Today (8th July 2020) marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mary Ann McCracken, the noted activist, abolitionist and social reformer. Mary Ann was born to Captain John and Anne McCracken (née Joy). Her maternal grandfather was Francis Joy, founder of the Belfast Newsletter. Like her siblings Mary Ann was educated at David Manson’s […]
Captain John McCracken, father of Henry Joy and Mary Ann McCracken, was a seafarer by trade. It was said that the Belfast skyline of those days was broken only by the spire of the Poor House, the cupola of St Anne’s Church, the Market House belfry and when Captain McCracken’s ship was in port her […]
As time passed the number of cases of cholera in the town of Belfast decreased, and the Poor House committee took steps to ease the tight restrictions that had been put in place a few months earlier.
The Belfast Charitable Society initially allowed the residents of the Poor House out on Sundays in May 1832 so […]
Francis Joy, the maternal grandfather of Mary Ann McCracken, was born in Killead, Co. Antrim, in 1697, of prosperous farming stock. In due course he settled in Belfast as an attorney, and, while still a young man of twenty-four, married Margaret Martin, granddaughter of George Martin, Sovereign of the town. Francis was an able and […]
Apprenticeships were a integral part of the running of the Poor House, offering the children a chance to learn a trade or skill in order to support themselves in the future. On 25th May 1822, John Delany was apprenticed to Thomas Alexander Stewart (1786-1847), to ‘learn the trade of farming’ for 6 years. However, this […]
Belfast Charitable Society had put in place a form of lockdown once cholera was found to be present in the town. However, they initiated other important precautions to protect the residents of the Poor House.
Convalescence Home
The Poor House Infirmary and the other hospitals worked jointly to deal with cholera cases in Belfast. This meant that […]
By the close of play on this day (29th April) 79 years ago, Clifton House was quiet and deserted. Only once prior to this time had the house been completely empty – that was in 1798. The army had cleared it in a rush in 1798 in a bid to flush out the radicals in […]
On 25th April 1812, it was reported by the Orderly that an “extraordinary meeting” of Belfast Charitable Society was held yesterday regarding the death of one of its apprentices. The boy in question was William Lacey who was first admitted into the Poorhouse, at the tender age of 7, in February 1803. In November 1809, […]
Although the Poor House preparations for the arrival of cholera had begun in December 1831, it was not until the end of February the following year that the first case of cholera was recorded in Belfast. A 34-year-old man called Brendan Murtagh died of the disease in Quay Lane. The knowledge of the first case […]
Easter has always been an important holiday, and it marked a time for family to come together and take part in the religious rituals surrounding the holiday. In preparation for Easter families would have had a ‘spring clean’ and a hearty meal was prepared for Easter Sunday, marking the end of Lent. Aspects of these […]
