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The development of Newry into a thriving commercial and mercantile centre with a wealthy merchant class in the late 18th and early 19th centuries created a demand for luxury items. The merchants, who lived in large and imposing houses along North Street and Boat Street, wanted to fill their homes with expensive furnishings and objects. This encouraged specialised craftsmen to settle in the town to meet this demand. Furniture makers and clock makers, such as John Gelston, set up businesses in Newry and an important publishing and printing industry emerged in the town to satisfy the appetite for education and culture.
The decades between 1780 and 1850 were also the heyday of Irish glassmaking which produced fine table glass for the wealthy and discerning classes. Glass works were set up in a number of towns including Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Waterford. The glassmaking industry appears to have arrived in Newry in the 1780s when Irish Customs records show glass being exported from Newry to Carolina in America between 1785 and 1790. The Newry Flint Glass Manufactory was set up in 1792 in William Street by Emanuel Quin & Co. In 1795 the glassworks was taken over by Michael Dunbar & Co. and a second factory and showroom was opened on Merchant’s Quay.
In 1796, Samuel Hanna established a glassworks in Newry which was managed by John Chebsey from the Ballybought Glass Works in Dublin. This business closed in 1800 around the same time as the closure of the glassworks in William Street. Around this time, the Belfast glassworks, Edward and Sons, opened a warehouse in Edward Street in Newry and a glass foundry was there in 1816 when it was sold off by the owner, Benjamin Edwards, to avoid bankruptcy.
Glassmaking was revived on Edward Street in 1824 when John R. Watt reopened the foundry. He went into partnership with John Kirkwood from Belfast. The glassworks were eventually sold in 1839, bringing an end to the glassmaking industry in Newry.
Over the past number of years, Newry and Mourne Museum has been fortunate to have been able to purchase a number of pieces of Newry glass. These include decanters decorated with Act of Union motifs, farming symbols and grapes and vine leaves together with drinking glasses with similar decorations. Another decanter engraved with two sets of initials may been given as a wedding present. In the 18th and early 19th centuries it was common for glass and silver objects given as wedding presents to be engraved with the initials of the bride and bridegroom.
The glass is on display with other objects and documents from the late 18th and early 19th centuries including a jug from Willam Hadzor, a wine and spirit merchant in Warrenpoint, an advertisement for a private lottery, religious books printed in Newry, a lease for property in Hill Street owned by the Marquis of Downshire and a marriage settlement relating to the Halydays, a merchant family in Newry. These artefacts illustrate the wealth and cultural aspirations of the merchant class in Newry at this time.
The Museum is currently offering free tours of the exhibition galleries on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 11.00 am. These must be booked in advance by calling our Education Officer at 0330 137 4422.
Newry and Mourne Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00 am – 4.30 pm. Please call 0330 137 4422 or email museum@nmandd.org for further information.
