The Family (1)

 In 1881, a young woman of 27 boarded a ship in Belfast and set sail for New Zealand to marry her fiancé George Hill Willson Mackisack.  In her trousseau she had a broderie perse quilt made for her grandmother at her marriage in1795. Both grandmother and granddaughter were named Martha Alicia Brett. The Martha Alicia Brett who migrated to New Zealand was my great grandmother.

 Martha’s grandmother, Martha (or Matilda) Alicia Black, was born into an Armagh Church of Ireland merchant family in1765 and in December 1795 she married Charles Brett of Belfast. The Black family were well established and although Martha’s father’s first name is not known, her mother’s name was Ann.  Martha had two sisters, Maria and Elizabeth and there may have been another sister, Catherine.[1] 

 In 1795, Charles Brett (b. 1752) descended from a family of possibly Anglo-Norman settlers who had been in Ireland from at least the 16^th century, was also Church of Ireland.  He was a successful merchant and had recently built a comfortable house named Charleville in Castlereagh on the outskirts of Belfast[2].  In November 1795, his mother, Molly, died but three weeks later he was celebrating his marriage to Martha Black.  Charles was 43 and Martha 30.[3] 

 An established businessman, Charles had been taking care of his widowed mother since his father died in 1878.  He had interests in many fields, the wine trade, distilling, glass making, insurance, farming flax and processing it and later merchant adventuring with a fleet of ships around the British Isles.  He had turned down one offer of marriage to a Catholic girl around 1790 and probably met Martha Black through business contacts.[4] 

 The Black girls were from a privileged family and as such had time for genteel pursuits including needlework.  Martha’s marriage must have been planned well in advance and her sisters Elizabeth now Mrs Corne, and Maria (and perhaps Catherine, now Catherine Noble) produced a beautiful broderie perse quilt for the occasion. The quilt and its place in the textiles of the time is described in Part Two.

 As her marriage quilt reflects the fashions and style of life at the end of the 18^th century for a comfortably off middle class woman, so does Martha’s life.  She had a happy marriage and bore 7 children, 3 of whom died in infancy.  The surviving children were, Matilda Mary Ann, the eldest, Wills Hill, Annabella Elizabeth, (the survivor of twins), and Mary Catherine Sandys. All the family were musical: Charles played the guitar and violin, Matilda sang and Mary and Martha junior played the piano.  Books, gardening, furnishing and decoration were other family interests.  The family were active members of the Church of Ireland and were concerned about the less fortunate, even inviting the poor to Sunday lunch at Charleville.  The elder girls were educated at home, Wills was sent to Trinity College Dublin in 1813 and Mary was sent to boarding school in Lancashire.  Martha did not keep good health and died in October 1815 at the early age of 49.  Charles continued to be concerned for the education of his children and providing for his family in the best way possible for a man of moderate means.

 Charles Brett died on 23 June 1829 at the age of 77. He left a detailed will, leaving some money and a long list of valued possessions to each of his daughters and Wills as the executor and residuary legatee.  Along with items such as piano’s and other musical instruments, the two unmarried daughters were each left their own beds and bedding including the counterpanes.  However the boderie perse quilt was unlikely to have been used as bedding and is not mentioned as being left to any of the girls[5]. The document listing the residual estate unfortunately no longer exists.

 Wills did well at Trinity and by the time of his mother’s death he had decided on a career in the church. Wills was ordained a deacon in 1821 and in 1822, priest. His sympathies lay with the evangelical, low church part of the Church of Ireland.  Grey Abbey on the Ards peninsula was his parish for 21 years until he moved to the nearby parish of Kircubbin in 1843. Wills married Mattie (Martha) Garrett, the daughter of a Belfast solicitor in 1835.   He was 37 and she 26. Up until the time of his father’s death in 1829, Wills seemed to have lodgings in the village in the weekends and spend most of the rest of his time at Charleville.

The church at Greyabbey (2006)