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Publications | Down Survey | 2000 Issue Contents A
Quaker Library People familiar with north-west county Down, near Portadown and Lurgan in county Armagh, will know that this is within the area of Ulster most influenced by the Religious Society of Friends, popularly known as the Quakers. This Christian body was founded in England in the middle of the seventeenth century. The Quakers reject sacraments, ritual, and formal ministry, and have been notable for their promotion of many campaigns for social reform.
In the townland of Moyallon, on the county Down side of its border with Armagh, is a neat eighteenth century Meeting House surrounded by its own ground and the modest grave markers of the Quaker dead. Moyallon Friends Meeting House was built to meet the needs of the Friends who lived in that area.1 Originally the Friends from Moyallon and surrounding townlands attended the Lurgan Meeting, but living in a location remote from Lurgan they requested in 1692 that a Meeting should be held within their neighbourhood. For the next few decades they met in private houses until the Meeting House was completed in 1736. Its site was provided by John Christy and the structure was enlarged in 1780 by Thomas Christy. Although there is a burial plot associated with the Meeting House, in the early years Friends from the Moyallon area were buried at Lynastown burial ground between Portadown and Lurgan on the Bluestone road, beside the present day Brownlow development of Craigavon. Two hundred recorded burials took place at the walled plot of Lynastown between April 1658 and March 1967. The first person to be buried there was William Lynas. The first person from Moyallon to be buried in the plot was Thomas Christy in November 1682. The last person from the townland of Moyallon to be interred in the plot was Margaret Webb in January 1839 at the age of 73.2 The Society of Friends is, and always has been, a careful and literate body which documented many works about itself and its concerns for social welfare in a Christian context. For our friend and colleague Philip Wilson, who was curator of Craigavon Museum Services until his sudden death in December 1998, this provided a natural interest. The library which he created for the service has recently been named the Philip B Wilson Library in his honour, and within it is an important Quaker Collection. It arrived in this way. The Religious Society of Friends has a long association with books and publishing. Each Meeting House had a small library. The Friends recognised that each individual had the potential to become a leader or minister for their faith and for this purpose, books were available for all Friends, both male and female, for consultation to enrich their knowledge. The Meeting House was also frequently used as a school house and the availability of books was advantageous for teaching purposes. Favourite themes were observation of nature, innovations in industry, theology, and travels. The 1889 Meeting House in Lurgan was large in comparison to other Meeting Houses in northern Ireland and had the largest collection of books. This was mainly due to the geographically central position of Lurgan in relation to other Meeting Houses, its large membership, and to the town's significance as the place of first Quaker settlement in Ireland. Regular meetings have been held in Lurgan since 1654, when the town had approximately fifty houses. In the beginning they took place in private homes, the first meeting being held in William Edmondson's house in Church Place. The first Friends to attend the meetings were William Soulden and his wife, William Lynas, Mark Sawyer, Mark Wright, John Hendryn and two brothers, Richard and Anthony Jackson.3 Then, as membership grew, a site was leased in 1695 from the landlord, Arthur Brownlow, upon which a Meeting House was erected with space allocated for a burial plot, paid for by one hundred and twenty Lurgan Friends.4 This Meeting House was replaced in 1889 by a new structure which was funded both by the Lurgan Friends and by other members of the Ulster Quarterly Meeting. By 1995 a decision was made to modernise and to sell the site of the Meeting House and rebuild on land fifty metres away, beyond the burial ground. The new Lurgan Meeting House was opened in 1996. The 1889 building had been home to two collections
of books relating to the Religious Society of Friends; the Lurgan
Meeting Collection and the Ulster Quarterly The new Lurgan Meeting House was smaller than the old and not capable of housing such a large collection of books. A decision was taken to retain the Lurgan Meeting Collection and to find a suitable alternative home for the Ulster Quarterly Meeting Collection. This collection was owned by all members of the Ulster Quarterly Meeting and the Friends wished to find it a new home where it could remain accessible to them.. Eventually the collection was offered to, and accepted by, Craigavon Museum Services. The collection was brought to the museum site in 1996 and officially transferred to the museum on 12 July 1999. This ensures that it will remain in the local area and be available for consultation.5 Each of the seven hundred volumes had to be carefully inspected to detect any insect damage, and then gently dusted and cleaned before storage in boxes ready for cataloguing. As is the case for many of our colleagues in regional museums, storage facilities and public access was limited. But in 1996 Craigavon Borough Council began a building programme at the museum to provide library facilities for the public so that the growing local history collection and the Religious Society of Friends collection could be properly utilised. During this period of construction Mr Arthur Chapman was approached by the Friends to undertake the daunting task of cataloguing the collection, following in the footsteps of his father, Mr George Chapman, who had been its librarian when it was still in the care of the Religious Society of Friends. With the help of other staff members the collection is now fully catalogued and our librarian, Linda McGibbon, has produced the catalogue on a CD ROM which has been circulated to other libraries to increase its accessibility. A flavour of the Quaker Collection may be gained by brief references to some of the works it contains. Under the heading of Social History there are interesting commentaries on a wide range of issues including John Woolman's A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich published in 1793. This small book of ninety-one pages opens with the words 'Wealth, desired for its own sake, obstructs the increase in virtue; and large possessions, in the hands of selfish men, have a bad tendency;' and covers many topics including the setting of high rents, the hardships of the poor, and the mistreatment of animals. Oxen and horses are often seen at work, when through the heat, and too much labour, their eyes, and the emotions of their bodies, manifest they are oppressed. Their loads in wagons are frequently so heavy, that when weary with hauling them far, their drivers find occasion in going up hills, or through mires, to raise their spirits, by whipping, to get forward. In 1808 Thomas Clarkson wrote about the slave-trade
in two volumes titled The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment
of the Abolition of the African SlaveTrade by the British Government.
Contained within volume II is a fold-out drawing of a cross-section
of the sailing ship Brookes illustrating the extremely cramped accommodation
for the transportation of slaves. The ships dimensions are also
supplied. The height between decks was 5 feet 8 inches; the length
and breadth of the boys' room was 13'9" by 25 feet. Each adult
male slave was In the Irish History section there is a volume presented to John Richardson by the Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends which operated during the Great famine. Transactions of the Central Relief Committee of' the Society of Friends during the Famine in Ireland in 1846 and 1847 was printed in 1852. It was reprinted in 1996, as an important text for its period, with an index by Rob Goodbody. The book gives a significant insight to the hardships endured in these years and the work under taken by the Committee and the Friends to alleviate the distress of the people. The Quakers did not only record other peoples suffering, but also their own. There are numerous volumes in the collection related to this theme including A Fuller and T Holms' work entitled A Compendious few of Some Extraordinary Sufferings of the People Called Quakers in Ireland, published in 1731 and relating a catalogue of fines, imprisonment and seizure of goods experienced by the Friends for their faith in this country. The collection contains a near continuous run of the Annual Monitor. This began in 1813, giving details of Quakers who had died in the past year, short articles and, interestingly, a section for Friends to add their own observations in the form of a diary. The hand written diaries of the early years are fascinating and in particular the notes by Abraham Abell. Abraham was born in Cork on 1 1 April 1789 into a Quaker family of eleven children. The life of this eccentric man is recounted in a recent publication by Richard Harrison which draws upon some of Abraham's writing in the Annual Monitor.6 Abraham delighted in writing in codes and using elements of Irish, Greek, Latin and Hebrew letters. He recorded everyday occurrences, people he dined with, the weather, finances, purchasing of goods, all of which give an insight into the life of a Quaker in Cork in the first few decades of the nineteenth century. The Library has three of Abraham's Annual Monitors, 1829, 1831 and 1839. The notes he records in the diaries are difficult to read, his handwriting changing and alternating between ordinary script, coded lines and flamboyant writing. The entries are interesting and tantalising, encouraging the reader to try and find out more about the person concerned. Mundane entries such as dining with friends and family are interspersed with charming details. In 1839 on 11 April Abraham has to work out his age by a simple subtraction in the margin and heads the week 'My birth week...' For the previous four weeks he has headed each page of the diary with 'Four weeks prior to my Birth week' as he counts down the weeks to his birthday. Abraham introduces the new year of 1839 by writing: I enter the new year in prime health in my 49th year never was one day sick in my life, never bled or blistered - nor paid a doctor a fee. Abraham's good health may have been due to the extensive walks that he accomplished, frequently meeting with friends and going to investigate a castle or site of archaeological interest. At the end of 1831 he makes a list of all the things he will need for walking expeditions in the coming spring and summer months. I Strong comfortable shoes - very smooth inside
Abraham then records a note to remind himself to sleep and eat before starting a journey, prepare his feet by paring nails and corns and to be home before dark! He frequently dines with friends, especially at William Beales house, and when in Cove he dines at M A Tomkins (shortened to M A T in his notes). A typical jaunt with friends is recorded on 14 August 1831 : Left Cork at 7 - Cove at 9 - breakfasted with M A T. whale boat to Roberts Cove - went up to telegraph tower - returned to Cove to dinner with M A T - Sally Marks there - a very delightful day. When Abraham Abell died he had amassed a library of 4,500 books. Amongst them were works in Italian, French, Latin, German, Spanish, Greek, Hebrew and Irish. The library was broken up and sold in 1851 but Craigavon Museum is fortunate that some have found their way to it. The Quaker Collection contains several publications by Friends who attended the Moyallon Meeting in county Down. For example A Journal of the Life and Gospel Labours of John Conran of Moyallon in Ireland Who Died in the Year 1827. John was born in Dublin in 1739 and was brought up in the episcopalian church. He served his apprenticeship in the linen-trade in Lisburn and joined the Lisburn Monthly Meeting in 1773. He married Louisa Strangman (1755-1805) in 1783 after proposing to her on several occasions, the first of which was eleven years previously! He became a member of the Lurgan Monthly Meeting in 1819. His ministry took him throughout Ireland and he lived for a period with Thomas Christy Wakefield in Moyallon where he died on 16 June 1827 in the fortyeighth year of his ministry. He was buried at the Friends burial ground in Lisburn. The Collection has many publications by Quakers
who had travelled to Ireland and wrote about their experiences. In conclusion, the Library of the Ulster Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, the Quaker Collection, is a valuable and interesting collection of books covering topics far beyond the boundaries of present day Craigavon, traversing religious conviction and experience across four centuries. It takes its place as an intact and important part of the Philip B Wilson Library of Craigavon Museum Services at Pinebank, Craigavon. We hope it serves with a usefulness and honour which would meet with the approval of its originators.7 Dr Susan Mannion is Curator of Craigavon Museum Services. Notes and references.
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