Greg Monument Knockbreda Parish Church of Ireland

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing stone mausolea, erected c.1790, commemorating Thomas Greg, a local businessman. Square on plan located to the northeast of the graveyard to Knockbreda Parish Church (HB25/16/005A). Recently restored by the Follies Trust c.2009.

Square plan sandstone mausoleum with four equal elevations and chamfered corners pulled out at 45 degrees with a pair of Doric columns to each corner. Each elevation comprises a round-arched central panel with inscribed marble memorial plaque flanked by Doric pilasters with swagged entablature, projecting across the pairs of columns to the corners.. The entablature is lead lined with the paired corner columns surmounted by fluted urns. To stone roof is of a pavillion type with ogee profile and surmounted by a further urn.

Setting;
Located to the northeast of Knockbreda Parish Church within an expansive cemetery to the north of Upper Knockbreda Road.

Roof Stone
Walling Stone
RWG N/A
Windows N/A

Historical information

The Thomas Greg mausoleum dates from the late eighteenth century and is one of a group of very fine and unusual tombs that were constructed in Knockbreda churchyard to commemorate some of Belfast’s most prominent citizens of the period. The mausolea do not appear on historic OS maps.

During the eighteenth century, Protestants tended to be buried in the old parish graveyard in High Street, Belfast. However, this graveyard was closed to new burials in 1798 due to persistent problems with flooding and Knockbreda became a popular burial place for Belfast’s most prominent citizens (McCormick)

Four large mausolea were erected in the last two decades of the nineteenth century in Knockbreda churchyard, all square on plan, ‘with elegant Adamesque arrangements of Classical columns, pilasters and entablatures’ (Curl) Curl describes the mausolea as the ‘oddest and finest of all buildings in the genre in Ulster’, although one was demolished in the later twentieth century and the remaining three were for many years in a parlous condition before their restoration by the Follies Trust. Curl suggests that Belfast’s position as a port made it a focus for architectural influences from overseas, in particular India where funerary monuments of the type seen at Knockbreda had begun to be common by the mid-eighteenth century. Published designs were another possible influence and it is suggested that Roger Mulholland, a notable local architect may be responsible for the tombs, although documentary evidence to confirm this is lacking. (Curl)

The mausoleum commemorates Thomas Greg (1718-1796), business partner of Waddell Cunningham who is interred in the neighbouring tomb. Thomas Greg was the son of a Scottish blacksmith who later became a butcher and provision merchant in Belfast. Thomas Greg set up his own provisions shop in Belfast in the 1740s and used the profits to buy a small ship which carried provisions to the West Indies and returned with flaxseed. His business dealings with New York brought him into contact with Waddell Cunningham who became his partner and supervised the New York end of the business. During the Seven Years’ War between Britain and France (1759-1763) the firm profited both from the associated rise in the prices of provisions and through attacking enemy boats and recovering their cargoes. After the war, Greg and Cunningham set up a sugar plantation on Dominica called ‘Belfast’ and at home, as Belfast’s richest merchants, began to improve the town’s commercial infrastructure, investing in the Lagan navigation, a vitriol manufactory in Lisburn for bleaching, and the building of new docks and quays in Belfast. Greg supported the construction of the White Linen Hall which attracted the linen trade from the North of Ireland that had formerly gone through Dublin. The pair invested in glass manufacture and Greg started his own pottery on the east bank of the Lagan of which some examples still survive. According to Rodgers, ‘Cunningham and Greg played a key role in transforming Belfast from a market town at the mouth of a sandy river into an efficient port and a potential industrial centre’. (Rodgers)

Thomas Greg died not long before Waddell Cunningham in 1796. Cunningham had been a sometime political radical, calling for a union of all Irish people and inviting Catholics to join the Volunteers but Greg was wary of any political involvement. However, his daughter Jenny Greg was a suspected member of the United Irishmen and his youngest son Cunningham Greg was believed to share his sister’s views. Once he inherited his father’s business, however, Cunningham Greg became more conformist and joined the Yeomanry who were formed in 1797 to suppress possible revolt. Cunningham Greg’s older brothers, Thomas and Samuel left Ireland and made fortunes in England, Samuel establishing a particularly successful cotton mill in Cheshire in 1784. By the 1830s this was the biggest such enterprise in the world and is now the property of the National Trust. (Rodgers)

A full restoration of the mausoleum was completed in 2009 by the Follies Trust, under the supervision of Chris McCollum. (McCollum)

References:

Secondary Sources

1. Mackey, B; Dixon, H; McCormick, F; Curl, J S; Rodgers, N; McCollum, C ‘Knockbreda, Its Monuments and People’ The Follies Trust, Belfast

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Z. Rarity
R. Age
S. Authenticity
U. Historic Associations

Evaluation

Free-standing stone mausolea, erected c.1790, commemorating William Greg a local businessman. Square on plan located to the northeast of the graveyard to Knockbreda Parish Church (HB25/16/005A). An impressive funerary monument employing Adamesque detailing so fashionable at the time and adding great character to this historic Georgian site. It has group value with the nearby listed Waddell - Cunningham - Douglas (HB25.16.005B) and Rainey Goddard (HB25.16.005C) mausolea and Knockbreda Parish Church.