Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB25/16/005 B

Address :
Waddell-Cunningham-Douglas Monument Knockbreda Parish Church of Ireland Church Road Belfast County Down BT8 7AN

Townland:
Breda

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
16/01/1987 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Mausoleum

Former Use
Mausoleum

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
147/10NW

IG Ref:
J3516 7019

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Owner Category

Church - C of I

Exterior Description And Setting

Free-standing stone mausoleum, erected c.1800, commemorating Waddell Cunningham 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.2010. Square plan sandstone mausoleum with four equal elevations on a continuous plinth base. Each elevation comprises a round-arched central panel with inscribed memorial plaque flanked by paired Doric pilasters with swagged entablature and framed by an engaged Doric column to the corners. The entablature is adorned with an urn to each corner and crowned by a convex roof section surmounted by four pinnacles each framing a spiked roof also crowned with an urn. Setting; Located to the northeast of Knockbreda Parish Church within an expansive cemetary to the north of Upper Knockbreda Road. Roof Stone Walling Stone RWG N/A Windows N/A

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The Wadell-Cunningham-Douglas 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 tomb commemorates Waddell Cunningham who died in 1797 and his family, including Waddell Cunningham Douglas of the 17th Lancers who died in 1904. Waddell Cunningham (1728/9-1797) the first to be interred in the tomb, was the son of John Cunningham and his wife Jane Waddell, the combined families having interests in farming, linen, provisioning and overseas trade. By 1752 Waddell Cunningham was trading in meal in New York and a few years later he became the partner of Belfast merchant Thomas Greg, whose tomb is situated close by. The firm of Greg & Cunningham traded in flaxseed, purchasing it in America and selling it in Ireland. During the Seven Years’ War between Britain and France (1759-1763) Cunningham and Greg made their fortunes having applied to the Crown for the right to become privateers which enabled them to attack enemy boats and recover their slave-grown produce such as sugar, coffee, tobacco and cotton. Once the war had ended Greg and Cunningham established a sugar plantation called ‘Belfast’ on the island of Dominica. (Rodgers; Dictionary of Irish Biography) Cunningham returned to Ireland after the war, having suffered a short term of imprisonment for assaulting another merchant, and initiated several new business ventures with Greg, including the manufacture of vitriol for bleaching, fisheries in Donegal and Sligo that exported herrings as slave food, and trading in horses and mules for sugar and tobacco, the sugar being processed at premises in Waring Street, Belfast. He also had interests in shipping, brewing, glass manufacture and flour milling and was the foremost Belfast merchant of his era. 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’. Cunningham was active in public life; briefly an MP, he was the first president of Belfast’s Chamber of Commerce and was head of the Ballast Board (later the Belfast Harbour Commissioners) in the 1780s, in which capacity he oversaw the deepening of Belfast’s harbour. Cunningham died childless in 1797 and his property passed to James Douglas, the youngest son of his sister whose descendants continued to be buried in the tomb. (Rodgers, Dictionary of Irish Biography) A full restoration of the mausoleum was completed in 2010 by the Follies Trust, under the supervision of Chris McCollum. References: Secondary Sources 1. McGuire, J and Quinn, J, eds “Dictionary of Irish Biography” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Royal Irish Academy, 2009 2. Mackey, B; Dixon, H; McCormick, F; Curl, J S; Rodgers, N ‘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

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Free-standing stone mausoleum, erected c.1800, commemorating the local industrialist, Waddell Cunningham. Square on plan located to the northeast of the graveyard to Knockbreda Parish Church (HB25/16/005A). An impressive and rare funerary monument employing Adamesque detailing so fashionable at the time and adding interest to this historic Georgian site. It has group value with the nearby listed Rainey Goddard (HB25.16.005C) and Greg (HB25.16.5D) mausolea and Knockbreda Parish Church.

General Comments

Date of Survey

30 March 2011