'Hiring Fairs and Market Places' by May Blair, published by Appletree Press

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extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair.

COUNTY LONDONDERRY

The nearby village of Swatragh had four fairs. The patent, originally granted to the Stewart family in the early seventeenth century, passed to the Mercers’ Company in 1830 ‘under whose fostering care it was expected to improve.’ No tolls were charged on the horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats and yarn sold there. Of the thirty-one houses in the village, sixteen were occupied by weavers who also laboured, each having an acre of land and a cow’s grass (enough ground to graze a cow). All these places changed to monthly fairs in the nineteenth century though Kilrea and Coleraine had a score or more with extra days set aside to include hiring and the sale of horses.
The cluster of villages lying between Swatragh and the Bann included Upperlands, Bovedy, Inishrush, Gulladuff and Tamlaght (or Tamlaght O’Crilly). Upperlands is synonymous with the Clark family whose mills have flourished there for over 300 years. Bovedy once had a pleasure fair held on Christmas Day. Gulladuff and Inishrush each had a small weekly corn market which lasted from October until the following May. Tamlaght had quarterly fairs which ceased about 1800 for the usual reason – drunkenness on Fair Day. However there were good fairs in Kilrea, Maghera and Portglenone, and farmers and weavers simply took their custom elsewhere. One of them was Andrew Smyth, farmer and linen manufacturer, from Tamlaght village itself. Trade was good in the early part of the century but times were changing and he would soon need to think of other ways of making a living. Whole families were emigrating, mostly to America. This was due partly to bad farming years at the beginning of the century and a near-famine in 1817 when many perished, but none compared with the Great Famine years of 1845 to 1848. The Smyth family had weathered those years of misery, but around that time they left Tamlaght and went to a farm at Falgortreavey, a short distance outside Maghera. However Andrew was not content to farm so he asked his old friend and former minister the Reverend James Smyth of Drumbolg for a reference, before setting off into the wide world to seek his fortune. He eventually arrived in Australia where he tried his hand at panning for gold. He must have had some success at this for the family still have some jewellery made from Australian gold.
Meanwhile yet another Smyth family was farming at Lakeview, not far from Tamlaght village. The last of that family inherited with the farm an old retainer called Hugh Whyte who had been with the family since 1893. Hugh’s duties revolved round the yard work. He fed pigs, helped the servant girl with the milking, cleaned out the byre, brushed and tidied the yard. He is remembered as a small man who travelled everywhere on foot. He had his own quarters in the big house and lived in it for eight years on his own after Joseph Smyth married and moved to more modern premises nearby. He could lilt, dance and sing and was a popular figure at local gatherings. When his final call came he was laid to rest in the Smyth family plot at Drumbolg. He had served the family for seventy years.
After a few years Andrew came home from Australia to look after the old folk and with their passing married Eliza Little, who was one of seven sisters from the Little family of Orritor near Cookstown. He then moved to County Tyrone, living first at Cady and then at Drummond near the village of Rock. It was while living at Cady that Andrew unwittingly offended his landlord by letting the smoke from his chimney drift towards the manor at Tullylagan. The Tullylagan butler was despatched post-haste with orders to extinguish the fire immediately. No reason was given but perhaps Landlord Greer was afraid of soot falling on the linen on his bleach green. At this point in his life Andrew was appointed tithe and cess collector for the district of Dungannon and moved to the lovely old farmhouse at Drummond. Andrew and Eliza’s last resting-place is in the shade of some tall trees in Sandholes Presbyterian Churchyard. Andrew in his younger days often attended the fairs and markets in Maghera. The origins of that town go back into the mists of time. It was church property and existed as a village before the Plantation, in consequence of which the streets are narrow, unlike the newer towns and villages ‘planned’ by the London Companies. Its narrow streets and old church bear testimony to its venerable ecclesiastical history. Saint Lurach is said to have built his church there at the end of the fourth century. A patent for fairs was granted by Charles II in the late-seventeenth century, but it is likely that there were fairs in the vicinity of the old church from a much earlier date. It is known that the old market house at the eastern end of the town was built with stone and lime and thatched with heather. Another was built at the opposite end for marketing butter, beef, flax and mutton. The old one was then used for selling meal and grain. The new building is said to have been used to hang the staunch Presbyterian Walter Graham for standing by his principles as a United Irishman in 1798 while McKeever, his chief and companion, fled the country. Another school of thought believes that the hanging took place on a tree near the church and that the body was displayed on the market house afterwards as a warning to other would-be rebels.

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