Cathryn Bronwyn McWilliams The Letters and Legacy of Mary Ann McCracken Cathryn McWilliams Bronwyn (1770–1866) This study provides the first scholarly edition of the correspondence of Belfast humanitarian activist Mary Ann McCracken, fully annotated, complete with accompanying contextual, Cathryn Bronwyn McWilliams biographical and technical commentary. In bringing together and sequencing all of McCracken’s extant letters for the first time, the work seeks to give a greater insight into her later life and views, as well as shed new light The Letters and Legacy on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Irish society, the rapidly-changing environment of Belfast itself, and women’s history in Ireland more widely. It further aims to contribute to our of Mary Ann McCracken understanding of the United Irishmen (with whom McCracken was closely involved) and their // means of communication, in addition to the epistolary networks which collected, preserved and Legacy of Mary(1770–1866) The Letters Ann McCracken (1770–1866) and disseminated historiographical discourse around the Rebellion of 1798. // 2021 9 789517 659949 ISBN 978-951-765-994-9 Cathryn Bronwyn McWilliams Born 1982 Previous studies and degrees Master of Arts, Queen’s University Belfast, 2006 School of English Bachelor of Arts (with Honours), Queen’s University Belfast, 2005 School of English Cover image courtesy of the Board of Trinity College Dublin. Åbo Akademi University Press Tavastgatan 13, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 215 4793 E-mail: [email protected] Sales and distribution: Åbo Akademi University Library Domkyrkogatan 2–4, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 215 4190 E-mail: [email protected] THE LETTERS AND LEGACY OF MARY ANN MCCRACKEN (1770-1866) The Letters and Legacy of Mary Ann McCracken (1770-1866) Cathryn Bronwyn McWilliams Åbo Akademis förlag | Åbo Akademi University Press Åbo, Finland, 2021 CIP Cataloguing in Publication McWilliams, Cathryn Bronwyn. The letters and legacy of Mary Ann McCracken (1770-1866) / Cathryn Bronwyn McWilliams. - Åbo : Åbo Akademi University Press, 2021. Diss.: Åbo Akademi University. ISBN 978-951-765-994-9 ISBN 978-951-765-994-9 ISBN 978-951-765-995-6 (digital) Painosalama Oy Åbo 2021 Table of Contents List of Figures.................................................................................................i List of Tables .................................................................................................ii List of Abbreviations .................................................................................iii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................iv 1. Introduction ...............................................................................................1 1.1. Aims and Scope.................................................................................2 1.2 Biographical Overview.....................................................................7 1.3 Outline of Chapters.........................................................................13 1.4 Chronology .......................................................................................17 1.5 Genealogy .........................................................................................28 1.6 Residences.........................................................................................39 2. “What you see is none of mine:” Mary Ann McCracken in Memory.........................................................................................................51 2.1 Images................................................................................................51 2.1.1 “Wept by her brother’s scaffold” ...........................................51 2.1.2 The Faces of Mary Ann McCracken.......................................61 2.1.3 Unconfirmed Images of Mary Ann McCracken...................67 2.1.4 Belfast City Hall Bust ...............................................................74 2.2 Appropriations.................................................................................77 2.2.1 Murals and Political Appropriations.....................................77 2.2.2 Commercial Appropriations ...................................................83 2.3 Iconic Personae.................................................................................85 2.3.1 Mary Ann McCracken: the Abolitionist ................................85 2.3.1.1 McNeill’s Embellishment................................................85 2.3.1.2 Belfast’s Douglass Mural.................................................86 2.3.1.3 Belfast Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Association ......................89 2.3.1.4 Black Lives Matter Belfast...............................................91 2.3.1.5 McCracken’s Slavery Footprint......................................93 2.3.2 Mary Ann McCracken: the Proto-Feminist...........................97 2.3.2.1 Literary Influences ...........................................................98 2.3.2.2 The Place of United Irishwomen....................................99 2.3.2.3 McCracken’s argument for female equality ...............101 2.3.2.4 Economic constraints .....................................................104 2.3.2.5 Split in the US Abolitionist movement concerning women’s rights ......................................................................105 2.3.3 Speculation, Fabrication and Dubious Accounts...............106 2.3.3.1 “A Model of Manly Beauty:” The Case of Thomas Russell.....................................................................................106 2.3.3.2 Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason .......................................114 2.3.3.3 Mrs Duffin’s account of Mary Ann McCracken.........116 2.3.3.4 “Into their aprons” .........................................................116 2.3.3.5 Frank Roney’s account...................................................117 2.3.4 Mary Ann McCracken: the Historian ..................................119 2.4 Literary Images...............................................................................129 2.4.1 Drama.......................................................................................129 2.4.1.1 Jack Loudan’s Henry Joy McCracken (1945) .................129 2.4.1.2 John Hewitt’s The McCrackens (undated)....................132 2.4.1.3 Stewart Parker’s Northern Star (1984)..........................137 2.4.1.4 John Gray’s Who Fears to Speak (1988)..........................141 2.4.1.5 Jane Cassidy’s The Man From God Knows Where (1997).......................................................................................143 2.4.1.6 Martin Lynch’s Rebellion: the Henry Joy McCracken Story (1997).......................................................................................143 2.4.1.7 John McIlduff’s The Turnout (1998) ..............................144 2.4.1.8 James Mateer’s A Star When the Moon Wanes (2000)..145 2.4.1.9 Helen Earley’s Dramatic Re-enactment (2016)..............145 2.4.2 Prose .........................................................................................147 2.4.2.1 Rosamond Jacob’s The Rebel’s Wife (1957) ...................147 2.4.3 Poetry .......................................................................................149 2.4.3.1 Anon, “Harry’s Sword” (published 1858) ..................149 2.4.3.2 Thomas Charles Stewart Corry, “The Battle of Antrim: A Reminiscence of 1798” (1879) ..........................................150 2.4.3.3 Thomas Charles Stewart Corry, “Ode to the Memory of Mary Ann McCracken” (1879) ........................................152 2.4.3.4 Ruth Carr’s Feather and Bone (2018) .............................153 2.4.4 Music ........................................................................................155 2.4.4.1 Jane Cassidy’s “Mary Ann McCracken 1770–1866” (Album released 1987)..........................................................155 3. Perspectives on the Letters..................................................................158 3.1 Script ................................................................................................158 3.1.1 Handwriting............................................................................158 3.1.2 Endorsements..........................................................................159 3.1.3 Crossed Letters........................................................................160 3.1.4 Transcription Style..................................................................161 3.2 Materiality.......................................................................................162 3.2.1 Watermarks .............................................................................162 3.2.2 Mourning Paper......................................................................165 3.2.3 Embossed Designs..................................................................165 3.2.4 Letterlocking ...........................................................................167 3.2.5 Adhesives.................................................................................167 3.2.6 Envelopes.................................................................................168 3.2.7 Tearing......................................................................................170 3.2.8 Ruled paper .............................................................................170 3.2.9 Binding.....................................................................................170 3.2.10 Folios ......................................................................................171