Irish Flax Growers, 1796

I would query the dates you have given in this post. If Patrick was born in 1813, he’s not going to have married in 1823, when he was 10. I assume one of those years is wrong.

Researching him will be challenging.  St Patrick’s is RC so I assume he was of that denomination.

The population of Belfast expanded dramatically in the 1800s. In it’s early years it was largely Presbyterian (being dominated by Scots who had moved to Ireland in the 1600s). In 1782 there were just 365 Catholics in the town. The first RC church (St Mary’s) only opened in 1784. The population of Belfast in 1800 was about 20,000. In 1901 it was 349,000. The establishment of the shipyards, 50 linen mills and countless support industries led to a huge influx of workers from the surrounding countryside who were looking for better paid jobs in the city. 

Patrick might have been born in Belfast but it’s equally possible that his parents were amongst the tens of thousands who were pouring into the city every year around that time. Very few RC churches in Ulster have records pre 1825, so if they came from an outlying parish, then there will be no records. St Patrick’s in Belfast is an exception in having records from 1798 but St Mary’s which pre-dates it has nothing before 1867. (They either weren’t kept or have been lost). Researching RC families in the early 1800s is therefore very difficult.

Many labourers and farmers in Ulster grew flax which they then wove into linen, usually during the winter months when there wasn’t much work required on farms.  They used hand looms such as are still used in the Outer Hebrides to make Harris tweed. They could be dismantled when not required and for moving. So those are the folk on the flax growers list. Probably three quarters of the rural population at that time grew a bit of flax. It provided a bit of top up income.

A flax dealer strikes me as something different. Clearly no flax was grown in a  city, and I think a dealer would be someone who sold the seeds the plants were grown from. Presumably importing them through the port of Belfast might have been part of the process, though you can grow them in Ireland too.

I looked in the 1843 street directory (compiled 1842) but don’t see Patrick listed.

https://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/alphanames1843L2Mc.htm

There is a list of flax merchants but no McMullen listed:

https://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/1843TRADESP.htm

Not sure I can suggest any lines of enquiry that are going to turn up much on the family’s life in Belfast.

Hello Elwyn - Thank you very much for searching for me and all your deductions and suggestions.  It has been difficult trying to track the family down, I've been trying for many years now.  I have gained some information by scouring the birth, marriage and deaths.  As  you pointed out, I hadn't picked up that Patrick's birth must be wrong.  I have this morning found Pat & Sara's first born James in January 1831 on the CPR records and I have been looking in the wrong place. On the record  it says 'other event place' Brookfield and the birth record shows Brookfield is in Down and Connor Drumaul, so I have found his birth on https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0411  Unfortunately the dates of a further 5 children are all later than this birth and the records are difficult to read or missing.

Nontheless I am very pleased that I have found the county of Drumaul so I will now start looking for any information on this place or any pointers.  Thank you again

Marie

Marie,

Drummaul isn’t a county. It’s a parish in Co Antrim. The RC records for that parish start in 1825. The main town in the parish (and where the parish church is) is Randalstown. In the 1830s the parish included chapels at Tavnaghmore and Antrim town but with population changes over the years they were later detached c 1870 and are now in a separate parish (Antrim).

I can see the baptism of James on 30.1.1831 (in Brookfield), then Mary in St Pat’s Belfast 31.7.1836 and Patrick at the same church 28.5.1843.

So the family look to fit the pattern I mentioned, moving from rural Co Antrim into Belfast (about 25 miles) between 1831 and 1836, and then evidently on to Manchester about 10 years later.

I live near Drummaul & Randalstown but have to say the name Brookfield means nothing to me but maybe we can track it down. Tradition was to marry in the bride’s parish so I had a look at land records for Drummaul in around 1830 and again in 1860 (the tithes & Griffiths) but I don’t see any Walshes at all. It is found nearby though in Antrim and in the adjacent parish of Duneane. And Antrim was part of Drummaul in 1830 so possibly Brookfield is/was there. People married locally in the 1830s and I’d expect Patrick came from Drummaul too or a nearby parish.  The baptism records don’t go back far enough to find his, but I do see McMullens  farming in Farlough, Drumsough & Lenagh in the tithes for Drummaul, so his surname at least is found in the area.

Do you have any parents names from Patrick & Sarah Ann’s death certificates?

Hello Elwyn - Thank you so much for backing my findings up and as you say don't know where Brookfield was.  Its so good to see things taking shape, when I didn't know most of that a few days ago.  Its confusing too because place names have changed as well as family moving.  Its interesting to see your findings of McMullens farming in nearby areas.

I'm afraid I know nothing really about Patrick and Sara Anne's parents.  All I have is that Patrick's father was called John Patrick b.1791 in Ireland and nothing about his wife.  I haven't attempted to get death certs as I haven't enough information.  

I will keep on looking for a breakthrough.  Thank you so much again.

Marie

Hello Elwyn - Since we corresponded I have found that the McMullen family were living in this place called Brookfield, Co Antrim which was in the flax spinning district.  I have tracked down one of the sons James b.1831  he married in Dublin in 1851 and died in India on 3 Sep 1864, buried in Lucknow same date.  I saw something that may indicate that they went to the United States then to India.  Do you know anything about Irish people going out to India?  I believe it was the time of the Rebellion.  I've searched for a burial record for him but nothing so far.

daisynook

If he went to India in the 1800s I would expect it was because he had joined the army and been posted there. That was the most common reason. Findmypast & Ancestry both have some military records on their site. Where they have survived, more detailed service files are held in the National Archives in Kew, London.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/

Hello Elwyn - Since my last post in April I have discovered a bit more information about James McMullen.  I found on the Forces War Records that he was firstly a tailor (which ran in the family later) then joined the 88th Regiment the Connaught Rangers. ("The Devil's Own") an infantry regiment in India 1857-70 and in the Crimea 1854-6.  Unfortunately he died in a cholera epidemic and was buried in Lucknow, Bengal, India.  He had married in 1851 to a Dublin lady Catherine Duff and she was with him in India.  After his death she married again a Joseph Smith before they came back to England.

A sad story but interesting.  I also found a burial for his sister back in Belfast, County Down on 19 Jan 1873.

Best Wishes

Marie

Marie,

Glad you made a bit of progress. National Archives in Kew may have a bit more on James's military career. The detailed service records are not on-line and you would need to go in person or get a resreacher to do that for you. Keep plodding away!