Barbour, Sir John Milne
Barbour, Sir John Milne (1868–1951), industrialist and politician, was born 4 January 1868 at The Fort, Dunmurry, near Lisburn, Co. Antrim, son of John Doherty Barbour (chairman of one of Ulster's biggest flax-spinning firms) and Elizabeth Law Milne Barbour of Edinburgh. He was…...
Beamish, Francis Bernard
Beamish, Francis Bernard (1802–68), politician and brewer, was born 5 April 1802, eighth son among twelve children of William Beamish (qv), founder of the Beamish & Crawford porter brewery, and his wife Anne, daughter of Robert…...
Charley, William
Charley, William (1826–90), linen bleacher, was born 11 April 1826, second of three sons of William Charley, a prominent linen bleacher, and Isabella Charley (née Hunter) of Seymour Hill, near Dunmurry, Co. Antrim. His father, one of the founders of the Northern Banking Company of…...
Cleeve, Sir Thomas Henry
Cleeve, Sir Thomas Henry (1844–1908), industrialist, was born 5 June 1844 in Richmond, Quebec, Canada, eldest son among six sons and one daughter of Edward Elms Cleeve (1814–85), originally of Woolwich, England, and later of Cleveland, Quebec, and his wife Sophia Olivia (d. 1904),…...
Crawford, William Horatio
Crawford, William Horatio (1812×1818–1888), brewer and philanthropist, was first-born son of William Crawford (d. 1840), brewer, and Dulcibella Crawford (née Morris) of Lakelands House, Blackrock, Cork; a brother died young. The family was originally from Co. Down, related to the…...
Crommelin, (Samuel) Louis
Crommelin, (Samuel) Louis (1652–1727), huguenot businessman, settler of Lisburn, Co. Antrim, and putative founder of the Irish linen industry, was born in Armancourt, near St Quentin, in the French province of Picardy, the son of Louis Crommelin and Marie Mettayer. The Crommelin…...
Foreman, Sir Philip Frank
Foreman, Sir Philip Frank (1923–2013), engineer and chief executive, was born on 16 March 1923 in Exning, Suffolk, England, the only child of Frank Foreman, a farm labourer of Exning, and his wife Mary (née Chapple), the daughter of a Manchester police officer. His family soon moved to…...
French, Robert
French, Robert (1841–1917), photographer, was born 11 November 1841 in Dublin, eldest of the seven children of William French, a court messenger, and Ellen French (née Johnson). At the age of nineteen, in September 1860, he joined the Constabulary (later…...
Grimshaw, Nicholas
Grimshaw, Nicholas (1747–1805), pioneer of the cotton industry in Ireland, was born 10 July 1747 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, one of three known sons of Nicholas Grimshaw and his wife Susannah Briercliffe, who both died in 1777. The family seems to have been connected to…...
Guinness, Arthur
Guinness, Arthur (1725–1803), brewer and iconic pioneer of Ireland's most famous alcoholic beverage, was born 12 March 1725, eldest of four sons of Richard Guinness of Celbridge, Co. Kildare, and his wife, Elizabeth Read (1698–1742). His father was for many years the estate agent…...
Guinness, Arthur
This is a co-subject for the entry on Guinness, Sir Benjamin Lee. View the original entry....
Guinness, Sir Benjamin Lee
Guinness, Sir Benjamin Lee (1798–1868), 1st baronet, brewer, politician, and philanthropist, was born 1 November 1798 in Dublin, third son of Arthur Guinness, head of the brewing firm Arthur Guinness & Co., and his wife, Anne, eldest daughter of Benjamin Lee of Dublin.…...
Hancock, John
Hancock, John (‘John Hancock II’) (1762–1823), quaker linen manufacturer, merchant, and philanthropist, was born in Lisburn, Co. Antrim, son of John Hancock, one of the Society of Friends, who had inherited a family business near Lisburn, and his second wife, Betty (née Hunter). John…...
Jacob, William Beale
Jacob, William Beale (1825–1902), businessman, was born 17 August 1825 in Waterford, the eldest of the three children of quakers Isaac Thomas Jacob (d. 23 March 1839), baker, and his wife, Ann, eldest daughter of William Beale, woollen manufacturer, of Mountmellick, Co. Laois. After…...
Lawrence, William Mervin
Lawrence, William Mervin (1840–1932), photograph merchant, was born 5 July 1840 in the General Post Office, Lower Sackville (later O'Connell) St., Dublin, second surviving son of William Lawrence of Pembrokeshire, Wales, then clerk of works at the…...
McCormack, Percy (Percival Davis)
McCormack, Percy (Percival Davis) (1929–2015), nuclear scientist, rocket engineer, pilot and physician, was born 23 October 1929 at the family home at 5 Garville Road, Rathgar, Dublin, the eldest of three children (he had a sister, Marion, and a brother, John) born to Thomas Henry…...
Mulholland, Andrew
Mulholland, Andrew (1792–1866), textile manufacturer, was born 15 March 1792, probably in Belfast. His father, Thomas Mulholland, is believed to have been of humble origins and probably illiterate; he started as a dealer, and then invested in property. In 1784 he married Anne Doe…...
Newenham, Richard
Newenham, Richard (1705–59), merchant and manufacturer, was born into a quaker family on 31 December 1705 in Cork, the eldest of seven children of John Newenham, a clothier of Cork city, and his wife Elizabeth (née Wight). His maternal grandfather, Thomas Wight, wrote the first history…...
Penrose, George
Penrose, George (1722–96), merchant and co-founder of the Waterford glass works, was born 5 September 1722, ninth son among twelve children of William Penrose I, merchant, and Margaret Penrose (née Godfrey), of Co. Waterford. The Penroses were one of a close knit group of quaker…...
Penrose, William
This is a co-subject for the entry on Penrose, George. View the original entry....
Richardson, John Grubb
Richardson, John Grubb (1813/15–1890), linen manufacturer and philanthropist, was second son among seven sons and three daughters of James Nicholson Richardson and Alicia Richardson (née Grubb); he was a grandson of Jonathan…...
Richardson, Jonathan
Richardson, Jonathan (1756–1817), linen bleacher and merchant, was born near Lisburn, Co. Antrim, a younger son of John Richardson and Ruth Richardson (née Hogg); the family were members of the Society of Friends. Jonathan, who had at least one elder brother, left home as a boy to…...
Roe, Henry
Roe, Henry (1826–94), distiller and philanthropist, was born in Dublin, where his family had been involved in the distilling and brewing business since the 1750s and had acquired a seventeen-acre site off James's St. In 1863 Henry Roe, and his brother, George, inherited George Roe…...
Russell, John Norris
Russell, John Norris (1774?–1859), merchant and industrialist, was born in Limerick, second among five sons of Francis Russell, malt manufacturer and merchant, and his second wife Elizabeth Maunsell Norris, whose father was John Norris, merchant in Limerick. There were also two…...
Stott, Thomas
Stott, Thomas (1755–1829), linen-bleacher and poet, was born 21 April 1755 at Hillsborough, Co. Down, son of William Stott, a prosperous quaker linen merchant, and Sarah Stott (née Thompson). In 1777 Thomas Stott ceased to have a connection with the Society of Friends as a…...