BANBRIDGE is justly famed for its manufacture of Linen. For nearly 200 years the textile trade has flourished here, Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary, published in 1837, says "Even when almost every port was closed against the introduction of Irish linens, and the trade was nearly lost to the country, those of Banbridge found a ready market and when the energies of the linen merchants on the old system were nearly paralysed by foreign competition, the merchants of the place created a new trade, by commencing as manufacturers on an extensive scale, and opening an intercourse with America and other ports. The numerous falls on the river, and the uniform supply of water, appear to have attracted the attention of manufacturers; and soon after bleaching became a separate branch of trade; and shortly after the application of machinery to this department, several mills were erected on its banks." In 1816 in the open linen markets held here, the average sales per weekly market were £120.

0s 0d. The following extract from the returns of the Sealsmasters exhibits the value of linens sold in the Banbridge market in four successive years :

The Banbridge linen houses had about the year 1835 manufactured for them 66,000 webs annually. In 1834, the several bleaching concerns here turned out 185,710 webs, being nearly equal to the whole quantity bleached in all Ireland at the end of the eighteenth century. Of late years the introduction of power looms in the manufacture of linen, has wrought almost an entire change in the manner of conducting this important business. So early as 1834, the late Frederick Hayes had an extensive establishment for weaving union cloths by machinery at Seapatrick village, at which time he employed

100 looms, impelled by a water wheel, 15 feet in diameter and 22 feet broad. At present we have within the municipal boundary three large power-loom factories which employ some 600 looms. Wills, Earl of Hillsborough, used the influence of his high official position to advance the linen trade of Ulster, and especially of Banbridge, His lordship's efforts in this direction are well known.

Note :- Atkinson in his " Ireland Exhibited to England " writing in 1823 says referring to Banbridge" One of the best markets in this province, for the sale of fine lawns and linens, is held here," and further says :" This town is provided with an excellent hotel, a dispensary, a reading room and other useful public accommodation and on many accounts has a claim to eminent distinction in the history of Downshire.

The growth of Banbridge is due to the growth of the linen trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the former century weaving was carried on by hand-looms throughout the thickly populated country districts, Bleaching flourished along the banks of the Bann on various farms. Some larger bleaching firms were at work towards the end of this century. The Belfast News-Letter of 11th April, 1783, contained an account of Assizes for Co. Down when Patrick Gordon, alias McGurnaghan was sentenced to be executed at Drumbridge, and Steven Gordon to be executed at Castlewellan, for

stealing linen out of the bleach-green of Walter Crawford of Ballievy. John Wright was sentenced to be executed at Banbridge for stealing linen out of the bleach-green of James Clibborn (1) of Banbridge and John Holmes to be executed at Downpatrick for receiving said linen knowing it was stolen.Several others were also sentenced to death. The NewsLetter commented" It may be hoped that the example of these unhappy wretches will prevent the practice of robbing greens, so injurious to a manufacture on which the poorest as well as the highest classes of the inhabitants of this country so much depend." The credit for abolishing such savage penalties is largely due to Mr. John Handcock of Lisburn.

(l) This firm afterwards became Clibborn & Co., and by taking a nephew into partnership, Clibborn, Hill & Co. It had property at Daisy Hill and Solitude.) Friends, the owner of the works now in the possession of Messrs. Richardson, Sons, and Owden. A meeting of bleachers was held in BelfastJohn McCance in the chair in December, 1810, when resolutions were passed praying for the " doing away with such death sentences." Next year the old law was repealed, Machinery driven by water for beetling linen was introduced to Ulster in 1725.

Henceforth the Bann was utilised to great advantage. McCall tells that the process of whitening was slow even in the largest concerns. Towards the close of the XVIII century "considerable advance was thought to have been made in the course of finish when brown webs sent to the field in May were ready for the white warehouse at the end of the following August." In the development of the linen trade of the Bann towards the end of the eighteenth century the families of Mulligan, Crawford, Lindsay, Hayes were pre-eminent. The Mulligans were long established up the river in the Corbet district. George

Crawford, son of Gilbert Crawford of Gilford, married Elizabeth Bradshaw in 1769 and settled at Ballievy, One of his daughters Margaret married William Hayes of Millmount in 1796. Another daughter Catherine married John Lindsay of Bally down. His son George married Olivia daughter of Dr, Henry of Dublin in 1837. William Hayes (1770-1827) came as a young man to Banbridge and took over Millmount and its lands in Edenderry from W. E. Reilly on a lease of 900 years. The

McClellands were his predecessors in Millmount. A corn mill stood there with special manorial rights on the Reilly estate. He turned it into a bleach-green and acquired glebe land at Seapatrick and on the opposite side of the river. There he established his third son Frederick W. who built Seapatrick House. Wm. Hayes had ten children. (1) Paternal grandfather of Walter Lindsay of Ballydown. The Lindsay family was founded in Tullyhenan about 1680 by David Lindsay. He came from Scotland with General Monro's Army. His son interviewed King William in 1690 and is recorded to have sold him £300 worth of cattle. A grandson, David, of the original David Lindsay took up residence in Hilltown. The family is connected with the Crawfords, Simms, Mulligans and many other well known families throughout the North of Ireland. The once famous firm of Crawford and Lindsay took over Hudson's Ballydown Bleaching Works in 1822 when they also carried on linen manufacturing.

His eldest son Richard who succeeded him in Millmount, died in 1864 when the place was let to the Malcolmson firm. His second son, George Crawford Hayes, was a partner of the Lindsays of Ballydown, His eldest daughter Jane married Samuel Law, a cousin of Rt. Hon. Hugh Law, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Another daughter Margaretta married Rev. Daniel Dickinson. Another daughter Isabella married Rev. Theophilus Campbell, Rector of Lurgan and Dean of Dromore. Emily married Dr, Duncan of Dublin, Richard, the eldest son, married Henrietta Grace Greene, daughter of Major Greene of the 61st Foot, and had three children. Elizabeth who married Robert Joy, J.P son of Robert Joy, Q.C., Dublin ; William Arthur who married a daughter of James Moore of Dublin. He was for several years Rector of Dromore and Chancellor of the Cathedral. Richard's third son was Richard, afterwards Dean of Derry and Canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral. He was a scholar of T.C.D., The Milimount Bleach Works are now carried on by Messrs. Anthony Cowdy & Sons, Proprietors.

Frederick W. Hayes at first carried on weaving at Seapatrick but in a short time turned the works into a yarn spinning and linen thread mill. He married a daughter of Mr. Boyd of the old Belfast Foundry (Boyd, Rider & Co Donegall St.). At his death in 1853 his son William succeeded and extended the firm until it gained an almost world-wide reputation. He married Miss M.M. Law of Hazelbank, his cousin. After his death in 1876 the firm became a private company under the managership of C. H. McCall (son of the linen historian, Hugh Mc Call, Lisburn. The firm of F. W. Hayes & Co. was merged

Banbridge figures in the famous controversy about the appointment of Sealmasters in 1762 when riots took place in Lisburn, Lambeg, Hillsborough and other towns. The weavers soon realised that the change was really for their benefit, A meeting of the weavers of Newry, Loughbrickland and Banbridge districts was held in Banbridge that year when a resolution was passed as follows:- ''' We confess there was some hot-headed persons among ua who did not at first see the good your honourable Board designed in this just law; but a short experience has convinced us of its benefits, for we have been

greatly imposed on by many of the drapers when they had the measuring of the cloth in their own power. .... But now, thank God and your honourable Board, we are released from these unjust and heavy burdens. The Board referred to was the Board of Linen Trustees which regulated linen affairs from 1711 to 1828, Wakefield, in his account of Ireland, 1808, writes of Banbridge that the twenty bleach-greens on the Bann bleach on an average 8,000 pieces each. The ground cost is 50s. The

bleaching of all yard-wide linens cost 8s,, that of cambrics 7s.; profit 8 per cent. Goods arc brought hither from Tyrone and Antrim. The 8,000 pieces multiplied by twenty gives 160,000 as the total number of pieces which at 58s. each amounts to E464,000 ; 8 per cent. profit makes the total value of the linens annually finished on the Bann to be £502,666. In the Linen Board Report for 1817, giving the tour of their Secretary, James Corry, through Ulster in 1816, he tells that Banbridge was the largest linen market in Co, Down, the average price of webs was Coarse linen, £1 ; fine linen, £2 Is. ; lawns and cambrics, £1 13s. 4d. All webs came to the market in a brown state, but the yarn before weaving was boiled with potash and spread on the grass for a few days by the manufacturers. The coarse linens sold in this market were mostly half-bleached in the neighbourhood and exported to the North of England as shirting linen for mechanics and labourers. The fine linens were generally bleached in Down and Antrim, the finer fabrics went to the Dublin market and to the West Indies and America, the

stronger kinds to London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The price of flax yarn in the market, from two-and-a-half to five hanks to the pound, sold from 5d. to 7d. per hank. Tow yarn from 16 to 20 cuts. to the pound from 4d. to 6d. and 7d. a hank. Corry was in Banbridge on Monday, 21st October.

The annual value of linens sold at the markets there was £53,976. The corresponding amounts for Armagh were £197,600; Lurgan, £96,200; Dungannon, £208,000; Lisburn, £260,000; Tanderagee, £2,000; Newry, £47,944.  Among those who received bounties for the manufacture of sail cloth, canvas, and duck from mill spun yarn was Wm. Hudson, Ballydown, 1809, for 1,047 yards. The principal buyers at Banbridge were Thos. C. Wakefield, Moyallon ; James and Thoa. Uprichard, Moyallon ; George Darley, Mount Pleasant; Christy & Dawson, Lowertown, Gilford ; Joseph Law, Corries (? Coose), Banbridge; James Foot, Banford; Thomas Crawford, Milltown; William Hayes, Millmount ; Edw. Clibborn, Banbridge;

Wat. Crawford, Ballievy; Phil, Mulligan, Ballievy; Hugh Burns, Banbridge; Coslet Waddle, New Forge, Moira.

The principal buyers at Armagh, Lurgan, &c., markets included Wm. Hayes, Gilbert Mulligan, John Mulligan, J, C. Mulligan. The same names are found buying at other centres through Ulster, Messrs. Crawford being mentioned as buying as far away as Castleblayney. A memorial on behalf of a linen inspector is signed by John Mulligan, registered bleacher, and George Mulligan. In the Linen Board Report for 1820 the description of linen sold at Banbridge markets is 12oo to 18oo, 6oo to 8oo

coarse. There were 31,350 pieces sealed in 1820. The estimated value was 1s. 7d. per yard and the total value, £62,660. The returns show a marked increase of weekly sales from 500 in 1794 to 1,205 in 1820. Names of Banbridge linen men often figure in memorials to the Linen Board for the appointments of Seal masters, in the year 1820 we have from Banbridge George Nicholson, Wm. Hayes jr, Walter Crawford, R.B. (Registered Bleacher); Thomas Crawford, Andrew Crawford, R.B.,

In the same year the application of Hugh McClelland for Banbridge market was supported by many signatures, including several Mulligans, Weir, and. McClelland, H. McMordie, R,B ; Conway Blizzard, Moses Bodell, R.B. Mr. John Hudson of Banbridge applied in 1805 to be appointed a linen factor. He presented a testimonial- "We know the memorialist and believe him fully qualified for the situation of a linen factor. W. and Robert Hayes," In 1802 there was an investigation into supposed injurious methods of bleaching, Mr. William Hayes gave evidence on oath" Says he lives in Millmount. Co.

Down. and it strikes him it would be a material injury to prohibit the use of murietic acid and the detergent salt," In the account of unmerchantable linens settled by reference or otherwise compromised in the years 1800 and 1801 this entry occurs" Complainant, Shaw ; sealed by John Birch : Residence, Banbridge: Alleged tender; Compromised." In 1819 Samuel Greer, Banbridge, made application for five sets of interior works of scutch mills. Grants were made in 1824 for flax mills; additional scutches David Stewart, Rosehall, Banbridge, post town; Michael Barry, Lisnaliggan, Banbridge, post town.

When the dissolution of the Linen Board was being considered certain leading linen merchants from each county were consulted, Those selected to represent County Down were William Hayes, Banbridge ; Brice Smyth & Sons, Banbridge ; Richard Coulter, Newry; William Murland, Castlewellan; James Murland, Castlewellan ; John Andrews, Comber. Professor Conrad Gill in his " Rise of the Irish Linen Industry " states that the five great fairs for linen yearly in Banbridge were

constantly attended by factors from England. He writes: "Nearly all the farmers were bleachers." This point may be illustrated from the census returns of 1821 for " the parish of Seapatrick which includes most (sic) of the town of Banbridge and a stretch of five miles of the River Bann bordered with a succession of bleach greens. "The following list gives the chief farmers in this parish with the area of their land and the description of their work given in the returns :

In 1842 the Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion and Improvement of the Growth of Flax in Ireland show that Banbridge members were John Finlay, Frederick Hayes, Samuel Law, John Smyth & Co. The Annual Report of this Society for 1845 records a prize of £4 awarded in Class D for best bushel of flaxseed to Thomas Weir, Banbridge. Atkinson in his "Ireland exhibited to England (1823) waxes enthusiastic about the Bann valley and Banbridge. He writes :"Between this town and the village of Gilford, a distance of only four miles, there are no less than six extensive bleach greens on the river

where goods arc finished in the first style of bleaching, a process for which the Bann water is eminent," "This little tract of four miles may be considered as one continued theatre of beauty, genius and commerce", R. Mc Bride was t

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