Bruce family
CADHAS was originally interested in Samuel Bruce of Norton Hall, because he was a Magistrate listed in Kelly’s 1902 Directory and Chamberlain’s 1916 Town Guide. Several enquiries to the CADHAS Archive Room have gradually built up a picture of the Bruce family:
Richard Graham from Belfast is researching the families responsible for the development of Belfast and for making it into one of the most important manufacturing cities of the British Empire reaching its zenith in 1901. He sent much information regarding Samuel Bruce of Norton Hall and the family history and writes:
“You will be aware of the importance of shipbuilding, linen, tobacco and many other important exports that went around the world from the North of Ireland, but whiskey and mineral water were two other products that were produced in Belfast and exported around the globe. It is the whiskey aspect of the Bruce family that I am currently researching, hence the interest in Samuel (1838 -1922) that caused me to contact you initially.
Sam Bruce, along with his son Captain George James Bruce VC, DSO, was the proprietor of Comber Distilleries in County Down, which he purchased in 1871. His brother James Bruce (1835 – 1917) was a director of William Dunville & Company, the largest producer of Whiskey in Belfast during the period 1808 – 1936. The Dunville family lived at Holywood, Co Down. The third director of this massive undertaking was James Craig, father of James Craig jnr (1871 – 1940), later Viscount Craigavon and first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1921 until his death. Throughout their time in Ireland the Bruces certainly moved in the right circles!
Samuel and James Bruce were descended from no less than 6 generations of ministers in the (Non Subscribing) Presbyterian Church in Ireland from the time of their arrival from Scotland in the early 1600s, just before the plantation of Ulster. Belfast was primarily a Presbyterian town, with the Rev. William Bruce DD (1757 – 1841) being the most influential member of the family in the development of the town of Belfast, which did not become a city until 1898. He was a leading academic and was principal of the Belfast Academy (now Belfast Royal Academy).
Samuel Bruce lived in Comber, Co Down (not Belfast). His father, also Samuel (1789 – 1845) lived at Thorndale (where Samuel was born) on the Antrim Road in Belfast (part of a larger estate known as “The Farm” where the church and clergy side of the family lived for several generations until that house, along with Thorndale, was demolished in the 1930s). Samuel’s brother James (of Dunvilles) lived at Thorndale after their father’s death, but James also had a magnificent house at Benburb, Co Tyrone that he occupied after its completion in 1886, (the estate formerly being a seat of the Earls of Powerscourt, Co Wicklow).
Perhaps it was sibling rivalry that led Samuel to purchase Norton Hall after he had viewed James’ magnificent new estate at Benburb?
Comber was an important linen producing and finishing centre with the development and importance of the town being almost entirely due to the efforts of the Andrews family who were also instrumental in the setting up of Northern Ireland. Michael Andrews was Managing Director of Harland and Wolff “shipbuilders to the world” and the Chief Designer of The Titanic. He was lost at sea when the liner sank in 1912. Other members of the family rose through the ranks of Ulster Society to become members of the Judiciary (Lord Chief Justice) and Deputy Prime Minister. The Andrews family also invested in the Comber Distilleries with Thomas James Andrews being listed as a director in 1907. Samuel, along with his son, Capt. George J. Bruce, lived at a large house called Cuan (later Carnesure) which was purchased by the Andrews family following the sale of the Comber Distilleries to Hollywood and Donnelly in 1922, following Samuel’s death. The distillery continued to produce Old Comber Whiskey until 1953, and if you are lucky, a few bottles are still available today! In its heyday the distilleries (of which there were 2 – the Upper and Lower) produced some 150,000 gallons of pot still whiskey per annum, with five excise officers being employed on site solely to ensure the correct amount of excise was paid on the whiskey that the Bruce family produced! In 1894, Lord Londonderry (who lived at nearby Mount Stewart and a descendant of Lord Castlereagh) gave a glass or two of the precious nectar to the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, who enjoyed it so much that Lord Londonderry later presented him with several gallons of the stuff!
It is little wonder therefore that Samuel could easily afford to purchase Norton Hall as a second family seat in 1884. He would have been about 46 years old. Son George J Bruce remained at Comber to manage the family distilleries and was instrumental in mobilizing the local men of the town to oppose Home Rule during that crisis in 1912. This led to the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force (of which Thomas Andrews was also a leading member, along with Lord Londonderry and other leading members of Ulster Society). The members were drilled in the Lower Distillery Yard and also at Cuan, the family home. Although the threat to Ulster was very real, the UVF never took up arms against the state, as in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War, the organization was absorbed into the British Army as the 36th (Ulster) Division. Thousands of its members were slaughtered at the Battle of the Somme in 1914. George was killed in action in 1918.
You will see a common thread of association with the members of the Bruce family and some of the most influential families in Ulster’s history. Another branch of the family inherited, through marriage, the massive fortune of the Earl Bishop of Derry (4th Earl of Bristol, 1730-1803) and later became Baronets of Downhill (where they had extensive estates in Co Londonderry). To even begin telling you about that branch of the family would take volumes!
The full names of the Samuel’s children given in Burkes Landed Gentry of Ireland 1898 are: (1) George James (3rd June 1880 – 1918) of Comber, Co Down (2) Robert William Vesey (3) Patrick Alexander (1888-1973) (1) Maye Emily (3rd May 1879-1964) (2) Norah Alice ) (3) Annette Edith ) Twins (4) Joanette Marjorie
The reasons why Samuel Bruce took himself off to Gloucestershire remain a mystery. He had married Louisa Mary Julia Colthurst on 17 June 1878 [Ed. she would have been 21 and Sam c. 40] – six years before he purchased Norton Hall – her family links were very much around County Cork where her father was MP for the City of Cork, so it is not apparent that there was any inheritance there. Sam lived at Comber, Co Down (Cuan – now known as Eusemere) with his wife Louisa. Their eldest son George and his wife Hilda Blackiston Houston of Orangefield, Co Down (married in 1907) retained it until his untimely death, killed in action, on 2 October 1918. Hilda outlived him until 1936. She was one of 12 children.
Samuel had been a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) for County Down before he left Ireland, as was his brother, James, who was a DL and JP for County Tyrone. It would certainly appear that the brothers vied with each other not only for a place in society, but also in terms of the properties they lived in. On searching for the Bruce family burial plot, there is a grave for Samuel’s father (also Samuel 1790-1845) and his brother James (1835-1917) in the Old Priory Graveyard at Holywood, Co Down, but Samuel’s final place of rest in 1922 is not recorded. Was he interred around Chipping Campden or perhaps in London where there was also a house in Kensington?
Please make this information I have forwarded available on your website in the hope that someone might know of the link between Comber and Chipping Campden and why Samuel moved from Ireland to Gloucestershire and Norton Hall. I would also be interested in why he moved from Norton Hall to live in London at Cromwell Road, South Kensington in about 1912. Did he develop business interests in London, or was he just attracted by the “bright lights”?
The supreme irony of course is that the 6 generations of the Bruce clergy who ministered in Ireland and from whom he is descended, were champions of the Temperance Movement in Ireland (particularly in the late 18th and early 19th centuries), so whilst they were encouraging the working classes to give up alcohol consumption, both Samuel, his brother James and Samuel’s son George were literally making a fortune from the production of pot still whiskey on two sites, and ultimately enjoying a very comfortable and privileged lifestyle as a result!”
Andrew Davenport from Northumberland has answered some of the above questions through his research into Maye Bruce, the eldest of Sam and Julia’s children, and an full article on her will be published/can be found in Notes & Queries, Volume VI, Issue 1, Autumn 2008 and through Andrew’s newly published book, entitled: ‘Quick Return Compost Making – The Essence of the Sustainable Organic Garden’ available after 1st September 2008 from: www.qrcompostingsolutions.co.uk. ISBN 978-0-9560087-0-1
In answer to the question why the family left Belfast, Andrew writes: “In 1884 Samuel, Louisa Julia and their young family uprooted and moved to Norton Hall, Chipping Campden. It is quite perplexing to understand why the family relocated given their firm footings and wealth in Ireland, however, it is thought that possible reasons behind this could have been sectarian issues and also that Julia wanted to be nearer London where she could fulfil her passion for attending concerts and interest in music. This indulgence in the arts was further highlighted by the purchase of a house in London’s Cromwell Road where Julia hosted musical soirees attended by musicians including the famed violinist, Yehudi Menuhin.”
The eldest child, Maye, would have been only 5 years old when they moved to Norton Hall and George a year younger. A Bruce family member said “Louisa felt Ireland was a bit of a back-water and wanted to be nearer London, whereas Samuel was more of a hunting / shooting / fishing type and hence the two houses. I believe Chipping Campden was chosen as it was good for Samuel for the hunting and not too far from London.”
Another family member said “Samuel (known as Buffalo by his family) was a hunting shooting fishing man 20yrs older than his wife Julia who also hunted (in fact that is how they met). She was brought up in Blarney Castle (of kissing the stone fame); the house is in the Scottish Baronial style built 1874. She thought Cork was the back end of the earth and wanted a more sophisticated life and was encouraged to marry him by her mother because he had money! On her part she was impressed by the fact the Sam was well travelled; he had been to the USA and Canada (shooting). I have copies of some of his letters from this trip and a photo of him in Indian garb – he was made an honorary chief by one of the tribes – hence the name Buffalo. As an old man Sam moved to London to be with Julia and at some stage he had a stroke and didn’t return to live at Norton which was used by the army during WW1 but Maye was at Norton during that time.”
Another two family members Bruce and Bob McKnight from Vancover, Canada sent details of Patrick Alexander Bruce, a younger son of Sam and Louisa, who from 1930-1945 was headmaster of Chefoo, an English boarding school established in 1881 for children of missionaries and foreign residents in Shuntung province, China.
Bruce also wrote: “Another bit of information I have about Samuel is regarding an extended trip he made to Canada in 1862 and 1863, when he was in his 20’s. I have transcripts of several letters he wrote to his brother, James, describing fishing expeditions in Quebec, buffalo hunting in Manitoba, and getting caught up in an Indian uprising in northern Minnesota. My mother told me that the originals of some of the letters are in the Fort Garry Museum in Winnipeg and were apparently donated by one of her aunts, Joan or Maye, and there was some sort of ceremony (in the 1960’s?) which took place in Winnipeg to acknowledge the gift. Another family anecdote told me by my mother was when Samuel had first met Louisa, he was close to 40 and she was about 20 years. Apparently there was some sort of social event, or perhaps a hunt, where Samuel was visiting the Colthursts. Louisa came to her mother and said “Mr. Bruce has asked me to marry him; what should I say?” Her mother apparently responded “Tell him yes!!”