A brutal stabbing in 1810, which led to a Portuguese sailor being hanged near Carrickfergus, became a sensation of the time. His name was Antonio de Silva, a sailor on board an American ship in Belfast harbour. He allegedly stabbed to death a ship’s carpenter called Robert Morrison, near Prince’s Street, and was subsequently tried and convicted of the crime. The place of execution was a mile outside Carrickfergus, and the apparatus used for the execution consisted of three tall columns, with a cross-beam, to which the rope was attached. They were familiarly known as the ‘Three Sisters’, and stood directly on the foreshore.

Public hangings were as much a spectator sport as a demonstration of justice in action, and such a large crowd attended De Silva’s execution, that it took an hour to make the short journey to the place of dispatch.

Robert Morrison is buried in Clifton Street Cemetery and his headstone bears the following inscription:

Erected by the shipwrights of — in memory of Robert Morrison, shipwright, who was assassinated by a Portuguese sailor, 22nd of April 1810 aged 23 years Array’d in hope that fatal morn arose He knew no guilt and therefore felt no dread He little dream’t that ere the evening’s close He should be numbered with the silent dead Ye mourning friends suppress your cries Who like the early blessed flower he fell, If Truth and Virtue shall to Heaven arise There with his God, the youth is going to dwell.

The Belfast News Letter covered the inquest into the death of Robert Morrison, and offered, quite literally, a blow-by-blow account of his death.

It appeared in evidence, that the Portuguese had a dispute with some person or persons unknown, and retiring to the ship, which lies at the Quay, had armed himself with a dagger, with which he sallied out to be revenged upon the person with whom he had previously quarrelled: with this weapon he first attacked a man of the name of Campbell, but finding this was not the man he wanted, he relinquished him, and afterwards met with the deceased in company with two other persons, at the door of a public house; one or two other Portuguese were in company, and an assault was commenced by them upon the deceased and his companions, one of whom received two or three stabs with the same weapon, and also a severe blow on the head with a stick. Just at this moment the deceased received the fatal blow, which entered a little below his left breast, and almost instantly expired. The other two Portuguese are also in custody, and were with the principal culprit, committed to Carrickfergus Jail. They have both given evidence before the Coroner against Silva who, it appears certain, was the actual murderer. It is not positively ascertained whether the deceased or any of his companions were any of the persons with whom the Portuguese had previously quarrelled, nor what was the occasion of the dispute. The verdict of the Jury was, “That the deceased came by his death in consequence of a stab he received in the left breast in a scuffle with Joseph Mores, Anthony Silva and Joaquin Ferrenadare.

We hope that everyone who came along to our Death, Tragedy and Betrayal tours of Clifton Street Cemetery over the weekend enjoyed exploring the darker side of the cemetery’s history and those who lie buried there.

Following air strikes in April 1941  those in charge of Clifton House set about making arrangements to get the residents and the staff out of Belfast. They ultimately settled on Garron Tower on the North Coast as a safe refuge.

Garron Tower was a quiet, isolated spot compared with life in the city of Belfast. Rationing also had an impact. In Belfast the relatives of the residents could have easily walked there for visits, however with petrol rationed, even those with cars did not have enough fuel to get to Garron Tower. The Matron requested additional games, gramophone records and a wireless to help the residents wile away the days.

The war rumbled on and everyone was keen to return to Clifton House. As 1945 was drawing to a close and it seemed the war had finally ended, the Committee went to the army, who used Clifton House during the war, to seek the return of the building. Five and a half years after leaving the House, the Belfast Charitable Society Board returned on 31st August 1946 and set about the mammoth task of to organising the transportation of our residents, equipment, furniture and staff back to North Belfast. It was an enormous relief to all involved when, on this day (25th October) 1946 the buses brought the last residents back.

Burial registers for Clifton Street Cemetery were kept from 1831, recording a wealth of information on people at the time of their death. Of particular interest is ‘Black ’47’ the worst year of famine related deaths in Ireland. Belfast did not escape the affects of the Great Hunger.

On this day, 17th October 1847 the body of Mary Gunning was interred in the ‘New Burying Ground’, to give the cemetery it’s original name. Mary had died of fever at her home on Mays Lane, off Queen Street in Belfast. It would appear from the burial register that Mary was an enterprising woman. In an era of poor prospects for women outside of domestic service and the factories, Mary Gunning operated a “a House of Ill Fame” from her home!

If you would like to hear more about the darker side of the graveyard’s history, and of the famous and infamous characters buried there, then come along on our Hallowe’en Tours on 29th and 30th October.

There have been some unusual donations to Belfast Charitable Society over the years, many of them recorded on huge wooden boards with the details of donors stencilled on. On this day (30 September) 1818 Mr Girmondi, who was in Belfast entertaining the citizens of the town, became one of these donors. Girmondi was the proprietor of a troop of ‘Dancing Dogs’ and he donated a days takings from his exhibition to the Poor House in order to support its work.

You too can support the work of Belfast’s oldest charity! Our weekend tours offer something for everyone- from our Friday afternoon Mary Ann McCracken Walking Tours, to our Saturday and Sunday  tours of Clifton House and Clifton Street Cemetery.

Come along and discover the stories for yourself!

For more information and to book click here

John Trimble was admitted to the Poor House in May 1858 at the tender age of aged 7. His mother was still living in Belfast at the time but as his father had passed away. After spending a number of years within the walls of the institution, John  was apprenticed in 1865 to Mr Reed, a stationer, printer and bookseller based at Waring Street not far from the Poor House. Our admission book includes a note that after his apprenticeship John settled with his mother in Charles Street.

However, this was not the last the Poor House heard from John Trimble. He ultimately ended up in Leeds, writing back to the Charitable Society in 1878 giving the first of what proved to be an annual subscription to the Society for the rest of his life. The following extract from his letter sent to the Charitable Society in 1878 is a fitting testament to the work it undertook for the impoverished children:

“…having spent 6 years of my boyhood under it’s [the Poor House] roof… I cannot express the gratitude I feel… to those gentlemen who sacrificed time and money to the good purpose of educating and supporting the orphan who would probably be led into a life of vagrancy, pauperism and may be crime [otherwise].”

Thanks to the information provided in the letter, not only could we trace John in our own records, but using other sources including census returns, birth, deaths and marriages we can learn a lot more about John’s later life. John married a lady called Martha and had at 3 daughters and a son who died within his first 2 years. From our research it appears that only one of his daughters married, and his children all moved to North America.

John Trimble continued to donate to the charity throughout his life, including £50 he gave in September 1918. John himself died in 1929 and was buried in Beckett Street Cemetery in Leeds. In his will he provided one last donation of £250 to support the institution that had helped to turn his life around, as well as a bequest of 1/34 of the residue of his estate of £8,000.

Today marks International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. But what is the significance of the date? Well, on the evening of 22nd into the 23rd August 1791 witnessed the beginning of an uprising in Santo Domingo, which played a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Both before and after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, individuals in Belfast, including members of the Charitable Society, found themselves caught in the controversy surrounding this abhorrent trade.

Much of the conflict regarding the differing views of slavery happened outside of the Poor House, however, when the freed slave Olaudah Equiano visited Belfast in the early 1790s, he was invited to speak at the Poor House and several other prominent locations in Belfast. Equiano lodged with Samuel Neilson, a Belfast Charitable Society member, during his Belfast visit. He was on a tour promoting his autobiography based on his experiences as a slave. Equiano described being welcomed throughout Ireland but ‘particularly in Belfast’.

The Belfast Charitable Society & the Slave Trade

Belfast had many wealthy merchants who owned land, estates and businesses in the West Indies in the 18th and 19th Centuries. As was the practice at the time, these estates and businesses would have utilised slave labour to harvest their crops such as sugar. Waddell Cunningham, a member of the Belfast Charitable Society is probably the most infamous slave owner in Belfast as he attempted to open Belfast as a slave port. Waddell had gone to America in the 1750s and with a Belfast-based partner, Thomas Gregg, a founding member of the Belfast Charitable Society, and established a firm which by 1775, had become the largest shipping company in New York. Both men made their fortunes and purchased an estate in the Ceded Islands which they called “Belfast.”

Later, back in Britain Waddell gave evidence to a parliamentary committee investigating the slave trade, declaring that the “negroes” in the West Indies enjoyed a much happier existence than the lower classes of people in England.

Other members of the Belfast Charitable Society were also involved in the slave trade. Dr William Haliday, a physician to the Poor House, owned sugar estates on the island of Dominica. Valentine Jones was a founder member of the Society. He imported rum and sugar into Belfast as well as running a wine merchant business. He had established a thriving agency in Barbados buying and selling to the planters.

In 1786, a group of local businessmen considered launching a new Belfast-based slave-shipping venture that might bring fresh prosperity to the town. Waddell Cunningham was the lead figure in this venture. For one local and radical citizen, this was anathema. Thomas McCabe was another member of the Belfast Charitable Society, as well as a watchmaker and United Irishman. He is said to have stood at the foot of Donegal Street, near the Old Exchange Buildings, where he held up the prospectus for this proposed company, calling out – ‘May God wither the hand and consign the name to eternal infamy of the man that will sign this document’. The Northern Star, the paper of the United Irishmen movement and operated by another Belfast Charitable Society member, Robert Simms, would tell its readers that ‘every individual, as far as he consumes sugar products becomes accessory to the guilt [of slavery].’

William Drennan, sometime physician to the Poor House, and founder of the United Irishman was responsible for helping to draw up a petition, which was passed around the town, collecting signatures against slavery. He hoped it would be a blow against those Belfast traders who sold such Caribbean products as molasses and rum as well as exporting foodstuffs from here to islands such as Barbados.

Not untypical of the toasts offered at Belfast dinners in this era was the one suggested in 1792 by Belfast Charitable Society member and the owner of The Belfast News Letter, Henry Joy – ‘to Mr Wilberforce and a speedy repeal of the infamous traffic in the flesh and bone of man’.

The proposal to create a slaving company in the town outraged Presbyterian ladies like Martha McTier, sister of William Drennan, and Mary Ann McCracken. Mary Ann, a member of the Ladies Committee of the Belfast Charitable Society, and Martha, formed the Belfast Women’s Anti-Slavery League. Mary Ann was vehemently opposed to slavery and as a result refused to eat sugar, a product of the slave trade. Mary Ann McCracken, as an old and frail lady in 1850s in Belfast, was standing by the gangway of ships that were heading for the southern ports of the USA where slaves still worked on the cotton plantations. She was there to hand out anti-slavery leaflets to emigrants and sailors.

It is important to not whilst this article has explored the history of both the pro and anti-slavery movements in the past, it is important to remember that there are an estimated 40.3 million people enslaved across the globe today. A lot more needs to be done to tackle modern day slavery.

On Saturday 22 August 1818 the Belfast Poor House had a rather unusual visitor. Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia dismounted his carriage at the stone steps in front of the building and was given a tour of the institution by members of Belfast Charitable Society.

The Grand Duke must have been impressed by what he saw as he was shown through the corridors of the Poor House, as he made a substantial donation of £54 to support its work- the equivalent of over £5,000 today. His name was subsequently added to one of our donation boards which originally hung in the main entrance hall.