Belfast's first bomb, 28 February 1816: class conflict and the origins of Ulster Unionist Hegemony

Eire-Ireland:Journal of Irish Studies, Spring-Summer, 2004 by Kerby A. Miller

Religious census data for Magheragall in 1766 is in T.808/14,900, in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast; and for 1831 in the First Report of the Commission of Public Instruction, Ireland, British Parliamentary Papers, H.C. 1835, xxxiii. Also see D. Dickson, C. O Grada, and S. Daultrey, "Hearth Tax, Household Size, and Irish Population Change, 1672-1821," Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 82C:6 (1982), 125-50.

(3.) The following transcript reproduces William Coyne's original punctuation and spelling--the latter often indicating his pronunciation, e.g., dale (deal), attact (attack), extronary (extraordinary), rachedness (wretchedness), laveing (leaving), etc. Occasionally the text is emended by explanatory footnotes or by the insertion of square-bracketed words in the text itself. This minimal editing may cause readers some difficulty, in part because Coyne frequently abbreviated words and/or omitted vowels or entire syllables; thus, [rec.sup.d] (received); [Dec.sup.r] [Feb.sup.y] (December, February); Covred, covring (Covered, covering); evry (every); modrate (moderate); etc. Also, Coyne often employed commas in place of apostrophes--e.g., [M'Pharson,.sup.s] (M'Pharson's), [Ruth,.sup.s] (Ruth's), [Subscriber,s.sup.s] (Subscriber's), etc.--or, less commonly, to indicate contractions or abbreviations, as in [rec,.sup.d] (received) and per [C,.sup.t] (percent).

(4.) Wm Shaw: according to Bradshaw's Belfast Directory, in 1819 William Shaw was a merchant at 24 James's Street, off Waring Street.

(5.) but: only. trade is in general but very flat: i.e., in general, trade is only very poor.

(6.) Mr Bell: Bradshaw's Belfast Directory of 1819 lists several merchants, bleachers, and cotton manufacturers named Bell--most prominently John Bell & Co., cotton spinners and manufacturers at John Street, off Donegall and Waring streets; and John Bell, Richard Bell, & Co., muslin bleachers, also at John Street--many of whom could have employed Coyne's coopering skills.

(7.) Thomas How: According to Bradshaw's Belfast Directory, in 1819 Thomas How (or Howe) was a muslin manufacturer with business premises in Long Lane, adjacent to his house on Church Street. He was also listed, at 12 Long Lane and H Church Street, in Pigot's Provincial Directory (London, 1824). On 29 June 1838, the BNL recorded the death, eight days earlier, of "Thomas How, Esq., merchant, aged 56 years."

Frank Johnson: Francis Johnson, a leading muslin manufacturer at North Street, on Peter's Hill. According to Jonathan Bardon's History of Ulster, 259, Johnson was a "hated employer" whose home had been attacked at least once before (as Coyne's letter states), in summer 1815, by "[d]esperate weavers" who daubed it with tar and set it on fire. Bardon, History of Ulster, 259. On 2 Jan. 1818, the BNL printed a lengthy announcement of "the death of our worthy and lamented townsman, Mr. FRANCIS JOHNSON, another victim to the dreadful scourge, Typhus Fever, with which our town is so severely visited. According to his obituary, Johnson's "character was held in the most elevated range by his fellow-citizens. ... for he was honest, ingenuous, and single-hearted; possessing a cultivated mind, talent, and integrity. In religion and morality, a bright example--in politics, liberal and constitutional--as a merchant, useful and intelligent--and for firmness and unshrinking determination, a man scarcely to be equalled. To his resolute conduct, the country is indebted for the preservation of its most useful manufactures. He was cool, dispassionate, and humane, and amidst difficulties that might have paled a less determined heart, he succeeded in putting down a system of combination which threatened to subvert the very basis of every principle of commercial good order."