harriet devoted much of her time to Temperance and also to women’s welfare. In 1887 she is found in print in the Belfast Newsletter at a public meeting of the Women’s Temperance Association, seconding a vote of thanks proposed by Mrs Richardson to the Mayor of Belfast, Mr Haslett J.P., for his carrying out of his teetotal principles in his recent banquet for the Lord Lieutenant and the Vice-regal party.
As early as 1830, Rev John Edgar, the minister of the Secession church in a lane near Waring Street, Belfast was interesting himself in Temperance activities. After the union of the Synods see footnote 5 above for the Secession Synod and the Synod of Ulster, united in 1840 to form the Presbyterian Church in Ireland Dr Edgar became Professor of Divinity in Assembly’s College. I mention the Seceder beginnings of the Temperance movement because it agrees with a family tradition that John’s father, Rev Joseph Acheson, was the only member of the Presbytery not to make use of the bottle of whiskey routinely placed on the table at their meetings. John himself in his daily letters to Harriet several times mentions temperance meetings usually held in the Methodist Church.
Writing in 1883 James Glasgow reflects on the Blue Ribbon Movement which had just reached
Portadown. “ Meetings are being held in Portadown at present & members are assuming the blue
ribbon as a means of safety against drinking and inducement to it. This is a pharisaic craze in
forgetfulness that Christ censured Pharisees for making broad their phylacteries (Mat. 23.5).
Intemperance is a great evil but it should be reformed on scriptural principle. Dr Edgar adopted
abstinence from distilled spirit. Then came Father Mathew with a pledge and a medal; then Good
Templars - then unfermented wine - and now blue ribbons - and in America the compulsory Maine
Law - which ought to come under the name of local option - the option of forcible suppression. If
this is carried, illicit distillation, smuggling, shebeening, and apprehension with bloodshed will
prevail. Moral advocacy and avoidance of impossibilities is what christians [sic] should aim at.
Anything else is hopeless. This what I have thought since in 1831 I first joined the Temperance
Society.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_ribbon_badge accessed 7 May 2018 states that the movement which originated in USA was inspired by a Bible verse, Numbers 15:38-39, which says: "Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue : and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them."
“The Maine Law” refers to the fact that before the Vollsted Act of 1920 various American states had varieties of prohibition. James Glasgow proved a true prophet of what happened when prohibition was applied to the entire U.S.A.
Rev George Faris, who married Harriet’s daughter Grace thought otherwise. In a sermon in the early 1920s [held in Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland] he commends prohibition and expresses the hope that it may come across the Atlantic. I am inclined to agree with my great great grandfather rather than with my grandfather on the point of “moral advocacy and the avoidance of impossibilities” - JGF
His reference to “unfermented wine” is interesting . There was at times an unedifying contest in
individual churches between the advocates of temperance and the more conservative members on
the propriety of using unfermented or fermented wine for the Communion Service. In Windsor
Presbyterian Church, Belfast, the division was between the generations. Harriet’s brother-in-law
Sir William Crawford was Clerk of Session, secretary to the meetings of the elders presided over by the minister. The session clerk is regarded as having great authority in the congregation.and wise ministers seek to have good relationships with them - the nearest equivalent in Anglicanism would be the role of rector’s churchwarden.
and generously provided the wine for Communion.
When he retired he was succeeded by his son James. Another son William was also a member of
session, and together they proposed and seconded a motion that a change should be made to
non-alcoholic wine. Their fellow elders felt that to accept this proposal might show ingratitude to
Sir William; so long as he lived they accepted the claret, and it was only after his death that
Windsor changed to Communion cordial.
Harriet was more enthusiastic than her father on the subject of Temperance; she wrote copiously both in prose and verse and edited “Echoes of Erin” the magazine of the Women’s Temperance Association. That she was also interested in other aspects of women’s welfare can be seen from the leaflet “Election of Poor Law Guardians”. A petition signed by several people from Portadown urged her to let her name go forward
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_ribbon_badge accessed 7 May 2018 states that the movement which originated in USA was inspired by a Bible verse, Numbers 15:38-39, which says: "Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue : and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them."
“The Maine Law” refers to the fact that before the Vollsted Act of 1920 various American states had varieties of prohibition. James Glasgow proved a true prophet of what happened when prohibition was applied to the entire U.S.A.
Rev George Faris, who married Harriet’s daughter Grace thought otherwise. In a sermon in the early 1920s [held in Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland] he commends prohibition and expresses the hope that it may come across the Atlantic. I am inclined to agree with my great great grandfather rather than with my grandfather on the point of “moral advocacy and the avoidance of impossibilities” - JGF
Harriet was more enthusiastic than her father on the subject of Temperance; she wrote copiously both in prose and verse and edited “Echoes of Erin” the magazine of the Women’s Temperance Association. That she was also interested in other aspects of women’s welfare can be seen from the leaflet “Election of Poor Law Guardians”. A petition signed by several people from Portadown urged her to let her name go forward
She had some private charities providing weekly pensions for former servants. She was amused
when the Liberal Government brought in the Old Age Pension and some of her pensioners said
they wouldn’t be coming any longer as they were getting money from the government.
One of these pensioners gave rise to a family saying. She was expatiating on how well her daughter had married: the new husband had a good house and this much land and that much stock. “Your daughter must be very happy.” said Harriet. “Deed she’s no. She canna’ thole the man but I tell her that in every marriage there maun aye be something.”22 So Harriet’s descendants tend to greet life’s little unpleasantnesses with the phrase “There maun aye be something.”
John and his brother Joseph and their brother-in-law Joseph Beatty, the husband of their sister Bella, had set up in Portadown as druggists. They were engaged also in the grain trade and in general provisions. John has some remarks on his dealings in his letters to Harriet before their marriage. (12 September, 19 September 1877). John and Harriet’s first home was above the premises. James Glasgow tells us that at this time J. and J. Acheson had nine apprentices. He mentions later that he tutored some of John’s young men and John himself in Latin and Botany, and records with satisfaction that two of them and John himself passed the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons,in Kildare St. Dublin in October 1878. A substantial amount of Latin was demanded of druggists who aspired to be pharmacists.
One of these pensioners gave rise to a family saying. She was expatiating on how well her daughter had married: the new husband had a good house and this much land and that much stock. “Your daughter must be very happy.” said Harriet. “Deed she’s no. She canna’ thole the man but I tell her that in every marriage there maun aye be something.”22 So Harriet’s descendants tend to greet life’s little unpleasantnesses with the phrase “There maun aye be something.”
for those unfamiliar with Ulster Scots “Indeed she isn’t. She cannot put up with the man but I tell her that in every marriage there must always be something.”
John and his brother Joseph and their brother-in-law Joseph Beatty, the husband of their sister Bella, had set up in Portadown as druggists. They were engaged also in the grain trade and in general provisions. John has some remarks on his dealings in his letters to Harriet before their marriage. (12 September, 19 September 1877). John and Harriet’s first home was above the premises. James Glasgow tells us that at this time J. and J. Acheson had nine apprentices. He mentions later that he tutored some of John’s young men and John himself in Latin and Botany, and records with satisfaction that two of them and John himself passed the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons,in Kildare St. Dublin in October 1878. A substantial amount of Latin was demanded of druggists who aspired to be pharmacists.
[Kildare St prospectus not to hand]
The reference to “botany” must come from the fact that James Glasgow as a divinity student at the Belfast College (now Royal Belfast Academical Institution and a second level school) had an extra class ticket for a one year course in medicine, taken in the old barrack building behind the present school. Sir Peter Froggatt Professor of Epidemiology at Queen’s University Belfast and later Dean of Faculty of Medicine and Vice Chancellor has assured me that it was not unusual for students for the ministry to take this class, not only those who like James Glasgow might have been thinking of service overseas.
The reference to “botany” must come from the fact that James Glasgow as a divinity student at the Belfast College (now Royal Belfast Academical Institution and a second level school) had an extra class ticket for a one year course in medicine, taken in the old barrack building behind the present school. Sir Peter Froggatt Professor of Epidemiology at Queen’s University Belfast and later Dean of Faculty of Medicine and Vice Chancellor has assured me that it was not unusual for students for the ministry to take this class, not only those who like James Glasgow might have been thinking of service overseas.
At the time of his marriage John Acheson had already expanded his business interests into the
production of linen, and as he prospered and his family grew, he was able to move them into a
house “Dunavon” “dun = fort avon or abhainn = river, built as its name suggests, on a mound above the Bann. Here he had two
avocations, the game of chess which he had been taught play by a Roman Catholic, and his
garden of which he was very proud. His pride was shared by his gardener, David Leslie when they
took eleven prizes at the Portadown Agricultural flower show in September 1907. There is a small section described as “open to Amateurs who do not keep a gardener” - a sign of another age.
There does not seem to have been a prize for orange lilies, but it was David Leslie’s boast that he
grew the best orange lilies in Portadown. The Acheson factory, Bannview, was on the Garvaghy
Road, and David proudly adorned his lodge banner with lilies from the garden of the Liberal Home
Ruler. It is not clear who was triumphing on those occasions.
One last view of Portadown in 1890. The local lodge was accustomed to hold its 1st July bonfire in a field on the bank of the Bann beside Dunavon. James Glasgow died in Dunavon on 30th June and the lodge relocated their bonfire as a mark of respect.
Another custom that has disappeared is the use of black-edged stationery. Mary can remember as a child of about eight being sent by her mother to buy a small packet of black-edged paper and envelopes, so that her mother could write a letter of condolence. The Acheson papers yield a good number of black-edged letters; some are letters of condolence, but most are not. It is not clear whether a member of a family that had suffered a bereavement was expected to mark it in its writing paper, in line with the convention of wearing black, or whether it was an example of thrift, since paper was expensive. French mourning customs were even more formal than Irish customs, as Harriet’s sister found when her little son Frank Victor died in Paris. Writing of the funeral she says “It is the fashion here to invite people by a printed letter.” This is the “Faire Part”.
One last view of Portadown in 1890. The local lodge was accustomed to hold its 1st July bonfire in a field on the bank of the Bann beside Dunavon. James Glasgow died in Dunavon on 30th June and the lodge relocated their bonfire as a mark of respect.
In April 1914 the Acheson family received an unexpected visit from the Royal Irish Constabulary.
At that time the Ulster Volunteer Force was actively drilling and secretly conveying arms around the country in preparation to oppose the Government’s Ireland Bill. Some gun running activity had been taking place in Portadown and the police arrived at Dunavon to demand to know where the Acheson’s motor car had taken the guns. At first sight it would seem as if the police were trying to show great diligence, by looking in one of the few places they knew they would no find any unionist guns. Another possible view is that they were merely doing their duty, and that some malicious unionist had laid information, and given a description of the Achesons’ car. John Acheson was on his deathbed, and his son Edgar had no difficulty in proving that he had not left the house on the night in question. This so far is the account we received from the family, but another possibility has occurred to us. The school girl Hazel was excited by the purchase of the car and records in a letter that “Edgar and the yard-man have gone to Belfast to learn to drive it.” We do not know the name of the yard-man, but it is possible that without asking permission he borrowed the car to run the guns.
At a presentation on “The Achesons of Portadown” to North Armagh Family History Society on 21 March 2018 John G Faris was shown news cuttings from the Portadown Times about a fatal accident in ? 1910 in which Edgar Acheson and a “chauffeur” (= the “yard-man”?) were involved, with the chauffeur taking the responsibility.
APPENDIX 1
A Background Note on the Political Pressures Affecting Irish Presbyterians (particularly as it affected Mary Glasgow’s ancestors)
The “glorious revolution” of 1689 had established Presbyterianism as the state religion of Scotland but it had left Episcopacy as the state religion of Ireland as well as of England. The Tory governments of Queen Anne’s reign were anxious to maintain the unity of church and state and so regarded Dissent in any form as politically suspect. Presbyterians had little difficulty in abjuring the Pope and the Pretender James Edward Stuart, the son of the deposed James II and his son Charles Edward “Bonnie Prince Charlie” made unsuccessful claims to the British Crown in 1715 and 1745. https:// www.britannica.com/biography/James-Edward-the-Old-Pretender accessed 8 May 2018, but the Test Act of 1704, designed to control the Roman Catholics, also caught the Presbyterians. It required any person holding any office under the crown to take communion in the Church of Ireland within three months of his appointment. In particular this meant that no conscientious Presbyterian could be a ember of a local authority, a position to which they aspired as members of the rising middle class. A.C. Anderson in “The Story of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland” describes the reign of Queen Anne as the “most dismal period in the history of our church”.
Some Presbyterians did contrive to avoid the disabilities of the Test Act by occasional conformity or compliance. One good example is the ancestry of Mary Wightman Glasgow wife of James Glasgow and mother of Harriet. She was descended from a family called Fulton in Lisburn, and both Fultons and Wightmans appear in the records of Lisburn Cathedral. Indeed they served as churchwardens but they regularly worshipped in 1st Lisburn Presbyterian Church and were active in building the present church building.
Despite the permission given to Naaman the Syrian to bow down in the house of Baal 2 Kings 5.18-19a, the Seceders held that such behaviour could not be allowed. The Seceders were ultra-orthodox.
That is to say they accepted without cavil the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647. They are therefore not to be confused with the Non-Subscribing Presbyterians who were driven out of the Church in 1825. As their name suggests they would not subscribe the Westminster Confession, but their doctrine was in fact Unitarian. It is probably more accurate to say their doctrine tended towards Unitarianism, as it is possible to be a non Subscriber who does accept the Trinity.
Their church has passed Gamaliel’s test and remains in existence.
At that time the Ulster Volunteer Force was actively drilling and secretly conveying arms around the country in preparation to oppose the Government’s Ireland Bill. Some gun running activity had been taking place in Portadown and the police arrived at Dunavon to demand to know where the Acheson’s motor car had taken the guns. At first sight it would seem as if the police were trying to show great diligence, by looking in one of the few places they knew they would no find any unionist guns. Another possible view is that they were merely doing their duty, and that some malicious unionist had laid information, and given a description of the Achesons’ car. John Acheson was on his deathbed, and his son Edgar had no difficulty in proving that he had not left the house on the night in question. This so far is the account we received from the family, but another possibility has occurred to us. The school girl Hazel was excited by the purchase of the car and records in a letter that “Edgar and the yard-man have gone to Belfast to learn to drive it.” We do not know the name of the yard-man, but it is possible that without asking permission he borrowed the car to run the guns.
At a presentation on “The Achesons of Portadown” to North Armagh Family History Society on 21 March 2018 John G Faris was shown news cuttings from the Portadown Times about a fatal accident in ? 1910 in which Edgar Acheson and a “chauffeur” (= the “yard-man”?) were involved, with the chauffeur taking the responsibility.
APPENDIX 1
A Background Note on the Political Pressures Affecting Irish Presbyterians (particularly as it affected Mary Glasgow’s ancestors)
The “glorious revolution” of 1689 had established Presbyterianism as the state religion of Scotland but it had left Episcopacy as the state religion of Ireland as well as of England. The Tory governments of Queen Anne’s reign were anxious to maintain the unity of church and state and so regarded Dissent in any form as politically suspect. Presbyterians had little difficulty in abjuring the Pope and the Pretender James Edward Stuart, the son of the deposed James II and his son Charles Edward “Bonnie Prince Charlie” made unsuccessful claims to the British Crown in 1715 and 1745. https:// www.britannica.com/biography/James-Edward-the-Old-Pretender accessed 8 May 2018, but the Test Act of 1704, designed to control the Roman Catholics, also caught the Presbyterians. It required any person holding any office under the crown to take communion in the Church of Ireland within three months of his appointment. In particular this meant that no conscientious Presbyterian could be a ember of a local authority, a position to which they aspired as members of the rising middle class. A.C. Anderson in “The Story of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland” describes the reign of Queen Anne as the “most dismal period in the history of our church”.
Some Presbyterians did contrive to avoid the disabilities of the Test Act by occasional conformity or compliance. One good example is the ancestry of Mary Wightman Glasgow wife of James Glasgow and mother of Harriet. She was descended from a family called Fulton in Lisburn, and both Fultons and Wightmans appear in the records of Lisburn Cathedral. Indeed they served as churchwardens but they regularly worshipped in 1st Lisburn Presbyterian Church and were active in building the present church building.
Despite the permission given to Naaman the Syrian to bow down in the house of Baal 2 Kings 5.18-19a, the Seceders held that such behaviour could not be allowed. The Seceders were ultra-orthodox.
That is to say they accepted without cavil the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647. They are therefore not to be confused with the Non-Subscribing Presbyterians who were driven out of the Church in 1825. As their name suggests they would not subscribe the Westminster Confession, but their doctrine was in fact Unitarian. It is probably more accurate to say their doctrine tended towards Unitarianism, as it is possible to be a non Subscriber who does accept the Trinity.
Their church has passed Gamaliel’s test and remains in existence.
Acts 5.34-39 Gamaliel was a Pharisee who pleaded for toleration of the early followers of Jesus.
“For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” As Mary Glasgow disagreed with her father on Unitarianism I disagree with my mother on her interpretation of this Biblical reference, which should be seen rather as properly a plea for toleration. The survival of the Non Subscribing Church is not a proof of the correctness of their teachings.
I apologise for dwelling on these minutiae of church history but it allows me to quote Mary’s father James Wightman on the subject. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in about 1818, and in two letters home to Mary’s elder sisters, Elizabeth and Margaret he gives fatherly advice on matters of religion. He warns Elizabeth against Methodism, but in a letter to Margaret he reveals that he isa Unitarian. he deplores the fact that his sister Nancy, who had also emigrated, “has embraced the popish doctrine of the Trinity.”
see Mary J Faris and Richard K MacMaster: An Ulsterman in Early Industrial America: Letters of James Wightman 1821-24 in Journal of scotch Irish Studies Volume 1 No 2 Summer 2001 copies available from farisjohn@gmail.com
His father and grandfather had held seats in Lisburn Cathedral.
APPENDIX 2
Mourning Customs through the Generations
The death of Diana Princess of Wales produced an extraordinary wave of national mourning, such as had not been seen since the death of Queen Victoria, but with this difference that mourning no longer demanded the wearing of black clothes. As children we [John and Mary Faris] observed quite young women who wore nothing but black, widows of the 1914-18 war. John remembers that his mother, who was widowed in 1925, wore black for several years and then began to wear greys and purples, finally returning to ordinary clothes. The convention was “Black for the first year”. There were similar rules regarding deaths of parents, children, or other family members.
John G Faris remembers his father John A Faris remarking that he wore a black armband for the first term when he returned to school after his father’s death.
The death of Queen Victoria demanded national mourning in this sense. Anne, the third daughter of John and Harriet, remembered herself and her sister Molly, then pupils at Victoria College, Belfast, painting black their white their panama hats because “the old queen” was dead. In 1937 when George V died, Mary who as schoolgirl was wearing black and white, following the death of her mother the previous year, does not remember any special change of clothes among the populace, but John remembers the at Worcester College, Oxford, he and other students wore black ties. The only public mourning we remember for George VI was the cancellation of a function arranged for the Common Room of the Queen’s University of Belfast.
The death of Edward VII in 1910 caused a problem for Harriet. Following the custom of 1901, she might be expected to appear in black, especially as she was about to take the chair at a public meeting in Cookstown, in connexion with her work for the Temperance movement. Her daughter Molly records that her costume was mole-coloured and her bonnet and fur black, and she thought she would do with a black blouse. “She got quite a nice ready-made one in McGaughey’s and looked very nice and quite mourning.” The reference to ready-made is interesting as it reflects the notion that proper clothes should be made to measure. The youngest daughter Hazel mentions that “Nearly everyone in school has a black ribbon on.”
“For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” As Mary Glasgow disagreed with her father on Unitarianism I disagree with my mother on her interpretation of this Biblical reference, which should be seen rather as properly a plea for toleration. The survival of the Non Subscribing Church is not a proof of the correctness of their teachings.
I apologise for dwelling on these minutiae of church history but it allows me to quote Mary’s father James Wightman on the subject. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in about 1818, and in two letters home to Mary’s elder sisters, Elizabeth and Margaret he gives fatherly advice on matters of religion. He warns Elizabeth against Methodism, but in a letter to Margaret he reveals that he isa Unitarian. he deplores the fact that his sister Nancy, who had also emigrated, “has embraced the popish doctrine of the Trinity.”
see Mary J Faris and Richard K MacMaster: An Ulsterman in Early Industrial America: Letters of James Wightman 1821-24 in Journal of scotch Irish Studies Volume 1 No 2 Summer 2001 copies available from farisjohn@gmail.com
His father and grandfather had held seats in Lisburn Cathedral.
APPENDIX 2
Mourning Customs through the Generations
The death of Diana Princess of Wales produced an extraordinary wave of national mourning, such as had not been seen since the death of Queen Victoria, but with this difference that mourning no longer demanded the wearing of black clothes. As children we [John and Mary Faris] observed quite young women who wore nothing but black, widows of the 1914-18 war. John remembers that his mother, who was widowed in 1925, wore black for several years and then began to wear greys and purples, finally returning to ordinary clothes. The convention was “Black for the first year”. There were similar rules regarding deaths of parents, children, or other family members.
John G Faris remembers his father John A Faris remarking that he wore a black armband for the first term when he returned to school after his father’s death.
The death of Queen Victoria demanded national mourning in this sense. Anne, the third daughter of John and Harriet, remembered herself and her sister Molly, then pupils at Victoria College, Belfast, painting black their white their panama hats because “the old queen” was dead. In 1937 when George V died, Mary who as schoolgirl was wearing black and white, following the death of her mother the previous year, does not remember any special change of clothes among the populace, but John remembers the at Worcester College, Oxford, he and other students wore black ties. The only public mourning we remember for George VI was the cancellation of a function arranged for the Common Room of the Queen’s University of Belfast.
The death of Edward VII in 1910 caused a problem for Harriet. Following the custom of 1901, she might be expected to appear in black, especially as she was about to take the chair at a public meeting in Cookstown, in connexion with her work for the Temperance movement. Her daughter Molly records that her costume was mole-coloured and her bonnet and fur black, and she thought she would do with a black blouse. “She got quite a nice ready-made one in McGaughey’s and looked very nice and quite mourning.” The reference to ready-made is interesting as it reflects the notion that proper clothes should be made to measure. The youngest daughter Hazel mentions that “Nearly everyone in school has a black ribbon on.”
Another custom that has disappeared is the use of black-edged stationery. Mary can remember as a child of about eight being sent by her mother to buy a small packet of black-edged paper and envelopes, so that her mother could write a letter of condolence. The Acheson papers yield a good number of black-edged letters; some are letters of condolence, but most are not. It is not clear whether a member of a family that had suffered a bereavement was expected to mark it in its writing paper, in line with the convention of wearing black, or whether it was an example of thrift, since paper was expensive. French mourning customs were even more formal than Irish customs, as Harriet’s sister found when her little son Frank Victor died in Paris. Writing of the funeral she says “It is the fashion here to invite people by a printed letter.” This is the “Faire Part”.
