History is full of surprises. The more you research somebody, the more you get a sense of their life, their character and their personality. That is, however, until a new piece of information comes from left field and somewhat rocks the perception that you have built up over the hours looking through records and newspaper clippings. Such was the case when one of the volunteers of Clifton House lent us a book he had recently acquired that had some interesting information about Edward Benn.
Edward Benn is a prominent person within the North Belfast Heritage Cluster. Not only was he a generous donor towards the Belfast Charitable Society, but his charity helped shape the area for over a century, due to his development of Glenravel Street. His portrait hangs in the boardroom of Clifton House and his family crest adorns the exterior walls of the wings he funded. Given his charity and medical philanthropy in his later life, it paints a picture of a kind-hearted and generous man. Whilst this may be true of his outlook in later life, his earlier years as landlord of the Glenravel Estate show him in a less positive light, to the extent that one of his tenants made an attempt on his life!
As has been previously highlighted in our previous piece about Edward Benn, the Benn Brothers happened upon their fortune by finding iron in the Glenravel Hills. Before this stroke of fortune, the brothers, Edward and George had tried a number of ventures, most notably the distilling of whisky using potatoes. Benn invested £2,000 into the creation of this distillery, however, it never really got up and running. This is in part due to the heavy restrictions on whiskey production at the time (which resulted in Benn’s distillery being deemed illegal by the Excisemen), and mainly due to potato blight, and the failure of the crops that would have been used in his distillery.
Left little to show from his initial £2,000 investment, (and fined an additional £100 by the Excisemen) he voiced his grievances to the then Prime Minister- Lord John Russell. In this letter he made note of “stubborn soil and an ignorant people”. It is the “ignorant people” that local historian and author Kevin O’Hagan states was an indication of how Benn treated his tenants. The Benn’s did not subscribe nor support the prevailing Ulster Tenant Right, which ensured that landlords would not incrementally increase the rents they charged their tenants at the end of each lease, and were owed compensation for any improvements they made to the land should they wish to leave. Instead, Benn claimed credit for the majority of improvements made by the tenants to his land, and then increased the rents when improvements were made. Benn’s tenants struggled to make ends meet, and the family was described as “heartless and tyrannical.”:
“…stories have come down through the years to the descendants of those tenants who were treated badly, of evictions in Winter, unjust rent increases and of Miss Harriet Benn deliberately pouring buttermilk down the drain rather than give it to poor families to feed their children”.
The Mountains of Iron- Kevin J O’Hagan
Given the conditions on the Benn estate and the desperation felt by those who were tenants on his land, it all came to a head in July of 1858 when a disgruntled tenant made an attempt on Edward’s life.
Recorded in newspapers in the weeks after the incident, the tone is one of shock, as the Ballymena Observer reports that “County Antrim has been the scene of a cold-blooded and most deliberate attempt at murder.” Suspicion is immediately cast on the disgruntled farmers:
“The intended victim of assassination is Edward Benn, Esq. of Newtowncrommelin; and there is little doubt that the outrage is attributable to agrarian agitation among certain classes of tenantry in that neighbourhood”.
Ballymena Observer-7th August 1858
The article would go on to detail how Benn had extended the boundaries of his land and had remodelled the more mountainous terrain into enclosures which could then be assigned to tenants for grazing of their cattle. This interrupted the more ad hoc and informal practice that had been occurring where the cattle were let loose on the land that was less suitable for growing crops. This did not endear Benn to his tenants, as some were displaced, and others found themselves paying rent for land that had been otherwise free for their use. The Ballymena Observer argues that it is this change to a long-established system that “result[ed] in a diabolical attempt upon [Benn’s] life.”
The newspaper recounts the events in remarkable detail, likely informed by police reports from the time:
“About ten o’clock on the evening of the 26th, while Mr. Benn was in the act of closing the inside window shutter…he was deliberately fired at by some murderous ruffian who had been lying in wait… The bullet crashed through the centre pane of the window; and, passing between Mr Benn’s body and the arm which he had extended to close the shutter, lodged in the ceiling…he had a candle in his hand at the moment; and the ruffian’s aim must have been materially assisted by its light.”
The article continues:
“To what extent this state of society may be regarded as bearing upon the attempted assassination of Mr. Benn, we are unprepared to say; but an outrage of such unparalelled atrocity in this part of the Kingdom should be met by public, prompt and strenuous efforts for the maintenance of law, and the discovery and punishment of all persons implicated in such a crime. Every landholder in the County-every honest man in the community- should mark his abhorrence of the deed.”
Whilst it is presumed that Edward was the intended target, it later transpires that it was younger brother George who was the individual at the window. In a meeting held that September at Ballymena Courthouse, a further meeting to discuss the assassination attempt was held, where George Benn was cited as the victim, with a £50 reward being offered. Whether or not the culprit was ever caught is unknown.
Stories such as these are often surprising because they can jar with our existing perception of these historical individuals. They act as a reminder that even with the fullest of research, what we can piece together in a coherent format is often the public image of individuals: An image that they wanted to be seen to portray. It is also a reminder that people are complex and can go through significant changes in attitudes and character throughout their lifetime, especially after experiencing significant challenge and change, and it is a good reminder that an individual who is seen as a kind, charitable and good natured soul in later life may not have always been so. It is a reminder that the lives of these individuals represent journeys that took place over many decades that we as researchers, historians and enthusiasts have the impossible task of summarising to key points and a few hundred words.
In the case of Edward Benn, in Belfast he is remembered as a prominent charitable figure and an advocate for medical advancements. In Ballymena he is remembered as an imposing, uncompromising landlord who was quick to take credit for his tenants accomplishments.1 Both impressions of him can (and likely, are) true, and represent stages in the life of the man. It is perhaps by no accident that his charitable focus began to shine in his later years, after both the assassination attempt, and the discovery of valuable iron on his estate. It is perhaps too idealistic to imagine that the attempt on his life made him “change his ways” and adopt a more holistic approach to the management of his tenants, however, it is more likely that the fortune brought by the mining operations on the Glenravel estate afforded him the means to pursue his charitable interest. In reality, both the assassination attempt and the new found fortune likely had an impact on the trajectory of his life and legacy, however, without the musings of the man himself, we will never know for sure.
The discovery of this piece of news from 1858 came as quite a shock. Given Edward Benn’s importance to Clifton House, and indeed the makeup of pre-Westlink North Belfast, with the development of Glenravel Street, the prospect of an area without the Benn Hospitals, or a Clifton House without the Benn wings is an interesting thought. Indeed, had the bullet struck the figure in the window the night of the 26th July 1858, Belfast may well have been robbed of one of its foremost historians in George Benn. It is an interesting exercise in “Alternate History”, theorising how different the city would look today without the influence of a single person in history.
Special thanks must go to Colin Shaw, one of the Volunteers at Clifton House for bringing this to our attention. It provided an interesting opportunity to examine a new aspect of one of Belfast’s most prominent 19th Century individuals. Special acknowledgement as well should go to Kevin J. O’Hagan, as it was his book The Mountains of Iron: A history of the Iron Mining industry in Mid-Antrim, that was the catalyst for this research and provided the context for a lot of the lead-up to the events of 26th July 1858.
About the archivist:
James Cromey is the Archive Coordinator for the North Belfast Heritage Cluster. He has a background in Victorian, Industrial and Medical History and has received degrees from the University of Glasgow and Queens University Belfast. All research has been conducted to a high academic standard and has been fully referenced. If you would like to know more about a story or piece of research, or if you wish to tell us about your own story, email us at: archiveproject@nbheritagecluster.org
- Benn remained somewhat of a self-publicist when it came to his achievements throughout his life. During the creation and building of the Benn wings, his name and the family crest were to be included on both wings. As a result, the Belfast Charitable Society resolved to add John Charters name to the wing he donated, as Charters had made no such stipulation when he donated money for its construction. There was a desire to make sure John Charters was equally remembered for his generosity. ↩︎
