LAMBEG,
a parish, partly in the baronies of UPPER BELFAST and UPPER
MASSAREENE, county of ANTRIM,
but chiefly in the barony of UPPER CASTLEREAGH, county of DOWN,
and province of ULSTER, 2½ miles (N.) from Lisburn,
on the old road from Belfast city
to Dublin city ; containing 1537 inhabitants, of which number,
175 are in the village.
The
parish, which is pleasantly situated on the river Lagan, comprises,
according to the Ordnance survey, 1567 statute acres, of which 376¾
are in the county of Antrim. The land is good and the system
of agriculture improved, and the surrounding scenery is pleasingly
diversified.
Lambeg
House, the properly and residence of A. Williamson, Esq.,
is a handsome modern mansion, formerly belonging to J. Williamson,
Esq., author of an able treatise on the linen trade, and framer
of the laws by which it is now regulated throughout Ireland ; he was
much persecuted for framing those laws, and was driven from his house
and his native country by an infuriated mob. Chrome Hill, also
a spacious modern mansion, was erected by R. Nevin, Esq., late
of Manchester (England), who established here some extensive works
for printing muslin, in which he first applied with success his invention
of the “Ba Chrome” now universally used, and also introduced
the oxide of chrome into the ornamental department of the china manufacture,
from which circumstance he named his estate.
The
village is about a mile north of Lisburn, with which and also
with Belfast it is connected by houses continued along the
road between those towns. The blanket manufacture established by the
Wolfenden family, who settled in this part of the country about
two centuries since, is still carried on. On the river Lagan are
two large bleach-greens ; and further down the stream is the extensive
printing establishment of Mr. Nevin, the buildings of which
are captious and furnished with every modern improvement in machinery.
The
living is a perpetual curacy, in the diocese
of Connor, and in the patronage of the Bishop, to whom the
rectory is appropriate as mensal, but the whereof the tithes, amounting
to £103. 19s. 2¾d., are given by him to the curate. The
church occupies the site of an ancient monastery, said to have been
founded in the 15th century by Mac Donell for Franciscan friars
of the third order ; it is a small but handsome edifice in the Grecian
style, with a tower at the west end.
There
is a place of worship for Presbyterians in connection with the Synod
of Ulster; also a national school, in which are about 90 children,
and a private school of about 120 children. From a part of the churchyard
being called the Nuns Garden, if has been supposed that there
was a nunnery here, but no account of such an establishment is extant.
