Down coast, and as the small boat into which the passengers clambered was unable to reach land because of shallow water, it was necessary to wade ashore. In addition to the effects of fright, fatigue and cumbersome clothing, Mrs. McCracken was only too conscious of the 200 golden guineas carefully concealed about her person, which her husband had entrusted to her safe keeping.4 Altogether an alarming outcome of Grandmother’s threat! The old lady held tenaciously to her Covenanting ideas, and, in protest against the iniquity of set-days and holydays, would sit ostentatiously in the window on a Christmas Day busily engaged at her spinning wheel. But there must have been a more attractive side to her rugged nature, for, as we have seen, she had succeeded in winning the respect of old Mr. Joy.
A letter written by George Black to John McCracken at the time of the Liverpool visit is interesting:
Belfast, 3rd May, 1763.
Dear Jack,
I suppose last week’s very bad weather has retarded Mr. Oakall’s launching the two Vessells, so that you have got little or nothing done yet, excepting the draft and the moulds, which, no doubt are finished by Mr. Sutton ere this; and who knows but that the bad weather might induce him to make the small model we spoke of, as he could do no work without doors. Tom Black will tell you what great matters we have been doing here, haveing, on a quarter of an Hour’s deliberation, bought a ship of 200 Tons and freighted one of 70. This was on receiving an order from London for the transporting the french prisoners here and at Castle Dawson, in number abt 420, to france, and finding M. Auld was not lyke to appear, we freighted Bob Moore to go to Bordeaux in his place, and he is to carry about 90 or 100 prisrs. The ship we bought of Ts Greg, and is the ‘Prince of Wales’ from Boston, Capt. Trail, which you saw. She cost us above one thousand Britt: but this is her first Voyage, tho’ but indiffly found. She is a course, stout, full-built carrier. Capt. Eager goes in her to Bordeaux, when she may be sold …5
The Black family [to which the famous chemist, Joseph Black of Edinburgh, belonged] had an extensive wine business in Bordeaux, and presumably McCracken was the principal captain of their fleet of trading vessels. Later he was constantly engaged in the shipment of linens to the West Indies and America. As a result of the Bordeaux voyages he acquired a lifelong interest in France and French ways which he communicated to his children. Indeed, so anxious was he that they should learn the French language accurately, that he engaged an old weaver, the only native speaker he could find in Belfast, to give them lessons. Little could he guess in what direction admiration of the French would later lead them.
This French connection, and his own experiences as a prisoner there, would account for John McCracken’s association with Robert Joy and other prominent citizens in a movement to alleviate the lot of French prisoners of war quartered in Belfast in 1759.6 The unfortunate prisoners were being cruelly exploited by a dishonest local agent, and these gentlemen suggested to the government in London that a committee of townspeople should be appointed to look after their welfare.
However, neither a stern mother-in-law nor the long dreary absences of her dear husband, clouded the happiness of Ann’s growing family. High Street then was a bright, safe playground, and with the cousins next door, the Templeton family nearby, and other neighbours, there was ample scope for fun and high spirits. Many, many years after, Mary Ann was able to remember “hopping three times across High Street without stopping” the height of ambition for an active little girl, holding her own against older competitors. Though there was a garden at the rear of their house, Captain McCracken rented a larger plot out of the town beside Uncle Robert’s Poorhouse, and in Mary Ann’s own words “as soon as I was able to walk my mother took me with her to the garden, and we often visited the Poorhouse.”
During his periods at home John McCracken started various projects of importance. In 1758 he established a ropewalk. No doubt rope of some kind had already been made in connection with the port, but McCracken’s affair was on a much larger scale. It was situated on the County Antrim shore of the Lough [as indeed was all the town in those days,] and ran along the east side of the Fore Plantation, a district now entirely covered by docks. [With the growth of the port several other ropewalks were started later, one of which eventually became the present world-famous Belfast Rope Works.] McCracken also started the first factory for the manufacture of sail cloth and canvas, and we have seen how he combined with his brother-in-law in the cotton firm of Joy, McCabe and McCracken; indeed it was he who shipped the first cargo of raw cotton from Liverpool to Belfast.7 Later he built a cotton factory of his own in Francis Street, said to have been named after his eldest son, and when, as the family grew up, Mrs. McCracken once again turned her attention to business, it was to start a small muslin industry. Indeed the McCracken family was to be associated with the cotton trade in Belfast much longer than the other original partners, – long enough to make and lose in three generations a very considerable fortune.
As well as his many business concerns John McCracken had time and thought for other interests: he established the Marine Charitable Society,8 a benevolent undertaking to which sailors paid regular contributions and received benefits in sickness and old age. This society continued to function till the beginning of the 19th century, when, at the request of Captain McCracken’s son Francis, the Belfast Charitable Society took over the funds and the consequent obligations.9 He was also, with his brother-in-law Robert Joy, an active member of the Third Presbyterian congregation, and the Committee Minute Books of the period contain both their names as office bearers. In the baptismal records of that congregation are to be found the names of all his children.
We do not hear of him taking much part in politics, though he co-operated with others in calling a town meeting to consider the resolutions for the famous Dungannon Convention of 1782, and he was interested to some extent in the notable Antrim election of the following year.10 Perhaps his frequent absences from home prevented him from taking a more prominent part in these affairs, or perhaps, as I think more likely, politics did not greatly interest him. An anonymous handwritten note, found in the Bigger collection of papers,11 describes Captain McCracken as a man of comfortable means, who was a patron of the arts and kept open house, delighting to welcome any strangers to the town who were interested in music or painting.
This, then, was the home into which seven little children were born. The eldest died in infancy, as did Captain McCracken’s son by his first wife. The rest grew up amid an atmosphere of rich family affection, spontaneous enjoyment, continual coming and going of friends and relations, wide interests and constant activity of one sort or another. Mary Ann, the youngest but one of this happy family, was born on July 8th, 1770, the year of Wordsworth’s birth, and the year in which Goldsmith published The Deserted Village. At home she was generally called Mary, but the two names are always coupled in her signature, and it is as Mary Ann McCracken that she has lived in the annals of her town.
CHAPTER 4
CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE
1770–1790
One of the first unusual experiences in Mary McCracken’s life came to her at school.
The main educational establishment in Belfast in the middle of the eighteenth century was the “Latin school” for boys, founded and maintained by the Donegall family. It was situated beside the Parish Church and provided a grounding in the three Rs and the classics. From time to time other masters in the town gave tuition in various subjects, pupils going from one to the other according to their requirements. Such competition irritated his Lordship, and in 1754 the following notice appeared:
The Earl of Donegall, at the request of a great part of the inhabitants of the town of Belfast, has at a great expense put the School House in repair, and brought to town the Rev. Nich. Garnet and appointed him schoolmaster for the Town. The Earl and his Trustees have heard that some of the inhabitants do send their children to other schools. They have ordered me to acquaint the Inhabitants, as well as their other Tenants in the Neighbourhood, that they are not pleased with such treatment, and hope they will not be laid
