With John now out of the Bangor fold, Robert Neill decided to make his other sons Charles and James partners with him. The Articles of Agreement were signed on 21 May 1866, and state how '…the said Robert Neill is now desirous of advancing his said sons in the world by taking them into partnership…' The papers that survive from these times prove that Robert Neill had wide financial interests, for besides the two local Gas Companies, he had shares in the Belfast Water Commissioners, the Co. Down Railway Company and the Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway Company. From the admittedly piecemeal evidence that exists, one receives some impression of a prudent and frugal man, thoroughly sensible in his investments, who is gradually amassing substantial wealth. It is perhaps a little surprising that his name is not among the nine Town Commissioners elected in 1864 under the terms of the Town Improvements (Ireland) Act of 1854, an important piece of reform which democratised the town. However, his son James was later to attain this honour.
Bangor was certainly now in the 1860s beginning an upswing in its fortunes, for not only was there progress in local government, transport was revolutionised by the opening of the railway from Belfast on 18 May 1865. This was a venture that Robert Neill was obviously keen to support, as, quite apart from possible contracts for steam coal for the locomotives, any increase in Bangor's size and prosperity could only benefit his business. It is worth considering in detail here the Bangor coal trade and harbour that were for so long central to the Neill cause.
A significant point that is immediately apparent is the lack of competition that Neills faced from other coal importers. Nathaniel Dill (1816-81) was active in the 1860s and 70s, owning the brigantine Amazon, but later went to the United States, where he died in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was connected by marriage with Robert and William Dunn, who in conjunction with Joseph McCartney had a coal yard at the same period behind Pim's Stores (now the Palladium) and owned the brigantines Port and Defiance with other shareholders. In 1878, the Dunns moved their business to Newtownards and left Neills with a virtual monopoly in Bangor and district. Most of the household coal came from Ayr or Troon in Scotland, Maryport in Cumberland or Garston on the Mersey, while supplies of steam coal were brought from Swansea.
The year of completion of the new railway, 1865, was also significant for the trade facilities of the town, as the contractors, Messrs. Edwards, brought their plant on to the harbour and began an important job for Bangor. What is now known at the Central Pier assumed its present dog-leg shape by extension and widening. Prior to this it had been straight and so narrow that two carts could barely pass. The seaward end, however, was built of wood and finished at an oblique angle. It was here that the Belfast passenger sailings started, a necessary improvement as the previous summer the paddle steamer Erin had been placed on the route by J. and R. Brown of Bangor.
Neill colliers always berthed on the landward side of the pier. Shoreside crane facilities here and at other harbours were of no use for the sailing vessels, with their tiny hatch openings, and the traditional method of discharge was desperately laborious. The crew assembled a simple hand winch, known as a 'dolly' on the deck and rigged a derrick high on the mast. In the hold were 'fillers' - often crew members - who shovelled the coal into buckets or wickerwork baskets and then a 'whip' from the dolly winch through the derrick was hooked on and the coal hauled out and swung ashore. In Bangor at this time coal in bags was not known, it being carted loose, with Scottish coal retailing at ten shillings a ton, English at twelve shillings.
The South Pier at this time was a mere stump, but small vessels came right up the south side of the harbour on the tide to unload limestone opposite the present Courthouse. The Neill involvement in the import and burning of lime was considerable; several thousand tons each year were discharged and carted to the kilns at their premises in Sandy Row to be fired and sold as agricultural fertiliser. The cargoes at the time came across Belfast Lough from the White Harbour to the west of Whitehead, a pretty little place still visible from the Belfast to Lame railway line, but long since totally blocked by pebbles. The Neill fleet included a number of very small vessels suitable for such localised trade. To the modern eye archaic craft that could load little more than a heavy lorry does now, these boats are full of interest to the maritime historian, built by a few craftsmen and with odd variations of hull shape and rigging to suit the demands of a particular part of the coast.
On 4 June, 1869, the Neill partnership bought such a vessel, the smack Petrel, 18 net tons, from three Islandmagee men, skipper Robert Macauley and farmers James and Alexander McAlister. It might be thought there was little risk to life or cargo inside Belfast Lough, but on 3 June 1875, while half-way across with 30 tons of limestone, her two crew members had barely time to clamber into their punt as the Petrel sank under them. Another of the Neill's small craft was the Mary Jane, the property of Charles and James. Just 16 tons, yet two-masted and schooner rigged (and not to be confused with brother John's collier Mary Jane) she served them from 1862 to 1888 when James sold her to local shipwright Thomas Carson. Carson in turn sold her on 5 October 1893 to a stranger, Joseph Roache, who began to fit her out to fish in the Arctic. The thought of voyages to such high latitudes was over-optimistic; in a terrific northerly gale the following month, the Mary Jane was lifted clean out of the harbour and dropped in the middle of Quay Street! Roache was staying in the Grand Hotel (now Barry's) and, by no means nonplussed, at once stripped off some of her sails to protect the conservatory from flying slates and ridge tiles!
Between 1869 and 1871 the partnership invested in five vessels, the three-masted schooner White Star, the brigantines Cambridge and Timandra, the barquentine Eldorado and the two-masted schooner Gratitude. John Neill in Belfast still took a quarter share in all except the latter, a small and elderly vessel built at Dundee in 1816 and transferred from the Ramsey register. The other four were sizeable craft all of Canadian construction in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia yards. Immense numbers of Canadian softwood vessels came under British ownership in the nineteenth century. Well-designed and cheaply built at small yards, they were employed carrying timber across the Atlantic until a suitable buyer was found, so there were always vessels available for shipowners when the economic time was right to invest in new tonnage.
The White Star was Neills' most ambitious purchase, another venture into North American trading, for she returned to the North American timber trade in which the Alma had been involved. The family's largest vessel to date at 252 tons, and the only three-masted schooner they ever owned, she was not new, dating from a launch at Pictou, Nova Scotia, in 1854. In the 1870s many Belfast shipowners were prospering in the Canadian trade, notably Samuel Lawther and Thomas Dixon, who were laying the foundations for great future wealth as they supplied the building requirements of expanding cities. The White Star, however, cannot have made much profit for the Neills as she survived just twenty months under their ownership, before becoming a victim of one of the most destructive gales ever to strike the Atlantic seaboard of Canada, the notorious 'August Gale' in 1873. Anchored just beyond the river mouth at the New Brunswick harbour of Richibucto, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, having loaded timber for Liverpool, the White Star was hurled ashore on the town's south beach, though, happily, the crew escaped with their lives. The big schooner was soon reported condemned and quickly sold - just like the Alma. Thus ended the second and final Neill attempt to secure an interest in the North American trades. Just two months later, Robert Neill was dead and when his sons embarked again on a deepwater shipowning venture, it was something altogether more ambitious.
Robert Neill, founder of the firm that still bears his name, passed away at his home, 6 Sandy Row, Bangor, on Friday 24 October 1873. A widower since the death of his wife Agnes on Christmas Day, 1864, his large funeral took place the following Tuesday to the Bangor Abbey graveyard, where some twenty members of the Neill family are commemorated.
Clearly, an era had concluded. Here it is worth pausing, then, and taking stock of the family and their interests in 1873, before moving on into the second part of this history.
The partnership entitled Robert Neill and Sons, now carried on by the sons Charles and James, operated chiefly as coal importers and distributors in Bangor and Newtownards, and customers covered a wide area of North Down - from Craigavad in the west to Orlock in the east, plus many of the townlands at the northern end of the Ards Peninsula. A good, trade in lime burning was also maintained. Fourteen vessels were owned, all Robert's shares, by the terms of his will in which the three sons were executors, having passed to them jointly. In addition, John Neill, owned two vessels on his own account, which supplied his coal business at 17 Queen's Quay, Belfast. Many of the Robert Neill and Sons colliers were also seen in Belfast among other ports, and it is intriguing to note that at this time the shipping interests were much more extensive than Samuel Kelly (six colliers), whose successors later built up such a huge and famous fleet.
Charles, his wife Olivia, and their growing family, still lived in the old Neill home in Sandy Row, while James, widowed recently by the death of his wife Sarah I childbirth, resided with them.
So, to have died in the knowledge that his three sons had attained a prosperous maturity in businesses set fair to continue expanding, was probably no more than Robert Neill would ever have wished.
A significant point that is immediately apparent is the lack of competition that Neills faced from other coal importers. Nathaniel Dill (1816-81) was active in the 1860s and 70s, owning the brigantine Amazon, but later went to the United States, where he died in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was connected by marriage with Robert and William Dunn, who in conjunction with Joseph McCartney had a coal yard at the same period behind Pim's Stores (now the Palladium) and owned the brigantines Port and Defiance with other shareholders. In 1878, the Dunns moved their business to Newtownards and left Neills with a virtual monopoly in Bangor and district. Most of the household coal came from Ayr or Troon in Scotland, Maryport in Cumberland or Garston on the Mersey, while supplies of steam coal were brought from Swansea.
The year of completion of the new railway, 1865, was also significant for the trade facilities of the town, as the contractors, Messrs. Edwards, brought their plant on to the harbour and began an important job for Bangor. What is now known at the Central Pier assumed its present dog-leg shape by extension and widening. Prior to this it had been straight and so narrow that two carts could barely pass. The seaward end, however, was built of wood and finished at an oblique angle. It was here that the Belfast passenger sailings started, a necessary improvement as the previous summer the paddle steamer Erin had been placed on the route by J. and R. Brown of Bangor.
Neill colliers always berthed on the landward side of the pier. Shoreside crane facilities here and at other harbours were of no use for the sailing vessels, with their tiny hatch openings, and the traditional method of discharge was desperately laborious. The crew assembled a simple hand winch, known as a 'dolly' on the deck and rigged a derrick high on the mast. In the hold were 'fillers' - often crew members - who shovelled the coal into buckets or wickerwork baskets and then a 'whip' from the dolly winch through the derrick was hooked on and the coal hauled out and swung ashore. In Bangor at this time coal in bags was not known, it being carted loose, with Scottish coal retailing at ten shillings a ton, English at twelve shillings.
The South Pier at this time was a mere stump, but small vessels came right up the south side of the harbour on the tide to unload limestone opposite the present Courthouse. The Neill involvement in the import and burning of lime was considerable; several thousand tons each year were discharged and carted to the kilns at their premises in Sandy Row to be fired and sold as agricultural fertiliser. The cargoes at the time came across Belfast Lough from the White Harbour to the west of Whitehead, a pretty little place still visible from the Belfast to Lame railway line, but long since totally blocked by pebbles. The Neill fleet included a number of very small vessels suitable for such localised trade. To the modern eye archaic craft that could load little more than a heavy lorry does now, these boats are full of interest to the maritime historian, built by a few craftsmen and with odd variations of hull shape and rigging to suit the demands of a particular part of the coast.
On 4 June, 1869, the Neill partnership bought such a vessel, the smack Petrel, 18 net tons, from three Islandmagee men, skipper Robert Macauley and farmers James and Alexander McAlister. It might be thought there was little risk to life or cargo inside Belfast Lough, but on 3 June 1875, while half-way across with 30 tons of limestone, her two crew members had barely time to clamber into their punt as the Petrel sank under them. Another of the Neill's small craft was the Mary Jane, the property of Charles and James. Just 16 tons, yet two-masted and schooner rigged (and not to be confused with brother John's collier Mary Jane) she served them from 1862 to 1888 when James sold her to local shipwright Thomas Carson. Carson in turn sold her on 5 October 1893 to a stranger, Joseph Roache, who began to fit her out to fish in the Arctic. The thought of voyages to such high latitudes was over-optimistic; in a terrific northerly gale the following month, the Mary Jane was lifted clean out of the harbour and dropped in the middle of Quay Street! Roache was staying in the Grand Hotel (now Barry's) and, by no means nonplussed, at once stripped off some of her sails to protect the conservatory from flying slates and ridge tiles!
Between 1869 and 1871 the partnership invested in five vessels, the three-masted schooner White Star, the brigantines Cambridge and Timandra, the barquentine Eldorado and the two-masted schooner Gratitude. John Neill in Belfast still took a quarter share in all except the latter, a small and elderly vessel built at Dundee in 1816 and transferred from the Ramsey register. The other four were sizeable craft all of Canadian construction in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia yards. Immense numbers of Canadian softwood vessels came under British ownership in the nineteenth century. Well-designed and cheaply built at small yards, they were employed carrying timber across the Atlantic until a suitable buyer was found, so there were always vessels available for shipowners when the economic time was right to invest in new tonnage.
The White Star was Neills' most ambitious purchase, another venture into North American trading, for she returned to the North American timber trade in which the Alma had been involved. The family's largest vessel to date at 252 tons, and the only three-masted schooner they ever owned, she was not new, dating from a launch at Pictou, Nova Scotia, in 1854. In the 1870s many Belfast shipowners were prospering in the Canadian trade, notably Samuel Lawther and Thomas Dixon, who were laying the foundations for great future wealth as they supplied the building requirements of expanding cities. The White Star, however, cannot have made much profit for the Neills as she survived just twenty months under their ownership, before becoming a victim of one of the most destructive gales ever to strike the Atlantic seaboard of Canada, the notorious 'August Gale' in 1873. Anchored just beyond the river mouth at the New Brunswick harbour of Richibucto, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, having loaded timber for Liverpool, the White Star was hurled ashore on the town's south beach, though, happily, the crew escaped with their lives. The big schooner was soon reported condemned and quickly sold - just like the Alma. Thus ended the second and final Neill attempt to secure an interest in the North American trades. Just two months later, Robert Neill was dead and when his sons embarked again on a deepwater shipowning venture, it was something altogether more ambitious.
Robert Neill, founder of the firm that still bears his name, passed away at his home, 6 Sandy Row, Bangor, on Friday 24 October 1873. A widower since the death of his wife Agnes on Christmas Day, 1864, his large funeral took place the following Tuesday to the Bangor Abbey graveyard, where some twenty members of the Neill family are commemorated.
Clearly, an era had concluded. Here it is worth pausing, then, and taking stock of the family and their interests in 1873, before moving on into the second part of this history.
The partnership entitled Robert Neill and Sons, now carried on by the sons Charles and James, operated chiefly as coal importers and distributors in Bangor and Newtownards, and customers covered a wide area of North Down - from Craigavad in the west to Orlock in the east, plus many of the townlands at the northern end of the Ards Peninsula. A good, trade in lime burning was also maintained. Fourteen vessels were owned, all Robert's shares, by the terms of his will in which the three sons were executors, having passed to them jointly. In addition, John Neill, owned two vessels on his own account, which supplied his coal business at 17 Queen's Quay, Belfast. Many of the Robert Neill and Sons colliers were also seen in Belfast among other ports, and it is intriguing to note that at this time the shipping interests were much more extensive than Samuel Kelly (six colliers), whose successors later built up such a huge and famous fleet.
Charles, his wife Olivia, and their growing family, still lived in the old Neill home in Sandy Row, while James, widowed recently by the death of his wife Sarah I childbirth, resided with them.
So, to have died in the knowledge that his three sons had attained a prosperous maturity in businesses set fair to continue expanding, was probably no more than Robert Neill would ever have wished.