THE LONDONDERRY SHIRT-MAKING INDUSTRY. 417 



THE LONDONDERRY SHIRT-MAKING INDUSTRY. 



The shirt-making- industry of Londonderry succeeded in point of time 

 two other industries, which deserve more than a passing reference, namely 

 the Linen industry, which flourished during the eighteenth and part of the 

 nineteenth century, and the Sprigging industry, which though short-Uved, 

 yet filled a gap between the decay of the linen mdustry, and the commence- 

 ment of what is now a unique and progressive industry. 



Sir Robert Slade, Secretary to the Irish Society, in a narrative of a 

 journey which he made to the North of Ireland in the year, 1 802, says : — 



" The Linen Market of Londonderry forms an object of great curiosity ; it 

 is held twice in every week, and lasts for two hours only, within which short 

 period of time I was assured, linens were purchased in single webs of the 

 manufacturers to the amount of ;^5,ooo and upwards in ready money. 

 These workers do not reside in the City, but are dispersed in cabins round 

 its neighbourhood, where they have, each of them, a few acres of land, for the 

 sake of keeping a cow, and raising some potatoes and flax, and for which, by 

 means of their looms, they are enabled to pay a heavy rent ; it is this circum- 

 stance of the Linen manufacture that makes the Society's lands so valuable. 

 Each man brings his web or piece of cloth, and is eager to lay it before the 

 factor, the bargain is made or rejected in a few seconds, almost in a whisper, 

 and the linens thus purchased are conveyed to the bleaching grounds, which 

 add great additional value to the land."* 



From the above narrative one can imagine what a sad calamity would be 

 the decay of an industry, which was paying i^ 10,000 per week in ready 

 money, for labour alone, in the City of Derry and the surrounding country. 

 Such a calamity did actually occur, and it synchronised unfortunately with 

 the decay of the potato crop. 



In 1840 the Brothers Lindsay started the Sprigging industry, which, 

 for a time, gave employment to a considerable number of females, who had 

 been thrown out of employment owing to the decay of the linen industry. 

 About the same time a Mr. William Scott started a shirt-making factory 

 in a street where the Abercorn and Carlisle Roads have now their junction, 

 at the approach to the Carlisle Bridge. Mr. Scott's first order for shirts, it 

 is interesting to note, was from a Mr. McCarter, to send to a son in Australia, 

 who was in business there. For a time the two infant industries competed 

 for existence, but finally shirt-making held the field. Soon Mr. Scott's trade 

 outgrew his accommodatioft and he removed to Bermet-street, where he 

 carried on an ever increasing business, and was paying in wages for hand- 

 made shirts, ;^500 per week. Mr. Scott's trade continued to increase by 

 leaps and bounds ; his business prospered, and he was soon able to retire. 

 It was not until 1850, however, that shirt-making assumed any great 

 importance. About that year, however, the industry took a new phase ; for, 



* "Concise View of the Irish Society," p. ccvi 



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