North Street, Newry, County Down

North Street, Newry, County Down
North Street, Newry, County Down

Sunday 30 August 2020

Andrew Jennings [abt. 1793-1869], North Street, Newry, County Down. Part 2.


Andrew Jennings was a Commissioner for Newry.
1828. Act for lighting, watching and cleansing...Newry Commissioners.
Andrew Jennings ironmonger
Charles O'Hagan woollendraper[1]
In 1832 Andrew was selling soap and candles.
NEW
SOAP AND CANDLE
MANUFACTURY.
ANDREW JENNINGS begs leave to announce to his Friends and the Public, that he has commenced the above Business, at his Establishment at NORTH-STREET,
where henceforward he will be regularly supplied with an
EXTENSIVE STOCK OF SOAP AND CANDLES,
which from the arrangements he has made, he can safely assure those who may favour him with their patronage will be found to be at least equal in quality to any manufactured at present in Newry,
and will be Sold on Terms which cannot be surpassed by any similar Establishment in the Trade.
A.J. takes this opportunity of assuring his Friends and the Public, that he is supplied, as usual, with an Extensive Assortment of
Bar, Rod and Hoop Iron; Cast Metal Spades and Shovels;
With a Variety of other Articles in the IRONMONGERY line.[2]
There is no doubt these were troubled times in Newry. Life was not easy.
1833 Riot in Newry.
The Newry Papers contain long accounts of a serious riot in that town, on Monday night. They are somewhat contradictory, and as usual with all the like affairs in the North, related with strong tincture of party feeling. […] The Orangemen first commenced groaning opposite the houses of persons obnoxious to them, but very soon proceeded to open acts of violence; they commenced by breaking a few windows, firing shots into some, and battering others with heavy stones. In several instances the entire fronts of the houses were destroyed, and the hall-doors perforated with bullets and slugs. All Market-parts of North-street, Castle-street, High-street and Mill-street were visited with the same unsparing ferocity […]. The wrecking continued systematically down North-street, when some panes had been broken in Andrew Jennings’s windows, at past two in the morning, the heavy and measured tread of the military warned the perpetrators of this atrocity to make their retreat which they did in double-quick time, leaving nothing to the magistrates and soldiers to witness but solitude and desolation. […][3]

Andrew appears to recognise the power of advertising!
SPADE AND  SHOVEL
Manufactory
The subscriber begs to intimate to the Trade, that he has fitted up, in a superior manner, a MILL, at MOUNTCAULFIELD, for the Manufacture of the above articles. He has now on hands
300 Dozen of Spades,
suitable to the following towns:-
Newry, Armagh, Monaghan, Aughnacloy, Dungannon, Dundalk and Drogheda.
He is now ready to receive and execute, with the utmost despatch, other patterns of Spades and Shovels, which he will dispose of on Moderate Terms.
ANDREW JENNINGS.
11 North-street, Newry, Oct. 8, 1833.[4]
But by 1834 Andrew was facing bankruptcy.
Irish Bankrupts. Andrew Jennings, of Newry, iron-merchant, July 21 and 22, and August 21.[5]
By this time he had a wife and a young family to support.
Bankrupt’s Sale by Auction, of Corn and Potatoes, on the foot, Excellent Family Horse, outside Jaunting Car, Harness, &c., &c., by order of the Assignees of Mr. Andrew Jennings.[6]
In 1835 Andrew Jennings was listed as a bankrupt in Perry’s Bankrupt Gazette.[7]
BANKRUPTS IN IRELAND
1835. Jennings Andrew (July 4, 1834) of Newry, iron merchant...  

In 1836 he had a store and yard at 21 Merchant’s Quay, and premises at 19 Monaghan Street.[8]
By 1837 he was advertising again.
SPADE and SHOVEL
Manufactory,
No. 11 North-street Newry
ANDREW JENNINGS Offers for SALE a Prime Quality of SPADES and SHOVELS, of his own Manufacture, to answer the following Markets:
Newry, Armagh, Dundalk, Castlewellan, Castleblany, Keady, &c., &c., &c., which, with a General assortment of GOODS connected with the IRON TRADE, he will dispose of on Moderate Terms, for Cash Payments. Newry, 10th October 1837.[9]

He also still had a house, stores, offices and yard at 34 Upper North Street in 1838. And there was another side to life.
In 1838 Andrew Jennings Esq., won first prize for the best and largest cabbage, the best pickling cabbage, and the best six turnips. An extra first prize was awarded to Andrew Jennings Esq., for a stem of potatoes, from one seed, with 40 large and full grown potatoes attached thereto.
There was likewise presented to the Society from the gardens of Colonel Close, Drumbanagher, a new seedling dahlia, called the Drumbanagher Queen Victoria.[10]
North-street may not always have been a very salubrious place to live. It’s not known if Andrew was still a Commissioner for Newry at this time, as he had been ten years previously in 1828, but it’s possible, as the reference to his premises is very deliberate.
To the Editor of the Newry Telegraph
Sir,
I beg leave through the medium of your Journal, to call the attention of the Police Commissioners to the state of the entry in North-street, immediately opposite the stores of Mr. Andrew Jennings. From the quantity of filth and dirt, of every description, that is constantly heaped up in it, it is rendered a most intolerable nuisance; and from the very decayed state of the tenement, the passers by are in danger of being crushed to death, by the walls falling. Under these circumstances, I respectfully submit, that it is the duty of the Commissioners to adopt some means of keeping it clean, or, what would be much better, to close it up entirely. – your obedient servant, Julian.[11] 
In 1846 he is still listed as an Iron Merchant on North Street.[12] His brother Charles is also listed as an Iron Merchant at 30 Merchant’s Quay.
But he appears to have had other interests.
For Sale the British-built sloop “Mary Hardie,” of Grangemouth, 65 Tons per register – carries 83 Tons of 9 ½ feet on water, well found in Sails, Rigging, &c., as she now lies at the New Navigation Office, Canal, Newry.
For further particulars apply to Mr. Andrew Jennings, Merchant, North-street; or Mr George Guy, Jun., Ship Agent, 45 Merchant’s-quay, Newry.[13]
A number of times Andrew appears to have acted as an agent or a trustee, and has even been referred to as a lawyer. But there is no record of him having studied law.
In 1825 he was paid £25 for what appears to have been some form of legal representation in a case involving an attack carried out by an Orangeman [Weir] on a Catholic [McEvoy].
Andrew Jennings to carrying on Orange prosecutions at Newry, in the case of McEvoy against Weir, when the latter was found guilty and sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment, and also for defending Hacket against an Orange party at Down Sessions or Assizes. 20.0.0.[14]


[1] EPPI 1843 Vol 50, 632, p. 22
[2] Newry Telegraph 6th November 1832
[3] Source unknown
[4] Newry Telegraph 15 Oct 1833
[5] Globe, 14 July 1834
[6] Newry Examiner and Louth Advertiser 6th August 1834
[7] Perry’s Bankrupt Gazette Sat 14 Mar 1835 p. 6.
[8] Valuation Office Books
[9] Newry Telegraph 28th October 1837
[10]  Source unknown.
[11] Newry Telegraph, 1838.
[12] Slater’s Directory, 1846.
[13] Newry Telegraph, 25th October 1851
[14] Dublin Morning Register 16 Feb 1825

Wednesday 26 August 2020

Andrew Jennings [abt. 1793-1869], North Street, Newry, County Down. Part 1.

  Andrew Jennings, Iron Merchant, was born in Newry, County Down, the son of Andrew Jennings and Catherine O’Toole of North Street. He married Mary Anne Clarke, the second daughter of the late Edward Clarke of High-st., Newry. A dispensation of Banns had been sought on the 8th of October.
1825 October 8. Dispensations in Banns. Andrew Jennings of Newry.  5.5.[1]
Andrew and Mary Anne were married two days later on the 10th of October 1825.
Married. Andrew Jennings, Esq., of Newry, merchant, to the daughter of the late Edw. Clarke, of said place.[2]
The witnesses were Mr. Marky and Charles Jennings. The church was in Loughinisland and the priest was the Rev. W. McMullan. 3rd and 4th witnesses were entered as Peter Jennings and Mr. Clarke Kavena.
Andrew and Mary Anne had eight children.

1. Mary Catherine [1826-1864] died in Phibsborough, Dublin. Unmarried.
2. Edward [1827 - ] may have died young.
3. Andrew [1829 -]
4. Charles Clarke [1830-1870] died in Phibsborough, Dublin. Unmarried.
5. Ellen [1834 – 1870] died in Phibsborough, Dublin. Unmarried.
6. Elizabeth [1839 - ]. Artist.
7. Edward Daniel [1845 - ]
8. Unnamed daughter married John McDonald, Templetate, County Monaghan.

The family continued to live on North Street, where Andrew’s father had lived, and where Andrew also carried on his business.
ANDREW JENNINGS offers FOR Sale, 400 Tons SCOTCH FIRE COALS, which he will dispose of on moderate terms. No. 11, North Street, Newry.[3]
Living with them was Mary Anne’s mother, widowed since the death of her husband in 1825.
Death. In Newry, on Saturday last, in the 63rd year of her age, at the house of her son-in-law, Mr. Andrew Jennings, Mrs Clarke, relict of the late Mr. Edwd Clarke, of High-st., Newry.[4]


[1] Parochial records of Newry, 1818-1827.  FHL 926087.
[2] Southern Reporter and Commercial Courier. Thursday 27th October 1825.www.britishnewspaperarchives.co.uk
[3] www.lastchancetoread.com/docs/1830-10-27-the-newry-examiner
[4] Belfast Commercial Chronicle 9 July 1831

Thursday 13 August 2020

Edward Daniel Jennings [1845-], North Street, Newry, County Down

Edward Daniel Jennings was the third son of Andrew Jennings [1793 – 1869], North Street, Newry, County Down, and his wife Mary Ann Clarke, daughter of Edward Clarke.
He was baptised in Newry.
Edward Daniel of Andrew Jennings and Mary Anne Clarke, sponsors Charles and Ellen Jennings 10/6[1]

There is an Edward Jennings found in Church Street, Rathfriland in 1870. He was a spirit and porter dealer.[2] He married Margaret Leathem, daughter of Andrew Leathem and Marion English. They had three children, William [b.1865], Sophia [b.1867] and Mary Ann [b.1872]. Mary Ann died in 1874 aged 2. It’s possible that William also died young. Sophia married Hugh Craig and they emigrated to New York as did Sophia’s mother Margaret. Edward had died in 1876.
It has not been possible to confirm if Edward Jennings of Rathfriland is the same Edward Daniel Jennings of North Street, Newry.


[1] Catholic Church Records, Newry, Baptisms, 1845 05502/02 nli.ie
[2] RosDavies

Tuesday 11 August 2020

Andrew Jennings [1829- ], North Street, Newry, County Down

  Andrew Jennings was the second son of Andrew Jennings [1793-1869], North Street, Newry, County Down, and his wife Mary Anne Clarke, daughter of Edward Clarke.
He was baptised in Newry.
Aug 2nd, 1829. Andreas Gennings Fr. Andrie and Maria Anna Clarke Sp. Joanni Caraher and Eliza Clarke. Andrew Gennings of Andrew and Mary Anne Clarke, 1829, sponsors John Caraher and Ellen Clarke.[1]

He may have joined H.M Customs, but further research is needed to confirm this.


[1] Catholic Church Records, Newry, 05502/01 P. 47 ww.nli.ie